<P> An illuminated manuscript is not considered illuminated unless one or many illuminations contained gold foil or was brushed with gold specks, a process known as burnishing . The inclusion of gold on an illumination alludes to many different possibilities for the text . If the text is of religious nature the gold is a sign of exalting the text . In the early centuries of Christianity, "Gospel manuscripts were sometimes written entirely in gold ." Aside from adding flashy decoration to the text, scribes during the time considered themselves to be praising God with their use of gold . In one particular instance, "The life of Christ executed on gold backgrounds with much greater richness in the midst of innumerable scenes of the chase, tourneys, games and grotesque subjects ." Furthermore, gold was used if a patron who had commissioned a book to be written wished to display the vastness of his riches . Eventually, the addition of gold to manuscripts became so frequent, "that its value as a barometer of status with the manuscript was degraded ." During this time period the price of gold had become so cheap that its inclusion in an illuminated manuscript accounted for only a tenth of the cost of production . By adding richness and depth to the manuscript, the use of gold in illuminations created pieces of art that are still valued today . </P> <P> The application of gold leaf or dust to an illumination is a very detailed process that only the most skilled illuminators can undertake and successfully achieve . The first detail an illuminator considered when dealing with gold was whether to use gold leaf or specks of gold that could be applied with a brush . When working with gold leaf the pieces would be hammered and thinned until they were "thinner than the thinnest paper ." The use of this type of leaf allowed for numerous areas of the text to be outlined in gold . There were several ways of applying gold to an illumination one of the most popular included mixing the gold with stag's glue and then "pour it into water and dissolve it with your finger ." Once the gold was soft and malleable in the water it was ready to be applied to the page . Illuminators had to be very careful when applying gold leaf to the manuscript for fear ruining the color already placed in the illumination . Gold leaf is able to "adhere to any pigment which had already been laid, ruining the design, and secondly the action of burnishing it is vigorous and runs the risk of smudging any painting already around it ." The careless implementing of gold could ruin the labor already placed in the illumination and thus cause the entire folio to be discarded . </P> <P> Monasteries produced manuscripts for their own use; heavily illuminated ones tended to be reserved for liturgical use in the early period, while the monastery library held plainer texts . In the early period manuscripts were often commissioned by rulers for their own personal use or as diplomatic gifts, and many old manuscripts continued to be given in this way, even into the Early Modern period . Especially after the book of hours became popular, wealthy individuals commissioned works as a sign of status within the community, sometimes including donor portraits or heraldry: "In a scene from the New Testament, Christ would be shown larger than an apostle, who would be bigger than a mere bystander in the picture, while the humble donor of the painting or the artist himself might appear as a tiny figure in the corner ." The calendar was also personalized, recording the feast days of local or family saints . By the end of the Middle Ages many manuscripts were produced for distribution through a network of agents, and blank spaces might be reserved for the appropriate heraldry to be added locally by the buyer . </P> <P> Displaying the amazing detail and richness of a text, the addition of illumination was never an afterthought . The inclusion of illumination is twofold, it added value to the work, but more importantly it provides pictures for the illiterate members of society to "make the reading seem more vivid and perhaps more credible ." </P>

During the middle ages who was most likely to own a manuscript or book