Illuminated Manuscripts of the Gothic

¶ … illuminated manuscripts of the Gothic period. What innovations wer introduced?

Starting with the early Middle Ages, the illuminated manuscripts represented a way by which the textual image was completed with the decorative one to become a wonderful object of art. Much of the knowledge of the Antiquity has been retained through the Dark Ages also because some of these manuscripts were considered objects of art and were thus purchased and treasured by the owners. At the same time, the expression of creativity was virtually limitless, with ornaments being included in different parts of the book (title, subtitles, number of pages etc.). The illuminated manuscripts are also probably the first and most authentic expression of painting in history.

According to different sources, there were several varied forms in which the illustrations and ornaments were included during the Gothic period. One of the characteristics of this period in terms of illuminated manuscripts (but with reverberations also in architecture) was that the manuscripts were richly decorated, with abundant ornaments throughout all pages. Gold was often used (in fact, at first only the manuscripts with gold and silver were referred to as illuminated).

Among the elements of the book that were 'illuminated', one generally included in the Gothic period the initials of chapters and/or paragraphs, the margins of the page, which were covered with paintings, as well as the text itself, which was usually bordered in a decorative manner. On occasion and for richly adorned illuminated manuscripts, paintings covered an entire page.

In terms of the innovative production of the illuminated manuscripts during the Gothic period, the text was the first to suffer some important changes during this period of time. In the Early Middle Ages and up to the 12th century, the letters were generally large and mostly undifferentiated. With the coming of the Gothic period, the letters gradually transformed themselves into cursive or uncial letters, which obviously allowed for a better artistic representation for a creator of these manuscripts.

On the other hand, later during the Gothic period, the blackletter was more and more used as a substitute to these types of letters and became preferred especially during the later Gothic period. These were thick, richly textured letters, dominating the page, but coming into a pleasant contrast with the rest of the artistic representations.

During the Gothic period, the number of images, colors and decorations was greatly increased over the early Middle Ages and Romanesque representations. At first, there were barely any images present, the artists generally resuming to patterns and models on the sides and on or around the text. With the Gothic period, the images began to abound. The patterns also became more and more complicated, sometimes even with grotesque representations.