I'd say, start with the descriptions available at the Adobe Type store (below), and visit a good library. At least two specimen books were published, one in October 1992 for Minion Cyrillic, and the other in October 1993 for Minion MM. Unfortunately none of them are available in digital format. In addition, Adobe has published type catalogues and type reference books over the years. By analyzing these you will get a good perspective of how this type family evolved. You probably will also want to put Minion in the context of the Adobe Originals program.

Minion is a 1990 Adobe Originals typeface by Robert Slimbach. Minion is inspired by classical, old style typefaces of the late Renaissance, a period of elegant, beautiful, and highly readable type designs. Created primarily for text setting, Minion combines the aesthetic and functional qualities that make text type highly readable with the versatility of digital technology. The Minion family contains a black weight, display, and swash fonts, expert sets, and a full range of ornaments, for uses that range from limited-edition books to newsletters to packaging. U.S. Patents Des. 337,604; Des. 371,799; and Des. 338,907.
in http://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/html/index.cfm?store=OLS-US&event=displayFontPackage&code=143

NOTE: In addition to the patents mentioned above, U.S. Patents D497,175 S (Oct. 12, 2004) and D497,630 S (Oct. 26, 2004), also relate to Minion.

Minion Pro is an Adobe Original typeface designed by Robert Slimbach. The first version of Minion was released in 1990. Cyrillic additions were released in 1992, and finally the OpenType Pro version was released in 2000. Minion Pro is inspired by classical, old style typefaces of the late Renaissance, a period of elegant, beautiful, and highly readable type designs. Minion Pro combines the aesthetic and functional qualities that make text type highly readable with the versatility of OpenType digital technology, yielding unprecedented flexibility and typographic control, whether for lengthy text or display settings. The full Minion Pro family contains three weights and two widths, each with optical size variants, and each supporting a full range of Western languages, including Greek and Cyrillic. With its many ligatures, small caps, oldstyle figures, swashes, and other added glyphs, Minion Pro is ideal for uses ranging from limited-edition books to newsletters to packaging.
in http://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/html/index.cfm?store=OLS-US&event=displayFontPackage&code=1719

The story of the evolution of Minion would be one worth telling, I think, because it represents the ongoing problem-solving of Slimbach, one of our best designers of text faces.

For this thread back in 2004 I did a PDF comparing Minion and Minion Pro. I think Slimbach subtly but decisively improved the face in that upgrade.

Minion tries really hard to be economical, packing the most letters in the smallest space. J-F Porchez pointed out that it is intended to be a rival to Times New Roman in that respect. Aesthetically, I think something was given up for the sake of economy, but I think you have to admit that it is one of the great workhorse faces of our times, with huge glyph coverage (including Greek and Cyrillic), optical sizes, four number styles, many weights, and even a condensed version.