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Illuminated manuscripts glow, jewel-like, with the rich hues of paint and the
burnished sheen of gold and silver foil. Pictures and designs light up
the hand lettering of their pages, justifying the name derived from the Latin
verb illuminare, to light up.
Although famous as a medieval religious art form, illuminated manuscripts trace
their origin to illustrated Egyptian papyrus rolls and, above all, to Greco-Roman
book illustration, an industry centered first in Alexandria, Egypt and later in Rome.
Bending over the works of Vergil, copies of the Iliad, and early Latin Bibles,
classical artists displayed great skill in modeling and the use of realistic perspective,
but limited their palette to only a few delicate colors.
True illumination developed during the 5th and 6th centuries,
fostered by Christians, Muslims, and Jews alike as a means of preserving, disseminating,
and stressing the importance of their holy writings. Scribes, who copied the text,
and artists, who supplied the illuminations, expended months of toil on the production of
a single manuscript. Most of the first painters in Christian lands were monks who
labored anonymously in their scriptoria (workrooms) to create religious texts for
the use of prominent churchmen and princes. Later artists were often famous
professionals whose religious and secular offerings were snapped up by wealthy private
individuals as intent on reading pleasure and a show of status as on the exercise of
religious devotion. Although beautiful illuminated manuscripts continued to be made
on the continent of Europe during the early 16th century, the art fell into
decline and at last faded away, the victim of the new craft of printing.
In the St. Louis Room of Pius Library lovers of the illuminated manuscript will find
bound volumes of these treasures as well as individual leaves. The regular stacks
of the Library house many books on the development and characteristics of this art form
that repay the perusal of casual reader and serious researcher alike. In the hope
that this exhibit will help to illuminate the holiday season, the Archives presents a
celebration of the art of the illuminated manuscript.
Christine F. Harper
November 2000
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