illuminated manuscripts

The illuminated manuscript--a handwritten book with pictures and
decoration painted or drawn in bright colors, illuminating, or
lighting up, the page--was a major form of artistic expression
in ancient and, more particularly, medieval times.  Illustration
is the oldest type of illumination. In ancient Greece and Rome
some manuscripts had the text interspersed with small paintings
called miniatures, from minium, a red-orange lead pigment used
in their execution. Manuscripts continued to be illustrated with
paintings and drawings in the Middle Ages, but illumination was
further extended to the ornamentation of the text through the
enlargement and decoration--sometimes lavish--of initial letters
and through the framing of both text and illustrations with
elaborate decorative borders. The production of manuscripts,
which in antiquity had been a commercial enterprise employing
professional scribes and illuminators, passed to the Christian
church by the 7th century and was carried out for the most part
in monastic scriptoria (copying rooms) until the 13th century,
when it was again taken over by secular scribes and artists
working for book dealers or individual patrons. After the
invention of movable type in the 15th century, illuminated
manuscripts gradually gave way to printed books with engraved
illustrations.

Ancient Manuscripts.

The earliest illuminated manuscripts are Egyptian papyrus rolls
from the 2d millennium BC, which include Books of the Dead with
paintings and funeral and judgment scenes. The oldest surviving
Greek illuminations are the drawings in an astronomical
text--also on a papyrus roll--from the 2d century BC (Louvre,
Paris). Other illustrated Greek papyri exist, but the principal
remains of both Greek and Roman book art date from the 5th and
6th centuries AD, when the parchment codex (an early form of the
modern bound book) replaced the papyrus roll. A codex containing
works of the roman poet Vergil produced c.400 (the Vatican
Vergil) has 50 framed miniatures rendered in the style of Roman
wall painting. Their resemblance to the illustrations in the
early-5th-century Itala Bible fragment (Staatsbibliothek, East
Berlin) suggests that both manuscripts were executed in the same
scriptorium in Rome. A different style with flat figures and
spaceless settings occurs in the miniatures of the Roman Vergil
(Vatican) from the later 5th century. Among extant 6th-century
illuminated manuscripts are an illustrated edition of
Dioscorides' De Materia medica (Nationalbibliothek, Vienna) and
two biblical manuscripts written on purple vellum, the Vienna
Genesis (National bibliothek, Vienna) and the Rossando Codex
(Museo Arcivescovile, Rossano, Italy), a gospel book with scenes
from the life of Christ.

Insular Illumination.

Insular is the name used to designate the style of a series of
magnificent gospel books made at monastic centers in the British
Isles during the 7th and 8th centuries. Insular manuscripts are
characterized by decorative embellishment rather than narrative
illustration. A page of pure ornament called a carpet page
precedes the text, and large initials, together with their
frames and sometimes the parchment ground, are filled with
intricate, densely packed decoration. The ornament is composed
of spiral patterns, interlace, knotwork, and intertwined animals
adopted from Anglo-Saxon and Celtic metalwork. The first
masterpiece of Insular illumination, the 7th-century Irish Book
of Durrow (Trinity College, Dublin), contains miniatures as well
as carpet pages. Portraits of the four Evangelists based on
Early Christian models but translated into the stylized Insular
idiom, were introduced in the Lindisfarne Gospels (British
Museum, London), written and illuminated about 700 by Eadfrith,
bishop of Lindisfarne, England. A culmination was reached in the
profusely decorated 8th-century Book of Kells (Dublin), which
has narrative illustrations in addition to portraits.

Carolingian Illumination.

Book illumination flourished in northern France and western
Germany as part of the cultural renaissance initiated by
Charlemagne in the late 8th century and continued in the 9th
under successive Carolingian emperors. The earliest extant work
in the Carolingian style is the Godescalc Gospel book
(Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris). Dated 781-83, it was written in
gold and silver on purple parchment in Charlemagne's court
scriptorium at Aachen. This book was the first of a series of
luxurious gospel manuscripts from the court school in which
monumental evangelist portraits reflecting Early Christian and
Byzantine models were juxtaposed to large, ornamental initial
pages derived from Insular art. The revival of classical forms
can be seen in the illusionistic portraits in Charlemagne's
Coronation Gospels (Nationalbibliothek, Vienna) and in direct
copies, made by Carolingian artists, of illustrated ancient
secular works. Reims, the chief center of book painting (816-35)
under Bishop Ebbo, developed a new, emotionally charged version
of late antique illusionism in the portraits of the Ebbo Gospels
(Bibliotheque municipale, Epernay, France) and the drawings of
the famous Utrecht Psalter (University Library, Utrecht). Other
9th-century schools included Tours, Metz, the court school of
Charles the Bald, and the Franco-Saxon school, which focused on
initial decoration employing Insular motifs. (See CAROLINGIAN
ART AND ARCHITECTURE.)

Ottonian Period.

The Ottonian emperors and powerful bishops were the principal
patrons of the splendidly decorated manuscripts produced at
various monasteries in Germany in the 10th and 11th centuries.
The books--chiefly gospel lectionaries and sacramentaries used
in church services--typically contain portraits of their
imperial or ecclesiastical donors as well as extensive New
Testament narrative cycles painted in an expressive style that
incorporated Carolingian and Byzantine elements. The figures,
firmly delineated, with intense glances and gestures, were often
set against brilliant gold grounds. Highly burnished gold leaf
was also used for the foliate initials. The celebrated Codex
Egberti (Stadtbibliothek, Trier, West Germany) has a portrait of
Archbishop Egbert, who commissioned the book about 980, and 50
scenes from the life of Christ closely resembling an Early
Christian model. It is one of a large and distinguished group of
manuscripts traditionally associated with the German abbey of
Reichenau. Another is the Gospels of Otto III (Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek, Munich), with visionary evangelist portraits,
dramatic narrative scenes, and a compelling image of the emperor
receiving tribute from the provinces. Books were also
illuminated at Echternach, Regensberg, and Cologne, among other
centers. (See OTTONIAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE.)

Anglo-Saxon School.

Anglo-Saxon book decoration in the 10th and 11th centuries is
often called the Winchester school because Winchester was its
first center. From the late 10th century on, however, Canterbury
became equally important, and other south English monasteries
also participated. Impetus was provided by the monastic reform
movement. A variety of books were illuminated, ranging from
Gospels and liturgical books to books of the Old Testament and
works of ancient authors copied from Carolingian intermediaries.
The decoration was executed in a lively style, indebted in part
to Carolingian sources. Figures have animated postures and
fluttering draperies. Movement also dominates the leaf ornament
of the spectacular borders and the animal interlace in the
initials derived from insular art. Two techniques were
used--painting and colored-outline drawing, which was an English
specialty.

Romanesque Illumination.

The expansion of monasticism in Europe in the later 11th and
12th centuries (the Romanesque period of western European art)
led to a great increase in the production of manuscripts by and
for monastic houses. The most popular illuminated books were
large Bibles, illustrated with elaborate, historiated initials
or prefatory miniatures, and psalters (psalm books), frequently
accompanied by biblical scenes. Typical are the Pantheon Bible
(Vatican), executed in Rome about 1125, the Bible of Stavelot
Abbey (British Museum), completed in 1097, the Winchester Bible
(c.1150-80; Winchester Cathedral Library), and the St. Albans
Psalter (St. Godehard Church, Hildesheim, West Germany). The
last was written about 1120 by a monastic scribe but illustrated
by a lay artist, one of the growing number active in the 12th
century. Other decorated manuscripts included various liturgical
books, works of the church fathers, saints' lives, and
scientific texts.  The Romanesque style was international, with
regional variations sharing certain characteristics: the
preference for big books and monumental forms; the
two-dimensional rendering of figures with stylized drapery
patterns usually of Byzantine origin; flat backgrounds of
gold-leaf or colored panels; and the emphasis on large,
decorated initials--often composed of vine-scrolls inhabited by
struggling men and beasts--many of which contained narrative
scenes. From the mid-12th century on in some areas, the style
moved toward the Gothic style, with more naturalistic figures
and drapery.

Gothic period.

From the end of the 12th century when Gothic illumination first
appeared, the production of decorated manuscripts increasingly
shifted from monastic scriptoria to urban workshops operated by
laymen. Royal patronage and the stimulus of its renowned
university helped make Paris the leading center of book
illumination in Europe during the 13th and 14th centuries. The
art also thrived in cities like London and Ghent and in
university towns including Bologna, which was noted for law
books, and Oxford. Manuscripts continued to be illuminated for
the church, but the greatest demands came from individuals who
wanted Bibles or other religious works such as the popular Book
of Hours, but also illustrated histories and romances for
edification or entertainment. To accommodate the individual
reader, Gothic manuscripts were generally smaller in size than
Romanesque books.  The Gothic style of illumination evolved from
a classicizing, early phase in the late 12th century exemplified
by the large, softly draped figures on gold grounds in Queen
Ingeborg's Psalter (Musee Conde, Chantilly, France) to the
small, elegant forms of the courtly style of the Psalter of
Louis IX (c.1260, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris). A trend toward
more realistic representation developed in the early 14th
century with the fully modeled figures and perspective interiors
of the miniatures by Jean Pucelle, the dominant master of the
first half of the century (The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux, New
York City), and in the deeper space and landscape backgrounds of
the second half of the century. The typical decorative frame,
the "bar border" consisting of a stemlike projection from the
initial into the margins around the text and illustration,
yielded at the end of the 14th century to wide borders filled
with a lacy pattern of ivy vines and leaves.

15th Century.

Books of hours made for aristocratic patrons were among the most
lavishly decorated manuscripts of the 15th century. Miniatures,
under the influence of Renaissance panel painting, opened out
into broad landscape views full of naturalistic details or into
deep, architectural spaces. Both are found in the celebrated
Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (Musee Conde, Chantilly).
Borders, especially in books made in the Low Countries, contain
objects like flowers and insects rendered with astonishing
realism. Jean Fouquet of Tours was the leading French
illuminator (Hours of Etienne Chevalier, Musee Conde,
Chantilly). Outstanding among the Flemish was Simon Marmion, and
among the Italians, Attavante of Florence. Some splendid
manuscripts continued to be made in Italy, France, and Flanders
in the early 16th century (for example, the Grimani Breviary,
Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice), but they mark the end of
the age of the illuminated manuscript. JANE ROSENTHAL

Bibliography: Alexander, Jonathan, The Decorated Letter (1978);
Calkins, Robert, Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages (1983);
Dodwell, Charles, Painting in Europe, 800-1200 (1971); Harthan,
John, Books of Hours and Their Owners (1977); Vervliet, H. D.
L., The Book through 5,000 Years (1972).                       

