Comments on: The Illuminated Middle Ages

The Illuminated Middle Ages

hortense — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 08:35:48 -0800

The Illuminated Middle Ages database presents several hundred recently digitized illuminated texts from French national library collections.This web site gives access to the entire database. Only a portion of the full collection has been translated into English for the web site, but visitors may also view the French-language galleries in the site, where a dozen texts from each of the ten themes are presented daily. You are sure to enjoy this collection of breathtaking texts dating from the year 500 through the 1400s.

By: ibeji

ibeji — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 08:44:13 -0800

hortense, thank you thank you thank you for posting this site!

By: IndigoJones

IndigoJones — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 08:47:50 -0800

What ibeji said.

By: Ricky_gr10

Ricky_gr10 — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 08:52:52 -0800

Many thanks for this, hortense!

By: COBRA!

COBRA! — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 08:57:27 -0800

Some modern illumination. That's sort of a fringe self-link; the museum where I work is exhibiting a contemporary illuminated Bible. However, I don't have anything to do with the exhibit or the web site.

By: substrate

substrate — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 08:57:39 -0800

Thanks! My dad did illuminated scrollwork, he's got work in Buckingham Palace and other places. I really should get him to teach me some when I'm home in July.

By: hortense

hortense — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 08:57:50 -0800

BTW:I found this site on one of the links over at quonsar and madamjujujive's blort.

By: gramschmidt

gramschmidt — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 09:37:40 -0800

Extra super excellent. Muy bueno.

By: nervousfritz

nervousfritz — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 09:46:56 -0800

really nice! thanks

By: freebird

freebird — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 09:49:26 -0800

Awesome awesome awesome. was about to comment on it also being a nice use of flash, but it's not, is it? Even more aweseme^3.

By: Lush

Lush — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 09:51:31 -0800

This is wonderful, hortense! Thank you.

By: peacay

peacay — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 09:58:53 -0800

Illumination through Blort? Well done hortense!

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 10:15:07 -0800

This is such an excellent link. Thanks. I'm going to have Name of the Rose fantasies all afternoon.

By: arse_hat

arse_hat — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 10:57:37 -0800

Great link. I love that the have high quality reproductions and not just small fuzzy pics. Thanks.

By: Medieval Maven

Medieval Maven — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 11:15:05 -0800

Beautiful. Just gorgeous.

By: Jon-o

Jon-o — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 12:02:09 -0800

Wow. These are really great. Did anyone happen to catch the exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art about the Indian Miniatures or the Book Arts of India. They're parallel to medieval manuscripts...

By: verstegan

verstegan — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 12:26:39 -0800

Another fabulous site, which perhaps isn't as well known as it should be, is the Pierpont Morgan Library's Images from Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, which claims to include (though I haven't counted) over five thousand images from manuscripts in the Morgan Library's collections. Here's a sampler of some of the best; I particularly recommend the Worksop Bestiary, with its bats, its foxes, its crocodile, and many more weird and wonderful creatures besides.

By: Haruspex

Haruspex — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 12:54:41 -0800

Yay! What freebird said. And if you adore stuff like this, you may already be familiar with and probably find this blog a pleasure as well. Always fascinating. Also, verstegan, that linked image of the Fox Feigning Death so reminds me of the client meeting I had this morning. Brrr.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 13:10:26 -0800

Wikipedia has a nicely evolving Illuminated Manuscript scriptroria. While all the images are of course riped, they contain a lot of standardized contextual information, and there's a gallary page.

By: mokujin

mokujin — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 17:44:02 -0800

Thanks for the links. Mandragore is a very similar site run by the Bibliotheque nationale de France. The pictures aren't quite as big, but there are more categories and more pictures. You might also check out the links at the manuscript page of Website Otto Vervaart.