Ill-matic

The Smart Set, my weekly column of things to do around town, can be found at MaudNewton.com, and offers lots of suggestions for weekend culture vultures, e.g. some of the best illuminated manuscripts on public display and where to see them.

My current favorite, which I'm looking forward to seeing in person one of these days, is described as follows on the Metropolitan Museum of Art/Cloisters site:

figures are rendered in delicate grisaille (shades of gray) that imparts an amazingly sculptural quality, and the images are accented with rich reds and blues and with touches of orange and yellow, pink, lilac, and turquoise. In the margins, close to seven hundred illustrations depict the bishops, beggars, street dancers, maidens, and musicians that peopled the streets of medieval Paris, as well as apes, rabbits, dogs, and creatures of sheer fantasy.

In the column, I also mention my other fascination of the moment, Seven Ages of Paris (which led me to search for any depictions of medieval Paris I could find), itself in turn a book I was inspired to read after so thoroughly enjoying City Life.