History of German Illustration up to around 1900, illustrated with over 500 black and white images. Illustrations can already be found in ancient scrolls and codices. In the Middle Ages, before the invention of the printing press and the resulting technical reproduction, manuscripts featured illustrations—referred to as "illumination" or "book painting"—which included painted book miniatures, for example, in the form of initials. After Gutenberg, woodcuts were typically used—similar to the printing of text in movable type—which were sometimes hand-colored in individual cases. A historically significant phase for the art of illustration was the Reformation period, which led to a peak in the widespread distribution of pamphlets that often largely omitted text in mass production; the audience.