English illumination reached new levels of sophistication during the 1300s. Anatomically accurate depictions of the human body, evocative portrayals of emotions and draperies modelled so as to simulate palpable volume and texture are prominent among the numerous accomplishments of fourteenth-century English illuminators, but we know little about the painting materials and techniques with which they created such effects. Except for occasional acts of censorship and common issues, such as the corrosion of verdigris, the discolouration of glazes or the darkening of silver, red lead and occasionally vermilion, most manuscripts – unlike the few extant easel and wall paintings or polychrome sculptures – are in good condition and have suffered no modern intervention. This makes them the most extensive and reliable corpus for the study of medieval English painting. Fourteenth-century manuscripts (and later ones) have not yet benefited from the amount of scientific analyses undertaken on earlier material from England and Ireland, but recent studies are beginning to fill the lacuna. Since 2012, the MINIARE project has analysed over 200 manuscripts dating from the tenth to the sixteenth century and originating from Italy, Central Europe, France, Flanders and England. This paper shares the preliminary findings on twelve fourteenth-century English manuscripts.