Getty Museum

Decorated Text Page

Date

early 9th century

Medium

Tempera colors and gold and silver paint; fols. 1 - 4 stained purple; disbound

Culture

Carolingian

Department

Manuscripts

Institution

Getty Museum

Some of the pages of this Gospel lectionary were colored purple, historically associating this book with the lavish manuscripts of ancient Rome. The purple found in the Roman books was achieved by dyeing the pages with an expensive shellfish dye called Tyrian purple (after the Eastern Mediterranean port from which it came), or whelk purple (after the shellfish from which it was extracted). In the case of this manuscript, the same effect was attained by coloring the surface of the pages with a reddish-purple paint, orchil, a dye derived from lichen. Coloring the pages in this way was reserved for only the most precious manuscripts. Charlemagne hoped to evoke the grandeur of ancient Rome and associate his reign with that time through manuscripts like this one.

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