Byzantine illuminated manuscripts

Religious images or icons were made in Byzantine art in many different media: mosaics, paintings, small statues and illuminated manuscripts.

[3] "Luxury" heavily-illuminated manuscripts are less of a feature in the Byzantine world than in Western Christianity, perhaps because the Greek elite could always read their texts, which was often not the case with Latin books in the West, and so the style never became common.

The Byzantine iconoclasm paused production of figural art in illuminated manuscripts for many decades, and resulted in the destruction or mutilation of many existing examples.

Due to the lack of early Byzantine manuscripts, it is difficult to know about the situation of illumination during the first centuries of the Eastern Roman Empire.

The style is very distant from the models of the late antiquity, it is notable in its use thick black brush strokes and its use of the gold ground technique.

But it was in Constantinople, in a monastic scriptorium, that the Chludov Psalter was painted in the middle of the ninth century, it contains numerous figurative decorations in the margins, including a representation of a scene of the destruction of an icon.

Several hundred manuscripts are preserved from this period , they are most often parchment codices, which take precedence over scrolls, although the latter did not completely disappear as shown in the Joshua Roll (Vatican Apostolic Library, Palat.Grec 431).

The aristocratic psalters are, on the contrary, large in size, and decorated with sumptuous full-page miniatures but in a reduced number, most often depicting biblical royal figures.

Among the other manuscripts, there are octateuchs as well as evangeliaries, which are decorated with portraits of evangelists, scenes from the life of Christ and Eusebian Canons.

Many texts of the Church fathers are also copied and illustrated such as those of John Chrysostom and Gregory of Nazianzus (like the Parisian manuscript Grec 510), as well as menologia.

During the twelfth century, illuminators associated ornaments and figurative scenes with abundant miniature frames, initials and decorations on the margins.

One of them, a bilingual Latin-Greek gospel book, is still kept at the National Library of France; the Greek-Latin tetra-gospel (Gr.54), which was probably intended for a high Latin dignitary, religious or layman.

Some works show an influence of Western illumination of the time, such as a Book of Job written by a scribe from Mistra named Manuel Tzykandyles around 1362 (BNF, Gr.132).

The style of illustrations follow somewhat of an icon model but a title noting the name of the prophet was needed to prevent confusion.

[17] The repeated images show the possible use of models with the artist changing the paint colors in order to represent another group of people or scene taking place.

The integration of text and image was important within this manuscript in order to illustrate the Byzantine history effectively by highlighting key events.

Requesting the illuminating lectionary, Gospel Books, was a way for patrons to show their devotion to Christianity and religious institutions.

10th-century illumination in the Paris Psalter which depicts the life of King David , traditionally regarded as the author of the Book of Psalms . In total there are 14 images throughout the psalter.
12th century miniature from the Skylitzes Chronicle depicting Emperor Theophilos and his court.
6th century page from the Rossano Gospels . The oldest surviving illuminated New Testament manuscript.
Portion of the Joshua Roll , a 10th century scroll; scenes before the battle at Gibeon – the moon and sun are seen at the right.