During the Middle Ages books were produced primarily for the clergy and the aristocracy. They were written by hand on expensive parchment and beautifully illuminated with jewel-like pigments and gold leaf. With the dawn of the Renaissance, demand for written texts quickly grew as this wide-ranging cultural movement stimulated both learning and literacy. Of all the developments that helped sustain the Renaissance, none was more important than the invention of printing. Early printing employed many of the same decorative aspects of illuminated manuscripts.

Illuminated manuscripts combined the collaborative efforts of an array of highly skilled craftspeople; requiring the joint labors of the parchmenter, professional scribes to write the text in Gothic script, artists to illuminate the pages with decorations, and masterful binders to complete the process. The parchmenter carefully prepared sheep, goat or calf skin for use as a writing surface. The parchment was scraped to an even thinness, smoothed with pumice and whitened with chalk. The scribe's work began by ruling the sheets so that each page in a gathering would match its neighbor perfectly. The text was then carefully copied with a quill pen in uniform calligraphy leaving appropriate spaces for the larger letters that begin each section so that the illuminator could add the decorative elements. The art of illumination required careful preparation to sketch out the composition, size the surface, apply and burnish the gold leaf and then finish it with luminous pigments. The leaves were then finally turned over to the binder who bound them in finely crafted bindings of gilt adorned and embossed vellum.

As literacy became more prevalent in the Renaissance new technologies were need to meet the increased demand for books. Both the developments of papermaking and printing had a tremendous impact beginning a tradition that has vastly affected the course of human culture and development. The invention of printing from moveable type is traditionally attributed to Johann Gutenberg, who printed his famous Vulgate Bible at Mainz in 1455. This technology spread quickly from Germany to other academic centers throughout Europe.

The word incunabula derives from the Latin cuna (cradle), and is used to denote books printed during the infancy of printing in the latter half of the 15th century. The earliest printers were trained in the manuscript tradition and competed directly with the producers of costly manuscripts. Similarities include the absence of title pages and pagination, as well as the use of abbreviation signs. Early printers also incorporated the conventions of historiated initials and illustrations. At first they left those spaces blank for the illuminator to complete entirely by hand. Later they developed printing methods to decorate the leaves.

Two methods were used to illustrate early printed texts - woodcuts and iron engravings. In the early years these illustrations were hand colored in much the same way as the illuminated manuscripts. Though the decoration of books by hand was to persist well into the sixteenth century, the advantage of printing metal text type along with woodcut initials and illustrations, all in one pass through the press, was too compelling for printers to resist. By the sixteenth century the book was becoming strongly monochromatic with only the occasional rubrication.

Today, most complete illuminated manuscripts and incunabula are in the major institutional collections of the world. However, individual leaves, whose bindings have not survived the ravages of time, are still available to the individual collector.

The following are terms associated with illuminated manuscripts and early printing:

Antiphonal - A music book for the Catholic mass, also know as a Graduale.
Book of Hours - A daily prayer book for the laity
Breviary - A prayer book for the clergy
Historiated - Decoration of an initial, generally with a scene that portrays a story.
Incunabula - Books produced during the infancy of printing, prior to 1501.
Illuminated - Hand colored with pigments and gold, either burnished gold leaf or finely ground gold paint.
Initial - A large capital letter usually painted in contrasting color, illuminated in gold, or historiated.
Leaf - A single sheet from a book.
Manuscript - A book written and decorated by hand rather than printed.
Miniature - A picture or scene painted on the page. The term is derived from the color red (minium).
Missal - Type of book containing the prayers, important chants, and necessary instructions for the celebration of the mass in the Roman Catholic church.
Parchment - A writing surface prepared from young animal skin. Although in general terminology all writing skins are referred to as parchments, true parchment is made from sheepskin.
Recto - The right hand page in a book.
Rubrication - Capital letters or short notes written in red ink.
Scriptorium - A monastery workshop where manuscript books were produced.
Vellum - A writing surface prepared from calfskin. Vellum was also used for fine bindings
Verso - The left-hand page in a book. Also used to denote the less decorative side of a leaf.


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