My progress to date has now included the answer to where
else they occurred and how they differed from Western Europe, what the purpose
of them was and finally what forms they take.
A brief summary of this is that they also were produced in Islamic parts
of the world and the biggest difference of course was that they were not for a
Christian purpose. There was some major
differences between Christian and non-Christian products, and this was the
decoration, pictorial images were prohibited in Eastern Art, whereas Western Art teemed with religious scenes of
Jesus, Mary, Saints etc. I think the
purpose of books is the same then, as it is now, and that is simply to preserve
the written word. The forms/types were
many and varied (I will list these here but will save a full explanation for my
final report): Bibles; Liturgical books; Books for specialists; and Narrative
literature, history and travel books. I’ve
been really immersing myself in this topic; every time I sit down I am
transported away and find it hard to come back down.
So, I have decided to stop trying to search for new sources
of information at the moment, this probably is a weakness I need to work on,
sometimes I go too far instead of using what I have initially, and then going back
later if necessary. I haven’t found any
new sources, I’m using the ones I had found up till last week, but I’m really
getting into them. The only new searches
I am doing are for additional bits to add to my Blog, i.e. Youtube videos and more images. I was really surprised at the results I found
when I searched, “Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts” on Youtube. There are many people out there who are
reproducing these works, and they’ve been so great to record and share
them. This search alone had me captured
for a day, going through and finding the best ones. I’ve returned to my two earlier posts and
added the first two in a series I found on the process of illumination, the
third parts (a &b) are here:
