miniature, illumination (noun)

painting or drawing included in a book (especially in illuminated medieval manuscripts)

miniature, toy (adj)

a copy that reproduces a person or thing in greatly reduced size

miniature (adj)

being on a very small scale

"a miniature camera"

miniature (Noun)

A small version of something; a model of reduced scale.

miniature (Noun)

A small, highly detailed painting, a portrait miniature.

miniature (Noun)

The art of painting such highly detailed miniature works.

miniature (Noun)

An illustration in an illuminated manuscript.

miniature (Noun)

A musical composition which is short in duration.

miniature (Noun)

A token in a game representing a unit or character.

miniature (Adjective)

Smaller than normal.

Miniature

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. Apart from the Western and Byzantine traditions, there is another group of Asian traditions, which is generally more illustrative in nature, and from origins in manuscript book decoration also developed into single-sheet small paintings to be kept in albums, which are also called miniatures, as the Western equivalents in watercolor and other mediums are not. These include Persian miniatures, and their Mughal, Ottoman and other Indian offshoots.