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ILLUMINATED MSS

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 624 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ILLUMINATED See also:

MSS ., and MINIATURES. See also:Writing Implements.—In conclusion, a few words may be added respecting the writing implements employed in the See also:production of MSS. The See also:reed, KaXanos, calamus, was adapted for tracing characters either on See also:papyrus or vellum. By the See also:ancient Egyptians, and also probably by the See also:early See also:Greek See also:scribes in See also:Egypt, it was used with a soft See also:brush-like point, rather as a paint-brush than as a See also:pen. The Greek and See also:Roman scribes used the reed cut to a point and slit like the See also:quill-pen; and it survived as a writing See also:implement into the See also:middle ages. For scratching letters on the waxen tablet the See also:sharp pointed See also:bodkin, on Xos, ypaq'elov, stilus, graphium, was necessary, made of See also:iron, See also:bronze, See also:ivory, or other suitable material, with a knobbed or flattened See also:butt-end wherewith corrections could be made by smoothening the See also:wax See also:surface (hence vertere stilum, to correct). Although there is no very early See also:record of the use of quills as pens, it is obvious that, well adapted as they are for the purpose and to be had everywhere, they must have been in See also:request even in ancient times as they afterwards were in the middle ages. Bronze pens, fashioned exactly on the See also:model of the quill-pen, that is in See also:form of a See also:tube ending in a slit nib (sometimes even with a nib at each end), of See also:late Roman manufacture, are still in existence. A See also:score of them are to be found scattered among public and private museums. The ruler for guiding ruled lines was the Kavcv, See also:canon, See also:regula; the See also:pencil was the . 6Xv65or, plumbum, the plummet; the pricker for marking the spacing out of the ruled lines was the 5ia$6.rni, circinus, punctorium; the pen-See also:knife, yabckavov, uµi)nj, scalprum; the erasing-knife, rasorium, novacula. Inks.—Inks of various See also:colours were employed from early times.

The See also:

ink of the early papyri is a deep glossy See also:black; in the See also:Byzantine See also:period it deteriorates. In the middle ages black ink is generally of excellent quality; it tends to deteriorate from the 14th See also:century. But its quality varies in different countries at different periods. Red ink, besides being used for titles and colophons, also served for contrast, as, for example, in glosses. In the Carolingian period entire MSS. were occasionally written in red ink. Other coloured inks—See also:green, See also:violet and yellow—are also found, at an early date. See also:Gold and See also:silver writing fluids were used in the texts of the ancient See also:purple vellum MSS., and writing in gold was reintroduced under See also:Charlemagne for codices of See also:ordinary See also:white vellum. It was introduced into See also:English MSS. in the loth century.

End of Article: ILLUMINATED MSS

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