A remarkable codex, the Hungarian Angevin Legendary is today divided between ‘two continents, four countries and six collections’ (p. ix), with some folios mutilated or lost. The legends of fifty-eight saints survive, in lavish miniatures with titles. This book is a tour de force in analysing the artistic and historical questions surrounding the manuscript. Szakács discusses previous scholarship, providing a survey of the literature, as well as pointing out the limitations of research. Based on the codicological analysis of the surviving folios, he reviews what we can know about the lost material. He then considers the choice of the particular saints and the episodes that are represented. Recurring visual elements are scrutinised. Finally, the context, the creation of the codex is examined. 116 illustrations, some black-and-white, but mostly in colour, reproduce many of the images of the Legendary, and a rich bibliography of works in Hungarian, French, Italian, German, English and Polish completes the book.

The choice and order of saints was determined by a combination of the hierarchical order (Christ, Mary, Apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins) with the calendar system, and an emphasis on saints with a Hungarian connection. Szakács also compares the Legendary to other medieval cycles to ascertain the sources and characteristics of the selection. The Golden Legend was an important source of the Hungarian Angevin Legendary, and the focus on martyrs is stronger than average in it. The images of particular saints could also use specific models; thus Szakács argues that the source of the iconography of Peter is the fresco cycle in the old San Pietro in Rome. He also demonstrates the local inflections of the stories: for example, St Stanisław's cycle differs from Polish depictions in the insistence on posthumous miracles, including the resurrection of a Hungarian boy. Szakács plays particular attention to the cycle of St Francis of Assisi, which is independent of Italian cycles.

Various image types, and the transformation of text into a visual form are then examined. Saints are represented in scenes linked to both the vita activa and contemplativa. These include images of ecclesiastical ordination, scholarly activity (reading or writing), preaching and converting, baptism, idols, tests of faith, the celebration of mass and the sacraments, prayer and virtuous activities. Miracles, either happening through the saints or happening to them, are also a significant element in the Legendary. Visually, miracles represent a unified imagery, with the saint making a gesture of blessing or warning, or kneeling in prayer. The passion of the saints is one of the largest groups in the stock of images. They are presented in a strict sequence, from capture through trial, imprisonment and torture to execution. Often, various methods of execution fail before beheading. The burial of the saint sometimes also includes miraculous elements.

In order to reconstruct the process of the Legendary’s creation, Szakács draws on analogies, where written instructions guided the miniaturist. He also offers a codicological examination of the Vatican section of the codex, which provides clues on the assembling of the quires and evidence of planning the pictorial programme. Preparatory drawings are visible in some scenes under white surfaces. Each image is accompanied by a brief inscription in order to identify the content. These tituli, above and below the images, are in Gothic script. Whether these point to a Hungarian or Bolognese origin is debated.

A thorough analysis of the tituli shows that they were written in simple Latin, with mistakes. Several expressions were repeated numerous times, and were sometimes applied to scenes that did not match the text: for example, the titulus of the respective images claims that not only Luke, but also Augustine and Jerome wrote the Gospels. Sometimes the author of the inscription knew more about the story than the image represented; other times, however, the writer interpreted the image, even misunderstanding it. For example, a scene representing SS Cosmas and Damian exorcising demons who attacked the king bears a titulus on how they expelled demons in front of the king. Such misinterpretations suggest that the tituli were added after the images had been painted. An appendix contains the critical transcription of the tituli still extant (they only survive in the Vatican material).

The interplay between image and titulus also provides a rare insight into contemporary ‘readings’ of these images. Individual image types had to be easy to decipher, and the construction of images from a restricted field of visual elements enabled that. At the same time, for variety and in part determined by the available space, the same event (such as ordination) was depicted in different scenes using dissimilar elements (altar, chalice or book for example). Pictorial conventions sometimes led to a divergence of the image from the original story: for example, an angel liberates St Andrew from prison, rather than a fellow Apostle, because miraculous liberation is generally by an angel. Customary iconography, or, when it was unavailable, analogies were used to design the programme. Thus, for example, the cycle for St Gerard, the martyred bishop of Hungary, resembles that of Thomas Becket.

Szakács disputes previous hypotheses concerning the focal points in the codex's pictorial design, and concludes that the episcopal aspect of the image cycles is the most distinctive one. He also points out that the Hungarian Angevin Legendary was a luxury codex, above all valued for its sumptuousness, whatever ‘function’ it may have served. It was designed to provide a visual experience, rather than as an illustrative series to a text. It must be situated in the context of the rise, in the fourteenth century, of devotional images and illustrated legends, for contemplative and didactic use. Thus the Legendary ‘sheds light on the culture and spiritual orientation of the Hungarian Angevin court’ (p. 257).

This volume is a major contribution not simply to medieval Central European art history and history, but also to the study of hagiography and medieval image cycles more generally.