Miniatures in Translation: Words for a Gentle Art
Résumé
The present paper looks into the lexical adaptations and evolutions related to limning in
Elizabethan and Jacobean England, offering many stops and turns around Europe, although
focusing more specifically on the links between England and France, the only two European
countries with a significant tradition in portrait miniatures. It first traces the complex journey
of words related to limning (limning, miniatura, miniature) through treatises in English and in
translation between the second half of the 16 th century (i.e. the period when portrait miniatures
appeared as separate works and objects, distinct from the production of illuminated
manuscripts) and the 1640s which saw the word “miniature” progressively supersede that of
“limning”. This then leads to the inquiry into the plausible parallels between the artists and
authors; lexical choices and the evolving status of both limning and limners in early modern
England. The chapter ends with the idea that this also brought about and accompanied
technical innovations, either preceding or deriving from lexical expansion and adaptations.
This short history of the words for limning thus contributes to the wider discussion on the
international dimension of portrait miniatures.