Illuminated manuscripts in classical and mediaeval times, their art and their technique

For the more magnificent classes of manuscripts, such as the _Textus_ (_Gospels_) used as altar ornaments, every costly and elaborate artistic process was employed. In addition...

To return now to classical forms of manuscripts, it appears to have been a long time before the _book_ or _codex_ form of manuscript was extended from the wood and ivory tablets...

The twelfth century in England and Northern France was a period of rapid artistic development in almost all branches of the arts, from a miniature illumination to a great Cathed...

One of the most extraordinary artistic developments that ever took place in the history of the world has been the Celtic Monastic School of Art which in the seventh century reac...

_The coloured pigments of the illuminators._ Though mediaeval manuscripts are splendid and varied in colour to the highest possible degree, yet all this wealth of decorative eff...

A slow, but steady degradation in the forms of classic art began to take place about the fifth or sixth century; the fact being that no art can for long remain stationary; there...

During the thirteenth century "the art of illumination as it is called in Paris"[126] flourished under the Saintly King Louis IX. (1215-1270) as much as it did in England under...

_Vellum for scribes[238]._ The most remarkable skill is shown by the perfection to which the art of preparing vellum[239] for the scribe was brought. The exquisitely thin uterin...

_The Monastic Scribes._ It may be interesting to consider what were the causes that made the illuminated manuscripts of the mediaeval period among the most perfect and beautiful...

The history of the origin, development and decay of the Byzantine style in manuscripts, as in other branches of art, is a long and strange one[30]. The origin of the Byzantine s...

Though in the main the eleventh century was a period of artistic decadence, mentioned above as having succeeded the brilliant Carolingian period (see page 78), yet we find that...

Before entering upon any discussion of the styles and methods of decoration which are to be found in mediaeval manuscripts and of the various processes, pigments and other mater...

The mediaeval phrase _illuminated manuscript_ means a manuscript which is "lighted up" with coloured decoration in the form of ornamental initial-letters or painted miniatures....

_The age of Charles the Great and his successors._ Charles the Great, who was elected King of the Franks in 768, and in the year 800 became Emperor of the West, did much to fost...

Costly covers of gold, enamel and ivory; the more usual forms of binding; oak boards covered with parchment and strengthened by metal bosses and corners; methods of placing the...

The ninth century in England was one of great turmoil and misery, on account of the fearful havoc wrought by the Danish Northmen throughout the whole length and breadth of the l...

During the last few years of the fifteenth century and the first twenty or thirty years of the sixteenth century Paris was remarkable for the production of a beautiful class of...

The coloured pigments. The vehicles used; blue pigments, ultramarine; its great value; story told by Pliny and Vasari; _smalto_ blues; "German blue;" Indigo and other dye-colour...

Two forms of manuscripts, the roll and the codex; Egyptian Books of the Dead; Book of Ani; existing manuscripts on papyrus; the library of papyrus rolls found at Herculaneum; He...

Monastic scribes; the great beauty of their work, and the reasons for it; their quiet, monotonous life; examples of monastic humour; no long spells of work in a monastery; care...

The Norman invasion; development of architecture and other arts; creation of the Anglo-Norman school; magnificent _Psalters_; the Angevin kingdom; the highest development of Eng...

Italian art slow to advance; its degraded state in the twelfth century; illuminators mentioned by Dante; _Missal_ in the Chapter library of Saint Peter's; the monk Don Silvestro...

The Irish Church; Celtic goldsmiths; technical processes of the metal-workers copied by illuminators of manuscripts; the _Book of Kells_, its perfect workmanship and microscopic...

The vellum used by scribes, its cost and various qualities; paper made of cotton, of wool and of linen; the dates and places of its manufacture; its fine quality. The metals and...

Revival of art in Germany in the eleventh century; the _Missal_ of the Emperor Henry II.; the designs used for stained glass; the advance of manuscript art under Frederic Barbar...

The age of Saint Louis; archaism of costume in miniatures; French manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; historiated Bibles; the ivy-pattern; the _Horae_ of the...

The very compound character of Byzantine art; love of splendour; _Gospels_ in purple and gold; monotony of the Byzantine style; hieratic rules; fifth century manuscript of _Gene...

Survival of classical methods in mediaeval times; epigraphy and palaeography; manuscripts on metal plates; lead rolls; tin rolls; gold amulets; Petelia tablet; waxed tablets and...

_Horae_ printed on vellum in Paris; their woodcut decorations; the productions of the earliest printers; the Mazarine Bible; the Mentz _Psalter_; illuminators becoming printers;...

The age of Charles the Great; the school of Alcuin of York; the _Gospels_ of Alcuin; the _golden Gospels_ of Henry VIII.; the _Gospels_ of the scribe Godesscalc; Persian influen...

Use of minium; Egyptian miniatures; illuminations in Roman manuscripts; Greek illuminations; two sources of knowledge about classical illuminations; the Ambrosian _Iliad_; the V...

The Danish invasions; revival of art under king Alfred; the _Benedictional_ of Aethelwold; signs of Carolingian influence; the Winchester school; St Dunstan as an illuminator; A...