![]() Vermillion, a high quality red, was made from a powdered ore of mercury called cinnabar. Gold and silver colors were produced by delicately applying paper-thin gold or silver leaf to a document. This meant that saturated, vibrant colors were rare, highly prized and exceedingly expensive. Illuminated manuscripts were produced in a time before synthetic dyes. By the later Middle Ages these steps were usually executed in a proto assembly line process by different individuals, each of whom was a master in his own area of expertise. Finally, all the pages were assembled and bound, usually in a leather or wooden cover.Ī typical illuminated tome might have easily taken many different highly skilled medieval craftsmen hundreds of man hours to create. Next, initials, borders and figures were outlined followed by the application of gold or silver leaf and other pigments. Then the text itself was added via quill or reed pen. After the parchment was ready, it was ruled so that the written text would be straight. Parchment preparation could take months by itself, and a full book might require the skin of 100 cows. Medieval Illuminated Bible Leaves for Sale on eBay Parchment is extremely durable and will easily last for centuries, if not millennia, as long as it is stored in a climate controlled environment. These precious documents were committed to dried animal skin - usually sheep or cow - which was known as parchment, or vellum, if made from calfskin. The creation of an illuminated manuscript was an involved and time consuming process that involved many different stages. A good example of this opulence is the priceless Tres Riches Heures of the early 15 th century French nobleman, Jean le Duc de Berry. Some of the most magnificent illuminated manuscripts to survive from the later middle ages are Books of Hours that were commissioned by extravagantly wealthy patrons. Breviaries were prayer books used by monks to guide their periodic daily prayers.īooks of Hours were personal prayer books used by private individuals. ![]() Bestiaries were encyclopedic tomes that contained entries of different types of animals, some real and some fantasy. ![]() Psalters were religious documents intended for private use that contained excerpts from the Old Testament book of Psalms. The most common types of texts encountered are Bibles, Psalters, Books of Hours, Breviaries, Bestiaries and musical/antiphonal manuscripts. Illuminated manuscripts cover a wide range of topics, but most of them are religious in nature. Medieval Illuminated Book of Hours Leaves for Sale on eBay These corporate-like guilds typically produced gorgeously illuminated manuscripts for wealthy clients who could afford the high cost of production. Later in the Middle Ages, as European commerce and wealth grew, private scribes' guilds began to form. European monasteries, the last bastions of literacy during the dark ages, became centers of book production after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Illuminated manuscript production was driven by two different institutions. European illuminated manuscripts were manufactured during the medieval period from approximately 600 CE to circa 1550 CE and were usually in Latin, the lingua franca of medieval Europe. And nowhere is this striving for unearthly beauty more obvious then when looking at the sumptuous designs and rich colors of medieval European illuminated manuscripts.Īn illuminated manuscript is a handwritten book (or single page of such a book) that has been decorated with colored pigments. Regardless of the medium used to create it, each stroke of the artist’s paintbrush, stylus or pen is made with the intention of distilling the divine essence of beauty into a physical form. Art is concentrated beauty given tangible form. It is also an adage that underscores what makes art so special. ![]() All else is a form of waiting." This is a Truth that we all too often forget as the harsh demands of our hectic day-to-day lives relentlessly engulf us. Long ago, in a more genteel age, the famous Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran wrote in his moving poem "Sand and Foam" that "We live only to discover beauty. The lavish use of bright colors like blue, red and gold is typical of high quality medieval illuminated works. Here is a brilliantly colored leaf from a 13th century illuminated manuscript depicting scenes from the Aeneid, a classical work by the Latin poet Virgil.
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