Illuminated Manuscripts

I have been researching a number of medieval texts recently, only to discover the forgotten beauty of illuminated manuscripts. In these days of Word and Photoshop, it's hard to imagine the medeival scribe slowly creating the text on every page of a book by hand, let alone engaging in the artwork that decorated the manuscripts.

The image on the right is Augustinus. La Cité de Dieu. Paris, early fifteenth century. It consists of a miniature with God on his heavenly throne, surrounded by cherubs; in the four corners the four church fathers. In the lower margin the weapon and emblem of Philips van Kleef (1456-1528), who owned the manuscript before it came into possession of the library of Oranje-Nassau, the later library of the stadholder.

Libraries throughout history have done their best to preserve this artwork. In recent years they have begun to publish many of the images on the internet thus opening up their accessability considerably. These images are from the National Library of the Netherlands, or Koninklijkeurg Bibliotheek.

On the left is Nederlandse Historiebijbel. Utrecht, 1443. , The text was copied by Gherard Wessels van Deventer. It depicts the beginning of the text of the 150 Psalms with a miniature: David severs the giant Goliath's head; and an initial: David playing harp. In the margin a Morish dance is pictured, the so called Moriskendance.

Finally, this last image is from a Psalter ca. 1470. This particular page depicts Psalm 52, illuminated with an initial with praying David. There are many more like these to be found out on the internet. I expect to post again on one in particular: the enigmatic Voynich Manuscript now kept at Yale University. Until then, cheers!