Friday, December 24, 2010

Illumination for the Masses


Booktryst highlights illuminated manuscripts, specifically old choir books.

From the piece...

Another type of book that is seldom found complete and is thus a good source of individual leaves is the antiphonary, or choir book. These books contained the music to be sung by church or monastic choirs at services, and they had to be large enough to be seen by everyone, as individual hymnals would have been an unjustifiable extravagance. Very expensive and grand antiphonaries might have "historiated" initials that contained a small scene in the open space of a "D" or "O." In the grisly example above, we see five Franciscan martyrs with scimitars buried in their heads.

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