WTF are Illuminated Manuscripts?

Illuminated manuscripts are handwritten books decked out with rich ornamentation in gold, silver, or vibrant colors. The word “manuscript” derives from the Latin manu, “hand,” and scriptus, “written.” When put together, the term literally means “written by hand.” The word “illuminated” refers to colorful embellishments that pop off the page, including mini paintings, decorative initials, flourishes, and borders. Produced from late antiquity to the Renaissance, these beautiful works of art had their heyday in the Middle Ages.

Brief History of Illuminated Manuscripts

While the Middle Ages produced the most illuminated manuscripts, we have to go back to Ancient Rome to explore their origins. Two developments from this period contributed to the emergence of these beautiful books. The first was the rise of parchment as the primary writing material in the 4^th century CE. The second was the growing popularity of the codex in the 5^th century CE. These two crazy kids (parchment and codex) got together to make a nifty book that was durable and had smooth surfaces for writing and illumination.

One of the earliest illuminated manuscripts is the Vergilius Vaticanus, aka the Vatican Virgil, dating to the early 5^th century CE. The manuscript contains parts of the Aeneid and Georgics by the Roman poet Virgil (70–19 BCE). Painted illustrations accompany the text. The Vatican owns the manuscript and very kindly digitized it for us. Check it out here.

Another early example is the Ambrosian Iliad (Ilias Picta), created in the 5^th or 6^th century CE. As you may have guessed from the name, it contains the text of Homer’s Iliad, accompanied by images.

Okay, one more ancient manuscript! This one the Quedlinburg Itala, an illustrated Bible from the early 5^th century. Only 6 folios remain, and one of them is a full-page scene from the Book of Kings in the Old Testament. Unlike the previous two, this one’s a religious text, and we’re going to see a hell of a lot more of them going forward.

Medieval Scribes & Illuminators

As antiquity turned into the medieval era, monasteries started popping up all over Western Europe. As centers of learning, monasteries became the greatest producers of illuminated manuscripts in the early Middle Ages.  

The Scriptorium

Monks copied and illuminated manuscripts in a scriptorium, a monastery’s writing room. As a result, illuminated manuscripts are predominantly religious texts. Many of them are Bibles, with commentaries on the Old and New Testaments by church leaders. Not only did you have to read the Bible itself, but you had to go to the comment section too.

Manuscripts could take months, even years, to complete. Multiple scribes often collaborated on a single book, each working on a specific part. There was a division of labor, with some monks handling just the text, and others painting the decorations. The latter were artists called illuminators. In special cases, there was one monk who did it all, like Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne (698–721 CE). Eadfrith was doing the most because he both wrote and decorated the Lindisfarne Gospels. Type A personality for sure, but he got it done.

Producing illuminated manuscripts was a sacred vocation for monks. Painstakingly copying and painting sacred texts was a form of meditation and devotion. Additionally, these texts were akin to relics and icons because they held the word of God. As such, their physical beauty reflected their religious importance. Many illuminated manuscripts were meant to be seen and adored. Clergy often used these beautifully crafted books for liturgy in monasteries and churches.

Monks weren’t the only ones in the illuminated manuscript game, however. In the 11^th and 12^th centuries, freelancers worked in monasteries as scribes and illuminators. These guys were specialist laymen moving between monasteries to make a living creating manuscripts.¹

Commercialization of Illuminated Manuscript Production

By the 12^th and 13^th centuries, copying books was fast becoming a professional gig outside of monasteries. Specialist scribes and illuminators established their own businesses in European cities, particularly where there were universities. College students always need exorbitantly expensive textbooks, am I right? In particular, Paris, Bologna, and Oxford were hubs in the commercial book trade.²

During this period, the uber wealthy wanted in on these gorgeous books, too, so they commissioned illuminated psalters and Books of Hours for their private devotion. These books are rad because, in addition to religious scenes, they have paintings of the court partying it up and peasants toiling away. Contemporary fashions are on display, and we get a peek at medieval daily life.

Now, was every book produced in the Middle Ages an illuminated beauty? Nope. There were tons of books without pictures, unfortunately.

But there were a lot of books with illumination. Scholars believe that 1 out of 40 manuscripts in the Middle Ages had some kind of decoration, even if it was a boring letter painted red or blue.³

Printing Changes Everything

In the mid-1400s, Johannes Gutenberg changed the world. He invented printing with movable type, which took Europe by storm and ushered in the era of mass book production. In the early days of printing, booksellers wanted their books to look like illuminated manuscripts because that’s what sold. As a result, they hired illuminators to hand-decorate incunabula (early printed books).

Even still, with printers churning out books, illumination was quickly becoming a dying art. Illuminators couldn’t keep up with the volume, and the appearance of books began to change. Soon enough, folks were happy with cheaper tomes containing woodcut and copperplate engravings for the illustrations.

Scribes and illuminators continued making illuminated manuscripts into the Renaissance, but by 1600, the new printing technology pretty much eliminated their jobs. Hmm…a machine eliminating creative processes done by humans. Sound familiar? (AI, I’m looking at you.)

On that sad and disturbing note, let’s take a look at the elements that make up an illuminated manuscript.

Components of Illuminated Manuscripts

Illuminated manuscripts are comprised of parchment leaves, handwritten text, illuminations, and binding. We’ll briefly review each element.

Parchment

Illuminated manuscript leaves are made of parchment, a durable writing surface from untanned animal skins. Vellum, made from calfskin, was the most luxe option. For a deep dive on parchment and vellum, see the articles, WTF is Parchment? and WTF is Vellum?

Text & Scripts

Scribes wrote in different handwriting styles, which are the precursors to our modern fonts. Studying ancient and medieval scripts is a very specific field, and not at all my expertise, so don’t come for me. I’ll just provide you with the most famous examples.

For early manuscripts, scribes used uncial, a majuscule script with rounded strokes. Majuscule means that all the letters are uppercase/capital. It appeared in the 2^nd century CE and had a shelf life of about 500 years.

In the late 8^th and early 9^th centuries, Carolingian minuscule script was widely adopted as a standard. It appeared as scribes were copying classical texts from antiquity under the reign of Charlemagne, known as the Carolingian Empire. The cool thing about this script is it’s the model for our modern lowercases and roman typefaces.⁴

In the 12^th and 13^th centuries, Gothic script emerged in Italy. Ya’ll know what this one looks like.

1) Gothic text from De Natura Avium; De Pastoribus et Ovibus; Bestiarium; Mirabilia Mundi; Philosophia Mundi; On the Soul, 1277 or after. The Getty Museum, Ms. Ludwig XV 4, fol.1. Public domain. 2) Carolingian minuscule, folio 160v, from a Carolingian Gospel Book. The British Library, MS Add. 11848. Public domain.

Illuminations

Illuminations, in my opinion, are what make these manuscripts treasures. Literally. In addition to using vibrant pigments in their decorations, illuminators used real gold and silver. Fun fact, that’s why they’re called illuminations—the gold and silver made the pages shine. But now, in modern parlance, illumination refers to all ornamentation, regardless of whether it contains gold.

The Queen Mary Psalter is a great example of a manuscript with gold illumination. Shine, baby, shine!

Miniatures

Illuminated manuscripts often have miniatures, which are mini-paintings taking up a full page. Since most texts were liturgical, there are a lot of religious scenes. But, with Books of Hours in the later Middle Ages, we get variety. Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, for example, has a calendar depicting scenes of courtly life and the peasantry. My favorite scene is October, where two peasants toil in the fields while the duke’s glorious castle watches over them in the background. Man, did it suck to be a pleb. The Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux, Queen of France, is another fun Book of Hours, because it contains almost 700 images of medieval Parisians, from beggars to street dancers to bishops.

Illuminated manuscripts also have miniature paintings dotted throughout the margins. I particularly love medieval cats playing musical instruments, catching mice, and licking their butts.

Decorative Initials

Decorative initials are exactly what they sound like—initial letters that are decorated. Duh. The most common decorative initials appear in major text divisions, like the first word of a section, chapter, or paragraph. Many initials are historiated, meaning they’re decorated with figures like humans or animals.

Some initials don’t have such a fancy ornamentation, but are simply colored letters, usually in red or blue. Sometimes they appear on gold ground, which is a background of gold leaf.

Ornamental Flourishing

Flourishing is a bunch of decorative lines shooting out of decorative initials. They creep up into the margins and resemble designs in a henna tattoo. They have wavy lines, floral elements, and all that jazz. 

Borders & Frames

Again, these are exactly what they sound like. Decorative frames and borders enclose text and images. Sometimes they sprout out of decorative initials. They often have fun images hidden in them, like dragons or floating heads.

Binding

After scribes and illuminators completed a manuscript, it went to the bookbinder. Illuminated manuscripts were usually bound in wooden boards covered with vellum or parchment. Sometimes the bookbinder used parchment covered in leather instead of boards. If you had a leather cover, this was the time to shine and deck that shit out. There were so many options, such as engraving or impressing floral designs, crests, or full scenes in the leather. Gold tooling—the hand application of gold flakes—was another method of decoration. Finally, put some metal clasps on, and you’ve got a fancy-ass book.

Examples of Illuminated Manuscripts

Let’s take a tour through famous illuminated manuscripts. Since there are so many, I’ll only focus on a few. If I miss your favorite, drop a line in the comments.

The Book of Kells

The Book of Kells is the big cheese of illuminated manuscripts. This baby is a prime example of Insular art, also known as Hiberno-Saxon art, which combined Irish, Roman, and English elements into one style in medieval Ireland and Britain. Dating to the end of the 8^th century, Celtic monks made the Book of Kells in a monastery founded by St. Columba on Iona. It has gorgeous full-page illuminations and designs imitating Irish metalwork.

You can see the Book of Kells at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. I attempted to see it when I was studying abroad in college, but the line was like 4-5 hours long. Since I was only in Dublin for an alcohol-fueled weekend (Temple Bar, anyone?), I didn’t get to see it. One day I’ll go back…

The Lindisfarne Gospels

The Lindisfarne Gospels are another glorious example of Insular art. Remember our Type A monk Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne? Well, he both wrote and decorated this entire manuscript from about 715 to 720 CE. It has full-page miniatures of the four Evangelists and highly decorative incipit pages, which are the opening lines of the gospels. 

Codex Amiatinus

The Codex Amiatinus is the oldest surviving manuscript of the Latin Vulgate Bible (the translation of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin). Ceolfrid (642–716 CE), abbot of Wearmouth and Jarrow in the Kingdom of Northumbria, England, commissioned it. Seven scribes worked on the manuscript, and it has Byzantine influences.

Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry is one of the most famous Books of Hours because of its gorgeous illuminations. In 1411, Jean, Duke of Berry (1340–1416) commissioned the book from the Limbourg Bros, rockstars of late Gothic illumination. The manuscript is well known for its calendar of religious festivals and saints’ days, with full-page miniature scenes of the Duc de Berry living his best life while his peasants work themselves to death.

Westminster Abbey Bestiary

The Westminster Abbey Bestiary is a compendium of animals, both real and imaginary. It’s kind of like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander. One superstar artist illuminated the 164 images. It dates to 1275–1300 CE, and was probably made in York, England.

If you’re interested in learning more about book history, check out the following posts:

• WTF is Papyrus?
• WTF is Parchment?
• WTF is Vellum?
• WTF is a Palimpsest?
• WTF is a Codex?
• WTF is a Book of Hours?
• WTF is a Psalter?
• WTF are Incunabula?

Footnotes

1. Howard, The Book, 14; Watson, Illuminated Manuscripts, 8. ↩︎
2. Watson, Illuminated Manuscripts, 9. ↩︎
3. Howard, The Book, 13. ↩︎
4. Cave, The History of the Book, 255. ↩︎

Bibliography & Further Reading

*Several of the following links are Amazon affiliate links, which means I earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no cost to you.

Carter, John, and Nicholas Barker. ABC for Book Collectors. 8th ed. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press and The British Library, 2006.

Cave, Roderick, and Sara Ayad. The History of The Book in 100 Books. Buffalo, NY: Firefly Books U.S., Inc., 2014.

Davies, Penelope J.E., et. al. Janson’s History of Art: The Western Tradition. 7^th ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc., 2007.

Howard, Nicole. The Book: The Life Story of a Technology. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.

Lyons, Martyn. Books: A Living History. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2011.

Watson, Rowan. Illuminated Manuscripts and Their Makers. London: V&A Publications, 2003.