Art

This paper analyzes the various contributions of Josep Gudiol i Cunill to the study of medieval Catalan manuscript illumination which reached its peak with Els llibres il·luminats, one of the volumes of La pintura mig-eval catalana series. Although the book had already been completed in 1927, it was not published until 1955, twenty-four years after the death of its author. If it had been published at the time, a fertile period for the historiography of Catalan art, the work would probably have had a greater impact. In the same way that his book Nocions d'arqueologia sagrada catalana (1902) should be considered the first handbook of Catalan art, Els llibres
il·luminats is the first comprehensive study on Catalan Romanesque manuscript illumination.
Key words: historiography, manuscript illumination, Catalan medieval art.