Manuscript illumination
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An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared
document A document is a writing, written, drawing, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of nonfiction, non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ', which denotes ...
where the text is decorated with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the
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for prayers and liturgical books such as psalters and courtly literature, the practice continued into secular texts from the 13th century onward and typically include proclamations, enrolled bills, laws,
charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...
s, inventories, and
deed A deed is a legal document that is signed and delivered, especially concerning the ownership of property or legal rights. Specifically, in common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right ...
s. The earliest surviving illuminated manuscripts are a small number from
late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...
, and date from between 400 and 600 CE. Examples include the Vergilius Romanus, Vergilius Vaticanus, and the Rossano Gospels. 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 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
, although many survive from the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
. While Islamic manuscripts can also be called illuminated and use essentially the same techniques, comparable Far Eastern and Mesoamerican works are described as ''painted''. Most manuscripts, illuminated or not, were written on
parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...
until the 2nd century BCE, when a more refined material called
vellum Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. It is often distinguished from parchment, either by being made from calfskin (rather than the skin of other animals), or simply by being of a higher quality. Vellu ...
, made from stretched calf skin, was supposedly introduced by King Eumenes II of Pergamum. This gradually became the standard for luxury illuminated manuscripts, although modern scholars are often reluctant to distinguish between parchment and vellum, and the skins of various animals might be used. The pages were then normally bound into codices (singular:
codex The codex (: codices ) was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically, the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term ''codex'' is now r ...
), that is the usual modern book format, although sometimes the older
scroll A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. Structure A scroll is usually partitioned into pages, which are sometimes separate sheets of papyru ...
format was used, for various reasons. 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'' or ''papyruses'') can a ...
. Books ranged in size from ones smaller than a modern paperback, such as the pocket gospel, to very large ones such as choirbooks 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 History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period ( ...
. The untypically early 11th century Missal of Silos is from Spain, near to Muslim paper manufacturing centres in Al-Andalus. Textual manuscripts on paper become increasingly common, but the more expensive parchment was mostly used for illuminated manuscripts until the end of the period. Very early printed books left spaces for red text, known as rubrics, miniature illustrations and illuminated
initial In a written or published work, an initial is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter (books), chapter, or a paragraph that is larger than the rest of the text. The word is ultimately derived from the Latin ''initiālis'', which means '' ...
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


Latin Europe

Art historians classify illuminated manuscripts into their historic periods and types, including (but not limited to) Late Antique, Insular, Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque, Gothic, and
Renaissance manuscripts Renaissance art (1350 – 1620) is the painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the period of European history known as the Renaissance, which emerged as a distinct style in Italy in about AD 1400, in parallel with developments which occurr ...
. There are a few examples from later periods. Books that are heavily and richly illuminated are sometimes known as "display books" in church contexts, or "luxury manuscripts", especially if secular works. In the first millennium, these were most likely to be Gospel Books, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is the most widely recognized illuminated manuscript in the
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, and is famous for its insular designs. The Romanesque and Gothic periods saw the creation of many large illuminated complete
bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
s. The largest surviving example of these is The Codex Gigas 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 psalters, which usually contained all 150 canonical psalms, and small, personal devotional books made for lay people known as books of hours that would separate one's day into eight hours of devotion. These were often richly illuminated with miniatures, decorated initials and floral borders. They were costly and therefore only owned by wealthy patrons, often women. 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 between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...
, 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. One of the most popular secular texts of the time were bestiaries. These books contained illuminated depictions of various animals, both real and fictional, and often focused on their religious symbolism and significance, as it was a widespread belief in post-classical Europe that animals, and all other organisms on Earth, were manifestations of God. These manuscripts served as both devotional guidance and entertainment for the working class of the Middle Ages. The Gothic period, which generally saw an increase in the production of illuminated books, also saw more secular works such as
chronicle A chronicle (, 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 local events ...
s and works of literature illuminated. Wealthy people began to build up personal libraries; Philip the Bold 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", which set down prayers appropriate for various times in the liturgical day. One of the best known examples is the extravagant for a French prince. Up to the 12th century, most manuscripts were produced in monasteries in order to add to the library or after receiving a
commission In-Commission or commissioning may refer to: Business and contracting * Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered ** Commission (art), the purchase or the creation of a piece of art most often on behalf of anot ...
from a wealthy patron. Larger monasteries often contained separate areas for the monks who specialized in the production of manuscripts called a scriptorium. 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." By the 14th century, the cloisters 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. Illuminators were often well known and acclaimed and many of their identities have survived.


Greek Europe and the Islamic world

The
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
world produced manuscripts in its own style, versions of which spread to other Orthodox and Eastern Christian areas. This distinct Byzantine style of illumination had a characteristic color palette along with different ways of preparing pigments and ink and a unique finish to the vellum writing surface which was not as conducive to long term preservation as the more texture Western style. With their traditions of literacy uninterrupted by the Middle Ages, the
Muslim world The terms Islamic world and Muslim 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, politics, and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is ...
, especially on the Iberian Peninsula, was instrumental in delivering ancient classic works to the growing intellectual circles and
universities A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
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, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...
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 origins of the pictorial tradition of Arabic illustrated manuscripts are uncertain. The first known decorated manuscripts are some
Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...
s from the 9th century. They were not illustrated, but were "illuminated" with decorations of the frontispieces or headings. The tradition of illustrated manuscripts started with the Graeco-Arabic translation movement and the creation of scientific and technical treatises often based on Greek scientific knowledge, such as the Arabic versions of '' The Book of Fixed Stars'' (965 CE), '' De materia medica'' or '' Book of the Ten Treatises of the Eye''. The translators were most often Arab Syriac Christians, such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq or Yahya ibn Adi, and their work is known to have been sponsored by local rulers, such as the Artuqids. An explosion of artistic production in Arabic manuscripts occurred in the 12th and especially the 13th century. Thus various Syriac manuscripts of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, such as Syriac Gospels, Vatican Library, Syr. 559 or Syriac Gospels, British Library, Add. 7170, were derived from the Byzantine tradition, yet stylistically have a lot in common with Islamic illustrated manuscripts such as the '' Maqāmāt al-Ḥarīrī'', pointing to a common pictorial tradition that existed since circa 1180 in
Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
and
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which was highly influenced by Byzantine art. Some of the illustrations of these manuscript have been characterized as "illustration byzantine traitée à la manière arabe" ("Byzantine illustration treated in the Arab style"). The Persian miniature tradition mostly began in whole books, rather than single pages for muraqqas or albums, as later became more common. The Great Mongol Shahnameh, probably from the 1330s, is a very early manuscript of one of the most common works for grand illustrated books in Persian courts.


Jewish


Techniques

Styles and techniques of manuscript illumination varied by region, and there were distinct differences in aspects like color palette, decoration style, and peak periods of output. Certain places like the Celtic regions specialized in more ornamental details in contrast to the Byzantine pictorial designs, and regions such as Flanders were more prolific in manuscript production much later than other places. Illumination was a complex and costly process, and was therefore usually reserved for special books such as altar bibles, or books for royalty. Heavily illuminated manuscripts are often called "luxury manuscripts" for this reason. In the early Middle Ages, most books were produced in monasteries, whether for their own use, for presentation, or for a commission. These monks would work as a collective group to sponsor the patronage of a manuscript, but that in turn shielded their identites somewhat from history: there are more numerous surviving signatures on works from the scibe and less from the illustrations, but often there is simply the signature of the patron monastery. However, commercial scriptoria grew up in large cities, especially
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, 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, especially painting the elaborate borders, and 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 emerged under the vast educational program of
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. The first step was to send the manuscript to a rubricator, "who added (in red or other colors) the titles,
headlines The headline 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 century when incre ...
, 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 feather or a 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 the written gathering were sent off to the illuminator, there was no longer any scope for innovation.)" The sturdy Roman letters of the early
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
gradually gave way to scripts such as Uncial and half-Uncial, especially in the
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, where distinctive scripts such as insular majuscule and insular minuscule developed. Stocky, richly textured
blackletter Blackletter (sometimes black letter or black-letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule or Gothic type, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for ...
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 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 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
High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...
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 Lindisfarne Gospels). 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 initials, 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 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. Another feature of illuminating manuscripts of the Middle Ages was the use of Marginalia. These additions were typically found within and around decorative borders of the text. Marginalia found within medieval manuscripts were often unique special messages and details indicative of the precision and careful consideration involved in their production. Marginalia shaped the way the text was read and influenced the reader’s interaction with it. Placement of these decorations and messages prompted the reader to scrutinize beyond the physical book to interpret the text from multiple perspectives. Marginalia ranged from intricate decorative illustrations to those considered extremely unusual. Some examples of marginalia found within medieval manuscripts included drawings of centaurs, snail and knight combat, warrior women, battles between cats and mice, parables from biblical texts, personified foxes, rabbits, and monkeys, and hidden words and messages buried within the border decorations. The added drawings and messages of the 13th to 14th centuries were typically devoted to recurring themes and often patterned after other types of popular medieval art such as stained-glass windows, stone carvings, and wall paintings.


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." There is evidence of illustratiors planning out color choice in advance, which indicates purposeful choice and design in the finished product. There is also a great deal of nuance when it comes to the colors and painting of manuscripts. Illuminators would be trained in color combinations and stylistic distinctions by a form of apprenticeship, so the limited number of primary literary sources discussing colors and techniques may not be accurate to what the actual illuminators learned and followed. The medieval artist's palette was broad:


Gilding

On the strictest definition, a manuscript is not considered "illuminated" unless one or many illuminations contained metal, normally gold leaf or shell gold 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 Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...
manuscripts were sometimes written entirely in gold. The gold ground style, with all or most of the background in gold, was taken from Byzantine mosaics and icons. 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 their 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. 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 gold leaf or specks of gold that could be applied with a brush. When working with gold leaf, the pieces would be hammered and thinned. 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

At least in earlier periods, monasteries were the biggest manufacturers of illuminated manuscripts. They 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, Imperial, royal and noble ranks, rank and genealo ...
: "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 even many religious manuscripts were produced in secular commercial workshops, such as that of William de Brailes in 13th-century Oxford, for distribution through a network of agents, and blank spaces might be reserved for the appropriate heraldry to be added locally by the buyer. The growing genre of luxury illuminated manuscripts of secular works was very largely produced in commercial workshops, mostly in cities such as Paris,
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, Bruges and north Italy.


Gallery

File:Clevelandart 1950.154.jpg, Leaf from a
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
Psalter and
New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
; 1079; ink, tempera and gold on vellum; sheet: 163 × 109 mm; Cleveland Museum of Art (
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, US) File:Old Armenian Manuscript.jpg, Definitions of Philosophy of David the Invincible; 1280; vellum; Matenadaran (
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) File: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; ; tempera, gold, and ink on parchment;
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(New York City) File: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; ; ink, tempera and gold on vellum; leaf: 197 × 143 mm; Cleveland Museum of Art File:Benedictine Antiphonary MET DP158484.jpg, Detail of a L from Benedictine Antiphonary; by Belbello da Pavia; –1470; tempera, gold, and ink on parchment, binding: leather over wood boards with copper alloy corner mounts and bosses; Metropolitan Museum of Art File: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: 598 × 41 mm; Cleveland Museum of Art File: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; ; ink, tempera, and gold on vellum; codex: 225 × 152 mm; Cleveland Museum of Art File:Giulio Clovio - Farnese Hours - Google Art Project.jpg, Farnese Hours, an example of a
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
illuminated page; by Giulio Clovio; 1537–1546; illumination on
parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...
; 171 × 111 mm; Morgan Library & Museum (New York City) File:Four Evangelists - Google Art Project.jpg, Four Evangelists; 1572–1585; 413 × 277 mm; from Italy, probably Rome; Morgan Library & Museum File:Illuminated Quran, Ibn Qasim Dai Abdul-wahhab al-Shirazim Safavid period.jpg, Al-Quran, 1591–92, from Safavid Iran; Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum (Istanbul) File:Heikenoukyou.jpg, Heike Noukyou, 1164–1167, from Itsukushima,
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; Itsukushima Jinja File:Handwritten Guru Granth Sahib manuscript kept at Gurdwara Mattan Sahib in Martand, Kashmir, India 04.jpg, Example of an elaborately decorated border of a
Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...
illuminated manuscript from a 17th-century Guru Granth Sahib manuscript kept at Gurdwara Mattan Sahib in Martand, Kashmir, India. It is known as the ''Sunehri'' ''bir'' (golden corpus) File:RostamMournsSohrab.jpg, The great Iranian hero Rostam mourns his son Sohrab, whom he has unwittingly slain in single combat. Folio of a manuscript of 1655 of Ferdowsi's Iranian epic Shahnameh, held in Princeton University Library Unknown artist. File:Shah Namah, the Persian Epic of the Kings Wellcome L0035191.jpg, Jinn, recognisable by their characteristic bestial appearance, gather to do battle with Faramarz, son of Rostam. Leaf from another manuscript of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (The Book of Kings)


See also

* Gothic book illustration * Renaissance illumination


References


Sources

*Alexander, Jonathan A.G., ''Medieval Illuminators and their Methods of Work'', 1992, Yale UP, * Coleman, Joyce, Mark Cruse, and Kathryn A. Smith, eds. ''The Social Life of Illumination: Manuscripts, Images, and Communities in the Late Middle Ages'' (Series: Medieval Texts and Cultures in Northern Europe, vol. 21. Turnhout: Brepols Publishing, 2013). xxiv + 552 p
online review
*Calkins, Robert G. ''Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages''. 1983, Cornell University Press, * Camille, M. (1992). ''Image on the edge: the margins of medieval art''. Harvard University Press. * * De Hamel, Christopher. ''A History of Illuminated Manuscript'' (Phaidon, 1986) * *Kren, T. & McKendrick, Scot (eds), ''Illuminating the Renaissance – The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe'', Getty Museum/Royal Academy of Arts, 2003, * Liepe, Lena. ''Studies in Icelandic Fourteenth Century Book Painting'', Reykholt: Snorrastofa, rit. vol. VI, 2009. * Melo, M.J., Castro, R., Nabais, P. et al. ''The book on how to make all the colour paints for illuminating books: unravelling a Portuguese Hebrew illuminators' manual' ' Herit Sci 6, 44 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-018-0208-z'' *Morgan, Nigel J., Stella Panayotova, and Martine Meuwese. ''Illuminated Manuscripts in Cambridge: A Catalogue of Western Book Illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Colleges'' (London : Harvey Miller Publishers in conjunction with the Modern Humanities Association. 1999– ) *Pächt, Otto, ''Book Illumination in the Middle Ages'' (trans fr German), 1986, Harvey Miller Publishers, London, * * * Wieck, Roger. "Folia Fugitiva: The Pursuit of the Illuminated Manuscript Leaf". ''The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery'', Vol. 54, 1996.


External links

*


Images


Illuminated Manuscripts in the J. Paul Getty Museum – Los Angeles
(archived 17 September 2006)
Illuminated 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 manuscripts

Collection of illuminated manuscripts
from the Koninklijke Bibliotheek and Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum in The Hague.
CORSAIR
Thousands of digital images from the Morgan Library'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
Related articles * The Missal of Thomas James {{Authority control Books by type Book arts Book design Book terminology Christian genres Gilding .Illuminated Textual scholarship Western art