The Illuminated Manuscript

The Illuminated Manuscript
(An often overlooked iconic tradition of the Church)
Matthew Bellisario 2009

I wanted to do a short article on Illuminated manuscripts since I am an avid admirer of them. Since my visit to the monastery of San Lazzaro in Italy, which houses a 150,000-volume library, as well as a museum with over 4,000 Armenian manuscripts, my interest has grown. It is well known that the use of images in Christianity is as old the religion itself. From the very first signs of Christian liturgical practices we see the use of images. This is proven from the images in the Catacombs in Rome dating from the 3rd century as well as the oldest house church that there is in existence, that of Dura Europos. It contained images of Our Lord Jesus Christ in it which dates also to the 3rd century. For those who argue that these images did not exist in the Church before the 5th century, that argument has been defeated by more recent archeological evidence. I have argued that the use of Sacred Images was no doubt a universal practice in some of my other essays. I have even referenced earlier imagery from the 2ndt and 3rd centuries, being there are hundreds of examples of bas-relief stone images on sarcophagi dating back to that age with many different Gospel depictions on them. What is often however overlooked are the illustrious, illuminated manuscripts.

Church Manuscripts were often made with ‘illumination’ which refers to the use of bright colors and gold to illustrate or to portray entire scenes or depictions of the writing. This term “illumination” comes from the Latin word for ‘lit up’ or ‘enlightened’. These marvelous pieces of work were not done for merely a decorative purpose, but for also the honor and glory of God. These particular types of illuminated manuscripts are also a most universal Church practice, as I will demonstrate. Although these manuscripts do not date as far back as some of the other types of iconographies, they are none the less a universal testimony of the Church to the use of Sacred Image. These manuscripts can be found in every part of Christendom starting around the 8th century, although there are much earlier examples in areas such as Ireland. One example is the Book of Dimma which dates from 620 and depicts the evangelists.

The Carolingian copy of the Four Gospels with its gold binding, containing jewels and pieces of the relics of Saints gives us an example from this period. Not only are images used in the cover, but relics are also embedded in it. A Greek copy of the Four Gospels was written in Constantinople in the tenth century. It shows a typical icon of Byzantine Evangelist portraits painted on gold background. The Stavelot Bible, written over four years at Stavelot in what is now called Belgium was written in the late eleventh century and is another splendid example of rich illuminations of Christ and other Biblical scenes. Moving over to Jerusalem we have the Melisende Psalter, made in the twelfth century in the crusader territories of the Middle East for Queen Melisende. It contains Biblical depictions of Christ as well. One of them being Christ's entry into Jerusalem.

As Christianity moved into the Slavic areas the same illuminations are found. Of course this is not surprising being that they are descendent from the Byzantines in tradition. The Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander, written in Church Slavonic, in the mid-fourteenth century was made for the eponymous Tsar of Bulgaria. It contains marvelous illuminations of various Biblical scenes as well. The book of prayers of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary dates from 1220AD. Armenian illuminated manuscripts are numerous dating back to the 8th century. I have had the pleasure of seeing many of them personally when I was in Italy at the San Lazzaro monastery. One of my favorites is the Queen Mlk'é Gospel inked in 851-862, of Christ's Ascension, among others.

The same illuminations are also found among the Coptic tradition as well. The richly illuminated Four Gospels In Bohairic Coptic and Arabic date back to 1205. Finally the illuminated manuscripts are also found in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian traditions also attest to richly, yet odd illuminations of the Gospels. One example is an illustrated Gospel from the Metropolitan Museum of Art which has a nice article on the Ethiopian illumination it depicts. The odd form of illumination is described, “This illuminated manuscript of the Four Gospels was created in the late fourteenth to early fifteenth century at an Ethiopian monastic center. Its full-page paintings on vellum depict New Testament scenes from the life of Christ and portraits of the evangelists. The text is in Ge'ez, the classical Ethiopian language. Typical of Ethiopian painting, the imagery is two-dimensional and linear. Heads are seen frontally; bodies are often in profile.”

As we can see no part of Christendom was left untouched by this iconographic tradition. The Christians throughout the world had no problem depicting Christ, or other Biblical images. This gives us another example of why iconoclastic mentalities such as those that were defeated in the 800s, are to be fervently fought against. We can trace the use of icons back even further, and prove their universal acceptance among Christendom as well. Despite this, I find it very interesting how the illuminated manuscripts are often ignored as another living witness to an ancient and most accepted practice in Christianity. Clearly all of these rich Christian communities were not interpreting Sacred Scripture the same way as John Calvin did as he tried accuse these people of using graven images. In fact this incorrect interpretation is not shared by any of the ancient Churches of the world, as is demonstrated by their worldwide acceptance of sacred imagery. Here in just this short article I have spanned a large portion of Christendom. I provided proof of manuscripts from Greece, Belgium, France, Armenia, Egypt, Jerusalem, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ireland, and there are numerous volumes found in England which I did not even reference.

The Vatican has the largest collection of illuminated manuscripts followed by Saint Catherine's monastery in Egypt which consists of some 4,500 volumes in Greek, Coptic, Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Slavic, Syriac, Georgian and other languages.

Here are some links to some webpages containing some of these manuscripts. Enjoy!
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/zgothic/miniatur/index.html
http://www.kb.nl/manuscripts/
http://www.thewalters.org/works_of_art/worksofart_manuscriptsG.aspx
http://www.leavesofgold.org/gallery/boh/guide.html
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/cultural-history-of-ireland/illuminated-manuscripts.htm
http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/ho/07/sfe/ho_1998.66.htm