COLOR AND GOLD: THE DECORATED PAPERS USED IN MANUSCRIPTS IN LATER ISLAMIC TIMES

Abstract

scripts. They have spent less time studying the papers used to support and surround the flowing calligraphy, though these too are often exquisitely tinted and decorated to contribute to this dazzling display. This somewhat lopsided approach reflects the interests of earlier researchers, who preferred paintings to paper. Traditionally, published reproductions show just the miniature or a detail of the illumination and crop the surrounding margins which are often done on colored and decorated paper.' This was the case, for example, in virtually all the miniatures illustrated in the Survey of Persian Art.2 Even such a groundbreaking work as Basil Gray's 1979 volume, The Arts of the Book in Central Asia, which included separate chapters on calligraphy, illumination, and binding, had no discussion of paper, and most of the illustrations in it are cropped to show only the miniatures and not the margins.3 More recent investigations, however, focus on the complete page, including calligraphy and margin, and one of the peripheral purposes of this paper is to encourage reproductions of full rather than cropped pages. Another is to encourage further study and publication of the basic physical aspects of manuscripts. A third is to investigate the connection between technological innovation and descriptions of it in medieval times.