Illuminated Manuscripts

The pictures on this page are from illuminated manuscripts. Throughout the Middle Ages, when Bibles were painstakingly lettered by hand, they were also decorated in a variety of ways. Initial capital letters often contained miniature pictures of biblical scenes. Drawings illustrating familiar Bible passages were inserted in the text. And sometimes a whole page would be devoted to decoration in a style called a carpet page.

These illustrations were called “illuminations” because, as one early writer put it, they caused the page to radiate light. This was particularly true because much of the decorative work was done in gold leaf.

What made illuminated manuscripts possible was a new technology that began about the 4th century as “books” with parchment (leather) pages began to replace “scrolls” of papyrus (vegetable fiber.) Books provided a flat, stable surface that could carry elaborate illustrations which were not possible on the fibrous, absorbent surface of papyrus scrolls.

What made illuminated manuscripts important was the increased importance of the written word, especially with the spread of Christianity through Europe. Bibles made to lay on the altar of significant churches could display rich illuminations as well as expensive, jeweled bindings.

What makes illuminated manuscripts valuable to scholars today is a combination of elements. First, as a group, more manuscripts survive than any other artifact of the medieval age. And, since many of the images portray the dress, customs, and activities of the culture of the time, they become a window into the life of the Middle Ages. Second, in an interesting way the illuminations represent an intersection between an oral culture and a literate culture. In the ancient world, literature was thought of as something spoken or heard. By the Middle Ages, a literary text had become something to be revealed visually through the written word