![]() ![]() Manuscripts commissioned by wealthy patrons or for a wealthy monastery were often illuminated, and in gold or silver rather than pen and ink. Manuscripts meant for everyday use, typically by friars or university students, often had little illumination, and hardly any elaborate historiated initials or flourishes. īoth the size and the ostentatiousness of a manuscript reflect both on the status of the manuscript and on its owner. In luxury manuscripts an entire page might be devoted to a historiated initial. They would also provide a visual point of reference, "marking the division of the text into books, chapters, paragraphs and sometimes even verses" since, due to the cost of parchment, the modern convention that a new section will begin on a new page had not emerged. Letters that began a new section of a text or a particularly noteworthy section might receive more flourishes and space. The size and decoration of the initial further gives clues to both its importance and location. The earliest known example is in the Saint Petersburg Bede, an Insular manuscript of 731–46, and the Vespasian Psalter has another. Learn their history and purpose, why they eventually went out of fashion, and what replaced them. From luxurious gold and silver letters to plain drop capitals, they functioned to illustrate, commentate, and adorn the text. ![]() These illustrated initials were first seen in the Insular art of the early 8th century. A brief history of the drop-cap: Decorated or illuminated initials were an important part of medieval manuscripts for a thousand years. Both sorts became very common and elaborate in luxury illuminated manuscripts. Strictly speaking, a historiated initial depicts an identifiable figure or a specific scene, while an inhabited initial contains figures (human or animal) that are decorative only, without forming a subject. Colored with paint and gold leaf The oldest historiated initial known, the St Petersburg Bede, 8th centuryĪ historiated initial is an initial, an enlarged letter at the beginning of a paragraph or other section of text, that contains a picture. Letter with figurative image inside it in mediaeval manuscripts The letter P as a historiated initial (depicting Peter) in an illuminated Latin bible, 1407 AD. ![]()
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