Illuminated manuscripts.
Subject
Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
Scope Note: Handwritten manuscripts that have been decorated with gold or silver, brilliant colors, designs, or miniature pictures. Although prevalent in Islamic and Asian societies, the longest tradition of illuminating manuscripts was in Christian medieval Europe, from the 6th-16th centuries, when the art was superseded by printed illustrations. Generally, the manuscripts were both 'historiated', or decorated with relevant paintings, and 'illuminated' in its original sense, meaning decorated with calligraphic initial capital letters using gold leaf. Over time, the term 'illuminated' came to refer to any illustration or decoration in a manuscript. Illuminated manuscripts played a major role in the development of art, partly because of the manuscript's portability in carrying artistic developments from one region to another.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
15th-century manuscript of 'Le livre des meurs du gouvernement des seignieurs', a translation of the pseudo-Aristotelian 'Secretum secretorum'.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.18.7.4
Scope and Contents
Manuscript produced in England containing a translation into French of the the Pseudo-Aristotelian 'Secretum Secretorum', or 'Secret of Secrets'. The Secret of Secrets is a translation of the Arabic 'Kitab sirr al-asrar', ostensibly a letter to Alexander the Great from Aristotle. The work is intended as a didactic piece in the 'Mirror for Princes' tradition and covers a range of topics including statecraft, alchemy, magic, astronomy, and ethics.The manuscript is the...
Dates:
15th century.