Illuminated Manuscripts A Brief History of the Birth of Illustration

Definition and Beginnings Earliest surviving script from AD Most date back to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance Defined as a text supplemented with decorations such as initials, borders, and small illustrations. Refers originally to those decorated with gold or silver.

How They Were Made Typically made on papyrus or vellum Text written first Silverpoint drawings of design were made Gold dots applied then application of colors Margins painted

The Purpose of Illumination Wealthy individuals commissioned them as a sign of status in the community. Monasteries would commission them for their church libraries or be commissioned for the founding of a new church.

The Birth of Illustration The artists that created the images for manuscripts was called an ‘Illuminator’ Some artists opened shops for selling their skills to design ‘illumination’ Often were monks who specialized in the production of manuscripts in separate areas called ‘scriptoriums’

The Transition to Now Illuminated manuscripts became too costly to create when compared with the new and cheaper method of book production (Enter: The Printing Press) so they fell out of favor. Illuminators now had to find a way to adapt, so they gradually became ‘illustrators’ that designed and created images for books and other texts that were being generated with the dawn of the printing era.