The aim of the project is to conduct a total survey of the illuminated western Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in Swedish collections. The art historical knowledge of illuminated manuscripts in Sweden has been limited in spite of extensive cataloguing enterprises. Since these, otherwise eminent, catalogues have focused mainly on codicological and philological aspects, the illuminations and decorations have often been of secondary interest, overlooking their importance as source material in their own right, and as help for the dating and attribution of the manuscripts themselves. There are, all the same, numerous illuminated manuscripts of national and international importance apart from the few which have reached public awareness. Out of about 2,700 manuscripts deposited in Swedish libraries, museums and private collections, approximately 1,000 are decorated in some way, 250-300 of which could be considered richly illuminated and of considerable art historical significance. By establishing a catalogue, in English, with detailed descriptions and information concering for example style and iconography, the participants Thomas Rydén PhD and Eva Lindqvist Sandgren PhD hope to do justice to the pictorial aspects of this large and varied group of manuscripts, thereby also presenting the material to a wider international public, and facilitating further research in various disciplines.