How an Illuminated Manuscript Was Made

A single gospel book could consume 150 calfskins, stretched, scraped, and cut into quires. Scribes ruled pages with pinpricks, wrote with quills cut from goose feathers, and mixed ink from oak galls.

Illuminators built images in layers: drypoint sketch, gesso for raised gold leaf, then mineral pigments ground and bound with egg white. Ultramarine blue from Afghan lapis cost more than gold.

Teams in monasteries and city workshops could spend years on one volume..