Illuminated manuscripts were handmade books, usually on Christian scripture or practice, produced in Western Europe between c. 500-c. 1600. They are so named because of the use of gold and silver that illuminates the text and accompanying illustrations. its production gradually died out after the invention of the printing press.
Although Muslim craftsmen also used this technique to adorn their books, the term “illuminated manuscripts” is more commonly used to refer to those works produced in Europe on Christian subjects. however, the poetry and myth of pre-Christian authors, such as Virgil, were also illuminated on occasion.
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Handmade illuminated manuscripts were initially produced by monks in abbeys but, as they became more popular, the production became commercialized and passed into the hands of secular booksellers. illuminated manuscripts were quite expensive to produce and only those with significant means could afford them.
The most popular type was the book of hours, which was a Christian devotional of prayers said at certain times of the day. More books of hours have survived than any other work of the period simply because more were produced. the invention of the printing press by johannes gutenberg in c. 1440 marked the beginning of the end for handmade books in general and illuminated manuscripts in particular.
a brief history of books
The written word was invented in Sumer, in southern Mesopotamia, around 3500-3000 BC. c., where clay tablets were used to transmit information. Egyptians began using papyrus scrolls in the early dynastic period (c. 3150-c. 2613 BC) which were adopted by the Greeks and Romans, although the latter two also began using wax-covered wooden tablets for writing. several such tablets could be joined between wooden or metal covers to form a single volume; this was called a codex and replaced the papyrus scroll in the Mediterranean region c. 400.
Paper was invented in China by Ts’ai Lun (also known as Cai Lun, 50-121 AD) during the Han dynasty in c. 105 AD, and was introduced to the Arab world by Chinese traders in the 7th century AD. The cities of Baghdad and Damascus, especially, became important centers of paper and book production, and Muslim writers began to produce original works of literature and poetry, as well as treatises on mathematics, science, astrology, and philosophy.
They also made extensive copies of Western philosophers such as Aristotle (384-322 BC), who preserved many of their works long before they were appreciated in the West. Muslim craftsmen decorated their books with elaborate borders and illustrations, and these are often defined as illuminated manuscripts.
in europe, however, the acceptance of paper was still centuries away. The Chinese had been using paper for almost a century when the people of Asia Minor developed writing surfaces made from animal skins (sheep or goats) that were soaked in water, scraped to remove the hair, stretched over wooden frames to dried and then whitewashed with lime; the finished product became known as parchment.
parchment made from calfskin was called vellum, it was of a much higher quality as a writing surface and therefore became more popular. European monks preferred vellum paper, and this became their standard material for works that would become known as illuminated manuscripts. paper and papyrus were considered non-Christian by the medieval church and their use was discouraged as these materials had been used by pagan writers in the past and were used by “heathens” in the east at this time. paper would not be accepted by Europeans until the 11th century.
HOW THEY WERE MADE
As books became more popular, they were produced by secular merchants and sold at book stalls and stores. Initially, however, they were made by monks in monasteries, abbeys, and priories, probably first in Ireland, and later in Britain and the Continent.
every monastery was required to have a library according to the rules of st. 6th century AD Benedict no doubt some books arrived with the monks who came to live there, but most were produced on the site by monks known as scriptores in rooms called scriptoriums. from the fifth to the thirteenth century CE monasteries were the only producers of books. the scriptorium was a large room with wooden chairs and desks that tilted up to hold the pages of manuscripts. the monks were involved in every aspect of the production of a book, from the processing of the vellum to the final product.
A director would distribute the pages to be done by the monks in the room and then stay behind to supervise and maintain the rule of silence. the scribes worked only during the day and could not keep candles or lamps near the manuscripts for fear of fire. the director would make sure that the monks kept working, in silence, and continued until their pages were finished. a monk rarely worked on a page to the end, but instead traded with others in the room.
A monk would start by cutting a sheet of vellum to the appropriate size. this practice would dictate the shape of books to this day, as they are longer than they are wide. once the vellum sheet was prepared, lines were drawn for the text and white space was left for the illustrations.
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The text was first written in black (or gold or other color appropriate to the subject) ink between the ruled lines of the page and then handed over to another monk to proofread for errors; this second monk, or perhaps a third, would add titles in blue or red ink and then turn the page over to the illuminator, who would add images, color, and the required golden lighting. monks wrote with quill pens and boiled iron, tree bark, and nuts to make black ink; other colors of ink were produced by grinding and boiling different chemicals and natural plants.
The work was long and tedious, carried out in the silence of rooms lit only by narrow windows that were cold in winter and muggy in hot weather. A scriptore monk was expected to show up for work regardless of the weather, his health, or his interest in a project. it is clear from brief comments written on a few pages that the monks were not always happy with their duties.
academician giulia bologna points out how many manuscripts include small annotations written in the margins such as “this page was not copied slowly”, “I don’t feel well today”, “this parchment is certainly hairy”, and a long remark about having to sit down for hours hunched over a desk: “Three fingers write, but the whole body gets tired. Just as the sailor longs for the port, the writer longs for the last verse” (37).
the first illuminated manuscripts
vellum works from europe became the standard definition of a book for centuries. the word book comes from Old English boc meaning ‘a written document’ or ‘written sheet’ and texts produced on vellum over time came to be decorated with flourishes and illustrations. The oldest illuminated manuscript is the Vergilius Augusteus from the 4th century AD. It exists in seven pages of what must have been a much larger book of Virgil’s works.
It is not technically an illuminated manuscript because it does not use gold, silver or color illustrations, but it is the oldest European work to use decorated capital letters to begin each page, a practice that would come to define illuminated manuscripts. .
In the 5th century CE, the Ambrosian Iliad, an illuminated manuscript of Homer’s work, was completed, most likely in Constantinople. This work is richly illustrated and the technique used seems to have influenced later artisans. The St. Augustine Gospels of the 6th century CE, another illuminated work, shows similarities to the earlier Iliad. The St. Augustine Gospels is a copy of the four gospels as translated by St. Jerome and was once completely illustrated but many of the pieces have been lost over time.
One of the most impressive early illuminated manuscripts is the 6th-century AD Codex Argentheus (“Silver Book”). gothic language. the vellum pages were tinted purple, to denote lofty subject matter, and the work was written and illustrated in silver and gold ink. It is commonly accepted that the book was produced for the Gothic King Theodoric the Great (r. AD 493-526) in Italy.
famous illuminated manuscripts
The best works were created between the 7th and 16th centuries A.D., when the foundations of illustration and decoration were mastered and perfected. Among these works, the best known is the Book of Kells, currently housed at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, created c. 800.
the book of kells was produced by monks of st. the order of columba of iona, scotland, but it is not known exactly where it was made. Theories about its composition range from its creation on the island of Iona to Kells in Ireland and Lindisfarne in Great Britain. it was most likely created, at least in part, on iona and then taken to kells to keep it safe from viking raiders who first raided iona in 795, shortly after their raid on lindisfarne priory in large brittany.
A Viking raid in 806 killed 68 monks at Iona and led to the survivors abandoning the abbey in favor of another of their order at Kells. It is likely that the Book of Kells traveled with them at this time and may have been completed in Ireland. The grandeur of this work is justly praised but it should be noted that there are many other high-quality illuminated manuscripts currently housed in private collections, museums, and libraries around the world. Among these many, some of the most impressive are:
the book of durrow (650-700 AD): the oldest illuminated book of the gospels created in iona or lindisfarne abbey. contains a series of eye-catching illustrations including carpet pages with intricate Celtic knot motifs with various intertwined animals.
codex amiatinus (c. late 7th century – early 8th century AD): the oldest version of st. Jerome’s Vulgate Bible. It was created in Northumbria, Great Britain, and although it is not technically “illuminated”, it contains several significant full-page illustrations and miniatures.
Lindisfarne Gospels (c. 700-715 AD): Among the best known and most admired illuminated manuscripts, this work was created at Lindisfarne Priory on the “holy island” off the coast from dorset, great britain. is an illustrated edition of the gospels of the new testament made in honor of the most famous member of the priory, st. cuthbert.
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The Morgan Crusaders Bible (c. 1250 AD): Created in Paris most likely for Louis IX (1214-1270 AD), whose piety was a defining characteristic of his reign. It was originally a work only of full-color illuminated illustrations of Old Testament events and lay subjects, but later owners commissioned the text to accompany the images. the work is considered one of the greatest illuminated manuscripts and a masterpiece of medieval art.
Westminster Abbey Bestiary (c. 1275-1290 AD): Probably created in York, Great Britain, this work is a collection of descriptions of animals, some real and some imaginary, Drawn from pre-Christian sources, the Bible and legends. There were a number of bestiaries produced during the Middle Ages, but the Westminster Abbey Bestiary is considered the best for the skillful composition of the 164 illustrations it contains.
The Book of Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux (c. 1324-1328 CE) – Created in Paris, France by the leading illustrator of the time, Jean Pucelle, for the queen Jeanne d’Evreux (1310-1371 CE), wife of Charles IV (1322-1328 CE). It is a small Book of Hours delicately illustrated on exceptionally fine vellum with over 700 illustrations accompanying the text. The work is smaller than a modern-day paperback and must have required great skill to produce.
The Black Hours (c. 1475-1480 AD): Created in Bruges, Belgium, by an anonymous artist working in the style of the city’s leading illustrator, Wilhelm Vrelant, who dominated the art From C. 1450 until his death in 1481 ce. It is made of vellum dyed black and illuminated in striking blue and gold colors. the text is written in silver and gold ink. it is one of the most unique books of hours in existence.
les tres riches heures du duc de berry (c. 1412-1416 and 1485-1489 ce) – the most famous book of hours today, as well as in its own time, this work It was commissioned by Jean, Duke of Berry, Count of Poitiers, France (1340-1416 AD). it was left unfinished when the duke and the artists who worked on it died of the plague in 1416 AD. The work was discovered and completed between the years 1485-1489 CE when it was recognized as a masterpiece. He is often referred to as the “King of Illuminated Manuscripts” due to the grandeur and intricacy of the paintings.
grimani breviary (c. 1510 AD): a massive 1,670-page work with full-page illustrations of scenes from the Bible, secular legends, contemporary landscapes, and domestic scenes. The text is made up of prayers, psalms, and other selections from the Bible. It was probably made in Flanders, but it is unknown who created or commissioned it. The book was bought by the Venetian Cardinal Domenico Grimani (1461-1523 AD) in 1520 AD. c., who declared it so beautiful that only select people of high moral standing should be allowed to see it, and only under special circumstances.
Prayer book of Claude de France (c. 1517 CE) – One of the most unique and impressive illuminated manuscripts, this book is small enough to fit in the palm of one’s hand and yet is illustrated with 132 brilliantly realized works framed by elaborate and striking borders. The little book was made for Claude, queen of France (1514-1524 CE) along with a Book of Hours by an artist who was known, after completing these works, as Master of Claude de France.
printing & the end of enlightenment
by the 13th century, literacy in europe had improved and professional booksellers appeared on the scene in response to demand. In Great Britain, literature produced in vernacular languages had been encouraged since the reign of Alfred the Great (871-899) and, in France, since the time of Charlemagne (800-814). increased demand led to the need for more scribes and many of them were women.
That both men and women were now involved in book production is clear from their known places of origin (such as nunneries rather than monasteries), as well as from the very type of annotations monks left on the pages . the scholar christopher de hamel points out one such case:
It is often said that women played an important role in promoting vernacular [English] writing because girls were not taught Latin as thoroughly as boys. It’s quite true that vernacular prayer books often go back to nuns rather than monks, for example… indeed, the oldest Lancelot manuscript must have been written by a female scribe. it was made in 1274 and ends with the request that the reader pray for the scribe, ‘pries pour ce li ki lescrist’; ‘ce li’ is a feminine pronoun. (148)
Books continued to be produced by hand until the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in c. 1440. By 1456, he had printed the Latin Bible, now commonly known as the Gutenberg Bible, and mastered the process of printing books instead of making them by hand.
Shortly after this, Gutenberg’s press and equipment were seized for outstanding debts and Gutenberg’s patron, Johann Fust, successfully developed the techniques of the printing press to produce written works en masse. a single book of about 400 pages would have taken at least six months to produce; now it could be printed in less than a week.
Still, people then, as now, liked what they knew, and many rejected the new product of the printed book. Giulia Bologna points out how “the great bibliophile Federigo da Montefelto, Duke of Urbino, would have felt ashamed to have a printed book in his library” (39). printed books were at first considered cheap imitations of “real books” and printers, recognizing this, went to great lengths to make them look like hand-made works of the past by binding them in leather, adding gold gilt to the covers, and hiring illustrators. to provide images for the text. these practices helped make the new products more palatable to book collectors. even so, illuminated manuscripts were commissioned, although in much smaller numbers than in the past, until the early seventeenth century.
As the printed book became more widely accepted, however, lighting skills became less and less valued and eventually forgotten. the work of the artists, most of them anonymous, would, however, live on in the books they had created. illuminated manuscripts were intentionally designed as valuable items from the start, but became more valuable once they ceased to be produced. the wealthy sought out these books and cultivated collections in their private libraries that preserved the works to this day.
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