Illuminated Sacred Manuscripts

Biblical, Astonomical, Book of Kells

Illuminated manuscripts are pages of the Bible, Koran, Torah,
and other sacred, historical or medieval volumes, meticulously decorated
and colored. Most of the Biblical manuscript artists are unknown.

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Initials of chapters or paragraphs, ornamented sometimes very simply, sometimes on the other hand with a great profusion of interlacings, foliage, and flowers; these are developed along the whole length of the page and within are sometimes depicted persons or scenes from everyday life
paintings on the margin, in which some scene is carried over several pages
borders around the text, the most remarkable example is that of the evangelistic canons of the Middle Ages
full-page paintings (or such as cover only a part of the page), but forming real pictures, similar to frescoes or easel pictures; these are chiefly found on very ancient or very recent manuscripts (fourteenth and fifteenth centuries)
There exist rolls of parchment wholly covered with paintings

All these ornaments are called "eluminures", illuminations, or miniatures, a world used since the end of the sixteenth century. At first the "miniator" was charged with tracing in red minium the titles and initials. Whereas most of the paintings of the Middle Ages have perished, these little works form an almost uninterrupted series which afford us a clear idea of the chief schools of painting of each epoch and each region.

adapted from the Catholic Encyclopedia

These letters are created from pieced images of
antique manuscript pages found on the web

I am also including a few images from Ireland's famed Book of Kells, the Western
world's most beautiful illuminated manuscript. There aren't many images of illuminated
pages available. The Book of Kells was written in approximately 800 AD, and is of Celtic
origin. It is one of the most beautifully illuminated manuscripts in the world. It contains
the four gospels, preceded by prefaces, summaries, and canon tables or concordances of
gospel passages. It contains a Latin text of the Gospels in script, accompanied by intricate
whole pages of decoration with smaller painted decorations throughout the text

The Book of Kells was illuminated with many colored pigments such as blue, green, yellow
and brown. The blue was made from powdered lapis lazuli. The ornament of the Book
of Kells is varied, incorporating Pictish, Anglo-saxon and Byzantine influences as well as
Celtic influences, Celtic spirals, knotwork and key-patterning. The details are minute and over
the centuries, many people have described the Book of Kells as one of the finest works of
art in the world. The original work resides at Trinity College Library, Dublin, Ireland.

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designed - they may not be used to create your own outlook or incredimail stationery, or to be used for desktop
graphics. Personal use requires a fee and custom graphics order - graphics are not "adoptable" for this purpose

CD rom graphics from my collection of images

Click on the sample to download the files
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