Charles V (1338-1380) Table of contents

Illumination in the Late Middle Ages

Prior to the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg around 1450-1455, the process of producing and multiplying copies of books was strictly manual and performed by skilled craftsmen : the scribe calligraphed the text and various artists or specialized artisans decorated the manuscript. The two essential phases of writing and illuminating were preceded by a number of preliminary steps : the preparation of the parchment (the most common material then in use, though it was rivaled in the late Middle Ages by paper, a less expensive option) ; the cutting of the sheet into double leaves or bifolia which were then folded to the desired format ; the gathering of a number of these double leaves into a quire (the most common type was the quaternio, a gathering of four double leaves) ; and the ruling of the leaf (with drypoint or ink) to calibrate the writing surface. A final step, after the manuscript had been copied and illustrated, consisted of joining the quires together within a protective cover or binding. Books took time to produce and the end product was invariably costly. Sales and distribution were handled by a bookseller or stationer, who from the late thirteenth century onward played a vital role in book production.

Illumination was carried out only after the text had been transcribed, and was applied to the spaces left blank by the scribe in his layout of the text. There were several levels of decoration, each attributed more or less rigorously to a specialized craftsman depending upon the organization and importance of the center of production or atelier : at the top of the hierarchy, the illuminator-illustrator executed the paintings or " histoires " , but this more exalted artist intervened only after two of his lesser colleagues had finished their work. One was the illuminator in charge of the pen-flourishing (penwork decoration in colored inks), and the other was the illuminator in charge of all the painted ornamentation, namely the decorated letters, borders and frames (the latter designated by the generic term " vignettes " ). With the exception of the very greatest artists, illuminator-illustrators enjoyed little freedom in their depiction of subjects, which were most often dictated either by written instructions or sketches in lead-point placed near the images to be painted. The time required to illuminate a manuscript depended on the size of the cycle of illustrations, and was further lengthened by the drying periods that followed the application of each fresh layer of color.

The social status of illuminators in the late Middle Ages was variable. Most were humble craftsmen who set up shop, either alone or in small family groups, often in a specialized quarter of the city, when they lived in important centers like Paris where book production was concentrated between the Cathedral of Notre-Dame and the university. Some illuminators were independent, itinerant artists who traveled from city to city in search of commissions. The best and most renowned held the rank of court artists : attached to the exclusive service of a powerful patron, they enjoyed secure, stable employment, though they too could be obliged to change horizons when their protector died or when he took a mind to travel. To this elite group belonged such artists as Jean Le Noir, Jacquemart de Hesdin, and the Limbourg brothers who were successively employed by John of Berry to illuminate his Petites Heures (BNF, Lat 18014).

Charles V (1338-1380) Table of contents.