An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared

document A document is a written, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ''Documentum'', which denotes a "teaching" or ...

where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as

borders A border is a geographical boundary. Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film * ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...

and miniature illustrations. Often used in the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the practice continued into secular texts from the 13th century onward and typically include

proclamation A proclamation (Lat. ''proclamare'', to make public by announcement) is an official declaration issued by a person of authority to make certain announcements known. Proclamations are currently used within the governing framework of some nations ...

enrolled bill In the United States Congress, an enrolled bill is the final copy of a bill (law), bill or joint resolution which has passed both Structure of the United States Congress, houses of Congress in identical form. In the United States, enrolled bills a ...

s, laws, charters, inventories and deeds. While

Islamic manuscripts Islamic manuscripts had a variety of functions ranging from Qur'anic recitation to Scientific notation. These manuscripts were produced in many different ways depending on their use and time period. Parchment (vellum) was a common way to produce ma ...

can also be called illuminated, and use essentially the same techniques, comparable Far Eastern and Mesoamerican works are described as ''painted''. The earliest illuminated manuscripts in existence come from the

Kingdom of the Ostrogoths The Ostrogothic Kingdom, officially the Kingdom of Italy (), existed under the control of the Germanic Ostrogoths in Italy and neighbouring areas from 493 to 553. In Italy, the Ostrogoths led by Theodoric the Great killed and replaced Odoacer, ...

and the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

and date from between 400 and 600 CE. Examples include the

Codex Argenteus The Codex Argenteus (Latin for "Silver Book/Codex") is a 6th-century illuminated manuscript, originally containing part of the 4th-century translation of the Christian Bible into the Gothic language. Traditionally ascribed to the Arian bi ...

and the

Rossano Gospels The Rossano Gospels, designated by 042 or Σ (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 18 ( Soden), held at the cathedral of Rossano in Italy, is a 6th-century illuminated manuscript Gospel Book written following the reconquest of the Italian penins ...

, both of which are from the 6th century. The majority of extant manuscripts are from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, although many survive from the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

, along with a very limited number from Late Antiquity. Most medieval manuscripts, illuminated or not, were written on

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of ...

vellum Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. Parchment is another term for this material, from which vellum is sometimes distinguished, when it is made from calfskin, as opposed to that made from other anima ...

. These pages were then bound into books, called codices (singular:

codex The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...

). A very few illuminated fragments also survive on

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...

. Books ranged in size from ones smaller than a modern paperback, such as the

pocket gospel Insular art, also known as Hiberno-Saxon art, was produced in the post-Roman era of Great Britain and Ireland. The term derives from ''insula'', the Latin term for "island"; in this period Britain and Ireland shared a largely common style dif ...

, to very large ones such as

choirbook A choirbook is a large format manuscript used by choirs in churches or cathedrals during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The book is large enough for the entire choir to read from one book. Choirbooks were generally put on a stand with the smaller ...

s for choirs to sing from, and "Atlantic" bibles, requiring more than one person to lift them. Paper manuscripts appeared during the

Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...

. Very early printed books left spaces for red text, known as

rubric A rubric is a word or section of text that is traditionally written or printed in red ink for emphasis. The word derives from the la, rubrica, meaning red ochre or red chalk, and originates in Medieval illuminated manuscripts from the 13th cen ...

s, miniature illustrations and illuminated

initial In a written or published work, an initial capital, also referred to as a drop capital or simply an initial cap, initial, initcapital, initcap or init or a drop cap or drop, is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter, or a paragraph that ...

s, all of which would have been added later by hand. Drawings in the margins (known as marginalia) would also allow scribes to add their own notes, diagrams, translations, and even comic flourishes. The introduction of printing rapidly led to the decline of illumination. Illuminated manuscripts continued to be produced in the early 16th century but in much smaller numbers, mostly for the very wealthy. They are among the most common items to survive from the Middle Ages; many thousands survive. They are also the best surviving specimens of medieval painting, and the best preserved. Indeed, for many areas and time periods, they are the only surviving examples of painting.

History

Art historians classify illuminated manuscripts into their historic periods and types, including (but not limited to) Late Antique, Insular, Carolingian manuscripts, Ottonian manuscripts, Romanesque manuscripts, Gothic manuscripts, and

Renaissance manuscripts The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

. There are a few examples from later periods. The type of book most often heavily and richly illuminated is sometimes known as a "display book." In the first millennium, these were most likely to be

Gospel Book A Gospel Book, Evangelion, or Book of the Gospels (Greek: , ''Evangélion'') is a codex or bound volume containing one or more of the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament – normally all four – centering on the life of Jesus of Nazareth ...

s, such as the

Lindisfarne Gospels The Lindisfarne Gospels (London, British Library Cotton MS Nero D.IV) is an illuminated manuscript gospel book probably produced around the years 715–720 in the monastery at Lindisfarne, off the coast of Northumberland, which is now in the B ...

and the Book of Kells. The Romanesque and Gothic periods saw the creation of many large illuminated complete

bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

s. The largest surviving example of these is The

Codex Gigas The ''Codex Gigas'' ("Giant Book"; cs, Obří kniha) is the largest extant medieval illuminated manuscript in the world, at a length of . Very large illuminated bibles were a typical feature of Romanesque monastic book production, but even w ...

in Sweden; it is so massive that it takes three librarians to lift it. Other illuminated liturgical books appeared during and after the Romanesque period. These included

Psalter A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters we ...

s, and small, personal devotional books known as

Books of Hours The book of hours is a Christian devotional book used to pray the canonical hours. The use of a book of hours was especially popular in the Middle Ages and as a result, they are the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript ...

. These items were often richly illuminated with miniatures, decorated initials and floral borders. They were costly and therefore only owned by wealthy patrons. As the production of manuscripts shifted from monasteries to the public sector during the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended ...

, illuminated books began to reflect secular interests. These included short stories, legends of the saints, tales of chivalry, mythological stories, and even accounts of criminal, social or miraculous occurrences. Some of these were also freely used by storytellers and itinerant actors to support their plays. The

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

world produced manuscripts in its own style, versions of which spread to other Orthodox and Eastern Christian areas. With their traditions of literacy uninterrupted by the Middle Ages, the

Muslim World The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. I ...

, especially on the Iberian Peninsula, was instrumental in delivering ancient classic works to the growing intellectual circles and

universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

of Western Europe throughout the 12th century. Books were produced there in large numbers and on

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...

for the first time in Europe, and with them full treatises on the sciences, especially astrology and medicine where illumination was required to have profuse and accurate representations with the text. The Gothic period, which generally saw an increase in the production of illuminated books, also saw more secular works such as

chronicle A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...

s and works of literature illuminated. Wealthy people began to build up personal libraries;

Philip the Bold Philip II the Bold (; ; 17 January 1342 – 27 April 1404) was Duke of Burgundy and '' jure uxoris'' Count of Flanders, Artois and Burgundy. He was the fourth and youngest son of King John II of France and Bonne of Luxembourg. Philip II was ...

probably had the largest personal library of his time in the mid-15th century, is estimated to have had about 600 illuminated manuscripts, whilst a number of his friends and relations had several dozen. Wealthy patrons, however, could have personal prayer books made especially for them, usually in the form of richly illuminated "

books of hours The book of hours is a Christian devotional book used to pray the canonical hours. The use of a book of hours was especially popular in the Middle Ages and as a result, they are the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript ...

," which set down prayers appropriate for various times in the liturgical day. One of the best known examples is the extravagant

Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (; en, The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry) or Très Riches Heures, is the most famous and possibly the best surviving example of manuscript illumination in the late phase of the International Goth ...

for a French prince. Books in the monastery museum (5494269533)

Up to the 12th century, most manuscripts were produced in monasteries in order to add to the library or after receiving a commission from a wealthy patron. Larger monasteries often contained separate areas for the

monks A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

who specialized in the production of manuscripts called a

scriptorium Scriptorium (), literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the writing, copying and illuminating of manuscripts commonly handled by monastic scribes. However, lay scribes an ...

. Within the walls of a scriptorium were individualized areas where a monk could sit and work on a manuscript without being disturbed by his fellow brethren. If no scriptorium was available, then "separate little rooms were assigned to book copying; they were situated in such a way that each scribe had to himself a window open to the cloister walk."Putnam A.M., Geo. Haven. Books and Their Makers During The Middle Ages. Vol. 1. New York: Hillary House, 1962. Print. By the 14th century, the

cloisters A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against ...

of monks writing in the scriptorium had almost fully given way to commercial urban scriptoria, especially in Paris, Rome and the Netherlands. While the process of creating an illuminated manuscript did not change, the move from monasteries to commercial settings was a radical step. Demand for manuscripts grew to an extent that Monastic libraries began to employ secular scribes and illuminators. These individuals often lived close to the monastery and, in instances, dressed as monks whenever they entered the monastery, but were allowed to leave at the end of the day. In reality, illuminators were often well known and acclaimed and many of their identities have survived.

Techniques

Illumination was a complex and costly process, and was therefore usually reserved for special books such as altar bibles, or books for royalty. In the early Middle Ages, most books were produced in monasteries, whether for their own use, for presentation, or for a commission. However, commercial

scriptoria Scriptorium (), literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the writing, copying and illuminating of manuscripts commonly handled by monastic scribes. However, lay scribes and ...

grew up in large cities, especially

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, and in Italy and the Netherlands, and by the late 14th century there was a significant industry producing manuscripts, including agents who would take long-distance commissions, with details of the heraldry of the buyer and the saints of personal interest to him (for the calendar of a book of hours). By the end of the period, many of the painters were women, perhaps especially in Paris.

Text

The type of script depended on local customs and tastes. In England, for example, Textura was widely used from the 12th to 16th centuries, while a cursive hand known as Anglicana emerged around 1260 for business documents. In the Frankish Empire,

Carolingian minuscule Carolingian minuscule or Caroline minuscule is a script which developed as a calligraphic standard in the medieval European period so that the Latin alphabet of Jerome's Vulgate Bible could be easily recognized by the literate class from one reg ...

emerged under the vast educational program of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

. The first step was to send the manuscript to a

rubricator Rubrication is the addition of text in red ink to a manuscript for emphasis. Practitioners of rubrication, so-called ''rubricators'' or ''rubrishers'', were specialized scribes who received text from the original scribe. Rubrication was one of ...

, "who added (in red or other colors) the titles,

headlines The headline or heading is the text indicating the content or nature of the article below it, typically by providing a form of brief summary of its contents. The large type ''front page headline'' did not come into use until the late 19th centur ...

, the initials of chapters and sections, the notes and so on; and then – if the book was to be illustrated – it was sent to the illuminator". These letters and notes would be applied using an ink-pot and either a sharpened

quill A quill is a writing tool made from a moulted flight feather (preferably a primary wing-feather) of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, the metal- nibbed pen, the fountain pen, and, eventual ...

feather or reed pen. In the case of manuscripts that were sold commercially, the writing would "undoubtedly have been discussed initially between the patron and the scribe (or the scribe's agent,) but by the time that the written gathering were sent off to the illuminator there was no longer any scope for innovation." The sturdy Roman letters of the early

gradually gave way to scripts such as

Uncial Uncial is a majuscule Glaister, Geoffrey Ashall. (1996) ''Encyclopedia of the Book''. 2nd edn. New Castle, DE, and London: Oak Knoll Press & The British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one ...

and half-Uncial, especially in the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

, where distinctive scripts such as

insular majuscule Insular is an adjective used to describe: * An island * Someone who is isolated and parochial Insular may also refer to: Sub-national territories or regions * Insular Chile * Insular region of Colombia * Insular Ecuador, administratively known ...

and

insular minuscule Insular script was a medieval script system originating from Ireland that spread to Anglo-Saxon England and continental Europe under the influence of Hiberno-Scottish mission, Irish Christianity. Irish missionaries took the script to continental ...

developed. Stocky, richly textured

blackletter Blackletter (sometimes black letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, or Textura, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for the Danish, Norweg ...

was first seen around the 13th century and was particularly popular in the later Middle Ages. Prior to the days of such careful planning, "A typical black-letter page of these

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

years would show a page in which the lettering was cramped and crowded into a format dominated by huge ornamented capitals that descended from uncial forms or by illustrations". To prevent such poorly made manuscripts and illuminations from occurring, a script was typically supplied first, "and blank spaces were left for the decoration. This presupposes very careful planning by the scribe even before he put pen to parchment."

Engrossing: The process of illumination

The following steps outline the detailed labor involved to create the illuminations of one page of a manuscript: #

Silverpoint Silverpoint (one of several types of metalpoint) is a traditional drawing technique first used by medieval scribes on manuscripts. History A silverpoint drawing is made by dragging a silver rod or wire across a surface, often prepared with gesso ...

drawing of the design is executed # Burnished gold dots are applied # Application of modulating colors # Continuation of previous three steps in addition to outlining marginal figures # Penning of a rinceau appearing in the border of page # Finally, marginal figures are painted The illumination and decoration was normally planned at the inception of the work, and space reserved for it. However, the text was usually written before illumination began. In the Early Medieval period the text and illumination were often done by the same people, normally monks, but by the

the roles were typically separated, except for routine initials and flourishes, and by at least the 14th century there were secular workshops producing manuscripts, and by the beginning of the 15th century these were producing most of the best work, and were commissioned even by monasteries. When the text was complete, the illustrator set to work. Complex designs were planned out beforehand, probably on wax tablets, the sketch pad of the era. The design was then traced or drawn onto the vellum (possibly with the aid of pinpricks or other markings, as in the case of the

). Many incomplete manuscripts survive from most periods, giving us a good idea of working methods. At all times, most manuscripts did not have images in them. In the early Middle Ages, manuscripts tend to either be display books with very full illumination, or manuscripts for study with at most a few decorated initials and flourishes. By the Romanesque period many more manuscripts had decorated or

historiated initial A historiated initial is an initial, an enlarged letter at the beginning of a paragraph or other section of text, that contains a picture. Strictly speaking, a historiated initial depicts an identifiable figure or a specific scene, while an in ...

s, and manuscripts essentially for study often contained some images, often not in color. This trend intensified in the Gothic period, when most manuscripts had at least decorative flourishes in places, and a much larger proportion had images of some sort. Display books of the Gothic period in particular had very elaborate decorated borders of foliate patterns, often with small

drolleries A drollerie, often also called a grotesque, from French language, is a small decorative image in the margin of an illuminated manuscript, most popular from about 1250 through the 15th century, though found earlier and later. The most common type ...

. A Gothic page might contain several areas and types of decoration: a miniature in a frame, a historiated initial beginning a passage of text, and a border with drolleries. Often different artists worked on the different parts of the decoration.

Paints

While the use of gold is by far one of the most captivating features of illuminated manuscripts, the bold use of varying colors provided multiple layers of dimension to the illumination. From a religious perspective, "the diverse colors wherewith the book is illustrated, not unworthily represent the multiple grace of heavenly wisdom." The medieval artist's palette was broad; a partial list of pigments is given below. In addition, unlikely-sounding substances such as urine and earwax were used to prepare pigments.

Gilding

On the strictest definition, a manuscript is not considered "illuminated" unless one or many illuminations contained metal, normally

gold leaf Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...

shell gold In art history and the craft of gilding, shell gold is gold paint given its colour by very small pieces of real gold, normally obtained either from waste gold from goldsmithing and gilding, ground-up gold leaf, or fragments that have come off a g ...

paint, or at least was brushed with gold specks. Gold leaf was from the 12th century usually polished, a process known as ''burnishing''. The inclusion of gold alludes to many different possibilities for the text. If the text is of religious nature lettering in gold is a sign of exalting the text. In the early centuries of Christianity, “

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

manuscripts were sometimes written entirely in gold". The gold ground style, with all or most of the background in gold, was taken from

Byzantine mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

s and

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...

s. Aside from adding rich decoration to the text, scribes during the time considered themselves to be praising God with their use of gold. Furthermore, gold was used if a patron who had commissioned a book to be written wished to display the vastness of his riches. Eventually, the addition of gold to manuscripts became so frequent, "that its value as a barometer of status with the manuscript was degraded". During this time period the price of gold had become so cheap that its inclusion in an illuminated manuscript accounted for only a tenth of the cost of production.Brehier, Louis. "Illuminated Manuscripts". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.9. New York: Robert Appelton Company, 1910. 17 April 2010 http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09620a.htm , page 45. By adding richness and depth to the manuscript, the use of gold in illuminations created pieces of art that are still valued today. The application of gold leaf or dust to an illumination is a very detailed process that only the most skilled illuminators can undertake and successfully achieve. The first detail an illuminator considered when dealing with gold was whether to use

or specks of gold that could be applied with a brush. When working with gold leaf the pieces would be hammered and thinned until they were "thinner than the thinnest paper". The use of this type of leaf allowed for numerous areas of the text to be outlined in gold. There were several ways of applying gold to an illumination. One of the most popular included mixing the gold with stag's glue and then "pour it into water and dissolve it with your finger." Once the gold was soft and malleable in the water it was ready to be applied to the page. Illuminators had to be very careful when applying gold leaf to the manuscript because gold leaf is able to "adhere to any pigment which had already been laid, ruining the design, and secondly the action of burnishing it is vigorous and runs the risk of smudging any painting already around it."

Patrons

Monasteries produced manuscripts for their own use; heavily illuminated ones tended to be reserved for liturgical use in the early period, while the monastery library held plainer texts. In the early period manuscripts were often commissioned by rulers for their own personal use or as diplomatic gifts, and many old manuscripts continued to be given in this way, even into the Early Modern period. Especially after the book of hours became popular, wealthy individuals commissioned works as a sign of status within the community, sometimes including donor portraits or

heraldry Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch ...

: "In a scene from the New Testament, Christ would be shown larger than an apostle, who would be bigger than a mere bystander in the picture, while the humble donor of the painting or the artist himself might appear as a tiny figure in the corner." The calendar was also personalized, recording the feast days of local or family saints. By the end of the Middle Ages many manuscripts were produced for distribution through a network of agents, and blank spaces might be reserved for the appropriate heraldry to be added locally by the buyer. Though the first medieval creators of illuminated manuscripts were monasteries who did not produce them for widespread or commercial use, illuminated manuscripts eventually became a commercial product for “members of the ruling class and high-ranking church officials". Illuminated manuscripts have been described as “a unique work of art and a testament to the beauty of God’s word”. Displaying the amazing detail and richness of a text, the addition of illumination was never an afterthought. The inclusion of illumination is twofold, it added value to the work, but more importantly it provides pictures for the illiterate members of society to "make the reading seem more vivid and perhaps more credible."

Modern illuminated manuscripts

One notable modern illuminated manuscript is '' The Saint John's Bible'', the first completely handwritten and illuminated

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

to be commissioned by a Benedictine abbey since the invention of the printing press. Production of the seven-volume illuminated Bible was finished in 2011. ''The Saint John's Bible'' is hand-written on vellum by quill, with 160 illuminations throughout the volumes.

Gallery

Clevelandart 1950.154.jpg, Leaf from a

Psalter and

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

; 1079; ink, tempera and gold on vellum; sheet: 16.3 x 10.9 cm;

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...

(

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, USA) Old_Armenian_Manuscript.jpg, Definitions of Philosophy of

David the Invincible David the Invincible (or David the Philosopher) was a Neoplatonism, neoplatonist philosopher of the 6th century. David was a pupil of Olympiodorus the Younger, Olympiodorus in Alexandria. His works, originally written in ancient Greek, Greek, su ...

; 1280; vellum;

Matenadaran The Matenadaran ( hy, Մատենադարան), officially the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, is a museum, repository of manuscripts, and a research institute in Yerevan, Armenia. It is the world's largest repository of Armenian ...

(

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Y ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

) Bifolium with Christ in Majesty in an Initial A, from an Antiphonary MET tr488-2012s1d3.jpg, Detail from Bifolium with Christ in Majesty in an Initial A, from an Antiphonary; circa 1405; tempera, gold, and ink on parchment;

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

(New York City) Coëtivy Master - Leaf from a Book of Hours- Angel Chasing a Devil (recto) - 2005.206.a - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif, Leaf from a Book of Hours; circa 1460; ink, tempera and gold on vellum; leaf: 19.7 x 14.3 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art Benedictine Antiphonary MET DP158484.jpg, Detail of a L from Benedictine Antiphonary; by

Belbello da Pavia Belbello da Pavia, also known as Luchino Belbello from Pavia (d. c. 1470), was an Italian painter active between 1430 and 1462 and associated with Lombard book illumination. He was born in Pavia before soon moving to Milan where he caught the atte ...

; circa 1467–1470; tempera, gold, and ink on parchment, binding: leather over wood boards with copper alloy corner mounts and bosses; Metropolitan Museum of Art Attavante degli Attavanti - Leaf from a Gradual- Initial P with the Nativity - 2003.173 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif, Leaf from a Gradual: Initial P with the Nativity; 1495; ink, tempera and gold on vellum; each leaf: 59.8 x 4.1 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art Master of the First Prayerbook of Maximillian - Hours of Queen Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain- Fol. 11r, October - 1963.256.11.a - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif, Hours of Queen Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain; circa 1500; ink, tempera, and gold on vellum; codex: 22.5 x 15.2 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art Giulio Clovio - Farnese Hours - Google Art Project.jpg, Farnese Hours, an example of a

illuminated page; by

Giulio Clovio Giorgio Giulio Clovio or Juraj Julije Klović (1498 – 5 January 1578) was an illuminator, miniaturist, and painter born in the Kingdom of Croatia, who was mostly active in Renaissance Italy. He is considered the greatest illuminator of the It ...

; 1537–1546; illumination on

; height: 17.1 cm, width: 11.1 cm; Morgan Library & Museum (New York City) Four Evangelists - Google Art Project.jpg, Four Evangelists; 1572–1585; height: 41.3 cm, width: 27.7 cm; from Italy, probably Rome; Morgan Library & Museum Illuminated Quran, Ibn Qasim Dai Abdul-wahhab al-Shirazim Safavid period.jpg,

Al-Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing ...

, 1591–92, from Safavid Iran;

Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum The Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum ( tr, ) is a museum located in Sultanahmet Square in Fatih district of Istanbul, Turkey. Constructed in 1524, the building was formerly the palace of Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha, who was the second grand vizier to S ...

(Istanbul) Heikenoukyou.jpg, Heike Noukyou, 1164-1167, from

Itsukushima is an island in the western part of the Inland Sea of Japan, located in the northwest of Hiroshima Bay. It is popularly known as , which in Japanese means "Shrine Island". The island is one of Hayashi Gahō's Three Views of Japan specified in ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

; Itsukushima Jinja

References

External links

Images

Illuminated Manuscripts in the J. Paul Getty Museum – Los AngelesIlluminating the Manuscript Leaves
Digitized illuminated manuscripts from the University of Louisville Libraries
15 pages of illuminated manuscripts from the Ball State University Digital Media Repository
– Complete sets of high-resolution archival images from the Walters Art Museum
Collection of Armenian Illuminated Manuscripts
– A full collection with high resolution images of Armenian Illuminated Manuscripts

Resources

UCLA Library Special Collections collection of Medieval and Renaissance manuscriptsCollection of illuminated manuscripts.
From the Koninklijke Bibliotheek and

Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum Museum Meermanno – House of the Book ( nl, Huis van het boek), formerly called Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum, is a museum named after Willem Hendrik Jacob van Westreenen van Tiellandt on the Prinsessegracht 30 in The Hague. It is remarkable fo ...

in The Hague.
Demonstration of the production of an illuminated manuscript from the Fitzwilliam, Cambridge (Flash player needed)
Thousands of digital images from the

Morgan Library The Morgan Library & Museum, formerly the Pierpont Morgan Library, is a museum and research library in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is situated at 225 Madison Avenue, between 36th Street to the south and 37th S ...

's renowned collection of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts
Manuscript Miniatures
a collection of illustrations from manuscripts made before 1450
A Collection of Indonesian Illuminated Manuscripts , Southeast Asia Digital Library
{{Authority control Books by type Book arts Book design Book terminology Christian genres Gilding .Illuminated Textual scholarship Western art