63-557: The Auchinleck Manuscript , NLS Adv. MS 19.2.1, is an illuminated manuscript copied on parchment in the 14th century in London. The manuscript provides a glimpse of a time of political tension and social change in England. The English were continuing to reclaim their language and national identity, and to distance themselves from the Norman conquerors who had taken over the country after
126-440: 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 gradually gave way to scripts such as Uncial and half-Uncial, especially in
189-412: 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
252-519: A commission. However, commercial scriptoria grew up in large cities, especially Paris , 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
315-600: 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 Anglosphere , and
378-422: 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." The following steps outline the detailed labor involved to create
441-426: 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. 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
504-401: 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 Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry for a French prince. Up to
567-462: A source of national unification. The Auchinleck manuscript was illuminated , although not as ornately as the religious books of the era, such as Books of Hours . Many of the miniatures in the manuscript have been lost to thieves or people peddling the images for profit. The four remaining miniatures and the historiated letters suggest it was beautifully, yet modestly, decorated at one time. It has been determined through comparing artistic styles that
630-459: 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. Related articles Catchword A catchword is a word placed at
693-544: Is a codex of medieval narratives ranging from Saints' vitae to conversion tales . The order of the contents (and respective folio numbers) is as follows: Illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations . Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers and liturgical books such as psalters and courtly literature ,
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#1732780734662756-489: 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
819-417: Is believed to have been produced in London around 1340 by professional scribes who were laymen , not by monks, as was more usually the case with medieval manuscript texts. There is debate among scholars of Middle English , both as to how many scribes were involved in the production and writing-out of the text, and also as to whether they were merely copying the work from the original or exemplar , or were at
882-856: Is famous for its insular designs. The Romanesque and Gothic periods saw the creation of many large illuminated complete bibles . 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
945-480: 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 initials , all of which would have been added later by hand. Drawings in
1008-477: Is in the hand of one man, who it is believed translated most of the literature. With this knowledge, when one looks at the photographs of the manuscript found on the website of the National Library of Scotland , it is easy to see the discrepancies in the actual handwriting of the scribes. Some is tight and regimented, attributed to Scribe 1, while some is more loosely written, as if the scribe did not make
1071-527: Is inferred that there was one production manager who, having contracted the work, oversaw the project and assigned separate stories to individual scribes, while acting as the person of contact with the patron or client if the book was indeed bespoke , or special order. Also of significance is that the Auchinleck manuscript is the first known anthology of English literature, particularly the largest collection of English romances up until that time. Previously,
1134-472: Is not well known outside of scholarly circles, yet it is one of the most important English documents surviving from the Middle Ages. Within its folios, it tracks not only the literature of the period, reflecting the tastes of readers in Chaucer 's time and how its subjects were increasingly diverging from religious topics, but also the development of a language as part of a national self-image. It speaks to us of
1197-450: Is surmised that the scribes worked independently on each whole story. This contrasts with the method more usual in monasteries whereby the monks would copy directly from the exemplars one page at a time, with a catchword inscribed at the bottom corner for later collation. Although the Auchinleck manuscript includes catchwords, each scribe would have been responsible for all the pages of each of his assignments. From this mode of production, it
1260-690: The Maqāmāt al-Ḥarīrī , pointing to a common pictorial tradition that existed since circa 1180 in Syria and Iraq 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
1323-597: 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
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#17327807346621386-535: The Battle of Hastings 300 years before. It is currently in the collection of the National Library of Scotland . The manuscript is named after Alexander Boswell, Lord Auchinleck , who was a lawyer and supreme court judge in Edinburgh , Scotland. Lord Auchinleck lived from 1706 to 1782, and was the father of James Boswell who wrote The Life of Samuel Johnson . It is not known how Lord Auchinleck came to possess
1449-470: The British Isles , where distinctive scripts such as insular majuscule and insular minuscule developed. Stocky, richly textured blackletter 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
1512-551: 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 : "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
1575-626: 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
1638-528: The Middle Ages , although many survive from the Renaissance . 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 until the 2nd century BCE, when a more refined material called vellum , made from stretched calf skin,
1701-524: The quires of the manuscript is a list of Norman aristocracy, now assumed to be a version of the Battle Abbey Roll , and at the end of this list has been entered, in a different hand, the list of members from a family named Browne. Also sprinkled throughout the text, others have entered their names individually for posterity, such as Christian Gunter and John Harreis. These names have never been researched against church or town records. Auchinleck
1764-465: 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 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
1827-525: The 1330s, is a very early manuscript of one of the most common works for grand illustrated books in Persian courts. 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
1890-417: 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
1953-588: The Middle Ages, the Muslim world , especially on the Iberian Peninsula, was instrumental in delivering ancient classic works to the growing intellectual circles and universities of Western Europe throughout the 12th century. Books were produced there in large numbers and on paper for the first time in Europe, and with them full treatises on the sciences, especially astrology and medicine where illumination
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2016-596: 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:
2079-478: The action of burnishing it is vigorous and runs the risk of smudging any painting already around it." 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
2142-425: 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
2205-422: 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
2268-404: 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. 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 . There are
2331-421: The book is illustrated, not unworthily represent the multiple grace of heavenly wisdom." The medieval artist's palette was broad: Chemical- and mineral-based colors, including: The color red was often associated with imagery like blood, fire, and godly power. It was the most common and inexpensive color and as such was frequently used for initials, lettering, and borders and well as general imagery. Pink
2394-665: The correct adjustments for space and repeatedly ran out of room at the ends of the lines. While this has an entertaining visual effect when looking at the folios , or pages, its historical importance lies in the clues that it gives to the process of book production for private clients in a secular bookshop at an early period in the emergence of that industry. The Auchinleck, in its present state, consists of forty-three pieces of literature. All of these works are in Middle English , but in various dialects such as were in use in different parts of England. These dialects therefore suggest
2457-400: The diverse origins of the scribes, as for example from London as opposed to the south-west Midlands , because their written language probably reflected their manner of speech, and the variations in their spelling reflected what each had been taught: and these considerations again feed into the question of whether they were also translating. Since the language is consistent within each text, it
2520-404: The fifteenth century. The practice became widespread in the mid sixteenth century, and prevailed until the arrival of industrial printing techniques late in the eighteenth century. Theodore Low Devinne's 1901 guide on Correct Composition had this to say: For more than three centuries printers of books appended at the foot of every page the first word or syllable of the next page. This catchword
2583-423: The foot of a handwritten or printed page that is meant to be bound along with other pages in a book. The word anticipates the first word of the following page. It was meant to help the bookbinder or printer make sure that the leaves were bound in the right order or that the pages were set up in the press in the right order. Catchwords appear in some medieval manuscripts , and appear again in printed books late in
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2646-586: The illuminations of one page of a manuscript: 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 roles were typically separated, except for routine initials and flourishes, and by at least
2709-399: The illustration was done by a handful of artists who illuminated other manuscripts commercially produced in the London area. This points to a group of illuminators, who it is believed collaborated on other works that have been preserved from the Middle Ages, who have been studied independently, and whose work is now being seen in a new light as a collective community. The Auchinleck manuscript
2772-598: The independence of spirit with which the English people wanted to identify themselves as separate from their French cousins by claiming their own language in a fundamental expression, in their literature. As such, the manuscript is important in scholarship of the medieval romances, of London codicology (manuscript studies), of dialect and linguistic studies, and for the possibility (though unproven) that Chaucer himself may have had personal use of Auchinleck, based on claimed correspondences to his writings. The Auchinleck manuscript
2835-548: The manuscript, but it is believed he acquired it in 1740 and gave the book to the Advocates Library in Edinburgh in 1744. It is a mystery who owned the book in the four hundred years from the time it was completed to when Lord Auchinleck first laid hands on it, but there are clues within. On some of the pages are names that have been added in, which are presumed to be previous owners and their family members. One of
2898-452: 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
2961-406: 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
3024-422: 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
3087-640: 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. The Byzantine 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
3150-528: The period, many of the painters were women, especially painting the elaborate border, and perhaps especially in Paris. 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
3213-569: The practice continued into secular texts from the 13th century onward and typically include proclamations , enrolled bills , laws , charters , inventories, and deeds . The earliest surviving illuminated manuscripts are a small number from late antiquity , and date from between 400 and 600. Examples include the Vergilius Romanus , Vergilius Vaticanus , and the Rossano Gospels . The majority of extant manuscripts are from
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#17327807346623276-424: The production of manuscripts shifted from monasteries to the public sector during the High Middle Ages , 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
3339-399: The same time translating the works from French or Latin , rendering them incidentally into their own Middle English dialects. Through the use of palaeography (the study of ancient handwriting), it has been determined that there had to be at least four, perhaps five, different scribes. Some scholars have argued that there were six scribes, yet most agree that the majority of the manuscript
3402-406: The use of Latin or French had been almost exclusive in books, but English was beginning to be an acceptable language for pamphlets and literature. It was during this time that the English were beginning to shift away from French and to form a separate identity, socially and politically, so it would follow that the use of "Inglisch", as it is referred to in the manuscript, in the written word would be
3465-412: The vast educational program of Charlemagne . The first step was to send the manuscript to a rubricator , "who added (in red or other colors) the titles, headlines , 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
3528-486: 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 chronicles 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
3591-430: 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,
3654-427: 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 manuscripts were sometimes written entirely in gold. The gold ground style, with all or most of
3717-483: Was considered a fashionable color and was often found in clothing depictions of aristocrats and in filigree detail work. It also was used to color illuminated manuscript depictions of walls and lakes. Mineral-based colors, including: Green was often associated with visuals related to the Garden of Eden and symbolized rebirth. Verdigris Green was a specific shade almost exclusively used in cross imagery, and Green Earth
3780-399: 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'ans 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
3843-424: 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 ), that is the usual modern book format, although sometimes the older scroll format
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#17327807346623906-557: Was used under other pigments in order to create depth to skin tones. Chemical- and mineral-based colors, including: Blue, especially the pigment ultramarine, was a valuable and rare color and was commonly used in depictions of the Virgin Mary. It was also commonly used for initials, lettering, and borders. 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
3969-495: Was used, for various reasons. A very few illuminated fragments also survive on papyrus . 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 untypically early 11th century Missal of Silos
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