This is adapted from a handout from a class I taught at a Dragon’s Mist Arts and Sciences day in late April. The full handout is available in the Files section of this blog.
This is a broad overview of major styles in manuscript production in Western Europe. It is NOT a comprehensive list of every type of book art practiced in our time period, although I would love to put that together someday 🙂 This is intended as a guide for scribes, especially charter painters, to begin to recognize distinct styles and make their artwork fit more closely within a target style.
Insular
- ~600 to 850 AD, British Isles (England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland)
- Characterized by:
- Interlacing / knotwork / twisty beasts
- Carpet pages and borders
- Decorated initials
- Abstract patterns or zoomorphic forms
- Religious images / iconography
- Examples:
- Lindisfarne Gospels
- Book of Durrow
- Durham Gospels
- Book of Kells (search for it in Trinity’s digital archives– I can’t get this to give me a direct link that works)
Carolingian
- ~780 to 900 AD, Frankish empire (modernly portions of France and Germany)
- Characteristics:
- Borders, decorated initials
- Full page miniatures of religious figures or Biblical scenes
- Classical/Roman influence – naturalistic figures
- Exquisite bindings, colored parchment, gold ink
- Examples:
Romanesque
- 11th and 12th centuries, Western Europe, with different regional styles developing
- Stylistically, there’s a lot of overlap between Carolingian and Romanesque. Characteristics:
- Borders, decorated initials — often vinework, architectural elements
- Scenes appearing in cycles, often across multiple pages and with compartments on each page
- Heavily stylized
- Really the last time that manuscripts were only held by religious orders or royalty
- Examples:
Gothic
- 13th and 14th centuries, western Europe, with different regional styles developing
- This developed into / overlaps with International Gothic
- Characteristics:
- Vinework, geometric, and architectural borders
- Vibrant primary colors, use of gold leaf
- Marginalia, scenes of everyday life
- Complex religious scenes
- Books for students/scholars with relatively little decoration (simple borders, colorful initials)
- First books of hours
- Examples:
International Gothic — later
- 15th century, most of of western Europe, again with regional styles developing
- Characteristics
- Similar to Gothic
- Lavish books produced by professionals for wealthy patrons
- Books of hours
- Realistic daily life and religious scenes
- Examples
- Many! The quintessential examples are the works of the Limbourg brothers
The styles that follow aren’t as commonly seen in SCA artwork (like charters) so they each have a little less detail than the above, however they were important developments in illumination and so I have included them for those interested.
Humanist
- 15th century (mostly), Italy
- Characteristics
- Classical influences, decorated text, foliated initials / acanthus borders
- Examples
Professionally produced books — French school
- Mid 15th through mid 16th centuries, France
- This happens to be the type of book that I have spent the most time studying, which is why I’m separating it out as a distinct style
- Vinework frames around text pages, decorated initials
- Ornate gilded frames around religious scenes
- France had a huge thriving book production industry. A typical manuscript is the processional from Poissy held at Reed College.
- Another example.
Ultra-realism / trompe l’oeil
- Roughly mid 15th through mid 16th centuries, mostly France, Burgundy, Flanders, Netherlands
- Some examples here
- Elaborate borders with flowers, gems, bugs, etc.
- Tension between realistic artwork and the medium of a book
Printed books
Medieval York: Eulalia Hath a Blogge 