Illuminated manuscripts – those ornately decorated pages of calligraphic words that are meant more to be admired than read – were more than just a way to honor profound texts with high art. In fact, “[they] functioned a little the way today’s society pages do: they advertised the status of movers and shakers while at the same time they made them seem noble and generous. The manuscripts followed a basic formula: the more dazzling the word and image, the more prominent the church patron. Not content to be anonymous donors, people who commissioned such manuscripts even had their own likenesses incorporated into scenes along with their coats of arms.”