Overview
The illuminated books of medieval Europe are among the most beautiful and accessible early works of art, encompassing the scholastic and artistic areas of literature, the Bible, religion, history, law, philosophy, science, music, calligraphy and painting. Sotheby's is the only auction house in the world to hold sales devoted exclusively to these medieval treasures.
Illuminated manuscripts were made in Europe starting around the seventh century until circa 1500. They were carefully written by hand by scribes on vellum or paper, then decorated by illuminators in vivid colors with various degrees of richness, and finally bound by binders with covers of vellum, leather or more precious materials, such as ivory or silver. These books could be created either by monks working in the solitude of a cloister or by lay professionals based in workshops in the busy streets of a medieval town. The patrons and purchasers of medieval manuscripts were emperors, aristocrats, religious houses, merchants, scholars, and students. All the magic of this past world is conveyed to us through the individual painted illustrations within these books, the so-called miniatures.
A surprisingly great number of medieval manuscripts still survive and transmit to us the knowledge of the classical and medieval ages. Illuminated manuscripts have been actively collected for centuries, the demographic profile of collectors crossing all cultural and traditional boundaries: sales of medieval manuscripts include texts in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Armenian and all the European languages.
Auctions usually open with relatively inexpensive single leaves and miniatures, followed by documents, manuscripts in Hebrew and Greek, Bibles, Psalters, text manuscripts of the Middle Ages, the ancient classics, medieval chronicles, science, medicine, music, etc., and richly illuminated Missals, Breviaries, and the most famous and often the most opulent of all illuminated manuscripts, Books of Hours.
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