This paper samples 12 sources that discuss illuminated manuscripts
IIntroduction
The purpose of this literature review is to examine some of the works that have been written about illuminated manuscripts.
My observation of the literature thus far would indicate that most books tend to cover the same ground, and many use the same illustrations. Nevertheless, each work brings something new to the debate, in addition to reinforcing previous observations.
IILiterature
I decided to try to use several different types of references, specifically books, articles, and material on the Internet. This I thought would give a wide range from classic publications to the most recent web documents. I was also interested to see if such a narrow subject would have much appeal to “netizens.”
Let’s begin with the Internet. A search for the terms “illuminated manuscripts” yielded 44,200 hits! It would appear that a great many people are interested in the subject, even though they are approaching it through the newest of electronic media. However, upon scanning through the websites I discovered that many of them are either museum sites that display their collections of illuminated manuscripts, or art galleries displaying such works for sale. Very few of the sites discussed the manuscripts from a scholarly viewpoint; however, I’ve found four that we can examine.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, perhaps not surprisingly, gives a very thorough overview of illuminated manuscripts, touching on the various forms of illustration; the origins of the art form; and the way in which different cultures decorated their books. They put special emphasis on the Middle Ages in Europe. For a relatively short entry, this one is comprehensive. (Bréhier, PG).
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A gentleman named Phil Barber has a website which he calls “Historic Pages.” He devotes a section to illustrated manuscripts, and gives a very brief description of them. He doesn’t go into much detail; he leaves out all the early development in various countries that the Catholic Encyclopedia delineates, for instance. His emphasis is on the types of paper used, and the pen and inks of the time. He also is the only source I’ve found that discusses preservation. This is very brief, less than two pages, but for anyone who wants a bare-bones explanation in simple terms, this is a good spot to start. (Barber, PG).
The University of Rochester has put up a short paper about illuminated manuscripts, focusing on their religious significance to the people of their time. It also discusses how parchment is made, the inks used and the methods for removing mistakes and using the gold leaf in the creation of the illustrations. (“Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts,” PG).
As a final Internet source, I’m including the Bodleian Library’s site. This world-famous library is at Oxford University, and is extremely valuable because it can link the reader to thousands of images of illuminated manuscripts from one page. Each image is clearly labeled as to the country of origin and the time it was made. Although the site does not discuss illuminated manuscripts, I can’t think of a more valuable resource for research, and I’m including it for that reason. (“Browse Images of Manuscripts,” PG).
From the Internet, I’d like to turn to books. I used two of them for the paper, and I think they’re extremely valuable, because of the wealth of detail they provide. They don’t “step on each other’s toes,” either, but instead cover widely differing subject matter.
The first is Latin Palaeography by Bernard Bischoff. Bischoff’s work is very scholarly, and traces the development of the various forms of writing from the most ancient scrolls to the medieval forms that the monks used when they made their books. He is concerned with the actual form and shape of the letters, and the way the alphabet evolved over time. Although other authors discuss this, I believe Bischoff’s book provides the greatest detail and is very fine in tracing the evolution of writing from the earliest examples of the Egyptians and Greeks down to the Middle Ages.
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Another book that provides good information is Diringer’s The Hand-Produced Book. His work discusses the development of books in many different parts of the world. This is something of a weakness, since it means a researcher has to hunt for information on illustrated manuscripts. But he is very good about giving detailed descriptions of such things as making ink, preparing parchment and using quill pens. This is a good basic book about book making in general, with sufficient information to interest those who specialize in illuminated manuscripts.
I’d recommend Janet Backhouse’s book The Illuminated Page for sheer beauty. She has attempted to gather a comprehensive collection of illustrated manuscripts, and has done a superb job. Each section begins with a brief introduction to the period in which the manuscripts were made.
This is not a scholarly work, but it’s valuable for the clarity of the illustrations, and the fact that each illustration is further described as to what it is and how it was made. The colors are clear and the images are breathtaking. If there were one book to use to illustrate the loveliness of illuminated manuscripts, this would be it.
Finally, there was one book that seemed to me to be a good overall guide to medieval books: Doris Banks’s Medieval Manuscript Bookmaking. The most useful feature of the book is its extensive bibliography, which runs to nearly 150 pages. Her introduction also contains useful vocabulary terms, and she has chapters on books in the Middle Ages, as well as medieval libraries.
The main drawbacks to her book are her writing style, which seems awkward in spots, as if she can’t find just the word she’s looking for, and the typeface. It looks like a typewriter font, which gives the entire book the appearance of having been typed by hand and then bound. It’s not an attractive presentation. The contents, however, are a goldmine!
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Finally, let’s turn to journal articles. I did a search through the public library’s database of refereed publications to find articles about illustrated manuscripts.
One of the pieces I discovered is interesting for what it doesn’t say. It’s a discussion of representations of the Trinity in England, and the author writes: “Attempts had been made since the earliest days of the Church to present religious ideas to the illiterate by means of art.” (Rowlett, PG).
There is a note in the article at this point to the effect that illuminated manuscripts are not mentioned in this connection because they would have been seen only by the clergy, monks, and a few privileged lay persons. This is somewhat at odds with the idea that nobles had books made (particularly Psalters) for private devotions, but then again, the gulf between nobles and commoners was vast. The article, though not strictly about illuminated manuscripts, provides an interesting sidelight about them.
Another article takes us from Northern Europe to Spain to discuss illuminated manuscripts made there. We tend to think of these works as being centered in France and Germany (which they were), so this is an insightful treatment of a geographical area that seems to be somewhat neglected. In addition, the author discusses specifically Jewish illuminated manuscripts; this is a specialization that hasn’t been extensively explored. (Kogman-Appel, PG).
Finally, I’m turning to two articles that review books about illuminated manuscripts. They are valuable as guides to the work being done in the field. (I’ve scanned all 187 entries in the library’s database, and if the words “illuminated manuscript” are used anywhere, it is usually in the endnotes, where they refer to another article. It has been difficult to find anything about illuminated manuscripts; though it’s easy enough to find articles about books about illuminated manuscripts.) At any rate, the first article discusses illuminated manuscripts made at Amiens in France; the book under review is by Susie Nash and is the first full-length study of the production of the manuscripts in Amiens. It is recommended not only for the subject matter, but for its readability and originality. (Conway, PG).
Finally, another book review (the book is The Art of the Book, edited by Manion) discusses the place of these books in medieval worship, and suggests that a new and fertile field of scholarship might open to those who investigate the relationship, mostly in books of the hours, among the decorated borders, their adjacent miniatures, the text, and their audience. (Gibbons, PG).
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IIIConclusion
I’ve attempted to review 12 pieces of literature from different media: books, journal articles, and the Internet. I found the journal articles the least satisfying in terms of content; in fact, the scarcity of scholarly works and the preponderance of book reviews would indicate that most work in the field of illuminated manuscripts is done by authors who publish their work in the longer form. The Internet, surprisingly, was a much more informative source than the journals.
With regard to content, I found very little repetition among these particular sources, which seemed to complement each other. This is different from what I discovered working with the large books that reproduce the plates in color. These often feature the same works; they also almost invariably discuss the making of parchment, the way the monks worked on the manuscripts, and the way in which Christianity so permeated the age that the books themselves became religious icons. That is, the text of these books is repetitive, though the plates are stunning.
I would have to conclude that the Internet is a good source for information about these works, but the best is still full-length books. From the scarcity of journal articles it seems this is still not a popular subject, and that scholars in the field are not yet writing short pieces either for the general public or for their colleagues. The concentration still seems to be on full-length books, and here the field is wide open.
IVReferences
Backhouse, Janet. The Illuminated Page. Toronto: U. of Toronto Press, 1997.
Banks, Doris H. Medieval Manuscript Bookmaking: A Bibliographic Guide. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1989.
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Barber, Phil. “A Brief History of Illuminated Manuscripts.” Historic Pages.com [Web site]. 3 July 2002. Accessed: 1 Mar 2003. http://www.historicpages.com/texts/mshist.htm
Bischoff, Bernard. Latin Palaeography. Trans. Dáibhí ó Cróinín and David Ganz. 2nd Ed. Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, 1990.
Bréhier, Louis. “Illuminated Manuscripts.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IX [on-line edition]. Ed. Kevin Knight. 2003. Accessed: 1 Mar 2003. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09620a.htm
“Browse Images of Manuscripts.” Bodleian Library [Web site}. July 2000. Accessed: 1 Mar 2003.
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/browse.htm
Conway, Melissa. “Between France and Flanders: Manuscript Illumination in Amiens in the Fifteenth Century.” Library Quarterly 71 (2001): 273. Retrieved 1 Mar 2003 from The Gale Group, San Diego Public Library, San Diego, CA at: http://web2.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/601/983/33983159w2/purl=rc1_ITOF_0_A74337102&dyn=49!xrn_37_0_A74337102?sw_aep=sddp_main
Diringer, David. The Hand-Produced Book. New York: Philosophical Library, 1953.
Gibbons, Mary Weitzel. “The Art of the Book: Its Place in Medieval Worship.” Church History 69 (2000): 887. Retrieved 1 Mar 2003 from The Gale Group, San Diego Public Library, San Diego, CA at: http://web2.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/601/983/33983159w2/purl=rc1_ITOF_0_A68864438&dyn=53!xrn_53_0_A68864438?sw_aep=sddp_main
Kogman-Appel, Katrin. “Hebrew Manuscript Painting in Late Medieval Spain: Sings of Culture in Transition.” The Art Bulletin 84 (2002): 246-273. Retrieved 1 Mar 2003 from The Gale Group, San Diego Public Library, San Diego, CA at: http://web2.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/601/983/33983159w2/purl=rc1_ITOF_0_A88098561&dyn=21!xrn_17_0_A88098561?sw_aep=sddp_main
“Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts.” Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester [Web site]. 11 Apr 2002. Accessed: 1 Mar 2003. http://mag.rochester.edu/learn/teacherServices/onlineResources/mss/
Rowlett, Ursula. “Popular Representations of the Trinity in England, 990-1300.” Folklore 112 (2001): 201. Retrieved 1 Mar 2003 from The Gale Group, San Diego Public Library, San Diego, CA at: http://web2.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/601/983/33983159w2/purl=rc1_ITOF_0_A79548474&dyn=15!xrn_24_0_A79548474?sw_aep=sddp_main
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