IMR659

Chapter 3: Introduction to
Illuminated Manuscript
 LEARNING OUTCOMES
• At the end of this chapter, students should
be able to :-
– Understand the different types of illuminated
manuscripts
 CONTENT
• Medieval & Early Renaissance
• Islamic manuscripts
• Japanese manuscripts
What is illuminated manuscript?
• The term ‘manuscript’ comes from the
Latin for ‘handwritten’: before the invention
of printing all books had to be written out
by hand. This was a time-consuming and
labour-intensive process, and could take
months or years.
• Although paper was available in southern Europe from the
twelfth century, its use did not become widespread until
the late Middle Ages - there was no paper mill in England
until the fifteenth century.

• Before this the usual support for writing was parchment

(also known as vellum), made from stretched, treated
animal skins. A large manuscript might require one whole
cow- or sheep-skin to make a folded sheet of two to four
pages, and a thick book could require the hides of entire
herds. Medieval books were therefore expensive items.
• Some manuscripts were made even more
precious by ‘illumination’. This term comes from
the Latin word for ‘lit up’ or ‘enlightened’ and
refers to the use of bright colours and gold to
embellish initial letters or to portray entire
scenes.

• Sometimes the initials were purely decorative,

but often they work with the text to mark
important passages, or to enhance or comment
on the meaning of the text.
Illuminated Manuscript
 DEFINITION
• In the Middle Ages all books were hand-
written original works of art. These
“illuminated” manuscripts were so called
because of their frequent incorporation of
gold or sometimes silver leaf onto the page.
Illumination comes from the Latin word
illuminare, meaning “light up,” and when
one sees one of these brilliant manuscripts
in person, the term makes sense.
• During the early Middle Ages most books were
used by priests and monks for liturgical
purposes. New books appeared most often
when a new monastery was founded.

• Books began to be produced for individuals as

well as religious institutions as early as the 12th
century. The movement of books into the secular
world encouraged the increase of lay workshops
run by professional scribes.
• The whole process of book illumination was very
time-consuming and costly, thus the illuminated
manuscript was a luxury item for wealthy
customers. With the advent of book printing, the
sumptuous illuminated codices went out of
fashion.
• Although the early printed books were often
made to resemble illuminated manuscripts, by
way of hand coloring, the art of book illumination
gradually disappeared in the course of the
sixteenth century.
 THE PROCESS
• The following steps outline the detailed labor involved to
create the illuminations of one page of a manuscript:
1) Silverpoint drawing of the design were executed
2) Burnished gold dots applied
3) The application of modulating colors
4) Continuation of the previous three steps in addition to the
outlining of marginal figures
5) The penning of a rinceaux appearing in the border of a
page
6) The final step, the marginal figures are painted
* an ornamental motif consisting essentially of a sinuous and branching scroll
elaborated with leaves and other natural forms (as derived from the acanthus)
• 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.
• 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.
 GILIDING
• An illuminated manuscript is not considered
illuminated unless one or many illuminations
contained gold foil or was brushed with gold
specks, a process known as burnishing.
• The inclusion of gold on an illumination alludes
to many different possibilities for the text. If the
text is of religious nature the gold is a sign of
exalting the text.
• The application of gold leaf or dust to an illumination is a
very detailed process that only the most skilled
illuminators can undertake and successfully achieve.
• There were several ways of applying gold to an
illumination one of 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
for fear ruining the color already placed in the
illumination.
 MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS AND EARLY
RENAISSANCE

• Manuscript is a handwritten work as

distinguished from printing. The oldest
manuscripts, those found in Egyptian
tombs, were written on papyrus; the
earliest dates from c.3500 b.c. parchment,
which succeeded papyrus as a writing
material, was much more durable; most
extant ancient manuscripts are of
parchment.
• The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the
mid-20th cent added immeasurably to the
world's treasury of ancient manuscripts. In the
ancient world the making and distribution of
extra copies of manuscripts was widely
practiced.
• There is some evidence of such treatment of
manuscripts in Athens in the 5th cent. b.c., and
the great libraries of the Hellenistic world
encouraged the making of manuscript copies.
• The manuscripts of the Middle Ages were
often beautifully illustrated in colors on
vellum, a fine variety of parchment. Initial
letters of first lines and titles were often
highly decorated.
• Although paper was invented in China in
the 2d cent. a.d., it was not known in
Europe until the 11th century
• Paper bases consists of silk, cotton, and
linen, all used before the advent of printing.
Medieval pens were made of quills (the hollow
central part of a feather
• : a large, stiff feather from the wing or tail of a bird, a pen that is made from a feather)

and ink, most commonly black, of various

carbon-containing substances.
• The study of ancient and medieval
manuscripts and handwriting is a highly
developed and complex discipline.
• Art 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.
• The Romanesque period saw the creation
of many huge illuminated complete Bibles
 – one in Sweden requires three librarians
to lift it.
• Finally, the Book of Hours, very commonly
the personal devotional book of a wealthy
layperson, was often richly illuminated in
the Gothic period.
 ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPTS
• The Muslim World and in particular the Iberian
Peninsula, with their traditions of literacy uninterrupted
by the Middle Ages, were instrumental in delivering
ancient classic works to the growing intellectual circles
and universities of Western Europe all through the
1100s, as 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 was required to have
profuse and accurate representations with the text.
• The Koran contains beautiful
calligraphy and embellishment but was
never illustrated with figures. 
• Most Korans began and ended with double
pages of ornamentation and incorporated
intricate surah-chapter-headings and
marginal decorations. Muslim illuminators
favored elaborately stylized vegetable and
floral motifs.
• Islamic miniature painters were famous for
their vivid colours, elegant
brushwork, ornamental borders and
masterful calligraphy.
• Favorite themes included fierce military
battles, public beheadings and imperial
ceremonies. Amazingly the vivid and
dazzling colors have not changed with time.
ILLUMINATION
• Manuscript illumination was adored by
Islamic rulers and high-ranking nobles. 

• Painters were regularly commissioned by

royalty and Muslim clerics.  Supplies were
extremely costly and included ground up
precious stones and gold and silver leaf.
 JAPANESE MANUSCRIPTS
• Writing was introduced from Korea to Japan
around 400 AD (in the form of Chinese books),
with work done in Chinese by immigrant scribes
from the mainland.
• Literacy remained at an extremely marginal level
in the 5th and 6th centuries, but during the 7th
century a small number of Japanese scholar-
aristocrats such as Prince Shōtoku began to
write in Chinese for official purposes and in
order to promote Buddhism.
• The earliest extant large-scale works compiled in Japan
are the historical chronicles Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki
 (720).

• Other early Japanese works from the Nara period

 include biographies of Prince Shōtoku, cultural and
geographical records (fudoki) and the Man'yōshū, the
first anthology of Japanese poetry. Necessarily all of
these works were either written in Chinese or in a hybrid
Japanese-Chinese style and were modeled on Chinese
prototypes.
• The development of a distinct Japanese
script (kana) in the 9th century was the
starting point of the classical age
of Japanese literature and led to a number
of new, uniquely Japanese genres of
literature, such as tales (monogatari) or
diaries (nikki).
• More than half of the 68 designated
treasures are works of poetry and prose.

• Another large segment consists of

historical works such as manuscripts of
Kojiki and Nihon Shoki; the rest are books
of various type such as dictionaries, law
books, biographies or music scores.
• The designated manuscripts date from 9th
century Heian period to the Edo
period with most dating to the Heian
period.

• They are housed in temples, museums,

libraries or archives, universities and in
private collections.
END