Quotes from Janet Backhouse

It is, however, very important never to lose sight of the fact that the miniatures in illuminated books were not conceived as individual and independent paintings. They are book illustrations and are thus always intimately connected with a text.

The preparation of an illuminated book has always been a very expensive business.

It should be understood that in medieval eyes an artist was simply a craftsman, his activities having little to do with the twentieth-century notions of self-expression, individual genius and 'artistic temperament' that nowadays cling to his profession.

Anglo-Saxon and Irish saints and scholars played a vital role in the conversion of Europe, especially during the seventh and eighth centuries, and through them insular art influenced the work of early continental illuminators.

The Phaenomena of Aratus of Soli] became the fundamental textbook of medieval astronomy, a science of everyday importance, because correct observance of the Church's feast-days depended upon an accurate understanding of the movements of the heavenly bodies.

Anglo-Saxon England had the richest tradition of written vernacular literature of any country in Europe, including a large body of original poetry and many translations of earlier Latin works.

Although illuminated books were an expensive luxury, it would be a mistake to suppose that all the most elaborate ones were made exclusively for royalty or for the higher ranks of the nobility.

Although most Romanesque manuscripts are attributed to communities of monks, the great nunneries must have supported their own scribes and illuminators.

The majority of Gothic manuscripts provide some reflections of contemporary life, because the idea of representing even biblical scenes in any but the idiom of their own times was quite alien to medieval artists.

We do not know whether Jewish manuscripts were usually made by Jewish artists to order in Christian workshops, but they were certainly made in the styles locally current in their countries of adoption.

Although most of the finest early illumination is to be found in liturgical manuscripts, some secular texts were also illuminated. Their number was to increase with increasing individual ownership of books.

Contemporary records reveal that in cities such as Paris the various craftsmen involved in the production of books—illuminators, ink and parchment makers, bookbinders and so forth—tended to live side by side in specific streets or neighbourhoods, which made co-operation easy.

Although the emphasis during the late Middle Ages was upon the provision of books for private patrons, many manuscripts were also made for public use.

The term International Gothic is applied to the arts in the early fifteenth century because there was so general an exchange of influences throughout Europe.