Book excerpt: Illuminated manuscripts are an excellent source of information about the interiors inhabited by people in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Artists regularly depicted the castles and palaces of the ruling classes, as well as the houses of ordinary people--merchants, craftsmen and peasants. This attractive new book is the first to study the subject in such depth, and it uncovers a wealth of little-known illuminations that help us to learn more about life at home, in workshops and elsewhere. The author presents manuscript miniatures as illustrations to an account of house interiors which includes their architectural features (such as windows, doors or fireplaces), furniture and other household objects. She concentrates on the social, cultural and stylistic aspects of Gothic domestic settings and presents them in the context of their Romanesque antecedents and Renaissance successors.