lettre ornée

Traductions

• anglais

  Auteur : Office québécois de la langue française, 1992

  Note :

  The great manuscripts written during the twelfth century contain early examples of ornamental letters, which were used to introduce chapters in a book. These letters were laboriously drawn and painted by master artists, who worked closely with the scribes writing the manuscripts. We refer to them as illuminated letters because their intense colors (derived from such quality materials as ground gemstones and pure gold) illuminated the entire page, making all the letters look alive. Although illuminated letters are seldom used today, they were the forerunners of the contemporary title initial, which is used to indicate beggining paragraphs in both book and advertising copy.

  Termes :

  1. ornamental letter
  2. illuminated letter
  3. decorated letter
  4. illuminated initial
  5. decorative initial
  6. decorated initial
  7. ornamental initial