Medieval and Renaissance Treasures

Medieval & Renaissance Treasures from the V&A, edited by Paul Williamson and Peta Motture, 89 pages

This short book showcases 35 items from the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum, from a pair of seventh century Anglo-Saxon brooches to pages from Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks.  The items are divided into three categories - "Status and Display", "Piety and Devotion", and "The Secular World" - although the reasoning behind the division isn't entirely clear.  Certainly all of the items from the first category could easily have gone into one of the others, and the boundary between the two latter categories was not as clearly drawn then as it now is (or seems to be).  Each category is introduced by a short essay, and each object gets a couple of pictures and a one page description, few of which provide much in the way of insight or illumination.  Compensating for this, the included objects are undeniably treasures, and largely speak for themselves.