| Illuminated
Manuscripts
Wow! That’s really beautiful! Did somebody really
write that by hand? Is that real gold on the art? How
did they do that?
Before the invention of Gutenberg’s press, when
words and books could be printed mechanically, all text
was written and copied by hand. As you can imagine,
it was a laborious and time-consuming process. Those
most educated and with the most time available for this
work were monks living in the abbeys. They dedicated
their lives to writing down, and thus saving, all the
knowledge of mankind. Over the months and years of this
work, they prided themselves in making their handwriting
beautiful and even decorative. Many of these works were
embellished by fancy capital letters, even using gold
and silver leaf to enhance a phrase and illuminate the
script since these works were written and read in the
dark, candlelit rooms of the abbey.
On very important works, paintings were carefully created
to enhance the text. Today, these illuminated manuscripts
are highly prized for their beauty and the knowledge
therein.
From these precious artworks came today’s interest
in calligraphy — the beautiful, decorative handwriting
created for special occasions and certificates. When
these are illustrated, they become highly desirable
works of art.
Follow these instructions to create
your own illuminated manuscript:
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Select a 15- to 18-word poem, song or rhyme. Use
library resources, the Internet or your own books
to make a choice. There are addition resources at
www.pbs4549.org/middleages.
-
Practice designing each letter. Your library probably
has books on calligraphy that show different styles
of print. Start with the lowercase letter O and
practice until it looks consistent. Then move to
Cs, Es and finally the vertical letters such as
L, T and H.
-
Get a light-brown grocery bag and cut out the front
and back panels along the crease. You may want to
wrinkle and crease it a little so that it looks
like old parchment paper.
-
Lay a ruler along the edges of the top and sides
of the bag and pencil in a guideline for the border.
Remember to write very lightly so that the lines
can be erased.
-
From the top and left border, measure a box that
is 41⁄2 inches by 5 inches. The first letter
of the first word will be decorated in this box.
-
The bottom line of this box should extend across
the entire page and will become the bottom guideline
for the first word.
-
Measure down the sides of the border in 1⁄2-inch
increments and pencil in the guidelines. Your lettering
will be flush left along the border, and continue
across and down until complete. Skip every other
line to have room for tall and dropped letters.
Make each letter completely fill the space between
the upper and lower guidelines.
-
Do everything carefully in pencil first, checking
for spacing and spelling. Then go over everything
with a calligraphy pen, a marker or colored pencils.
-
After using the marker or pen, erase the pencil
lines.
-
Now illustrate the page and inside the initial
box.
-
You may want to illuminate the box or borders with
metallic gold or silver paint.
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