Illuminated manuscript

Illuminated Manuscript

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Illuminated manuscript

An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript

Manuscript

A manuscript is any document that is written by hand, as opposed to being printed or reproduced in some other way. The term may also be used for information that is hand-recorded in other ways than writing, for example inscriptions that are chiselled upon a hard material or scratched as with a knife point in plaster or with a stylus on a wa...
in which the text

Writing

Writing is the representation of language in a textual Media through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and the recording of language via a non-textual medium such as Magnetic tape sound recording....
is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initial

Initial

In a written work, an initial is a letter at the beginning of a work, a chapter or a paragraph that is larger than the rest of the text. The word comes from the Latin initialis, which means standing at the beginning....
s, borders and miniature illustrations

Miniature (illuminated manuscript)

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An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript

Manuscript

Writing

Initial

Miniature (illuminated manuscript)

The word miniature, derived from the Latin minium, red lead, is a picture in an ancient history or medieval illuminated manuscript; the simple decoration of the early codex having been miniated or delineated with that pigment....
. In the strictest definition of the term, an illuminated manuscript only refers to manuscripts decorated with gold or silver. However, in both common usage and modern scholarship, the term is now used to refer to any decorated or illustrated manuscript from the Western or Islamic traditions. Comparable Far Eastern works are always described as painted, as often are Islamic and Mesoamerican works.

The earliest surviving substantive illuminated manuscripts are from the period AD 400 to 600 (also in the gothic period), primarily produced in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
, Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
and Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
. The significance of these works lies not only in their inherent art history value, but in the maintenance of a link of literacy offered by non-illuminated texts as well. Had it not been for the monastic scribes of Late Antiquity

Late Antiquity

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
and Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
would have perished; as it was, the patterns of textual survivals were shaped by their usefulness to the severely constricted literate group of Christians. The very existence of illuminated manuscripts as a way of giving stature and commemoration to ancient documents may have been largely responsible for their preservation in an era when barbarian

Barbarian

"Barbarian" is a pejorative term for an uncivilized person, either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage....
hordes had overrun continental Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
and ruling classes were no longer literate.

The majority of surviving manuscripts are from the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
, although many illuminated manuscripts survive from the 15th century Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
, along with a very limited number from Late Antiquity

Late Antiquity

Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the transitional centuries from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world: generally from the end of the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century to the Islamic conquests and the re-organization of the Byzantine Empire under...
. The majority of these manuscripts are of a religious nature. However, especially from the 13th century onward, an increasing number of secular texts were illuminated. Most illuminated manuscripts were created as codices

Codex

A codex is a book in the format used for modern books, with separate pages normally bound together and given a cover. It was a Roman invention that replaced the scroll, which was the first form of book in all Eurasian cultures....
, which had superseded scrolls; some isolated single sheets survive. A very few illuminated manuscript fragments survive on papyrus

Papyrus

Papyrus is a thick paper material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland Cyperaceae that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....
. Most medieval manuscripts, illuminated or not, were written on parchment

Parchment

Parchment is a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or Goatskin . Its most common use is as the pages of a book, codex or manuscript. It is distinct from leather in that parchment is not tanned, but stretched, scraped, and dried under tension, creating a stiff white, yellowish or translucent animal skin....
(most commonly of calf, sheep, or goat skin), but most manuscripts important enough to illuminate were written on the best quality of parchment, called vellum

Vellum

Vellum is mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on single pages, scrolls, Codex or books. It is generally thin, smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation, the quality of the skin, and the type of animal....
, traditionally made of unsplit calf skin, though high quality parchment from other skins was also called parchment.

Beginning in the late Middle Ages manuscripts began to be produced on paper

Paper

Paper is thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon or packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
. Very early printed books were sometimes produced with spaces left for rubric

Rubric

Rubric can refer to:* Rubric, a section of red text used for emphasis, such as a title or a heading, and hence instructions concerning what actions are performed in a religious service, and hence an established rule or tradition, or an explanatory or introductory commentary...
s and miniatures, or were given illuminated initials, or decorations in the margin, but 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. Illuminated manuscripts are the most common item to survive from the Middle Ages. They are also the best surviving specimens of medieval painting

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting....
, and the best preserved. Indeed, for many areas and time periods, they are the only surviving examples of painting.

For a list of illuminated manuscripts see list of illuminated manuscripts

List of illuminated manuscripts

This is a list of illuminated manuscripts....
.

History

Techniques

Illumination was a complex and frequently costly process. It was usually reserved for special books: an altar Bible, for example. Wealthy people often had richly illuminated "books of hours

Book of Hours

Liturgy

A liturgy is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to their particular traditions. The word may refer to an elaborate formal ritual such as the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy and Mass , or a daily activity such as the Muslim salat and Jewish Jewish services....
.

In the early Middle Ages, most books were produced in monasteries, whether for their own use, for presentation, or for a commission. However, commercial scriptoria grew up in large cities, especially Paris

School of Paris

School of Paris refers to two distinct groups of artists ? a group of medieval Illuminated manuscript, and a group of non-French artists working in Paris before World War I....
, and in Italy

Italy

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
, and by the late fourteenth 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

Calendar

A calendar is a system of organize days for a social, religious, commercial or administrative purpose. This organization is done by giving names to periods of time ? typically days, weeks, months and years....
of a Book of hours

Book of Hours

Text

In the making of an illuminated manuscript, the text was usually written first. Sheets of parchment

Parchment

Parchment is a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or Goatskin . Its most common use is as the pages of a book, codex or manuscript. It is distinct from leather in that parchment is not tanned, but stretched, scraped, and dried under tension, creating a stiff white, yellowish or translucent animal skin....
or vellum, animal hides specially prepared for writing, were cut down to the appropriate size. After the general layout of the page was planned (e.g., initial capital, borders), the page was lightly ruled with a pointed stick, and the scribe went to work with ink-pot and either sharpened quill

Quill

A quill pen is a writing implement made from a flight feather of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, metal-Nib bed pens, the fountain pen, and, eventually, the ballpoint pen....
feather or reed pen.

The script depended on local customs and tastes. The sturdy Roman letters of the early Middle Ages

Middle Ages

Uncial

Uncial is a majuscule script commonly used from the 3rd to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Byzantine Empire scribes. Uncial letters are written in either Greek, Latin, or Gothic....
and half-Uncial, especially in the British Isles

British Isles

The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include Great Britain and Ireland, and numerous smaller islands....
, where distinctive scripts such as insular majuscule and insular minuscule developed. Stocky, richly textured blackletter

Blackletter

Blackletter, also known as Gothic scriptor Gothic minuscule, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 to 1500....
was first seen around the 13th century and was particularly popular in the later Middle Ages

Middle Ages

Palaeography

Palaeography, pal?ography , or paleography is the study of ancient handwriting, and the practice of deciphering and reading historical manuscripts....
is the study of historical handwritten scripts, and codicology

Codicology

Codicology is the study of books as physical objects, especially manuscripts written on parchment in codex form. It is often referred to as 'the archaeology of the book', concerning itself with the materials , and techniques used to make books, including their binding....
the related study of other physical aspects of manuscript codexes.

Classifications

Art historians classify illuminated manuscripts into their historic periods and types, including (but not limited to): Late Antique, Insular

Insular art

Insular art, also known as the Hiberno-Saxon style, is the style of art produced in the sub-Roman Britain of the British Isles, and the term is also used in relation to the Insular script used at the time....
, Carolingian manuscripts

Carolingian art

Carolingian art is the roughly 120-year period from about Anno Domini 780 to 900 — during the reign of Charlemagne and his immediate heirs — popularly known as the Carolingian Renaissance....
, Ottonian manuscripts

Ottonian art

In Pre-Romanesque art Germany, the prevailing style was what has come to be known as Ottonian art. With Ottonian architecture, it is a key component of the Ottonian Renaissance named for the emperors Otto I, Otto II, and Otto III....
, Romanesque manuscripts

Romanesque art

Romanesque art refers to the art of Western Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic Art in the 13th century, or later, depending on region....
, Gothic manuscripts

Gothic art

Gothic art was a Medieval art art movement that lasted about 200 years. It began in France out of the Romanesque art period in the mid-12th century, concurrent with Gothic architecture found in Cathedrals....
, and Renaissance manuscripts. There are a few examples from later periods. The type of book that was most often heavily and richly illuminated, sometimes known as a "display-book", varied between periods. In the first millennium these were most likely to be Gospel Book

Gospel Book

The Gospel Book, or Book of the Gospels is a codex or bound volume containing one or more of the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament....
s. The Romanesque period saw the creation of many huge illuminated complete Bible

Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
s - one in Sweden requires three librarians to lift it. Many Psalter

Psalter

A Psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms and which often contains other devotional material. Various schemes for the arrangement of the Psalms are described in Latin Psalters....
s were also heavily illuminated in both this and the Gothic period. Finally, the Book of Hours

Book of Hours

File:Boucicaut-Meister.jpgFile:Meester van Catharina van Kleef - Getijdenboek van de Meester van Catharina van Kleef4.jpgThe book of hours is the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript....
, very commonly the personal devotional book of a wealthy layperson, was often richly illuminated in the Gothic period. Other books, both liturgical and not, continued to be illuminated at all periods. The Byzantine world also continued to produce manuscripts in its own style, versions of which spread to other Orthodox and Eastern Christian areas. See Medieval art

Medieval art

Medieval art covers a vast scope of time and place, over 1000 years of art history in Western art history, the Islamic art. It includes major art movements and periods, national and regional art, genres, revivals, the artists crafts, and the artists themselves....
for other regions, periods and types.

The Gothic period, which generally saw an increase in the production of these beautiful artifacts, also saw more secular works such as chronicle

Chronicle

Generally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronology order. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the chronicler....
s and works of literature illuminated. Wealthy people began to build up personal libraries; Philip the Bold

Philip the Bold

Philip the Bold can refer to:* Philip the Bold, also known as Philip II Duke of Burgundy * Philip III of France ...
, Duke of Burgundy

Duchy of Burgundy

The Duchy of Burgundy was a feudal territory once existing within the France in the Middle Ages. It roughly conforms to the modern Bourgogne. Existing between 843 and 1477, the Duchy was ruled by a succession of Duke of Burgundy, whose extinction with the death of Charles the Bold in 1477 led to the Duchy being absorbed into the French crown...
, who 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.

Images

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

Lindisfarne Gospels

The Lindisfarne Gospels is an Illuminated manuscript Latin manuscript of the gospels of Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Luke and Gospel of John....
). 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. By the Romanesque period many more manuscripts had decorated or historiated initials, and manuscripts essentially for study often contained some images, often not in colour. 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

Drolleries

Drolleries , often called a "grotesque", are decorative thumbnail sketches in the margins of Illuminated manuscripts, most popular from about 1250 through the 15th century, although found earlier and later....
. 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.

Paints

The medieval artist's palette was surprisingly broad. In addition to the substances listed below, unlikely-sounding substances such as urine

Urine

Urine is a liquid waste product of the body secreted by the kidneys by a process of filtration from blood called urination and excreted through the urethra....
and earwax

Earwax

Earwax, also known by the medical term cerumen, is a yellow waxy substance secreted in the ear canal of humans and many other mammals. It protects the skin of the human ear canal, assists in cleaning and lubrication, and also provides some protection from bacterium, fungus, insects and water....
were used to prepare pigment

Pigment

A pigment is a material that changes the color of light it Reflection as the result of selective color absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which the material itself emits light....
s.

Colour	Source(s)
Red	Mercury(II) sulfide (HgS), often called cinnabar Cinnabar Cinnabar, sometimes written cinnabarite, is a name applied to red mercury sulfide , or native vermilion, the common ore of mercury . The name comes from the Greek language - "kinnabari" - used by Theophrastus, and was probably applied to several distinct substances.... or vermilion Vermilion Vermilion, sometimes spelled vermillion, when found naturally occurring, is an opaque Orange ish red pigment, used since antiquity, originally derived from the powdered mineral cinnabar.... , in its natural mineral form or synthesized; "red lead Red lead Red lead, also called minium, lead tetroxide or triplumbic tetroxide, is a bright red or orange crystalline or amorphous pigment.... " or minium (Pb₃O₄); insect-based colours such as cochineal Cochineal 'Cochineal' is a scale insect insect in the suborder Sternorrhyncha, from which the crimson-colored dye, carmine, is derived. There are other species in the genus Dactylopius which can be used to produce cochineal extract, but they are extremely difficult to distinguish from D.... , kermes Kermes Kermes is a term that can refer to :* the insect genus Kermes , which includes Kermes ilicis and Kermes vermilio* Kermes made from it, of a crimson color... and lac Lac Lac is the scarlet resinous secretion of a number of species of insects, namely some of the species of the families *Metatachardia, Laccifer, Tachordiella, Austrotacharidia, Afrotachardina, and Tachardina* of the superfamily *Coccoidea, of which the most commonly cultivated sp... ; rust Rust Rust* is a general term for a series of iron oxides, usually red oxides, formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the presence of water or air moisture.... (iron oxide Iron oxide Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. Altogether, there are sixteen known iron oxides and oxyhydroxides.... , Fe₂O₃) or iron oxide Iron oxide Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. Altogether, there are sixteen known iron oxides and oxyhydroxides.... -rich earth compounds
Yellow	Plant-based colours, such as Weld, turmeric Turmeric Turmeric is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. It is native to tropical South Asia and needs temperatures between 20? C and 30? C, and a considerable amount of annual rainfall to thrive.... or saffron Saffron Saffron is a spice derived from the dried gynoecium of the flower of the saffron crocus , a species of crocus in the family Iridaceae. The flower has three Carpels, which are the anatomical terms of location ends of the plant's carpels.... ; yellow earth colours (ochre Ochre Ochre or Ocher is a color, usually described as Gold -yellow or light yellow brown.... ); orpiment Orpiment Orpiment, Arsenic trisulfide, is a common monoclinic arsenic sulfide mineral. It has a Mohs hardness of 1.5 to 2 and a specific gravity of 3.46.... (arsenic sulfide, As₂S₃)
Green	Plant-based compounds such as buckthorn Buckthorn The Buckthorns are a genus of about 100 species of shrubs or small trees from 1-10 m tall , in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae. They are native throughout the temperate and subtropical Northern Hemisphere, and also more locally in the subtropical Southern Hemisphere in parts of Africa and South America.... berries; copper Copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity.... compounds such as verdigris Verdigris Verdigris is the common name for the green coating or patina formed when copper, brass or bronze is weathered and exposed to air or seawater over a period of time.... and malachite Malachite Malachite is a Carbonate minerals normally known as "copper carbonate" with the chemical formula coppercarbonate.copperhydroxide2. This green-colored mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmite masses....
Blue	Ultramarine Ultramarine File:Pigment Violet 15.jpgUltramarine is a blue pigment consisting primarily of a double silicate of aluminium and sodium with some sulfides or sulfates, and occurring in nature as a proximate component of lapis lazuli.... (made from the rock lapis lazuli Lapis lazuli Lapis lazuli is a semi-precious stone prized since antiquity for its intense blue color.Lapis lazuli has been mined in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan for 6,500 years, and trade in the stone is ancient enough for lapis jewelry to have been found at Predynastic Egyptian sites, and lapis beads at neolithic burials in Mehrgarh, the C... ) or azurite Azurite Azutite may also refer to a blue Green fluorescent protein#GFP derivatives.----Azurite is a soft, deep blue copper mineral produced by weathering of copper ore deposits.... ; smalt Smalt Smalt is powdered glass, colored deep blue using cobalt, used for dye and laundry.External links... ; plant-based substances such as woad Woad Woad is the common name of the flowering plant *Isatis tinctoria* in the family Brassicaceae. It is commonly called dyer's woad, and sometimes incorrectly listed as *Isatis indigotica* .... , indigo Indigo Indigo is the color on the electromagnetic spectrum between about 420 and 450 nanometre in wavelength, placing it between blue and violet . Although traditionally considered one of seven divisions of the optical spectrum, modern color scientists do not usually recognize indigo as a separate division and generally classify wavelengths shorter... , and folium or turnsole Turnsole The dyestuff folium or turnsole, prepared from the annual plant Crozophora , was a mainstay of medieval Illuminated manuscript from the development of the technique for extracting it in the thirteenth century ....
White	Lead Lead Lead is a main-group Chemical element with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal, also considered to be one of the heavy metal .... white (also called "flake white", basic lead carbonate (PbCO₃)); chalk Chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. It forms under relatively deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....
Black	Carbon Carbon Carbon is a chemical element with chemical symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalence?making four electrons available to form covalent bond chemical bonds.... , from sources such as lampblack, charcoal Charcoal Charcoal is the blackish residue consisting of impure carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances.... , or burnt bones or ivory Ivory File:Ivory decoration.jpgIvory is formed from dentine and constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals such as the elephant, hippopotamus, walrus, mammoth and narwhal.... ; sepia Sepia Sepia may refer to:... ; iron and gall
Gold	Gold Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history.... , in leaf form (hammered extremely thin) or powdered and bound in gum arabic Gum arabic Gum arabic, also known as gum acacia, chaar gund or char goond, is a natural gum made of hardened sap taken from two species of the acacia tree; Acacia senegal and Acacia seyal.... or egg (called "shell gold")
Silver	Silver Silver Silver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal.... , either silver leaf or powdered, as with gold; tin Tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. Tin is obtained chiefly from the mineral cassiterite, where it occurs as an oxide, SnO2.... leaf

Gallery

External links

Images (mostly)

Digitized illuminated manuscripts from the Dutch Royal Library
- coloured numbers are links to good images from various collections; good for finding images of specific subjects quickly
huge databases, in French
Digitized illuminated manuscripts from the University of Louisville Libraries

Resources

From the Koninklijke Bibliotheek and Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum in The Hague.
Text in French, but mostly visual.
Nancy Ross, .
British Library, , adapted from Michelle Brown, Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts: A Guide to Technical Terms (1994), ISBN 0-89236-217-0
Herbert, J. A. (1911), , online book.
',Book by John W. Bradley, from Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive and distribute cultural works, as founder Michael Hart said "To encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."....
. Thousands of digital images from the Morgan Library
Morgan Library

The Morgan Library & Museum is a museum and research library in New York City. It was founded to house the private library of J. P. Morgan in 1906, which included, besides the manuscripts and printed books, some of them in rare bindings, his collection of prints and drawings....
's renowned collection of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts

Modern

: an illuminated Bible project
the art of illumination

Illuminated manuscript

History

Techniques

Text

Classifications

Images

Paints

Gallery

See also

External links

Images (mostly)

Resources

Modern