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They are made from different kinds of skin, as parchment was traditionally made of sheepskins. Generally vellum is stouter than parchment, however some types of vellum may be Vellum and parchment are quite different, and is not a mere difference of thickness. After a period when the vellum became thick and rough, towards the Renaissance period it gradually regained its better qualities. Leaves of books subjected to rough usage, like accounting books.īefore the 10th century the vellum was highly polished and very white and fine.
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Prepared skins of oxen or pigs were chiefly used for bindings, and occasionally for Illuminated manuscripts were written on vellum, a material made from calfskin. The red paint was used to mark the initial letters or sections of the manuscript.ĭue to French writers confusing the term minium with their own language word "mignon" (small and pretty), we got the "miniature." The term "miniature" derives from the Latin word minium (red paint), two pigments being known by this name: one is the sulphide of mercury, known also as "vermilion," the other a lead oxide, called "red lead," this one being the minium of the illuminators, though both were used in manuscript work.
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Gold was asįreely applied to it as to the penmanship or the ornament. Hence the definition of the Medieval illuminated manuscript: a perfect illumination must contain both colours and metals.Īt the period when illuminating was at its best, the miniature (a term designating a little picture) was just beginning to appear as a noticeable feature. In the 12th century, an illuminator was the person who practised the art of book decoration, using bright colours and burnished gold.