The Strasbourg Manuscript

This book is the first to be dedicated to a comprehensive study with English translation (plus extensive commentary) of the early 15th century Strasbourg Manuscript – believed to have been the oldest German-language source for the study of Northern European painting techniques and considered to be the northern counterpart to Cennini’s Il Libro dell arte. It is also one of the oldest technical manuals to include a recipe collection describing the preparation of drying oil media and their application in panel painting. Lost in a fire at the Strasbourg Library in 1870, this recipe collection was preserved in the only known copy commissioned by Sir Charles Eastlake, the first director of the National Gallery which was partially published in 1847. The author’s extensive research is based on this copy, two later books based on it and also on comparison with other manuscripts of the Strasbourg tradition, which allowed her to reconstruct the text of the lost manuscript.