Illuminated manuscripts in the Middle Ages were costly and time consuming to produce. In addition to expensive minerals for ink, the skins of up to five animals were often required to make parchment for one text.

Question

Makaila Freeman

Arts

19 October, 19:51

Illuminated manuscripts in the Middle Ages were costly and time consuming to produce. In addition to expensive minerals for ink, the skins of up to five animals were often required to make parchment for one text.

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Cesar Porter · Answer 1

Answer: The first sentence about illuminated manuscripts being expensive and time consuming is True while the statement about one parchment requiring 5 animals is False

Explanation: While it is true that illumimated manuscripts were expensive and required a lot of time and effort from differernt artisans, parchment (also called vellum), made from stretched animal skins didn't require five animals just to make one text. A large parchment could be gotten from a whole sheepskin to make folded sheets of 2 to 4 pages. A whole book of several pages on the other hand might require a herd of sheep.

The process involved a lot of money and several hours of labour which could turn into months or years for whole books. It starts from the artisan who creates parchment paper from cured animal skins, to thr scribe who carefully transcribes the words unto the parchment with a quill before finally handing it over to the illuminators who use colour to bring the manuscript its most notable characteristic.

The production of illuminated manuscripts is a notable example of teamwork, worthy of note is that all these were done using natural materials.