medieval illuminated manuscripts borders

MEDIEVAL ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS BORDERS PROFESSIONAL

Because the letter is larger and more elaborately decorated than the previous D and E, viewers can assume that it marks an important moment within the text. In contrast to the previous two colored borders, this third one, from De Pictura, which depicts a large seven-line O, also includes the color green. Designs such as these sometimes fully surround the page, and sometimes they decorate only part of the page, as these do. For example, swirling linear designs, called “penwork flourishing,” encompass this D and this E from the 15th-century Italian Book of Hours. Slightly more elaborate letters than the I and the O are surrounded by linear borders. These differences help to divide the page into recognizable segments and thereby increase the legibility of a page that has no lowercase letters and no punctuation. The I and the O are not only slightly larger than the single-line, colored letters on the page they also include decorations inside the letters. Size variation indicated hierarchical variation: the larger the letter, the more important the moment in the text.įor example, the two pages seen here, an initial O and an initial I, from Alberti’s De Pictura, depict colored letters that are only a little larger than one line or two lines of the regular text. Some are the same size as the surrounding black text, whereas others occupy an entire page. The illuminated letters in medieval manuscripts vary in size. In these four texts, the two most frequently used colors for script are red and blue scribes more commonly wrote in red ink, which may be because the composition of red ink allowed it to flow more easily than blue. Colored initials appear in all four of the manuscripts described here. Illumination in these four texts can be divided into three categories: colored initials, ornately designed initials and miniature paintings. Although these texts span more than a hundred years and several countries, they demonstrate striking similarities that indicate artistic patterns in the Middle Ages. Four notable examples include an early-14th-century French breviary fragment two Books of Hours, one the Italian Office of the Virgin from the 15th century, and one a 15th-century text from the Netherlands and a 1485 copy of De Pictura (“On Painting”) written by Leon Battista Alberti between 14. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department at Brandeis houses several medieval manuscripts that depict beautiful examples of illumination.

MEDIEVAL ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS BORDERS PROFESSIONAL

Graduate Professional Studies (Online Programs)Ī Few Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts at Brandeisĭescription by Leah Lefkowitz, undergraduate student in history and English Rabb School: Graduate Professional Studies Heller School for Social Policy and Management

Medieval illuminated manuscripts borders