Early Manuscripts
Before Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press
(around 1456, when the Gutenberg Bible was printed), all books were made by
hand. Hence we call them
“manuscripts.”
The pages of a manuscript were made out of vellum (calf skin) or parchment (sheep or goat skin). To make vellum or parchment, an animal pelt was soaked in a lime bath (an alkaline solution), stretched on a frame and dried, and, finally, cleaned and scraped. By stretching the skin as it was drying, it became very thin and very different from leather. Finally, parchment or vellum was rubbed with pumice (a very fine abrasive) to make it smooth. A thick book might require the skins of 20, 30, or more animals. Each page was hand lettered by a scribe — here using silver as ink — and hand painted.
The paintings done for a manuscript are known as “miniatures.” The pigments used for painting included gold leaf, lapis-lazuli (a semi-precious blue stone), malachite (a semi-precious green stone), and white lead. The ground pigments were mixed with water and a binder such as tragacanth gum; the technique used in the production manuscripts is different from tempera and oil painting. The creation of a manuscript was a laborious and expensive endeavor.
Rossano Gospel, early 6th century
The Gospel books are the first four books of the New Testament -- the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The purple vellum that you see here on this page from the Rossano Gospels was dyed with the same dye for imperial cloth. This was a mark of supreme luxury. This scene depicted here is an illustration of the Jesus and Barabbas (both on the bottom register, Barabbas is labeled) before Pontius Pilate (at the top register). Note!! Jesus now has a beard! This is the convention that will become the norm. Also notice the bluish semi-circle at the top. Some art historians think that this miniature may depict the decoration of an Early Christian apse that no longer survives. Whether or not this is true, it does make the point that manuscripts were produced by hand as manual copies of other manuscripts -- including, sometimes, copies of other works of art.