Illuminated Manuscripts

Illuminated Manuscripts: "K is for King Lir" (not Shakespeare's King Lear), taken from Fairy Tale ABC's by the McLoughlin Brothers in the 1870's. This graphic is in the public domain because the copyright has expired. It is an 18th century variation of an "illumnated manuscript". Illuminated manuscripts were handwritten manuscripts with hand-painted or drawn illustrations. They were expensive to produce and prior to the development of the printing press, only the wealthy and the priests could afford these books. This graphic is an example of how the illiterate, adults and children alike, were taught to read. With the development of the internet, the publishing industry no longer has a monopoly on books and everyone with a story to tell can produce it on their own. Here is a link to one artist that creates illuminated letters. There are many other sites where they are in the public domain.

The infamous Art of War by Niccollo Machiavelli, author of The Prince, written for the ruling banking family, The Medici's in Florence, Italy. If anyone believed in the logic that the pen is mightier than the sword, Machiavelli did. His belief that deception is a legitimate war tactic has earned him a bad reputation amongst modern day readers. However, his books were never intended for publication amongst the masses but for the Medici's. Insofar as war strategy is concerned, he must be viewed as a realist, rather than an idealist. He was a political scientist of his day, and also a historian. On that note, an interesting bit of trivia is that his historical books do not contain footnotes as modern scholarly works require. His works were part of the Medici library, which later became the first Public Library in Italy. I'm sure researching the internet would yeild pleny of information on the topic of illuminated manuscripts, but one good site I found on the topic is here: http://freechristimages.org/illuminated_manuscripts.htm And on a lighter note for authors who know the history of the class wars and religious conflicts of the time period: