Illuminated Manuscripts in Classical and Mediaeval Times

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By the figure of Sappho is inscribed the beginning of her name, in letters of archaistic form.

Sappho reading.A very similar design occurs on a beautiful gem in the British Museum (B.M. Cat. of gems, No. 556), which appears to date from the latter part of the fifth century B.C. A very graceful female figure, probably meant for Sappho, is represented seated on a chair with high curved back. She is reading from a manuscript roll which she holds by the two rolled up ends, holding one in each hand.

This method of holding a papyrus manuscript is shown very clearly on a vase in the British Museum on which the same motive is painted. The lady (Sappho) holds the two rolled up portions of the manuscript, stretching tight the intermediate portion on which is the column of writing which she is reading.

Umbilicus or roller.As the reader progressed the paper was unrolled from the roll held in the right hand, and the part just read was rolled up in the left-hand roll. These Greek representations do not usually show any stick or roller for the manuscript to be rolled round; but in Roman times a wooden or ivory roller (?µfa???, umbilicus) was used as the core of the roll; and the end of the long strip of papyrus by the last page or column of text was pasted on to it. The ends of the umbilicus were often fitted with a round knob or boss, which was decorated with gilding or colour. The edges of the papyrus roll were smoothed with pumice-stone (pumice mundus), and the whole manuscript was often provided with a vellum case, which was stained a bright colour, red, purple or yellow. Tibullus (El. III. i. 9) alludes to these ornamental methods,

Lutea sed niveum involvat membrana libellum.

Pumex et canas tondeat ante comas;

Atque inter geminas pingantur cornua frontes.

The frontes are the edges of the roll, and the cornua are the projecting portions of the two wooden rollers.

Inscribed titles.The title of the manuscript was written on a ticket or slip of vellum, which hung down from the closed roll like the pendant seal of a mediaeval document. Thus when a number of manuscripts were piled on the shelf of an armarium the pendants hanging down from the ends of the rolls indicated plainly what the books were, without the necessity of pulling them from their place.

Small numbers of rolls, especially manuscripts which had to be carried about, were often kept in round drum-like boxes (capsae or scrinia), with loop handles to carry them by.

Coloured inks.Much of the beauty of an ancient manuscript depended on the use of red or purple ink for headings, indices and marginal glosses. As Pliny says (Hist. Nat. XXXIII. 122) minium in voluminum quoque scriptura usurpatur.

The use of purple ink for the index is mentioned by Martial in his epigram Ad librum suum (III. 2) where he sums up the various methods of decoration which in his time were applied to manuscripts,

Cedro nunc licet ambules perunctus,

Et frontis gemino decens honore

Pictis luxurieris umbilicis;

Et te purpura delicata velet,

Et cocco rubeat superbus index.

Use of oil.The oil of cedar wood, mentioned in the first of these lines, was smeared over the back of papyrus manuscripts to preserve them from book-worms.

The act of unrolling a manuscript to read it was called explicare, and when the reader had come to the end it was opus explicitum. In mediaeval times from the false analogy of the word (hic) incipit, a verb explicit was invented, and was often written at the end of codices to show that the manuscript was complete to the end, though, strictly speaking the word is only applicable to a roll.

Mediaeval use of papyrus.The use of papyrus paper for manuscripts to some extent continued till mediaeval times. Papyrus manuscripts of the sixth and seventh century A.D. are not uncommon, and, long after vellum had superseded papyrus paper for the writing of books, short documents, such as letters, Papal deeds and the like, were still frequently written on papyrus. Papal Briefs on papyrus still exist which were written as late as the eleventh century.

Black ink.The black ink which was used for classical manuscripts was of the kind now known as "Indian" or more correctly "Chinese ink," which cannot be kept in a fluid state, but has to be rubbed up with water from day to day as it is required. One of the menial offices which Aeschines when a boy had to perform in his father's school was "rubbing the ink," t? µ??a? t??ß??; see Demos. De Corona, p. 313. Carbon ink.This kind of ink (µ??a? or µe??????, atramentum librarium) simply consists of finely divided particles of carbon, mixed with gum or with size made by boiling down shreds of parchment. It was obtained by burning a resinous substance and collecting the soot on a cold flat surface, from which it could afterwards be scraped off. The soot had then to be very finely ground, mixed with a gummy medium and then moulded into shape and dried. The process is described by Pliny, Hist. Nat. XXXV. 41; and better still by Vitruvius, VII. 10.

Black pigment.A variety of this carbon pigment used for pictures on stucco by wall-painters was called atramentum tectorium, modern "lamp-black"; the only difference between this and writing ink was in the kind of glutinous medium used with it. Careful scribes probably prepared their own ink, as the writers of mediaeval manuscripts usually did. The common commercial black ink of about 300 A.D. was sold at a very cheap rate, as is recorded in an inscription containing part of Diocletian's famous edict which was found at Megalopolis and published by Mr. Loring (Jour. Hell. Stud. Vol. XI., 1890, p. 318, line 46). Under the heading "Pens and ink," ?e?? ?a??µ?? ?a? µe?a????, the price of ink, µe??????, is fixed at 12 small copper coins the pound.

Very great skill is required to prepare carbon ink of the finest quality. Though it is now largely manufactured in Europe, none but the Chinese can make ink of the best sort.

In some places sepia ink from the cuttle-fish was used in ancient times; see Persius, Sat. III. 12; and cf. Pliny, Hist. Nat. XI. 8, and XXXII. 141.

Red inks.The red ink used for ancient manuscripts was of three different kinds, namely red lead, vermilion or sulphuret of mercury, and red ochre. The ancient names for these red pigments were used very indiscriminately, µ??t??, minium, cinnabaris and rubrica. In some cases µ??t?? certainly means the costly vermilion; and again the word is also used both for red lead and for the much cheaper red ochre. The latter appears to be always meant by the name µ??t?? S???p??; see Choisy, Inscrip. Lebadeia, p. 197. The Latin words minium and rubrica are used in the same vague way; see Vitruv. VII. 9; and Pliny, Hist. Nat. XXXV. 31 to 35.

In mediaeval manuscripts red ink (rubrica) was largely used not only for headings and glosses, but also in Service books for the ritual directions, which have hence taken the name of rubrics.

Purple ink.The purple ink (coccus), which Martial mentions in the passage quoted above at page 27, was made from the kermes beetle, which lives on the ilex trees of Greece and Asia Minor. This was one of the most important of the ancient dyes for woven stuffs and it was also used as a pigment by painters; see below, page 246.

Double inkstands.The inkstands of ancient scribes were commonly made double, to hold both black and red ink. Many examples of these from Egypt and elsewhere still exist, and they are shown in many of the Pompeian wall-paintings. They usually are in the form of two bronze cylinders linked together, each with a lid which is attached by a little chain. Other inkstands are single, little round boxes of bronze, in shape like a large pill-box. Another method, specially common in ancient Egypt, was for the scribe to carry about his ink, both black and red, in a solid form; he then rubbed up with water just as much as he needed at the time. The box and palette mentioned below was made for this use of solid inks, except that the whole thing, handle and all, is made out of one piece of metal.

Reed pens.The pens...