Scribes and Illuminators

This survey describes each stage of production from the preparation of the vellum, pens, paints and inks to the writing of the scripts and the final decoration and illumination of the book. The author then examines the role of the stationer or bookshop in co-ordinating book production, describes the supply of exemplars and accuracy of texts, and then follows the careers of a number of specific scribes and illuminators who emerge not as anonymous monks but as identifiable professional lay artisans. He also looks at who bought the completed books and why, and how much they paid for them. Scribes and illuminators ends with a glimpse of how the manuscripts were stored, and how the patrons regarded the craftsmanship for which they had paid. The timespan ranges from the eleventh century through the golden age of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to the luxurious manuscripts in existence at the discovery of printing.