Materials and Techniques
The sheets of parchment or vellum (the former technically the skin of sheep or goat, the latter of calf, parchment being the better generic term) would be defleshed in a bath of alum and lime, stretched, scraped, perhaps whitened, trimmed, pricked and ruled, adorned with script and decoration, and arranged in gatherings (quires), and bound into the book or codex form (unless they were single-sheet documents).
The technical method of book manufacture (codicology) again shows that, during the early period, insular scriptoria formulated their own responses to late antique practice, which differed in many respects from continental techniques. Insular membrane is often thick and suede-like, or stiff and 'celluloid', exhibiting little contrast between hair and flesh sides (unlike its thinner antique and continental counterparts which have a marked contrast, with hair follicles often speckling the yellower hair sides). Insular quire arrangements therefore had no need to place the double sheets (bifolia) in such a manner that, when folded, like would face like at an opening, in continental fashion. Hair sides tend to face outwards, with hair facing flesh at an opening.
The British Library | The Old English Illustrated Hexateuch.
Eleventh century, second quarter; Canterbury.
The three illustrations to this session all come from this Old English translation of the first six books of the Old Testament, and illustrate the stages of execution of miniatures. (BL Shelfmark Cotton MS Claudius B.IV, f.144.) |
Quires were generally of tens or eights (five or four double sheets, or bifolia, folded into booklets), eights becoming the norm in England following the reforms and heightened Mediterranean influence of c.700. Although one bifolium would be written on at a time (the text not, therefore, being continuous, and consideration having had to be devoted to layout ahead of time) the sheets were arranged in gatherings prior to writing and were pricked (in all four margins) and ruled with a hard point, to guide the writing lines, from outside of the quire after it had been folded. On the continent, bifolia would be pricked in their outer margins only, and ruled straight across, prior to folding. Membrane was costly and only the Irish occasionally dispensed with ruling in their pocket Gospel-books where the text block was so condensed that it virtually guided itself. The number of skins used varied in accordance with the character and size of the book. For the Lindisfarne Gospels, a large and luxurious work, no fewer than 127 calf-skins were required.
The British Library | The Old English Illustrated Hexateuch.
Eleventh century, second quarter; Canterbury.
The homilist Aelfric translated much of this Old English translation of the first six books of the Old Testament, which contains an extensive cycle of illustrations, of probable Late Antique or Byzantine inspiration. The miniature here illustrates metal-point drawing and under-painting. (BL Shelfmark Cotton MS Claudius B.IV, f.92v.) |
Occasionally experiments with continental techniques occurred, notably in an Hiberno-Saxon milieu during the seventh century, at Canterbury during the first half of the ninth century, and in Wessex during the early tenth century. These are all areas where, historically, heightened continental influence might be expected. With the advent in England of caroline miniscule script from the mid-tenth century, continental methods of preparation were also generally adopted (although insular symptoms persisted, such as hair sides forming the outside of quires).
Bindings
The assembled quires would be sewn together and bound. They were generally sewn onto a number of leather (alum tawed) cords, the ends of which were then threaded through holes and channels drilled into thick wooden boards (preferably oak or another hardwood, to deter worms) and secured with wooden dowels. Endbands would be sewn to the ends of the spine to further consolidate the binding, and boards and spine would be covered with damp leather which might be moulded over a raised design, tooled with a pattern, and/or adorned with metal fittings. Cords might also serve to tie the boards together at the fore-edges, pressure preventing the membrane from returning to the shape of the animal.
The British Library | The Old English Illustrated Hexateuch.
Eleventh century, second quarter; Canterbury.
This final miniature is a fully painted and tinted drawing. (BL Shelfmark Cotton MS Claudius B.IV, f.63v.) |
Very few such early bindings have survived, although two eighth-century examples associated with St Boniface remain, and pictorial sources supplement the knowledge which may be gleaned from an 'archaeological' examination of traces within the books themselves, many of which were rebound later. A remarkable early survival of an Anglo-Saxon binding is the Gospel of St John which was probably given as a gift to the shrine of St Cuthbert by the Wearmouth/Jarrow communities, c.698. Fascinatingly, the binding technique differs from that described above, in that the quires are sewn together with thread using two needles, rather than being sewn onto supports--a technique practised in Coptic Egypt.
In addition to the codex form, wax tablets were inherited from antiquity (and continued in use almost to the present century). Wooden boards, sometimes in sets bound together with leather thongs, would be hollowed out to receive wax which was written upon with a metal or bone point (stylus), which often had a triangular end used for erasure. These were reusable and could serve for drafting, teaching or even as 'exotic', formal items. Two insular examples of tablets survive, along with numerous styli.
Pigments
An early predilection for a 'tricolor' of pigments consisting of red (red lead), green (verdigris--a copper sulphate) and yellow (orpiment--a trisulphide of arsenic) gave way to a more extensive palette with the growth of the Mediterranean influence, seen in the Codex Amiatinus and the Lindisfarne Gospels at the beginning of the eighth century. This incorporated extracts from minerals (e.g. malachite and azurite), plants (e.g. woad and turnsole) and animals (e.g. kermes, an insect dye) which would be mixed with clarified egg-white (clarea) as the essential binding medium (although additives ranging from stale urine to ear wax are known to have been used during the Middle Ages to achieve the desired coloristic effect). Gold leaf could be used, laid on gum or fish glue, burnished or unburnished; or gold could be powdered to form an even more costly ink or paint. Mixing and layering of pigments extended the range still further (techniques seen at their extremes in the Book of Kells).
From the tenth century the use of colour changes somewhat, although the pigments remain essentially the same (even until the fourteenth century): tinted drawing used thin washes of colour, or coloured outlines, whilst full-painting used thicker pigments and would often give substance and opacity to the colours by adding white lead. Any drawing and layout was generally executed in ink or with a hard metal point, with a lead point (leaving marks resembling a pencil) sometimes being used from the beginning of the eleventh century. A chalk-like substance also occurs, and compasses and dividers were often used to assist layout. Ink generally consisted of oak-gall mixed with carbon (lamp-black) and/or iron extract. Quill pens and brushes were both used, and a knife was sometimes employed for erasure. |
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