Illumination
General
- good search terms: puzzle initial, penwork initial, capital, decorated initial, flourished initial, historiated initial, inhabited initial, zoomorphic initial, in music: gradual, antiphoner
- The dragonscribes
Technical
- Technical Bulletin from The National Gallery London
- JSTOR digital repository
- FORS spectra and linked article FORS spectral database of historical pigments in different binders
- IR spectra database of of pigments at Tartu (Estonia)
- Raman database at UCL (London)
- Crystal Structure Database American Mineralogist
- web CSD Cambridge Crystallographic Data Base
- COD Crystallography Open Database
- Period sources
- Liber Diversarum Arcium MS H 277, Montpellier, Mediaeval Painters' Materials and Techniques, by Mark Clarke, Archetype Publications
- Il Libro dell'Arte, by Cennino Cennini, The Craftsman's Handbook, trans Daniel V. Thompson, Dover Publications
- Mappae Clavicula A Little Key to the World of Medieval Techniques, trans. Cyril S. Smith and John G. Hawthorne, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 1974, Vol4, DOI: 10.2307/1006317
Purchasing
- historical pigments: Kremer Pigments
- historical paper, pergamente, parchment: Altenburger Pergament & Trommelfell GmbH
- stores in London: Cornelissen & Son, AP Fitzpatrick, Green & Stone
- facsimilies: Facsimily Finder, Facsimily Portal, Ziereis Facsimiles
Some of my Illumination
Specific Manuscripts
- The Book of Kells Trinity College Dublin
- The Hunterian Psalter, University of Glasgow
- The St Albans Psalter, University of Aberdeen (click on the translation)
- The Maciejowski Bible
- The Aberdeen Bestiary
- Jean Froissart Chroniques
- Belles Heures of Jean de France, a special exhibition at The Met Museum New York
- Book of Kells, Trinity College London
- Lindisfarne Gospels
- digital repository of roman de la rose
- Bedford Hours at BL
- the Great Heidelberg Book of Songs
- Gottingen Model Book period instruction manual for colouring and shading acanthus leaves
Smaller Collections
- Art Imagery contains illustrations from manuscripts, and is good because there are links to specific types of illumination from the Book of Kells, for example, specific letters, dogs, lions, fish etc.
- Illuminated Manuscripts at the Nationale bibliotheek van Nederland
- The manuscript collection
- manuscript leaves collection Northern Illinois university
- manuscript archives The Newberry, Chicago Library
- The Walters Art Museum, Maryland
- Manuscripts at University Library of Salzburg
- Medieval Fragments Blog
- small collection of manuscript leaves
Large Collections
- British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts
- MS search page
- MS blog do check this out they publish an excel sheet with all manuscripts, and another of the newly digitised manuscripts. That for 2022 can be found here 2022_excell
- my favourites can be found at the bottom of this page
- French library has a huge collection manuscripts
- search for book of hours in french ie "livre d'heures"
- livre d'heures, MS XX 1400-1425
- Quattuor Evangelia - BSB-Hss Clm 13601
- Evangelistar - BSB Clm 11327
- Munchener Digitalisierungs Zentrum Manuscripts collection
- Evangeliar - BSB Clm 9475
- Evangeliar - BSB Clm 18005
- Quattuor Evangelia - BSB-Hss Clm 13601
- Evangelistar - BSB Clm 11327
- digital collection Munchener Bibliothek
- DScriptorium digital images of medieval manuscripts
- Manuscript database of the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbuttel
- The Gospels of Henry the Lion
- New York Public Library Manuscripts
- The Morgan Library and Museum, NY unfortunately the images are very low resolution
- Book of Hours MS M.141
- Book of Hours MS W.4
- Literary MS G.24 many marginal animals!
- The J. Paul Getty Museum, LA
- Oxford university and the Bodleian Library, are very disorganised and have many resources but in lots of different places:
Other Resources
Don't forget, never treat material produced by non-professionals on the web as "true" until verified by a more robust source. However, this should not stop you using the web for a first pass or overview
- Colourful Science
- A Hypertext Book of Hours
- ColourLex a blog linking art and science focusing on pigments
- collection of images of manuscript initials
- Making an Illuminated Cover Illustration
- Pigments through the Ages
- The medieval Palette pdf!
- Pigments: historical, chemical and artistic
- The Painted Word
- Recipes for gesso, gum mixtures, hide glue etc
- The colour of art website, colour index and collection of books
British Library my curated collection
British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts- ivy leaf
- AddMS 16997 Book of Hours, Use of Paris 1400-1425
- Harley 7026 Lovell Lectionary English, 1400-1410
- Cotton MS Domitian A XVII Psalter of Henry VI, 1405-1430
- AddMS 42131 Bedford Psalter and Hours 1414-1422
- AddMS 42131 The Bedford Hours, 1410-1430
- AddMS 50001 The Hours of Elizabeth the Queen, use of Sarum, 1415-
- AddMS 82945 Hours of the Passion ('the Wardington Hours'), 1400-1440
- AddMS 42130 Luttrell Psalter English, 1425-1450
- AddMS 27697 The Saluces Hours, Use of Rome, 1440-1470
- Egerton MS 2019 Book of Hours, use of Paris, 1440-1450
- AddMS 89309 The Southwark Hours, Use of Paris, 1475-1500
- animals, grotesques etc in borders
- AddMS 36684 Book of Hours, use of St Omer, 1318-1325, many grotesques, animals and people in borders
- AddMS 29433 Book of Hours, 1400-1410, includes birds and moths in borders
- AddMS 18852 Hours of Joanna I of Castile', use of Rome, 1486-1506, Flemish style, many animals in borders
- AddMS 50004 Book of Hours, use of Rome, 1575-1600, many human tops-animal bottoms, fanciful creatures, more realistic
- Flemish style
- AddMS 25698 Eleven miniatures from a Book of Hours, 1475-1500
- AddMS 38126 The Huth Hours, use of Rome, 1485-1490
- AddMS 35214 Book of Hours, use of Rome, 1510-1520
- AddMS 35313 Hours of Joanna I of Castile', use of Rome, c1500
- Gothic style
- AddMS 34294 The Sforza Hours, 1490-1521