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Subscribers to REED-L might be interested in the following. Pictures From The Past: Using and Abusing Medieval Manuscript Imagery by Janet Backhouse, Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library ISBN 0 95308770 0. Janet Backhouse's lecture inaugurating the Medieval Research Centre at the University of Leicester is now available in print. The booklet, the first volume to be published in the Medieval Research Centre's Texts and Studies series, contains 18 pages of text plus 14 black and white plates of manuscript images both familiar and largely unknown. Ms Backhouse presents a spirited argument for interdisciplinarity in medieval studies. She offers a brief survey of the serious study of manuscript illumination, showing how such images have been plundered for information on dress or culture, or simply for decorative purposes. Most people only ever experience illuminations through reproductions of individual pictures taken out of context. Yet, as Backhouse shows, to be properly understood, illustrations require a wide knowledge of medieval culture and society. The study finishes with a new interpretation of the illuminations in the copy of Lydgate's Siege of Thebes once owned by Henry Percy (`the Magnificent'), ninth earl of Northumberland. Pictures From The Past is available from the Medieval Research Centre, Department of English, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK for stlg5 sterling (five UK pounds) or $10 US (including postage and packing). Address letters to Dr Greg Walker. Cheques can only be accepted if payable on a UK bank and should be made payable to `The University of Leicester'.