The word
miniature, derived from the
Latin minium,
red lead, is a picture in an
ancient or
medieval illuminated manuscript; the simple decoration of the early
codices having been miniated or delineated with that
pigment. The generally small scale of the medieval pictures has led secondly to an
etymological confusion of the term with minuteness and to its application to small paintings especially
portrait miniatures, which did however grow from the same tradition and at least initially use similar techniques.