What “illuminated” means
A manuscript is a book written by hand. It is called illuminated when it is decorated with gold or silver, or with painted initials, borders and pictures. The word is usually linked to the way gold seems to light up the page. Illuminated manuscripts were among the most prized forms of medieval art, and because parchment lasts well in closed books, a large number survive, giving us a rich record of imagery that has been lost from other media such as wall painting.
This article focuses on how the books were made and what went into their decoration.
Materials: parchment and ink
Most manuscripts were written on parchment, made from animal skin, typically calf, sheep or goat. The skin was soaked, scraped, stretched and dried, then trimmed and smoothed. Very fine, thin parchment from young animals was sometimes called vellum. Paper became more common in the later Middle Ages, but luxury books were still often on parchment.
Sheets were folded into groups called quires and prepared by pricking small holes and ruling lines so the text would be neat. Scribes wrote with quill pens, usually cut from large feathers, using ink often made from oak galls and iron salts, or from carbon-based mixtures. Mistakes were scraped away with a knife.
A division of labor
A book could involve several specialists, though the exact arrangement varied. The scribe wrote the text, leaving spaces for initials and pictures. A rubricator added headings and red letters (the word comes from the Latin for red). An illuminator painted decoration, and in larger projects there might be separate artists for borders, figures and gold work. Binders sewed the quires and attached boards, sometimes covering them in leather or even jeweled metalwork.
In the early Middle Ages, monastic scriptoria produced most books, and monastic life included copying as a form of work and devotion. From the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, towns saw growing workshops of professional lay scribes and illuminators, especially around the medieval universities, where books for students were copied in parts. The shift made books more widely available, though they were still costly. The printing press eventually changed the picture, though handmade books continued to be made well after it appeared.
Pigments and gold
Illuminators typically mixed ground pigments with a binder, such as egg white or gum, and applied them in layers. Pigments came from minerals, plants and manufactured compounds. Common examples include:
- Ultramarine from ground lapis lazuli, a costly blue obtained from far-off sources.
- Vermilion, a bright red made from mercury and sulfur, and red lead, another red.
- Verdigris, a green made by treating copper.
- Orpiment, a yellow that is poisonous because it contains arsenic.
- Plant colors, such as those from woad, madder and weld, which are better known as natural dyes for cloth.
Gold was applied in two main ways. Gold leaf, beaten into very thin sheets, was laid onto a sticky base, often a mixture called gesso, and then burnished with a smooth tool such as a polished stone or tooth to make it shine. Shell gold, a gold powder mixed with a binder, was painted on like ink. Because gold reflects light, a page turned in candlelight could flicker. Modern readers should keep in mind that exact recipes varied, and surviving treatises on pigments give only part of the picture.
What was painted
Decoration ran from simple to elaborate. Colored initials marked the beginning of sections. Historiated initials contained small scenes, such as a figure related to the text. Borders might curl with vines, birds and fantastic creatures, and their meaning ranged from decorative to humorous to moral. Full-page miniatures showed major scenes: evangelists at their desks, the Crucifixion, a king presiding at court.
Subject matter followed the book’s purpose. Gospel books and psalters carried scenes from scripture. Books of hours, prayer books for lay owners, became very popular in the later Middle Ages and often include calendars showing the labors of the months. Chronicles, romances and scientific books also had pictures. Many images use the same standard compositions found elsewhere in religious art, so the vocabulary of recognizable figures and symbols appears here too.
Famous examples vary widely in style. Island books of around the seventh and eighth centuries, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels, feature intricate interlace and animal patterns, while a luxury book of hours made in the early fifteenth century for a French prince is known for its landscapes and calendar scenes. The contrast shows how much the art changed across the period.
Why it took time
Producing a large manuscript took many skins, long hours of writing, and expensive materials, so it is best to imagine a project of months or years rather than a quick job. Exact timings are uncertain and depended on the book and workshop. Because of the cost, such books also functioned as status objects. Owners often showed them off, and sometimes images were added or altered after the book was first made.