This work is richly illustrated and the technique used seems to have influenced later artisans. In the 5th century CE, the Ambrosian Iliad, an illuminated manuscript of Homer's work, was completed, most likely in Constantinople. It is not technically an illuminated manuscript because it makes no use of gold, silver, or any colored illustrations but it is the oldest European work which uses decorated capital letters to begin each page - a practice which would come to define illuminated manuscripts.
The earliest illuminated manuscript is the Vergilius Augusteus of the 4th century CE which exists in seven pages of what must have been a much larger book of Virgil's works. The word book comes from the Old English boc meaning 'a written document' or 'written sheet' and the texts produced on vellum in time came to be decorated with flourishes and illustrations. The vellum works of Europe became the standard definition of a book for centuries. Just as the sailor yearns for port, the writer longs for the last line” (37). Scholar Giulia Bologna notes how many manuscripts include small notations written in the margins such as “This page was not copied slowly”, “I don't feel well today”, “This parchment is certainly hairy” and a long observation regarding having to sit for hours hunched over a writing table: “Three fingers write, but the entire body toils. It is clear, from brief comments written on some pages, that the monks were not always happy about their duties. A scriptore-monk was expected to show up for work no matter the weather, their state of health, or interest in a project.
#Definition of illuminated manuscripts windows
The work was long and tedious, carried out in the silence of rooms lit only by narrow windows which were cold in winter and sultry in warmer weather.
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