The Art of Book

Those days were dark in the Medieval Europe, so always reminded as the darkest period : the Third Century. The plague is the biggest reason for this darkness, but there were some other reasons, too, like fear, darkness, witch-hunts, illiteracy...The interesting thing is that, the magnifiscant illuminated manuscripts were occured during this dark period, in cold monasteries. The colophones of their books were the only testimonies of their really short, depressing lives.

An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, like decoratedinitials, borders (marginalia) and miniature illustrations. In the most strict definition of the term, an illuminated manuscript only refers to manuscripts decorated with gold or silver, but in common usage and modern scholarship, the term is now used to refer to any decorated or illustrated manuscript from the Western traditions. (Comparable Far Eastern works are always described as painted, as are Mesoamerican works, Islamic manuscripts are usually referred to as illuminated but can also be classified as painted.)

The earliest surviving substantive illuminated manuscripts are from the period AD 400 to 600, initially produced in Italy and the Eastern Roman Empire The significance of these works lies not only in their inherent art historical value, but in the maintenance of a link of literacy offered by non-illuminated texts as well. Had it not been for the monastic scribes of Late Antiquity, most literature of Greece and Rome would have destroyed in Europe; as it was the pattern of textual survivals were shaped by their usefullness to the severely constricted literate group of Christians. Illumination manuscripts, that were used to increase the power of ancient document, helped their preservation and informative value in an era when new ruling classes were no longer literate.

The majority of surviving manuscripts are from the dark Middle Ages as I wrote before, but actually a myriad of the illuminated manuscripts survive from the Renaissance. The majority of these manuscripts are of a religious nature. Most illuminated manuscripts were created as codices, that has took the place of scrolls. A few manuscript fragments survive on papyrus, vellum or parchement. The most important manuscripts were written on qualified parchement, named vellum.

Apart from their historic value as documentaries, they were the only surviving examples of painting.

A video of a brief history of Illuminated Manuscripts

from "The Book of Kells"