These included short stories, legends of the saints, tales of chivalry, mythological stories, and even accounts of criminal, social or miraculous occurrences. They were costly and therefore only owned by wealthy patrons.Īs the production of manuscripts shifted from monasteries to the public sector during the High Middle Ages, illuminated books began to reflect secular interests. These items were often richly illuminated with miniatures, decorated initials and floral borders. These included Psalters, and small, personal devotional books known as Books of Hours. Other illuminated liturgical books appeared during and after the Romanesque period. The largest surviving example of these is The Codex Gigas in Sweden it is so massive that it takes three librarians to lift it.
The Romanesque and Gothic periods saw the creation of many large illuminated complete bibles. 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 Books, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells. There are a few examples from later periods. The 63rd page of the Book of Hours (Use of Utrecht), circa 1460–1465, ink, tempera, and gold on vellum, binding: brown Morocco over original wooden boards, overall: 5.9 x 11.6 cm, Cleveland Museum of Art ( Cleveland, Ohio, USA)Īrt 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. Indeed, for many areas and time periods, they are the only surviving examples of painting. They are also the best surviving specimens of medieval painting, and the best preserved. They are among the most common items to survive from the Middle Ages many thousands survive. Illuminated manuscripts continued to be produced in the early 16th century but in much smaller numbers, mostly for the very wealthy. The introduction of printing rapidly led to the decline of illumination. Drawings in the margins (known as marginalia) would also allow scribes to add their own notes, diagrams, translations, and even comic flourishes. Very early printed books left spaces for red text, known as rubrics, miniature illustrations and illuminated initials, all of which would have been added later by hand. Paper manuscripts appeared during the Late Middle Ages. 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. A very few illuminated fragments also survive on papyrus.
These pages were then bound into books, called codices (singular: codex). Most medieval manuscripts, illuminated or not, were written on parchment or vellum. The majority of extant manuscripts are from the Middle Ages, although many survive from the Renaissance, along with a very limited number from late antiquity. Examples include the Codex Argenteus and the Rossano Gospels, both of which are from the 6th century. The earliest illuminated manuscripts in existence come from the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths and the Eastern Roman Empire and date from between 400 and 600 CE. While Islamic manuscripts can also be called illuminated, and use essentially the same techniques, comparable Far Eastern and Mesoamerican works are described as painted. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the practice continued into secular texts from the 13th century onward and typically include proclamations, enrolled bills, laws, charters, inventories and deeds. Various examples of pages from illuminated manuscriptsĪn illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations.
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