Early Persian painting traces the history of the text, through its many translations and reworkings 'unveiling the exquisite paintings that accompanied them' part of the art of the book which flourished in the second half the fourteenth century. Bernard O'Kane focuses on a group of seven Persian manuscripts from that time. More than those of any earlier period, the manuscripts of this group provide a secure vantage – point for reviewing their relations with each other and with earlier examples of the cycle. These manuscripts also contain several of the finest masterpieces of Persian painting of all time. The period was one of the most vibrant artistically, a time of great experimentation, where the theatrical would replace the realistic style, providing the model for Persian manuscript painting for centuries to come.