This book makes comparisons between archaeological remains and manuscript illuminations of medieval vessels. It explores the contextual environments of these materials, examining the potential for shipbuilding traditions to be identified within such a comparative assessment, thus highlighting the potential for vessel components, vessel-related activities and processes to be identified within comparative manuscript illuminations. Testing the relationship between excavated and iconographic remains from an explicitly archaeological perspective, this process helps to identify information of added value to maritime archaeologists within manuscript illuminations, which have sometimes been sidelined in favour of archaeological and documentary evidence. A large data set allows for more representative evidence to be gathered than has been possible in past studies, which have often been constrained by the limited availability of evidence.