Chapter Four
Illuminated Manuscripts
Terms
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- Haggadot
- the finest Judiac illuminated manuscripts, containing Jewish religious literature, including historical stores and proverbs
- Carpet pages
- full pages of decorative design. This name was developed because densely packed design had an intricate patterning associated with oriental carpets
- Scrittori
- a well-educated scholar who understood Greek & Latin and functioned as both editor and art director, with overall responsibility for the design and production of the manuscripts
- Scriptorium
- writing room during the early Christian era
- Charlemagne
- King of the Franks and leading ruler of central Europe
- Carolingian or Caroline miniscule
- the forerunner of our contemporary lowercase alphabet, clear, practical and easy to write
- Lacertines
- interlaces created by animal forms
- Gold leaf
- a technique where gold was hammered into a fine sheet and applied over an adhesive gound
- Classical style
- pictorial and historical method of book illustrations
- Book of Hours
- Europe most popular book contained religious texts for each hour of the day, prayers, and calendar listings the days of important saints
- Medieval
- middle
- Semi-uncials or half-uncials
- a style that uses 4 guidelines, easy to write, had increased legibility, because the visual differentiation between the letters improved
- Frontispiece
- manuscripts on vellum with a portrait of the author
- Aniconism
- a principle on religious oppositions to representations of living creatures
- Ascenders
- when a stroke soared above the principle line
- Textura
- (From the Latin texturum, meaning woven fabric or textrum) the favored name for the dominant mode of Gothic lettering
- Labyrinth
- a page designed by Scribe Florentius bearing the words Forentius indignum memorae, which asks the reader to "remember the unworthy Florentius."
- Qur-an or Koran
- sacred book forms the divine authority for religious, social, and civil life in Islamic societies
- Copisti
- a production letterer, who spent his days bent over a writing table penning page after page in a trained letter style
- Illuminator
- an illustrator who is responsible for the execution of ornament and image in visual support of the text
- Interlace
- a two-dimensional decoration formed by a number of ribbons or straps woven into a complex, usually symmetrical design
- Minuscules
- small or "lowercase" letterforms
- Uncia
- the Roman inch
- Colophon
- an inscription usually at the end, containing facts about its production
- Musical notation
- marks used to denote pauses and pitch chages for chants and one of the important contributions of medieval graphic design
- Descenders
- when a stroke sinked below the principle line
- Scriptura scottia
- the national letterform style in Ireland and still used for special writings and as a type style
- Turba scriptorium
- ("crowd of scribes") assembled to prepare master copies of important religious texts
- Apocalypse
- "I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end"
- Majuscules
- capital letters
- Illuminated Manuscript
- a term used to describe the vibrant luminosity of gold leaf, as it reflected light from the pages
- Celtic style
- an abstract and completely complex style; geometric linear patterns weave, twists, and fill a space with thick visual textures, and bright, pure colors are used in close juxtaposition
- Diminuendo
- a graphic principle of decreasing scale of graphic information
- Uncials
- rounded, freely drawn majuscle letters more suited to rapid writing than either square capitals or rustic capitals