![]() Illumination actually refers to the art of decorating books with bright colors and precious metals so that they sparkle or "light up." Individual pages could receive such illumination as: decorated initials, borders, line endings drolleries (human or animal images in the borders of a page, often fantastical) and miniatures (the paintings, derived from the Latin word minium, meaning red pigment). ![]() From at least the thirteenth century, however, medieval illuminators were lay craftsmen, members of the Guild of Saint Luke, who lived and worked in urban centers. Before the thirteenth century, manuscripts were made mostly in monasteries, the monks toiling away by candlelight for the love of God not money. The adornment of the book, or illumination, depended on the skill of the illuminator and the wealth of the person who commissioned the book. One Irish monk complained of his task in the margins of a manuscript: "Thin ink, bad vellum, difficult text." ![]() The beautiful, handwritten texts were created by scribes, who learned to write in many different types of script. The color and texture of parchment vary according to the type of animal used, the method of preparing the skins, and perhaps even the place where the animal was raised and what it ate. Cows, sheep, goats, squirrels, and possibly even cats, were used to make parchment. Manuscripts were written and painted on parchment (vellum) made from the skins of different animals. Before Gutenberg invented printing around 1450, all books were entirely handmade, and even after the beginning of printing, the manuscript persisted in popularity. Illuminated manuscripts are books that have been written and decorated by hand in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (manum=hand scriptum=written). However, unlike verdigris or woad, both of which were plentiful in Europe, lapis lazuli needed to be imported from the mountains of northern Afghanistan – likely via the silk road, first appearing in European manuscripts in the late 9th century – and making it more expensive than gold.Les Enluminures A Beginner's Guide To Medieval Manuscripts ABC, Glossary on Medieval Manuscripts Minerals, such as verdigris (fourth) and malachite (fifth) could both be ground down to both provide vibrant green hues, but for the deepest of blue, suitable for the Virgin’s robe or heaven itself, lapis lazuli (sixth) was ground down to a fine powder. The enigmatic Dragon’s Blood (third), supposedly derived from the blood spilt as elephants and dragons fought to the death, classically is derived from tree resin, principally those on the island of Socotra off the coast of Yemen. In the case of plants, woad leaves (first above) and madder root (second) form a deep blue and light pink respectively, while the shells of a beetle when dried and crushed result in Carmine Red. The vibrant colours of medieval manuscripts have their origin in the plants, animals, and minerals of the natural world. Credit is also due to the British Library, along with Patricia Lovett, for the creation of the videos embedded here that illustrate how these tools and raw materials come together in the process of making of medieval manuscripts. The manuscripts on display have been specifically selected from the Parker's collections to highlight each stage in the production of a medieval manuscript, while many of the tools and raw materials have been kindly loaned to the Library from the personal collection of Patricia Lovett MBE, a professional illuminator, calligrapher and long-term friend of the Parker Library. Each case focuses on a single aspect of the production of a medieval manuscript, from the preparation of the parchment in the first case, through to the application of gold pigments and paints in the sixth. As our last exhibition sought to explore the history of the book from scroll to codex, papyri to paper, our current exhibition seeks to delve specifically into the world of medieval books and their production.
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