History · entry 36 of 52

Illuminated manuscripts used gold and bright pigments, making them expensive and rare objects.

The longer version

Gold can be beaten into leaf thinner than paper and burnished to a shine, and it does not tarnish, so decorated letters stayed bright. Colours came from minerals, plants and insects: ground stone, plant extracts, or costly blue pigment carried a long way by traders.

Materials like that often cost more than the labour itself, so decorated books were commissioned by rulers, bishops and wealthy households. They were kept in treasuries and shown on feast days, valued as much for their metal and pigment as for the words, which is why many were later cut apart for their pictures.

Where this entry sits

This set looks at ancient civilizations, old inventions, trade routes, calendars, and the ordinary objects people once used every day. Nothing here is advice or opinion, just short notes about how daily life used to be organised long ago. The full list sits on the History page, where every entry is listed in order.

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More From History

Eight more entries

The Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian one to correct a slow drift.

January is named after a Roman god said to face both ways at once.

Leap years exist because a year runs slightly longer than three hundred sixty-five days.

Weeks of seven days were used in ancient Babylon and later adopted widely elsewhere.

Calendars were first used to track farming seasons rather than birthdays or holidays.

Water clocks measured time by letting water drip steadily from one vessel to another.

Sundials tell the time by shadow, so they fail at night or on cloudy days.

Merchants relied on letters of credit long before paper money became common in Europe.

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