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==History== [[File:Master of the Boston City of God - Book of Hours (Use of Utrecht)- fol. 63r, Initial with Holy Trinity - 1998.124.63.a - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif|275px|thumb|The 63rd page of the Book of Hours (Use of Utrecht), {{Circa|1460}}–1465, ink, tempera, and gold on vellum, binding: brown Morocco over original wooden boards, overall: 59 × 116 mm, [[Cleveland Museum of Art]] ([[Cleveland]], [[Ohio]], US)]] === Latin Europe === Art historians classify illuminated manuscripts into their historic periods and types, including (but not limited to) [[Late Antique]], [[Insular art|Insular]], [[Carolingian art|Carolingian]], [[Ottonian art|Ottonian]], [[Romanesque art|Romanesque]], [[Gothic art|Gothic]], and [[Renaissance manuscripts]]. There are a few examples from later periods. Books that are heavily and richly illuminated are sometimes known as "display books" in church contexts, or "luxury manuscripts", especially if secular works. In the first millennium, these were most likely to be [[Gospel Book]]s, such as the [[Lindisfarne Gospels]] and the [[Book of Kells]]. The Book of Kells is the most widely recognized illuminated manuscript in the [[Anglosphere]], and is famous for its [[Insular art|insular]] designs.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mark |first=Joshua J. |title=Book of Kells |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Book_of_Kells/ |access-date=2024-04-12 |website=World History Encyclopedia |language=en}}</ref> The Romanesque and Gothic periods saw the creation of many large illuminated complete [[bible]]s. The largest surviving example of these is The [[Codex Gigas]] in Sweden; it is so massive that it takes three librarians to lift it. Other illuminated liturgical books appeared during and after the Romanesque period. These included [[psalter]]s, which usually contained all 150 canonical psalms,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Psalter as Scripture - Response - Seattle Pacific University |url=https://spu.edu/depts/uc/response/new/2013-autumn/bible-theology/the-psalter-as-scripture.asp |access-date=2024-04-12 |website=spu.edu}}</ref> and small, personal devotional books made for lay people known as [[books of hours]] that would separate one's day into eight hours of devotion.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Stein |first=Authors: Wendy A. |title=The Book of Hours: A Medieval Bestseller {{!}} Essay {{!}} The Metropolitan Museum of Art {{!}} Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hour/hd_hour.htm |access-date=2024-04-12 |website=The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |language=en}}</ref> These were often richly illuminated with miniatures, decorated initials and floral borders. They were costly and therefore only owned by wealthy patrons, often women. As the production of manuscripts shifted from monasteries to the public sector during the [[High Middle Ages]], illuminated books began to reflect secular interests.<ref name="Kauffmann2018"/> These included short stories, legends of the saints, tales of chivalry, mythological stories, and even accounts of criminal, social or miraculous occurrences. Some of these were also freely used by storytellers and itinerant actors to support their plays. One of the most popular secular texts of the time were [[Bestiary|bestiaries]]. These books contained illuminated depictions of various animals, both real and fictional, and often focused on their religious symbolism and significance, as it was a widespread belief in post-classical Europe that animals, and all other organisms on Earth, were manifestations of God. These manuscripts served as both devotional guidance and entertainment for the working class of the Middle Ages.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Getty Museum |url=https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/bestiary/inner.html |access-date=2024-04-17 |website=Getty Museum |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Medieval Bestiary |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/anglo-saxon/flowers/bestiary.html |access-date=2024-04-17 |website=penelope.uchicago.edu}}</ref> The Gothic period, which generally saw an increase in the production of illuminated books, also saw more secular works such as [[chronicle]]s and works of literature illuminated. Wealthy people began to build up personal libraries; [[Philip the Bold]] probably had the largest personal library of his time in the mid-15th century, is estimated to have had about 600 illuminated manuscripts, whilst a number of his friends and relations had several dozen. Wealthy patrons, however, could have personal prayer books made especially for them, usually in the form of richly illuminated "[[book of hours|books of hours]]", which set down prayers appropriate for various times in the [[liturgical day]]. One of the best known examples is the extravagant {{lang|fr|[[Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry]]|italic=no}} for a French prince. [[File:Books in the monastery museum (5494269533).jpg|275px|thumb|Illuminated manuscripts housed in the 16th-century [[Ethiopian Orthodox Church]] of [[Ura Kidane Mehret]], [[Zege Peninsula]], [[Lake Tana]], [[Ethiopia]]]] Up to the 12th century, most manuscripts were produced in monasteries in order to add to the library or after receiving a [[Commission (art)|commission]] from a wealthy patron. Larger monasteries often contained separate areas for the [[monks]] who specialized in the production of manuscripts called a [[scriptorium]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kauffmann |first=Martin |title=Grove Art Online |date=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |language=en |chapter=Scriptorium |doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t077202 |isbn=978-1-884446-05-4 |chapter-url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:246f3a57-cf61-41d2-bf6e-c067179ffe36}}</ref> Within the walls of a scriptorium were individualized areas where a monk could sit and work on a manuscript without being disturbed by his fellow brethren. If no scriptorium was available, then "separate little rooms were assigned to book copying; they were situated in such a way that each scribe had to himself a window open to the cloister walk."<ref name="Putnam">{{Cite book |last=Putnam |first=George Haven |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000775616 |title=Books and their makers during the Middle Ages: A study of the conditions of the production and distribution of literature from the fall of the Roman Empire to the close of the seventeenth century |date=1897 |publisher=Putnam |location=London}}</ref> By the 14th century, the [[cloisters]] of monks writing in the scriptorium had almost fully given way to commercial urban scriptoria, especially in Paris, Rome and the Netherlands.<ref name="DeHamel2001"/> While the process of creating an illuminated manuscript did not change, the move from monasteries to commercial settings was a radical step. Demand for manuscripts grew to an extent that monastic libraries began to employ secular scribes and illuminators.<ref name="Kauffmann2018"/> These individuals often lived close to the monastery and, in instances, dressed as monks whenever they entered the monastery, but were allowed to leave at the end of the day. Illuminators were often well known and acclaimed and many of their identities have survived. === Greek Europe and the Islamic world === [[File:Ruler in Turkic dress (long braids, fur hat, boots, fitting coat), in the Maqamat of al-Hariri, 1237 CE, probably Baghdad.jpg|thumb|Frontispiece of the ''[[Maqamat al-Hariri]]'' (1237 CE) depicting a ruler in Turkic dress (long braids, ''[[Sharbush]]'' fur hat, boots, fitting coat), possibly [[Baghdad]].<ref name="FB232">{{cite journal |last1=Flood |first1=Finbarr Barry |title=A Turk in the Dukhang? Comparative Perspectives on Elite Dress in Medieval Ladakh and the Caucasus |journal=Interaction in the Himalayas and Central Asia |year=2017 |publisher=Austrian Academy of Science Press |page=232 |url=https://www.academia.edu/35061254}}</ref>{{sfn|Hillenbrand|2010|p=126 and note 40}}<ref name="AC">{{harvnb|Contadini|2012|pp=126–127}}: "Official" Turkish figures wear a standard combination of a sharbūsh, a three-quarters length robe, and boots. Arab figures, in contrast, have different headgear (usually a turban), a robe that is either full-length or, if three-quarters length, has baggy trousers below, and they usually wear flat shoes or (...) go barefoot (...) P.127: Reference has already been made to the combination of boots and ''[[sharbūsh]]'' as markers of official status (...) the combination is standard, even being reflected in thirteenth-century Coptic paintings, and serves to distinguish, in Grabar's formulation, the world of the Turkish ruler and that of the Arab. (...) The type worn by the official figures in the 1237 Maqāmāt, depicted, for example, on fol. 59r,67 consists of a gold cap surmounted by a little round top and with fur trimming creating a triangular area at the front which either shows the gold cap or is a separate plaque. A particular imposing example in this manuscript is the massive ''sharbūsh'' with much more fur than usual that is worn by the princely official on the right frontispiece on fol. 1v."</ref>]] The [[Byzantine]] world produced manuscripts in its own style, versions of which spread to other Orthodox and Eastern Christian areas. This distinct Byzantine style of illumination had a characteristic color palette along with different ways of preparing pigments and ink and a unique finish to the vellum writing surface which was not as conducive to long term preservation as the more texture Western style.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=A. P. Laurie |first=M. A. |url=https://archive.org/details/pigmentsmediumso0000apla/page/64/mode/2up |title=The Pigments and Mediums of the Old Masters |date=1914-01-01 |publisher=Macmillan, London |others=Internet Archive}}</ref> With their [[Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain|traditions of literacy]] uninterrupted by the Middle Ages, the [[Islamic Golden Age|Muslim world]], especially on the Iberian Peninsula, was instrumental in delivering ancient classic works to the growing intellectual circles and [[universities]] of Western Europe throughout the 12th century. Books were produced there in large numbers and on [[History of paper|paper]] for the first time in Europe, and with them full treatises on the sciences, especially astrology and medicine where illumination was required to have profuse and accurate representations with the text.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}} The origins of the pictorial tradition of Arabic illustrated manuscripts are uncertain. The first known decorated manuscripts are some [[Qur'an]]s from the 9th century.{{sfn|Snelders|2010|p=3, note 14}} They were not illustrated, but were "illuminated" with decorations of the frontispieces or headings.{{sfn|Snelders|2010|p=3, note 14}} The tradition of illustrated manuscripts started with the [[Graeco-Arabic translation movement]] and the creation of scientific and technical treatises often based on Greek scientific knowledge, such as the Arabic versions of ''[[The Book of Fixed Stars]]'' (965 CE), ''[[De materia medica]]'' or ''[[Book of the Ten Treatises of the Eye]]''.{{sfn|Snelders|2010|p=3}} The translators were most often Arab [[Syriac Christians]], such as [[Hunayn ibn Ishaq]] or [[Yahya ibn Adi]], and their work is known to have been sponsored by local rulers, such as the [[Artuqids]].{{sfn|Snelders|2010|p=Chapter4, 4th page}} An explosion of artistic production in Arabic manuscripts occurred in the 12th and especially the 13th century.{{sfn|Snelders|2010|p=3}} Thus various Syriac manuscripts of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, such as [[Syriac Gospels, Vatican Library, Syr. 559]] or [[Syriac Gospels, British Library, Add. 7170]], were derived from the Byzantine tradition, yet stylistically have a lot in common with Islamic illustrated manuscripts such as the ''[[Maqāmāt al-Ḥarīrī]]'', pointing to a common pictorial tradition that existed since circa 1180 in [[Syria]] and [[Iraq]] which was highly influenced by [[Byzantine art]].<ref name="MET">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Caqa12aj55wC&pg=PA384 |title=The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843-1261 |date=1997 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn=978-0-87099-777-8 |pages=384–385 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="MET3">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Caqa12aj55wC&pg=PA384 |title=The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843-1261 |date=1997 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn=978-0-87099-777-8 |pages=384–385 |language=en}}</ref>{{sfn|Snelders|2010|pp=1-2}} Some of the illustrations of these manuscript have been characterized as "illustration byzantine traitée à la manière arabe" ("Byzantine illustration treated in the Arab style").<ref name="MET3" />{{sfn|Snelders|2010}} The [[Persian miniature]] tradition mostly began in whole books, rather than single pages for [[muraqqa]]s or albums, as later became more common. The [[Great Mongol Shahnameh]], probably from the 1330s, is a very early manuscript of one of the most common works for grand illustrated books in Persian courts.
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