Carolingian illumination

Carolingian illumination refers to the illuminated manuscripts produced in the Frankish Empire from the late 8th to the late 9th century. While the preceding Merovingian illumination was purely monastic in character, Carolingian illumination originated from the courts of the Frankish kings and the residences of prominent bishops.

The starting point was the court school of Charlemagne at the Aachen Palace, to which the manuscripts of the Ada group are assigned. At the same time, and probably in the same location, there existed the palace school, whose artists were influenced by Byzantine illumination. The codices of this school are also known, after their leading manuscript, as the group of the Vienna Coronation Gospels. Despite all stylistic differences, both painting schools share a direct engagement with the formal language of late antique illumination and an effort toward a clarity of page design unprecedented until then. After Charlemagne's death, the center of illumination shifted to Reims, Tours, and Metz. While the court school dominated during Charlemagne's time, the works of the palace school were more strongly received in the later centers of book art.

The heyday of Carolingian illumination ended in the late 9th century. In the late Carolingian period, a Franco-Saxon school developed, which again increasingly adopted forms of the older Insular illumination, before a new era began with Ottonian illumination from the end of the 10th century.