The Illuminated Manuscript Company Presents:

A Peek into the Past – an occasional newsletter on illuminated manuscripts and their history

This Issue:  The Making of an Illuminated Manuscript

"…we went through the east tower into the scriptorium, and there I could not suppress a cry of wonder...

As it appeared to my eyes, at that afternoon hour, it seemed to me a joyous workshop of learning...The brightest places were reserved for the antiquarians, the most expert illuminators, the rubricators, and the copyists. Each desk had everything required for illuminating and copying: inkhorns, fine quills which some monks were sharpening with a thin knife, pumice stone for smoothing the parchment, rulers for drawing the lines that the writing would follow. Next to each scribe, or at the top of the sloping desk, there was a lectern, on which the codex to be copied was placed, the page covered by a sheet with a cut-out window which framed the line being copied at that moment. And some had inks of gold and various colors. Other monks were simply reading books, and they wrote down their annotations in their personal notebooks or on tablets."

Excerpt from The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
 

A scribe busy at work

Preparing the Parchment: The Parchmenter

Before a great artist could even imagine creating an ethereal book coated in gold and silver, he needed parchment on which to paint. Parchment, named for the ancient city Pergamon (in present day Turkey), is made from animal skins. A truly fine parchment made from calf and sometimes goat skins is vellum. You will notice most cataloguers (and we boast no exception to this practice) callously interchange the terms "parchment" and "vellum" with no regard for the distinction. Parchment may indeed be made from such base creatures as squirrels and rabbits (and heaven forbid cats). However, goats, cows, and sheep were probably more common choices.

Preparing the parchment was quite an ordeal as the parchmenter (indeed there was such a job) had to initially soak the skin in water to remove the blood, dung, and any other unfavorable items that cling to skin. Then, he had to provide a lime bath for the skin in order to soften it for easier removal of the animal hair. The process took at least eight days and required frequent stirring where the poor parchmenter had to be careful to avoid being burned by the lime.

After rinsing it out, the parchenter stretched the skin out on a wooden frame where he could scrape and work the parchment into a thin sheet appropriate for writing.

Parchment was so dear that even damaged parchment had great value. Holes in parchment are common, caused by wounds or insect bites. A parchmenter would hesitate before throwing away a piece of parchment for such an insignificant reason. We frequently see natural holes in the parchment due to these imperfections (imagine a 15th century mosquito when you examine such imperfections in the leaves).
As grueling and expensive a task as this process may seem, it yields a material that lasts for centuries as the startlingly pristine condition of books created on parchment attests. When paper came into use in the 15th century, many hesitated to accept this new material because of its flimsy nature. As one 15th century citizen exclaimed: “handwriting placed on parchment will be able to endure a thousand years. But how long will printing last, which is dependent on paper? if it lasts for two hundred years that is a long time."

A parchmenter preparing the animal skin for writing

A careful examination of the upper left borders of this leaf reveals scores of tiny hair follicles that the parchmenter failed to remove.

The apothecary must have enjoyed filling the order for this leaf.  Notice how many colors the illuminator uses.

Copying The Text: The Scribe

Before the scribe could begin copying the text onto the newly prepared parchment, the page was lightly ruled, prescribing the size of the text, the borders and initials, and the placement and format of miniatures (paintings).

In the early middle ages (before 1100) most scribes were monks who worked in the monastery’s scriptorium copying text as a service to God and man. In time, professionals were hired by the monastery to copy texts, and eventually, with the growth of a monetary economy, scribes were professionals who worked within as well as outside of the monasteries, often contracted by booksellers without the intervention of the clergy.

For his tool, the scribe used the sharpened quill feather or reed pen.

The scribe who wrote this leaf  must have had a remarkably steady hand and extraordinary vision to write this fine script.

Book of Hours leaf with a gothic text

A type of popular gothic script, bastarda or bâtarde, is a hybrid script developed in the early 15th century. Bastarda is a more informal and expedient script.

Importantly, the scribe needed a model from which to copy the book. Because scribes were increasingly lay people rather than clergy, it was essential that he copy from a book that was known to be a good copy. Thus, a system developed in Europe called the pecia system whereas a good copy or exemplar was carefully created for copying. The exemplar could be broken into small sections so several scribes could work on copying the book simultaneously. Perhaps a precursor to Henry Ford’s assembly line, the system cut down the costs of having to produce numerous exemplars.

Leaf written in a bastarda script

Decorating the Book: The Illuminator

Of all the individuals involved in the creation of books, none was so highly esteemed or handsomely paid as the illuminator. The status of illuminators varied, but some were certainly considered fine artists who even joined guilds with painters.

The tool of the illuminator was a hard point stylus made from metal or bone. As mentioned above, before the illuminator went to work, his job was essentially set out for him. The page was already ruled, so he knew where to place each initial, each border, and each miniature. Before the illuminator jumped into his pot of liquid gold, he lay out his decoration with his stylus. Only after the design was fully realized could he employ his lavish palette of paints.

 

The large initial "O" on the top of this music leaf has not yet been painted.  The initial is first carefully traced.

Before generously painting this large "P" in gold, the illuminator would carefully lay out the image with his stylus.

By the late 14th and early 15th centuries, Paris became the center of the book world and illuminators from all over France and Flanders converged in Paris to work at this academic center. More talented illuminators could specialize as miniaturists, solely painting pictures and leaving the borders and initials to lesser artists or apprentices.

The illuminator often carried a pattern book which flaunted his skills. The pattern book could be used as a marketing portfolio in order to obtain jobs, or as a teaching tool for apprentices and assistants to copy. The pattern books often contained written instructions and models on how to execute particularly challenging parts of the decorations.

The illuminator saved time on this leaf (shown front and back) by tracing through the border.  Notice the shape of the floral border design is a mirror image.

A medieval bookseller flaunting his merchandise

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* For more information on the making of illuminated manuscripts, we recommend: Alexander, Jonathan.  Medieval Illuminators and Their Methods of Work. New Haven: Yale UP, 1992.