Artists and Autonomy: Written Instructions and Preliminary Drawings for the Illuminator in the Huntington Library Legenda aurea (HM 3027)

Abstract

This essay will examine the presence of written instructions and preliminary drawings for the illuminator visible in the Huntington Library Legenda aurea, the oldest surviving extensively illuminated manuscript of the text in Latin. It is an excellent example of the collaborative nature of manuscript production in thirteenth-century Paris. What is particularly interesting is that there are a number of occasions where the miniatures deviate from the text, from the written instructions to the illuminator, and even from the preliminary sketches, which suggest that the artist had some agency in determining the iconography and appearance of the final images. I will discuss these deviations and the broader implications of some of these choices in terms of manuscript production, the status of the artist, and the ideological implications of some of the imagery.