Che alluminare è chiamata in Parisi; Purg. XI. 80.
| Use of minium. |
Use of minium.The important use that was made of red paint (minium) in the decoration of manuscripts led to the painter being called a miniator, whence the pictures that he executed in manuscripts were called miniature or miniatures. Finally the word miniature was extended in meaning to imply any painting on a minute scale[[21]]. Originally, however, it was only applied to the painted decorations of manuscripts.
| Egyptian miniatures. |
Egyptian miniatures.The Egyptian manuscript "Books of the Dead" are very copiously illuminated with painted miniatures, both in the form of ornamental borders along the edge of the papyrus, and also with larger compositions which occupy the whole depth of the roll.
It is difficult to say to what extent illuminated manuscripts were known to the ancient Greeks, but they were certainly not uncommon in Rome towards the close of the Republic; and it may fairly be assumed that it was from the Greeks that the very inartistic Romans derived the custom of decorating manuscripts with painted miniatures.
| Illustrations in Roman MSS. |
Illustrations in Roman MSS.Pliny tells us (Hist. Nat. XXXV. 11) that a number of manuscripts in the library of M. Varro in the first century B.C. contained no less than 700 portraits of illustrious personages.
That the original manuscript of Vitruvius' work on Architecture was illustrated with explanatory pictures is shown by the frequent reference in the text to these lost illustrations which are mentioned as being at the end of the work; e.g. see III., Praef., 4.
A manuscript written in letters of gold is mentioned by Suetonius (Nero, 10); this was a copy of Nero's own poem which was publicly read aloud to an audience on the Capitol, and was then deposited in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.