Week 2 Illuminated Manuscripts

Due to some personal issues I had to skip my regular class and I attending the Wednesday Tutorial instead. I loved the sized and the atmosphere of the smaller class, however that’s not what I’m supposed to be talking about. Anyways, in this tutorial we started our discussion on Illuminated Manuscripts and we had a look at several replicas of some illuminated manuscripts. My fellow class mate Catherine and I had a look at the Book of Kells which I found to be quite dark and almost primitive in design. I felt as though this manuscript was designed more to frighten its readers rather than to inform them.

We then sat down as a group and discussed the similarities and differences between the Book of Kells and another manuscript known as Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. I found this book to be far more charming than the Book of Kells but I think this can be largely attributed to the use of color and the much lighter feeling imagery. However these two books do differ greatly because of the time frame as well as their purposes.

Also in class Susan spoke about Coptic binding which was the binding process that they used in the illuminated manuscripts and also suggested that we could have a go at making our own Coptic bound books which I found to be a very good and interesting idea. The concept of creating our own books is a much more interesting learning experience for me and I find that I take more in if the topic is far more hands on.

I am really looking forward to next week’s class because I want to play with Coptic binding. I found everything in the class quite easy to grasp and it was well explained. However I think the reason that it was so easy to take in was because we were able to discuss in detail with the rest of our class group. It was also handy having members in the class that had taken the class the year before.

I want to learn more about the Book of Kells and the meaning behind it and I also want to find about the time period it was introduced in.