Chapter 4: Illuminated Manuscripts

Uncial Scripts

400

So named because they were written between two guidelines that were one inch apart, uncials were rounded, freely drawn letters more suited to rapid writing.

Early Scriptorium

600

In the early scriptorium, the illuminator was responsible for the execution of ornament and image in visual support of the text.

Celtic Design

650

Celtic design, as seen in the Book of Durrow, is abstract and extremely complex; geometric linear patterns weave, twist, and fill the space with thick visual textures and bright, pure colors are used in juxtaposition.

Caroline Minuscules

789

Charlemagne mandated reform by royal edict in A.D. 789 and succeeded in reforming the alphabet with the use of four guidelines, ascenders, and descenders. The resulting uniform script, called Caroline minuscules, is the forerunner of our contemporary lowercase alphabet.

Revival of Learning and the Arts

800

Charlemagne, King of the Franks, who was declared emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day, A.D. 800, fostered a revival of learning and the arts. He recruited the English scholar Alcuin of York to come to his palace at Aachen and establish a school and a scriptorium where master copies of important religious texts were prepared.

Romanesque Period

1000

During the Romanesque period (A.D. c. 1000 to 1150), which saw renewed religious fervor and even stronger feudalism, universal design characteristics seemed possible because travel increased due to the crusades and pilgrimages.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

1047

Many examples of Moorish-influenced manuscripts from Spain, such as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Beatus of Fernando and Sancha, in which arrows pierce the hearts of nonbelievers are texts on the Book of Revelation.

Illuminated Manuscript

1098

An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented with such decoration as initials, borders, and miniature illustrations. Hand-written books with painted decoration that generally includes precious metals such as gold or silver. The pages were made from animal skin, commonly calf, sheep, or goat. Illuminated manuscripts were produced between 1100 and 1600, with monasteries as their earliest creators.

Gothic Manuscript Style

1150

Used textura lettering, often in two columns. Illustrations were divided into segments by elaborate framing; figures were elongated and wore fashionable clothing

the Book of Hours

1400

In the early 1400s, the Book of Hours, a private devotional text that contained religious texts, prayers, and calendars listing the days of the important saints, became Europe’s most popular book.

Littera Moderna

1500

The textura lettering style (from the Lain texturum, meaning woven fabric or texture) seen in Gothic manuscripts—composed of vertical strokes capped with pointed serifs—was also called by other terms, which were misleading and vague.

Les très riches Heures du Duc de Berry

1500

In the early fifteenth century, the Limbourg brothers created their masterpiece, Les très riches Heures du Duc de Berry, which included an illustrated calendar depicting the seasonal activities of each month crowned with graphic astronomical charts. They sought a convincing realism as atmospheric perspective pushed planes and volumes back in deep space.

The Vatican Virgil

3255

The Vatican Virgil, completely Roman and pagan in its conception and execution, is an example of the classical manuscript style. This volume, created in the late fourth or early fifth century A.D., contains two major poems by Rome’s greatest poet, Publius Vergilius Maro: the Aeneid and the Georgics. The illustrations combine rustic capitals with echoes of the rich colors and illusionist space of the wall frescoes of Pompeii.