The Illuminator

Working In Secret For A Radical Fourteenth-century Oxford Professor Who Would Translate The Bible Into English, Reformation-era Master Illuminator Finn Forms A Dangerous Alliance With Lady Kathryn, A Widow Desperate To Protect Her Inheritance From The Depredations Of The Church And The Monarchy. A First Novel. Reprint. 75,000 First Printing.

Author : Vantrease, Brenda Rickman

Publisher : St. Martin's Griffin

Published Year : 2001-12-26T00:00:01Z

Edition : 1st

Format : Paperback, 406 pages

Language : en_US

Dimensions : Height: 8.3 Inches, Length: 5.54 Inches, Weight: 1.1 Pounds, Width: 1.08 Inches

ISBN : 0312331924

ISBN13 : 9780312331924

Overview :

It is England, in the late fourteenth century, a time when the old feudal order is starting to crack, but the whim of a lord or the pleasure of a bishop still has the power to seal nearly anyone's fate. The printing press has yet to be invented; books are rare and costly, painstakingly lettered and illuminated with exquisite paintings.

For Lady Kathryn of Blackingham Manor, a widow and mother trying desperately to safeguard her holdings without the dubious protection of her late husband, it is a time made both sweeter and more perilous by the arrival of a master illuminator called Finn. Caught between the King's taxes and the Church's tithes, Kathryn strikes a bargain with the local abbot: she will take Finn and his pretty young daughter into her household in exchange for the monastery's protection.

Finn is working not only on approved church texts, but secretly—-and dangerously—-on a forbidden English translation of the Bible. As the hesitant friendship between Kathryn and Finn grows into a passionate alliance, wonderful new storyteller Brenda Rickman Vantrease brings us a glorious novel of love, treachery, faith, and redemption on the eve of the Renaissance.