Monastery Mysteries: Illuminating the Dark Ages

Abstract

Although history assigns a date of 476 CE to the definitive fall of the Western Roman Empire, this catastrophe was by no means sudden. The great counterbalance to this vacuum that ushered in the Middle Ages developed slowly. It came in the form of small, self-sufficient centers of civilized behavior that emphasized stability and learning. Chief among them were the monasteries both on the continent and the isles where literacy was not only preserved but enhanced. From these feeble beginnings, a great flowering of art and scholarship occurred; the legacy endures in the innumerable illuminated manuscripts and practical manuals produced by faithful artists and copyists spanning the nine centuries we call the medieval period. Building on a base of a simple palette, the artists became adept at incorporating precious mineral pigments into their work as well as expanding the palette with organic colorants drawn from local sources. Research by modern chemists and physicists continues to enlighten us about our cultural heritage and particularly about the preservation and conservation of illuminated manuscripts.