The book is decorated with large pen-flourished initials to signal text divisions. The initials are eight lines in height, with party-coloured bars in red and blue. The example below is from an early thirteenth-century French book. In the example below, the capital 'L' on the left has been decorated with the design of a human face.ĭetail from the Wollaton Antiphonal, MS 250, f. It could be elaborated with pen-work flourishes, usually in red or blue ink. Sometimes an initial would be made just a little larger than other letters, perhaps two-lines, rather than one, in height. Sometimes this was done at a very basic level through rubrication – picking out initials in red ink. One of the simplest ways to decorate a manuscript book was to incorporate a design into the presentation of initials. Applying gold leaf was a delicate and highly skilled process. If a design included gold leaf, this had to be applied before coloured pigments or inks. Other semi-precious stones were sometimes used in the decorating of fine illuminated manuscripts, including lapis lazuli, which was ground to make ultramarine. A range of coloured paints (white and different shades of blue, red, green and yellow) made from naturally available pigments were available. Illuminations are illustrations which are made using gold or silver leaf or powder to reflect light and add a luminous, bejewelled quality to the design. The use of initials, illustrations and borders could announce text divisions, or indicate important sections of a work, or could be designed to help the reader engage with the contents of text.Īn illuminated manuscript is the most expensive and ornate type of decorated manuscript. However, decoration was also intended to aid literacy by offering visual as well as textual contents, to help the reader find his or her way around the book, or to aid the interpretation of a text. ![]() It might also function as a statement of the importance of the person or institution that had commissioned or owned the book. It was used to enhance the appearance of the book, and its value. When manuscripts were decorated to any degree the process and scheme of this decoration was usually planned before the text was copied.ĭecoration in medieval manuscripts performed a number of functions. Rory Kinnear and Emilia Fox gamely narrate Not Even Legend, where the twin narratives see time moving in opposite directions, and where a group of blundering, self-satisfied paranormal enthusiasts are infiltrated by one of the otherworldly entities with which they are so obsessed.Most manuscripts either show simple decorative schemes or are plain and unadorned. The White Lines actor Laura Haddock narrates the opening story, Hypothetical Lizard, a chilling tale of revenge set in a brothel that is frequented by sorcerers, while Location, Location, Location, read by W1A’s Nina Sosanya, sees the Second Coming unfolding in the streets of Bedford, where an estate agent shows the vape-loving Messiah an end-of-terrace house handily situated on the site of the Garden of Eden. The multicast narration is effective in a work that can sometimes feel overwritten on the page but, with its madcap set pieces and oddball characters, comes into its own when read aloud. T he Watchmen and V for Vendetta creator Alan Moore’s first collection of short stories spans 40 years of work and veers from playfully mind-bending to downright disturbing.
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