The radiant art of Illuminated Manuscripts

From The Name of the Rose, novel by Umberto Eco (1980) recreated a few years later in film and more recently as a TV series—you get that great sense of a medieval library as a slightly mysterious, slightly dangerous place, packed with handwritten books. At the centre of that world are illuminated manuscripts, which are as much about art as they are about words.

Decorated ‘B’, St Alban’s Psalter c. 1130 St Jerome from The Book of Hours of the Duc de Berry c.1409

These manuscripts were made right through the Middle Ages, first in monasteries and later in busy town workshops. A scribe would carefully copy out the text, and then an illuminator would step in to decorate it—adding rich colours, gold, and those wonderful decorative initials that seem to grow across the page.

But what really catches the eye today are the oddities: the marginalia. Tucked into the edges you’ll find all sorts of quirky characters—hybrid creatures, cheeky animals, even little scenes that feel almost like medieval cartoons. Bestiaries, which were books all about animals, real and imagined, are especially full of these—lions, unicorns, and stranger things besides, each with a symbolic meaning.

The materials were just as impressive as the artwork. Pages were made from vellum or parchment, and colours came from ground minerals and plants. Gold leaf was laid over gesso to give that raised, glowing finish that still looks stunning centuries later.

Ralph Boydell has taken to recreating this process using Pergamenata paper which is a modern (non-animal) version of Vellum. He builds up the gesso by hand, applies gold leaf, and mixes his own paints from powdered pigments. Seeing his work in progress gives you a real feel for the patience and skill that went into these remarkable books—and why they still hold our attention today.