Anglo-Saxon and early Irish illuminated manuscripts were made in Britain and Ireland between about 500 and 1066 CE. In his 1868 book, the entomologist and art historian John Obadiah Westwood published chromolithographs of their decorated pages, copied from his own paintings. The plates show dense knotwork, animal forms and text woven into ornament, often in bold colours. Westwood saw them as the first chapter of a history of British fine art, and aimed to make the subject affordable. Their reproductions did much to fix how the Book of Kells looked in the Victorian imagination.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.