The title of this work is slightly misleading in that the study is a work on images of the Virgin from medieval French manuscripts, all of which are drawn from the mid-thirteenth to the mid-fifteenth centuries. It is a very specific study in terms of coverage, area and period, all of which were once the core of her Ph.D. thesis, and is beautifully produced in full color through 94 images. The introduction to the volume sets out the remit of the author as well as the area of coverage. It is not a book, as the title implies, on miraculous images of the Virgin Mary—be they in sculpture, icons, tapestries, or reliquaries—but instead a study on their representations in French manuscripts. It looks at how local Marian images in devotional practices of the period under study were represented in related Old French up to the Burgundian court of the later period.

The opening introduction gives us a selective appraisal of the cult of the Virgin in recent, Western art history before tackling the core of the study in an essay on the manuscripts of Gautier de Coinci's Miracles de Notre Dame. Her first chapter is really an introduction to the cult of the Virgin and a quick appraisal of the technique of representing the Marian narrative. The author quickly and comprehensively details the entire cult of the Virgin, looking at non-illustrated manuscripts, sermons, relics, reliquaries, hymns, and prayers against the actual works. Her essays detail how comprehensively the author has examined her subject and what a huge topic it is. It prepares us for what follows while at the same time setting the context of this specific study in general. Her second chapter moves the reader closer to the core of the work in that it provides us with the historical context of Gautier de Coinci. Here, 58 miracles are recounted in 2 books of the Miracles of Notre Dame, from her survey of 114 manuscripts. Sadly, there is no list of all the miracles or indeed the manuscripts (until page 123), and instead the author focuses on the subset of images, looking at Muslims, Jews, and other non-believers. The third chapter looks at La Vie des Pères, an anonymous thirteenth-century text that does not exist as a standalone work. Contemporary with Gautier de Coinci, this has some stories relating to the Desert Fathers. The second and third sections recount the miracles of the Virgin Mary in over 50 manuscripts, containing at least some fragments of the Vie des Pères. Here, 4 contes are examined, and all look at static images but represent only a subset of the visual in that work.

The fourth chapter moves the reader into the tangential world of Vincent of Beauvais's Speculum historiale of circa 1190–1264, which was subsequently translated into French by Vignay. Here, the author looks at only those manuscripts that are illuminated, and in particular at Jean de Vignay's translations of the original into French. She selects the themes of the Painter and the Devil, The statue that bled and another statue the Saracens could not break and the Nativity of the Virgin and miracles performed by Her ymage. The author introduces us to the differences between grisaille and full color and their implications for representing reality, a topic she returns to later on in the book. Her fifth chapter brings us back to the chronological treatment of the subject with two new collections focusing on the Virgin. These are the fourteenth-century Ci nous dit and Les Miracles de Nostre Dame par personnages. There was a decrease in lengthy, full-volume manuscripts devoted to the Miracles of the Virgin in French. These were in contrast to fourteenth-century copies and translations of earlier texts and are part of a long narrative of Marian miracle images. The sixth chapter looks at three grisaille prose manuscripts copied by Jean Miélot for Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy. It is a work that draws on older versions of the text and looks at the grisaille in the illuminations. The use of grisaille throughout the manuscript does not make for an easy read between two-dimensional and three-dimensional works, and it is difficult to work out the differences and purposes. Grisaille and partial-grisaille forces us to question the types of representation between people and art and levels of reality. The miraculous conclusion is often left to the imagination. The last chapter is the conclusion in which the narrative is condensed into a few pages. The strong devotion to the Virgin Mary is a narrative that does not need to be reinforced, but here it is discussed in relation to images and their uses. The images and the reaction to them engage the viewer directly, and the vernacular added to understanding. The images were animated and engaged the viewer directly. The use of narrative was an important element in these works, and the images brought the viewer into direct understanding with the purpose. The use of color or lack of it are also important in understanding these images, and it would have been good to see this highlighted. Belief and the lack of it is also a recurrent theme in these manuscripts.

This work is slightly misleading in that it is far wider than the use of miraculous images in the role of Marian devotion. This is just one subject chosen by the author, but there are several others which she also examines. The study shows how the combination of text and image force the reader into understanding the power of these works and how understanding was made clear to all. Throughout this work, the author highlights the term iconography every now and then, and it is slightly separated in her mind. Given that this work deals substantially with the subject, it is not surprising. There is significant focus on the quality of the images in the work, and it is to be commended. However, it is impossible to see the details in some images as they are small. The manuscripts are chosen sensibly and purposely for an all-around coverage that highlights the whole story, but in many cases a short list of what else is in the manuscripts would be of use. There is a slight lack of context for each manuscript, and a short synopsis of what else is found in these works would have been useful. These little queries are minor and do not take from the significant accomplishments of the author, who has fashioned this work into providing a lasting and extremely valuable study for future generations.