The bibliophile's glossary
Illumination
Painted or gilded decoration of a manuscript: ornamental letters, borders and miniatures, executed by hand on the parchment after the text had been copied. The word comes from the Latin illuminare, meaning "to illuminate". Illumination belongs to the manuscript book and to early printed books, whose initials were still painted by hand.
The word enluminure derives from the Latin illuminare, to illuminate, and refers in the strict sense to the painted decoration of medieval manuscripts: ornamented initials, borders of scrollwork and foliage, full-page or vignette miniatures, gold leaf applied on gesso. The illuminator worked after the scribe, in the spaces left blank; the books of hours of the 14th and 15th centuries, from the Très Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry to Parisian books of hours produced in series, are its best-known form.
For the bookseller, an illumination is authenticated by its materials and technique — vellum, pigments, burnished gold leaf, underdrawing visible under raking light — and described by its subject, size and condition: rubbing to the gilding, flaking, retouching. A single illuminated leaf is a fragment, whose provenance must be documented; a complete manuscript is described gathering by gathering, with the number and subject of the miniatures, initials and borders. Early printed books continue the practice: incunabula with painted initials and illuminated borders are described as such, and their decoration is sometimes attributed to a workshop.
Illumination is often confused with the miniature, which is only one element of it, and leaves painted in the 19th century in imitation of the Gothic style, or chromolithographs of neo-medieval books of hours, are sometimes mistaken for genuine early illumination. An "illuminated" initial in a 16th-century printed book may be no more than a woodcut touched up with a brush. Lastly, the word was used by 18th-century naturalists for hand-coloured engravings (Buffon's Planches enluminées): this is a historical usage, and these plates are coloured prints, not illuminations.
Related terms
Initial letterIncipit (and explicit)Vellum (skin)IncunableWoodcut
Frequently asked questions
What is an illuminated miniature?
It is the painted or gilded decoration that adorns a manuscript: ornamental letters, borders, miniatures. The word comes from the Latin illuminare, « to illuminate »: illumination brings the page to light, with gold and colours.
What is the difference between an illumination and a miniature?
A miniature is a painted scene, a small picture; an illumination is the decoration as a whole, of which the miniature is only one element alongside initials and borders. Indeed, the word miniature comes from minium, the red of rubrics, and not from its small size.
Can a printed book be illuminated?
Yes, for early printed books: incunabula left blank spaces for initials and borders, which were then hand-painted as in a manuscript. Beyond the early sixteenth century, the painted decoration of a printed book is described as colouring or heightening, not as illumination.