![]() How the Brilliant Colors of Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts Were Made with Alchemyīehold the Beautiful Pages from a Medieval Monk’s Sketchbook: A Window Into How Illuminated Manuscripts Were Made (1494) To fully understand the making of the devices we use to read electronically today would require years and years of study, and so there’s something satisfying in the fact that we can grasp so much about the making of illuminated manuscripts with relative ease: see, for example, the two-minute Getty video just above, “The Structure of a Medieval Manuscript.” A fuller understanding of the nature of illuminated manuscripts, both in the sense of their construction and their place in society, makes for a fuller understanding of how rare the chance was to own beautiful books of their kind in their own time - and how much rarer the exact combination of skills needed to create that beauty. Most of us in the developed world can now buy one of those, but the non-institutional patrons willing and able to commission the most splendid illuminated manuscripts in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance included mostly “society’s rulers: emperors, kings, dukes, cardinals, and bishops.” ![]() Some illuminated manuscripts also bear elaborate cover designs sculpted of precious metal, but even without those, these elaborate books - what with all the art and craft that went into them, not to mention all those pricey materials - came out even more valuable, at the time, than even the most coveted laptop, phone, reader, or other consumer electronic device today.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |