Timeline of the development of the book:
Until the eleventh and twelfth centuries most manuscripts were created by monks in the scriptorium of their monastaries and wriiten in Latin, for use within those walls. As only several hundred texts existed, monastaries could hope to have a complete collection.
1100 - With an increase in the number of texts in existence, secular scribes and illuminators were employed to help in book production.
Twelfth century - Universities such as those in Paris and Bologna were independent of monastaries when it came to book creation.
People outside monastaries and universities wanted to own books.1200 - books for sale.
1250 - bookshops in university and commercial towns were arranging the writing out of new manuscripts and trading in books.
1300 - most monks bought manuscripts from shops.
Fifteenth century - people could go to a bookshop and commission the creation of a book. we have more books from medieval times than any other artefact from then.
We know the names and addresses of many late medieval miniaturists and illuminators and the book 'The Book Before Gutenburg' had a list of them. I had a vague idea I'd be able to make up such a list but there were so many I limited myself to before 1400, then cut back to 1100 - 1350, purely because it is my favoured period of medieval history in England. Even then there were quite a collection from over Europe and too many to make it an activity I'll be concentrating on right now. It would be pleasing eventually to illuminate the list and have a little book with their names - a Medieval scribe contact book.
Here are a few:
- Adalbertus or Adelburtus Vulterrensis from C12 who wrote and illustrated the Pisa Bible;
- Adelaide or Adelheid from Alsace, a C13-C14 nun at Unterlinden and an expert calligrapher and illustrator. (Going alphabetically and coming across a woman so early I thought there'd be quite a few but there weren't.)
- Anciau de Cens also known as Ancelet, from France in the first half of the C14 who was one of those working on the Billyng Bible and Belleville Breviary;
- Andrea de Bartoli from C14 Bologna;
- Anorelo da Imbonate from C14 Lombardy;
- Adier of Wenceslaus in C14 Bohemia who with a group pf others was involved in creating the Wenceslaus Bible
On to practical matters. The word 'parchment' comes from the name of the city of Pergamum in the area at times called Asia Minor where parchment from animal skins was first made in the third century. Various skins were used too of course, depending on availability - deerskin, sheep, pig, with calfskin which was to be the finest vellum introduced in fifteenth century. Other animal skins used were ones like rabbit and squirrel.
Before writing on it, the surface of the parchment was given a final rubbing with pumice or powdered glass mixed with bread and perhaps dusted with chalk for a grease free surface. If you've ever painted plastic soldiers, you'll know what a difference there is between painting them fresh from the packet and painting them once you've washed them with detergent. I should imagine it would be much the same effect. No one wants to use a greasy surface for any sort of artwork and a treated animal skin sounds like it would need that final polish. The design was drawn with a mixture of clay and gypsum or lime and this was followed by an adhesive such as egg white.
Writing was originally black and red (hence my layout of those two colours on a parchmenty background). Colours came later in the development of manuscripts. Once they did, eight main colours were used, certain colours being associated with certain subjects. Coloured inks were made of mineral earth or plants.
- black - made from sloe berries or charcoal and gum
- red - of minium which is a reddish oxide of lead
- or the red dye made from the insects like cochineal is
- blue - of azurite - this was the next most common colour used
- green - from copper
- yellow - of turmeric
- white - from burnt bones
- rose - unsure where this comes from - was it mixed the way it would be from contemporary paints?
- purple - from turnsole or shellfish like murex.
The recto would be written on first and verso (just wanted to use the words) but since there was no blotting as it would disturb the clarity and brightness of the work, the writer-illustrator had to wait for the page to dry before turning. In the tenth century inital letters were embellished and often came to be extended the length of page. In fifteenth century England big gold letters on a manuscripts cost 4 pence each as did a half page illumination. Check out the blog on the History of Illuminated Manuscripts.
The skins/sheets were then folded into quires (sheets folded into what will become a section of a book) and the completed books were stitched and bound to protect the manuscript. Covers usually made of thin boards of wood or sometimes pasteboard (as you'd imagine, like cardboard) where coated next in leather, to join across the spine, the back and the front.
This is Jean Mielot at his desk - a picture I chose because I love the intricacy of the workbench.
References:
Bologna, G 1988, Illuminated Manuscripts: the Book before Gutenberg, Thames and Hudson, London.
De Hamel, C 1992, Scribes and Illuminators, British Museum Press, London.
Glaister, G A 1979, Glaister's Glossary of the Book, Allen and Unwin, London.
Sciacca, C 2010, Building the Medieval World, The J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
Jean Mielot at his desk, image, Wikipedia Commons, viewed 16 April 2011, <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/Jean_Mi%C3%A9lot,_Brussels.jpg/220px-Jean_Mi%C3%A9lot,_Brussels.jpg>
