Artists make the decorations using gold or silver leaf and brilliant paint colors. The decorations include elaborate designs of initial letters or borders and full, miniature pictures. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.An illuminated manuscript is a handwritten book that has been decorated. Book Illumination in the Middle Ages: An Introduction. London: The British Library, 2001.ĭe Hamel, Christopher. The British Library Guide to Manuscript Illumination: History and Techniques. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983.ĭe Hamel, Christopher. Malibu, CA: Paul Getty Museum, 1994.Ĭalkins, Robert G. Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts: A Guide to Technical Terms. “Illuminated Manuscripts.” New York: Todtori, 1999 (many excellent color illustrations).īrown, Michelle P. Suggestions for Further Reading:Īnderson, Janice. Like the study of illuminated manuscripts, owning them - if only a single leaf - can be both esthetically pleasing and even illuminating. Prices often vary depending on the size of the page, on the quality and extent of the illumination, and sometimes on the significance of the text. Perhaps lamentably, many illuminated manuscripts have been broken up and are sold in this way. For the contemporary collector who isn’t a Morgan, individual illuminated pages rather than entire illuminated books make an affordable and readily available option. P Morgan comes to mind - counted illuminated manuscripts among their most treasured possessions. The scribe and the illuminator collaborated, but theirs were two distinct enterprises. One noteworthy trend over this thousand year span is that illumination seems to have become an increasingly specialized activity. These chronological and geographical changes, many of which parallel larger shifts in European art history, can be quite helpful in dating and placing the MSS in which the illumination occurs. The nature, style, and centers of manuscript illumination changed from the 5th to the 15th century. The occasional marginal doodlings (sometimes called “drolleries”) found in many medieval MSS seem to have no clear purpose, but they can be very amusing (see accompanying image). These various uses for illumination had the benefit of making the text more memorable either by providing relevant images or by dividing the text into more manageable segments. 24) has observed “decoration is a device for reading a text as sophisticated as punctuation is today.” Similarly, headings, usually in red ink (from rubrica meaning “red ochre” - hence our word “rubric”) might distinguish one section or type of text from another (see accompanying image). As Christopher de Hamel (British Library Guide to manuscript Illumination, p. Decorated letters were used to indicate the first word in a new section of text (see accompanying image to the right). Illumination could obviously be used to illustrate a text, but, as noted, illumination involved more than just pictures or miniatures. In the late Middle Ages, prayer books known as Books of Hours became increasingly popular, and many of the best known examples of illuminated manuscripts belong to this category of book (e.g. But illuminated manuscripts of secular works of literature, history and law were not uncommon. Not surprisingly, religious books such as the Bible and liturgical works were frequently and sometimes lavishly illuminated. In the European Middle Ages, various kinds of books were illuminated, and the illumination served various purposes. They are sometimes stunning examples of the intersection between text and image, and thus are of as much interest to art historians as they are to bibliophiles and collectors. Illuminated manuscripts are among the most beautiful, impressive, and plentiful objects to have survived from the medieval era. 15) has put it, “in the narrow sense of the term illumination refers to any ornament to which gold, silver or bright colors have been added.” By these definitions, illuminations include miniatures (pictures), decorated letters, penned calligraphic flourishes and border or marginal illustrations. Calkins (Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages, p. The word ’illumination’ derives from the Latin noun lumen (light) and more directly from the verb illuminare which, in classical Latin, could mean “to brighten or adorn with rhetorical or other literary embellishments.” Thus, ’illumination’ here involves “the art of lighting up the pages of a book with bright colours and burnished gold” (Anderson, Illuminated Manuscripts, p. However, the meaning of ’illuminated’ in this context may be less obvious. The meaning of ’manuscript’ is obvious enough it refers to texts written by hand (i.e., not printed).
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