Illuminated manuscript

A handwritten book or document embellished with painted decoration, often including gold or silver leaf. Its images, ornament, and lettering can shape how its text is read.

Parchment: Writing material made from specially prepared animal skin. Its smooth, durable surface was a common support for manuscript painting and lettering.
Medieval book production: The processes by which books were made, copied, assembled, and finished in medieval Europe. Illumination formed one stage of a larger collaborative production sequence.
Insular art: Art produced in the British Isles and Ireland from roughly the sixth to ninth centuries. Its intricate interlace and decorated lettering shaped early medieval Gospel books.
Book of Kells: An elaborately decorated Latin Gospel book made around the late eighth or early ninth century. Its dense ornament exemplifies the Insular style at exceptional scale.
Medieval Christianity: The religious institutions, beliefs, and practices of Christian societies in medieval Europe. Christian worship and teaching created sustained demand for decorated sacred books.
Gold leaf: Gold beaten into extremely thin sheets for decorative and artistic use. Applied to manuscript pages, it produced reflective passages associated with illumination.
Quire: A group of folded sheets nested together and sewn into a book. Planning decoration around quires helped align images and text across pages.
Carolingian Renaissance: A revival of learning and artistic production under the Carolingian rulers in the eighth and ninth centuries. Imperial scriptoria produced influential illuminated books during this revival.
Lindisfarne Gospels: An illuminated Gospel book made at Lindisfarne around 700. Its carpet pages and interlace provide a landmark example of Insular illumination.
Visual exegesis: The interpretation of religious texts through images and visual symbolism. Manuscript images could guide and deepen interpretation of accompanying scripture.

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