Modern Philosophy - The Philosophy of Illuminism
Tuesday, 01 June 2010 06:28 en.rafed.net Introduction The vast intellectual movement which made its appearance at the close of the "Glorious Revolution" in England (1688) and continued until the French Revolution (1789) is called Illuminism, or the Enlightenment. The new culture, advancing under the aegis of "reason," launched itself in bitter opposition to all the past in general, and in particular to the Middle Ages. According to the Illuminati -- the exponents of the Enlightenment -- the Middle Ages, victim of philosophical and religious prejudices, had not made use of "reason," and hence they called it the age of obscurantism, or the Dark Ages. Opposition to the immediate past had manifested itself, though to a limited degree, during the Renaissance. Illuminism attempted to go further still, to excel the past in its various manifestations of culture, religion and government -- for its philosophers considered the entire past to be the work of "non-reason" (Anti-historicalism).
Making of Illuminated Manuscripts
Pens and Inks Manuscript scribes wrote with quill or reed pens, the best quills coming from a goose or swan. It would only have taken a medieval scribe a moment to prepare his quill - he would have had a great deal of practice, as the prepared point would not have lasted long before it needed recutting. There exist many contemporary pictures in medieval manuscripts of scribes at work at their desks. These show that writing was a two-handed operation - pen in one hand, knife in the other for sharpening the quill and perhaps for erasing mistakes. It would not have been difficult to scrape ink off a sheet of vellum before it had really dried. The scribe dipped his pen into inkwells, which were often let into the side of his desk - or he may have carried them separately if he was working out of doors. The text which the scribe copied from (called the 'exemplar') was sometimes shown in pictures open on a table at his side, sometimes on a stand attached to his lectern. Manuscript Binding
Illuminated Manuscript | Scholastic ART
ART HISTORY ON DEMAND > Types of Art > Illuminated manuscripts are handwritten books decorated with painted pictures or designs. They are usually thought of as an art of the Middle Ages. Illustrated books have been made throughout the ages. The monks worked in monasteries, in special rooms called scriptoria. Some of the decorations in illuminated manuscripts were small pictures, called miniatures. Other manuscript decorations were purely ornamental. During the 1100's, Europe's first universities were formed. Islamic Illuminated Manuscripts. Beautiful illuminated manuscripts were created by Islamic artists. Reviewed by George O.
p.1 of 2 Making a 15th c. Style illuminated manuscript book using authentic historical materials and techniques
These are justa few of the many colors that I make for my Medieval Manuscript Illuminated Books. We have verdigris on a copper plate, and next to it are yellow orpiment, iron oxide, calcined chicken bones, azurite, yellow ochre, chared bone, vine and wood, red lead, malachite, and lapis lazuli. I also make pigment from insects, other minerals and chemicals, and a lot of different plants and even gall bladders of fish and cows. The colors are made into paint with the addition of sap from acacia, cherry or plum trees, and I also use the fluid left after I beat egg whites. The later is called glair. I process the petals of cornflowers, irises, violets, poppies, the berries of buckthorne, elder, and european bilberries and many more plants to extract vibrant hues. Ultramarine was collected only in Afghanistan during the middle ages. The first step is to mull the lapis lazuli grit as fine as possible on the slab. This is sap green being made from buckthorne berries collected from my yard.
