%0 Journal Article %A Albrecht Classen %D 2022 %C Berlin, Germany %I Peter Lang Verlag %J Mediaevistik %@ 2199-806X %N 1 %V 32 %T The - The Wonders of Early Medieval Christian Manuscript Illuminations Within a Pagan World %R 10.3726/med.2019.01.02 %U https://www.peterlang.com/document/1272233 %X For a long time now, we have been misled by the general notion that the fall of the Roman Empire at the end of the fifth century brought about a devastating decline of culture and civilization. The Germanic peoples were allegedly barbaric, and what they created upon the ruins of their predecessors could have been nothing but primitive and little sophisticated. Research has, of course, confirmed already in a variety of approaches and many specialized studies that the situation on the ground was very different,