#Illuminated manuscripts for sale professional

A breviary is a book of the daily Divine Office in the Catholic Church, used primarily by priests. The wealth of their owners through the richness of their illustrations andĪ decorative leaf from a Breviary in Latin dating to around 1400 A.D. They were also highly prized status items, proving ( 4)īooks of hours were the first 'popular' books, owned in large numbers by ordinary people, not just scholars or monks. The text itself includes the standard prayers and psalms that are to be recited during the 8 different 'hours' of the canonical day.

They were held in the hand, and the illustrations were admired they were not really used for reading the text. It has two historiated initials and a total of five decorated initials.īooks of hours are worship books used by regular people (not members of the clergy), as devotional items, to help with their daily prayers. This example is from a Book of Hours from Picardy, France, possibly Amiens, from approximately 1325 A.D. The passage is from the opening of the book of Ecclesiasticus (Ecclesiastes).

This leaf has pen flourishing on the recto and the verso has an illuminated initial in the first column and a historiated initial depicting King Solomon in the letter 'O' in the second column. (initials with pictures in them that usually relate to the text) and illuminated (decorated with gold or silver leaf) initials. This 13th century leaf, from a Latin Bible produced in Paris, is roughly contemporary to the one above-but was likely slightly more expensive, since it is bigger, and features historiated This particular leaf has some staining, possibly from water damage. ( 3) Because of its size, and the level of decoration, this was most likely a relatively inexpensive Bible when it was produced. In the fifteenth century, a preference for purple ink emerged. Red and blue were common colors - these initials are often called 'rubrication'. While in the early years of book production, the initials were added by the book's scribe, beginning in the thirteenth century, specialists would fill in the initials in the spaces left blank by the scribe. Typically, there was a hierarchy for the initials-the more important the text break, the fancier the initial. This particular item features some basic decorative initials, which show the reader the major divisions of the text. This leaf is from the book of Acts, Chapter XXXVIII. Click the image on the right to see an enlarged view next to a ruler in order to better see its actual size. This small Latin Bible, which was produced in France in about 1250 A.D., measures approximately 4 inches across.

#Illuminated manuscripts for sale professional

Scriptoria, but by professional book workers. By 1400, most manuscripts were not produced in monastery Outgrew the abilities of the monasteries to produce them, and lay people stepped

In cities like Paris, Bologna and Oxford began to grow, the demand for books Scribe, illuminator, and binder, together with, in many cases, a bookdealer who took orders from clients and oversaw the making of the final article' ( 1).īefore 1200, books were generally produced in monasteries. 'The production of books was a collaborative enterprise involving co-operation between different crafts: parchment-maker, The cost of a book was dependent upon its size (both in height and in number of pages), and how much decoration it had (the more illustrations and illuminations, the more expensive the book). Originally, these leaves were all part of complete books.īooks during the medieval period were typically made of vellum (also called parchment), or, occasionally, especially during the later medieval period, paper. You can return to this page by using the 'back' button on your browser.Īll of the images below are of single leaves -2 pages from a book, with a front (recto) and a back (verso). Click on the thumbnail versions to see a larger picture. Please Note: The sizes of these images were adjusted to fit the computer screen and are not to scale. If you are interested in visiting the library to view these leaves in person, please, drop by or contact us! They are also available to anyone who is merely curious. They are regularly used for teaching purposes at all levels. These illuminated leaves were acquired by the library in 2003. Rare Books and Special Collections: Illuminated Manuscript Leaves - NIU - University Libraries Illuminated Manuscript Leaves