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MEDIEVAL ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
Some of the grandest and most powerful messages that remain from the Medieval world (approximately 500-1500 AD) are illuminated manuscripts, one of the smallest and most delicate of the art forms. These manuscripts are more than just physical remains from another era. They are spiritual remains that act as windows through which we gain insight into the religion of the Middle Ages.
The examples gathered here represent some of the great variety of Medieval Christian manuscripts. Each conveys its own powerful message of devotion, ritual, prayer or music.
Whatever the specific content of their labor, the scribes who copied the text, and the illuminators who embellished the texts with decorations and gold, worked literally with heart and soul. Their copying and illuminating of sacred texts was viewed not only as a part of the tradition of adorning the word of God, but also as a great act of personal devotion. So glorious and ethereal are the strokes on the illuminated manuscripts that they have been said to be the product of human as well as angelic hands.
The Medieval population valued these works as a source of beauty for their eyes and meaning for their souls. Today, illuminated manuscripts are also treasured as invaluable sources of information about the world in which they were created and as fine works of art.
The Creation of Illuminated Manuscripts
To begin, fresh skins from goats, cows or sheep were dehaired through alternating treatments of soaking in a lime and water bath, and being scraped to remove excess fat and flesh. Depending on the parchment maker and the local tradition, this process could last anywhere from three to ten days. Once soaked, the skins were stretched on a frame to dry. After they dried, the skins were scraped down and wetted again with a paste to give them a smooth surface. The skins were then rubbed with whipped egg whites, varnish, or linseed oil. Finally, to form a codex (book), the each rectangular sheet of vellum (also called parchment), was folded several times to yield a total of eight leaves (pages).
In the earlier Middle Ages, scribes worked in a monastic scriptorium (writing area) or in isolated cells called carrels. They were expected to write through all the daylight hours that were not reserved for their liturgical duties. In the later Middle Ages, the growth of Cathedral schools created a greater demand for manuscripts. This demand resulted in the establishment of the city-dwelling publisher, called a stationarius. To meet the needs of his clients, the stationarius hired and regulated the work of several scribes and illuminators.
Upon receiving the vellum, the first duty of the monastic or secular scribe was to mark the leaves with guidelines for the text. Small points were pricked into the vellum and connected by a pointed metal instrument to make faintly visible lines. The writing of the text was done with a bird quill, and the ink was made from one of several mixtures which included ingredients such as ground soot, gum arabic, thorns and oak galls. With his quill and ink, the scribe copied the text exactly as it was. Even if he found what he considered a mistake in the original, he was not allowed to change it in his copy. If, however, he made his own error, he could scrape it off with a knife, rub pumice to the spot and write over it without a trace of his misprint remaining.
In addition to the ink, used both for the texts and many illuminations, gold was often used in the decoration of manuscripts. A small gold object, like a coin, was pounded until it was as thin as possible. Then, it was folded and beaten, over and over again, to make a fragile gold foil, called gold leaf. Each area of the parchment that was to be surfaced with this gold foil was first prepared with a sticky binding agent. After the foil adhered to the binder, it was covered with a piece of cattle intestine for protection.
If the illuminator wanted to make the gold stand out from the surface of the leaf and appear solid, he prepared the specific area of parchment with a claylike substance called Armenian bole and covered it with a binding agent (usually honey, sugar, or saliva) so that the gold would stick to the bole. When it dried, the gold was burnished with an animal's tooth until it shone.