Making a manuscript: parchment and colours Format: roll and codex, initials and miniatures Click here for a medieval description of ink making
Hides drying on stretchers Macao	Construction of folios from an animal skin and sequence of writing              Diagram from Léon Gilissen, 'La composition des cahiers: le pliage et l'imposition,' Scriptorium 26, 1972, 3-33, at p. 10	Folios folded  ibid., p. 11

Medieval Images of Manuscript Making
A Santiago pilgrim outside a parchment merchant's shop  Bologna, Bibliotheca Universitaria  MS 1465, f. 3. Italian, 15th c.	St Jerome inspecting parchment offered by a parchmenter Bible, Copenhagen, Kongelige Bibliotek, MS 4.2, I, f. 183. German, 13th c.	Pigment Making  Encyclopedia of James le Palmer, Omne bonum Inital "C" for Color  London, British Library  Royal 6.E.VI, f. 329  English, 14th century  Click here for medieval account of pigment making
Initial "R" with self-portrait of  Frater Rufillus of Weissenau Geneva, Bibliotheca Bodmeriana  Cod. 127, f. 244. German, 12th c.	Illuminator recieving visitors in his shop Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France, latin 4915, f. 1 French, 15th c.	Charles V, King of France, offered a abible by his adviser, Jean Vaudetar miniature done in 1371 by Jean de Bruges The Hague, Museum Meermanno-WEstreenianum 10.B.23 Paris, 1371

An Illustrated Roll: the Joshua Roll
The Gibeonites Submitting   Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 431	Detail of St. Michael

Layout of a Codex (Book), showing a decorated initial, a foliate initial, and a historiated initial  Winchester Bible England: 12th century
Jerome's prologue to 12 Minor Prophets- Hosea f. 179v-180 three different levels of initial decoration	Jerome's prologue to Haggai f. 209v a foliate initial inhabited with figures	Hosea, f. 198   a historiated initial

Winchester Bible England: 12th century
Death and burial of Judas Maccabeus f. 360	Detail: burial of Judas Maccabeus	Scenes from the Life of David New York, Morgan Library M 619, f. 1v	Detail: King Saul watches David	Detail: David raises his sling against Goliath

The Stages of Painting a Manuscript: underdrawing; application of gold; application of pigments; final drawing, shown in unfinished manuscripts
Aelfric's Hexateuch: Moses and the Israelites  London, British Library  Cotton Claudius B.IV, f. 128 England, 11th c.	Angel of Death Slays Firstborn Sons  Psalm 102, f. 102 England: Winchester Bible  Late 12th century	Detail of f. 102 England: Winchester Bible Late 12th century	Ecclesiasticus, f. 278v England: Winchester Bible  Late 12th century

Definitions

Illumination (from the Latin word 'illuminare,' to make shine): pictures that 'shine' (because of the gold and bright colours used).

Parchment: Material from which most medieval books are made: the skins of animals, generally sheep, pigs, or calves, from which the hair is removed by soaking in lime and scraping. Calf-skin parchment is often referred to as 'vellum.' The main difference between parchment and vellum is that vellum is thinner and more delicate. It is often hard to tell parchment and vellum apart.

Roll: rectangular parchments sewn together end to form a single long strip.

Codex (plural: codices): a book, composed of quires or gatherings of folios cut from an animal skin, written and painted, folded, and sewn together.

Initial: an letter of the alphabet.  The first letter of the first word in a major division of a text is often singled out for special decoration.

Foliate initial: a letter decorated with leaf forms.

Inhabited initial: a letter containing figures or animals.

Historiated initial: a letter containing a narrative episode.

Miniature: a picture in a manuscript (as opposed to an initial letter).

Full-page miniature: an illumination or picture that occupies an entire page.
 
References for manuscript-making techniques

Scheller, Robert.  A Survey of Medieval Model-Books.  Haarlem, 1963, rev. as Exemplum : model-book drawings and the practice of artistic transmission in the Middle Ages (ca. 900-ca. 1470), translated by Michael Hoyle, Amsterdam, 1995.

Thompson, Daniel Varney, Jr.  The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting.  New York, 1956.

Theophilus Presbyter.  On Divers Arts:  The Foremost Medieval Treatise On Painting, Glassmaking, and Metalwork.  trans. John G. Hawthorne and Cyril Stanley Smith.  New York, 1979.

Theophilus Presbyter.  De diversus artibus [ = The Various Arts].  ed. and trans. Charles R. Dodwell.  rpt. 1986.  London, 1961.

Lehmann-Haupt, Helmut.  The Göttingen Model Book:  A Facsimile Edition and Translations of A Fifteenth-Century Illuminator's Manual.  rpt.  Columbia, 1978.

Bowie, Theodore, ed.  The Sketchbook of Villard de Honnecourt.  Bloomington and London, 1959.

Kritische Gesamtausgabe des Bauhüttenbuches ms. fr 19093 der Pariser Nationalbibliothek, ed. Hans R. Hahnloser, Fraz, 1972 (complete facsimile of Villard de Honnecourt's sketchbook).

Thompson, Daniel Varney, Jr., and George Heard Hamilton, trans. and eds.  De arte illuminandi.  An Anonymous Fourteenth-Century Treatise....  New Haven and London, 1933.

Return to the Media Main Page

Return to the Class Schedule