Drawings in the margins (known as marginalia) would also allow scribes to add their own notes, diagrams, translations, and even comic flourishes. Very early printed books left spaces for red text, known as rubrics, miniature illustrations and illuminated initials, all of which would have been added later by hand. Paper manuscripts appeared during the Late Middle Ages. Books ranged in size from ones smaller than a modern paperback, such as the pocket gospel, to very large ones such as choirbooks for choirs to sing from, and "Atlantic" bibles, requiring more than one person to lift them. A very few illuminated fragments also survive on papyrus. These pages were then bound into books, called codices (singular: codex). Most medieval manuscripts, illuminated or not, were written on parchment or vellum. While Islamic manuscripts can also be called illuminated and use essentially the same techniques, comparable Far Eastern and Mesoamerican works are described as painted. The majority of extant manuscripts are from the Middle Ages, although many survive from the Renaissance. Examples include the Vergilius Romanus, Vergilius Vaticanus, and the Rossano Gospels. The earliest surviving illuminated manuscripts are a small number from late antiquity, and date from between 400 and 600. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the practice continued into secular texts from the 13th century onward and typically include proclamations, enrolled bills, laws, charters, inventories and deeds. 13) opens with the ‘E’( cce) initial and the first line of text is followed by the Roman numerals XIII representing 13.Various examples of pages from illuminated manuscriptsĪn illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. For example, the 13th chapter of 2 Corinthians (2 Cor. Each new section begins in this manuscript with blue initials decorated with red pen-flourishing and accompanied by chapter numbers in blue ink. To arrange the text clearly for the reader, each biblical book is then sub-divided into numbered chapters. 263v) and the letter ‘F'(ratribus) from 2 Maccabees (f. The use of gold in manuscripts is often referred to as illumination, as the gold literally illuminates or lights up the page to readers.ĭecorated initials of the letter ‘E'(t) from the Book of Jonah (left, TCD MS 35, f. Biblical prologues also open with smaller initials with gold decoration. The image is decorated in rich colours including gold, signalling to the reader the start of the Book of Jonah.Īs well as scenes relating directly to the main text, some initials also feature scenes from the life of Christ such as the opening of 2 Maccabees which opens with a decorated ‘F’( ratribus) initial of a man kneeling in prayer before the Virgin and Child. Jonah is depicted again on the right, being thrown from the galley ship by sailors into the mouth of the whale. Jonah is depicted first on the left, turned from God above to avoid His command to travel to Nineveh. The Book of Jonah opens with a decorated ‘E’( t) initial, inhabited by several figures. The beginning of each new book in this medieval Bible opens with a decorated initial of the first letter of the opening word of text. Luxury manuscripts feature decoration to accompany the main text, and some forms of decoration functioned as visual navigational aids to the reader. The rubric opening (Incipit liber danielis) of the Book of Daniel (TCD MS 35, f.
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