Illuminations in Art

(click photo for larger image)An illuminated manuscript is one in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials (called historiated caps), borders (marginalia) and miniature illustrations. In the strictest definition of the term, an illuminated manuscript only refers to manuscripts decorated with gold or silver. But in both common usage and modern scholarship, the term is now used to refer to any decorated or illustrated manuscript from the Western tradition. The majority of surviving manuscripts are from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, along with a very limited number from Late Antiquity. The majority of these manuscripts are of a religious nature. However, especially from the 13th century onward, an increasing nuber of secular texts were illuminated. Most illuminated manuscripts were created as codices (book made up of a number of sheets of paper, vellum, or similar material, usually stacked and bound by fixing one edge and with covers thicker than the sheets. Some codices are continuous and folded). A very few illuminated manuscript fragments survive on papyrus, which does not last nearly as long as vellum or parchment. Most medieval manuscripts, illuminated or not, were written on parchment (most commonly of calf, sheep, or goat skin). Most manuscripts important enough to illuminate were written on the best quality of parchment, called vellum. Some of the secular mss can get rather stranage!