Also, the Liesborn Gospels, a manuscript from c. Dating from Jesus' lifetime, they are the most celebrated archaeological find ever made. Sandra Hindman: "Fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls - twice (do these count?). But, you can also find medieval manuscripts containing histories, treatises, and poetry - even prayers and devotional writings - in native vernaculars such as medieval French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, and Spanish."ĪbeBooks: What is the oldest manuscript that Les Enluminures has handled? Latin is the language we find most often in medieval manuscripts, because it was the common language of the Church and of higher learning. Signatures, book plates, and other annotations within books themselves often have much to tell us about the 'life' of the manuscript.Ī breviary (a book containing text for worship) from Northern Italy, illuminated on vellum, dated 1456, offered for sale by Les Enluminures for $58,000.ĪbeBooks: Surely medieval manuscripts are written in Latin? It is rare to find a medieval manuscript with an unbroken chain of ownership. Sandra Hindman: "If a manuscript belonged to a monastery it often stayed there for centuries, if to an individual it passed by inheritance through generations of family members. The same is true now."ĪbeBooks: What typically happened to a medieval manuscript once the original owner died? If 'a picture is worth a thousand words,' some people who owned medieval manuscripts may have just admired them for their pretty pictures. Churchmen and women, royalty and aristocrats, but also, by the end of the Middle Ages, 'ordinary people,' like doctors, lawyers, teachers, and even merchants. Sandra Hindman: "More people than you think. Made to last, medieval manuscripts were treasured."ĪbeBooks: Who owned medieval manuscripts considering few people could read at this time?
Stored shut within hefty bindings, the text and paintings of medieval manuscripts were well protected from the elements.
The natural ingredients of the ink and pigments were mineral or vegetable products, resistant by their very composition to change. Sandra Hindman: "Parchment is a much more robust support than our modern paper. In places like Paris, Oxford, and Florence specialized professionals in the book trade (scribes, artists, binders, publishers) belonged to guilds and were paid for their work."Īn illuminated psalter (a book contained psalms) manuscript on parchment from Southern Germany circa 1240-1260 offered by Les Enluminures for $170,000ĪbeBooks: The medieval period spans from the 5th to 15th centuries - how is it possible that manuscripts from this period have survived so long? After around 1200 with the rise of towns and the growth of a money economy, production shifted to city centers. Before about the year 1200, medieval manuscripts were made in monasteries by monks and sometimes nuns, who were scribes and artists working in the service of God. Arranged in sequence, the gatherings were sewn, then threaded through channels in wooden boards, to make up the front and back covers of the binding.ĪbeBooks: We think of monks toiling away to make medieval manuscripts. Specially treated animal skins, or parchment, were cut, stacked, and folded in half to form 'gatherings.' After ruling, a scribe wrote the text, and artists decorated and illuminated the sheets.
Sandra Hindman: "It wasn't easy to make a medieval manuscript. They are not printed."ĪbeBooks: What was the typical production process in creating a medieval manuscript? They are books written by hand (manu=hand scriptus=to write). AbeBooks posed a number of basic questions about medieval manuscripts and Sandra was kind enough to answer them.ĪbeBooks: What are medieval manuscripts? Should we think of them as books or something else? Professor Emerita of Art History at Northwestern University and owner of Les Enluminures, Sandra is author, co-author, or editor of more than 10 books, as well as numerous articles on history, illuminated manuscripts and medieval rings. Sandra Hindman is a leading expert on Medieval and Renaissance manuscript illumination.
0 kommentar(er)
