Decorated Letters From Early Manuscripts Will Headline Getty Exhibit

The spectacularly ornate treatment given to single letters in medieval and Renaissance religious books was not just a way of glorifying a sacred text.

“The decoration of these letters was a major vehicle for art in the Middle Ages,” said Thomas Kren, curator of manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu. On Tuesday, the museum--which, with 180 illuminated manuscripts, has the third largest collection in the United States--opens an exhibit devoted exclusively to these decorated letters in books from the 9th to 16th centuries.

“They served the function of glorifying the word of God,” he said, “but they also had a very practical use. They were a way of marking divisions in the text, of helping to identify where a particular passage began.

“In a sense, they were sort of bookmarks.”

These spectacular letters are a long way from the cards or scrap paper that most of us use today to mark a place in a book. These letters--found in Bibles, Psalters, choir books, missals and other sacred works--were usually drawn out in the margin to make them many times bigger than the regular text.

They marked the beginning of passages meant to be read on certain occasions or prayers that were a part of daily devotions.

“They didn’t read a book like we read a novel,” Kren said. “They skipped around and the letters were their guides.”

The letters in the exhibit fall into three basic categories: the abstract, the ones that use human or animal forms to make the letters, and those that depict a scene from the text.

Most are awash in color--including gold leaf--and many are quite lavish, making use of ornate geometric patterns or dozens of tiny humans and animals. Even the letters that depict scenes are so ornate that it’s sometimes difficult to decipher them.

“The great fun is to try and figure out just what is going on,” said William Noel, assistant curator of the collection. Upon arrival at the museum from England in the fall, his first assignment was to organize this exhibit and write its guide.

Noel, 26, who won the two-year post at the Getty while a graduate student at Cambridge University, opened a huge choir book--big enough so that six singers could read from it simultaneously--that was illuminated by artist Antonio de Monza of Rome in about 1500. The text at which he stopped tells the story of Christ’s Resurrection and begins, in Latin: “Resurrexi et adhunc tecum sum” (“I arose and am still with thee”).

The illustration of the letter R is so heavily ornamented that Christ standing atop a tomb is only a small part of the picture. There is also a man who seems to be half-soldier/half-monster, a nude king caught on a piece of parchment, a woman trapped inside a glass cage with her hands tied to a post, a cameo of a soldier and various pieces of jewelry. The entire page is bordered with dozens of additional figures done in Italian Renaissance style that, Noel said, were derived from ancient Roman wall paintings.

“Look at those cameos,” said Noel, using a magnifying glass to get a close-up view. “That’s how you know this is bang slam from the heart of the Renaissance.”

Also in the collection are several letters that show scenes from the life of King David, the celebrated psalm singer. Noel carefully opens a Psalter done in Germany in about 1250. A B that marks the beginning of the Book of Psalms shows David flanked by two musicians and singing with emotion.

“You can see him with his hand and his chest and singing like Pavarotti,” Noel said.

Another pictorial example--an S from a part of the Mass of St. Paul--is probably also from a choir book, although that’s not certain.

The Getty owns only the letter. The book probably no longer exists.

“Over the centuries, many of the manuscripts were discarded by people who didn’t think they had any value,” Kren said. “But in some cases, they did save the illuminated letters or other bits of decoration.”

This letter, which dates from about 1450 and depicts soldiers and horses--which Kren thinks is like a drawing of the conversion of St. Paul--is one of the newest additions to the Getty’s manuscript collection. It was bought at auction in England last year for almost $250,000.

Although there is no record that the famed Italian Renaissance painter Pisanello illuminated manuscripts, this letter was done in his style with his characteristic strong profiles. But, Kren noted, the letter was probably done by someone “who was in Pisanello’s circle.”

More abstract are the letters VD that are atop a page from a sacramentary that dates from the 11th Century in Germany. The letters stand for the oft-used abbreviation for Vere dignum , which is the beginning of a prayer “Vere dignum et iustum est” (“It is truly fitting and proper”) at the consecration of the Eucharist in the Mass.

The letters are so ornately appointed in gold on vellum that it is difficult at first to see the V and D. Noel pointed out that some theological scholars have assigned a meaning to the very form of the letters, with the D signifying divine nature with neither beginning nor end and the V standing for Christ’s human nature originating in the virgin birth and continuing without end.

The illumination of letters died down after the invention of printing in the 15th Century. Thereafter, books were not given such individual attention and were in many cases conveniently divided into chapters or sections.

But Noel believes that even in this age of laser printers and word processors, there are still links to the time long ago when artists lavished attention on just one letter at a time.

“Every time you hand write a letter, you are wedded to that art form,” he said. “Every time you bold something or highlight something, you are joining the line of those who did this work. You are making a bit of text special, making it stand out.

“It continues on.”