Illuminated manuscripts are handwritten books that have been decorated (illuminated) with gold, silver, or brilliant colors. Illuminations may include small illustrations (miniatures), initials, borders, or other decorative elements. They were used to indicate divisions in a text, to tell stories, and to add beauty and visually memorable elements to texts. The earliest surviving examples of such works date from late antiquity (third-fifth century). Manuscript illumination reached its high point in medieval Europe, when illuminators, working within workshops called scriptoria, produced illuminated psalters, Bibles, liturgical texts, illustrated saints’ lives, and other works. Illuminated manuscripts continued to be produced after the invention of printing, and printed books also were often illustrated with illuminations. Presented here are illuminated manuscripts produced in Europe between 764-83 and 1889, held in the collections of libraries and museums in Europe and North America.

The Notitia dignitatum is a state paper that documents virtually the whole of the civil and military organization of the Roman Empire as it existed after the reforms of Emperor Diocletian (ruled, 284–305). The manuscript contains chapters on the high state offices, and each chapter is preceded by pages of illustrations depicting the insignia of the officials in these offices and objects characteristic of their functions. The original of the document, probably written around 425 in Rome, is lost, as is a copy from the Carolingian period. The Carolingians, who ruled much of present-day Western Europe in the 7th and 8th centuries, were acutely conscious of being the successors to the rulers of the Western Roman Empire, which probably accounts for their interest in this document. The lost Carolingian copy is known to have been in the library of the Speyer Cathedral until the 17th century. A number of copies of this document, all done in the 15th and 16th centuries, have survived. Among the best is this copy, which was completed in 1542 for the Count Palatine Ottheinrich of Neuburg. The count did not like the Renaissance-style imitations of the insignia plates that he found in his copy and had a set of illustrations more faithful to the originals added at a later date.

Date Created

Around 1542 - 1551

Subject Date

284 - 425

Publication Information

Speyer

Language

Latin

Title in Original Language

Place

Europe Italy

Topic

Social sciences Political science Systems of governments & states

History & geography History of ancient world to ca. 499 Italy & adjacent territories to 476

Additional Subjects

Diocletian, Emperor of Rome, 245-313

Politics and government

Rome

Type of Item

Manuscripts

Physical Description

450 Pages of PDF and JPEG files

222 pages, vellum ; 31 x 24 centimeters

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