三十年代的上海鱼龙混杂,在战争阴云下呈现一派各方势力交错的情景。出身闸北贫民区的黄大刚为了夺回做了歌女的心上人小珠,带领一班兄弟闯荡,打出了自己的名号。这时爱国运动正如火如荼,小刀会骆子兴等人诛杀汉奸不遗余力,日本人多方渗透拉拢,上海公董局总办魏廷炎与日本人多有勾结。黄大刚为了得到小珠,拜入魏廷炎门下,为其担任先锋四处拼杀,终于做大,抱得小珠志满意得。与此同时,小刀会骆子兴等将暗杀目标锁定为和日本人勾结的魏廷炎。黄大刚心爱的小妹玉瑜与骆子兴偶然结识后对其一见钟情,希望能够加入小刀会厮守在骆的身边。黄大刚因不满魏廷炎利用小珠而与其翻脸,骆、黄两路人马为国仇家恨誓取魏廷炎性命……。Dr Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of illuminated manuscripts that were custom-made for kings and explores the medieval world they reveal.
Part 1: Ruling by the Book
Janina begins her journey with the first Anglo-Saxon rulers to create a united England, encountering books in the British Library's Royal manuscripts collection which are over a thousand years old and a royal family tree which is five metres long. Janina finds out about a king who had a reputation for chasing nuns and reads a book created as a wedding gift for a ten-year-old prince. She roams from Westminster Abbey to other ancient English spiritual sites such as Winchester, St Albans and Malmesbury, and sees for herself how animal skins can be transformed into the finest vellum.
Part 2: What a King Should Know
Janina shows how medieval manuscripts gave power to the king and united the kingdom in an age of plague, warfare and rebellion, discovers that Edward III used the manuscripts he read as a boy to prepare him for his great victory at the battle of Crecy and reveals how a vigorous new national identity bloomed during the 100 Years War with France. In the British Library's Royal Manuscripts collection Dr Ramirez finds out that magnificent manuscripts like the Bedford Hours, taken as war booty from the French royal family, were adapted for the education of English princes. She also explores how knowledge spread through a new form of book - the encyclopaedia.
Part 3: Libraries Gave Us Power
The story of the British Library's Royal Manuscripts collection reaches its end with the last great flowering of illumination, in the magnificent courts of the Tudors. She investigates astrological texts created for Henry VII, and unwraps his will - still in its original, extravagantly-decorated velvet and gold cover. She hears music written for Henry VIII, which went unperformed for centuries| and reads love notes between the king and Anne Boleyn, written in the margins of a prayer book. Nina also visits Bruges, the source of many of the greatest manuscripts, where this medieval art form collided with the artistic innovations of the Renaissance.
(转自mvgroup论坛)。