Chapter 4

Chapter four talked about illuminated manuscripts of the Greeks and Romans, the Celts, the Spanish, Judiac and Islamic, and some designs of the Gothic, Romanesque and medieval periods. Illuminated manuscripts got their name because the illustrations were often decorated in gold leaf that made them seem illuminated. The Greeks and Romans designed the manuscripts to have the writing in a single wide column per page, in rustic capitals, with the illustrations next to the writings, the same width. Two new letter styles were formed in the search for something easier called uncial and half-uncials. The letters were rounded, eliminating strokes. A common pattern among manuscripts was the border around the pictures. The Celts often used interlacing, which was the elaborate overlapping of ribbon, and lacertines, which were interlaces created by animal forms. A new design in the letters also became known as diminuendo, with the large initials, and spaces between words for easier reading were introduced. After a period of struggle with the arts, a revival came with King Charlemagne and an attempt at the standardization of page layouts and writing styles as well as a successful reformation of the alphabet. The Spanish manuscripts were also very decorative, but had some Islamic design influences in their Christian manuscripts with intense color and flat shapes. Christian manuscripts during the Romanesque into the Gothic periods emphasised linear illustrations and the distortion of figures to meld with the rest of the page and then segmented illustrations with elaborate frames and borders. Religious illuminated manuscripts were also the finest in Jewish culture, called Haggadot. They are decorated with beautiful Hebrew calligraphy, gold initials on blue plaques, with pictures supporting the words, which were more important. The Qur'an is another religious reading that has beautiful manuscript design. At first only the calligraphy was ornate, then the framing became more and more elaborate with intricacies and geometric shapes.
I thought that it was interesting to know how many people it took to make an illuminated manuscript. It's almost exactly like what writing a book or other publication with pictures would be like. There is an editor who directs the whole project, there's someone who writes the letters and decided where the art would go, and finally there's the illuminator and later on a printer.
Why, if the text was so carefully lettered in the Celtic manuscripts, were there misspellings?