Editing Illuminated manuscript (section)

=== Gilding ===
[[Image:Sakramentarz tyniecki 02.jpg|thumb|The 11th-century ''Tyniec Sacramentary'' was written with gold on a purple background. [[National Library of Poland]], [[Warsaw]].]]
On the strictest definition, a manuscript is not considered "illuminated" unless one or many illuminations contained metal, normally [[gold leaf]] or [[shell gold]] paint, or at least was brushed with gold specks.  Gold leaf was from the 12th century usually polished, a process known as ''burnishing''. The inclusion of gold alludes to many different possibilities for the text. If the text is of religious nature, lettering in gold is a sign of exalting the text. In the early centuries of Christianity, [[Gospel]] manuscripts were sometimes written entirely in gold.<ref name="DeHamel2001"/> The [[gold ground]] style, with all or most of the background in gold, was taken from [[Byzantine mosaic]]s and [[icon]]s. Aside from adding rich decoration to the text, scribes during the time considered themselves to be praising God with their use of gold. Furthermore, gold was used if a patron who had commissioned a book to be written wished to display the vastness of their riches. Eventually, the addition of gold to manuscripts became so frequent "that its value as a barometer of status with the manuscript was degraded".<ref name="DeHamel1992"/> During this time period the price of gold had become so cheap that its inclusion in an illuminated manuscript accounted for only a tenth of the cost of production.<ref name="Lovett2017">{{Cite book |last=Lovett |first=Patricia |title=The art and history of calligraphy |date=2017 |publisher=The British Library |isbn=978-0-7123-5668-8 |location=London}}</ref> By adding richness and depth to the manuscript, the use of gold in illuminations created pieces of art that are still valued today.

The application of gold leaf or dust to an illumination is a very detailed process that only the most skilled illuminators can undertake and successfully achieve. The first detail an illuminator considered when dealing with gold was whether to use [[gold leaf]] or specks of gold that could be applied with a brush. When working with gold leaf, the pieces would be hammered and thinned.<ref name="Lovett2017"/> The use of this type of leaf allowed for numerous areas of the text to be outlined in gold. There were several ways of applying gold to an illumination. One of the most popular included mixing the gold with stag's glue and then "pour it into water and dissolve it with your finger."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Blondheim |first=D. S. |date=1928 |title=An old Portuguese work on manuscript illumination |jstor=1451766 |journal=The Jewish Quarterly Review |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=97–135 |doi=10.2307/1451766 |issn=0021-6682}}</ref> Once the gold was soft and malleable in the water, it was ready to be applied to the page. Illuminators had to be very careful when applying gold leaf to the manuscript because gold leaf is able to "adhere to any pigment which had already been laid, ruining the design, and secondly the action of burnishing it is vigorous and runs the risk of smudging any painting already around it."