Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts and Early Printed Illustrations

Learn how manuscript books were produced, illuminated, and used in medieval Europe through examples from the MRU Archives and Special Collections. Also briefly covers printed book illustration in the 15-16th centuries. Prepared for ARTH 1101 - The History of Art: Prehistory to Renaissance.

Video contents:
00:00 - Introduction
02:37 - Manuscript production: Parchment
10:00 - The work of the scribe
19:11 - The illuminators' art
27:21 - Bookbinding
28:11 - Manuscript ownership and use
30:19 - The book of hours
40:18 - The Printing Revolution
42:00 - Printed illustrations
45:33 - The survival of manuscript culture
46:31 - How to access collections

Terms discussed: manuscript, leaf, illumination, parchment, scribe, pigment, gold leaf, illuminated initial, miniature, drollery, guide letter, space filler, luxury manuscript, book of hours, psalter, Printing Revolution, movable type, printing press, woodcut, Dance of Death.

[bisontenial]

Nice explanation thank you! Must be years of experience you’ve boiled down for us all to a nice digestible size.
I appreciate it.

[Ferdinand]

Thank you so much for covering so much history and showing such a range of books. Wonderful video!

[AndresPlascencia]

Thank you. Your video enriched my class.

[joshuaprime]

Wow! Your passion really comes through In these fascinating examples

[ricardosuarez]

Brilliant.
Very interesting.
I appreciate your time and effort.
Stay safe.

[annakirksmith]

Absolutely fantastic - many thanks for this Peter, it was really illuminating (sorry ;-) I shall look forwards to searching the archives for more inspiration.

[drewhodge]

Thanks Peter, a very comprehensive presentation. I've recently read "Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts" by Christopher de Hamel---it sparked in me an interest in mediaeval manuscripts.

[sangesings]

Thank you for all the information here! Fascinating! I recently purchased a manuscript and I’m wondering if you can help me determine its age.

[CondredgeDole]

My notes:
These documents are so amazing! Thanks for showing them! Also, I learned that reading is murder.

[Waterboyofsuperman]

Thank you! I’ve read some excellent books on illuminated manuscripts but I’ve been quite disappointed by the dearth of readily available film or video documentaries on illuminated manuscripts. Any ideas?

These are some of the greatest human artistic legacies and it’s sad to me how relatively unknown illuminated manuscripts are in general.

[mattbrehe]

just stumbled upon this video. the book of hours in your collection looks like it was by the parisian printer germain hardouyn. he and his brother were members of the printers guild, but ALSO the illuminators guild. the illumination from your book was almost certainly done by hardouyn and is typical of their illuminated printed hours.

[galleryguide]

A wonderful sprint through the development of book culture in the early modern period. I'm going to be a little pedantic by saying that the large Spanish choirbook leaf looks to be more like a page from a gradual rather than an antiphonal. And the wonderful printed book of hours, the large initial letter in the expulsion of Adam and Eve is actually the letter 'D' even though it looks like an 'O'. It opens the hour of matins ' Domine labia mea aperies' and not the hour of prime as mentioned.

[tonyahaley]

I am trying to find out who, what, where, when, and especially WHY there are weird drawings of people being stabbed (with calm expressions all around) and other violences. I've not had any luck, so I bring this question to you. I hope you can provide some answers. Thank you.

[maureenfitzpatrick]

Thanks for the info. Raising your voice at the end of sentences sounds like a question rather than a statement. It’s annoying and makes you sound uncertain about the facts. It’s a habit of your generation and doesn’t hold up during a lecture.

[laurelshelhamer]

We don't need to see you. Um, ah, um. Reading a script while showing closeups of the works would be better, even interesting.