Medieval Literature And Poetry Illuminated Manuscripts

Medieval Literature and Poetry/

Illuminated Manuscripts

The Middle Ages was a period of about one thousand years, between the collapse

of the Roman Empire during the fifth century AD and the revival of classical art and

learning known as the Renaissance around the fifteenth century. During this dark and

chaotic period small groups of devout Christians could live with security and pursue a

religious life. These people were doing something that almost no one else could do at the

time- reading and writing. They were making something that almost no one else could

make or have any use for- books. The first of these books was the Bible, and as time

passed, more forms of literature such as poetry and illuminated manuscripts were created.

Christianity, like Judaism and Islam, is a written religion. The Bible is regarded as a

sacred text for Christianity containing the revealed truth of G-d. The most important part

of early monastic life was the preservation, reading, and copying of these texts. The

connected to and interested in all types of literature. Up until the end of the twelfth

century, nearly all books were produced by and for the church. For many centuries, the

church remained the center of all learning and literacy in Europe. In time, however, the art

of reading, writing, and bookmaking passed outside the monastery and into the court and

town. Books came to reflect nearly every aspect of medieval life. Books also began to be

written in the vernacular. Books changed as the medieval world changed, but the tradition

of making them as beautiful as possible continued into the Renaissance and into the age of

the printing press. The Bible was the starting point which sparked the interest of creating

other forms of literature in the Middle Ages.

Another form of literature in the Middle Ages was poetry. One of the greatest

poets of the middle ages was Geoffrey Chaucer (1342-1400.) Chaucer was one of the

most influential poets of the Middle Ages. He was one of the first poets to compose in

English and was therefore called the Father of English poetry. He wrote in heroic couplets

and iambic pentameter as many other poets of his day did. His famous medieval tale, The

Canterbury Tales, left us a vivid picture of an age that existed thousands of years ago.

These accounts may be the only accurate description of everyday life in the Middle Ages

we have to study today.

Books produced during the Middle Ages, before the perfection of printing with

moveable type by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid fifteenth century, were all handwritten

and were therefore called manuscripts. Many of these manuscripts were decorated with

small painted pictures. These small pictures were called miniatures. Actually, the

miniatures may make up only a small proportion of the ornament in a manuscript, for

usually the text also contains decorated letters and calligraphic writing and is surrounded

by elaborated borders. All of the elements are present in what is called an "illuminated"

manuscript. In many medieval manuscripts, these illuminations make up a major part of the

book, whether as symbolic ornament, representations of holy people, or accompanying

and elaborating the text with illustrations. The amount of decoration and time spent on a

manuscript was in proportion to the importance of the text. Some of the "best-selling"

manuscripts were gospel books, Psalters, bibles, apocalypses, herbals, bestiaries, and

classical manuscripts. The creation of an illuminated manuscript was a long and tedious

process