If you enjoy illuminated manuscripts, check out Christmas: Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts. At the Getty Museum site, there's Making of a Medieval Book.
From a bishop's note to monk copyists at Durham Cathedral (reference):
"You write with the pen of memory on the parchment of pure conscience, scraped by the knife of Divine fear, smoothed by the pumice of heavenly desires, and whitened by the chalk of holy thoughts. The ruler is the Will of God. The split nib is the joint love of God and our neighbor. Coloured inks are heavenly grace. The exemplar is the life of Christ."
Pages were made from stretched animal skins and the feathers of geese or swans were used as quills. Illumination (from Latin illuminaire, to light up)came from burnishing gold leaf (coins hammered and flaked) into figures outlined with leadpoint. Paints were made from mineral and plant extracts as well as chemical reactions.
Finished manuscripts were sewn together and bound in leather, wood, or decorative fabric.
Merry Christmas!
Classical School Blog: Do-It-Yourself Illuminated Manuscripts and Monks Day
I don't mean to appear contentious, but I've noticed a number of classical history or literature sites often have a christian theme. Wasn't it christianity that ended the classical era? Julian the Apostate, Hypatia and the destruction of the library at Alexandria? How in any possible scheme of things could christian thought be considered classical?
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ReplyDeleteNo we don't agree that Christianity ended the classical era. It's a complex issue why the civilization of ancient Greece failed - economic reasons, military reasons, complete loss of the Peloponnesian war,the plague etc.
ReplyDeleteThe remarkable thing is how close ancient Greek and Roman civilization came to being lost forever were it not for the scholarship that arose within some of the Christian monastic orders.
The great book finder Poggio Bracciolini describes how he would talk his way into monasteries, ask to see the library and find rat-gnawed, dust-covered manuscripts. Sometimes it was only one book from a classic author remaining in existence.
Christian efforts also were important in recovering lost great artistic works of the classical antiquity, as well as recovering the ancient Greek language. Laocoon himself (in the post above), was dug up in a vineyard among the ruins of the Baths of Titus.