Produced by Project Rastko, Zoran Stefanovic, H.J. Bent
and the Online Distributed Proofreaders Europe at
http://dp.rastko.net.





                             Illuminated
                             Manuscripts

                            John Bradley


                            BRACKEN BOOKS
                               LONDON




CONTENTS

BOOK I

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

What is meant by art?--The art faculty--How artists may be compared--The
aim of illumination--Distinction between illumination and
miniature--Definition of illumination--The first miniature
painter--Origin of the term "miniature"--Ovid's allusion to his little
book.

CHAPTER II

VELLUM AND OTHER MATERIALS

Difference between vellum and parchment--Names of different
preparations--The kinds of vellum most prized for illuminated books--The
"parcheminerie" of the Abbey of Cluny--Origin of the term
"parchment"--Papyrus.

CHAPTER III

WRITING

Its different styles--Origin of Western alphabets--Various forms of
letters--Capitals, uncials, etc.--Texts used in Western Europe--Forms of
ancient writings--The roll, or volume--The codex--Tablets--Diptychs,
etc.--The square book--How different sizes of books were produced.

CHAPTER IV

GREEK AND ROMAN ILLUMINATION

The first miniature painter--The Vatican Vergils--Methods of
painting--Origin of Christian art--The Vienna Genesis--The
Dioscorides--The Byzantine Revival.

CHAPTER V

BYZANTINE ILLUMINATION

The rebuilding of the city of Byzantium the beginning of Byzantine
art--Justinian's fondness for building and splendour--Description of
Paul the Silentiary--Sumptuous garments--The Gospel-book of
Hormisdas--Characteristics of Byzantine work--Comparative scarcity of
examples--Rigidity of Byzantine rules of art--Periods of Byzantine
art--Examples--Monotony and lifelessness of the style.

CHAPTER VI

CELTIC ILLUMINATION

Early liturgical books reflect the ecclesiastical art of their
time--This feature a continuous characteristic of illumination down to
the latest times--Elements of Celtic ornament--Gospels of St.
Chad--Durham Gospels--Contrast of Celtic and Byzantine--St.
Columba--Book of Kells--Details of its decoration.

CHAPTER VII

CELTIC ILLUMINATION--_continued_

The Iona Gospels--Contrast with Roman and Byzantine--Details--Treatment
of animal forms--Colour schemes--The Gospel-book of St. Columbanus--That
of Mael Brith Mac Durnan--The Lindisfarne Gospels--Cumdachs--Other
book-shrines.

CHAPTER VIII

SEMI-BARBARIC ILLUMINATION

Visigothic--Merovingian--Lombardic--Extinction of classic art--Splendid
reign of Dagobert--St. Eloy of Noyon--The Library of Laon--Natural
History of Isidore of Seville--Elements of contemporary art--Details of
ornament--Symbolism--Luxeuil and Monte Cassino--Sacramentary of
Gellone--"Prudentius"--"Orosius"--Value of the Sacramentary of Gellone.

CHAPTER IX

DEVELOPMENT OF THE INITIAL

The initial and initial paragraph the main object of decoration in
Celtic illumination--Study of the letter L as an example--The I of "In
principio" and the B of "Beatus Vir".

CHAPTER X

FIRST ENGLISH STYLES

Transition from Iona to Lindisfarne--Influence of Frankish art--The
"Opus Anglicum"--The Winchester school and its characteristics--Whence
obtained--Method of painting--Examples--Where found and described.

CHAPTER XI

CAROLINGIAN ILLUMINATION

Why so-called--Works to be consulted--The Library of St. Gall--Rise and
progress of Carolingian art--Account of various MSS.--Feature of the
style--Gospels of St. Sernin--The Ada-Codex--Centres of
production--Other splendid examples--The Alcuin Bible--The Gospel of St.
Médard of Soissons.

CHAPTER XII

MONASTIC ILLUMINATION

Introductory--Monasteries and their work from the sixth to the ninth
century--The claustral schools--Alcuin--Warnefrid and Theodulf--Clerics
and monastics--The Golden Age of monasticism--The Order of St.
Benedict--Cistercian houses--Other Orders--Progress of writing in
Carolingian times--Division of labour.

CHAPTER XIII

MONASTIC ILLUMINATION--_continued_

The copyist--Gratuitous labour--Last words of copyists--Disputes between
Cluny and Citeaux--The Abbey of Cluny: its grandeur and influences--Use
of gold and purple vellum--The more influential abbeys and their work in
France, Germany, and the Netherlands.

CHAPTER XIV

OTHONIAN ILLUMINATION

Departure from Carolingian--Bird and serpent--Common use of dracontine
forms in letter-ornament--Influence of metal-work on the forms of
scroll-ornament--The vine-stem and its developments--Introduction of
Greek taste and fashion into Germany--Cistercian illumination--The
Othonian period--Influence of women as patronesses and
practitioners--German princesses--The Empress Adelheid of Burgundy--The
Empress Theophano--Henry II. and the Empress
Cunegunda--Bamberg--Examples of Othonian art.

CHAPTER XV

FRANCONIAN ILLUMINATION

The later Saxon schools--Bernward of Hildesheim--Tuotilo and Hartmut of
St. Gallen--Portrait of Henry II. in MS. 40 at Munich--Netherlandish and
other work compared--Alleged deterioration of work under the Franconian
Emperors not true--Bad character of the eleventh century as to
art--Example to the contrary.

CHAPTER XVI

ARTISTIC EDUCATION IN THE CLOISTER

The "Manual"--Its discovery--Its origin and contents--Didron's
translation--The "Compendium" of Theophilus--Its contents--English
version by Hendrie--Benedictine and Cistercian illumination--How they
differ--Character of monastic architects and artists.

CHAPTER XVII

THE RISE OF GOTHIC ILLUMINATION

Germany the chief power in Europe in the twelfth century--Rise of
Italian influence--The Emmeram MSS.--Coronation of Henry II.--The
Apocalypse--The "Hortus Deliciarum"--Romanesque--MS. of Henry the
Lion--The Niedermünster Gospels--Description of the MS.--Rise of
Gothic--Uncertainty of its origin--The spirit of the age.


BOOK II

CHAPTER I

THE GOLDEN AGE OF ILLUMINATION

The Gothic spirit--A "zeitgeist" not the invention of a single artist
nor of a single country--The thirteenth century the beginning of the new
style--Contrast between North and South, between East and West, marked
in the character of artistic leaf-work--Gradual development of Gothic
foliage--The bud of the thirteenth century, the leaf of the fourteenth,
and the flower of the fifteenth--The Freemasons--Illumination
transferred from the monastery to the lay workshop--The Psalter of St.
Louis--Characteristics of French Gothic illumination--Rise of the
miniature as a distinct feature--Guilds--Lay artists.

CHAPTER II

RISE OF NATIONAL STYLES

The fourteenth century the true Golden Age of Gothic
illumination--France the cradle of other national styles--Netherlandish,
Italian, German, etc.--Distinction of schools--Difficulty of assigning
the _provenance_ of MSS.--The reason for it--MS. in Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge--The Padua Missal--Artists' names--Whence obtained.

CHAPTER III

FRENCH ILLUMINATION FROM THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY TO THE RENAISSANCE

Ivy-leaf and chequered backgrounds--Occasional introduction of plain
burnished gold--Reign of Charles VI. of France--The Dukes of Orleans,
Berry, and Burgundy; their prodigality and fine taste for
MSS.--Christine de Pisan and her works--Description of her "Mutation of
Fortune" in the Paris Library--The "Roman de la Rose" and "Cité des
Dames"--Details of the French style of illumination--Burgundian MSS.,
Harl. 4431--Roy. 15 E. 6--The Talbot Romances--Gradual approach to
Flemish on the one hand and Italian on the other.

CHAPTER IV

ENGLISH ILLUMINATION FROM THE TENTH TO THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

Organisation of the monastic _scriptoria_--Professional outsiders: lay
artists--The whole sometimes the work of the same practitioner--The
Winchester Abbeys of St. Swithun's and Hyde--Their vicissitudes--St.
Alban's--Westminster--Royal MS. 2 A 22--Description of style--The
Tenison Psalter--Features of this period--The Arundel Psalter--Hunting
and shooting scenes, and games--Characteristic pictures, grotesques, and
caricatures--Queen Mary's Psalter--Rapid changes under Richard
II.--Royal MS. 2 E. 9--Their cause.

CHAPTER V

THE SOURCES OF ENGLISH FIFTEENTH-CENTURY ILLUMINATION

Attributed to the Netherlands--Not altogether French--The home of Anne
of Bohemia, Richard II.'s Queen--Court of Charles IV. at Prag--Bohemian
Art--John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia--The Golden Bull of Charles
IV.--Marriage of Richard II.--The transformation of English work owing
to this marriage and the arrival of Bohemian artists in
England--Influence of Queen Anne on English Art and
Literature--Depression caused by her death--Examination of Roy. MS. 1 E.
9 and 2 A. 18--The Grandison Hours--Other MSS.--Introduction of Flemish
work by Edward IV.

CHAPTER VI

ITALIAN ILLUMINATION

Barbaric character of Italian illumination in the twelfth
century--Ravenna and Pavia the earliest centres of revival--The
"Exultet"--La Cava and Monte Cassino--The writers of early Italian MSS.
not Italians--In the early fourteenth century the art is
French--Peculiarities of Italian foliages--The Law Books--Poems of
Convenevole da Prato, the tutor of Petrarch--Celebrated patrons--The
Laon Boethius--The Decretals, Institutes, etc.--"Decretum Gratiani,"
other collections and MSS.--Statuts du Saint Esprit--Method of
painting--Don Silvestro--The Rationale of Durandus--Nicolas of Bologna,
etc.--Triumphs of Petrarch--Books at San Marco, Florence--The Brera
Graduals at Milan--Other Italian collections--Examples of different
localities in the British Museum--Places where the best work was
done--Fine Neapolitan MS. in the British Museum--The white-vine style
superseded by the classical renaissance.

CHAPTER VII

GERMAN ILLUMINATION FROM THE THIRTEENTH TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

Frederick II., _Stupor Mundi_, and his MS. on hunting--The Sicilian
school mainly Saracenic, but a mixture of Greek, Arabic, and Latin
tastes--The Franconian Emperors at Bamberg--Charles of Anjou--The House
of Luxembourg at Prag--MSS. in the University Library--The Collegium
Carolinum of the Emperor Charles IV.--MSS. at Vienna--The Wenzel
Bible--The Weltchronik of Rudolf v. Ems at Stuttgard--Wilhelm v. Oranse
at Vienna--The Golden Bull--Various schools--Hildesheimer Prayer-book at
Berlin--The Nuremberg school--The Glockendons--The Brethren of the Pen.

CHAPTER VIII

NETHERLANDISH ILLUMINATION

What is meant by the Netherlands--Early realism and study of
nature--Combination of symbolism with imitation--Anachronism in
design--The value of the pictorial methods of the old illuminators--The
oldest Netherlandish MS.--Harlinda and Renilda--The nunnery at
Maas-Eyck--Description of the MS.--Thomas à Kempis--The school of
Zwolle--Character of the work--The use of green landscape
backgrounds--The Dukes of Burgundy--Netherlandish artists--No miniatures
of the Van Eycks or Memling known to exist--Schools of Bruges, Ghent,
Liége, etc.--Brussels Library--Splendid Netherlandish MSS. at
Vienna--Gerard David and the Grimani Breviary--British Museum--"Romance
of the Rose"--"Isabella" Breviary--Grisailles.

CHAPTER IX

THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE

Communication with Italy--Renaissance not sudden--Origin of the schools
of France and Burgundy--Touraine and its art--Fouquet--Brentano
MSS.--"Versailles Livy"--Munich "Boccaccio," etc.--Perréal and
Bourdichon--"Hours of Anne of Brittany"--Poyet--The school of
Fontainebleau--Stained glass--Jean Cousin--Gouffier "Heures"--British
Museum Offices of Francis I.--Dinteville Offices--Paris "Heures de
Montmorency", "Heures de Dinteville," etc.

CHAPTER X

SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE ILLUMINATION

Late period of Spanish illumination--Isidore of Seville--Archives at
Madrid--Barcelona--Toledo--Madrid--Choir-books of the Escorial--Philip
II.--Illuminators of the choir-books--The size and beauty of the
volumes--Fray Andrés de Leon and other artists--Italian
influence--Giovanni Battista Scorza of Genoa--Antonio de Holanda,
well-known Portuguese miniaturist in sixteenth century--His son
Francesco--The choir-books at Belem--French invasion--Missal of
Gonçalvez--Sandoval Genealogies--Portuguese Genealogies in British
Museum--The Stowe Missal of John III.

CHAPTER XI

ILLUMINATION SINCE THE INVENTION OF PRINTING

The invention of printing--Its very slight affect on
illuminating--Preference by rich patrons for written books--Work
produced in various cities in the sixteenth century--Examples in German,
Italian, and other cities, and in various public libraries up to the
present time.

MANUSCRIPTS THAT MAY BE CONSULTED

BIBLIOGRAPHY




                     ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS

                             BOOK I




CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

What is meant by art?--The art faculty--How artists may be compared--The
aim of illumination--Distinction between illumination and
miniature--Definition of illumination--The first miniature
painter--Origin of the term "miniature"--Ovid's allusion to his little
book.


The desire for decoration is probably as old as the human race. Nature,
of course, is the source of beauty, and this natural beauty affects
something within us which has or is the faculty of reproducing the cause
of its emotion in a material form. Whether the reproduction be such as
to appeal to the eye or the ear depends on the cast of the faculty. In a
mild or elementary form, probably both casts of faculty exist in every
animated creature, and especially in the human being.

Art being the intelligent representation of that quality of beauty which
appeals to any particular observer, whoever exercises the faculty of
such representation is an artist.

Greatness or otherwise is simply the measure of the faculty, for in
Nature herself there is no restriction. There is always enough of beauty
in Nature to fill the mightiest capacity of human genius. Artists,
therefore, are measured by comparison with each other in reference to
the fraction of art which they attempt to reproduce.

The art of illumination does not aim at more than the gratification of
those who take pleasure in books. Its highest ambition is to make books
beautiful.

To some persons, perhaps, all ordinary books are ugly and distasteful.
Probably they are so to the average schoolboy. Hence the laudable
endeavour among publishers of school-books to make them attractive. The
desire that books should be made attractive is of great antiquity. How
far back in the world's history we should have to go to get in front of
it we cannot venture to reckon. The methods of making books attractive
are numerous and varied. That to which we shall confine our attention is
a rather special one. Both its processes and its results are peculiar.
Mere pictures or pretty ornamental letters in sweet colours and elegant
drawing do not constitute illumination, though they do form essential
contributions towards it; and, indeed, in the sixteenth century the
clever practitioners who wished, in bright colours, to awaken up the old
woodcuts used to call themselves illuminists, and the old German books
which taught how the work should be done were called _Illuminir bücher_.
Illuminists were not illuminators.

In the twelfth century when, as far as we know, the word illuminator was
first applied to one who practised the art of book decoration, it meant
one who "lighted up" the page of the book with bright colours and
burnished gold.

These processes suggest the definition of the art. _Perfect illumination
must contain both colours and metals_. To this extent it is in perfect
unison with the other mediæval art of heraldry; it might almost be
called a twin-sister.

As an art it is much older than its name. We find something very like it
even among the ancient Egyptians, for in the Louvre at Paris is a
papyrus containing paintings of funeral ceremonies, executed in bright
colours and touched in its high lights with pencilled gold. But after
this for many centuries there remains no record of the existence of any
such art until just before the Christian era. Then, indeed, we have
mention of a lady artist who painted a number of miniature portraits for
the great biographical work of the learned Varro. We must carefully
observe, however, that there is a distinction between illumination and
mere miniature painting. Sometimes it is true that miniatures--as _e.g._
those of the early Byzantine artists, and afterwards those of Western
Europe--were finished with touches of gold to represent the lights. This
brought them into the category of illuminations, for while miniatures
may be executed without the use of gold or silver, illuminations may
not. There are thousands of miniatures that are not illuminations.

At the period when illuminating was at its best the miniature, in its
modern sense of a little picture, was only just beginning to appear as a
noticeable feature, and the gold was as freely applied to it as to the
penmanship or the ornament. But such is not the case with miniature
painting generally.

Lala of Cyzicus, the lady artist just referred to, lived in the time of
Augustus Cæsar. She has the honour of being the first miniaturist on
record, and is said to have produced excellent portraits "in little,"
especially those of ladies, on both vellum and ivory. Her own portrait,
representing her engaged in painting a statuette, is still to be seen
among the precious frescoes preserved in the museum at Naples.

The term "miniature," now applied to this class of work, has been
frequently explained. It is derived from the Latin word _minium_, or red
paint, two pigments being anciently known by this name--one the sulphide
of mercury, now known also as "vermilion," the other a lead oxide, now
called "red lead." It is the latter which is generally understood as the
_minium_ of the illuminators, though both were used in manuscript work.
The red paint was employed to mark the initial letters or sections of
the MS. Its connection with portraiture and other pictorial subjects on
a small scale is entirely owing to its accidental confusion by French
writers with their own word _mignon_, and so with the Latin _minus_. In
classical times, among the Romans, the "miniator" was simply a person
who applied the _minium_, and had nothing to do with pictures or
portraits at all, but with the writing. That the rubrication of titles,
however, was somewhat of a luxury may be gathered from the complaint of
Ovid when issuing the humble edition of his verses from his lonely exile
of Tomi:--

         "Parve (nec invideo) sine me liber ibis in urbem:
          Hei mihi quo domino non licet ire tuo.
          ...........................
          Nec te purpureo velent vaccinia succo
          Non est conveniens luctibus ille color.
          _Nec titulus minio_, nec cedro carta notetur
          Candida nec nigra cornua fronte geras."[1]

                                   _Tristia_, Cl. 1, Eleg. 1.

[1] "Go, little book, nor do I forbid,--go without me into that city
where, alas! I may enter never more.... Nor shall whortleberries adorn
thee with their crimson juice; that colour is not suitable for
lamentations. Nor shall thy title be marked with minium, nor thy leaf
scented with cedar-oil. Nor shalt thou bear horns of ivory or ebony upon
thy front."

There are many allusions in these pathetic lines which would bear
annotation, but space forbids. The one point is the use of minium.




CHAPTER II

VELLUM AND OTHER MATERIALS

Difference between vellum and parchment--Names of different
preparations--The kinds of vellum most prized for illuminated books--The
"parcheminerie" of the Abbey of Cluny--Origin of the term
"parchment"--Papyrus.


As vellum is constantly spoken of in connection with illumination and
illuminated books, it becomes necessary to explain what it is, and why
it was used instead of paper.

We often find writers, when referring to ancient documents, making use
of the words parchment and vellum as if the terms were synonymous; but
this is not strictly correct. It is true that both are prepared from
skins, but the skins are different. They are similar, but not the same,
nor, indeed, are they interchangeable. In point of fact, the skins of
almost all the well-known domestic animals, and even of fishes, have
been used for the purpose of making a material for writing upon.
Specifically among the skins so prepared were the following: the
ordinary lambskin, called "aignellinus"[2]; that prepared from stillborn
lambs, called "virgin parchment."

[2] Strictly _agnellinus_.

From sheepskins was produced ordinary "parchment," and also a sort of
leather called "basane" or "cordovan." Vellum was produced from
calfskin; that of the stillborn calf being called "uterine vellum," and
considered the finest and thinnest. It is often spoken of in connection
with the exquisitely written Bibles of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries as of the highest value.

Besides these were the prepared skins of oxen, pigs, and asses; but
these were chiefly used for bindings, though occasionally for leaves of
account and other books liable to rough usage.

Before the tenth century the vellum used for MSS. is highly polished,
and very white and fine. Afterwards it becomes thick and rough,
especially on the hair side. In the examination of certain MSS. the
distinction of hair side and smooth side is of importance in counting
the gatherings so as to determine the completeness, or otherwise, of a
given volume. Towards the period of the Renaissance, however, the vellum
gradually regains its better qualities.

Thus it may be seen that the difference between vellum and parchment is
not a mere difference of thickness; for while, in general, vellum is
stouter than parchment, there is some vellum which is thinner than some
parchment. Not only are they made from different kinds of skin, but the
vellum used for illuminated books was, and still is, prepared with
greater care than the parchment used for ordinary school or college
treatises, or legal documents.

The fabrication of both parchment and vellum in the Middle Ages was
quite as important a matter as that of paper at the present time, and
certain monastic establishments had a special reputation for the
excellence of their manufacture. Thus the "parcheminerie," as it was
called, of the Abbey of Cluny, in France, was quite celebrated in the
twelfth century. One reason probably for this celebrity was the fact
that Cluny had more than three hundred churches, colleges, and
monasteries amongst its dependencies, and therefore had ample
opportunities for obtaining the best materials and learning the best
methods in use throughout literary Christendom. As to the name "vellum,"
it is directly referable to the familiar Latin term for the hide or pelt
of the sheep or other animal, but specially applied, as we have said, to
that of the calf, the writing material thus prepared being termed
_charta vitulina_--in French _vélin_, and in monastic Latin and English
_vellum_.

The name "parchment" had quite a different kind of origin. It is an old
story, found in Pliny's _Natural History_ (bk. xiii. ch. 70), that the
ancient use or revival of the use of parchment was due to the
determination of King Eumenes II. of Mysia or Pergamos to form a library
which should rival those of Alexandria, but that when he applied to
Egypt for papyrus, the writing materials then in use, Ptolemy Epiphanes
jealously refused to permit its exportation. In this difficulty Eumenes,
we are told, had recourse to the preparation of sheepskins, and that
from the place of its invention it was called _charta pergamena_.

Pliny and his authority, however, were both wrong in point of history.
Eumenes, who reigned from about 197 to 158 B.C., was not the inventor,
but the restorer of its use (see Herodotus, v. 58). It was called in
Greek μεμβράνα (2 Tim. iv. 13).

We may mention, by the way, that neither vellum nor parchment are by any
means the oldest materials known. Far older, and more generally used in
Italy, Greece, and Egypt, was the material which has given us the name
of our commonest writing material of to-day, viz. paper. The name of
this older material was _papyrus_ (Gr. πάπυρος and χάρτης). As a writing
material it was known in Egypt from remote antiquity. It was plentiful
in Rome in the time of the Cæsars, and it continued, both in Grecian and
Roman Egypt, to be the ordinary material employed down to the middle of
the tenth century of our era. In Europe, too, it continued in common use
long after vellum had been adopted for books, though more especially for
letters and accounts. St. Jerome mentions vellum as an alternative
material in case papyrus should fail (Ep. vii.), and St. Augustine (Ep.
xv.) apologises for using vellum instead of papyrus.[3] Papyrus was also
used in the early Middle Ages. Examples, _made up into
book-form_--_i.e._ in leaves, with sometimes a few vellum leaves among
them for stability--are still extant. Among such are some seven or eight
books in various European libraries, the best known being the Homilies
of St. Avitus at Paris, the Antiquities of Josephus at Milan, and the
Isidore at St. Gall.

[3] Thompson, _Greek and Latin Palæography_, p. 33.

And in the Papal Chancery papyrus appears to have been used down to a
late date in preference to vellum.[4]

[4] Thompson, _op. cit._, p. 34; Aug. Molinier, _Les Manuscrits_,
Prélim.; Lecoy de la Marche, _Les MSS. et la Miniature_, p. 24.

In France papyrus was in common use in the sixth and seventh centuries.
Merovingian documents dating from 625 to 692 are still preserved in
Paris.




CHAPTER III

WRITING

Its different styles--Origin of Western alphabets--Various forms of
letters--Capitals, uncials, etc.--Texts used in Western Europe--Forms of
ancient writings--The roll, or volume--The codex--Tablets--Diptychs,
etc.--The square book--How different sizes of books were produced.


Seeing that illumination grew originally out of the decoration of the
initial letters, our next point to notice is the penmanship. The
alphabet which we now use is that formerly used by the Romans, who
borrowed it from the Greeks, who in turn obtained it (or their
modification of it) from the Phœnicians, who, lastly it is said,
constructed it from that of the Egyptians. Of course, in these repeated
transfers the letters themselves, as well as the order of them,
underwent considerable alterations. With these we have here no concern.
Our alphabet, _i.e._ the Roman and its variations, is quite sufficient
for our story. In order to show as clearly as may be the varieties of
lettering and the progress of penmanship from classical times to the
revival of the old Roman, letters in the fifteenth century, we offer the
following synopsis, which classifies and indicates the development of
the different hands used by writers and illuminators of MSS. It is
constructed on the information given in Wailly's large work on
Palæography, and in Dr. de Grey Birch's book on the Utrecht Psalter. The
former work affords excellent facsimiles, which, together with those
given in the plates published by the Palæographical Society, will give
the student the clearest possible ideas respecting these ancient
handwritings.

Omitting the cursive or correspondence hand, the letters used by the
Romans were of four kinds--capitals (usually made angular to be cut in
stone), rustic, uncials, and minuscules.

The rounded capitals were intended to be used in penwork. Uncials differ
from capitals only in the letters A, D, E, G, M, Q, T, V, for the sake
of ease in writing. It is said that this class of letters was first
called uncials from being made an inch (_uncia_) high, but this is mere
tradition; the word is first used on Jerome's preface to the Book of
Job. No uncials have ever been found measuring more than five-eighths of
an inch in height.

For the assistance of such students as may wish for examples we must
refer to certain MSS. and reproductions in which the foregoing hands are
exemplified.

_CIRCA_ FOURTH CENTURY.

_Capitals_, yet not pure.
  The Vatican Vergil, No. 3225, throughout (Birch, p. 14; Silvestre's
    _Paléographie universelle_, pl. 74).

With regard to the relative antiquity of capitals and uncials, M. de
Wailly observes: "The titles in pure uncials, but less than the text
itself, give an excellent index to the highest antiquity. This is
verified in MSS. 152, 2630, 107 of the Bibl. du Roi, etc. MSS. of the
seventh or eighth century, whether on uncial or demi-uncial, or any
other letter, are never constant in noting the title at the top of the
page, or the kind of writing will vary, or if uncials be constantly
used, the titles will not be smaller than the text. These variations
become still greater in the following centuries. The ornaments which
relieve the titles of each page commence about the eighth century" (i.
p. 49 C).

_Capitals_ and _Uncials_.
  The Homilies of St. Augustine (Silvestre, pl. 74).
  Augustine Opera, Paris Lib., 11641 (Palæograph. Soc., pl. 42, 43).

_Rustic_.
  The Second Vatican Vergil, No. 3867 (Wailly, pl. 2), called the
    "Codex Romanus."

SIXTH CENTURY.

_Rustic_ and _Uncial_.
  The Montamiata Bible (Birch, 35; Wailly, pl. 2, 4).

_Rustic_ and _Minuscule_.
  The Cambridge Gospels (Westwood, _Palæograph. Sacra Pictoria_, pl. 45).

_Uncials_.
  Gospels in Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 5463.
  Paris Lib., Gregory of Tours (Silvestre, pl. 86).
  Vienna Imp. Lib., Livy (Silvestre, pl. 75).
  Brit. Mus., Harl. 1775 (Palæograph. Soc., pl. 16).

SEVENTH CENTURY.

_Uncials_ and _Minuscule_.
  The St. Chad's Gospels in library of Lichfield Cathedral (Palæograph.
    Soc., pl. 20, 21, 35).

NINTH CENTURY.

_Capitals_ and _Minuscules_.
  Paris Lib., Bible of Charles the Bald.

There is scarcely anything more difficult to judge than the true age of
square capital MSS. or of pure uncials. Even the rustic capitals, like
the first Vatican Vergil, No. 3225, are extremely rare. The letters in
this MS. are about three-sixteenths of an inch high.


TEXTS IN USE IN WESTERN EUROPE BEFORE THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE.

_Lombardic._ The national hand of Italy. Founded on the old Roman
cursive, it does not attain to any great beauty until the tenth or
eleventh century. Examples may be seen in Palæographical Society, pl.
95, and in the excellent lithographs published by the monks of Monte
Cassino (_Paleografia artistica di Monte Cassino_, Longobardo-Cassinese,
tav. xxxiv., etc.). A very fine example occurs in pl. xv., dated
1087-88. Its characteristic letters are _a_, _e_, _g_, _t_.

_Visigothic._ The national hand of Spain. Also founded on the old Roman
cursive. It becomes an established hand in the eighth century, and lasts
until the twelfth. Examples occur in Ewald and Lœwe, _Exempla Scripturæ
Visigoticæ_, Heidelberg, 1883. It was at first very rude and illegible,
but afterwards became even handsome. A fine example exists in the
British Museum (Palæograph. Soc., pl. 48). Its characteristic letters
are _g_, _s_, _t_.

_Merovingian._ The national hand of France. A hand made up chiefly of
loops and angles in a cramped, irregular way. Its derivation the same as
the preceding. In the seventh century it is all but illegible. In the
eighth it is much better, and almost easy to read.

_Celtic_. The national hand of Ireland. It is founded on the demi-uncial
Roman, borrowed as to type from MSS. taken to Ireland by missionaries.
It is bold, clear, and often beautiful, lending itself to some of the
most astonishing feats of penmanship ever produced.

Such are the chief varieties of writing found in the MSS. produced
before the great revival of the arts and learning which took place
during the reign of Charles the Great (Karl der Grosse), known
familiarly as Charlemagne.

Wattenbach (_Schriftwesen_, _etc._) says that uncials date from the
second century A.D. From examples still extant of the fifth and
following centuries, it seems that while the Roman capitals were not
uncommon, in Celtic MSS. the form generally adopted was the uncial. It
was the form also usually chosen for ornamentation or imitation in those
Visigothic, Merovingian, or Lombardic MSS., which made such remarkable
use of fishes, birds, beasts, and plants for the construction of initial
letters and principal words, of which we see so many examples in the
elaborately illustrated Catalogue of the library at Laon by Ed. Fleury,
and in that of Cambray, by M. Durieux. Most of these pre-Carolingian
designs are barbarous in the extreme, dreadfully clumsy in execution,
but they evince considerable ingenuity and a strong predilection for
symbolism.

Before concluding this chapter perhaps something should be said
concerning the shape of books, though this is a matter somewhat outside
the scope of our proper subject. Yet, as the brief digression will
afford an opportunity for the explanation of certain terms used in MSS.,
we will avail ourselves of it.

The ancient form of writing upon skins and papyrus was that of the roll.
The Hebrew, Arabic, or Greek terms for this do not concern us, but its
Latin name was _volumen_, "something rolled," and from this we obtain
our word volume. Such words as "explicit liber primus" etc., which we
often find in early MSS., refer to this roll-form; _explicare_ in Latin
meaning to unroll; hence, apropos of a chapter or book, to finish. When
transferred to the square form, or codex, it simply means, "here ends
book first," etc.

The modern book shape first came into use with the beginning of the
Christian era under the name of codex. Here it will be necessary to
explain that _caudex_, _codex_, in Latin, meant a block of wood, and had
its humorous by-senses among the Roman dramatists, as the word block has
among ourselves, such as blockhead.[5] So _caudicalis provincia_ was a
jocular expression for the occupation of wood-splitting.

[5] Terence, _Heautont._, 5. 1, 4.

Whether the word had originally any connection with _cauda_, "a tail,"
is not here worth considering, as if so, it had long lost the
connection; and when used to mean a book, had only the sense of a board,
or a number of boards from two upwards, fastened together by means of
rings passed through holes made in their edges.

Probably the first use was as plain smooth boards only; examples of such
are still in existence. Then of boards thinly covered with, usually,
black wax. A pair of such tablets, wax-covered, was a common form of a
Roman pocket-or memorandum-book. It was also used as a means of
conveying messages, the reply being returned on the same tablets. The
method was to write on the wax with a fine-pointed instrument called a
style, the reverse end of which was flattened. When the person to whom
the message was sent had read it, he (or she) simply flattened out the
writing, smoothed it level, and then wrote the reply on the same wax.
School-children did their exercises on these tablets, housewives and
stewards kept their accounts on them, and on them literary people jotted
down their ideas as they do now in their pocket-books. Extant examples
of these early books, or tablets, are fairly numerous, and may be seen
in most public museums. A codex of two leaves was called a diptych; of
three, a triptych, etc. The codex form was used for legal documents,
wills, conveyances, and general correspondence. Hence the Roman postman
was called a _tabellarius_, the tablets containing correspondence being
tied with a thread or ribbon and sealed. This custom of sending letters
on tablets survived for some centuries after Augustan times. Wattenbach
gives several interesting instances of their mediæval use.[6]

[6] _Schriftwesen_, 48.

Of course when the tablet gave place to the codex of skin or paper, the
papyrus was too brittle and fragile for practical utility, and examples,
as we have seen, were very rare; but vellum soon became popular. We may
mention, in passing, that the papyrus roll gave us a word still in use
in diplomatics, the word _protocol_. The first sheet of a papyrus roll
was called the πρωτόκολλον. It usually contained the name of place and
date of manufacture of the papyrus, and was stamped or marked with the
name of the government officer who had charge of the department.

In the vellum codex, though each leaf might have only one fold, and thus
technically be considered as a folio, the actual shape of it was nearly
square, hence its name of _codex quadratus_. When other forms of books,
such as octavo, duo-decimo, etc., came into use, it was in consequence
of the increased number of foldings. The gatherings, originally
quaternions or quires, became different, and those who undertake to
examine MSS. with respect to their completeness have to be familiar with
the various methods.[7] This kind of knowledge, however, though useful,
is by no means essential to the story of illumination.

[7] Wattenbach, _Schriftwesen_; Madan, _Books in Manuscript_, _etc_.




CHAPTER IV

GREEK AND ROMAN ILLUMINATION

The first miniature painter--The Vatican Vergils--Methods of
painting--Origin of Christian art--The Vienna Genesis--The
Dioscorides--The Byzantine Revival.


It has been already stated that the earliest recorded miniature painter
was a lady named Lala of Cyzicus in the days of Augustus Cæsar, days
when Cyzicus was to Rome what Brussels is to Paris, or Brighton to
London. All her work, as far as we know, has perished. It was
portraiture on ivory, probably much the same as we see in the miniature
portraiture of the present day.

But this was not illumination. The kind of painting employed in the two
Vatican Vergils was, however, something approaching it. These two
precious volumes contain relics of Pagan art, but it is the very art
which was the basis and prototype of so-called Christian art of those
earliest examples found in the catacombs and in the first liturgical
books of Christian times.

The more ancient of the two Vergils referred to, No. 3225, which Labarte
(2nd ed., ii. 158) thinks to be a century older than the other, Sir M.D.
Wyatt considered as containing "some of the best and most interesting
specimens of ancient painting which have come down to us. The design is
free and the colours applied with good effect, the whole presenting
classical art in the period of decline, but before its final
debasement." Whereas in the second MS., No. 3867, the style, though
still classical, is greatly debased, and probably, in addition to this,
by no means among the best work of its time. It is described as rough,
inaccurate, and harsh. The method is of the kind called _gouache_,
_i.e._ the colours are applied thickly in successive couches or layers,
probably by means of white of egg diluted with fig-tree sap, and
finished in the high lights with touches of gold (Palæograph. Soc., pl.
114, 117). This finishing with touches of gold brings the work within
the range of illumination. There is, indeed, wanting the additional
ornamentation of the initial letter which would bring it fully into the
class of mediæval work; but, such as it is, it may fairly claim to be
suggestive of the future art. Indeed, certain points in the MS.
3225--viz. that Zeus is always red and Venus fair, that certain costumes
and colours of drapery are specially appropriated--would lead to the
supposition that even then there existed a code of rules like those of
the Byzantine Guide, and that therefore the art owed its origin to the
Greeks.

Between this MS. and the first known Christian book work there may have
been many that have now perished, and which, had they remained, would
have marked the transition more gradually. But even as they stand there
is no appreciable difference between the earliest monuments of Christian
art and those of the period which preceded them. Nor shall we find any
break, any distinct start on new principles. It is one continuous series
of processes--the gradual change of methods growing out of experience
alone--not owing to any change of religion or the adoption of a new set
of theological opinions. Of course we shall find that for a very long
time the preponderance of illuminated MSS. will be towards liturgical
works; and we shall also find that where the contents of the MS. are the
same the subjects taken for illustration are also selected according to
some fixed and well-known set of rules. We shall see the explanation of
this by-and-by.

The first example of a Christian illuminated MS. is one containing
portions of the Book of Genesis in Greek preserved in the Imperial
Library at Vienna. It is a mere fragment, only twenty-six leaves of
purple vellum--that is, bearing the imperial stain--yet it contains
eighty-eight pictures. We call them miniatures, but we must remember
that by "miniator" a Roman bookseller would not understand what we call
a miniaturist; and, as we have said, the word "illuminator" was not then
known.

This Vienna Genesis is not introduced among illuminated books,
therefore, because of its miniatures--pictures we prefer to call
them--but because the text is nearly all written in _gold_ and _silver_
letters. The pictures, according to the Greek manner, are placed in
little square frames. They were executed, no doubt, by a professional
painter, not without technical skill and not hampered by monastic
restrictions. The symbolism which underlies all early art is here shown
in the allegorical figures (such as we shall meet with again in later
Byzantine work), which are introduced to interpret the scene. We see the
same thing in the catacombs. Being a relic of great importance, this
Genesis codex has been often described and examples given of its
pictures. Of course, in a little manual like the present we cannot
pretend to exhibit the literature of our subject. We can scarcely do
more than refer the reader to a single source. In this case perhaps we
cannot do better than send the inquirer to the Victoria and Albert
Museum at South Kensington.

If we select another MS. of this early period it is the one which may be
said to be the oldest existing MS. in which the ornamentation is worthy
of as much notice as the pictures. We refer to the Collection of
Treatises by Greek physicians on plants, fishing, the chase, and kindred
matters in the same library as the Genesis fragment. It goes under the
name of "Dioscorides," who was one of the authors, and dates from the
beginning of the sixth century. The Genesis is a century older.
Engravings from the Dioscorides are given in Labarte's _Arts
industriels, etc._, pl. 78, and in Louandre's _Arts somptuaires, etc._,
i., pl. 2, 3.

Enough has been said on these earlier centuries to show quite clearly
the character of the art known as Early Christian. It is simply a
continuation of such art as had existed from classical times, and had,
in fact, passed from the Greeks, who were artists, to the Romans, who
were rarely better than imitators. It is carried on to the period when
it again is nourished by Greek ideas in the Later Empire, and once more
attains distinction in the splendid revival of art under the Emperor
Justinian.

NOTE.--Julius Capitolinus, in his Life of the exquisite Emperor Maximin,
junior, mentions that the emperor's mother[8] made him a present of a
copy of the poems of Homer, written in golden letters on purple[9]
vellum. This is the earliest recorded instance of such a book in
Christian times. Its date would be about 235 A.D.

[8] Quædam parens sua.

[9] Purpureos libros.




CHAPTER V

BYZANTINE ILLUMINATION

The rebuilding of the city of Byzantium the beginning of Byzantine
art--Justinian's fondness for building and splendour--Description of
Paul the Silentiary--Sumptuous garments--The Gospel-book of
Hormisdas--Characteristics of Byzantine work--Comparative scarcity of
examples--Rigidity of Byzantine rules of art--Periods of Byzantine
art--Examples--Monotony and lifelessness of the style.


The signal event which gave birth to mediæval illumination, or rather to
the ideas which were thereby concentrated upon the production of
magnificent books, was the rebuilding of the Imperial Palace and the
Basilica of Constantine, henceforward to be known as the Church of
Sancta Sophia, or the Divine Wisdom, at Byzantium. The Emperor Justinian
had been reigning six years when a terrific fire, caused by the
conflicts between the various seditions, called Circus factions, of the
time, almost entirely destroyed not only his own palace and the great
Christian church adjoining it, but the city of Constantinople itself. So
important a scheme of reconstruction had probably never been forced upon
a government since the great fire in Rome under Nero. Justinian, whose
early training had been of the most economical kind, and whose
disposition seemed to be rather inclined to parsimony than extravagance,
now came out in his true character. For various reasons he had hitherto
studiously concealed his master-passion; but this catastrophe of the
fire, which seemed at first so disastrous, was really a stroke of
fortune. It afforded the hitherto frugal sovereign the chance he had
long waited for of spending without stint the hoarded savings of his two
miserly predecessors, and gratifying his own tastes for magnificent
architecture and splendour of apparel.

Not only Asia, with its wealth of gold and gems, but all the known world
capable of supplying material for the reconstructions, were called upon,
and ivory, marbles, mosaics, lamps, censers, candelabra, chalices,
ciboria, crosses, furniture, fittings, pictures--in short, everything
that his own taste and the experience of four or five of the ablest
architects of the time could suggest--administered to the gorgeous, the
unspeakable splendour of the new edifices and their furniture.

Paul the Silentiary, an eye-witness of the whole proceeding, has left a
description in verse, and the accurate Du Fresne in prose, which enable
us easily to trace how the Roman city of Constantine became transformed
into the semi-oriental Byzantium of Justinian. During the two centuries
which had elapsed since the days of the first Christian emperor many
foreign luxuries had found their way into the Eastern capital. Byzantine
jewellery and Byzantine silks were already famous. The patterns on the
latter were not merely floral or geometrical, but four-footed animals,
birds, and scenes from outdoor sports formed part of the embellishment,
which, therefore, must have taken the place occupied in later times by
the tapestries of Arras and Fontainebleau.

Hitherto the Byzantines had imported their silks from Persia. After the
rebuilding of the Basilica, Justinian introduced silk-culture into
Greece. The garments ridiculed by Asterius, Bishop of Amasia, in the
fourth century, were repeated in the sixth century. "When men," says he,
"appear in the streets thus dressed, the passers-by look at them as at
painted walls. Their clothes are pictures which little children point
out to one another. The saintlier sort wear likenesses of Christ, the
Marriage of Galilee...and Lazarus raised from the dead."

On the robe of the Empress Theodora--the wife of Justinian, who is shown
in one of the mosaics of St. Vitale at Ravenna as presenting rich gifts
to that church--there is embroidered work along the border, showing the
Adoration of the Magi. _Theodora pia_ was one among the many rôles
played by that all-accomplished actress; but this seems to have been
after her death. Like Lucrezia Borgia, perhaps, she was better than her
reputation. With such surroundings liturgical books could not have
existed without sharing in the universal luxury of enrichment. And, in
point of fact, we still have records of such books. While Justinian
reigned in Byzantium it happened that Hormisdas, a native of Frosinone,
was Pope of Rome. He was a zealous eradicator of heresy (especially of
the Eutychian and Manichæan), and in recognition of his services in this
direction the Greek Emperor, with his thanks, sent him a great
Gospel-book richly decorated, no doubt, with those splendid Eusebian
canons and portraits of the Evangelists, the like of which we see in the
Byzantine examples still preserved at Paris, in London, and elsewhere.
Plates of beaten gold, studded with gems, formed the covers of the
Gospel-book of Hormisdas.

Nor was this sumptuous volume the only, or even a rare, example of its
kind. We read that the art of book decoration had become a fashionable
craze. No expense was spared in the search for costly materials. Colours
were imported from India, Persia, and Spain, including vermilion and
ultramarine, while the renowned Byzantine gold ink was manufactured from
imported Indian gold. Persian calligraphers had taught its use afresh to
the Byzantine scribes.

If, as we may believe, the first object of the Roman miniatores was
distinctness combined with beauty, we may now believe that the object of
the Byzantine scribes was splendour. The progress had been from mere
"cheirography" to calligraphy; now it was from calligraphy to
chrysography and arguriography.

This employment of gold and silver inks may be looked upon as the first
step in the art of illumination as practised in the Middle Ages. And the
preliminary to the use of metallic inks was attention to the tint of the
vellum. The pioneers in this career of luxury no doubt had observed that
very white vellum fatigued the eye. Hence, at first, they tinted or
stained it with saffron, on one side at least, sometimes on both. Once
begun, the tinting of the vellum extended to other colours. For works of
the highest rank the favourite was a fine purple, the imperial colour of
the Roman and Greek emperors. For chrysography, or gold-writing, the
tint was nearly what we call crimson. For arguriography, or
silver-writing, it became the bluish hue we call grape-purple. On the
cooled purples vermilion ink was used instead of, or together with, the
gold or silver. As the usage began with the Greeks, we may be sure that
it came originally from Asia.

The Emperor Nero, once having heard that an Olympic Ode of Pindar in
letters of gold was laid up in one of the temples at Athens, desired
that certain verses of his own should be similarly written and dedicated
on the Altar of Jupiter Capitolinus at Rome. This was an imperial luxury
several times repeated by other princes.

After the official establishment of Christianity it became a common
practice to have the greater liturgical books executed in the same
costly fashion. And between the time of Constantine and that of Basil
the Macedonian many a burning homily was directed against the custom,
denounced as a sinful extravagance, which no doubt it was, but in vain
until the fashion had worn itself out.

It might fairly be expected, this being the case, that many examples of
this kind of codex would still be in existence. But owing to war, fire,
robbery, and other misfortunes but very few remain. One of the oldest
and finest is the so-called _Codex Argenteus_, or Silver-book, now kept
at Upsala, in Sweden, containing portions of the Gospels of the
Mæsogothic Bishop Ulfilas. Originally the effect of the stamped or
burnished silver on the rich purple of the vellum must have been very
splendid, but now the action of the air has blackened it, as it has done
in many other instances where silver was used in illumination. Even gold
will gather tarnish, and in several such MSS. has turned of a rusty red.
Gold ink was not invariably confined to tinted vellum; it was often used
on the plain ground. The copy of the Old Testament in Greek, presented
by the high priest Eleazar to King Ptolemy Philadelphus, was a roll of
fine white vellum, upon which the text was written in letters of gold.

To enter upon the antiquities of Greek palæography would lead us too far
from our track in view of the brevity of our present survey. We
therefore with some reluctance turn from this interesting topic to our
more immediate subject. We may remark, however, that the great majority
of Greek MSS. are written on vellum. In the eleventh century are found
instances of what is called _charta bombycina_, or cotton-paper,
appearing more plentifully in the twelfth century, but on the whole
vellum is the chief material of Byzantine illuminated books. Much has
been said about the want of life and total lack of variety of treatment
in this school of art. To a very great extent the charge is just, yet it
could scarcely be otherwise. The one circumstance which compelled
Byzantine work to remain so long as if cast in one unalterable mould,
and thus to differ so strangely from that of Western artists, was due to
the fact that in very early Christian times the scribes and illuminators
were enrolled into a minutely organised corporation originating
primarily in monasticism, but by no means confined to the monastic
Orders. Lay guilds existed, the regulations and methods of which were
rigid beyond modern belief. So that, as a class, Byzantine art has
acquired the reputation of a soulless adherence to mechanical rules and
precedents, depriving it of originality and even of individuality, and
therefore excluding the remotest scintilla of artistic genius. Of the
great crowd of examples of ordinary work this may be true, but it
certainly is not true of the best, by which it has the right to be
judged, as we shall see from the examples referred to by-and-by.
Certainly there is one invaluable particular in which Greek MSS. are
superior to those of the West, Latin or otherwise. That is, they are
much more frequently signed with the names, localities, and dates of the
copyists and illuminators.

It will be some help towards our knowledge of this school if we divide
its existence into chronological sections or periods.

1. From præ-Christianity to the Age of Justinian, _i.e._ down to the
year 535. (Justinian reigned from 526 to 564.)

This period marks the decadence of ancient art, but carries with it the
characteristics and methods of the ancient Greek painters.

2. From the Age of Justinian to the Iconoclastic paralysis of art under
Leo III. the Isaurian, _i.e._ 564 to 726. (Leo reigned from 717 to 741.)

During this period vast numbers of illuminated liturgical books were
destroyed for religious or fanatical reasons, just as in our own
Cromwellian times numbers of _Horæ_, Missals, etc., were destroyed as
papistical and superstitious.

This Edict of 726 did not absolutely put an end to all art in MSS. It
only had the effect of excluding images of God, Christ, and the saints,
as in Arabian and Persian MSS., leaving the artist the free use of
flowers, plants, and line ornament, after the manner of the Mohammedan
arabesques.

3. From Leo III. to the Empress Irene, who restored the worship of
images in part, _i.e._ from 741 to 785. (Irene ruled from 780 to 801.)

This was a period of stagnation, though by no means of extinction of
art.

4. From Irene to Basil I. the Macedonian, _i.e._ from 801 to 867.

A half-century and more of rapid renaissance to the most brilliant epoch
of Byzantine art since the time of Justinian, if not the zenith of the
school.

Basil I. was a great builder--building, in fact, was his ruling
passion--so that it may be said that he took Justinian for his model
both as a ruler and as a patron of the arts. (He reigned from 867 to
886.)

5. From Basil the Macedonian to the Fall of Constantinople, _i.e._ from
886 to 1453.

Allowing for a few flashes of expiring skill in various reigns, this may
be considered as a period of gradual but certain decline to a state
worse than death, for though the monks of Greek and Russian convents
still kept up the execution of MSS., it was only with the driest and
most lifeless adhesion to the Manual. This so-called art still exists,
but more like a magnetised corpse than a living thing.

Examples of the first period are seldom met with. We have one signal
specimen in the British Museum Add. MS. 5111, being two leaves only of a
Gospel-book, and containing part of the Eusebian canons, or
contents-tables of the Four Gospels, etc. The work is attributed to the
time of Justinian himself. It is of the kind already referred to as
probably affording the model of work to the early illuminators of France
and Ireland, and as being like the Gospel-book of Hormisdas and those
brought to England by Augustine in 596. Another example of the same
Eusebian canons is found in Roy. MS. 1 E. vi.

Of the fourth period--_i.e._ the ninth century--perhaps the most typical
example is the Menologium (a sort of compound of a calendar and lives of
the saints), now in the Vatican Library (MS. Gr. 1613). This MS. shows
that the revival under Basil the Macedonian was a return not to Roman,
but to ancient Greek art, the facial types being of the purest classical
character.

[Illustration:
EVANG. GRÆCA
6TH CENT.
_Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 5111, fol. 13_]

[Illustration:
EVANG. GRÆCA
9TH CENT.
_Brit. Mus. Burney MS. 19 fol. 1 v._]

In some of them we see the horizontal frown of the Homeric heroes
(σύνοφρυς Οδυσσευς), and of the Georgian and Armenian races shown in the
features of the Emperor Johannes Ducas. We have, too, the large
Hera-like eye with its mystic gaze, which, in later Byzantine work,
becomes first a gaze of lofty indifference, as in the portraits of the
emperors and empresses, and lastly a stony and expressionless stare;
still, if possible, more stony and glaring when transferred to Celtic
and Carolingian Gospel-books. (See chapter on Carolingian Illumination.)

Of this fourth period we might indeed point to many examples. One must
suffice. It is the beautiful Greek Psalter, now at Paris (MS., p. 139),
containing lovely examples of antique design, including remarkable
personifications or allegorical figures. In this MS. is one of the most
graceful personifications ever painted, that of _Night_, with her veil
of gauze studded with stars floating overhead. The seven pictures from
the Life of David are among the best ever put into a MS. But
personification is carried to an extreme. Thus the Red Sea, the Jordan,
Rivers, Mountains, Night, Dawn, etc., are all represented as persons.
The drawings are really beautiful and the illuminated initials and
general ornament in good taste.

For other examples the reader may consult the British Museum Cat. of
Addit. MSS., 1841-5, p. 87; also Du Sommerard, _Les Arts au Moyen-âge_,
tom. v., 1846, pp. 107, 162-8, and album, 2e sér. pl. xxix., 8e sér.
pl. xii.-xvi.

It is noticeable in these Byzantine pictures that while the
figure-painting is often really excellent, the design skilful, and the
pose natural, the landscape, trees, etc., are quite symbolic and
fanciful. The painters seem to have been utterly ignorant of
perspective. Buildings, too, without any regard to relative proportion,
are coloured merely as parts of a colour scheme. They are pink, pale
green, yellow, violet, blue, just to please the eye. That the painter
had a system of colour-harmony is plain, but he paid no regard to the
facts of city life, unless, indeed, it was the practice of the mediæval
Byzantines to paint the outside of their houses in this truly brilliant
style. Possibly they did so; we have similar things in Italy even
nowadays.

No doubt the French illuminators of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries drew from these sources both their perspective and their
architectural colouring. As for ornamental illumination, the principal
method of decoration was a square heading,[10] perhaps including a
semicircular arch sweeping over several arcades, the corners and
wall-space being occupied either with arabesque patterns, showing them
to be after the time of Leo III., or with scrolls of line-ornament
enriched with acanthus foliages. Under this the scribe has placed his
title.

[10] It has been thought to represent the Greek π, and to mean πύλη, a
gate or door.

[Illustration:
CARVED IVORY COVER
LATIN PSALTER OF MELLISENDA
12TH CENT.
_Brit. Mus. Egert. MS. 1139_]

[Illustration:
CODEX AURENS
(GOLDEN GOSPELS OF ATHELSTAN)
C. 835
_Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 2788, fol. 176_]

Other examples have a square frame filled with the latter kind of
scrolls and foliages, leaving a sort of open panel in the centre, in
which is placed a small scene of sacred history or perhaps of country
life. Sometimes the title, in golden letters, is surrounded with
medallions containing heads of Christ and the Virgin, apostles, and
saints. The peculiar interlacing bands of violet, yellow, rose, blue,
etc., which are still often seen in Russian ornament, are also features
of these Byzantine MSS.; but most of all is the lavish use of gold.
Perhaps the fact most to be remembered about these MSS. is that the
painters of them worked in a manner that was absolutely fixed and rigid,
the rules of which are laid down in a manual called the _Guide to
Painting_, a work which has been translated by M. Didron.

So fixed and unalterable, indeed, is the manner that there is absolutely
no difference to indicate relative antiquity between a MS. of the
eleventh century and one of the sixteenth or even later, we might almost
say, of the present day. In the matter of saint-images this is strictly
true.




CHAPTER VI

CELTIC ILLUMINATION

Early liturgical books reflect the ecclesiastical art of their
time--This feature a continuous characteristic of illumination down to
the latest times--Elements of Celtic ornament--Gospels of St.
Chad--Durham Gospels--Contrast of Celtic and Byzantine--St.
Columba--Book of Kells--Details of its decoration.


In the earlier centuries of Christianity, when liturgical books were the
chief occupation of the illuminator, it will need little pointing out to
demonstrate that the page of the illuminated manuscript, where it
contained more than the mere ornamental initial, was simply a mirror of
the architectural decoration of the church in which it was intended to
be used. Where the church enrichments consist, as on the Byzantine
basilicas, of panellings, arcades, and tympana of gilded sculpture in
wood or stone, with figures of saints, the pages of the Gospel-book bear
similar designs. Where, as in the Romanesque, they are rich in mosaics,
and fretted arcades interlacing each other, so are the illuminated Lives
of the Saints, the Menologia, Psalters, and Gospel-books. Where, as in
the Gothic cathedrals of the West--of France, Germany, or Italy--the
stained glass is the striking feature of the interior, so it is with the
illumination; it is a "vitrail"--a glass-painting on vellum. On this
latter point we shall have more to say when we reach the period of
Gothic illumination.

Incidentally, also, the book reflects the minor arts in vogue at the
period of its execution. Often in the illumination we may detect these
popular local industries. We see mosaic enamelling, wood-and
stone-carving, and lacquer-work, and as we approach the Renaissance,
even gem-cutting and the delicate craft of the medallist. In Venice and
the Netherlands we have the local taste for flower-culture; in Germany
we find sculpture in wood and stone; in France the productions of the
enameller and the goldsmith; until at length, in the full blaze of the
Renaissance itself, we have in almost every land the same varieties of
enrichment practised according to its own special style of work.

It has been said that the oldest Celtic illuminated MSS. show no signs
of classic, or even Byzantine, influence, yet the plan or framework of
the designs makes use both of the cross and the arch, as used in the
earliest Byzantine examples. The details, indeed, are quite different,
and manifestly derived from indigenous sources. It may be, therefore,
that the framework is merely a geometrical coincidence which could not
well be avoided. The fact that the basis of pure Irish ornament _is_
geometrical, and developed out of the prehistoric and barbarous art of
the savages who preceded the Celts in Ireland; such art as is used on
the carved shafts of spears, and oars, and staves of honour, and
afterwards on stone crosses and metal-work, may account for the
similarity of ideas in ornament developed by old Roman decorators in
their mosaic pavements, and may reconcile, in some measure, the varied
opinions of different writers who have approached the subject from
different points of view. Westwood adhered to the theory of its being
purely indigenous. Fleury, on the other hand, in his Catalogue of the
MSS. in the Library at Laon, asserts that we owe the knots and
interlacements to the influence of the painters, sculptors, and
mosaicists of Rome. "These interlacings, cables, etc., there is no
Gallo-Roman monument which does not exhibit them, and, only to cite
local instances, the cord of four or five strands is seen in the
beautiful mosaics discovered in profusion within the last five years
(1857-62) at Blanzy, at Bazoches, at Vailly, and at Reims. It was from
them that the Franks borrowed their knots and twists and ribbons for
their belts and buckles, their rings and bracelets" (pt. i., p. 8).

The elements, therefore, of book ornament, as used by the Celtic penmen,
are such as were employed by the prehistoric and sporadic nations in the
textile art in plaiting and handweaving, and afterwards transferred to
that of metal-work. Terminals of animal, bird, or serpent form
afterwards combine with the linear designs. The dog and dragon are
common, as may be seen in the archaic vases produced by the Greeks
before they came under the influence of ideas from Western Asia.

Among Celtic artists, as among those of later times, the practice of
working in various materials was common to the same individual, and
Dagæus (d. 586) may compare with Dunstan, Eloy, Tuotilo, and others.

To apply these observations to the style of illumination which now comes
under our notice it may be said that if we allow the cross and arch to
be copied from the Byzantine MSS. introduced from abroad, the details
are undoubtedly supplied by the wickerwork and textile netting familiar
to the everyday life of the artist. Assisted by the fertile imagination
of bardic lore in snakes, dragons, and other mythic monsters of heroic
verse, the illuminator produces a pencilled tapestry of textile fabric
or flexile metal-work as marvellous as it is unique. No amount of
description can give a true idea of what Celtic work is like; it must be
seen to be comprehended. One glance at a facsimile of such a MS. as the
Book of Kells or the Lindisfarne Gospels, or those of St. Chad at
Lichfield, or wherever, as at St. Gall, such work is to be met with,
will supersede the most laboured attempt at description. We must
therefore at once refer the reader to the facsimile. When that has been
inspected, we may proceed. In the first place it may be noted that with
these Occidental MSS. begins the importance and development of the
initial, which, indeed, as regards the illumination of Western Europe,
is the very root of the matter. It is the development of the initial
letter first into the bracket, then into the border, which forms the
great distinction of the "Art of Paris," as Dante calls it, from that of
Byzantium. The latter is almost always of a squared or tabular design,
traced and painted on a ground of burnished gold. The former exhausts
itself first in fantastic lacertine forms, twisted into the shapes of
the commencing letters or words of the writing, to which the suggestion
of some Byzantine MS, perhaps occasionally adds a frame. Next come
birds, dogs, dragons, vine-stems, and spirals embedded in couches of
colour; but, whatever its character, always it is the letter that
governs and originates the ornament. Only at the very end of its life,
when the border has completely eclipsed the initial, is the idea of
origin forgotten. Then, indeed, we find the border treillages of
flower-stem or leaf-work starting from meaningless points of the design,
or scattered shapelessly at random.

When we meet with work of this sort, we need no further proof that the
real art is dead. We have before us in such a performance--a trade
production--a mere object of commerce, valuable so far as it is the
result of labour, but not as a work of art.

According to the Abbé Geoghegan,[11] Christianity was known to the people
of Ireland in the fourth century. The Greek Menology asserts that it was
carried thither by Simon Zelotes, but this is contradicted by the Roman
Breviary and the Martyrologists. Simeon Metaphrastes attributes it to
St. Peter, Vincent of Beauvais to St. James. Unreliable as these
traditions may be taken singly, they nevertheless agree in placing the
conversion of Ireland at a very early date, probably, as Geoghegan says,
in the fourth century. It is certain that about the middle of the sixth
century an Irish prince of distinguished ancestry, and himself a saint,
led a band of missionaries from Donegal to Iona. It is curious to
observe that the event is almost contemporary with the renovations of
Justinian at Byzantium, and only a short time before the founding of the
famous Abbey of Monte Cassino by St. Benedict. Before the existence of
the Benedictine Order there was a monastery at Durrow, in Ireland, and
in this monastery the aforesaid prince was educated. His name was
Columba. At least, so he is called, but whether it be merely in allusion
to his mission--"the Dove"--or really a patronymic, it is hard to say.
He was the messenger of peace to the natives of Iona, and even the name
of the island seems to suggest an allusion to the Old Testament
missionary to the Ninevites, Jonah. The Irish missionaries called the
spot to which they went _I. columcille_, "the cell of the Dove's isle,"
or Columba's cell. It is usually spoken of as the Monastery of Iona.
Columba went on many other missions, but ultimately returned to his
beloved Iona, where he died in 597, the year after the arrival of
Augustine at Canterbury.

[11] _Hist. de l'Irlande._

His companions busied themselves with the transcription of the Gospels
for the use of new converts, after the model of those they had seen and
used at Durrow. It is even traditionally asserted that Columba himself
took part in the work, and transcribed both a Psalter and a Gospel-book,
moreover, that one of the Iona Gospel-books written by him is still in
existence. This MS., whether the work of St. Columba or not, and
probably it is not, is the earliest known monument of Irish calligraphic
art. It is known as the Book of Kells, and there is no doubt that it is
the most amazing specimen of penmanship ever seen. It is at once the
most ancient, the most perfect, and the most precious example of Celtic
art in existence. It exhibits the striking peculiarities and features of
the style--the band work knots and interlacings, such as may be seen on
the stone crosses which mark the burial-places of British and Irish
chieftains. Witness, for instance, the Carew, or the Nevern Cross,
described in the _Journal of the Archœlogical Institute_, iii. 71, which
might be taken to represent an initial "I" wrought in stone. There is no
foliage, no plant form at all. It is not, therefore, derivable from
Romanesque, Byzantine, or Oriental ornament. It is indigenous, if not to
Ireland, at least to those prehistoric Aryan tribes of which the Irish
were a branch. Its basis is the art of weaving, and in some respects
resembles the matting of Polynesia much more closely that the vine-stems
of Sicily or the arabesques of Byzantium. Spirals occur that bewilder
the eye, yet are so faultlessly perfect that only the magnifying-glass
brings out the incredible accuracy of the drawing. Among them are
mythological and allegorical beasts, snakes, and lizards--thought to
represent demons, like the gargoyles of Gothic architecture--in every
conceivable attitude of contortion and agony. There are also doves and
fishes, but the latter, being sacred emblems together with the lamb, are
seldom made grotesque. It was a monkish legend that the devil could take
the shape of any bird or beast, except those of the dove and the lamb.




CHAPTER VII

CELTIC ILLUMINATION--_continued_

The Iona Gospels--Contrast with Roman and Byzantine--Details--Treatment
of animal forms--Colour schemes--The Gospel-book of St. Columbanus--That
of Mael Brith Mac Durnan--The Lindisfarne Gospels--_Cumdachs_--Other
book-shrines.


We have seen that in both Roman and Byzantine MSS. the titles and
beginnings of books were merely distinguished by a lettering in red or
gold, rather smaller, in fact, than the ordinary text, but rendered
distinct by the means referred to. The handwriting, too, is clear and
legible, whether capital, uncial, or minuscule.

In absolute contrast to all this the Iona Gospels have the first page
completely covered with ornament. On the next the letters are of an
enormous size, followed by a few words, not merely in _uncials_, but in
characters varying from half an inch to two inches in height. The page
opposite to each Gospel is similarly filled with decoration, separated
into four compartments by an ornamented Greek cross. This may, of
course, be simply a geometrical device in no way connected with Greece,
but, taken in connection with other features, we see in it an indication
of contact with Byzantine work and the side of illumination which deals
rather with the tabular enrichment of the page than the development of
the initial. Further, the writing, though large, is not easily legible,
for it is involved, enclaved, and conjointed in a manner sufficiently
puzzling to those who see it for the first time.

The plaiting and inlaying are certainly borrowed from local usages, and
the survival of the same kind of interlaced plaiting in the Scottish
tartans is some evidence of the long familiarity of the Celtic race with
the art of weaving. When we remember that some of the early illuminators
were also workers in metals, we can understand that penmen like Dagæus,
Dunstan, and Eloy had designs at their command producible by either
method. So we see, both in the MS. and in the brooch and buckle, the
same kind of design. Among the earliest animals brought into this Celtic
work we find the dog and the dragon; the latter both wingless and
winged, according to convenience or requirement. The dog is so common in
some of the Celto-Lombardic MS., of which examples still exist at Monte
Cassino, as almost to create a style; while the dragon survives to the
latest period of Gothic art.

Whatever is introduced into a Celtic illumination is at once treated as
a matter of ornament. When the human figure appears it is remorselessly
subjected to the same rules as the rest of the work; the hair and beard
are spiral coils, the eyes, nostrils, and limbs are symmetrical
flourishes. Colour is quite regardless of natural possibility. The hair
and draperies are simply patterned as compartments of green or blue, or
red or black, as may be required for the _tout ensemble_; the face
remains white. Lightened tints are preferred to full colours, as pale
yellow, pink, lavender, and light green. A very ludicrous device is made
use of to denote the folds of the drapery; they are not darkened, there
is no light and shade in Celtic work, but are simply lines of a strongly
contrasting colour. The blue and red appear to be opaque, and therefore
mineral colours; the rest are thin and transparent. Nothing can be more
wayward than the colouring of the symbolic beasts of the Gospels. In the
Evangeliary of St. Columbanus (not Columba, but the founder of Luxeuil
and Bobbio, who died in 614) the Lion of St. Mark is an admirable beast
in a suit of green-and-red chain armour in the form of mascles or
lozenges. (See the illustration in Westwood's _Palæographia Sacra
Pictoria_ of a figure page from the Gospels of Mael Brith Mac Durnan for
a typical example.)[12]

[12] See also an article by Westwood in _Journal Archæol. Inst._, vii.
17, on "Irish Miniatures."

The only point that might argue the freedom in Celtic work from
Byzantine influence is the absence of gold, but perhaps this was only
because the earlier Irish illuminators could not obtain it; we find it
later on. In the Book of Kells and the Lambeth Gospels there is no gold.
The former dates somewhere in the seventh century, not the sixth, as
sometimes stated; the latter, shortly before 927. In the Lindisfarne
Gospels (698-721) gold is used. In the Psalter of Ricemarchus, now in
Trinity College, Dublin, are traces of silver. It is in connection with
these Irish MSS. that decorated and jewelled cases, called _cumdachs_,
make their appearance, such as the one attached to the Gospels of St.
Moling in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. These book-shrines are
almost exclusively an Irish production. In other countries the idea was
to adorn the volume itself with a splendid and costly binding, perhaps
including gold, silver, and gems. In Ireland the idea of sacredness was
carried out in another way. Instead of decorating the covers of the book
itself, it was held, as in such a MS., for instance, as the Book of
Durrow, to be too venerable a relic to be meddled with, and a box or
case was made for it, on which they spent all their artistic skill.
Generally the case is known as a _cumdach_; but one kind, called the
_cathach_, was so closed that the book was completely concealed, and it
was superstitiously believed that if it were opened some terrible
calamity would overtake its possessors. Such was the _cathach_ of
Tyrconnell. We must remember, however, that in this instance the keepers
were not men of book-learning, but hardy warriors who carried the
_cathach_ into battle as a charm and an incitement to victory.

Of similar shrines, which were made for precious books by both the
Greeks and Lombards, the oldest and most famous is that made for
Theudelinde, wife of Agilulf, King of the Lombards, and given by her, in
616, together with the famous iron crown and other relics, to the
Cathedral of Monza, where they are still to be seen.

The enrichment of the covers of books themselves, as distinct from the
use of cases or shrines, has been usual in almost all ages and styles of
decoration. When we come to speak of Carolingian MSS. we shall find
several remarkable instances.

We must now pass on from this curiously attractive theme of Celtic
calligraphy to its contemporary styles of France, Germany, Spain, and
Italy, only remarking by the way that no other style of its time had so
marked an influence on the local _scriptoria_ into which it was
introduced as this same Celtic of Ireland. It is not only traceable, but
easily recognised all along the Rhine, in Burgundy, the Swiss Cantons,
and Lombardy, until at length overwhelmed by the general introduction of
Romanesque or Byzantine, which was restored and filtered through the
Exarchate and the Lombard schools during the early days of the new
Carolingian Empire.




CHAPTER VIII

SEMI-BARBARIC ILLUMINATION

Visigothic--Merovingian--Lombardic--Extinction of classic art--Splendid
reign of Dagobert--St. Eloy of Noyon--The Library of Laon--Natural
History of Isidore of Seville--Elements of contemporary art--Details of
ornament--Symbolism--Luxeuil and Monte Cassino--Sacramentary of
Gellone--"Prudentius"--"Orosius"--Value of the Sacramentary of Gellone.


To reach the beginning's of these various degenerate and illiterate
attempts at book-work we have only to watch the last expiring gleams of
classic art beneath the ruthless footsteps of the barbarian invaders of
the old Roman Empire.

In the sixth century the light of the old civilisation was fast fading
away. Perhaps we may look upon the so-called splendour of the reign of
Dagobert in France as the spasmodic scintillations of its latest moments
of existence. The kingdom of Dagobert, after 631, was almost an empire.
For the seven years preceding his death, in 638, he ruled from the Elbe
and the Saxon frontier to that of Spain, and from the Atlantic Ocean to
the confines of Hungary. It was during his reign that we read of the
skill in metal-work of the celebrated St. Eloy of Noyon, the rival of
our own St. Dunstan.

St. Eloy or Eligius (588-659) began his artistic career as the pupil of
Abbo, the goldsmith and mint-master to Chlothaire II., and rose from the
rank of a goldsmith to that of Bishop of Noyon. Among his handiwork were
crowns, chalices, and crosiers, and he is reputed to have made the chair
of bronze-gilt now in the National Library at Paris, called the
_fauteuil_ of Dagobert, and many other works, which disappeared either
during the wars of Louis XV. or those of the Revolution of 1789. He
founded the Abbey of Solignac, near Limoges, and it is not improbable
that the reputation of this city for metal-work and enamelling may be
dated from his foundation. With such works as those of Eloy before them,
it is difficult to believe that the wretched and puerile attempts at
ornamental penmanship and illumination which are shown at Laon and other
places as the work of this period can possibly represent the highest
efforts of the calligrapher. But we must remember that St. Eloy was an
extraordinary genius in his art, and that the bulk of the clergy, not to
mention ordinary workmen, were very ignorant and ill-taught. Very few,
indeed, were men who could be considered cultured. Gregory of Tours, the
historian, and Venantius Fortunatus, the hymn-writer, are among the few.

In the Library at Laon, M. Fleury describes a MS. of the Natural History
of Isidore of Seville, which is looked upon as a work of reference both
as regards art and learning. It was at one time a very popular book,
being a Latin cyclopædia, dealing with the sciences and general
knowledge of the time; yet the example referred to by M. Fleury shows us
only a crowd of initials learnedly styled by the Benedictine authors and
others "ichthio-morphiques" and "ornithoeides," _i.e._ made up of fishes
and birds, and about equal in quality and finish to the efforts of a
very ordinary schoolboy.

These initials betray an utter decadence from the beautiful uncials of
the fifth and sixth centuries, seen in the St. Germain's Psalter, for
example, now in the National Library at Paris. The colours are coarse
and badly applied, and even where brightest are utterly unrefined and
without taste.

Notwithstanding, however, the apparently total eclipse or extinction of
Roman art in Gaul, or, as it must henceforth be called, France, it is
claimed by M. Fleury[13] that the interlacements which constitute the
principal feature of these earlier Merovingian MSS. are derived from the
remains of Roman mosaics found profusely at Blanzy, Bazoches, and Reims.
This may be so, but those mosaics would not account for the same
features in the Irish work, for the Romans never reached Ireland as
occupants or colonists.

[13] See later.

Take another example from the Laon collection, the History of Orosius.
The first page is a type of the species to which it belongs, and,
moreover, a good sample of the earliest efforts of all pictorial art. An
ordinary rectangular cross occupies the centre of the page. The centre
shows us the Lamb of the Apocalypse and St. John. On the arms are the
beasts which typify the Evangelists--their emblems, as they are
sometimes called. We notice that they are all symbolic, and not intended
to be natural imitations of reality. The various animals scattered about
the page are all symbolic--all have a mystical interpretation and
_raison d'être_. A border-frame, passing behind each extremity of the
cross, contains a number of dog-like animals, some plain, others
spotted, while the body of the cross itself is occupied with attempts at
foliage ornaments. In the left upper corner are the letters "X P I," in
the right "I H V," thick foliage springing from the "I" and "V" and
falling back over the monogram. In the lower corners are two fishes and
two doves, each pair hanging to a penwork chain.

The emblem of John, on the upper extremity of the cross, is an
eagle-headed and winged man holding a book; its opposite one of Lucas at
foot is a singularly conceived anthropoid and winged ox, also with a
book. On the left Marcus, whose head is indescribable; and on the right
Matthew, with human head, the rest of the figures being as before. The
eye in all the figures is a most remarkable feature. Both in the
pictures and the initials of this MS. the outline has been drawn in
black ink, and the colours yellow, red, brown, and green applied
afterwards.

As the new masters of the West were not so much interested in the
artistic remains of the mangled civilisation they were endeavouring to
destroy as in mastery and military success, it was left for the
monasteries and the church to see to the welfare of books and monuments.

In the seventh century it was the monasteries that saved almost all we
know of the preceding centuries. During the turmoil of the period from
the fifth to the eighth century we find certain quiet corners where
learning and the arts still breathed, grew, and dwelt in security.
Lérins, founded by St. Honoratus of Aries; Luxeuil by Columbanus, Bobbio
his last retreat; and, above all, Monte Cassino, the great pattern of
monasticism, the Rule of whose founder was destined to become the basis
of all later Orders, were each of them steadily labouring to rescue the
civilisation daily threatened by the ravage of war, and to preserve it
for the benefit of the ignorant hordes who, because of their ignorance,
now only aimed at its entire destruction. We have seen how these monks
and clerics, with more goodwill than ability, did their best to adorn
the books which came into their hands. It is a poor show, but there is
no better. It is absolutely our only record of how civilisation managed
to struggle through the storm.

Let us, then, be thankful even for the Laon "Orosius," for the
Sacramentary of Gellone, and the Mozarabic Liturgies of Puy. They are
among the links between ancient and mediæval art.

As already stated, the handwriting of Merovingian MSS. is mainly an
adaptation of the Roman uncial, as it is in Irish and Lombardic, or, we
might say, everywhere else. Abbreviations we still uncommon. Where
minuscules are used, the writing is not quite so legible as in the
larger hands, but we are not met by the singular difficulties of some of
the Lombardic texts.

A few solitary texts of the earliest time are in capitals, such as the
really handsome "Prudentius" of the Paris National Library, where the
entire text of the great Christian poet is boldly inscribed in the
centre of a large white page of vellum, like a series of separate
inscriptions. The first few words are "rubrished" in the antique manner.
The MS. is supposed to date previous to the year 527. A little later
than this St. Columbanus founded the monastery of Luxeuil, and later
still, viz. in 616, that of Bobbio.

If we turn to the Visigothic area, including the South of France and the
entire peninsula of Spain, our first and typical example is the
celebrated Sacramentary of Gellone. This MS. dates, it is said, from the
eighth century. It is written throughout in Visigothic uncials, though
executed in the South of France. Its ornamentation is frankly barbaric.
The colours used are yellow, red, and green. The great initials are
double lined, and the interlinear space filled in with a flat tint of
colour and lines of red dots, as in the Book of Kells occasionally
follow the contours. Here, also, are the fish or bird-form letters as in
the Laon "Orosius." Now and then occurs a tiny scene--perhaps a fight
between two grotesque brutes, neither fish, nor fowl, nor beast known to
the naturalist, but a horrible compound of the worst qualities of each.
The human figure, when it occurs, is childishly shapeless. But the
design and treatment, nevertheless, bear witness to a lively imagination
and considerable knowledge of Christian symbolism. It is these mental
qualities which, in spite of the manifest absence of manual skill,
render the Gellone Evangeliary one of the most precious monuments of its
time. Of the rest of the MSS. of this wretched period we will say
nothing.

          "Non ragioniam di lor', ma guard' e passa."

We are glad to hurry on for another century or so, remembering that the
leading idea now is the development of the initial letter.




CHAPTER IX

DEVELOPMENT OF THE INITIAL

The initial and initial paragraph the main object of decoration in
Celtic illumination--Study of the letter L as an example--The I of "In
principio" and the B of "Beatus Vir."


From the moment when the initial was placed beneath the miniature the
object of the whole design was not to give prominence to the initial but
to the picture. Until then, that is, whilst the initial remains above or
beside or outside the picture, it is the initial we must watch for style
and development. And therefore we seize on one letter among those of the
latter part of the eighth century, because of the frequency of its
occurrence in the Gospel-book or Evangeliary, one of the commonest books
of the time. This the letter L of "Liber Generationis," etc., the
commencing words of St. Matthew. This passage is always made of
importance, and on the initial and arrangement of the words the artist
expends his best efforts.

Properly I should here display pictorially the series of which I speak.
It would certainly be the quickest way of explaining the matter. But as
this is out of the question for many reasons, and as the present little
guide aims rather at showing the way than marching through it, the
reader must be content to take its advice about where to look for
examples which it cannot reproduce.

Regarding the letter L as an index of time and style, first we may take
the Irish L of the Book of Kells on p. 17, pt. 1, of Miss Stokes' _Early
Christian Art in Ireland_. Note first the form of the letter, then the
way it is filled up with ornament. Compare this, which dates from the
seventh century, with a similar L in the Ada-Codex in the Town Library
at Trèves, No. 22. A black and white copy of this is given in taf. 6 of
Lamprecht Initial Ornamentik. This carries up the work to the second
half of the eighth century. Next, say the L in the Town Archives at
Cologne, No. 147. This belongs to the second half of the ninth century.
The chief departure here is towards the knotted band work which figures
so largely afterwards both in German and Italian book ornament, the form
is still unchanged. But with the tenth century comes change of form as
well as of mode of filling, as for example taf. 19 of Lamprecht, in
which there is a complete alteration of treatment. The student may take
for similar comparison also the I of "In principio" of St. John's
Gospel, and the B of the first psalm in the Psalter, and carry the
comparison on to the end of the fourteenth century, by referring to the
MSS. in the British Museum and other public libraries, or in the
numerous illustrated works to be found in those collections.




CHAPTER X

FIRST ENGLISH STYLES

Transition from Iona to Lindisfarne--Influence of Frankish art--The
"Opus Anglicum"--The Winchester school and its characteristics--Whence
obtained--Method of painting--Examples--Where found and described.


The succession of the school of Iona shows us in the first examples of
English illumination the type exemplified in the Book of Kells,
modified, but not very much, by its transference to Lindisfarne.

Whatever doubt may be felt as to the influence of Byzantine or
Romanesque models on pure Irish work, such as the Book of Kells, there
can be none as regards the Lindisfarne Gospels. In the first place we
have gold both in the lettering and ornament. This MS., known also as
the Durham Book (Brit. Mus., Nero D. iv.), was the work of Abbat
Eadfrith, of Lindisfarne. It has been often described, as it is really a
most precious example of eighth-century art in this country. No other
MS. of its time is to be found in any continental scriptorium to be
compared with it. It is not a collection of clumsy inartistic attempts
at ornamental writing, but high-class, effective work, which should be
seen and studied by every student of illumination.

From its style of execution, its details of portraiture, and other
features, it may be looked on as one of the earliest links between the
two extremes of Oriental and Occidental Art.

Another MS. in the British Museum (Vesp. A. 1), which combines the Roman
method of painting as in the Vergils with the penwork of these
Anglo-Celtic Gospel-books, may also repay careful examination.

It is very possible that the celebrated _scriptoria_ of York and Jarrow
may have been furnished with both MSS. and copyists from Rome, yet there
can be little doubt that the intercourse with Durham would be quite as
active. Nor is it less probable that similar intercourse would keep them
_en rapport_ with Oxford, St. Alban's, Westminster, Glastonbury, and
other _scriptoria_, so that in the eighth century England stood with
respect to art second to no other country in the Christian world.

During the ninth century active intercourse with the Frankish Empire
enriched English churches and religious houses, especially Winchester,
with examples of Byzantine and Roman models, which Charlemagne had
introduced into his own palatine schools. From such secondary models as
the Sacramentaries and Evangeliaries executed at Tours, Soissons, Metz,
and other busy centres of production, English illuminators succeeded in
forming a distinctive style of their own. In the French or, rather,
Frankish MSS., while the richness of the gold and the beauty and
delicacy of the colouring are in themselves most charming, and while
certain features may in general be recognised as no doubt suggestive
there is nothing which quite predicts the remarkable treatment which
characterises the English work. "Opus Anglicum" was its distinctive
title. The term, indeed, was applied to all English artistic productions
more or less--embroidery among the rest. The women of England, says
William of Poitiers, were famous for their needlework, the men excelled
in metal-work and jewellery. But it was the illuminated Service Books
that have perpetuated the term.

From the Lindisfarne Gospels to the Winchester Benedictionals is a far
cry--but Art is long and time is fleeting, hence many pages of
intervening description must be omitted. We may, however, refer the
reader to Westwood's _Palæographia Sacra Pictoria_, the Palæographical
Society's publications, and other works, for enlightenment on this
period. On the Rouen and Devonshire Benedictionals much interesting
information may be found in vol. 24 of the _Archæologia_ and in the
recent volume of the Bradshaw Society concerning them.

The work is peculiar; and if we consider the treatment of foliage apart
from the colour, we cannot but notice its similarity to the ivory
carving observable in the consular diptychs. Ivory carving was then a
popular artistic occupation. The foliage is graceful, the composition
well-balanced, and the colour mostly bright body colour applied in the
Greek manner. The fault of the heads is that they are too small for the
figure, and of the draperies that the folds are overdone too much
fluttering detail. The gilding differs from the Byzantine in not being
laid on the vellum in the form of burnished leaf, but painted on like
the colours, not only in the figures but in the framework and ornaments.

The British Museum contains several characteristic examples, but, as has
been said, the very finest are those at Rouen and in the library of the
Duke of Devonshire.

Perhaps no genuine example exists earlier than the Golden Charter of
King Edgar of true Winchester illumination, executed forty years after
the accession of Athelstan, whose Coronation Book (Brit. Mus., Tib. A.
2) is most probably not English at all, but Carolingian of the finest
type. Many other _scriptoria_ in England in the tenth century were
equally busy with Winchester, but none could vie with the royal city in
the production of illuminated books.




CHAPTER XI

CAROLINGIAN ILLUMINATION

Why so-called--Works to be consulted--The Library of St. Gall--Rise and
progress of Carolingian art--Account of various MSS.--Features of the
style--Gospels of St. Sernin--The Ada-Codex--Centres of
production--Other splendid examples--The Alcuin Bible--The Gospel of St.
Médard of Soissons.


Once more crossing the Channel let us now inquire what has been doing
among the Franks since the Gellone Sacramentary, especially in the
schools instituted by the Emperor Charles the Great. Materials for this
inquiry are most abundant. One of the more important works on the
subject is the lucid monograph of Dr. Rahn, of Zurich, on the Golden
Psalter of Folchard at St. Gall, which deals more or less with the whole
question of Carolingian art, while M. Léop. Delisle's brochure on the
Evangeliary of St. Vaast of Arras gives us a copious account of the
Franco-Saxon branch of it. Apart, however, from these sources of
information, we have not a few original MSS. still extant, which, of
course, more vividly speak for themselves, and only require pointing out
to the student.

The clearest method of study being to take things in the order of their
creation, so in order to understand the "character of savage grandeur
and naïve originality" which has been attributed to this style, it will
be best to take up these MSS. chronologically. At the same time, if
anyone merely wishes to know what the style is like at its best, Dr.
Rahn must be his guide, as the Golden Psalter which he has selected for
study is as splendid an example as perhaps may be found in the whole
career of the art. We have noticed how the Irish missionary-artists
carried their work to their continental settlements, how they planted
their schools in Burgundy, Switzerland, and Lombardy. Of all their
depositories, however, numerous as they are elsewhere, none is richer in
the relics of their work than the celebrated abbey which takes its name
of St. Gall from that disciple of St. Columbanus, who in 614 founded his
little cell beside the Steinach, about nine miles south of the Lake of
Constance. Under Charles Martel the cell had become a monastery, which
he endowed as a Benedictine abbey. In 830 was founded its magnificent
library of MSS. The library still exists, and at the present moment
gives shelf-room to 1,800 MSS. and more than 41,700 printed books.
Besides this, another, called the Town Library, founded in the sixteenth
century, and containing 500 MSS. and 60,400 printed books, gives this
upland, busy, modern manufacturing Swiss town no mean importance as a
centre of literary culture. Physically it is probably the highest town
in Europe, its street-level being very nearly 2,200 feet above that of
the sea. Its libraries and museums are rich storehouses of mediæval
treasures. The architect raves over its monastic buildings; the scholar
and palæographer gloat over its books and MSS. In the libraries of St.
Gall are some of the masterpieces of Irish Saxon, and Carolingian art,
and its great Benedictine abbey under Grimald from 841, _i.e._ during
the later Carolingian period, possessed one of the most active
_scriptoria_ in Europe. To begin with the beginning, however, we must
leave St. Gall, and, passing by some less important MSS., go back to the
year 781 and the city of Toulouse. In that year, and in the Abbey of St.
Sernin (Saturninus) in that city, was finished a wonderful and truly
splendid manuscript of the Gospels as a present to the Emperor and his
wife Hildegardis. This is our first example. It now is to be seen in the
National Library, Paris (Nouv. acqu. Lat. 1203).

Next comes the Evangeliary of Abbat Angilbert of Centula (now St.
Riquier), near Abbeville, Charlemagne's son-in-law. This MS., executed
about the year 793, is still preserved in the Town Library of Abbeville.
In the same rank, but somewhat finer in execution, comes a third
Evangeliary, that of St. Médard of Soissons, now in the National
Library, Paris (No. 8850, Lat.).

In these three MSS., reproductions from which are to be found in various
modern works on art, the writing and ornamentation are the parts into
which the artist puts his best work, not the figure drawing. Although in
the St. Sernin MS. there is, in the Christ-figure, a distinct attempt at
portraiture quite different from the coils and pen-flourishes which make
up the Gospel-figures in the Irish and Merovingian MSS. Here the
inspiration is clearly Greek, not Irish. The figure is draped in green
and violet--seated on an embroidered cushion before a low castellated
wall. The hair is light, and the chin beardless. The design shows a
decided likeness to the consular ivory diptychs, and the painting
follows the Eastern methods. In the details of ornament only are Irish
features. Thus we trace in this MS. the sources of Carolingian art. The
MS. being dated, is important as affording a means of comparison with
other undated work. It was presented to St. Sernin on the occasion of
the visit of the Emperor and Empress with their son, the amiable Louis
"le Debonaire,"[14] just after the latter had been made King of
Aquitaine. Godeschalk, the writer of it, on the last two leaves tells us
that it took him seven years to accomplish. It is written throughout in
gold and silver letters on purple vellum, and is, moreover, ornamented
with borders, pictures, portraits, and panellings. At first it was kept
in a _cumdach_ of silver, set with precious stones, but that has
disappeared.

[14] Mod. Fr. "Debonnaire."

The Golden Gospels of St. Médard, like the Centula MS., are similar, but
betoken an advance in both taste and execution. The figures are still
rude and deformed, but the artist shows a laudable desire, an ambition,
in fact, to imitate the work of better artists than himself.
Nevertheless, the calligraphy and borderwork are the best parts of his
performance. In this MS. the use of silver betrays a tendency to
prodigality. In design, the influence of the artists who built the new
church of San Vitale at Ravenna, a church which became the model for the
Abbey of St. Médard itself, is quite manifest, yet perhaps need not be
traced further than Soissons or Pavia. In certain of the illustrations,
as, for instance, the "Fountain of Life," there is at once a likeness
and a variation as compared with the same symbol in the Evangeliary of
St. Sernin. They are both too intricate to describe, but of both it may
be said that they show an intimate acquaintance with early Christian
symbolism. The ivory carving and architecture of Ravenna have evidently
been known to the director of these frames and backgrounds. In the year
which saw the completion of Godeschalk's Gospels, Alcuin was at Parma,
but when the St. Médard's Gospels were written he was Abbot of St.
Martin's at Tours. It was the presence of Alcuin at the Court of
Charlemagne that accounts for the prevalence of the Saxon character in
the new and beautiful handwriting we now call Carolingian. It was the
presence of Paul Warnefrid that accounts for much of the classic and
most of the Lombardic features, both of the writing and the
illumination. Many other scholars assisted these two in the various
centres in which Alcuin established branches of the palatine schools.
The intercourse with Italy and England was constant, and led to the
frequent interchange of books, and community of methods and models.
Another fine MS. of the same period (c. 780) is the Golden Ada-Codex of
St. Mesmin or Maximin, of Trèves. In 1794 this MS. was taken from Trèves
to Mainz; in 1815 it was transferred to Aix-la-Chapelle, and is now back
again at Trèves. The externals of the Ada-Codex are very costly, its
binding being a late Gothic pendant to the cover of the Echternach
Evangeliary at Gotha. In the centre of the fore-cover there is a
magnificent topaz,[15] with several imperial figures. Inside, the work is
a handsome example of the early Carolingian.[16] It contains the four
Gospels written by order of the "Mother and Lady Ada," sister of Charles
the Great, Abbess of St. Mesmin. Next we have in the British Museum
another grand example of the style as modified by English or Saxon
influence. Also the Zurich Bible, of the same date, executed at
Tours--and the Bamberg Bible, said to be a copy of the Alcuin Bible of
the same school. Then follow the Drogo Sacramentary, presented by the
Emperor to his natural son Drogo, Archbishop of Metz (826-855), perhaps
illuminated at Metz, but of the same school as those above mentioned.

[15] Or sardonyx (Lamprecht says topaz.)

[16] A photograph of the cover is sold by F. Linz of Trèves.

In our own National Library, again, we have the Athelstan Gospels (Harl.
2788), also in all probability executed at Metz. At Paris (Nat. Lib.,
Theol. Lat. 266) is the Evangeliary of Lothaire--a most beautiful
example of gold-writing and ornament. So we might enumerate a score of
splendid MSS., and classify them into their various minor schools. But
such is not our object. All we want here is a general but clear idea of
the style as a whole.

To characterise it broadly by the names of its most important elements
we should call it a Lombard-Saxon style--the interlacing bands and knots
and other minor features and the main character of the writing being of
Saxon origin, the classical foliages and manner of painting the figures
and certain ideas of design Lombardic, strengthened by direct contact
with the sources of the latter style. Whatever variations there may be,
they can generally be accounted for according to locality and centre of
production. We have instanced a few examples of the earlier time as
showing the principal features of the style. Under the Emperor Charles
the Great's grandson, Charles the Bald, Carolingian illumination reached
its highest point of excellence, and the MSS. executed for him or his
contemporaries accordingly give a correct idea of what Carolingian
illuminators considered as good work. The chief centres were still Tours
and Metz--the latter a branch of the former, but gradually developing
distinct features of its own; and among the productions of these schools
there still remain precious--we might say priceless--examples, such as
the Vivien Bible of the Paris Library, so-called because presented by
Count Vivien, Abbat of St. Martin's of Tours, to Charles the Bald in
850.[17] It contains a fine picture of the presentation with _beardless_
figures. It has also a number of exceedingly splendid initials showing
strong Byzantine influence--capitals of columns of classic origin and
traces of Merovingian in letter forms and ornamental details. It is like
the Evangeliary of Lothaire, already mentioned, a most sumptuous example
rich in silver and gold--the latter having a grand portrait of Lothaire
seated on his throne. Both MSS. are in the National Library at Paris,
the Vivien, No. 1 (Theol. Lat.), the Lothaire, No. 266. But the one
example to which we would call the reader's attention, though among the
earlier productions of the period, as not only most readily accessible,
but most precious to the English student, is the celebrated Alcuin Bible
in the British Museum (Add. MS. 10546). This venerable MS. is a copy of
the Vulgate revised by Alcuin himself, and said to be exactly similar to
the one at Bamberg. Biblical revision was perhaps the most important of
his many literary occupations, and this volume is reasonably believed to
be the actual copy prepared for presentation to Charlemagne under the
reviser's own superintendence, possibly, in part at least, the work of
his own hand. It is a large folio, finely written in a neat minuscule,
mainly Saxon hand, with uncial initials in two columns. The miniatures,
including their architectural details, are in the Roman manner, the
ornaments partly Byzantine, partly Celtic. The great similarity of
design between different manuscripts is strikingly exemplified by a
comparison of three borders from (_a_) the Evangeliary of St. Vaast of
Arras, fol. 28 _v._ (see Delisle); (_b_) the Evangel. in National
Library, Paris, anc. fds. Lat. 257 (see Louandre), and Evangeliary No.
309 Bibl. de Cambrai (see Durieux).

[17] Plate in t. 1 of Louandre.

Indeed, comparisons of this kind are very instructive frequently as
suggestive of _provenance_, as each working centre would have its own
set of models and designs. Of course, comparison of the MSS. themselves
is out of the question, but the comparisons can often be effected by the
student's having Louandre, Durieux, Fleury, Labarte, etc., by his side
during the examination of any given period. The limits of our little
book forbid our speaking of other examples of this splendid style, but
we cannot conclude without noticing that in the opinion of M. Ferdinand
Denis, the Golden Gospels of St. Médard of Soissons is the most
beautiful Carolingian MSS. extant.




CHAPTER XII

MONASTIC ILLUMINATION

Introductory--Monasteries and their work from the sixth to the ninth
century--The claustral schools--Alcuin--Warnefrid and Theodulf--Clerics
and monastics--The Golden Age of monasticism--The Order of St.
Benedict--Cistercian houses--Other Orders--Progress of writing in
Carolingian times--Division of labour.


In the sixth century the monasteries, such as they were, necessarily
kept themselves very quiet and unobtrusive. They were situated usually
in out-of-the-way corners, solitudes apart from civilisation, or, at
least, apart from the busy haunts of men. In the eighth century there is
a marked difference. The Capitular of Aix-la-Chapelle, of 789, required
that minor schools should be attached _to all monasteries and cathedral
churches_ without exception, and that children of all ranks, _both noble
and servile_, should be received into them. Also that the larger
monasteries should open major schools in which the seven sciences of
mathematics, astronomy, arithmetic, music, rhetoric, dialectics, and
geography, were to be taught--and this in two ways. There were to be two
sorts of schools--interior or _claustral_, intended for monastics only,
and exterior or _canonical_, intended for secular students. These
schools were under separate scholastics or masters, and lay students
were received in the exterior schools as freely and fully as in the
public schools of the present time. Mabillon[18] gives a list of some
twenty-seven monastic and cathedral schools, by no means confined to
great or wealthy cities, but well distributed throughout the Empire.

[18] Præfat. in iv. Sæcul. 184.

In the time of Charlemagne those most in repute were Tours, St. Gall,
Fulda, Reims, and Hirsfeld.

We have given the names of Alcuin and Paul Warnefrid as the chief
promoters of the Carolingian Revival, but we should not omit that of
Theodulf, of Orleans, the indefatigable school inspector of the time. He
it was who assisted the artistic side of the movement by his ingenious
contrivances as a writer and illustrator of school books. Undoubtedly it
was from his suggestions that we so often find in mediæval scientific
treatises of the driest kind those graphic and wonderful tabulations and
edifices, labelled and turreted, which make Aristotle, Priscian, and
Marcianus Capella, not only comprehensible, but attractive. Theodulf
composed in simple and easy Latin verse--somewhat after the style of the
_Propria quæ maribus_ our own childhood--the description of a supposed
tree of science, which he had drawn and painted, on the trunk and
branches of which were the figures and names of the seven liberal arts.
At the foot sat Grammar--the basis of all learning--holding on her hand
a lengthy rod (ominous for the tender student). On the right Rhetoric
stretched forth her hand. On the left was Dialectic. Philosophy sat on
the summit; the rest being disposed according to their relative
importance. The whole was explained in the _Carmina de septem artibus_,
in which the bishop, who was one of the famous poets of the age, strove
in flowery language to render these dry-as-dust studies acceptable to
the youthful understanding. Theodulf was a great scholar, and assisted
Alcuin in the revision of the Bible, one copy of which he himself had
written whilst still Abbat of Fleury, about 790. At the beginning of
this Bible is a poem in golden letters on purple, and a preface in
prose, also in golden letters, giving a synopsis of the several books.
The text differs somewhat from the Alcuin Bible, as it is that of Jerome
before Alcuin's revision. This MS. is now at Paris. Another Bible
executed to the order of Theodulf is now in the Town Library at Puy.

It seems incredible, after the efforts made by Charlemagne and his
ministers for the maintenance of learning and the arts, that there
should ever be any risk of a return to barbarism, but it is a fact that
the dissolution of the Empire proved in certain localities the
suspension of prosperity. Fortunately the monastics--especially the
Benedictines--and the canons of the cathedrals still kept up the
practice of copying books; but almost all the South of France,
Languedoc, and Provence, always conservative, remained more or less
illiterate. They produced poets and jongleurs, but seldom artists or
scholars. And even in the North, where the capitular schools were most
flourishing--as Paris, Reims, and Chartres--the general tendency was
towards relapse. In High Germany it was even worse. In spite of all
efforts of the clergy by the extension of secular schools, the laity
preferred the excitement of chase and camp to the quiet humdrum of the
schoolroom. Religion seemed to be regarded rather as a profession than a
principle, quite right in its place, _i.e._ the Church and the
monastery, but unsuited for active life. The wealthy land-owners,
therefore, did not cease to endow religious houses or to build churches,
but they left book-learning to the clerics. Accordingly the clerics and
the monastics flourished exceedingly.

From the beginning of the tenth century to the beginning of the
thirteenth was the Golden Age of monasticism. The Order of St. Benedict
scattered its foundations thickly over France and Western Germany, while
its reformed colonies of Cluny, Citeaux, Clairvaux, and the Chartreuse
again spread their settlements in all directions. Thus we find Cluny
established in 910, Grammont in 1076, the Chartreuse in 1080, Citeaux in
1098, Savigny in 1105, Tiron in 1109, Austin Canons in 1038,
Premonstrants in 1120, Crutched Friars in 1169. In England, from 1100,
scarcely a year passed by without the establishment of some fresh
foundation. During the thirty-five years of the reign of Henry I. more
than 150 religious houses were founded. And even during the disastrous
reign of Stephen, in less than twenty years, no fewer than 100 houses of
various Orders were established. The twelfth century in England was
especially the age of monasteries.

It is true that not very much in the way of original literature, except
theological treatises, can be assigned to the three centuries referred
to, but the unwearied labours of the copyist and illuminator did much to
preserve the works which previous centuries had created. Of course, in
so long a period changes were many and great. So great, indeed, that
between a MS. of 850 and another of 1200 scarcely is there a common
feature.

From 850 to 1000 in France the Carolingian minuscule, from the first so
clear and beautiful, remained with scarce a stroke of alteration. But
immediately after the opening of the eleventh century a series of rapid
changes set in, and by the beginning of the twelfth a new hand,
perfectly clear and regular, but quite different from the Carolingian,
had been formed, which lasted until it was superseded by the Gothic,
while a system of contractions adopted because of the scarcity of
parchment creates a fresh need for study apart from the peculiarities of
personal habits. Side by side, too, with this there grows up a
non-professional hand--the so-called cursive or running hand of the
ordinary writer--in many cases, especially in deeds and other brief
compositions, all but utterly illegible, except to the professional
palæographer. Occasionally these autographs are of the highest
importance and intensely interesting, as, for instance, when in an
English MS. we come Across a note in the handwriting of Ordericus
(Vitalis) or Matthew Paris.

From 900 to 1200 the vast majority of MSS., illuminated and otherwise,
were the work of monastics. Every house of any note had its room set
apart for writing. The larger monasteries sometimes utilised the
cloisters of the churches themselves, in recesses of which they had
desks or tables placed for the copyist. Usually, however, they had a
large common room called the scriptorium, where either the copyist and
illuminator worked separately and each on his own account, or where a
number of copyists awaited with pen and parchment the dictation by one
of the fraternity of some work of which a number of copies had to be
made. "No admittance except on business" was the rule of this chamber.
There, under the direction of the _armarius_, the expert writers did
their work.

Sometimes a single monk executed the book from first to last by himself.
He prepared the vellum, ruled it with the fine metal point, copied the
text, painted the illuminations, put on the gilding, and even added the
binding. Generally, however, the labour was divided--one monk scraped
and polished the parchment; another ruled it; another wrote the text,
leaving spaces for initials and miniatures; another put in the initials
and did the gilding and flourishing with borders, etc.; and another
painted the miniatures. This in the monasteries was done in the case of
large and important MSS., and afterwards, when illuminating became a
lay-craft, subdivision of labour was the common practice. Binding was
done in a special apartment, and by one specially skilled therein.

The _scriptorium_ was looked upon as a sort of sacred place, and the
work of copying often considered as a labour of piety and love--entered
upon with devout prayer, and solemnly blessed by the superior,
especially in cases where the books to be written were Bibles, or
connected with the services of the house, the Lives of the Saints, or
Treatises on Theology.

Very frivolous or absurd indeed are sometimes the inducements to
copyists to do gratuitous work of this kind, such as that every letter
transcribed paid for one sin of the copyist, and it is said that a
certain monk--a heavy sinner--only owed his salvation to the fact that
the number of letters in a Bible which he copied exceeded by a single
unit the sum total of his sins.




CHAPTER XIII

MONASTIC ILLUMINATION--_continued_

The copyists--Gratuitous labour--Last words of copyists--Disputes
between Cluny and Citeaux--The Abbey of Cluny: its grandeur and
influences--Use of gold and purple vellum--The more influential abbeys
and their work in France, Germany, and the Netherlands.


Of course, only really expert calligraphers were employed on great and
important works. In the monastery all such labour was gratuitous, that
is, the copyist received no pecuniary remuneration, only his food and
lodging. Yet even this had to be provided for. Hence the frequent
requests for donations from the laity.

To give a volume to a monastery did not always mean actually to present
the book, but to stand the expense of its production in the monastery
itself. In the case of specially distinguished penmen, their
entertainment in a monastery was sometimes an expensive business. It was
only in later times, however, when lay-artists were invited to reside in
the monastery to do their work that money was paid for their services.
Very often we find notices at the end of volumes that "So-and-so" had
ordered the book to be written and illuminated at his expense, and an
invocation for the gratitude of the reader and remembrance in his
prayers is added, sometimes with the date to the very hour when the book
was finished.

The copyist's last words after his task was completed are often very
full of weariness--sometimes pious, sometimes hankering after fleshly
lusts, occasionally quite too dreadful to repeat. "May Christ recompense
for ever him who caused this book to be written." At the end of a Life
of St. Sebastian: "Illustrious martyr, remember the monk Gondacus who in
this slender volume has included the story of thy glorious miracles. May
thy merits assist me to penetrate the heavenly kingdom; and may thy holy
prayers aid me as they have aided so many others who have owed to them
the ineffable enjoyments both of body and soul." Wailly quotes the
following: "Dextram scriptoris benedicat mater honoris" ("May the mother
of honour bless the writer's right hand"). A very common ending is "Qui
scripsit scribat semper cum Domino vivat" ("He who wrote, let him write;
may he ever live with the Lord"). Another: "Explicit expliceat. Bibere
scriptor eat" ("It is finished. Let it be finished, and let the writer
go out for a drink"). Another ending is "Vinum scriptori reddatur de
meliori" ("Let wine of the best be given to the writer"). And again:
"Vinum reddatur scriptori, non teneatur" ("Let wine be given to the
writer; let it not be withheld"). Here is the recompense wished for by a
French monk: "Detur pro penâ scriptori pulcra puella" ("Let a pretty
girl be given to the writer for his pains," or "as a penance") The monks
enjoyed puns, as "bibere," a common pun on "vivere." One writer groans
thus: "Scribere qui nescit, nullum putat esse laborem" ("Whoso knows not
how to write, thinks it is no trouble").

As time goes on, after the tenth century, it is noticeable that the more
beautiful a manuscript becomes in its writing the less accurate becomes
its Latinity. And so the monks who once were noted for learning,
gradually lose their grip on Latin. The manuscripts executed in
Benedictine abbeys became inaccurate--almost illiterate. Faults of
ignorance of words; misrendering of proper names; blundering in the
inept introduction of marginal notes and confounding such notes with the
text, showing that the heart of the copyist was not in his work nor his
head capable of performing it. His hand is simply a machine, which when
it goes wrong does so without remorse and without shame. So in the
greater houses, men were appointed whose sole business was to supervise
the copyists--in fact, to supply the brains, while the scribe furnished
the manipulation of the pen. Even they, however, did not always succeed
to perfection, as very few of them were too well furnished with
scholarship. There were not many Alcuins or Theodulfs in the twelfth
century. What they did usually keep free from serious error were the
books used in their own services. It was the aim, particularly among the
Cistercian houses, to have their liturgical texts absolutely without
fault. In respect of illumination, there was a great quarrel between the
Abbey of Citeaux and that of Cluny. The great Abbey of Clugny (or Cluny)
in ancient Burgundy was founded in 910, and in the course of a century
or obtained a degree of splendour, influence, and prosperity unrivalled
by any other mediæval foundation. It possessed enormous wealth and
covered Western Europe with its affiliated settlements. Under Peter the
Venerable, when the controversy began, it was the chief monastic centre
of the Christian world. The words of Pope Urban II., when addressing the
community, were: "Ye are the light of the world."

The grand Basilica at Cluny was completed in 1131, and, until the
erection of St. Peter's at Rome, was the largest church in Christendom,
and even then was only ten feet shorter than the Roman edifice. The
building is a masterpiece of architectural beauty and massiveness, being
with its narthex added by Abbat Roland de Hainaut, no less in length
than 555 feet. The splendour of the church, its gorgeous tombs and
mausoleums, its huge coronals for lights of brass, silver, and gold--the
grand candelabrum before the altar, with its settings of crystal and
beryl--the mural painting of the cupola, and the general luxury and
magnificence of the whole constituted an unpardonable sin in the eyes of
the stern and self-denying Cistercians. Hence arose long disputes
between the abbats of the two houses about tithes and other matters.
Among the other matters were included questions of candlesticks and
bindings and gildings of books. The two houses were long at variance on
the right definition of luxury in living, and this variance may to this
day be observed in their separate and distinct styles, both of
architecture and the ornamentation of books. The use of gold was still
continued in the older Benedictine abbeys, but was long forbidden in the
Cistercian, almost all the ornament of the latter being confined to
pen-drawing and the use of coloured inks. The employment of gold for the
text of manuscripts so common in the ninth century became rare in the
eleventh. Only here and there do we hear of such volumes. Where the gold
lettering still lingers, it is confined to the first page or two, and
the same may be said of the purple vellum. A certain monk, Adémar, who
died at Jerusalem in 1034, wrote a Life of St. Martial of Limoges
entirely in letters of gold; but it was quite an exceptional volume.
Another example occurs in an Evangeliary, which was probably a copy of a
ninth-century model, as at first glance it might be assigned to that
age, but on closer examination it is found that in one of the borders is
a medallion bearing the name of the Emperor Otho, showing that it cannot
be later than the latter part of the tenth century. It is now in the
National Library at Paris.

Before speaking of Othonian illumination it may be well to refer to that
of the Netherlands in these earlier centuries.

The most ancient writings known in this district were charters and other
documents, and the pious effusion of the occupants of the monasteries,
such as St. Amand, Lobbes, Stavelot, etc.

It was the revival of art and literature under Charlemagne that was the
beginning of artistic calligraphy, then followed the production of books
outside the monasteries, classical authors, chronicles, and mirrors of
various sciences. In the eleventh century we find monastic books and
others of which the ornamentation is sometimes even splendid, such as
Psalters, Evangeliaries, Bibles, and Missals, glowing with gold and
colours. Already the Abbeys of Stavelot and Liége were high-class
centres of production. St. Martin's of Tournay had a famous scriptorium
also, noted for the beauty of its writing and its grand initial letters.
Immediately following St. Martin's, the Abbeys of Gembloux, St. Bavon at
Ghent, and others, produced or acquired MSS. of the most sumptuous kind,
and before the thirteenth century the Netherlands had established quite
a distinguished reputation.

In a later chapter we shall deal with the development of its remarkable
schools, whose work eventually took rank, not only among the most
artistic, but the most prolific in Europe.




CHAPTER XIV

OTHONIAN ILLUMINATION

Departure from Carolingian--Bird and serpent--Common use of dracontine
forms in letter-ornament--Influence of metal-work on the forms of
scroll-ornament--The vine-stem and its developments--Introduction of
Greek taste and fashion into Germany--Cistercian illumination--The
Othonian period--Influence of women as patronesses and
practitioners--German princesses--The Empress Adelheid of Burgundy--The
Empress Theophano--Henry II. and the Empress
Cunegunda--Bamberg--Examples of Othonian art.


Perhaps the first departure towards a new style arising out of the
elements of Carolingian illumination is in the combination of the bird
and serpent used for letter forms and continued into coils of vine-stem
and foliage in combination with golden panelled frames or pilasters. The
monsters thus produced seem to be a revival of the dracontine forms of
the semi-barbarous Celtic and early Frankish arts. But the difference in
elegance and refinement of drawing and beauty of colouring is very great
indeed. Other animal forms are also made use of, nor is the human figure
altogether absent. Sometimes entire letters are made up of the latter in
various attitudes. Little scenes illustrative of the subject which the
initial commences are often placed within it, as, for instance, in the B
of the first psalm.[19]

[19] A characteristic Othonian Evangeliary of the eleventh century,
executed at the Abbey of Stavelot, may be seen in the Royal Library at
Brussels.

[Illustration:
BIBLIA SACRA
12TH CENT. (LATE)
_Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 2799, fol. 185 v._]

[Illustration:
EVANGELIA (PARIS USE)
C. 1275
_Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 17341, fol. 120 v._]

Many twelfth-century initials look like designs in metal-work placed on
the panelled grounds of coloured enamels. But the rapid development of
the vine-stem coils out of the stemless foliages of the Carolingian and
Winchester styles is one of the wonders of the early German revival
after the accession of the Emperor Otho I. A still greater improvement
takes place after the marriage of his son Otho II. to the Princess
Theophano, daughter of Romanus II., attributable, no doubt, to a fresh
accession of artistic enthusiasm from the home of the new Empress. In
point of elegance of design, beauty of curve, adaptation of every part
to its share in the composition, nothing could be finer than the initial
letters of the Othonian period of illumination. The year 963 introduced
Greek fashions and Greek artists into Germany, the results of which are
at once traceable in the increased splendour of monastic illumination in
that country. The details of Greek ornament become the fillings of the
frames and panels of the large initials.

The Cistercian illuminators, or rather calligraphers, while they
constantly repudiate the golden splendour and monstrous follies of their
rivals, absolutely excel in this same ornamental draughtsmanship. What,
for example, could be finer than the pen-drawing of the great Arnstein
Bible in the British Museum (Harl. 2800)? The ornament is mostly in a
red ink, with flat-coloured blue, green, or yellow backgrounds, but it
is not to be surpassed. No, the interlacements and coils, foliages and
panels of the twelfth century are absolutely among the finest examples
of ornamental lettering ever conceived. Illuminating seemed at this
epoch to be more and more closely following the details of contemporary
architecture, and so paving the way to the next great variety of the
art, which is looked upon by some writers as the real beginning of
mediæval illumination.

It must be admitted, however, that the excellence limits itself to the
ornament. The human figure is wretchedly incorrect--even barbarous. It
may be asked why is this? How is it that while the decorative portion of
an illuminated book is beautiful in the highest degree, both in line and
colour, and yet occasionally the artist seems not to have the remotest
idea of the true shape of hands and feet or any part of the human body?
Of course the usual explanation offered is that monastic education did
not permit the study of the nude, and hence the monkish ignorance of
figure drawing. But that is scarcely an excuse for the monstrous hands
and feet and exaggerated facial expression of the miniatures. The
Italian monk Angelico, in spite of his monastic limitations, succeeded
in a most graceful rendering of the figure, and a charming delicacy in
the forms of the hands. As in some instances the artist does reach a
fair standard, it must be admitted that where he does not is owing to
actual inability in himself and not in his system. The three emperors
who give the name of Othonian to the period immediately succeeding the
Carolingian ruled Germany, and had much to do with the ruling of Italy,
from 936, when Otho I., called the Great, succeeded Henry the Fowler
about five years before the death of Athelstan, whose sister Eadgyth[20]
was Otho's first wife. His mother Mathilda was the patroness of the
cloister-schools for women, working in them personally. She herself
taught her servants and maids the art of reading. Her daughter Mathilda,
the famous Abbess of Quedlinburg, in 969 persuaded the Abbat Wittikind
of Corvey to write the History of the Saxon Kings, Henry her father, and
Otho her brother (now in the Royal Library at Dresden). Hazecha, the
Treasury-mistress of Quedlinburg, also employed the monks of Corvey,
with whose beautiful initial drawing she was greatly pleased, to
illuminate her own Life of St. Christopher. The beautiful but imperious
Princess Hedwig, another of Otho's sisters, read Virgil with Ekkehard of
St. Gall, and taught the child Burchard Greek, while Otho's niece
Gerberga, Abbess of Gandersheim, was the instructress of the celebrated
Hrosvita, "the oldest German poetess." And this reminds us that at this
time the women-cloisters of Germany and the Netherlands were among the
most active centres of learning and book-production. The great monument
of feminine erudition and artistic skill, called the "Hortus
Deliciarum," was of a somewhat later time, but other examples still
exist, among them the beautiful Niedermünster Gospels of the Abbess
Uota, now at Munich. A wood-cut by Albert Dürer prefixed to the first
edition of Hrosvita's works (Nürnberg, 1501) represents the nun Hrosvita
kneeling before the Emperor and beside the Archbishop Wilhelm of Mainz
presenting her book.[21] As to the literary labours of Hrosvita, this is
not the place to discuss them. She is simply an incidental figure in our
view of the brilliant Court of the Othos. A MS. of her works 500 years
after her death was found among the dust of the cloister-library at St.
Emmeram of Regensburg by Conrad Celtis, and, as we have seen, printed
for the first time in 1501. Thus she stands out as an illustration of
the fact often alluded to, of the importance of feminine foundations in
the monastic scheme.

[20] The chroniclers are rather confused as to the name of this Princess.

[21] It is thought, however, by some that the figure behind is that of
the Abbess--not the Archbishop. See Dürer Soc. Portfolio for 1900.

Her picturesque story of the romantic adventures of Adelheid of
Burgundy, her marriage in 947 to King Lothaire of Italy, her widowhood
and perils, her misfortunes and eventual marriage to the Emperor Otho,
reads more like a chapter from the _Morte d'Arthur_ or the _Arabian
Nights_ than a veracious history of real people. The Empress Adelheid
was, indeed, a remarkable woman, and the nun of Gandersheim is full of
her praises. In her younger days she had been a zealous patron and
protectress of the Abbey of Cluny, which stood on her native land of
Burgundy, and her sympathies remained always with the religious houses.
In this respect, indeed, she was a worthy successor of the pious
Mathilda and her daughters. She died in her seventy-first year in her
Abbey of Selz in Elsass, leaving a memory rich in benefits to the
monastics, especially those of Cluny, and venerated as the patroness of
many an illuminated volume of poems or theology, not to mention the
liturgical books executed at her expense for use in her various
foundations. The tenth century seems to have been an age of illustrious
women. No sooner do we leave the story of Adelheid than we enter upon
that of the young wife of Otho II., the Empress Theophano, daughter of
the Greek Emperor, Romanus II. When little more than a child she was
married to the son of Adelheid, he himself being in his twentieth year
in the year 972, and in the city of Rome. The young Greek Princess who
had been reared amid the luxury and splendour of the Eastern capital at
once became the fashion--the manners of her Byzantine household became
those of her Roman court, and were transplanted to her German home at
Bamberg. Artists, limners, copyists, musicians, scholars, formed part of
her retinue, and at once the German Court became the rival of those of
England, Byzantium, Cordova, and Rome.

It was, indeed, a Renaissance, an awakening in literature, art, and
social life. Nor did its glory fade until eclipsed by the succeeding
rivalries of France and Italy. Theophano survived her husband, who died
in 983, and proved herself a capable Regent during the infancy of her
son Otho III. She, however, did not live to see his early death, nor
indeed to see that of the aged Adelheid, who survived her eight years,
and died in the same year (999) as Otho's aunt, Matilda, Abbess of
Quedlinburg.

The death of Otho III. in 1002 did not affect materially the steady
advance of monastic art. Bamberg, St. Gall, Corvey, Luxeuil, Bobbio,
Monte Cassino continued their accustomed labours. Under the Capetian
Kings the French foundations maintained the reputations they had won
during the Carolingian times, while others were added from time to time
throughout the Rhineland, Limousin, and the South of France, where the
Romanesque or Byzantine tastes had not yet penetrated, and whose work
therefore remained distinct from that of Italy and the German Empire.

Henry II. and the Empress Cunigunda made Bamberg the great centre of
German art, and it is to Bamberg, St. Gall, Luxeuil, Monte Cassino, and
Magdeburg that we have to look for the finest productions of the
eleventh century. Among the earlier works of the Othonian period we may
mention the famous Gospel-book executed for the minister of Otho II.,
Egbert, Archbishop of Trèves, and known as the Codex Egberti. It was
written in 980 at Reichenau on the Lake of Constance (or Bodensee, as it
is locally known) by two monks, Kerald and Heribert, whose dwarfish
figures appear beneath that of the archbishop on the frontispiece. It
contains fifty-seven illuminations and several folios of violet
parchment with golden ornaments and lettering. But its pictures are
rather remarkable, mostly the figures are too short and the limbs and
extremities badly drawn, but in some of the statelier personages the
error is reversed and they are too tall--this seems to be owing to Greek
influence, while the Byzantine taste shows itself in the treatment of
the border-foliages. Beasts are unnatural--demons and swine are alike,
both in form and colour (Pub. Lib., Trèves).

An Evangeliary, formerly in the Cathedral Treasury at Bamberg, but now
in the Royal Library at Munich (Cimel. 58), is a good example of the
kind of work that at first glance appears to be actually Carolingian
both in the figures, attitudes, and treatment of drapery, but which on
closer examination proves to be really due to the reign of Otho II. In
this MS. the beginning of St. Matthew contains four medallions--two of
Henry I. (the Fowler), one of Otho I., his son, and another of his
grandson, Otho II. (Nat. Lib., Paris, Lat. 8851).

A still more notable MS. is kept in the Munich Library (Cimel. 58),
containing a two-paged picture of tributary cities bringing gifts to the
Emperor Otho III. In the painting in this MS., notwithstanding the
exaggerated solemnity of expression, the faces are well drawn and the
features carefully modelled. The painting is in the Greek manner, as is
also the general character of the draperies. The small, ill-drawn feet
are by no means comparable with the heads.

The Imperial crown is square, like those of the Magi in the Bremen MS.
now in the Library of Brussels, or like that of Baldwin as Emperor of
Constantinople. In the several enthronements which occur among the
Imperial miniatures at Munich there are important and significant
differences which might not be noticed unless pointed out.

The changes in the shape and treatment of the orb, for instance, mean
more than a mere advance in enrichment, or an improvement in artistic
skill. The difference indicates a change in political usage. In the
miniature of Charles it does not occur at all; in that of Otho III. it
is a mere symbol; in that of Henry II. it is the actual emblem of
sovereignty presented by the Pope to the Emperor, to be held by the
latter in token of his investiture.

It was Selden's opinion that the orb, surmounted by the cross, never
appears in western art until the time of Henry II. Thus it is here one
of the many seemingly insignificant details which, in the miniature art
of the Middle Ages, contribute to the elucidation of History.




CHAPTER XV

FRANCONIAN ILLUMINATION

The later Saxon schools--Bernward of Hildesheim--Tuotilo and Hartmut of
St. Gallen--Portrait of Henry II. in MS. 40 at Munich--Netherlandish and
other work compared--Alleged deterioration of work under the Franconian
Emperors not true--Bad character of the eleventh century as to
art--Example to the contrary.


The MS. just referred to (Munich, Cimel. 58) brings us most probably to
the time of the third. Otho, but it is really with his father's marriage
to the Princess Theophano that the great revival in the arts began, and
the names of St. Bruno of Cologne and Augsburg, Gerbert, Bernward of
Hildesheim, Tuotilo, Salomon, Hartmut, Folchard, and Sintramn of St.
Gallen, are, as it were, points of light and centres of expanding
circles of artistic skill. Bruno and Gerbert are too well known to need
any further remark. Bernward of Hildesheim, made bishop there in 992 by
Theophano, and tutor to her son Otho III., "excelled no less in the
mechanical than in the liberal arts. He was an excellent penman, a good
painter, and as a household manager was unequalled." Such is Tangmar's
tribute to his pupil's character. He was, indeed, an enthusiast in
painting, mosaic, and metal-work, and used to collect all the objects of
art he could lay hands on, to form a museum or studio for the
instruction of a class of art students and workmen. The collection was
formed mainly out of the numerous presents brought to the young Emperor
from foreign, and especially Greek and Oriental, princes, and contained
many examples of beautiful metal-work and Greek illumination. His own
Cathedral of Hildesheim was supplied with jewelled service-books, in
part at least the work of his own hand. The chalices and incense-burners
and the massive golden corona or candelabrum of the cathedral were also
the productions of his own workshops. The mural paintings, too, were
executed by himself. His handiwork, so lovingly described by his old
schoolmaster Tangmar, may still be seen in Hildesheim, where visitors to
that quaint old Saxon city are told that the bronze gates of the
cathedral and the jewelled crucifix were placed there by the venerable
bishop himself in 1015, while in the cathedral-close rises a column
adorned with bronze reliefs from the Life of Christ, authoritatively
declared to be the work of his own hands--let us say they came out of
his own workshops, in the year 1022, nearly a thousand years ago. St.
Bernward was canonised by Celestine III. in 1194. His sarcophagus is in
the crypt of the Basilica of St. Michael at Hildesheim. Of Tuotilo, the
pupil of Moengall (or Marcellus), it is said that he was physically
almost a giant; just the man, says his biographer, that you would choose
for a wrestler. He was a good speaker, had a fine musical voice, was a
capital carver in wood, and an accomplished illuminator. Like most of
the earlier monks of St. Gallen, he was a clever musician, equally
skilful with the trumpet and the harp. And the charm about it all was
that he was always cheerful and in excellent spirits, and in consequence
a general favourite. Nor is this all. Besides being teacher of music in
the upper school to the sons of the nobility, he was classical tutor,
and could preach both in Latin and Greek. His chief accomplishments,
however, were music and painting, and on these his reputation mainly
rests. He composed songs, which, like an Irish bard, he sang to the
harp--the popular instrument of this Irish foundation. Being thus
multifariously accomplished (he was, by the way, an excellent boxer), he
was much in request, and by the permission of his abbot travelled to
distant places. One of his celebrated sculptures was the image of the
Blessed Virgin for the cathedral at Metz, said to be quite a
masterpiece. Nay, he was even a mathematician and astronomer, and
constructed an astrolabe or orrery, which showed the courses of the
planets.

This allusion to the astrolabe reminds us that it was Abbat Hartmut of
St. Gallen, who was also an accomplished illuminator, who constructed a
large map of the world--one of the extremely few that until that time
the world had ever seen.

St. Gallen and its artists, however, must not be permitted to monopolise
our attention too long. The reader must for the rest refer to Dr. Rahn
and the writers whom he quotes. Sometimes it is said that the
illuminations of the eleventh century are proofs of the rapid decline of
art, and to demonstrate the fact that they are frankly hideous, some
writers bring forward instances such as the miniatures of a Missal,
especially a Crucifixion, said to be at Paris,[22] and a MS. at Berlin
said to have been executed in the earlier days of the Franconian dynasty
(1034-1125) containing another Crucifixion, which, though not quite so
horrible as the one just referred to, is sufficiently bad. These
miniatures are irredeemably barbaric and not in any sense typical of the
age. Such examples, in fact, can be found in any age and in any country.
Were they really representative of the best art of the time, there might
be an excuse for their reproduction, but they are not, and therefore no
reliance can be placed on their evidence.

[22] _Le Livre, etc._, par M.P. Louisy, Paris, 1886, 8°, p. 79.

In the miniatures of MSS. executed for the Othos and Henrys of the early
Saxon dynasty the worst they can be charged with, as compared with the
periods before and after them, is slavish imitation. The portrait of
Henry II. (Saint Henry, husband of Cunegunda) in MS. 40 at Munich is by
no means barbaric--it is more Greek than anything else--but it is down
to the smallest element of composition a direct imitation of the similar
portrait of Charles the Bald in the Emmeram Gospels. It is not a copy,
for there is a significant difference in the attitudes of the emperors.
Henry holds a sceptre in his right hand and an orb in his left, like
Otho III. in the miniature already described, whereas Charles is empty
handed. Then both on the Emperor's head and on the smaller figures the
crowns are different--the panelling of the Imperial canopy is different,
and, of course, there is a different inscription. Lastly, it may be said
that some of the differences are improvements. Another change is
characteristic--Charles was beardless, Henry has a pointed beard.

It is true this is an example belonging to the very brightest years of
the Othonian revival. But to pass over other Saxon MSS., there are
extant examples from Evroul (when Roger de Warenne, son of the great
Earl of Surrey, practised as a scribe and illuminator on his retirement
to that monastery), St. Martin's of Tournay, St. Amand, Benedictbeuern,
Lobbes, and Weissobrunn could all boast accomplished calligraphers. The
last establishment produced the celebrated Diemudis, who, though a
woman, was distinguished by a most extraordinary activity and skill.

Nor are these all that could be named, for by no means least among them
we may quote Monte Cassino, many of whose elegant productions have been
published by the present occupants of the monastery. Then the Greek
miniaturists of the eleventh century are once more to the front. The
famous Slav Evangeliary of Ostromir (1056-67) shows us a MS. probably
executed for a governor of Novgorod, which contains by no means
despicable work, whether in the figures of the evangelists or the
ornamental borders. Of course, in Greek MSS. we know pretty well what to
expect; fairly good ornament, rich details of embroidery, etc.,
wilfulness of colour in architecture, mannerism in the attitudes and
faces, but good, clever technic and bright gold.

Lastly, there is the celebrated Evangeliary given to San Benedetto of
Mantua by the Countess Matilda now in the Vatican, enriched with little
miniatures from the Life of the Virgin, which Lanzi declares surpass
everything else he ever saw of the same period.

The Poitevin MS. at Poitiers, a biographical compilation of saints in
honour of St. Radegonde, though nothing wonderful, is worth recording as
a transitional example just before the close of the century. As an
example of the latter part of a continual deterioration, it should be
worse than anything preceding. Yet it is not so. It is certainly heavy
and rather dull, and the drawing far from excellent, but it is also, on
the other hand, far from "frankly horrible." In introducing examples of
other schools into this chapter the writer's object has solely been to
vindicate the illuminators of the eleventh century from the sweeping
charge sometimes made against them of absolute deterioration. Of the
school directly under our notice, the charge is certainly not true, and
the wretched stuff cited in support of it can only be looked upon as
accidental salvages of no artistic value whatever.

In proof that the book-work of the eleventh century was not all
worthless, we may refer to just one example. It is a MS. consisting of
but a few fragments executed at Luxeuil under Abbat Gerard II. The
remains are such as to cause regret for the loss of the rest. On one
page Christ is shown seated on a rich _sella_ covered with an
embroidered cushion in the manner of the consular diptychs. He is
clothed in a pale yellow tunic, over which is worn a purple pallium with
a white border. He is beardless, and his brown hair is kept close to the
head and neck, and falls over the shoulders. The feet are nude and by no
means ill-drawn. Surrounding the head is a cruciform nimbus enclosed in
a circle--both cross and circle being pale green, the latter outlined
with red. The chief fault of the head is the excessive length of the
nose and the wide stare of the eyes. The right arm is raised somewhat as
in the St. Sernin Evangeliary, but with the palm outwards, and much
superior in drawing.

The whole figure is painted on, or at least surrounded by, a golden
background--so far indicating the Byzantine origin of the design. It is
enclosed in a cusped aureola formed of several coloured bands of green,
violet, and rose. This shows German taste. Eight circlets or medallions
surround this figure of Christ, four of which contain the symbols of the
evangelists; the other four--Isaiah, Daniel, Ezechiel, and Jeremiah. All
hold portions of the band which connects them, and on which appears a
series of inscriptions in Latin. These consist of passages from the
Vulgate.

The whole picture is placed in a square frame consisting of bands of
various colours and gold outlined in red. The inner ground is chiefly
blue, and the names of the prophets and evangelists are painted on it in
white Roman capitals. Taken altogether it is a very splendid page, but
even this is surpassed in gorgeous richness of ornament by the miniature
of St. Mark. And the borders of other pages in this Luxeuil fragment are
full of ornament, giving the impression that the work was imitated from
that of the goldsmith and enameller. The figures and symbols of the
evangelists in these early Gospel texts are fully explained after St.
Jerome by Alcuin, whose revision of the Vulgate forms the text of the
Durham Book already referred to.

The "Manual" shortly to be mentioned differs somewhat in its explanation
of these symbols. The curious combination called the "Tetra morph" is a
compound of the four attributes or symbols into a single figure, to
signify that the four evangelists give only one gospel, and ought not to
be separated. It occurs frequently in Greek, but only seldom in Latin or
Western iconography.[23]

[23] On this figure see _Annales Archéologiques_, tom. 8, p. 206, etc.




CHAPTER XVI

ARTISTIC EDUCATION IN THE CLOISTER

The "Manual"--Its discovery--Its origin and contents--Didron's
translation--The "Compendium" of Theophilus--Its contents--English
version by Hendrie--Benedictine and Cistercian illumination--How they
differ--Character of monastic architects and artists.


About the twelfth century comes forward the mention of a certain manual
minutely detailing every process of painting, and laying down rules for
the due composition and arrangement of every subject to be represented
in the sacred history and other books connected with divine service. How
long such a manual had been in use is unknown, but it is thought that
something of the kind must have existed from the time, at least, of
Justinian, perhaps earlier. The manual here referred to was found by M.
Didron at Sphigmenou, on Mt. Athos. This little monastery is said to
have been founded by the Empress Pulcheria, sister of the Emperor
Theodosius the Younger. She died in the year 453. Theodosius, it may be
remembered, was himself an admirable penman and illuminator, so much so
as to have acquired the cognomen of Kalligráphos.

The monastery is built in a narrow valley by the seaside, between three
little hills, and as it were "squeezed" in, and hence its name (in Greek
σφιγμένος), which describes its situation exactly. It is occupied by
about thirty unusually neat and orderly monks, who are justly proud of
the few relics and curiosities which they exhibit to visitors. It was at
Sphigmenou that Curzon saw the piece of _ancient_ jewellery set with
diamonds and a Russian or Bulgarian MS. of the Gospels.

The book which M. Didron found there is the copy of an older MS. which,
it is said, was copied by Dionysius, one of the monks, from the works of
the once celebrated master, Manuel Panselines of Thessalonica, who was
the Giotto of the Byzantine school and flourished in the twelfth
century. If by works the monk meant literary, it is most likely that it
was the transcript of a still older document. If by works Dionysius
meant paintings, it is a manual of his practice. One of his pupils, in
order to propagate the art of painting which he had learnt at
Thessalonica, writes down the series of subjects to be taken from the
Bible, so as to epitomise the divine scheme of salvation, and describes
the manner in which the events of the Old Testament, and the miracles
and parables of the New, ought to be represented. He mentions the
scrolls and inscriptions (such as we noticed in the Gospels of Luxeuil)
belonging to each of the prophets and evangelists, with the names and
characteristics of the principal saints in the order of the menologium
or martyrology, and then goes on to direct how the subjects should be
arranged on the walls and cupolas of the churches.

The Manual of Dionysius is an abstract of this wide scheme, but is still
very comprehensive. The copy of it seen by Didron was one belonging to a
monk of Sphigmenou named Joasaph, who was himself a painter. It was
"loaded with notes added by himself and his master, which in course of
time would be incorporated, according to immemorial custom, in the
text." In this way, indeed, the Manual has grown to what it is at
present. A transcript of it may probably be found in every monastery
belonging to the Greek Church. Another monk named Macarios, also a
painter, had a fine copy of it laid open in his atelier, and his pupils
read from it in turn, whilst the rest painted according to its
directions. For the scheme itself we must refer the reader to the second
volume of Didron's _Christian Iconography_, p. 193. Unfortunately the
transcriber did not think it of sufficient importance or relevancy to
copy the first part, as being purely technical and dealing merely with
the art of painting. The scheme, therefore, only contains the part
relating expressly to iconography. It is to be regretted, too, that this
part also has been in some places considerably abridged, as dealing with
Greek art and martyrology more copiously than, it was thought by the
translator, would be interesting to English readers. There are numerous
good and reliable introductory works dealing with early Christian art,
besides the greater treatises to which the student who wants to pursue
this line of research shall be directed later on. But there is another
of these original manuals to which we must call attention, as especially
dealing with the practice of monastic artists in the twelfth and
following centuries.

The one to which we now refer is quite distinct from the Greek Manual
which we just mentioned, and by way of contrast may be called the Latin
Manual as being originally composed in that language. Moreover, as the
Greek Manual formed the guide and _vade mecum_ of all the painters of
the Greek Church, so this Latin one became the indispensable monitor in
all Latin foundations. Its origin was German, and said to be the
compilation of a Benedictine monk who is variously spoken of as
Rutgerius, Rugerius, Rotkerius, etc., and assigned by different editors
and critics to either the eleventh, twelfth, or thirteenth centuries.
Probably we shall not be far wrong in placing him about the middle of
the twelfth. The treatise is known as _Diversarum Artium Schedula_, and
the compiler of it calls himself simply _Theophilus presbiter humilis_,
which, of course, records nothing but his personal modesty.

It was at first attributed to Tuotilo of St. Gallen. This opinion was
put forward by Lessing, but it had no foundation whatever beyond the
fact of Tuotilo's well-known versatility.[24] Besides, Tuotilo lived in
the ninth century. But really the question of attributions does not
concern us here. It matters little who he was outside the Treatise, and
certainly we shall not discuss the question further. It is with the
Treatise that we are concerned. We shall simply call the author
Theophilus, and his work the Compendium. Let us turn to it at once.

[24] Tuotilo was renowned throughout all Germany as painter, architect,
preacher, professor, musician, calligrapher, Latinist, Hellenist,
sculptor, and astronomer.

The Compendium, which is thus known to contain the working methods of
all the monastic illuminators, mosaicists, glass painters, enamellers,
and so forth, throughout Germany, Lombardy, and France, consists of
three books, containing altogether one hundred and ninety-five chapters
of definite and special instructions in artistic matters. Book I.,
comprising forty chapters, treats of the preparation, mixture, and use
of colours for wall-painting, panel, and parchment, _i.e._ for the
decoration of churches, furniture, and books. It contains some most
curious and valuable instructions for the employment of gold, silver,
and other metals in the decoration of MSS.; how it should be applied;
whether in leaf or as an ink; how raised and burnished, down to the
minutest details of practice; how colours are to be tempered (_i.e._
mixed); what _media_ or temperings are best for each colour, according
to the surface to which it is to be applied. Such is the Compendium. We
need not, therefore, wonder at its popularity and the estimation in
which it was held.

Thirty-one chapters on glass, glass painting, enamelling, etc., form a
second book, and the third and last book contains some hundred and
twenty-four chapters on gold and silver work--the art of the
goldsmith--in cups, chalices, vases, candelabra, shrines, and so on. It
is the first book that is of most interest to us, and had we space we
would have liked to quote from its pages. But as it is we can only refer
the reader to the work itself. It is to be met with in various forms and
editions. First, we recommend the English translation by Robert Hendrie.
The oldest MS. of the work is one of the twelfth century in the Library
at Wolfenbüttel. The next is in the Imperial Library at Vienna.
Fragments of other copies exist in several other public libraries, but
the completest copy known is that in the Harl.[25] Collection of the
British Museum used by Hendrie as the basis of his translation (8°,
1847).

[25] 1 Harl. MS. 3915.

It was, as we have said, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries
especially that the great abbeys were founded. And it cannot be too
clearly stated that the principal abbatial churches--those most splendid
monuments of architecture whose structure and dimensions are still the
admiration of the most cultured critics, and in which all the rules of
art were so marvellously applied--were the work of simple monks. The
great Church of St. Benignus at Dijon (so often spoken of by writers on
Burgundian art) was built in 1001, under Abbat William, assisted by a
young monk named Hunaldus. The period between 1031 and 1060 saw the
creation of the grand abbatial Church of St. Remi at Reims. In the words
of the Comte de Montalembert: "From the very beginning of the Monastic
Orders St. Benedict had provided in his Rule that there should be
artists in the monasteries. He had imposed on the exercise of their art
only one condition--humility." Hence it is that all we know of the
author of the Compendium from himself is "humilis presbiter Theophilus."
For the same reason Tuotilo and Folchard and Sintramn and the rest are
never anxious to put their names upon their work. For the same reason
the occurrence of an artist's name in a monastic MS. is quite
exceptional and unexpected. The foresight of St. Benedict "was
accomplished and his law faithfully fulfilled." The Benedictine
monasteries soon possessed not only libraries but ateliers, where
architecture, painting, mosaic, sculpture, metal-chasing, calligraphy,
ivory carving, gem-setting, book-binding, and all the branches of
ornamentation were studied and practised with equal care and success,
without interfering in the least with the exact and austere discipline
of the foundation. The teaching of these various arts formed an
essential part of monastic education. "The greatest and most saintly
abbeys were precisely those most renowned for their zeal in the culture
of Art. St. Gallen in Germany, Monte Cassino in Italy, Cluny in France,
were for centuries the mother-cities of Christian Art." And after the
establishment of the reformed colony at Citeaux, the Cistercian Order
became the one above all others which has left the most perfect
edifices, and if the Cistercian illumination may not claim the splendour
of some contemporary examples, it often excels them in soundness of
design and severe correctness of execution.

In saying that all this kind of work was executed by monks, we are
speaking literally. The monks were not only the architects, but also the
masons, and even the hodmen of their edifices. Nor were the superiors in
this respect different from their humble followers. Whilst ordinary
monks were often the architects-in-chief of the constructions, the
abbats voluntarily accepted the rôle of labourers. During the building
of the Abbey of Bee, in 1033, the founder and first abbat,
grand-seigneur though he was, worked as a common mason's labourer,
carrying on his back the lime, sand, and stones necessary for the
builder. This was Herluin. Another Norman noble, Hugh, Abbat of Selby in
Yorkshire, when, in 1096, he rebuilt in stone the whole of that
important monastery, putting on the labourer's blouse, mixed with the
other masons and shared their labours. Monks, illustrious by birth,
distinguished themselves by sharing the most menial occupations. It is
related of Roger de Warenne that when he retired to Evroul, he took up
quite a serious rôle of this kind in cleaning the shoes of the brethren,
and performing other offices which a mere cottager would have probably
considered degrading.

Occasionally in our school histories we come across the mention of a man
like Dunstan, of whom it is related as a wonderful thing that he was at
the same time a metal worker, architect, and calligrapher; but monastic
biographies abound in such instances. We have already quoted several.
"The same man was frequently," says Montalembert, "architect, goldsmith,
bell-founder, miniaturist, musician, calligrapher, organ builder,
without ceasing to be theologian, preacher, litterateur, sometimes even
bishop, or intimate counsellor of princes."[26]

[26] "L'Art et les Moines," _Ann. Archéologiques_, t. vi. p. 121, etc.




CHAPTER XVII

THE RISE OF GOTHIC ILLUMINATION

Germany the chief power in Europe in the twelfth century--Rise of
Italian influence--The Emmeram MSS.--Coronation of Henry II.--The
Apocalypse--The "Hortus Deliciarum"--Romanesque--MS. of Henry the
Lion--The Niedermünster Gospels--Description of the MS.--Rise of
Gothic--Uncertainty of its origin--The spirit of the age.


In the chapter on Othonian art we saw how the ornamentation of books was
drawn away from the great French centres, and began to take a new
departure from the various leading cities of Germany, such as Bamberg,
which the Othos had made their capital. Whilst the decline, which was
the inevitable consequence of a personal government like that of
Charlemagne, took place in France, it was but natural that the new
artistic movement at Bamberg should become the fashion, and Germany
predominant in art, as she was in politics. In the twelfth century the
German Empire was the principal power in Europe. France, Italy, England,
and Spain were all more or less secondary. Italy, however, was already
on the alert. She was initiating certain movements in social life that
must soon withdraw the cultivation of all the arts from the control of
the monasteries. At the same time the love of learning and personal
accomplishments of the second and third Othos and (St.) Henry II. soon
prepared the Imperial Court to become as brilliant as classical
scholarship and artistic skill of the highest class could make it.

The wave of Byzantine influence which had passed over Germany by the
time of Henry II. had immensely benefited the Germans. We notice it
especially in the miniatures of the Gospel-books. The technic is much
more masterly, the painting really methodical in soundly worked
body-colour with a delicate sense of harmony, and showing no longer that
coarse handling and slovenliness of execution that marks some of the
Carolingian miniatures. In the figure a sense of proportion has been
gained, the tendency, perhaps, being rather to excessive tallness, as
compared with the thick-set proportions of the Carolingian work. Again,
expression is improved--the faces are more intellectual--not beautiful
but strong, and quite superior to the utterly expressionless faces of
the Carolingian type.

Take, for example, that fine Missal now at Munich (Cimel. 60--Lat.
4456), in which St. Henry, who is bearded, receives his crown from a
bearded Christ, his arms being upheld by two bishops, Ulrich of Augsburg
and Emmeram of Regensburg, the two great saints of Bavaria. We know
these to be the personages represented, because two inscriptions tell us
so. To the one supporting the King's right hand: "Huius VODALRICVS cor
regis signet et actus." To the other: "EMMERANVS ei faveat solamine
dulci." The Christ is seated on a rainbow within a cusped aureola or
"amande" of several bands of different colours, on the central one being
inscribed in a mixture of Greek and Latin characters--one of the new
fashions brought in by the Greek revival:

    "Clemens XPE tuo longum da vivere XPIC to:
     Ut tibi devotus non perdat temporis usus."

Some writers have thought this to be a picture of the Emperor's
apotheosis, and that the crown is that of Life or Immortality; but such
is certainly not the import of the above verses.

    "O gentle Christ give to thy Christ long to live
     That devoted to Thee he may not lose the use of time."

Besides, two angels on either side Christ precipitately bestow on the
Emperor the spear and sword of a temporal sovereignty. Round the Emperor
are the words: "Ecce coronatur divinitus atque beatur. Rex pius
Heinricus proavorum stirp(e) polosus," all which can scarcely refer to
anything but his German Empire.

The expression, "give to thy Christ," is an allusion to the Hebrew usage
of calling the king the "anointed" or the "Christ."

Besides the interest possessed by this MS. as a monument of the art of
its own time, it has a special value resting in the fact that its
illuminations were copied from the famous Emmeram Golden Gospels of
Charles the Bald, written by Linthard and Berenger, and sent as a
present to Regensburg. Another illumination in it, representing the
enthronement of the Emperor, is extremely interesting as showing how the
later artist renders the work of the earlier one. The general
composition is precisely the same, the lower figures in the same
attitudes and bearing the same insignia. But in the details of costume,
and in the significant position of the Emperor, there are alterations.
In the miniature of the Emmeram Gospels the two angels above are simply
winged messengers of the usual biblical type; in the Missal they are
cloaked and crowned and bear horns in their hands. In the older MS. the
two crowned figures with horns on either side wear simple mural crowns;
in the later one they are regal like those of the Emperor. The details
also of the canopies are different. But the remarkable difference is
that while Charles the Bald is beardless and bears nothing in his hands,
merely sitting as if addressing an assembly, Henry II. holds in his
right hand a sceptre and in his left an orb and cross. Here is a
distinctly new feature with a meaning. Here are the symbols of authority
in the Emperor's own hands, and not merely in those of his
attendants.[27] These two MSS. are worthy of careful study.

[27] See p. 92.

In another Missal in the library at Bamberg is a miniature of the
Emperor presenting the book to the Virgin. In the great Evangeliary
presented by the Emperor Henry II. to the Cathedral of Bamberg there is
a grand picture of the Emperor and his consort the famous saint
Cunegunda being crowned by Christ, with SS. Peter and Paul standing at
the sides. Here also, as in the Carolingian MS. already mentioned, are
the nations bringing tribute, but not in the same order. Here Germany
stands upright between two figures of Gaul and Rome, while six others
appear simply as busts (Munich, Cimel. 60. 4456).

The twelfth century was clearly much given to symbolism and allegory, as
shown in apocalyptic commentaries and similar works. A very remarkable
"Apocalypse" is that in the library of the Marquis d'Astorga. The latter
is remarkably rich in pictures, which have been described by M.A.
Bachelin of Paris. The drawing in these pictures reminds one of the
bas-reliefs of the campaigns of Hadrian and Trajan and other work of the
early Roman centuries. One hundred and ten miniatures of uncommon
interest constitute the illustrations, many of which are perfect
curiosities of symbolism, depicting not only the four figures of the
evangelists, but the mysteries of the seals and vials, serpents, beasts,
etc., on yellow, red, green, blue, and brown backgrounds. The draperies
in some of the miniatures show Byzantine teaching, but with the
grandiose style of the early Roman times. The MS. it might be compared
with of the twelfth century is the "Hortus Deliciarum" of the Abbess
Herrade. This latter MS., which unfortunately was burnt with many other
treasures during the siege of Strassburg by the Germans in 1870, was a
veritable treasury of mediæval customs, furniture, and costumes,
illustrating a medley of encyclopædic information for the use of the
nuns and secular students of the Abbey of Hohenburg in Alsace. The good
abbess called her book a "Garden of Delights."

It is known that it dated from 1159, as that date and also the date of
1175 occurred in its pages. We do not know whether the authoress was
also the illuminatrix, but at any rate she directed the illumination.
Their style is of the same type as that of the Apocalypse just spoken
of, somewhat monumental as figures of the Liberal Arts, allegorical
figures of the virtues and vices, and the syrens as symbols of sensual
temptation. There was a figure of the Church riding upon a beast with
the four heads of the evangel-symbols--the sun and moon in chariots as
in the classical mythology, and scenes of warfare, marriage festivities,
banquets, everything indeed depicting the life of contemporary
persons.[28] The drawing and treatment generally is of no very skilful
kind--the colouring bright and in body-colour. Draperies as usual much
folded and fluttering, and the heads generally of the calm expression of
the later French school, but the action sometimes very spirited.

[28] For a copious and exhaustive account of the "Hortus," see "Het
Gildeboek," Utrecht, 1877, v. i. Also Engelhardt, Herrad v. H., etc.,
8°, with atlas of twelve plates, 1818.

The title began thus: "Incipit hortus deliciarum, in quo collectis
floribus scripturarum assidue jucundetur turmula adolescentularum." In
the _Rhytmus_ came the lines:--

             "Salve cohors virginum
              Hohenburgensium
              Albens quasi lilium
              Amans dei filium

              Herrat devotissima
              Tua fidelissima
              Mater et ancillula
              Cantat tibi cantica

              Sic et liber utilis
              Tibi delectabilis
              Et non cesses volvere
              Hanc in tuo pectore."

In the Netherlands, which mostly at this time lay within the boundary of
Lotharingia or Lorraine, the style of illumination was much the same as
in other German districts. Gospel-books and Psalters, however, exhibit
features somewhat akin to English work.

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the continental methods prevail in
more solid painting and less penwork.

Of the twelfth-century work of Germany examples are exceedingly
numerous, stretching over every province from West to East, as
Westphalia, the Palatinate, Burgundy, Switzerland and Bavaria, extending
even into Bohemia. An Evangeliary in the University Library at Prag
agrees altogether with those of Germany.

Towards the middle of the twelfth century, with the accession of the
House of Hohenstaufen (1138, etc.), arose a new style, since called
Romanesque, of which many examples are to be found in various libraries.
It is not very easy to select the most typical examples, but one good
and typical MS. is found in a Gospel-book at Carlsruhe, which contains
some capital miniatures of this most thoroughly German style.

Under Frederick Barbarossa, as under the Caroling Emperors and the
Othos, we may note a wave of new life, especially in Saxony. A contrast
as regards artistic ability to the "Hortus Deliciarum" is the
Gospel-book executed for Henry the Lion at the convent of Helmershausen,
once in the Cathedral Library at Prag, and bought by King George of
Hanover.[29] In the page of the Eusebian Canons we see features which
take us across the plains of Lombardy to the doors of S. Michele of
Pavia, and to the churches of Venice. The columns rest on crouching
animals. Allegorical figures are introduced striving with each other as
in the later Gothic illuminations. A half-nude figure of Faith
vanquishes the champion of Paganism. On the dedication page sits the
Madonna with SS. John Baptist and Bartholomew, and below them the patron
saints of Brunswick, Blaize, and Egidius leading forth the Duke and his
wife, Mathilda. It may indeed be called a splendid book. Among the rest
of the pictures, some of them within richly decorated borders, occurs
the usual representation of the Duke and his Duchess receiving crowns.
The figures are well drawn, even elegant, the draperies good, and the
colouring skilful.

[29] See F. Culemann in _Neue hannov. Zeitung_, 1861, Nos. 22-4.

One of the many characteristic MSS. of this period to be seen in
continental libraries is the "Mater Verborum" of the monk Conrad, of
Scheyern in Bavaria, a noted scribe, illuminator, goldsmith, and
grammarian. The subject is one that scarcely gives promise of lending
itself to pictorial illustration, but after the successful attempts of
Theodulf we may be prepared for anything in the way of diagram and
symbol. Imagine a dictionary in which not only actual objects are
pictorially represented, but also abstract terms. Music, philosophy,
virtues and vices illustrated by historical instances--sacred subjects
treated in the manner of the glass painters which is so commonly found
in German and French work of this period.

Of twelfth-century illumination in general it may be said that it shows
a marked effort towards true artistic design and subtle beauty of linear
outline. Some of the noblest curve-drawing, with rich and massive
grouping of foliages, is to be found in the ornamental initials and
dignified border designs presented on the later examples of the century,
and it is very interesting to observe the rapid pace at which the climax
is reached in mere calligraphic ornament after the opening of the Gothic
period. Initials become smaller but exquisitely drawn, and reasonable
expression takes the place of the senseless stare or grotesque
exaggeration of attitude and feature which detract from the artistic
value of all preceding efforts. To conclude our list of German
illuminations of purely monastic production, we will bring forward one
more example of women's work, which whether as regards its curious
illustrations of symbolism, or its richly foliaged geometrical
backgrounds and borders, is one of the most interesting MSS. in any
collection. It is the Evangeliary of the Abbess Uota, or perhaps,
rather, Tuota of Niedermünster, a lady of the House of the Counts of
Falckenstein (1177-80); or of Utta, abbess from 1009 to 1012, but more
probably the former. Another, Tutta, ruled the abbey from 920 to 934,
and still another 1239-42. This precious MS., which Cahier has very
fully described as the "Manuscrit du Niedermuenster de Ratisbonne," is
now in the Royal Library at Munich (Cimel. 35). Some writers, in
speaking of it, have classed it among the MSS. of the eleventh century,
but it is too refined and too well done for that period, and, indeed,
that it belongs to the _latter part_ of the twelfth is almost proved
from the work itself. Perhaps it was the profusion of inscriptions or
legends placed all over the miniatures that gave the idea of its
belonging to the eleventh century. In this respect the MS. certainly
resembles the Evangeliary of Luxeuil already described. The miniature of
the Crucifixion is very remarkable. Besides the figure of Christ showing
a return to the primitive Syriac idea,[30] instead of the figures as
usual of Mary and John, here are given allegorical figures _of_ Life and
Death. (Cf. Fest. in exaltatione sce crucis. Ad Laudes, 14th Sept.).
Perhaps the best commentary on these old figures is the "Biblia
Pauperum," as it is commonly called, or as it should be called, the
Bible of the poor preachers. It also has the old allegories and
inscriptions rendered into later forms.

[30] Cf. the Rabula MS. at Vienna.

As for the texts or inscriptions, they would require a commentary to
themselves--not to speak of translations and remarks upon the
calligraphy. One of these remarkable miniatures may be described, as it
depicts the presentation of the volume to the Madonna. Our Lady in the
centre of the design is seated on a Byzantine _sedile_ with the infant
Jesus on her knees. She is crowned, and has the nimbus, and appears as
if intended to represent the glory of the Church. Her hand is raised as
in the act of teaching. Christ, also, has the nimbus, but with the cross
upon it, and raises his hand in the attitude of benediction. In the
tympanum of the semicircle over the Madonna, written in letters of gold
on purple, surrounded by the word "Sancta" in ordinary ink, is the
monogram of Maria, having a small sun and moon above it, and other
inscriptions, partly Latin, partly Greek. Below the Madonna, on the
left, stands the abbess, her knees slightly bent, holding up her book,
and clothed in the costume of her Order, but coloured, no doubt, simply
for artistic reasons. Thus she wears a blue veil and a claret-coloured
robe. In the reversed semicircle before her is another monogram, Uota or
Tuota, a name which perhaps may be translated Uta, Utta, Ida, etc. It
has been said already who she is likely to have been. It does not
follow, of course, that she herself wrote or illuminated the book she is
presenting, but judging from similar instances, as _e.g._ Herrade of
Landsberg and Hrosvita of Gandersheim, she may have done so.

Still the work looks technically too masterly for anyone not a trained
artist to have done. In the corners are small quadretti, containing
busts of the four cardinal virtues:--Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and
Fortitude; and in circlets in the centre of each border are Faith, Hope,
and Charity, the latter twice, at top and bottom. A number of
extraordinary beasts fill up little niches in the design, which may
possibly be also symbolical, but possibly also nothing but artistic
fancies. The other miniatures we must pass over. Nevertheless those
representing the four evangelists are worth examination;[31] the
ornamentation being especially rich and elaborate. Let us now turn our
attention to a new element--a new spirit we might term it--which was
manifesting itself in Italy and France. We cannot too strongly insist
upon the fact that whatever appears in illumination has appeared first
in architecture and its auxilliary arts. Now we have to see how this
fact begins to change almost entirely the character of the ornamentation
of books. During the latter part of the twelfth century, when precisely
we cannot say, nor where, a new form of architecture began to show
itself. This new style, laying aside both the classic cornice and the
Romanesque arch, makes use of a new vertical principle of construction,
called in French the _ogive_ or arch, composed of two sections only,
instead of the whole semicircle. By some fatality, of which no exact
explanation can be given, English writers have given this new style the
name of Gothic. Scores of cathedrals throughout Europe are called Gothic
cathedrals, whereas in all probability, if we exclude Sweden, there is
only one really Gothic building in the world, that is the Tomb of
Theodoric at Ravenna, and none of the so-called Gothic cathedrals are in
the least like it. As to the invention itself, it has been claimed by
almost every nationality in Europe. There can be no doubt that
accidentally, or otherwise, the pointed arch had been used often enough
without any idea of its adoption as a principle of construction even in
ancient buildings. The famous gate at Mycœne is one instance. This is
not the place to discuss the question, so we let it pass. We could point
out long and elaborate arguments intended to prove that it originated in
England--that it originated in France--in Germany.[32] Possibly they may
all be right in a sense, for most probably the origin was not in any
particular locality, but in the religious spirit of the time. It was a
general revival of the Church itself that was its cause. If any special
locality has more reason on its side than another, it is probably
France, but as we say, that is not an essential point. It must suffice
us here that it arose, and that by the end of the twelfth century it was
a fact. And the remarkable part about it is that it was by the influence
of lay artists and especially of the freemasons that it became the
accepted architecture of Christendom.

[31] For more about them, see Cahier, _Mélanges d'Archéologie, etc._

[32] Not to mention _theories_, which are endless.




                               BOOK II




CHAPTER I

THE GOLDEN AGE OF ILLUMINATION

The Gothic spirit--A "Zeitgeist" not the invention of a single artist
nor of a single country--The thirteenth century the beginning of the new
style--Contrast between North and South, between East and West, marked
in the character of artistic leaf-work--Gradual development of Gothic
foliage--The bud of the thirteenth century, the leaf of the fourteenth,
and the flower of the fifteenth--The Freemasons--Illumination
transferred from the monastery to the lay workshop--The Psalter of St.
Louis--Characteristics of French Gothic illumination--Rise of the
miniature as a distinct feature--Guilds--Lay artists.


We have now reached the parting of the ways. The study of Nature is fast
superseding the dogmas of the monastic code, and what some writers have
characterised as the hieratic is giving way to the naturalistic
treatment of art. Like the pointed architecture itself, it is an outcome
of the spirit of the age. Exactly when it begins we cannot say. As in
the physical sciences, our limits are necessarily somewhat arbitrary to
suit our convenience in classification. We take the beginning of the
thirteenth century as a convenient dividing line between old and new. We
accept it as the boundary between the artistic sway of the East and
South--and that of the West and North--between the lifeless fetters of
prescription and the living freedom of invention. The contrast between
the two is very strongly marked. The soft and curling foliages of the
sunny South are for a season giving way to the hard and thorny leafage
of the wintry North. It would seem as if pointed architecture began with
the hard and frozen winter of its existence, and if it had been the plan
or design of one individual we might have accepted this peculiarity as
part of the scheme, and all that followed as a natural consequence and
development. But it is curious that as a system worked out by many minds
pointed architecture should thus begin. First come thorns and cusps and
lanceolate forms without foliage. Then, not perfect leaves, but buds. In
due time the bud opens, at first into the profile coil, and by-and-by
into the full-spread leaf. Then comes the flower, and finally the fruit.
After that, rottenness and decay. It is curious that this should
actually take place through a course of centuries. That it should be
reflected in book illumination is simply the usual order of things--the
fact has been frequently observed, and as it is curious, we call
attention to it. But, as we have said, the great change itself was
brought about by the influence of lay artists, and chiefly by the
freemasons.

Who and what the freemasons were everybody is supposed to know, but on
inquiry we find very few people indeed know anything definite about
them. Of course we do not refer to the friendly societies or social
guilds that now bear the name, but to the mediæval builders. "Everybody
knows," says Batissier,[33] "that the study of the sciences and of
literature and the practice of the various branches of art took refuge
in the monasteries during the irruptions of the barbarians and the
strife of international war. In those retreats, not only painting,
sculpture, engraving on metals, and mosaic, but also architecture were
cultivated. If the question arose about building a church, it was nearly
always an ecclesiastic who furnished the plan and monks who carried out
the works under his direction. The brethren in travelling from convent
to convent naturally exercised a reciprocal influence over each other.
We conceive, then, that the abbeys of any given Order would put in vogue
the same style, and that the art would be modified under certain points
of view, in the same manner in each country."

[33] _Hist. de l' Art Monumental_, p. 466, Paris, 1845, I. 8°.

"It is certain, moreover, that outside the cloisters there were also
troops of workmen not monastics, who laboured under the direction of the
latter."

"Masons were associated among them in the same way as other trade
corporations. It was the same with these corporations in the South as
with the communes--the _débris_ of the Roman organisation; they took
refuge in the Church, and had arrived at a condition of public life and
independence, when order was established between the commune, the
Seignory, and the Church."

"During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries these corporations were
organised into recognised fraternities having their own statutes, but
there is abundant evidence of their having a much earlier existence."

"A great number of masons were trained in Italy, and came from Lombardy,
which in the tenth century even was an active centre of civilisation.
Italy had its corporations of masons called _maestri comaccini_,
enjoying exclusive privileges, who, having passed the different degrees
of apprenticeship, became 'accepted'[34] masons, and had the right of
exercising their profession wherever they might be. The sovereigns of
different countries granted them special privileges, and the popes
protected them in all Catholic countries where they might travel. Thus
the lodges grew and prospered. The Greek artists who had fled from
Constantinople during the various Iconoclast persecutions had got
themselves enrolled in the ranks of the freemasons, and taught their
fellow-masons their Byzantine methods."

[34] German "angenommen."

"Speedily these corporations spread through France, England, and
Germany, where they were employed almost exclusively by the religious
Orders, in building their churches and conventual buildings."

While, therefore, the general plan and rules of construction were common
to all members of the fraternity, the details were almost entirely left,
under regulations, to the individual taste of certain members of each
band of workmen, who, being all qualified artists, were quite capable of
putting in execution, and with masterly skill, any such minutiæ of
ornament as might be left to their discretion.[35] Local illuminators
would thus speedily get hold of every novelty, and the page of the
Psalter or Bible would become, as a French writer has explained it, a
_vitrail sur velin_. If not indeed exclusively following the stained
glass, they copied the mural decorations, and so we find the backgrounds
of the miniatures, whether fitted into the initials or placed separately
in framed mouldings, faithfully reproducing the imbrications,
_carrelages_, panellings, and diapers of these mural enrichments.

[35] Governor Pownall ("Observations on the Origin and Progress of Gothic
Architecture, and on the Corporation of Freemasons," _Archæologia_,
1788, vol. 9, pp. 110-126) was of opinion that "the Collegium or
Corporation of Freemasons, were the first formers of Gothic architecture
into a regular and scientific order by applying the models and
proportions of timber framework to building in stone," and that this
method "came into use and application about the close of the twelfth or
commencement of the thirteenth century." See also Gould (R.F.), _History
of Freemasonry_, vol. i. p. 259, note. "Without going so far as to agree
with Governor Pownall that the Freemasons invented Gothic, it may be
reasonably contended that without them it could not have been brought to
perfection, and without Gothic they would not have stood in the peculiar
and prominent position that they did, that there was mutual indebtedness,
and while without Freemasons there would have been no Gothic...without
Gothic the Freemasons would have formed but a very ordinary community of
trades unionists."

To select an example of Gothic illumination which shall exemplify the
earliest features of the pointed style is not an easy matter,
notwithstanding the number of thirteenth-century MSS. which still exist
in public collections. In the National Library at Paris are several such
MSS. One that decidedly marks the change from the German work hitherto
in vogue is the Psalter of St. Louis (Nat. Lib., Paris., Lat. 10525),
which contains nearly eighty small, delicately executed miniatures. It
was completed about 1250. Its noticeable features are a vastly improved
dexterity in draughtsmanship, which displays a refined certainty of
touch, enabling the artist to express his intention with unhesitating
freedom. The drawing thus produced in outline is filled in with flat
tints of body-colour, without gradation or any attempt at brush-work
shading. Whatever finishing in this respect might be thought necessary
was added with the pen. Nothing could show more clearly that it is
simply and frankly imitative of stained glass. As in the glass the black
outline is left for definition. No colour is used on hands of faces
except a slight touch of red on the cheeks and lips. The prevailing
colours are rich blue and bright scarlet. Perhaps the illuminator would
have been better advised had he neglected some of the harder features of
this kind of work. Not considering that the limits of the glass painter
did not apply to his vellum, he fettered himself unnecessarily, and
instead of a picture he has only succeeded in producing a surface
enamel, or a mere reticulation of surface-patterns. This very defect has
by some writers been held up to admiration as the true perfection of all
illumination. Its flatness was applauded because it had to be shut up in
a book, and was therefore the only appropriate way of making a picture
for such a purpose. But whoever would dream that because a picture,
painted in due perspective and proper light and shade, was to be shut up
in a book that the figures represented in relief would actually be
crushed. Such reasoning is most puerile. The supposed parallel case of a
carpet or hearth-rug representing groups of flowers--even if the latter
ever did deceive the domestic cat--does not in the least affect the most
childish conception of a picture in a book. We see it in a scene in
light and shade, we enjoy and admire its reliefs, but at the same time
we know it is a picture, and that it is quite flat. The two tests of
knowledge never interfere with each other. To suppose they do is to
suppose a case of imbecility that even a lunatic must laugh to scorn. So
far, therefore, we think the illuminator mistaken in slavishly copying
the limitations of the glass-painter. It is no very great knowledge of
nature that is shown in these drawings. There is a good example of the
method of study followed by thirteenth-century artists in the
sketch-book of a French mason named Villars de Honnecourt, still kept in
the National Library at Paris.[36] In this book the artist has made
drawings, as he says, from the life--some are views, others drawings of
objects of art; one represents a lion of the mediæval heraldic type, yet
the artist assures us it is from the life. But there is no real
accuracy, everything is done with reference to some canon. It is,
however, quite free from the Byzantine influence, though by no means
free from a certain tincture of symbolism. The nude is rarely attempted,
but when it is it is certainly less ugly than in Carolingian and
Romanesque. To return to the Psalter--the style of the figures is rather
graceful, attitudes are gentle and modest, though the inclination of
head and body are such as to suggest a sort of undulatory movement in
walking that is scarcely natural. The forms are slender, and the limbs
occasionally beyond the owner's control--sometimes even deformed. The
feet are small and weak--now and then over-twisted. The hands more
delicate than formerly, especially when open. Faces are gently oval and
sometimes expressive.

[36] It has been published as the Album of V. de H., Paris, 1858.

Sometimes the "histories" are placed in initial letters, the grounds of
which, when not of burnished gold, consist of imitations of mural
_carrelages_, chequers, etc., or rich enamelled patterns imitative of
engraved traceries on metal. In other cases they are placed in
frame-mouldings, consisting of a bar or beading of gold supporting an
inner bar of coloured and polished wood or enamel work--the polish being
represented by a fine line of white along the centre. For illustrations
of this precious volume the reader may refer to Labarte, _Hist. des Arts
industriels_, album, pl. 92 (Paris, 1864).

Now that the monasteries had ceased to be the exclusive nurseries of art
and literature, the masters of the different arts and crafts usually
belonged to the middle classes of the towns, where at first each art or
craft had its own fraternity, and as the idea of trade-association crew,
the crafts most nearly related would form a guild or corporation. All
who joined these corporations bound themselves to work only as the ruler
of the guild permitted. Nor were outsiders allowed to compete with them
in their own branches, so exclusive was the protection of the guild.

Each confraternity had its altar in some particular church, whose patron
saint became the protector of the guild. And indeed the constitution of
the guild included even political rights and obligations--military
service among the rest, like other feudal institutions. Each town had
its own special corporations, which thus led to the formation of
separate schools of art; while travelling apprenticeships gave the
opportunity to all of acquiring knowledge not accessible at home.
Members were accustomed to travel and to attach themselves to the
service of various princes, receiving appointments as "varlets" or
"escripvains" or "enlumineurs," which sometimes obliged them to resign
their membership. Occasionally they became political agents and even
ambassadors.

It will be remembered that, some pages back, we noticed the fact that in
Western illumination generally the design of the page depended upon the
initial letter, or that at least the initial was the principal object of
it. In the thirteenth century, although the initial had very much
diminished in size, the same principle still prevailed. The letter
itself was formed of some fabulous long-necked and long-tailed animal or
bird, mostly a dragon as conceived by the mediæval artist. The head
framed more or less on that of the mastiff or lion, or both; the legs of
a bird of prey; the body and tail of a serpent; wings of heraldic
construction to suit the form of the letter. While the body of this
unspeakable beast formed the body of the letter, the tail was
indefinitely extended to sweep down the margin of the text and round the
base of it, so as to form a border, while not unfrequently slender
branches would spring from it to form coils here and there ending in a
kind of flower-bud, the extremity of the tail forming a similar coil.
Very soon, however, the animal form was abandoned, and the letter made
simply as a decorated initial or capital. If possible, one of its limbs
was made to sweep up and down the "margin" and along the bottom or top
as before. Where the interior is not occupied by a "history," we find
coiled stems ending in profile leaves or buds.

At the same time the text has diminished in size, sometimes down to
dimensions no greater than those of an ordinary printed book of to-day,
but often beautiful and regular as the clearest printing. Such a book is
the Bible written by a certain William of Devon, now in the British
Museum (Roy. MS. 1 D. 1). A description of this beautiful MS. may be
seen in _Bibliographica_, vol. i. p. 394, written by Sir E.M. Thompson.
Here, though the writing is that of an Englishman, the style is
completely French.

Another MS. deserving of study is a richly illuminated Bible now in the
Burney Collection of our National Library (No. 3). Another, which, owing
to its being recommended for study by the late John Ruskin, was once
known as the Ruskin Book, is Add. MS. 17341, which contains many fine
initials with border and bracket foliages similar to those of the
Evangeliary of the Sainte Chapelle, now in the National Library, Paris
(MS. Lat. 17326). Both the MSS. show the contemporary peculiarity of
presenting Bible characters, excepting divine personages, apostles, and
evangelists in ordinary local costume. Paris, of course, is the city
where most, and perhaps the best, of these MSS. are preserved; but those
named above, in London, are also among the finest known examples.




CHAPTER II

RISE OF NATIONAL STYLES

The fourteenth century the true Golden Age of Gothic
illumination--France the cradle of other national styles--Netherlandish,
Italian, German, etc.--Distinction of schools--Difficulty of assigning
the _provenance_ of MSS.--The reason for it--MS. in Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge--The Padua Missal--Artists' names--Whence obtained.


Through the thirteenth century is the epoch of the Gothic renaissance,
it is the fourteenth to which really belongs the title of the Golden
Age. The style of work remains precisely the same, only it grows. It
changes from the bud to the leaf. It casts off the severity and much of
the restraint of its earlier character. To the grace of youth it adds
beauty, the beauty of adolescence. To fourteenth-century illumination we
can give no higher praise than that it is beautiful. Not, indeed,
because of its deliberate limitations, but in spite of them. For after
ages have taught us that if in pure ornament and resplendent decorative
completeness the pages of the fourteenth century cannot be surpassed, in
miniature historiation it must take a second place. The skilled
illuminators of the later schools are the masters of the mere picture.
For surely no judge of art could possibly assert that the miniatures of
the Grunani Breviary or of the Brera Graduals as miniatures are inferior
to those of the Psalter of St. Louis, the Berry Bible, or the
Prayer-book of Margaret of Bavaria. Yet these are typical MSS. of the
highest rank. Hence we say that while the illumination of the Golden Age
of the art was beautiful, it was not absolutely perfect. It is not to be
taken by modern students as the only possible model or basis simply
because it was the best of its kind. There is no such despotism in art.
To those who think it the only possible form of book decoration, let it
be so by all means, but we may as well hope to clothe our soldiers in
chain or plate armour, and send the elite of our nobility on another
crusade to Jerusalem, or satisfy our universities with the _quod libets_
and _quiddities_ of the _trivium_ and _quadrivium_, as hope to make
popular to the England of the twentieth century the artistic tastes of
the fourteenth. We indulge in no such dreams. If we are to have
illuminated books, our own age must invent them. The illuminators of the
Bibles, Romances, Mirrors, and Chronicles of the fourteenth century no
doubt did their best, and we honour and praise them for it. We think
their work among the loveliest gratifications of the eye that can be
imagined. But the eye is very catholic--it has immense capacities for
enjoyment. The window of the soul opens on illimitable prospects, and if
the soul be satisfied for the time, it is not necessarily repleted for
ever. Golden ages are cyclical, and it may be that the glory of the
books of the future shall surpass all the glories of the past.

By 1350 France had absorbed all the antecedent varieties of
illumination. From France, therefore, spring all the succeeding styles
now considered national.

And as is most natural, these styles develop by proximity--the nearest
to French being Netherlandish. The next, as a result of immediate
intercourse, Italian. Then German, Spanish, and the rest, as intercourse
gave opportunity. It is not always an easy matter to say offhand whether
a MS. is French or Flemish. In the earlier days it is not easy to say
whether it be French or English, or even whether French or Italian. But
the distinctness comes later on.

In the fifteenth century the Italian, German, French, and English are
quite distinct varieties. Towards the sixteenth the Netherlandish is
quite as distinct. But the styles of Spain, Bohemia, Hungary, Poland,
though possessing features which identify them to an experienced eye,
are to the ordinary spectator merely sub-varieties of Netherlandish,
Italian, or German.

With regard to the distinctions of schools or local centres within the
same country, the evidence of probable origin has to be corroborated by
historic fact. It is not safe without further proof than that afforded
by general features to affirm that this or that MS. was executed at
Paris, Dijon, Amiens, or Limoges in France; or at Ghent, Bruges, or
elsewhere in Flanders; or whether a MS. be Rhenish or Saxon, Bavarian or
Westphalian, in Germany; Bolognese, Florentine, Siennese, Milanese, or
Neapolitan in Italy; or executed at Westminster, St. Albans, Exeter, or
elsewhere in England. Nevertheless the special characteristics of all
these schools are quite distinguishable. In the attempt to distinguish
them, although the diagnosis may be perfectly accurate, the actual facts
may be otherwise accounted for. Hence the danger to which even the
experienced connoisseur is liable. For example, certain MSS. are written
in a fine Bolognese hand, which it is proved were actually executed in
Flanders; others that one would feel sure were Netherlandish, were
illuminated in Spain. Some very fine typical Flemish miniatures were
painted in Italy; certain Florentine miniatures were the work of artists
residing in Rome. Milanese illumination is quite distinguishable from
Neapolitan, and Venetian from both, yet the school is not proof of the
_provenance_.

Illuminators, like other craftsmen, travelled from city to city, and
princes employed men, who resided in their patrons' palaces, who yet had
learned their art many leagues away. How often we find the names of
artists with the words Dallemagna, il Tedesco, le Poitevin, Veronese,
Franco, Crovata, etc., employed in Italian houses, indicating the place
of their nativity. So that even when we know every feature of the work
we have much to learn ere we can say with truth that it was executed in
such and such a city. We must take into account details which are liable
to escape the ordinary observer, such as quality of vellum or paper,
choice of pigments, mode of application, and other particulars quite
distinct from style of ornament or varieties of form in foliage. In the
Fitzwilliam Library at Cambridge is an Italian MS., the characteristics
of whose ornamentation are unequivocally French, but whose mode of
treatment shows not only that it is Italian but that it is Milanese, but
whether executed in Milan or not is more than anyone can affirm. In the
British Museum is a magnificent service-book called the Padua Missal,
but the probability is that the Paduan artist who painted its splendid
pages, painted them at Venice. That it was executed for Sta. Justina, at
Padua, is no proof that the work was done in that city.

In monastic times we have seen why the artist rarely signed his name.
After the thirteenth century the lay artist had no such scruples, and
hence we often find particulars of origin and purpose which explain all
we wish to know. But if the MSS. themselves do not contain the
particulars, very often the account-books of cathedrals and other
establishments for which the books were illuminated, give the details of
price and purpose, and add the names of the artists. The household
expense books, guild books, municipal records, and the journals of the
painters themselves are fertile sources of information. And if we seek
with sufficient diligence these will probably be the means by which it
may eventually be found.




CHAPTER III

FRENCH ILLUMINATION FROM THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY TO THE RENAISSANCE


Ivy-leaf and chequered backgrounds--Occasional introduction of plain
burnished gold--Reign of Charles VI. of France--The Dukes of Orleans,
Berry, and Burgundy; their prodigality and fine taste for
MSS.--Christine de Pisan and her works--Description of her "Mutation of
Fortune" in the Paris Library--The "Roman de la Rose" and "Cité des
Dames"--Details of the French style of illumination--Burgundian MSS.,
Harl. 4431--Roy. 15 E. 6--The Talbot Romances--Gradual approach to
Flemish on the one hand and Italian on the other.


In addition to the expanding ivy leaf which forms the chief feature of
fourteenth-century book-ornament, we find the miniaturist as a further
improvement adding delicate colour in the faces. Also that instead of
the invariable lozenging or diapering of the background he occasionally
makes a background of plain burnished gold. And as if to prove that his
predecessors were really hampered with the restrictions imposed by their
imitations of painted glass, he begins to try his best to paint up his
miniatures into real pictures with high lights on draperies and shading
upon the folds. A certain amount of flatness, however, still remains,
but it scarcely seems to have been the intention or aim of the painter.
There is a similar flatness in the work of all the early schools of
painting, which had no reference whatever to the destination of the
picture. See, for instance, the Origny Treasure Book in the Print Room
at Berlin (MS. 38), and the Life of St. Denis in the National Library at
Paris (Nos. 2090-2), both MSS. dating somewhere about 1315. The drapery
shading in the latter MS. is no longer the work of the pen, but
brush-work in proper colour. The Westreenen Missal in the Museum at the
Hague, which dates about 1365, though not a French MS., is an example of
the fact that by the middle of the century the tradition of penwork
outline and flat-colouring had become pretty nearly obsolete.

The reign of the afflicted Charles VI. of France, disastrous in the
extreme to the material welfare of his own subjects, full of untold
misery to the poor, and of oppression to the growing community of
artisans and traders, was nevertheless, as regards literature and the
arts, a period of progress and even splendour. The King's incapacity, by
affording his uncles and brothers opportunities for fingering the
revenues during the self-appointed and irresponsible regencies, enabled
them to gratify their magnificent tastes in the purchasing of costly
furniture and the ordering of splendid books. Louis of Orleans, usually
credited with the worst of this prodigality, was by no means singular in
his conduct. His uncle, the Duke of Berry, while daily earning the
execrations of the tax-payers by his unscrupulous employment of the
public money, was constantly enriching his library, and both he and his
brothers and nephews were in the habit of sending priceless volumes,
illuminated by the best artists, as wedding and birthday gifts, to each
other, or their wives or acquaintances. We talk, and justly, of the fine
taste and noble love of literature of Jean de Berry. His contemporaries,
at least those beneath his own rank, looked upon him as a tyrant and
plunderer. His disastrous administration of Languedoc was described as
"one long fête where the excess of expenditure was rivalled only by the
excess of scandal." If the _marmousets_ could have hanged him they
would. In default they hanged his treasurer.

All this maladministration was very wrong, but we cannot afford to burn
the MSS. in consequence, for the Bible, the "Grandes Heures," and other
books once possessed by the wicked Duke, are among the most precious
relics of any age. Add to them the beautiful volumes of poetry and
romance composing the contemporary literature of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, and we have treasures that we dare not relinquish.

By the beginning of the fifteenth century pure French illumination was
losing its own characteristics and acquiring others. In the North, in
Flanders and Brabant, Franche-Comté and the Burgundian Dukedom
generally, it was becoming that peculiar kind of French which had
received the name of Burgundian. It can scarcely be said to be Flemish
enough to rank as Netherlandish, yet neither can it stand side by side
with "French of Paris."

Let us look at a few examples. There is the Book of Offices in the
Library of St. Geneviève at Paris (Bibl. Lat. 66), also the St.
Augustine in the same library. Also a small crowd of volumes in the
Royal Library at Brussels, another in the National Library at Paris. One
of the richest examples known is the "Psalter of the Convent of Salem,"
in the University Library at Heidelberg. Other grand MSS. are the two
volumes of the "Mutacion de Fortune" of Christine de Pisan and the "Cité
des Dames" of the same authoress. The volume of her poems, etc., in the
British Museum, is a marvellously fine work (Harl. 4431). The greater
part of this volume is in the earlier or "Berry" style, _i.e._ the fine
pen-sprays of ivy leaf of burnished gold. But the first grand border is
altogether transitional, consisting of the pen-sprays of golden ivy leaf
alternating with sprays of natural flowers. This innovation, it has been
said, was due to the school of van Eyck, but as no proof is forthcoming
that J. van Eyck ever worked on illuminating we may be content to say
that it arose about 1413, and that probably it came from Bruges. It is
the beginning of the Burgundian style. But the ornamental leafage is
different from ordinary Brugeois, inasmuch as it is "pearled" along the
central veins, and is not symmetrical. The pearling is perhaps a
suggestion from glass painting. It was very early adapted in German
foliage work. On the first fly-leaf are several signatures, including
the name and device of Louis Gruthuse: "Plus est en vous Gruthuse." The
miniatures still remain French with mostly panelled backgrounds, some
with landscape. It is evidently a transitional document.

[Illustration:
PSALTERM. ET OFFICIA
14TH CENT.
_Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 2897, fol. 184_]

[Illustration:
HEURES, ETC.
14TH CENT.
_Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 2952, fol. 22_]

The works of Christine de Pisan, the popular--one may fairly say
fashionable--authoress, were perhaps among the best known and most
widely read while Caxton was setting up his press at Westminster, as she
was among the most welcome guests at the Courts of Charles VI. and
Philip of Burgundy. She was the daughter of a distinguished Venetian
savant, Thomas de Pisan, who had come at the invitation of Charles le
Sage to Paris as "Astrologue du Roi." At the age of fifteen Christine,
who was as beautiful as she was accomplished, became the wife of a
Picard gentleman named Estienne Castel. Two years afterwards the death
of the King brought trouble upon her father, and with it sickness and
despondency. Then followed sorrow upon sorrow. Whilst she was herself
still burdened with the cares of early motherhood her father died, and
within nine years from her marriage the sudden death from contagion, of
her husband, to whom she was most fondly attached, left her a widow with
two little children dependent upon her, and with only what she herself
could earn as a means of livelihood. She was not yet twenty-six years
old. To assuage her misery she betook herself to study and the
composition of essays and poetry. Her works speedily brought her the
recognition of distinguished personages; her children were provided for,
and she herself soon acquired both fortune and reputation. Charles VI.
allowed her a pension, and she composed for his Queen, Isabella of
Bavaria, several important treatises. Among her numerous compositions
were "Les cens Histoires de Troyes" in verse, "Le Chemin de longue
estude", "La Mutacion de Fortune," and a Life of Charles V., the latter
composed at the request of Philip the Good of Burgundy. But the work
which sets off her wit and learning to the best advantage was an
allegorical essay on Womanhood, which she called "Le Trésor de la Cité
des Dames." Altogether her works include fifteen books and about sixty
smaller writings, which she dedicated to the King and Queen of France,
the Dukes of Burgundy and Orleans, and the princesses and princes of the
Court.

One beautifully illuminated copy of the Mutation of Fortune in two
volumes is a curious example of its title, for one volume of it is in
the National Library at Paris (fonds fr. 603) and the other in the Royal
Library at Munich. In the former we have her portrait. In a blue gown
she sits at her writing-desk busy at her work. On her head is the
muslin-draped and high-peaked "hennin." Beside her a table covered with
a green cloth and laden with crimson and violet-bound books and an
inkstand. Her chair has a high back, and the floor is of the usual kind
seen in illuminations; that is, as if composed of a parquetry of
coloured woodwork or of tiles of various kinds of marble. On the sill of
the Gothic-latticed window, through which we catch a glimpse of the blue
sky, stands a vase of flowers. Not perhaps an ideal lady's boudoir, but
still an apartment of taste, and an altogether charming little picture.
In the second miniature of the Munich volume Christine is standing in a
chamber--in the same costume as above described. The pictures on the
walls are--a fortress, a watchman, two knights, a prince with crown and
sceptre, seated on his throne, surrounded by courtiers; a duel; and a
martyr having his head struck off. Just such mediæval subjects as we may
expect in a fifteenth-century mansion.

In a copy of the "Cité des Dames" at Munich is another portrait of
Christine. The book is an Apology for the feminine sex, and it is well
thought out. It appears that the conversation of the time was not always
free from rather severe sarcasm concerning the ladies. We learn from Du
Verdier that the continuator of the Romance of the Rose narrowly escaped
most condign chastisement from some of the insulted sex at the French
Court for the base insinuations in his poem against the character of
women. Christine herself heartily disapproved of the Romance of the
Rose, and wrote a sharp criticism upon it. Her "Cité des Dames" is an
elaborate confutation of the opinion that women are naturally more
immoral and less capable of noble studies or high intellectual
attainments than men. In her introduction she says: "I reflected why men
are so unanimous in attributing wickedness to women. I examined my own
life and those of other women to learn why we should be worse than men,
since we also were created by God. I was sitting ashamed with bowed head
and eyes blinded with tears, resting my chin on my hands in my
elbow-chair, when a dazzling beam of Light flashed before me, which came
not from the sun, for it was late in the evening. I glanced up and saw
standing before me three female figures wearing crowns of gold, and with
radiant countenances. I crossed myself, whereupon one of the three
addressed me. 'Fear not, dear daughter, for we will counsel and help
thee. The aphorisms of the Philosophers are not Articles of Faith, but
simply the mists of error and self-deception.'" The three ladies or
goddesses are Fame, Prudence, and Justice, and they command Christine
under the supervision of Reason (or Commonsense) to build a city for the
noblest and best of her own sex. So the city was begun, and the elect,
allegorically, let into it. In varied ranks following one another came
goddesses and saintly women, Christian and heathen women--among them
walks as leader the Queen of the Amazons. "Queen" Ceres, who taught the
art and practice of agriculture. Queen Isis, who first led mankind to
the cultivation of plants. Arachne, who invented the arts of dyeing,
weaving, flax-growing, and spinning. Damphile, who discovered how to
breed silkworms. Queen Tomyris, who vanquished Cyrus. The noble
Sulpicia, who shared her husband's exile, and many others, among whom
may be seen Dame Sarah, the wife of Abraham, Penelope, Ruth, and the
Saints Katharine, Margaret, Lucia, and Dorothea. In the first miniature
on the left sits Christine with a coif upon her head and a great book on
her lap; on her left hand is the plan of her new city, while opposite
stand the three ladies already spoken of as her advisers, furnished with
building tools and giving her their advice. On the right she appears
again in elegant costume with hewn stones and a trowel assisted by two
workmen who are busily at work. Before her is an unfinished wall and
several completed towers. In two other miniatures the gradual progress
and entire completion of the city are shown, and in the foreground of
each Christine and her three patronesses as before. Other examples
deserving of extended notice are the Shrewsbury Romances (Roy. 15 E. 6)
and Augustine, Cité de Dieu (Roy. 14 D. 1), two great folios, the former
most interesting for its miniatures--the latter as a fair example of the
rougher kind of Lille work, bold in design, good drawing. The choice of
colours includes marone, blue, green, and gold. The ornaments, as usual,
consist of sprays of ivy leaf and grounds filled in with treillages of
natural flowers, among which are the daisy, viola tricolor, thistle,
cornbottle, and wild stock. Fruits and vegetables also, as grapes, field
peas, and strawberries. The miniatures include a few rather coarse
grisailles.

A little volume (Harl. 2936) contains exquisitely drawn Brugeois scrolls
in monochrome on grounds of the same colour or plain gold or black.
Lastly we may mention "Les Heures de la Dame de Saluces," otherwise
called the "Yemeniz Hours," in the British Museum (Add. 27967), a large
octavo, as an example of transitional Burgundian. Here the secondary
borders have mostly the penwork ivy leaf with Brugeois corners and with
strawberries, etc., in the midst of the sprays. Among the foliages
grotesque figures frequently appear. The principal pages, however, are
more like Harl. 4431, yet without the ivy-leaf tendrils. The miniatures
are still Gothic, but richer and deeper in colour than ordinary French
work. It would appear that two different artists were employed--one
decidedly French, the other Netherlandish, and of a more individual
character, still with French accessories. Every page has a border of
some kind. Among the flowers the thistle is peculiar in having a golden
cup next the down. The work generally resembles, in some parts, 4431
Harl.; in others, and perhaps more strongly, 15 E. 6. The colours are
chiefly blue, scarlet, rose-pink, green, and gold.

We have now pretty nearly worked our way into Flemish illumination. The
after-history of French as developed through the influence of Italy on
the schools of Paris and Tours must have a chapter to itself.




CHAPTER IV

ENGLISH ILLUMINATION FROM THE TENTH TO THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

Organisation of the Monastic _scriptoria_--Professional outsiders: lay
artists--The whole sometimes the work of the same practitioner--The
Winchester Abbeys of St. Swithun's and Hyde--Their vicissitudes--St.
Alban's--Westminster--Royal MS. 2 A. 22--Description of style--The
Tenison Psalter--Features of this period--The Arundel Psalter--Hunting
and shooting scenes, and games--Characteristic pictures, grotesques, and
caricatures--Queen Mary's Psalter--Rapid changes under Richard
II.--Royal MS. 1 E. 9--Their cause.


In a former chapter we left our native schools of illumination at work
on such MSS. as the Devonshire and Rouen Benedictionals, and with the
reputation of being the best schools of the kind in Christendom. Mention
also is made elsewhere in dealing with monastic art of the usages of the
_scriptoria_. Such usages, of course, could only obtain in houses where
scribes themselves were to be had. Hence we should discover, were it not
otherwise known, that writing and illumination, even in the monastic
age, were not confined absolutely to the cloister.

With respect to the secular scribes, who sometimes worked in the
monastery, sometimes at their own homes, in those days when the monastic
orders still did most of the book-production, there were three classes
of specialists. These were the _Librarii_ or ordinary copyists; the
_Notarii_ or law-scribes, whose business lay in copying deeds, charters,
and such-like instruments, and taking notes in the courts; and
_Paginators_ or _Illuminatores_. It sometimes happened, as we have said,
that in some monastery or other, no monastic was found qualified to
undertake any of these duties. It then fell to the prior or abbat to
seek the assistance of professional outsiders. The paging and
rubrication, putting in initials in the spaces left by the common
scribe, and, if needed, the addition of pictures or marginal drawings
and ornaments, caricatures, heraldic illustrations, etc., were the
proper work of the illuminator, but it often happened that the same man
had to do the whole work from the commencement to the finish. The
Chronicon Trudonense tells us: "Graduale unum propria manu formavit,
purgavit, pinxit, sulcabit, scripsit, illuminavit, musiceque notavit
syllabatim." Several of our old English chronicles, of which the MSS.
exist in the British Museum and elsewhere, seem to be of this
description.

Reference has been made to the _scriptoria_ at Winchester, _i.e._ at St.
Swithun's and the New Minster. It is the latter foundation which is
usually referred to in speaking of Winchester work. The Monastery of the
Holy Trinity or the New Minster was founded in the first year of his
reign by King Edward, son of Alfred, no doubt in obedience to his
father's wish, if not absolutely in the terms of his will. Its first
charter is dated 900 (for 901) and the second in 903. In the latter
document the abbey is spoken of as dedicated to the Holy Trinity, the
Blessed Virgin Mary, and to St. Peter, and is amply endowed under the
Augustinian Rule. In 965, not without trouble and resistance, it was
converted into a Benedictine abbey. In 968 Ethelgar, who had been
trained at Glastonbury and Abingdon, became abbat, and from this time
the New Minster became famous for both discipline and the production of
MSS. As we walk along the High Street of Winchester now we find the
story in moss-grown stones or other memorials how, among other methods,
William the Norman punished the monks for their English warlike
proclivities by walling them up nearly close to their church with the
walls of his royal palace. In the old time, when the two monasteries
stood side by side--St. Swithun's is close behind the New Minster--"so
closely packed together," says the old chronicler,[37] "were the two
communities of St. Swithun and St. Peter that between the foundation of
their respective buildings there was barely room for a man to pass
along. The choral service of one monastery conflicted with that of the
other, so that both were spoiled, and the ringing of their bells
together produced a horrid discord." The result of this was, first the
above-mentioned hemming in of the younger establishment and eventually
its migration to another site in Hyde Meadow. Here while the monastic
buildings suffered much through fires and other disasters, the Rule
remained until 1538, when it was surrendered into the King's hands, and
the abbat, prior, and nineteen monks, the last survivors of this
once-famous foundation, were pensioned.

[37] Dugdale, _Monasticon_.

The scriptorium at St. Alban's, to which the fame of book production in
the Middle Ages very largely reverted, was not founded until nearly
three centuries after the foundation of that abbey. The library began
with twenty-eight notable volumes, and eight Psalters, a book of
collects, another of epistles, and _Evangelia legenda per annum_, two
Gospel-books bound in gold and silver and set with gems, together with
other necessary volumes for ordinary use. Almost every succeeding abbat
contributed something to the library shelves. Geoffrey, the sixteenth
abbat, a Norman who once had a school at Dunstable, and who was both a
popular and liberal ruler, enriched the library with a Missal bound in
gold, another incomparably illuminated and beautifully written, and also
a Psalter richly illuminated, a Benedictional, and others. His
successor, Ralph Gubiun, also gave a number of MSS. Robert de Gosham,
the next abbat, gave "very many" books, which he had caused to be
written and sumptuously bound for the purpose. And Abbat Simon, who
followed in 1166, created the office of historiographer to the abbey,
repaired and enlarged the scriptorium, and kept two or three of the
cleverest writers constantly employed in transcription, and ordained
that for the future every abbat should maintain at least one suitable
and capable scribe. Among the many choice MSS. added by Abbat Simon was
a beautiful copy of the Bible specially written with the greatest care
and exactness. In addition he presented the library with all his own
precious collection. Another liberal benefactor was John de Cell, a man
of vast learning in grammar and poetry, and also a practitioner in
medicine. Being unfit for household management, he committed the secular
affairs of the abbey to his prior Reymund, by whose zeal many noble and
valuable books were transcribed for the library. And so grew in
magnitude and importance the great collection which supplied Roger of
Wendover and Matthew Paris with materials for their famous histories.
St. Alban's, indeed, was at one period perhaps the most noted of all the
English centres of book production. To dilate on other centres, such as
Westminster, Exeter, Worcester, Norwich, or York, would lead us too far
afield for a mere handbook like the present. Enough has been said to
give a good idea of what our English abbats and priors were in the habit
of doing for art and letters.

[Illustration:
PSALTERIUM CUM CANTICIS
A.D. 1240
_Brit. Mus. Roy. MS. 2, A. xxii, fol. 14_]

[Illustration:
EPISTRE AU ROY RICH. 2
C. 1375
_Brit. Mus. Roy. MS. 20 B, vi, fol. 1_]

Since 980 a considerable quantity of transcription and illumination must
have been produced, notwithstanding disquiet, turbulence, and war. At
Westminster the traditions of illumination seem to have followed the
methods of the earlier Winchester school. But in the twelfth century
English work shows, on the whole, a greater likeness to the contemporary
work of Germany. Of Westminster work an example occurs among the Royal
MSS. (2 A. 22). The subject is the Psalter, and the text is the handsome
style of penmanship known as English Gothic of the latter part of the
twelfth century. It would appear from the frequent occurrence of this
particular service-book that it held the place of the later Book of
Hours, and so we may expect a great similarity among different copies,
both in the selection of the illustrations and their mode of treatment.
It was usual in all such volumes to prefix to the text a series of
subjects from the Old and New Testaments and the Lives of the Saints.
Here we have them from the Life of the Virgin and from the Life of
David, by no means unworthy samples of the school. One represents the
Virgin and Child seated on a seat of the Germano-Byzantine type beneath
an arch and within a square frame-border. The border seems first to have
been flatly painted in two colours, pale blue and pale red ochre, and on
this a foliage scroll of recurring forms in a bold dull red outline
finely relieved with white. This is more or less repeated as the form of
border to the other illuminations. Outside the whole is a characteristic
slender frame of bright green in two tints. The arch overhead has two
bands of vermilion, with white edge-reliefs and a central band of blue,
again in two tints, with pairs of black cross-bars every half-inch or so
resting on the capitals of the two pillars which form the sides of the
scene. These pillars have each a green abacus at the top of each capital
and scarlet bead below. Each pillar is of dappled red, marble-like
porphyry, with plinths of scarlet and blue. Tiers of differently
coloured steps separated by bands of scarlet, green, etc., form the
seat. The Virgin wears the hood, cape, and robe of the Benedictine nun,
but coloured grey, chocolate, and blue respectively. An under garment of
pale amber completes her dress. The infant wears an amber tunic, wrapped
in a scarlet robe. A very common embroidery of the drapery consists of
little stars or triads of white studs. This also is a characteristic of
German and early Netherlandish illumination. There is a rich gold
brocade border to the blue robe of the Virgin. Both mother and child
have round nimbuses, the former in plain circular bands of russet and
orange, the latter consisting of bands of pale blue surmounted by a
scarlet cross. Two lumps of green glass or metal hang from the arch. The
background is a plate of gold. The flesh tones are livid, being of a
pale greenish ochre tint. One other of the illuminations of this
exceedingly interesting MS. may be mentioned, viz. the David playing his
harp. He also wears three garments--a tunic of white shaded with pale
blue, then another of lavender or lilac and having rich brocaded
borders, and, lastly, a pallium or robe of pale chocolate lined with
ermine; orange-coloured hose. The throne, like the previous one, is of
several colours--slate-blue, green, orange, and white, with a buff
cushion. Here is a back to the throne of a deep blue, with a background,
as before, of bright flat gold. The white moulding is shaded with pale
green, with bluish slate corners. The outer border is of the pale red
ochre or pink, so common in later work in contrast with deep blue. An
outer frame or edging of green completes the page. The harp is not
gilded, but of a drab hue, with two quatrefoil studs or orifices in the
frame, relieved as usual with fine edges of white. Compare this MS. with
one in the Library at Lambeth.

The English illumination of the thirteenth century is so like that of
France that it is often difficult to determine its real nationality.
There is occasionally some feature which we know from other sources to
be English, or some circumstance in the history of the MS. which fixes
its origin, as, for example, in the Additional MS. 24686, known as the
Tenison Psalter. Sir E.M. Thompson also describes this MS. in the
_Bibliographica_, i. 397. But it was previously described at some length
by Sir Edward Bond in the Fine Arts _Quarterly Review_. The Psalter,
which has had a somewhat eventful history, is one of the best examples
of English thirteenth-century illumination. At least, this may be said
of the early portion of it, for while it is illuminated throughout, only
the first gathering is in the earlier manner. The peculiar value to the
student lies in the fact that although quite in the same style as
contemporary French work, it is the work of an English illuminator. The
colouring, however, is not confined, as in somewhat earlier examples, to
blue and dull pale rose or paled red ochre and gold. It gives us
scarlet, crimson-lake, green, and brown, besides the blue and pink and
bright gold which suggests some German influences. The line fillings are
somewhat peculiar as having silver tracery, on the blue, side by side
with golden tracery on the crimson. The full ivy leaf appears in the
long branch work of the borders, and some of the initials still retain
the bird or dragon forms in their construction. The compound bar-frame,
gold and traceried colour side by side, is however already taking the
place of the mere sweeping tail or branch. But perhaps the best
indication of English design is the presence of a number of grotesque
animals, with birds and occasional humorous scenes disposed, not in
framed miniatures, but simply among the stems and coils of the foliage.
This is a form of illustration much appreciated by English illuminators
at all times, though it appears also in much continental work. Among
other English MSS. which display this taste we may point out Arund. 83,
which among many other treatises and curious compositions, such as the
"Turris Sapientiæ" and a valuable calendar, in which are notes on the
Arundels of Wemme, contains a psalter with anthems, etc., and hence is
known as the Arundel Psalter. Its date is probably between 1330 and
1380.

The drolleries are very funny, and the other illuminations very
instructive and curious. Some of them contain really good
pen-drawing--refined, expressive, and graceful, but above all typical of
English draughtsmanship. In a little scene of the adoration of the Magi
(folio 125) the kings are costumed like our Henry III., as we find him
'n sculpture, wall paintings, etc. Over a very expressive picture of the
three living and the three dead occur the lines, each over a figure:
"Ich am afert Lo wet ich se Methinketh hit beth deueles thre. Ich wes
welfair Such scheltou be For godes loue be wer by me" (folio 128).[38]
The three living in this illumination are three fashionable ladies--no
doubt princesses, for they wear crowns. Generally they are men, as at
Lutterworth in the sculptures over the door, and in the famous fresco of
Gozzoli at Pisa. The subject occurs sometimes in Books of Hours.

[38] "I am afraid. Lo, what I see Methinketh it be devils three. I was
well fair. Such shalt thou be. For love of God beware by me."

Many MSS. of this period and later have hunting scenes, shooting
practice, and games.

In MS. 264, Misc., Bodl. Lib., Oxford, there are such scenes, one being
a game at "Blind Man's Buff," or as literally here "Hoodman Blind," for
the latter actually wear a hood drawn down over his head and shoulders,
and three girls are having a fine game with him. The goldfinch or linnet
looking on from the border seems to enjoy the fun. Another fine source
of similar things is the Louterell Psalter in the British Museum. In
this also are some richly diapered backgrounds and exquisite border
bands. This MS. dates about 1340. But the gem of English
fourteenth-century illumination is the Royal MS. (2 C. 7) called Queen
Mary's Psalter, not as being painted for her, since it had been painted
nearly two centuries before she ever saw it. But in the year (?) 1553,
being about to be sent abroad, it was stopped by a customs officer and
presented to Queen Mary Tudor. It is bound in what appears to be the
binding put on it by the Queen--_i.e._ crimson velvet embroidered on
each cover with a large pomegranate, and having gilt corner protections
and (once upon a time) golden clasps. The clasps are gone, but the
plates remain riveted on the covers, engraven with the Tudor badges. The
MS. contains 320 large octavo leaves, the first fifty-six being taken up
with illuminated illustrations of biblical history from the Creation to
the death of Solomon. These pictures are arranged in pairs one over the
other, and to each one is given a description in French, taken sometimes
from the canonical text, sometimes from an apocryphal one. The drawings
are really exquisite, they are so fine, so delicately yet so cleverly
sketched. They are not coloured in full body-colours, but just
suggestively, the draperies being washed over in thin tints, the folds
well defined, but lightly shaded. Next after these subjects follows the
Psalter with miniatures of New Testament scenes and figures of saints
accompanied with most beautiful initials and ornaments, illuminated by a
thoroughly practised hand, for the artist of this volume was by no means
a novice at his work. A good example of it is given in _Bibliographica_,
pl. 7 [23], which forms the frontispiece to vol. i., and one or two
outlines in the folio catalogue of the Arundel MSS.

Arund. MS. 84 is also a good example of thirteenth-century illumination
to a rather unpromising subject, being a Latin translation of Euclid
from the Arabic by Athelard of Bath. It is illustrated with diagrams.

Speaking of fourteenth-century illumination brings us to notice a very
striking change which takes place in the reign of Richard II. in the
character of English illumination. In the British Museum (Roy. 20 B. 6)
is a MS. entitled an Epistle to Richard II., written, it is said, in
Paris, in which the illuminations and foliages are purely French, but
which are the type of all the English work of the same date. Take, for
example, the MS. already spoken of (Roy. 2 A. 22), produced in the
scriptorium at Westminster Abbey. Compare with it a Bible written for
the use of Salisbury, and dated 1254. Then add the Tenison Psalter, the
Arundel Psalter, illuminated 1310-20. If these MSS. be compared,
however, with Lansd. 451, or Roy. 1 E. 9, the least accustomed eye must
notice the entire and almost startling change in the luxuriance and
character of the flowers and foliages which constitute the initial and
border decorations. It is not merely a development. There are additional
features, but that these features are added, as usual, from France, is
contradicted by reference to Roy. 20 B. 6, mentioned above. The new
features are not French. The question is, where did they come from?




CHAPTER V

THE SOURCES OF ENGLISH FIFTEENTH-CENTURY ILLUMINATION

Attributed to the Netherlands--Not altogether French--The home of Anne
of Bohemia, Richard II.'s queen--Court of Charles IV. at Prag--Bohemian
Art--John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia--The Golden Bull of Charles
IV.--Marriage of Richard II.--The transformation of English work owing
to this marriage and the arrival of Bohemian artists in
England--Influence of Queen Anne on English Art and
Literature--Depression caused by her death--Examination of Roy. MS. 1 E.
9, and 2 A. 18--The Grandison Hours--Other MSS.--Introduction of Flemish
work by Edward IV.


It has been suggested by a high authority that the immediate sources of
the third period of English illumination were Netherlandish, but
probable as this seems at first sight, there is another explanation
which seems to the present writer to be a better one. As already pointed
out, the influence on English work before 1377, notwithstanding
political conditions, are distinctly French. After this date, though the
artistic relation with France is not broken off, yet long before 1390 we
find this new influence which is not French, and for which we have no
special evidence that it is Netherlandish. If we go, however, a little
farther afield, we shall find it. In the new work is a softer kind of
foliage and a greater variety of sweet colour, and both these
characteristics are found in a school of illumination that was being
formed under the auspices of the Emperor Charles IV. at Prag in Bohemia.
The artists in that capital who executed the famous Golden Bull and
commenced the grand Wenzel Bible were a select band of Frenchmen and
Italians; the combined result of whose designs and labours was this very
mixture of Gothic ivy leaf and thorn with the softer Othonian and Roman
foliages and a new scheme of colour. Charles IV., son of that famous
John of Luxembourg, the blind king of Bohemia, who perished at Crécy,
was himself King of Bohemia as well as Emperor, and a man of brilliant
personal accomplishments and cultivated tastes in literature and art.

Becoming Emperor the very next year after his succession to the throne
of Bohemia, he fixed his residence at Prag, where he began the building
of the new city, and founded a university on the model of that of Paris,
where he had studied, and whence he had married his first wife, Blanche,
daughter of Charles, Count of Valois. His university soon attracted some
thousands of students, and with them no small crowd of literary men and
artists, both from France and Italy. The great fact, however, to
remember about Charles IV. is the Golden Bull, the masterly scheme by
which all matters concerning the election to the Empire were in future
to be settled. All the Constitutions were written in a book called, from
the _bulla_ or seal of gold which was appended to it, the Golden Bull,
of which the text was drawn up either at Metz or Nuremberg in 1356, and
many copies distributed throughout the Empire. It is further affirmed
that the absolute original is at Frankfort. But the splendid copy made
by order of the Emperor Wenzel in 1400 is still preserved in the
Imperial Library at Vienna. And as it is ah example of the style of
illumination practised in Prag during the reign of Charles IV., we may
call it Bohemian. It is true that the foliages are a little more
luxuriant in this Wenzel-book than in the earliest examples of the style
seen in England, but the twenty years which had elapsed would easily
account for this difference. As compared, however, with either French or
Netherlandish, the new English style shows a much greater similarity to
the work then being done in Lower Bavaria. In these soft curling
foliages and the fresh carnations of the flesh-tints of the Prag and
Nuremberg illuminators we may trace the actual source of the remarkable
transformation seen in English illumination after the marriage of
Richard II.

Charles IV. was four times married. His successor, Wenzel, whose ghastly
dissipations can only be regarded as the terrible proofs of insanity,
was the child of his third wife. His fourth wife, the beautiful daughter
of the Duke of Pomerania and Stettin, had four children, of whom
Sigismund, the eldest, afterwards succeeded Wenzel as emperor, and Anne,
the third, came to England as the wife of Richard II. The magnificence
of her equipage and the crowd of persons who formed her retinue are
noticed by contemporary writers, and the effect upon English manners was
instantaneous. Her beauty, sweetness of manners, and culture rendered
her at once not merely the idol of her husband, who, says Walsingham,
"could scarcely bear her to be out of his sight," but universally
beloved by all the English nation.

To her the first English writer on heraldry, John of Guildford dedicated
his book, and the artists who came with her from her luxurious home at
Prag would naturally become the leaders of taste in their adopted
country. After a while, indeed, the numbers of countrymen of the Queen
were looked upon as the cause of extortions practised on the English
people in order to supply the money lavished on these foreigners. More
than once is this grievance referred to. In an old MS. in the Harley
Library (2261), containing a fifteenth-century translation of Higden's
Polychronicon, these foreigners are made responsible for at least one
fashionable extravagance: "Anne qwene of Ynglonde dyede in this year
(1393) at Schene the viith day of the monethe of Janius, on the day of
Pentecoste: the dethe of whom the Kynge sorowede insomoche that he
causede the maner there to be pullede downe, and wolde not comme in eny
place by oon yere folowynge where sche hade be, the churche excepte;
whiche was beryede in the churche of Westmonastery, in the feste of
seynte Anne nexte folowynge, with grete honoure and solennite. That
qwene Anne purchased of the pope that the feste of Seynte Anne scholde
be solenniysed in Ynglonde. The dethe of this qwene Anne induced grete
hevynesse to noble men and to commune peple also, for sche causede noo
lytelle profite to the realme. But mony abusions comme from Boemia into
Englonde with this qwene, and specially schoone with longe pykes,
insomoche that they cowthe not go untylle that thei were tyede to theire
legges, usenge that tyme cheynes of silvyr at the pykes of theire
schoone."

It is a fact that the Bohemian manner of illumination, with its
three-lobed and vari-coloured foliages, became the fashion in every
English centre of illumination. In the preceding remarks we have
endeavoured to account for it. That the same style went from Prag to
Nuremberg may be only the natural _result_ of its being carried in the
marriage and retinue of the Princess Margaret, Anne's half-sister, who
became the wife of the Burggrave John.

Quite a similar MS. to those executed in the reign of Richard II. in
England and those of Bohemia is the Wilhelm van Oransse of Wolfram v.
Eschenbach, now in the Imperial Library at Vienna. A similar, but
inferior, work exists in the Prayer-book written by Josse de Weronar in
the British Museum (Add. 15690). The English foliages never show quite
all the varieties of colour seen in the continental examples, but the
golden diapers and pounced gold patterns are quite as elaborate. See
this work, however, in Arundel 83. It appears also in the mural
paintings of the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth
centuries. No doubt the English art of the fourteenth century is of
French origin--so mainly is that of Bohemia--for Charles IV. was brought
up at the Court of France. Further than this, we think we are justified
in tracing the new elements in Bohemian to Italy, and those in English
to Bohemia. The most striking proof is not only the foliages, but the
change from the long, colourless faces of French miniatures to the plump
and ruddy countenances seen, for example, in the Lancastrian MSS. in the
Record Office and in Harl. 7026[39] of the British Museum. Of course,
this suggestion of source is not put forward as a dead certainty, but it
affords this probability that as the style suddenly arose during the
lifetime of Anne of Bohemia--and she was the acknowledged leader of
fashion--so her tastes in respect of illuminated books and heraldic
decoration would become those of her new subjects. Let us examine this
fifteenth-century English work, and for this purpose let us take the
great illuminated Bible in the Royal Library, 1 E. 9. It is an enormous
folio, and rather unwieldly, but a most interesting example of the new
style. Its initials are large, richly illuminated in gold and attractive
colours. It has well-executed histories within the initials, and boldly
designed border frames, elegantly adorned with foliages and conventional
or idealised flowers. Perhaps the most noticeable feature is the
beautiful, decorative foliage work in the limbs of the letters--itself a
South German peculiarity--then the alternation of colours without
interrupting the design, the profusion of foliage modelling in the
backgrounds of the letter panels outside the historiations. The next
thing is the bold use of minium side by side even with pure rose-petal
colour, pale bright cerulean blue, and bright gold. Lastly, the immense
variety of leaf-forms, based on the three, five, and seven-lobed
groupings of the typical form. The coil and spiral are freely used as
the groundwork, and the colours alternated as the coils or spirals
change from front to back of the leaf.

[39] The Lovell Psalter.

[Illustration:
MISSALE (SARUM USE)
14TH CENT. (LATE)
_Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 2785, fol. 194 v._]

[Illustration:
HORÆ E. MAR. VIESIS.
15TH CENT. (EARLY)
_Brit. Mus. Roy. Ms. 2, A. xviii, fol. 55_]

Backgrounds of miniature histories are treated as in the Bohemian
MSS.--Wilhelm v. Oransse, for example--that is, with fine golden
tracery-patterns on deep, rich colours. The figure-painting is vastly
improved--the features now being actually painted and modelled as in
modern portrait painting, not merely indicated by pen strokes. The
flesh-tints as previously noticed are bright and ruddy. The principal
colours used on the foliages are blue, crimson, of various depths, and
bright vermilion, with occasional admission of bright green and paled
red ochre. Very similar to 1 E. 9 is Harl. 1892, and among other MSS.
that may be studied with this one is 2 A. 18--a book of Offices, very
sweetly illuminated, and full of typical examples of treatment both of
architectural design and treillages of foliage.

The Gothic pilasters are filled with the same kind of coiling and spiral
leaves and ribbons that are used in 1 E. 9 and Harl. 1892, the
backgrounds of the miniatures enriched with fine gold patterns. The
furniture and costumes indicate the later years of the reign of Richard
II., being similar to those shown in the miniatures of Harl. 1319, which
relates the story of Richard's misfortunes. A few miniatures of saints
accompany the prayers to them. One of the saints is peculiar, being the
Prior of Bridlington, perhaps the "Robertus scriba" who copied certain
theological treatises for the library, and who lived in the time of
Stephen or Henry II.

In the beautiful initial D is the figure of a lady praying, the first
few words of the prayer being written on a floating ribbon above her
head. A fine panelling of black and gold forms the background. The
lady's costume is that of the end of the fourteenth century, her
head-dress being somewhat lower than that worn in the time of Isabella
of Bavaria; in other respects she recalls the figure of Christine de
Pisan in Harl. 4431--one of the fine MSS. of the French school. As the
psalter or offices was once the property of the Grandison family, as is
shown by the numerous entries respecting them in the calendar, no doubt
this lady was the first owner of the MS., and probably the same as shown
in the beautiful miniature of the Annunciation previously given. Many
charming initials follow this one, and brightly coloured bracket
treillages and borders are given in profusion, introducing every variety
of coloured ideal leaf-form known to the art of the time. It seems
probable from its style and the costumes that the MS. was executed for
the Lady Margaret, widow of Thomas, the last Lord Grandison, who died in
1376, and given to her by Sir John Tuddenham, her second husband. A
better model for the modern illuminator could not easily be found. Other
examples may be briefly enumerated, in 2 B. 8, 2 B. 10, 2 B. 1, 2 B. 12
and 13, 18 A. 12, 18 C. 26, Harl. 1719, 1892, etc. The Psalter 2 B. 8
has the good fortune to be dated, and its purpose and other particulars
clearly set forth in a statement at the beginning of the volume. The
gist of this is that it was composed at the instance of the Lady Joan
Princess of Wales, mother of Richard II., and that it was executed by
Brother John Somour (Seymour), a Franciscan, in 1380. Thus the
illumination of it would probably be done about the time, of the young
Queen's arrival in England. The Princess Joan died July 8th, 1385. The
work corresponds with this date. The Grandison Psalter is perhaps
somewhat later than Roy. 2 B. 1, and the rest are later still.

[Illustration:
VEGETIUS FOUR BOOKS OF KNIGHTHOOD
(DE RE MILITARI)
15TH CENT.
_Brit. Mus. Roy. MS. 18 A. xii, f. 1_]

[Illustration:
PSALTERIUM
C. 1470
_Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 1719, fol. 73 v._]

One rather fine example is seen in Arund. MS. 109, a folio called the
Melreth Missal, because given by William Melreth, Alderman of London, to
the church of St. Lawrence, Old Jewry. He died in 1446.

For topographical miniature a good example occurs in Roy. 16 F. 2, which
contains a grand view of London, including the Tower, but this MS. is
probably not of genuine English production. Nor is Roy. 19 C. 8, though
a very interesting example as regards costume and local usages. The
genuine English work of which Arund. 109 is a type has received the name
of Lancastrian, as falling to the reigns of the three Lancastrian
kings--Henry IV., V., and VI.

In the reign of Edward IV. we meet with the introduction of Flemish
illumination, which gradually supersedes the native style, and by the
time of Henry VII. the latter has almost disappeared. Its final
extinction, however, was left for the sixteenth century, when either
Flemish or Italian renaissance work entirely took its place. By the time
of Queen Elizabeth English illumination was a thing of the past.




CHAPTER VI

ITALIAN ILLUMINATION

Barbaric character of Italian illumination in the twelfth
century--Ravenna and Pavia the earliest centres of revival--The
"Exultet"--La Cava and Monte Cassino--The writers of early Italian MSS.
not Italians--In the early fourteenth century the art is
French--Peculiarities of Italian foliages--The Law Books--Poems of
Convenevole da Prato, the tutor of Petrarch--Celebrated patrons--The
Laon Boethius--The Decretals, Institutes, etc.--"Decretum Gratiani,"
other collections and MSS.--Statuts du Saint-Esprit--Method of
painting--Don Silvestro--The Rationale of Durandus--Nicolas of Bologna,
etc.--Triumphs of Petrarch--Books at San Marco, Florence--The Brera
Graduals at Milan--Other Italian collections--Examples of different
localities in the British Museum--Places where the best work was
done--Fine Neapolitan MSS. in the British Museum--The white-vine style
superseded by the classical renaissance.


Considering the position occupied by the Roman Empire as the civiliser
of Europe, it is not a little curious and somewhat surprising to find
that in the twelfth century, when German and French artists were doing
such good and even admirable work, that of Italy was almost barbaric. A
MS. in the Vatican (4922) is shown as a proof of this. It is not an
obscure sort of book that might have been written by a merely devout but
untrained monk for his own use, but a work of importance executed for no
less a personage than the celebrated Countess Matilda. The scribe was
Donizo, a monk of the Benedictine Abbey of Canossa. It is of the early
or præ-Carolingian type, rather inclined to Byzantine, but with the big
hands and aimless expression of all semi-barbaric work. Yet it has a
certain delicacy and carefulness. In Rome itself during the ninth
century barbarism was at its very lowest point. Only the sea-port towns
had any notion of what was being done in other places. Painting was
practised, it is true, so was mosaic, but the worst of Oriental carpets
would be a masterpiece of elegance beside anything done in Italy.
Whatever gleams of artistic intelligence appear, they certainly emanated
from Ravenna or Pavia. But as there were no wealthy and peaceful courts,
no indolent, high-bred, luxurious courtiers during that dark and
troublous period, miniature or illumination had no call for existence.
In the twelfth century book-illustration consisted simply of
pen-sketching of the most elementary kind. The Lombards alone produced
anything like illumination. A sort of roll containing pictures of the
various scenes of the Old and New Testaments which represented the
leading doctrines of the Church, and which used to hang over the pulpit
as the preacher discoursed upon them, is the only representative of the
time. Such a roll was called an "Exultet" from its first word, which is
the beginning of the line "Exultet jam Angelica turba cælorum" of the
hymn for the benediction of the paschal wax tapers on Easter Eve.
Several of these "Exultets" are still kept in the Cathedral at Pisa, and
in the Barberini and Minerva Libraries in Rome.[40] Of course the
pictures are upside down to the reader, so as to be right for the
congregation.

[40] See one in British Mus., Add. MS. 30337, and description of it in
_Journ. of the Archæol. Assoc._ vol. 34, p. 321.

Very little progress was made, as we may imagine, until after the great
revival movement begun by Cimabue, Giotto, and their contemporaries,
about the middle of the thirteenth century. But before taking up any
inquiry into Italian work generally we must not omit reference to the
remarkable MSS. produced at La Cava and Monte Cassino during the
Franco-Lombard period. Some idea has already been furnished in dealing
with Celtic MSS. and the foundations begun by Columbanus and his
scholars. Indeed, the general character of these Lombard MSS. is seen in
the Franco-Celtic. The distinguishing feature, if there be one, is the
frequent recurrence among the interlacements of the _white dog_. The La
Cava Library, which was one of the finest in Italy, has been transferred
to Naples. Monte Cassino still continues and maintains not only a
library but a printing press, from which the learned fathers have issued
at least one great work on the subject of Cassinese palæography. Of all
the præ-Carolingian hands, Lombardic or Lombardesque was certainly the
most peculiar, and is perhaps the most difficult to read. One evidence
of this is the diversity of opinion on the true reading of certain
proper names in the original MS. containing the oldest text of Tacitus
which happens to be a Lombard MS. The characters and other examples of
the eleventh to the thirteenth century that have been published at Monte
Cassino, however, fully illustrate the peculiarities of the handwriting,
and give besides several splendid examples of calligraphy.[41]

[41] The La Cava MSS. have been described by P. Gillaume in an essay
published at Naples, 1877, and those of Monte Cassino by A. Caravita,
Monte Cassino, 1860-71.

One of the earliest illuminated Italian MS. which bears a date is a
Volume of Letters of St. Bernard, now in the Library of Laon. It is very
seldom that the earlier scribes and illuminators who produced Italian
MSS. or worked in Italy were Italians. They were usually foreigners and
mostly Frenchmen, and the art was looked upon at the beginning of the
fourteenth century as a French art. This very decided example of Italian
work is already different from the French work of the same period. The
profile foliages have already acquired that peculiar trick of sudden
change and reversion of curve, showing the other side of a leaf with
change of colour, which is a marked characteristic of all
fourteenth-century Italian illumination. For examples of it, the
Bolognese Law Books, Decretals, and such-like, afford frequent
illustration. Before leaving this first-quoted MS., we may say that it
points to France rather than to Germany or Lombardy for its general form
of design, but the foliages are quite of another kind. Another Laon MS.
(352) shows the same treatment of foliage, but in effect more like what
may be considered as the typical Italian style seen in the famous
Avignon Bible of the anti-pope, Clement VII. (Robert of Geneva), which
dates between 1378 and 1394.[42]

[42] See Humphreys, _Illum. Books of the Middle Ages_, pl. 16; and
Silvestre, _Paléographie Universelle_, pl. 117.

A further example still more powerful in expression and skilful in
manipulation is seen in a copy of the Poems of Convenevole da Prato, in
the British Museum (Roy. 6 E. 9), executed for King Robert of Naples, a
patron of Giotto (1276-1337), which, in comparison with the Laon Letters
of St. Bernard of about the same date, is even still more Italian.

Cardinal Stefaneschi, another of Giotto's patrons, was also a promoter
of illumination. His Missal, now at Rome in the archives of the Canons
of St. Peter's, is a fine example of this style. It dates from 1327 to
1343. The MS. of Boethius at Laon is another. But one of the most
masterly, whether as to design or manipulation, is a law book in the
Library at Laon (No. 382). This grand folio contains "Glossa Ioannis
Andreæ in Clementinas"--"The Gloss or Explanation of Joannes Andreas on
the Clementines."

By the way, as illuminated law books, civil and canonical, form so large
a section of Italian MSS., it may be well in this place to warn the
reader against random explanations sometimes offered in sale catalogues
concerning these books, their authors and commentators. For instance,
this commentator Joannes Andreas was not, as we have seen it confidently
stated (as if it were part of the actual contemporary title of the MS.),
Bishop of Aleria (Episcopus Aleriersis), but a jurist of Bologna. The
bishop lived a century or so after the jurist, who had completed his
long career as professor of law at Bologna extending over forty-five
years before the bishop was born. His chief works are Commentaries on
the Clementines (printed in folio at Mayence 1471, and again at Dijon in
1575), and Commentaries on Five Books of the Decretals (printed in folio
at Mayence in 1455, and at Venice in 1581). While on this topic of
Italian law MSS., it may be useful to state clearly what they are. By
way of contrast to the _Corpus Juris Canonici_, or Body of Canon Law,
the subject of books dealing with the so-called Decretals, the other
branch, including the Institutes Digest and Novellæ of Justinian, was
entitled _Corpus Juris Civilis_.

The Decretals, then, which we so often meet with in public libraries
under various names, are the canons which mainly constitute the Canon
Law. Strictly speaking they are the papal epistolary decrees (decreta),
said to have existed from very early times. In the ninth century a
collection of them was formed, or manufactured, in the name of the
celebrated Isidore of Seville. But with the donation of Constantine to
Pope Sylvester and many others in the later compilation of Gratian,
these are usually looked upon as spurious and false. The great and
authorised collection was completed by a simple Benedictine monk of St.
Felix, in Bologna, a native of Chiusi, the ancient Clusium, in Tuscany,
a man so learned in the law as to have earned the title of "Magister."
This is the work often richly illuminated which goes by the name of the
"Decretum Gratiani."[43] When glancing over the lovely initials and
beautiful foliages or resplendent ornaments, we are apt to overlook the
work itself which is truly monumental; being a summary of the papal
epistolary decrees, the synodal canons of 150 councils, selections from
various regal codes, extracts from the Fathers, and comments of
Schoolmen; all methodically arranged and digested so as to facilitate
its use as a manual for the schools. It is said to have occupied the
compiler incessantly for twenty-five years. Immediately on its
completion in 1151 it was at once authorised by the Pope Eugenius III.
as the only text-book to be used in the public schools, and to govern
the decrees of the Ecclesiastical Courts. Hence its celebrity. Its
transcripts are very numerous, and it has been often printed. As to the
Sext and Clementines they are merely additional commentaries on
supplementary collections of decrees. Thus a new collection authorised
by Boniface VIII. is called the _sext_, _i.e._ the sixth book of the
Decretals. The Clementines were the constitutions of Clement V. Other
collections such as that of John XXII. are called Extravagantes.

[43] See Add. 15274, British Museum.

The most ancient MSS. of the Decretals bear the title of _Concordantia
discordantium Canonum_ (a "concordance of discordant decrees");
afterwards The Book of Decrees; lastly, The Decretals. It was
considered, however, by some, jurists and others, to be not so much a
concordance of discordant canons as a subjugation of the ancient canons
to the decrees of the Papacy, and as already stated, many of its decrees
were found to be false and fictitious. Nevertheless, it is by no means
an uncommon volume among the illuminators. Let us now return to the Laon
example--one of four or five of the species in that collection. The
scene where the author is presenting his work to the pope--we now know
them both--is quite a painting. Except for the defect that kneeling
figures are somewhat mis-shapen or ill-proportioned in the lower limbs,
the work is quite comparable with contemporary mural painting, both for
composition and colour. It is almost modern. It is quite realistic. In
costume, expression, easy and appropriate attitude, it has quite outrun
French illumination altogether.

Another dated MS. (1332) in the same Library (No. 357), "Rubrics of the
Decretals," is a most amusing example of the universal taste for irony
and satire in the initial figures and corner effigies.

A much-lauded MS. among these fourteenth-century examples is one that
has been carefully and expensively reproduced by the late Cte. Horace de
Viel-Castel, namely, the "Statuts de l'Ordre du Saint-Esprit au Droit
Désir ou du Nœud," an order instituted at Naples in 1352 by Louis I.
d'Anjou (called Louis of Taranto), King of Jerusalem, Naples, and
Sicily, cousin and husband of Queen Joanna of Naples. The style of the
illumination is precisely the same as those just mentioned belonging to
Laon, and as several MSS. in the British Museum. Its stem and foliage
ornament is very brightly coloured in fine green, scarlet, rose,
ultramarine, and gold. The miniatures which occasionally contain evident
attempts at portraiture, are painted in the manner of the school of
Cimabue and the earlier Italian painters, more particularly that of
Simone Memmi. It is substantially the Byzantine manner, but improved and
enlivened by attention to natural attitude and expression. The greenish
under-painting of the flesh-tints is often noticeable. The decorative
portions are very skilful and elaborate, as well as extremely neat and
symmetrical; the gold profuse and brilliant. Indeed, the whole
production may be studied as a typical example of its time. The text,
though good, is not so beautiful as the Bolognese hand usually found in
Italian MSS. of the following century. But perhaps this should add to
its value as a proof of its being absolutely contemporaneous with the
foundation of the Order, and therefore of its being the identical MS.
ordered by the magnificent founder, Louis of Taranto, second husband of
the too-celebrated Joanna of Naples. Their marriage took place in the
August of 1346, and on the 27th of May, 1352, being Whitsun Day, they
were crowned. In memory of this happy event, Joanna founded the Church
of the Virgin, Louis instituted the Order of the Holy Spirit, or of the
Knot, the symbols of which appear frequently in the illumination of the
MS. It was named in honour of the Day of Pentecost--"L'Ordre de la
Chevalerie du Saint-Esprit." The phrase "au droit désir" had reference
to the circumstances preceding the marriage. The knot was worn in token
of the "perfect amity" of the members of the Order.[44]

[44] See reproduction, published at Paris by Englemann and Graf in 1853,
1. fol.

Other works of the fourteenth century are enthusiastically praised by
Italian writers, as, _e.g._, those of Don Silvestro, a Camaldolese monk,
who flourished at the same time as the illuminator of this MS. of Louis
of Taranto, and who worked on the great choir books of the Monastery
"degli angeli," in Florence, so loudly commended by Vasari and others
who had seen them. They have long been broken up and dispersed, and it
is not improbable that cuttings from them were among those bought by
Ottley, Rogers, and other amateurs. A fragment of an Antiphonary of
Nocturnal Services, now in the Laurentian Library at Florence, finished
in 1370, shows the style of work to be of the kind just described. Other
great choir books of the earlier period are preserved in the Academy at
Pisa. But the number of MSS. to which reference might be made is legion.
Those of this date are chiefly civil law books; next to these come the
canon law, and divinity. Among the intermediate class are the copies of
the Rationale of Durandus, one of these being in the British Museum
(Add. 31032). Now and then a fine Missal, like the "Stefaneschi," or the
Munich Missal of 1374, which may be referred to as being one of the
models of the school of Prag. On the whole, perhaps, the law books are
more numerous than liturgical ones, and are referable generally to
Bologna or Padua. The name of Nicholaus of Bologna occurs more than once
in these books. A book of offices of the Virgin, by Nicholaus, is now at
Kremsmünster, and a New Testament, dated 1328, in the Vatican. Tommaso
di Modena, another distinguished Italian illuminator, also had much to
do with altering the style of the artists who worked for Charles IV. at
Prag. Some of his work, or work presumed to be his, is still to be seen
in the Bohemian capital. Next to these Bolognese MSS. we may place those
of Florence--copies of the Divina Commedia and the Triumphs and Sonnets
of Petrarch, which, with historians and copies or translations of the
classics, chiefly occupied the illuminators of Florence and Siena, with
one notable exception. Whoever has visited any of the North Italian
cities cannot fail to have noticed and admired the magnificent
choir-books still to be seen in the cathedrals and cathedral libraries.
At Siena the Piccolomini service-books are truly splendid; those in San
Marco, the Riccardi, the Laurentian, and other collections in Florence,
are no less admirable. Verona's best work is chiefly elsewhere, at
Florence, Siena, etc. At Milan the Brera Graduals--each of them a man's
load to carry--are simply gorgeous in the lavish richness of their
letters, miniatures, and decorations. Venice, again, has another grand
collection of MSS. of the highest class in her Attavantes and Gerard
Davids; Rome, in a crowd of princely libraries, has multitudes--literally
multitudes--of exquisitely illuminated volumes. Naples also has some
noble examples of the great craftsmen. We have not yet mentioned the
Ambrosian Library in Milan, nor, except the Vatican, a single library by
name in Rome. The mere names of the Corsini, Sciarra, Barberini
Libraries are enough to those who have ever explored their contents to
remind them of work that can nowhere else be seen so perfect, so
profuse, as in beautiful Italy.

As specimens of local centres the British Museum offers many examples.
Thus Add. 15813, though ordered for Sta. Justina of Padua, was probably
illuminated at Venice; 15814 at Bologna; 15260 probably at Ferrara;
18000 at Venice; most of the fragments in 21412 in Rome; 20927 in Rome;
21591 at Naples; 28962 at Naples; 21413 at Milan; the majority of the
Ducali, of which the museum contains a large collection, in Venice. Some
of the Spanish-looking MSS. executed for Alphonse V. of Aragon were
actually produced in Naples.

[Illustration:
MISSALE
C. 1530
_Brit. Mus. Ada. MS. 15813, fol. 27_]

[Illustration:
KATHOLISCHES GEBETHBUCH
1584
_Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 17525, fol. 155_]

It is not safe to assert that because a work is ordered for a monastery
or a prince that the copyists or illuminators always went to the
monastery or palace to do the work, though frequently they did so. Most
of the MSS. executed for Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, were
produced in Florence. There was more than one atelier of illuminators in
Florence. There were others in Bologna, others in Rome, and quite a
large establishment in Naples. Others resided in Milan, Ferrara, and
Verona. Those at Ferrara lived chiefly at the Ducal Palace. Those at
Verona were the guests of the great Ghibelline leader, Can della Scala,
and his immediate successors. Those at Naples, in the time of Alphonso
the Magnanimous, and especially of his son, Ferdinand I., were
maintained solely for the augmentation and embellishment of the Royal
Library.[45] A list of seventeen copyists, including the famous names of
Antonio Sinibaldo, Giovanni, Rinaldo, Mennio, and Hippolito Lunensis,
and of fourteen or fifteen illuminators, all of distinguished ability,
is given by Signer Riccio from the archives of the city. The splendid
work they achieved may still occasionally be met with. In the British
Museum (Add. 21120) there is a beautiful copy of the Ethics of
Aristotle, with very peculiar initials and ornaments; and in the
National Library, at Paris, many other very fine examples of Neapolitan
work. Of the handwriting of Mennius we have a fine example in Add.
11912, which is a quarto copy of Lucretius, written on 160 leaves of
vellum. Fol. 1 has a grand border on a gold ground, with a miniature
containing a handsome initial E suspended over the author's head, who is
seated at a desk writing. The first three lines of the text are in Roman
capitals, alternately gold and blue. The illumination is of a
transitional character, inclining rather towards the candelabra style of
the Milanese and Neapolitan Renaissance--the Heures d'Aragon, executed
for Frederick III., show a similar taste for candelabra, etc. On the
other hand, the initials are of the older white stem type, with coloured
grounds. The writing is a small and very neat Roman minuscule, and dates
probably about 1485, or between 1480 and 1490. The penmanship of
Hippolito Lunensis appears in Ficino's Translation of Plato; also in the
British Museum, Harl. 3481, and in Add. 15270, 15271.

[45] Riccio, C.W., _Cenno Storico dell Accademia Alfonsina_. Naples,
1865.

The Heures d'Aragon referred to above are a rich example of the
Neapolitan Renaissance preserved in the National Library at Paris.
Writers on Italian miniatures are very numerous, and a good deal of
interesting information about Italian MSS. may be found in M. Delisle's
_Cabinet des MSS._, etc.

There is one style of Italian illumination made very popular by the
illuminators of the works of Petrarch, many of which are found in
various libraries. That is the one called the vine-stem style. It
consists of gracefully coiled stems, usually left uncoloured or softly
tinted with yellow, and bearing here and there peculiar ornamental
flowerets, while the grounds are picked out with various colours, on
which are fine white triads of dots or traceries in delicate white or
golden tendrils. A later variety of this style makes the stems of some
pale but bright tint, and the grounds of deep colour. The vine-stem
style seems to have prevailed throughout the whole of Italy just
previous to the classic revival brought about by the Medici in throwing
open their museums of sculptures, coins, and other antiquities, and by
the liberal patronage of the new classic work by Matthias Corvinus, King
of Hungary, and the Dukes of Urbino. After 1500 the vine-stem style
seems to have gradually died out, and thenceforward only varieties of
the revived antique became the fashion.

To the Italian Renaissance we shall revert in a later chapter.




CHAPTER VII

GERMAN ILLUMINATION FROM THE THIRTEENTH TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

Frederick II., _Stupor Mundi_, and his MS. on hunting--The Sicilian
school mainly Saracenic, but a mixture of Greek, Arabic, and Latin
tastes--The Franconian Emperors at Bamberg--Charles of Anjou--The House
of Luxembourg at Prag--MSS. in the University Library--The Collegium
Carolinum of the Emperor Charles IV.--MSS. at Vienna--The Wenzel
Bible--The Weltchronik of Rudolf v. Ems at Stuttgard--Wilhelm v. Oranse
at Vienna--The Golden Bull--Various schools--Hildesheimer Prayer-book at
Berlin--The Nuremberg school--The Glockendons--The Brethren of the Pen.


In a former chapter we brought up the story of German illumination to
the time of the Hohenstaufen emperors. We may now make a new start with
Frederick II., the eccentric, resolute, intractable, accomplished
_Stupor Mundi_ (1210-50). Not only was he a patron and encouraged art,
but also an author. The work which he composed is still extant, and is
preserved in the Vatican Library under the title _De arte venandi cum
avibus_. Paintings of birds and hunting scenes embellish its pages. The
art is not specially high class, and though in courtesy it may be called
German, seeing that he was the German Emperor, and in some respects is
like the Imperial MSS. of the Saxon period, in point of fact it is
Italian or Sicilian.[46] This Sicilian school is peculiar, and exhibits
very slight traits of relationship with the rest of Italy. After the
Arab conquest of the island in 827, whilst new ideas were imported,
still the old Greek cities kept their ancient traditions and methods in
art, especially in those branches we term industrial, and just as both
Greek and Arabic tongues existed as vernaculars beside the Latin, so the
arts and industries bore the features of three artistic tastes.

[46] (Bibl. Vatican, Palatina, No. 1071). Notice in Kobell, _Kunstv.
Miniaturen_, p. 44.

The silk-weaving of the Greek craftsmen was embellished with the designs
of embroidery from Damascus, and these were mingled with patterns in
which the foliages of Carolingian and German origin are distinctly
traceable. Examples of the kind of manufacture here referred to may be
seen in the robes of the Emperor Henry II., still preserved in the
Cathedral Treasury at Bamberg. Also the coronation mantle of St. Stephen
of Hungary, husband of Henry's sister Gisela--originally a closed
_casula_ covering the body, but now an open cloak richly embroidered
with figures of prophets, animals, and foliages, and even portraits of
the King and Queen. It has sometimes been thought, from the inscription
on its border, that, like the Bayeux tapestries of Queen Matilda, the
needlework was from the Queen's own hand; but no doubt both these
attributions are mistaken.[47] Still more Saracenic in taste are the
mantle and alb now in the Imperial Treasury at Vienna, of the twelfth
century, and executed at Palermo. Sicilian in some respects is
intermediate between Italian and German, hence we deem this a proper
place to speak of it, and rather as a transient phase than a style, for
it perished with the Hohenstaufen dynasty.

[47] See description in Bock, _Die Kleinodien des heiligen Römisches
Reichs_, pl. 17.

The cruel tyranny of the cold-blooded despot, remembered, but execrated,
in Sicily as Charles of Anjou, extinguished the last _scintilla_ of
native art, and when the Italian revival of the thirteenth century took
place, it was confined entirely to the North, except when such patrons
as Robert or Ferdinand or Alfonso encouraged Tuscan artists by inviting
them to Naples. Palermo was no longer of importance, though a capital,
and Sicily existed merely as a portion of the kingdom of Naples.

Let us pass, then, to the great German capital. Changes here, too, have
taken place. It is not Bamberg but Prag, for the Imperial crown has
passed from the House of Suabia through the Hapsburgs to that of
Luxembourg, and among its territories is the picturesque old city with
its historic bridge and gate-towers, a Slavonic not a German city in its
origin. The ten German circles of Suabia and Franconia, Westphalia,
Bohemia, and the rest did not as yet exist--they were the later creation
of Maximilian; the Fatherland consisted of some two or three hundred
dukedoms, counts, marquisates, and lordships, all absolute
sovereignties, but all pledged to support the Holy Roman Empire. Very
thinly, perhaps, but still the Imperial sceptre meant a real supremacy,
and in the hands of such emperors as Henry of Luxembourg, a supremacy
maintained with real and becoming dignity.

Prag, as we have said, is in a Slavonic country, and one sometimes
hostile to the Empire. It was the capital of Bohemia. In 1310 its King
was John, the restless son of the new Emperor Henry VII. of Luxembourg.
Hence we find it at the moment we begin the study of its art a nominally
German city. Shortly before this time were produced several examples of
German work; as, for instance, the "Minnelieder," with more than a
hundred miniatures of hunting scenes and similar outdoor amusements,
which are useful as studies of costume, but otherwise of little
interest. But it is not until 1312--the new King being then, for the
sake of acquiring the crown, though only, it is said, thirteen years of
age, already the husband of the Princess Elizabeth, the late King's
second daughter, yet neither a favourite with his wife nor with her
father's people--that the Abbess of St. George's in Prag, the Princess
Cunigunda, composed a Passionale, richly illustrated with interesting
miniatures. The saints, histories, and allegories are painted in tender
water-colours, the architectural details being in Gothic taste. It is
still preserved in the University Library at Prag, No. xiv., A. 17.[48]
The Emperor Charles IV., son of the valorous but impracticable John
(born 1316, died 1378), and who has already been spoken of in connection
with English illumination, was the founder of the Bohemian school, or,
rather, of the school of Prag. Owing probably his fine tastes and many
accomplishments rather to his mother than his father, he devoted himself
to art and literature, inviting painters and scholars from other
countries to reside in the Bohemian capital. For the Collegium
Carolinum, of which he was the founder, he caused many noble volumes to
be executed, and among the vast treasures and curiosities of his
celebrated Schloss Karlstein was a fine collection of illuminated MSS.
In the Museum at Prag and other local libraries are still kept some
relics of his library. The "Liber Viaticus" of Bishop John of
Newmarkt--the "Orationale" of Bishop Arnestus (under French
influence)--the "Pontificale of Bishop Albert von Sternberg" (in the
library of the Præmonstrant Monastery of Strahow)--the Missal of
Archbishop Ozko von Wlaschim (library of the Metropolitan Chapter in
Prag)--the Evangeliary of Canon John von Troppau (Johannes de Oppavia),
written and illuminated at Brunn, in Moravia, now in the Imperial
Library at Vienna. All these illuminated MSS. are examples of the great
variety of styles in which the Bohemian colony produced their work under
the auspices of their liberal patron, yet not without peculiarities
which mark the individuality of the artist. Thus while the Orationale of
Arnestus is almost French, the Passionale of Cunegunda is entirely free
from French influence. For costumes the Weltchronik of Rudolf von Ems,
1350-85, and now in the Royal Private Library at Stuttgard, is almost an
encyclopædia. Similar is the "Legenda Aurea" of 1362 in the Public
Library at Munich (Cod. Germ. 6). A very interesting MS. with miniatures
of costumes and curious usages is the "Bellifortis" of Conrad Kyeser
(Göttingen, Public Library, Philos., No. 63). The Evangeliary of Troppau
is most beautifully written; its text is a model of elegant and perfect
penmanship; its ornaments distinctly Bohemian. Three or four Prag MSS.
executed for Charles's son Wenzel (1378-1409) are, it may be said,
typical. Of these the grandest, though incomplete, is the illuminated
Bible, called the Wenzel Bible, executed by order of Martin Rotlöw for
presentation to the Emperor. The choice of illustrations in this
singular performance are rather more than on a par with the woodcuts of
the great English Bible of Cranmer. The "Wilhelm von Oranse" of 1387,
now in the Ambras Museum at Vienna (No. 7), affords splendid examples of
the fine embroidered and richly coloured backgrounds we so often see
towards 1400 in English MSS., and the Golden Bull of Charles IV., also
in the Imperial Library at Vienna (j. c. 338), has the softly curling
foliages variously coloured, which form the characteristic difference
between the French and English illumination of the fifteenth century.

[48] Wocel, _Mittheil. der Central.-Commiss._, v., 1860, p. 75, with
illustrations.

Another rich example of German as distinct from French or Italian work
of this period is the grand Salzburg Missal now at Munich (Lat. 15710).
When we reach the fifteenth century German illumination begins to grow
gaudy, especially in the revived taste for parti-coloured border-frames,
in which green and scarlet are often to be seen. The Kuttenberg Gradual
at Vienna (Imp. Lib., 15501) is of the Bohemian type. Now and then a MS.
will show the influence of Westphalian treatment of foliage--and, again,
of the school of Cologne or Nuremberg or Augsburg. These all differ,
whilst still keeping an unmistakable German character. The Hildesheimer
Prayer-book at Berlin points to Cologne. The Frankendorfer Evangeliary
at Nuremberg is characteristic of that city. The Choir-book of St.
Ulrich and Afra in their abbey at Augsburg is typical of its locality.
The Missal of Sbinco, Archbishop of Prag, inclines to Nuremberg rather
than Prag (Imp. Lib., Vienna, No. 1844). It is eighty years earlier than
the Augsburg and Hildesheim MSS. Passing actively onwards, we find
illumination still in vogue in the sixteenth century, notwithstanding
that Germany was the cradle of the printing press.

In fact, it seems to wax more and more sumptuous--the books more
profusely ornamented than ever. The Missal and Prayer-book of Albert of
Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz, once at Aschaffenburg, executed about
1524 are among the finest productions of the illuminator's art. While
perhaps we may complain that design has given way to profusion and the
border flowers and insects--a contemporary characteristic of
Netherlandish art also--are neither more nor less than portraiture
applied to flowers, fruits, and the insect world. The larger miniatures
are modern paintings, including portraits, differing in nothing but
dimensions from the works of the greatest masters of the schools of
painting. In ignorance of the strict rules of the gilds, some writers
have gone so far as to say that miniatures also such as these were the
work of the Van Eycks, the Memlings, and the Lucas van Leydens of our
public galleries. This particular MS. was the work of a famous Nuremberg
miniaturist, one of a distinguished family of artists--Nicolas
Glockendon.

A very similar, but perhaps still richer, MS., is the Prayer-book of
William of Bavaria, still kept in the Imperial Library at Vienna (No.
1880), painted by Albert Glockendon. It is one of the most exquisite
volumes possibly to be met with. A Prayer-book in the British Museum
(Add. 17525), though far inferior, may give some idea of the sumptuous
character of the Glockendon work.

The first Archbishop of Prag, Arnestus or Ernest von Pardubitz, was an
industrious collector of MSS. and employed many scribes. Another of the
famous patrons in Prag was Gerhard Groot, who employed one of the best
penmen to copy St. John Chrysostom's _Commentary on St. Matthew_. In
1383 he founded at Deventer the famous House of the Brothers of the
Common Life, who made a business of transcribing books; and, indeed, so
profitably, that, for instance, Ian van Enkhuisen of Zwolle received
five hundred golden gulden for a Bible. On account of the goose-quill
which the brothers wore in their hats, they were familiarly known as the
Brethren of the Pen.[49]

[49] Wattenbach, _Schriftwesen im Mittelalter_, p. 264.




CHAPTER VIII

NETHERLANDISH ILLUMINATION

What is meant by the Netherlands--Early realism and study of
nature--Combination of symbolism with imitation--Anachronism in
design--The value of the pictorial methods of the old illuminators--The
oldest Netherlandish MS.--Harlinda and Renilda--The nunnery at
Maas-Eyck--Description of the MS.--Thomas à Kempis--The school of
Zwolle--Character of the work--The use of green landscape
backgrounds--The Dukes of Burgundy--Netherlandish artists--No miniatures
of the Van Eycks or Memling known to exist--Schools of Bruges, Ghent,
Liége, etc.--Brussels Library--Splendid Netherlandish MSS. at
Vienna--Gerard David and the Grimani Breviary--British Museum--"Romance
of the Rose"--"Isabella" Breviary--Grisailles.


In speaking of the Netherlands we have to bear in mind that some
portions of what are now called the Netherlands were once parts of
Germany, while others were parts of France. In the thirteenth century
Netherlandish art was simply a variety either of Northern German or
Northern French. The earlier schools of Flanders and Hainaut, and
perhaps of Brabant, belong rather to France, while Holland, Limburg,
Luxembourg, and the Rhine districts were more inclined towards Germany.
But as soon as the schools of Ghent and Bruges and other Burgundian
centres began to assert their claims, it was speedily apparent that they
had an individuality of their own. In no country had the study of nature
a more direct influence on the character of illumination. The
allegorical method which so long had characterised both French and
German art was promptly abandoned, and direct realism both in figure and
landscape became the prevailing characteristic. Symbolism, it is true,
remained in the representation of cities and other generalities of
pictorial composition, but the details were in all cases direct
imitations of contemporary facts. Half a dozen soldiers or houses might
indicate an army or a city, and even some particular army or city named
in the text, but the individual soldiers, though representing the army
of Alexander or Roland, would wear the equipment or armour of the
artist's military acquaintances, or his overlord's own company. The
city, whether Ghent or Bagdad, would consist of the same sort of houses
peaked and parapeted, the same towers and pinnacles that the illuminator
saw before him in his daily walks. His conception of a scene from
Scripture history would probably be framed more or less upon the
traditions of the schools transmitted from the Sphigmenou Manual or the
master's portfolio of "schemes," but while a prophet, an angel, or a
divinity would wear ideal raiment, Abraham and Pharaoh would be arrayed
in the costume of a contemporary burgomaster, and an almost contemporary
French king. In one memorable instance, we are told, so realistic was
the scene that Isaac was about to be despatched with a horse-pistol; and
in another, representing the birth of Cain, Adam was bringing to the
French tester bedside a supply of hot water from the kitchen boiler in a
copper saucepan. This kind of anachronism, it is true, is to some degree
chargeable on all early work; we see it among the early Italian painters
no less frequently perhaps, but mostly accompanied with so much of
allegory or imagination that we scarcely notice it, or if we do, we wink
at it as part of the times of ignorance. It is really a mark of
over-haste to be truthful, or at least to be understood, and at the
worst it is no more than the natural rebound from the evil constraint of
the old Byzantine tyranny over scheme and costume and invention. It is
often truly diverting in its very _insouciance_. But its priceless value
to us--and here the same remark applies to all styles of pictorial art
before the fifteenth century--is the ocular record of dress,
architecture, implements of peace and war, incidents of daily life,
etc., for which no _Encyclopædia Britannica_ of verbal explanation could
ever be more than the poorest makeshift. As we say, this same happy
anachronism is common to other schools of illumination, and we cannot
fail to notice it from Byzantium to Britain, but it is the intense
realism of the Netherlands that forces it upon us so strongly that we
are bound to speak of it.

The oldest notice of illuminated work in the Netherlands is in a
Benedictine chronicle of the ninth century, where mention is made of two
ladies, daughters of the Lord of Denain, named Harlinda and Renilda,[50]
who were educated in the convent of Valenciennes. "In 714 they left
their native province to found a monastery on the banks of the
Maas--among the meadows of Alden and Maas-Eyck. They there consecrated
their lives to the praise of God and the transcription of books,
adorning them with precious pictures."[51] About the year 1730 an
Evangeliary of great age was discovered in the sacristy of the church by
the Benedictine antiquary, Edmond Martène, which on good ground has been
attributed to the two sisters. The MS. is still in existence, and was
exhibited in Brussels in 1880. It is a small folio, and contains a great
number of miniatures in the Carolingian or, perhaps more strictly,
Franco-Saxon manner. On the first leaf is a Romanesque colonnade of
arches surmounted by a larger one. Under the smaller arches are the
figures of saints, demons, and monsters, and in the tympanum scrolls of
foliage and birds. Between the columns are the reference numbers to the
chapters.

[50] Or Relinda.

[51] Bradley, _Dict. of Miniaturists_, ii. 87.

The evangelist portraits are dignified and saintly, recalling the
earliest work of the Byzantine school and that of the catacombs.
Draperies and other details are heavy, dull, and ill drawn. In short,
the work is of the same class as the early Carolingian. The blue, red,
green, and gold of the borders, etc., have all kept their brilliancy.[52]
It is somewhat curious that the Van Eycks, the founders of Flemish
painting, were natives of this little town--then, doubtless, pretty and
rural, now a busy place of breweries, oil-factories, tanneries, and
other fragrant nuisances. Some miles further northward lie Deventer and
Zwolle and Kempen, the land of the Brothers of the Pen, and of the
immortal Thomas à Kempis. There is a style of calligraphic ornament
deriving its origin from these Northern Hollandish foundations such as
Zwolle, which is confined almost entirely to the painting of the initial
letters and the decorating of the borders with flourished scrolls of
penwork very neatly drawn and terminating in equally neat but extremely
fanciful flowers finely painted. It seems to have been brought at some
time from the neighbourhood of Milan, where a similar kind of initial
and exceedingly neat penmanship also is found in the choir books. Many
South German choir books are similarly ornamented, so that it is not
easy to say at once where the work was done. The Dutch illuminators,
however, may usually be recognised by the Netherlandish character of the
miniatures combined with neat and sometimes rigidly careful penmanship
in the scrolls and tendrils and a hardness in the outline of the
flowers. Sometimes the large initials are entirely produced by the pen,
the labyrinthine patterns in blue or vermilion being filled in with
circlets, loops, and other designs with infinite patience and excellent
effect. Some of the border scrolls are exceedingly pretty, and the
borders differ from Flemish in mixing natural flowers painted in thin
water-colours with the more conventional flowers painted with a
different medium, not in the later Flemish manner where the flowers are
frankly direct imitations of nature, and painted in the same medium as
the rest of the illumination.

[52] See _Messager des Sciences_, etc., 110, 1858, and Deshaines, _L'Art
Chrétien en Flandre_, 34 (Douai, 1860, 8°).

After the Maas-Eyck Evangeliary the work of these northern foundations
may well reckon either with the French or German schools until the
fifteenth century. Where otherwise they are not distinguishable, the
Netherlandish miniatures are usually such as prefer plain burnished gold
backgrounds to diapered ones, or have a plain deep blue paled towards
the horizon, and lastly replace the background by a natural, or what was
intended to be a natural, landscape. As a test between French or German
influence generally, the use of green shows the latter, that of blue the
former. Not that this was any æsthetic point of difference in taste, but
somehow the Germans had the green paint when the French had not, and so
they used it. It is an open question whether Flanders or Italy first
introduced the landscape background, but Flemish artists were so
numerous, so ubiquitous, that we can hardly say where they were not at
work--in France, Italy, or Spain. Plenty of so-called Spanish
illumination is really the work of Flemish craftsmen. This was largely
owing to the political conditions of the times. The Dukes of Burgundy
and the Austrian Archdukes both ruled over Flemish municipalities, and
employed the gildmen as their household "enlumineurs." And, of course,
the success of the Van Eycks, Rogier van der Weide (de la Pasture),
Derrick Bonts, and Hans Memling, stirred up the spirit of rivalry among
the illuminators. They all worked in the same minutely, careful manner,
and one could almost take a corporal oath on the identity of
illuminations and panels which are really the work of different artists.
Even yet the illuminations of the Grimani Breviary are attributed in
part to Hans Memling--and no wonder! Only the best qualified judges can
distinguish them. It is known that Gerard David of Oudewater, in
Holland, a master painter, belonged also to the gild of miniaturists.
But no miniatures are known to be from the hands of either Ian, or
Hubert, or Marguerite van Eyck, or Hans Memling. The supposed
identifications are merely guesses. But while this is so there is still
no lack of illuminators, not to mention the illustrious few who were
employed by the brothers of Charles V., King of France; and when we come
to the days of his grandson, Philip of Burgundy (1419-67), we might name
quite a crowd of distinguished illuminators. From 1422 to 1425 Ian van
Eyck was "varlet de chamber" to Duke John of Bavaria, first bishop of
Liége, and Regent of Luxembourg, Holland, and Brabant. In 1425 he passed
into the service of Philip. He died in 1440. In court service there were
besides, Jean de Bruges, David Aubert, Jean Mielot, Jean Wanguelin,
Loyset Lyeder, and others connected more or less closely with the Maas
valley and the province of Limburg. This valley seems to have been the
cradle of Netherlandish miniature art. It is from this neighbourhood
that Paris was supplied with craftsmen in the days of the brilliant if
reckless administration of the uncles of Philip the Good. There were
schools of illuminating artists in Maestricht and Liége, and within a
very brief period the style of the Netherlander surpassed that of all
competitors for facility, clearness, and realism. A marked feature in
this mastery is the free use of architectural and sculptural design. All
Gothic draperies are in some degree sculpturesque, and in miniatures we
find sculpture to be the ruling principle. Perhaps it was the practice
of uniting the crafts of painter and "imagier" in one person that
fostered this peculiarity. But certain it is that Netherlandish
illumination, in its border foliages, after the taste for the larger
vine and acanthus leaf had superseded the ivy, the drawing is studiously
sculpturesque. Many of the Gantois borders are like undercut wood
carvings. Even as to colour we find either the gilded wood brown or the
stone grey, quite as frequently as gayer colours, and much more so than
any natural green. The after-fashion for grisailles or _camaieu gris_
has reference probably rather to stained glass than to carving. Before
the fifteenth century we do not often meet with individual illuminators
by name, but in the Limburg Chronicle under 1380 is this entry: "There
was at this time in Cologne a celebrated painter (he was probably a
native of Herle in Limburg), the like of whom was not in the whole of
Christendom," and more to his praise. His name was Wilhelm. In the
municipal expense book, under 1370-90, page 12, is written, "To Master
Wilhelm for painting the Oath Book, 9 marks." The Oath Book still
exists, but unfortunately the miniature has been cut out.[53]

[53] Woltmann, _Hist. of Painting_, Eng. transl., i. p. 412.

Of course, it may be expected that some of the best examples of
Netherlandish illumination are to be found in the Royal Library at
Brussels. The _Bibliothéque de Bourgogne_, as it is called, contains,
indeed, a great number of them. Some, of course, may be classed as
Burgundian. There are, for instance, the grand "Chroniques de Hainaut"
in three immense folio volumes, written from 1446 to 1449 (Nos. 9242-4).
Also Jean Mansel's "Fleur des Histoires" in three grand folios (Nos.
9231-3), written about 1475. The frontispiece to the "Chroniques" shows
the Duke Philip with his son the Count of Charolais receiving the work
from the author, perhaps the best illumination in all three volumes.

Another (9245), the Book of the Seven Sages of Rome, is an example of
the last quarter of the fourteenth century. Still another (9246), the
History of St. Graal, or of the Round Table, is dated 1480. A Missal and
Pontifical (9216, 9217) shows miniatures dating about 1475.

But other public libraries also possess admirable examples. The Imperial
Library at Vienna possesses a most masterly production in the fragments
of a folio Chronicle of Jerusalem (No. 2533), in which both figures and
architectural details are most delicately and minutely finished, so that
the miniatures form a most valuable treasury of costumes, armour, and
architecture, correctly drawn and exquisitely painted. The figure of
Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, shows the pointed toes which Anne of Bohemia
is said to have introduced into England. At Vienna, also, is the richly
illuminated History of Gérard de Roussillon in French (No. 2549). At
Paris we find the "Champion des Dames" (No. 12476). Round the first
miniature in this MS. are splendidly emblazoned the armorials of the
various countries and cities of his dominions--Burgundy, Brabant,
Flanders, Franche-Comté, Holland, Namur, Lower Lorraine, Luxembourg,
Artois, Hainaut, Zealand, Friesland, Malines, and Salins. On either side
are scenes from the story, and beneath a symbolical crown is the motto
of Philip's grandfather, Philip le Hardi, _aultre n'aray_. The same
motto appears in the Chronicle of Jerusalem at Vienna, and on the velvet
of the daïs of Isabella of Portugal, Philip's third consort.

It may be interesting to note, as a means of distinguishing these
Burgundian princes or their MSS., that the arms of Philip II. the Good
differ from those of his father, during the latter's lifetime, by having
in chief a label of three points, and from those of his grandfather,
Philip the Bold, by having an inescutcheon of pretence on the centre of
the arms of Margaret de Maele, first assumed by his father, John the
Fearless, that is, "or, a lion rpt. sa; for Flanders." As we have just
said, many of the MSS. claimed as Netherlandish may be classed as
Burgundian. The difference lies mainly in the miniatures. Where the
latter are manifestly French with the mixed Brugeois borders, they may
pass as Burgundian; but with similar borders yet distinguishably
Netherlandish, that is, broad-nosed, square-jawed, and excited faces as
compared with the finer features and placid expression of the French
artists, the work may still be Burgundian, but it will be also
Netherlandish. The individuality of Netherlandish illumination above
every other quality establishes its identity. Look at the expression of
the onlookers in a Crucifixion, or a Christ before Pilate, or a Stoning
of St. Stephen--the diabolical ferocity, the fiendish earnestness, the
downright intentional ugliness put on some of the characters are in
direct contrast to the sweet indifference, the calm complaisance, and
blank unconcern of a crowd as shown in similar scenes by French
illuminators.

[Illustration:
HORÆ
15TH CENT. (LATE)
_Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 17280. fol. 21_]

[Illustration:
VALERE MAXIME, TRAD. PAR SIMON DE HESDIN
15TH CENT. (LATE)
_Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 4375, fol. 68_]

We have seen something of the earlier kind of Netherlandish MSS. in
those already referred to. It now remains to take a rapid glance at a
few of the later ones, and here the difficulty is that of selection.

In 1484 Gerard David appears on the list of illuminators of Bruges,[54]
and it appears that he, and not Hans Memling, was the painter of those
marvellous miniatures in the Grimani Breviary at Venice usually
attributed to the latter, and therefore may be considered as one of the
founders of the school of Bruges, or at least of the later style that
may be referred to the Grimani Breviary as its most perfect example.
Executed in much the same manner is a Book of Offices in the British
Museum, containing portraits of Philip the Fair and his wife, the
unhappy Juana _la Loca_, son and daughter-in-law of the Emperor
Maximilian. Similar, again, are the "Offices of the Elector, Albert of
Brandenburg," possibly the work of the same artists who produced the
Grimani Breviary. There are also some fragments in a guard-book in the
British Museum (Add. 24098), which may compare with any of the preceding
examples. But perhaps to many book-lovers no better specimen of the
highest class of Netherlandish art could be more welcome or more
interesting than the celebrated copy of the "Roman de la Rose," also in
our great national collection (Harl. 4425). This justly famous MS. is a
real masterpiece in every department, whether we consider the expression
in its miniatures or the consummate technical skill displayed in the
drawing and colour of the borders. These secondary embellishments
consist of fruit, flowers, birds, beetles, and butterflies. But, of
course, the great interest of this book lies in its miniatures, scenes
from the poet's allegory, and in the little statuesque figures of the
various characters in the poem.

[54] Cf. his "Judgement of Cambyses" in the museum at Bruges.

Two marvellous little volumes there are in the National Museum at Munich
(861-2) which are surely unapproachable. One of the borders in 861
consists of the eyes of peacock feathers so absolutely perfect that we
can only wonder at its rainbow hues and pearly sheen of colour.
Something similar to it exists in a fragment (No. 4461) in the Victoria
and Albert Museum at South Kensington. The "Isabella Breviary" of the
British Museum (Add. 18851) ought not to pass unmentioned, but space
forbids us to add more on this inexhaustible topic. There is, however,
the class of work alluded to early in the chapter, and in that on French
work, which must be at least mentioned. We refer to what the Italians
call _chiaroscuro_ and the French _grisaille_; _i.e._ painting executed
in tones of grey, in which the lights are given in white or gold and the
backgrounds in rich blue. Occasionally the draperies and ornaments also
are touched with gold, and the flesh tints as in life. Grisaille is not
limited to Netherlandish illuminations. We find it both in French and
Italian, but perhaps it is among the Netherlandish books we meet with it
most frequently. Several examples are to be seen in the Royal Library at
Brussels, and there is at least one in the British Museum (Add. 24189).




CHAPTER IX

THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE

Communication with Italy--Renaissance not sudden--Origin of the schools
of France and Burgundy--Touraine and its art--Fouquet--Brentano
MSS.--"Versailles" Livy--Munich "Boccaccio," etc.--Perréal and
Bourdichon--"Hours of Anne of Brittany"--Poyet--The school of
Fontainebleau--Stained glass--Jean Cousin--Gouffier "Heures"--British
Museum Offices of Francis I.--Dinteville Offices--Paris "Heures de
Montmorency", "Heures de Dinteville," etc.


When the new ideas derived from the Italian revival first reached
France, it would be difficult to say. There must have been communication
with Italy going on the whole time that Cimabue and Giotto, Memmi and
the rest were astonishing their fellow-citizens with their divine
performances. The roads from Lyons, Poictiers, Dijon, and Paris were
well known, and frequently trodden by both artists and merchants as well
as by soldiers. The Renaissance, therefore, was no sudden convulsion.
Perhaps a very careful examination of some of our Burgundian MSS. might
reveal the presence of notions derived from Italian travel, for it is in
the details of ornament that we find the traces of a new movement, and
when the great change of style is clearly noticeable it is when the
habits of society themselves have been remodelled, and when the once
strange and foreign element has become a familiar guest.

In the fixing of schools and centres much is owing, of course, to the
residential choice of princes, on whose patronage depends the very
existence of art. This explains the schools of Bruges and Dijon, of
Paris and Tours, for while the earlier dukes of Burgundy and the earlier
kings of France had lived at Bruges and Paris, the later dukes had
preferred Dijon, and Louis XI., Charles VIII., and Louis XII. lived
mostly at Tours. So that while Dijon became the new centre of Burgundian
illumination, Tours became to the new movement from Italy what Paris had
been at the commencement of the Gothic period. Tours, in fact, became
the centre of the Renaissance. The influence of Dijon was on the wane,
Burgundy itself was going down. Michel Coulombe, the great Breton
sculptor, who had been trained at Dijon, left it for Tours, and probably
illuminators and other artists followed his example. As we know from
examples, the Burgundian art of Dijon had the Flemish stamp strongly
marked--the Flemish artists had a way of making strong impressions.

Tours, on the other hand, had had an entirely different training. The
artists of Touraine had no shadow of Flemish influence in their
practice. Their sculptures, enamels, colour-scheme were of another bias.
Their stamp came from Italy, and if not so deep as that of Flanders or
Dijon, it was equally inevitable and more permanent.

The first name that we meet with among the illuminators of Touraine who
are expressly connected with the Renaissance is that of Jean Fouquet. Of
his origin or training nothing seems to be known, but he was born
probably about 1415. He must have acquired distinction even as a youth,
for some twenty-five years afterwards (1440-3) he was invited to Rome to
paint the portrait of Pope Eugenius IV., and he stayed in Italy until
1447. On his return to France he was made _valet de chambre_ and painter
to Charles VII. at Tours, and continued in the same office under Louis
XI. It was part of the business of the _paintre du roy_ to design and
provide decorations and costumes, banners and devices for all state
ceremonies, and this became Fouquet's duty at the funeral of Charles
VII., and when Louis instituted the Order of St. Michel in 1470, and the
last trace of him as an artist occurs about 1477. His sons, Louis and
Francis, were both painters, and, like himself, worked much at the
illumination of books. It is curious that this great master--one of the
greatest miniaturists of any school, and one of the founders of the
French school of painting--became entirely forgotten until the discovery
of some fragments of a Book of Hours painted for Estienne Chevalier, the
King's treasurer.

Forty miniatures of the most masterly description came into the hands of
M. Louis Brentano-Laroche, of Frankfort-on-the-Maine. Their uncommon
excellence led to a most diligent search for information respecting the
artist, which resulted in the unearthing of many other examples of his
unequalled pencil. We now know of a dozen most precious examples.
Besides the Brentano miniatures, two other fragments of the same Book of
Hours have been found, and several large and important MSS. Among these
we may name the "Antiquities of the Jews," by Josephus, in the National
Library at Paris (MSS. Des. 6891), and a Book of Hours, executed for
Marie de Clève, widow of Charles Duke of Orleans, in 1472. Attributed to
him are the "Versailles" Livy (Nat. Lib., Paris, 6907); the "Sorbonne"
Livy (fds. de Sorb. 297). A Livy in the public library at Tours also
passes under his name, and the famous "Boccaccio" of Estienne Chevalier
at Munich, containing ninety miniatures, is also confidently assigned to
him. Other MSS. that are imputed to him are probably the work of his
sons or scholars.

The Paris Josephus is generally considered his masterpiece. The volume
(which contains only the first fourteen books) is in folio, written most
beautifully in two columns, and is adorned with miniatures, vignettes,
and initials, but much of its interest lies in the note at the end,
placed there by Robortet, secretary to the Due de Bourbon: "En ce livre
a douze ystoires les troys premieres de l'enlumineur du duc Jehan de
Berry, et les neuf de la main du bon paintre et enlumineur du roy Loys
XIe Jehan Foucquet, natif de Tours." And we gather from another note
that the book had been entrusted to Fouquet for completion by Jacques
d'Armagnac duc de Nemours. A further note informs us that the book
belonged to the Duc de Bourbon. It seems to have been one of the rich
presents made by the Due de Berry to Jacques de Nemours. The first three
miniatures are by the illuminator of the Duc de Berry, and this artist
was probably Andrieu Beauneveu, though other illuminators did work for
him, as Jacques de Hesdin and Pol de Limbourg. The fourth miniature is
by Fouquet, and represents a battle; the rest to the seventh are either
not his best work or else the work of his pupils, but the seventh on
folio 135 gives us a good idea of Fouquet at his best. It represents
David receiving with his crown the news of the death of Saul. The
eighth, ninth, and tenth are very fine, but the eleventh M. Paulin Paris
(MSS. du Roy) thinks the most beautiful of all. Its subject is the
clemency of Cyrus towards the captive Jews in Babylon.[55] Of the other
MSS. space forbids us reluctantly to forego description.

[55] See Mrs. Mark Pattison's (Lady Dilke) _The Renaissance in France_,
i. 273, etc.; Bradley, _Dict. of Miniaturists_ art. "Fouquet," i. 346.

The characteristics of the school of Tours as seen in the work of the
greatest of its expositors is (1) The clearly marked influence of Italy
and the antique. (2) A masterly understanding of French landscape (see
fine instances of this understanding also in "Trésor des Histoires," now
in the British Museum, Cott., Aug. 5). (3) A complete freedom from
Gothic influence and from the domination of the school of Bruges. The
colours for which Fouquet seems to have a preference are, first, a clear
orange-vermilion, supported by golden brown and gold, clear blue and
green, lemon-yellow; and then, as a contrast, grey of various tones in
walls and buildings, soft landscape greens, and aërial tints of distance
and sky. Perhaps the technical skill of Fouquet has never been
surpassed. It is so perfect that some have tried to explain it by
supposing that he was trained in a Flemish studio. His sons and pupils
continued his methods, and thus while Paris remains under the influence
of Flemish masters, Tours was carrying forward a quite different type of
traditions.

The Valerius Maximus (Harl. 4374) of the British Museum will give an
idea of the later Paris school. Its date is about the end of the
fifteenth century.

We ought not in this place to forget the influence brought into French
art through the marriage of the murdered Duke of Orleans with Valentina
of Milan, not only directly through books and artists, but by the
hereditary transmission of that love of art and beautiful things for
which Valentina and her family were well known. It was in art, letters,
and books that the widowed princess sought such consolation as was
possible.[56] In her best days she had united in herself a seductive
grace of carriage, beauty of person, and dignity of rank, which made her
the ornament of the French Court. She was almost the only one about the
unfortunate Charles VI. who could influence him in his moments of mental
aberration. Coming from the luxury of the most splendid court in Italy,
she brought into France the most refined taste in matters connected with
the arts. The inventory of her jewels at the time of her marriage
includes three Books of Hours, three German MSS., and a volume called
_Mandavilla_. Like her husband she was an employer both of copyists and
illuminators, and before her death had collected at her Castle of Blois
a very fine collection of beautiful books.

[56] She assumed as her impresa the _chantepleure_, with the sorrowful
motto: "Plus ne m'est rien: rien ne m'est plus."

Her son Charles, the poet, inherited her tastes, and added to her
collections. We are not surprised, therefore, to find her grandson
Louis, afterwards Louis XII., supporting the great artistic movement
which he and his Queen Anne of Brittany helped so effectually to
identify with the Court of France.

About the time that we hear the last of Fouquet we have the earliest
notices of another illuminator who plays an important part in the
illuminations executed for Anne of Brittany, the noble and gifted Queen
of France, and wife, first of Charles VIII. and then of his successor,
Louis XII.

In 1472 Jean Perréal is entrusted with the glass paintings of the
Carmelite church at Tours. Lemaire, in his _Légende des Vénitiens_,
calls him a second Zeuxis or Apelles. During the reigns of Charles VIII.
and Louis XII. he is the chief artist of the time: In 1491, and perhaps
earlier, he is engaged in the usual duties of a _valet de chambre_,
_i.e._ designing and preparing the requisite devises, arms, and banners
for public functions. In 1502 he went to Italy. In 1509 his name occurs
in connection with that of Jean Bourdichon, of whom we shall hear more
when we come to the work done for the Queen. In 1523 in the household of
Francis I. he is still _valet de chambre_. Twenty-four years previously
it was as _valet de chambre_ that he prepared the decorations for Louis
XII.'s entry into Lyons. On the death of Anne of Brittany also he
performed similar duties, and again on that of Louis XII. He even came
to England in 1514, sent by Louis XII., to superintend the trousseau of
Mary Tudor, "pour aider à dresser le dict appareil à la mode de France,"
previous to her wedding journey to Paris.[57] Four months afterwards he
was summoned to direct the funeral obsequies of Louis himself. No
illuminated work can be really identified as the work of Perréal, but
Mrs. Patteson (Lady Dilke) strongly urges the probability that he
painted the _Bible Historiée_ of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,
bequeathed by General Oglethorpe.[58] She considers it quite the sort of
work that would grow out of that of Fouquet, and dwells upon the fact of
his official duties as _valet de chambre_ giving him just that minute
facility in the decoration of armour and furniture in the miniatures
which the MS. displays. Whether this be so or not, it is certain that
the _Bible Historiée_ is a fine example of the school of Tours.

[57] See Vespas, b. 2 (Brit. Mus.).

[58] See her _Renaissance of Art in France_, i. 303.

Another court painter and _valet de chambre_ to Louis XI. and his
successors was Jean Bourdichon, an artist born at Tours in 1457, and
therefore as a youth probably one of the scholars in the atelier of Jean
Fouquet. He is first noticed in the accounts in or about 1478: "A Jehan
Bourdichon, paintre, la somme de vingt livres dix sept solz ung denier
tournois pour avoir paint le tabernacle fait pour la chapelle du Plessis
du Pare, de fin or et d'azur."[59] Later on, after naming the painting of
a statute of St. Martin, for which he received twenty golden crowns, is
a note of his painting a MS., which we translate: "To the said
Bourdichon for having had written a book in parchment named the
Papalist--the same illuminated in gold and azure and made in the same 19
rich histories (miniatures) and for getting it bound and covered, thirty
crowns of gold. For this by virtue of the said order of the King and by
quittance of the abovenamed written the 5th April One thousand four
hundred and eighty (milcccciiiixx) after Easter, here rendered the sum
of £19 1. 8."

[59] Comptes de l'Hôtel de Louis XI., 1478-81.

Another quittance shows him to have been employed on the decorations of
the château of Plessis les Tours. We may easily see how it is that these
artists, when they came to illuminate the books entrusted to them, had
such special knowledge of embroideries and decoration of armour when we
read in the accounts how they were constantly employed in designing
dresses for weddings, tournaments, and funeral obsequies, and making
"patterns for the dress and equipment of war."

A notice in 1508 tells us that Anne of Brittany made an order of payment
to Bourdichon of 1,050 _livres tournois_ for having "richly and
sumptuously historiated and illuminated a great Book of Hours for our
use and service to which he has given and employed much time, and also
on behalf of other services which he has rendered hitherto." This refers
to the celebrated "Hours of Anne of Brittany," now in the National
Library at Paris.

This volume, peerless of its kind, has been reproduced in colour
lithography by Curmer of Paris--the result, however, is disappointing
from the flat and faded look of the prints as compared with the
brilliancy of the original pages. The MS. is an invaluable monument of
French Renaissance illumination. It is French of Touraine rather than of
Paris, yet bearing traces in its flowers and fruit borders of Flemish
modes of ornament. It has also reminiscences of Italian painting. But
the French neatness and restraint from over-decoration have kept it in a
manner unique. It has not quite the softness of Italian, and is far from
the intensity of Flemish. Indeed, its fault, if it be faulty, is in its
want of force. With the exception of Anne's own portrait given with her
patrons, St. Anne, St. Helena, and St. Ursula. The Queen's gown is of
brown gold brocade trimmed with dark brown fur. Her hair is brown, like
the fur. She wears a necklace of gems set in gold. On her head is a
black hood edged with gold and jewels, beneath which and next her face
is a border of crimped white muslin, She has brown eyes and finely
pencilled eyebrows. As to nose and mouth, she and the two younger saints
are pretty much alike. With the allowance of blue for black, St. Anne
wears the dress of a Benedictine abbess. A dark crimson cloth covers a
table before which the Queen is kneeling, and on which lies open a
finely illuminated Service-book. The Calendar which follows this
portrait is for each month enclosed in a margin of ornament. To the
outer margin of every other page of the book is placed a broad tablet or
pilaster containing flowers, fruits, insects, etc., from five to six
inches high, each having the Latin name of the plant, etc., at top in
red, and the French one in red or blue at the bottom. These names may
have been put in later. It must be admitted that the fruits, flowers,
and insects are painted with the greatest care and neatness, though
sometimes a little assisted by the imagination of the painter. The text
and initials are rather heavy and commonplace. Now and then a border
surrounds the text completely, where flowers or fruits are
scattered--somewhat recklessly at times, but usually with good
design--over a ground of plain gold, on which the branches, etc., cast
heavy shadows. This part of the design is certainly Flemish. Where
"histories" occur the border is a plain brown gilt frame within a black
border. Undoubtedly the "Hours of Anne of Brittany" is a very precious
volume. The figure subjects are of various degrees of excellence. The
four evangelists are vivid, and recall the portraits of Ghirlandaio, and
it is to Italy also that the illuminator is indebted for his
architectural and sculptural details. Yet Bourdichon is inferior to
Fouquet in colouring, as the latter is to the Italians in design and
composition. Perhaps he is most successful in his flowers and insects.
"Nothing," said Muntz, "is less like the elegant foliages of Ghirlandaio
and Attavante, and nothing is more worthy of being put in comparison
with them."[60]

[60] _La Renaissance en Italie, etc_., 547-8.

An illuminator of the name of Jehan Poyet is said to have assisted in
the "Hours," thus while Bourdichon painted the miniatures, Poyet put in
the flowers and fruit, etc.; but this share of work is by some believed
to belong to a smaller Book of Hours executed for the Queen. Flowers and
fruit are said to have been Poyet's speciality, and it is quite possible
that he may have had the painting of the borders of the "Grandes
Heures," while Bourdichon did the rest. The writer of the MS. was
another native of Tours, named Jehan Riveron. During the reign of
Francis I. the school of Tours was removed to Paris because the Court
had settled there. Louis XII. had died in the Hôtel des Tournelles, and
Francis, though full of plans for _plaisances_ elsewhere, lived mostly
in Paris. Fontainebleau is the dream of the near future. Il Rosso, the
Italian architect, painter, poet, and musician, was busy there amid a
crowd of other artists from Florence and Rome--the refuse of a once
brilliant sodality. It was the frivolous, pretty, graceful side of
Italian art that came northward in that great migration--the graver and
more dignified elements were left behind. To see what Italian art became
in France, we have only to enter the Grand Gallery at Fontainebleau, and
we see it at its best in architecture, sculpture, and painting. And we
cannot help admiring it, for it is amazingly beautiful. Yet it is not
Italian--the Italian of the Medici and Farnese palaces. Il Rosso was
neither a Michelangelo nor a Carracci; but he set a fashion. He changed
the face of art for France. Nor was it in painting and sculpture only.
The Italian passion for devises, anagrams, emblems, and mottoes became
the rage in Paris. It first came in with the return of Charles VIII.
from his Neapolitan campaign. Louis XII. adopted the hedgehog or
porcupine, with the motto "Cominus et eminus." His Queen Claude's motto
was "Candida candidis." The Princess Marguerite's emblem was a marigold
or heliotrope; others assigned her the daisy. Her motto: "Non inferiora
secutus." The well-known emblem of Francis was a salamander--why, is a
mystery--with the motto, "Nutrisco et extinguo." All this entered into
the taste of the illuminator, and elegant cartouche frames--probably of
Dutch origin, as we see in the old map-books of Ortelius Cluverius and
Bleau, imported by Ortelius and his friends into Italy, and made use of
by Clovis, and thence transferred to France--were made into
border-frames for miniatures, varied with altar-forms, doorways, and
other fanciful frameworks from the new architecture decorated with
flowers, ribbons, panels, mottoes. Another new thing, too, no doubt
afforded plenty of suggestion to the illuminator. This was stained
glass. Jean Cousin was in his glory in glass-painting; Robert Pinagrier
also. But it was Cousin who adopted the new Italian ideas, and whose
works were models for the illuminator. In the backgrounds and details of
his glass-paintings at Sens, Fleurigny, Paris, and elsewhere, we may
trace his progress; and an excellent model, too, was Jean Cousin. He has
other claims to remembrance in sculpture, engraving, authorship, but it
is as the glass-painter that his influence is seen in illumination.
Indeed, Mr. A.F. Didot strongly urged the probability that Cousin was
himself the illuminator of the splendid Breviary or Hours of Claude
Gouffier.[61] The drawing is in his best manner, the frame-border of
_caryatides_ in camaieu is of a richness of ornamentation in keeping
with the rest of the volume. The arms and motto of Gouffier are painted
in it. It is objected that Cousin's name does not appear in the Gouffier
account-books, while those of other artists are given. But only a
portion of the accounts is extant. Cousin may, perhaps, only have
designed the book, and the other miniaturists carried out his designs.
At any rate, the accounts give us the names of three miniaturists which
we may here record--Jean Lemaire, of Paris (1555), Charles Jourdain, and
Geoffroy Ballin (1359). These "enlumineurs" are stated to have decorated
two Books of Hours for Gouffier's wedding. As a good example of the
style employed in the decoration of title-pages, we may quote the
chimney-piece of the Château d'Anet, executed for Diane de Poitiers,
where a sculptured marble frame surrounds a painted landscape. Many of
the books of the time of Francis I. and Henry II. are ornamented in this
style.

[61] Now belonging to M. le Vicomte de Tanzé.

In the British Museum are several fine MSS. illustrative of this period
of French illumination, viz. Add. 18853, 18854, and 18855. These three
MSS. formed part of the purchase which included the Bedford Offices.
18853 is a Book of Offices executed apparently for Francis I. In some of
the borders is a large F with the _Cordelière_ of the third Order of St.
Francis and a rayed crown, and on folio 97 v. a large monogram
consisting of the letter F, with two crossed sceptres and palm branches,
surmounted by the crown-royal of France.

Nothing is known of the history of the MS. from 1547 to 1723, when it
was in possession of the Regent Philippe d'Orléans. Possibly it had
remained as an heirloom in the family. Philippe gave it to his natural
son the Abbé Rothelin, a great lover of rare books and a noted
collector, at whose death it was bought by Gaignat, another collector,
who sold it to the Duc de la Vallière, and so, step by step, it came at
length to Sir John Tobin, of Liverpool, and thence to the British
Museum.

The partly sculpturesque character of the border-frames are of the kind
just referred to, with festoons and garlands of flowers, and drapery,
monograms, and emblems in full rich colours; the architecture and other
ornaments sometimes finished with pencillings of gold. The miniatures
are of excellent design and colour, finely modelled, and quite in the
manner of the paintings of Fontainebleau. The text is a combination of
Jarry-like Roman with italic. It may be compared with 18854, similar in
some respects, but the smaller miniatures and the frames look more like
the older school of Tours. This MS. is also a Book of Offices, and was
written for François de Dinteville, Bishop of Auxerre, in 1525, as
appears from an inscription in gold letters on fol. 26 v.

[Illustration:
OFFICM. B. MARIÆ VIRGINES
C. 1530
_Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 18853, fol. 52_]

[Illustration:
OFFICM. MORTUORUM.
16TH CENT. (EARLY)
_Brit. Mus. Egert. MS. 2125, fol. 183_]

Some of the border-frames are drawn in sepia, others in red-brown or
burnt siena, and highly finished with gold. The writing is a small Roman
hand. On the whole it is richer in illustration than 18853, but not so
perfect in drawing, yet it is a very fine MS. Sometimes it has a border
like those in the "Hours of Anne of Brittany." On fol. 26 v. is a
curious border of twisted ribbons covered with mottoes, such as
"Virtutis fortuna comes", "Ingrates servire nephas," etc.

Some of the tiny miniatures of the saints in the _Memoriæ_ are very
charmingly painted: St. Mary Magdalene, for instance, on fol. 147 v. The
pillar architecture of some of the borders, with pendant festoons of
flowers, is also very handsome.

18855, folio, is a Book of Offices written in a Gothic text. The
miniatures are large full-page paintings within architectural frames or
porches, with coloured pillars or pilasters with panels of rich blue,
covered with golden traceries, bronze gold pendants at side,--occasional
borders as in the "Hours of Anne of Brittany." The work is of the older
school of Tours, but loaded with ornamental details from North Italian
pilaster-work. Among the best miniatures are the Nativity (34 v.), the
Adoration of the Magi (42 v.), and the Bathsheba. The last perhaps a
little too open a scene for a lady's bathroom, but placed within a most
gorgeous architectural window or doorway (fol. 62 v). Compare also Harl.
5925, No. 574, for a title-page of French Renaissance style from a
printed book, which suggests Venice as the source of the style of 18853.


In the National Library at Paris are, of course, a number of this class
of MSS., such as the Offices (MS. Lat. 10563), "Officium Beatæ Mariæ
Virginis ad usum Romanor" (1531), or the exquisitely painted "Heures de
Henry 2d" (fds. Lat. 1429), or the magnificent "Epistres d'Ovide" of
Louisa of Savoy (fds. fr. 875), and others.

By no means of less importance we may cite the beautiful volume
belonging to the late Comte d'Haussonville, now in the Musée Condé at
Chantilly, called the "Heures du Connétable Anne de Montmorency," and
the "Heures de Dinteville" (MS. Lat. 10558), the decoration of which is
quite on a par with the "Heures de Montmorency," or those of Henry II.,
also the Psalter of Claude Gouffier (Arsenal Lib., 5095), containing the
Psalms of Marot.

It is scarcely worth while to carry the subject further. What is done
later than Francis II. does not grow finer or better: it only becomes
more overloaded with ornament, too much gold, too much richness. Even
foliages are often variegated like pearls, or change gradually from
colour to colour on the same sweep of acanthus as in a MS. in the
British Museum attributed to Pierre Mignard ("Sol Gallicus," Add.
23745). Compare also the "Heures de Louis XIV." Now and then an
exceptional work, like that of D'Eaubonne at Rouen, belongs to no
particular school.




CHAPTER X

SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE ILLUMINATION

Late period of Spanish illumination--Isidore of Seville--Archives at
Madrid--Barcelona--Toledo--Madrid--Choir-books of the Escorial--Philip
II.--Illuminators of the choir-books--The size and beauty of the
volumes--Fray Andrés de Leon and other artists--Italian
influence--Giovanni Battista Scorza of Genoa--Antonio de Holanda,
well-known Portuguese miniaturist in sixteenth century--His son
Francesco--The choir-books at Belem--French invasion--Missal of
Gonçalvez--Sandoval Genealogies--Portuguese Genealogies in British
Museum--The Stowe Missal of John III.


Since all the best and best-known work of Spanish or Portuguese
illuminators was executed in the sixteenth century, and is manifestly a
reflection with peculiar mannerisms of either Flemish or Italian
illumination of the same period, it may seem almost superfluous to
devote a separate chapter to the subject. Yet there is a goodly list of
both Spanish and Portuguese artists who practised the art of
illumination.

So early as the time of Isidore of Seville we find notices of libraries,
copyists, and the like (see book iv. of his Encyclopædia), and an able
writer of the last century, Don José Maria de Eguren, published a work
on the MS. rarities of Spain.[62] The most important of the miniatures in
the famous Codex Vigilano are also reproduced in "El Museo Español de
antiguedades," most interesting respecting the calligraphy and miniature
art of the eleventh century.

[62] _Memoria de los Codices notables conservados en los archivos
ecleseasticos de Espana_. Madrid, 1859, L. 8°.

One of the earliest instances of royal patronage bestowed on painting in
Spain is a document in the Royal Library at Madrid, containing the
expenses of King Sanchez IV. in 1291-2. Thus "to Rodrigo Esteban,
painter of the king for many paintings done by the king's orders in the
bishop's palace 100 golden maravedis." Again, in the archives at
Barcelona we find that Juan Cesilles, painter of history, was engaged
16th March, 1382, to paint the "History of the twelve apostles for the
grand altar of the Church at Reps for 330 florins." In 1339 one Gonzalez
Ferran had some reputation both as a wood engraver and a painter. He was
probably a miniaturist. In 1340-81, Garcia Martinez, a Spanish
illuminator, worked at Avignon. A copy of the Decretals, dated 1381, in
the Cathedral Library of Seville is by his hand.

In the fifteenth century we have many notices of painters, especially in
Toledo, whither the taste was in all likelihood brought from Naples
after the conquest of that kingdom by Alphonso V. of Aragon in 1441.

It has been observed by those familiar with native Spanish art that its
chief characteristic is that it is gloomy. This may be so, but it is not
fairly chargeable to the artists but to the tyranny of the Spanish
Inquisidor, who laid the embargo on the illuminator that he should not
follow the wicked gaiety of the Italians, nor the sometimes too
realistic veracity of the Flemings. This accounts usually for
backgrounds of black where the Fleming would have had rich colour or
gold for the prevalence of black in the draperies and for the sombre
tone in general of Spanish painting. It is not always in evidence, as
may be seen in many of the miniatures of the famous choir-books in the
Escorial. The sombre period began under Ferdinand the Catholic, and it
has left its mark on the schools of the fifteenth century. The sixteenth
began a new era, and under Philip II. several, both Netherlandish and
Italian, miniaturists were invited to assist in the production of the
enormous choir-books ordered by the King for San Lorenzo of the
Escorial, between 1572 and 1589. The volumes are bound in wooden boards
covered with leather, stamped and bossed with ornaments of gilded
bronze. It is said that 5,500 lbs. of bronze and 40 lbs. of pure gold
were used in the bindings. The actual dimensions of the volumes are 115
by 84 centimetres. Every volume has at least seventy folios, and every
folio is splendidly illuminated, thus affording more than 30,000 pages
covered with richly ornamented initials, miniatures, and borders. The
illuminators and copyists of these choir-books were Cristobal Ramirez,
who planned the work, fixed the size and other details of the volumes
and the character of the handwriting, Fray Andrés de Leon, Fray Julian
de Fuente del Saz, Ambrosio Salazar, Fray Martin de Palencia, Francisco
Hernandez, Pedro Salavarte, and Pedro Gomez. Ramirez was engaged at the
Escorial from 1566 to 1572. In the latter year he presented a Breviary
with musical notation to the King, and was then engaged for the great
undertaking mentioned above.

Andrés Cristobal was also an illuminator of note at Seville, where he
worked from 1555 to 1559. Andrés de Leon worked at the Escorial from
1568, and is especially mentioned by Los Santos in his well-known
description of the monastery of San Lorenzo: "Son de gran numero y
excelencia las iluminaciones que tienen de mano nuestro Fray Andrés de
Leon, que fue otro Don Julio en el Arte."[63] The allusion is to the
celebrated Don Giulio Clovio, then in the height of his fame in Italy.
Fray Julian received similar praise for a _capitolario_ for the
principal festivals of the year, especially for the grand dimensions of
the miniatures, the like of which the writer says had never been seen
before, either in Spain or Italy. Andrés de Leon died at the Escorial in
1580. Salazar continued working on them till they were completed, and in
1590 went to Toledo, where he finished two Missals for the Cathedral,
which had been begun by the famous Juan Martinez de los Corrales. He was
still engaged on similar work until his death in 1604. Two other
illuminators, Esteban and Julian de Salazar, were working at the
Escorial in 1585. Bermudez[64] mentions Fray Martin de Palencia as having
executed a volume in a fine handwriting and with beautiful miniatures
for the monastery of Saso. Thus we see there were numerous miniaturists
in Spain in the latest years of the existence of the art that had been
imported chiefly from Italy.

[63] Fr. Francisco de los Santos, _Description breve del Monasterio de S.
Lorenzo el Real del Escorial_, 24.

[64] Diccionario, iv. 24.

After most of these great choir-books had been finished there were still
others in progress. In 1583 Giovanni Battista Scorza of Genoa, who is
celebrated in the "Galleria" of the Cavaliero Marini, was invited by the
King to take part in his great choir-book scheme. Scorza was then
thirty-six years of age, and in the height of his reputation as a
painter of small animals and insects. After a little time he returned to
Genoa, where he lived to be ninety years old. He had a brother,
Sinibaldo, who was equally skilful in miniature, and especially in
scenes from history. The Scorzas were pupils of Luca Cambiaso. It may be
noticed that all this work in miniature, although so late in its own
history, is accomplished before the greatest names in Spanish painting
are known. Josefo Ribera was born in 1588; Zurbaran in 1598; Velasquez
in 1599; Alonzo Cano in 1601; Murillo in 1617. This, in a sense, is the
natural course of things, as, generally, illumination has preceded the
other kinds of painting.

With regard to Portugal, very little is recorded that does not in some
way connect itself with Spain. So we find that Antonio and Francesco de
Holanda, seemingly of Netherlandish origin, are mentioned in relation to
the books illuminated for the Royal Monastery of Thomar; Francesco also
worked for the monastery of Belem. Francesco de Holanda was a great
admirer and imitator of Clovio, but he always insisted that his father
Antonio was the inventor of the method of "stippling," as the finishing
with minute points of colour is technically called, which was brought to
such perfection by Clovio and his scholars and imitators.

Taken altogether, the work of the Spanish illuminators at the Escorial
and those of Toledo and Seville is really the same, with just the
variations we might expect from pupils and imitators, as that of their
masters in Genoa, Rome, Venice, or Bruges. Examples of it may be seen
occasionally in diplomas, such as are found in the British Museum and
other public libraries, as, _e.g._ Claud. B. x. Lansd. 189, Add. 12214,
18191, 27231, etc.

In 1572, the same year in which Luiz de Camoens published his Lusiades,
an accomplished calligrapher, Miguel Barata, published an elaborate
treatise on his own art, then in high repute.

In the fourteenth century the Cancioniero of Don Pedro Affonso Ct. de
Barcellos affords an example of the calligraphy (for which Spain and
Portugal have always been famous) and illumination which is precious for
the student. It is still in existence in the Palace of Ajuda. Its date
is 1320-40. And there are MSS. in the Torre do Tombo of Lisbon that are
richly illuminated. Again, in Seville there is the "Juego de las
Tablas," executed under Alphonso the Wise in 1283, with its Gothic
arcades and ornaments. M. Joaquin de Vasconcellas has made a study of
this MS. The miniatures of the Torre do Tombo of the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries are mostly of the French school.

About 1428 33 was executed a splendid MS. entitled "Leal Conselheiro,"
which is attributed to a famous miniaturist in his time named Vasco. It
is, however, simply a monument of penmanship, as it contains no
miniatures. The MS. has been edited by L'Abbé Roquete in 1842. The
Portuguese MSS. of the fifteenth century betray a decided Flemish
influence, as well they may, for probably the producers of them were
Flemings. Constant intercourse with the Court of Burgundy had something
to do with this.

The "Chronica do descobrimento e conquista de Guiné," now at Torre do
Tombo, is clearly a Flemish work. It was begun about 1440, and finished
in 1453. The portrait of the Enfante Don Henrique, called the Navigator,
is set in a border evidently by a pupil or imitator of J. Van Eyck. The
calligraphy of the MS. is most beautiful. This influence of the
Netherlands on Portuguese art is, indeed, confirmed by the political
diplomatic relations of the fifteenth century, and is of some importance
in the history of art. We shall refer again to this matter when dealing
with another MS.

Among all the calligraphic monuments of Portugal it is claimed that the
most splendid is the "Bible of the Hieronymites." (See _Revista
universal Lisbonense_, 1848, pp. 24-8.) This work, it is said, was a
present from the Court of Rome to Emanuel, successor of John II., in
remembrance of the homage made to the Holy See, of the first gold
brought from the Indies, but the story is very doubtful. The King, in
bequeathing the seven volumes to the convent of Belem, says nothing
about such an origin. They are manifestly in great part the work of
foreign artists. One well-known miniaturist, Antonio de Holanda, the
father of the better-known Francesco, took part in the work, and having
a good conceit of his own abilities (we shall probably hear of him
again), reserved an entire volume to himself in order to give proof of
them. The seven volumes which then were covered with crimson velvet and
silver bosses and enamels, are now simply bound in red morocco. In the
middle of each cover are the arms of Emanuel King of Portugal. Vols. v.
and vii. have those of Dona Isabel, his Spanish wife.

The initials and ornaments show that the art of Italy is freely mixed
with that of Portugal. Indeed, from the signatures in the volumes it is
seen that the work of the penman was Italian; vol. i. being written at
Ferrara by Sigismundo de Sigismundis, the well-known Italian
calligrapher, in 1495. The second volume, also finished in 1495, bears
the name of Alessandro Verazzano, another famous copyist, who wrote
several of the volumes illuminated by Attavante. Vol. iii. is dated
1496, and is unsigned. The next three volumes are also without
signature. Vol. vii. is the work of Antonio de Holanda, who from his
name appears to have been of Dutch descent. His work is certainly
excellent, and renders this volume a very precious monument of the art
of Portugal. He was the official herald of the King, and he and his son
Francesco gave their whole time to the practice of illumination. His
son's Memoirs give a most interesting account of his travels and
intercourse with Giulio Clovio and the other Italian artists whom he met
with in Rome.[65] For some years the Hieronymite Bible was in Paris,
having been brought thither by Marshal Junot, where it remained
unnoticed for several years. Being called for by the Portuguese
Government, Louis XVIII. paid 50,000 francs to the family of Junot, and
restored it to the monastery of Belem. A splendidly illuminated atlas by
an illuminator and cartographer named Fernando Vas Dourado was published
in the year of his death, 1571.

[65] See my Life of Clovio.

As an important example of what we may fairly call native art, we will
now briefly refer to the celebrated Missal of Estevam Gonçalvez Neto,
one of the productions of the busy second half of the sixteenth century.
The clever amateur who achieved this beautiful series of paintings, for
paintings they are, in addition to the writing and other ornamentation
of the MS., was descended from a noble family of Sêrem, in the parish of
Macinhata, forty-three leagues from Lisbon. He became Canon of Viseu,
and during his leisure, after this appointment, executed the Pontifical
Missal which bears his name. It is dedicated to Don Josè Manuel, of the
House of Tancos, Bishop of Viseu, afterwards of Coimbra, and lastly
Archbishop of Lisbon. This prelate gave the book to the Church of Viseu.
The original MS. was afterwards in the library of the Convent of Jesus,
and is now in the Academy of Sciences at Lisbon. Stephen Gonsalvez died
July 29th, 1627. The Missal is signed: "Steph. Glz. Abbas Sereicencis
fac. 1610." It has been very well reproduced in colours by Macia, of
Paris.

The "Genealogies of the House of Sandoval," written and painted in
Lisbon in 1612, is now in Paris. It is called "Genealogia universal de
la Nobilissima casa de Sandoval Ramo del Generoso tronco de los
soberanos Reyes de Castilla y Leon. Por Don Melchior de Teves del
Conseio Real de Castilla del Rey D? Philippe III."

At the foot of the page is written "Eduardus Caldiera Vlisspone
scripsit, Anno Dni MDCXII." This magnificent MS., which measures
forty-six by thirty centimetres, is numbered in the Catalogue of the
National Library as 10015. A grand frontispiece, formed of two columns
of the Composite Order, occupies the first page, representing a king in
royal robes and crown arresting the wheel of Fortune. Two lions
accompany the scene, and the motto of the picture is "Virtute duce non
comite Fortuna." Page 2 contains the various escutcheons of the family
of the Count of Lerma, for whom the book was written. It contains a
great number of portraits. A final instance of the influence, or rather
the inroad, of Flemish art in Portugal in the fifteenth century may be
shown in the MS. called the Portuguese Genealogies in the British
Museum.

The work consists of eleven large folio sheets separately mounted and
measuring eighteen by ten inches. It commences with a prologue, with the
arms of Portugal supported by two savages, having clubs and shields.
Outside the inner frame are three scenes: (1) wild animals in combat;
(2) a sea-nymph being rescued; (3) a fight among sylvan savages. Next
comes a series of portraits painted in the most finished and life-like
style, beginning with Dom Garcia F° del rey Abarca and Dona Constancia
on a fruitful tree with foliage, fruits, and birds, a cat, and other
things. The tree is an oak, beside it are apple and cherry trees. On the
oak are green acorns. The birds are very beautiful, the cat simply
perfect. These details recall the highly finished and lovely work of
Georg Hoefnagel on the great Missal at Vienna. Gothic brown-gold
architecture and three battle scenes complete the page.

Then follow the genealogical tables, and more portraits, the whole
showing the most patient and careful work. Letters on the borders of the
robes recall the same kind of ornament in the Grimani Breviary at
Venice. No one has been able to explain these curious inscriptions. In
the Grimani Breviary they were thought to be either Croatian or merely
ornament. Here they cannot well mean anything but decoration. The
portraits are fanciful but interesting mementoes of the period, and
include several personages noted in history.

The last MS. to be mentioned in this hasty sketch is one in the British
Museum (Stowe 597). It is a "Missale Romanum," and is said to have been
illuminated for John III. in 1557. It was once the property of the Abbé
Gamier, chaplain for near thirty years, of the French factory at Lisbon.
The binding is red morocco, and once had silver clasps.

It commences with a large mirror-like oval tablet, containing the title,
set between two pillars of pink-veined marble with bronze-gold capitals
and bases. The tablet is crimson with a violet-slate frame moulding of
egg and dart pattern. At foot are two Roman legionaries, one seated as
supporting the tablet, on each side. On folio 3 is the index in a
rose-wood panel and pale green frame. The peculiar forms of the frames
and the scroll-work on them are of the fantastic kind, differing from
Italian, which is characteristic both of Spanish and Portuguese
ornament. The chief colours are a bright emerald green and blue, with
ochre, gold, and crimson. The initials are still more fantastic--partly
human, partly plant or fish-form, sometimes sculptured ornament and
plant-forms combined--but all so sweetly painted and so delicately
finished as to be most attractive. The text is a fine and elegant Roman
minuscule interspersed with italic.

Here and there are exquisite little drawings of ecclesiastical utensils,
etc., but the everlasting variety among the quaint and fanciful initials
provides an unwearying fund of interest. Tiny birds of the loveliest
plumage sit among and beneath the limbs of the letters, or elegant
scrolls of pencilled gold cover the little coloured panels on which the
plain gold Roman initials are placed. Some of the larger initials are
very finely executed and contain full-length figures of saints, bishops,
or queens. One lovely initial B has a graceful girl simply clad in blue
tunic and pale yellow skirt with a silken coil of pale rose forming the
upper loop of the letter, the lower being formed of the curved body of a
green dragon. Her left hand lifts the silk-work, her right, hanging by
her side, holds a little golden pitcher. The whole is painted on a panel
of bright gold. Another (L) shows a peasant rushing laughingly, with a
hare slung over his shoulder, past the figure of a guardian terminus of
bronze. But the Missal should be seen to be properly understood, for
though in a general way it has a look of Italian influence, its
originality is beyond question.




CHAPTER XI

ILLUMINATION SINCE THE INVENTION OF PRINTING

The invention of printing--Its very slight effect on
illuminating--Preference by rich patrons for written books--Work
produced in various cities in the sixteenth century--Examples in German,
Italian, and other cities, and in various public libraries up to the
present time.


The art of printing, as the reading world has been frequently informed,
was invented in the fifteenth century, and undoubtedly had, to a
considerable extent, a destructive effect upon the craft of professional
copyists. But in the fifteenth century the art of the writer and that of
the illuminator had long been separate professions. There was no
particular reason, therefore, why the invention of printing should
interfere with the illuminator. As a matter of fact, it made little
difference. Nor, indeed, did printing entirely put a stop to the
professional career of the scribe. It was prophesied, before practical
experience of facts proved the contrary, that the invention of the
railway engine would abolish the horse. The printing-press did not
abolish the penman, but it certainly spoiled his trade. We have seen in
the course of the preceding chapters that it did not spoil the trade of
the illuminator. Nor was it quite owing to the fact that many printed
books were so adorned as to appear like illuminated MSS. More than one
wealthy patron absolutely declined to have anything to do with printed
books. The matter was too vulgar and too cheap. The last Duke of Urbino
was a prince of this lofty way of thinking, and scarcely a court in
Europe but continued to have MSS. produced as if no such thing as the
printing-press were known. How they were multiplied in Spain and France
we have seen in detail. We will now proceed to take a farewell look at
the German and Italian libraries, in order to see how the illustrious
presses of Mainz, Strassburg, Augsburg, Köln, Munich, Vienna, Venice,
Milan, Florence, and Rome affected the ateliers of the great schools of
illumination established in most of these cities. What do we find? In
point of fact, some of the richest, most magnificent books ever produced
by the illuminator, not only whilst the press was still a novelty, but
long after it had become perfectly familiar to everybody. For several of
the cities aforesaid we have the means of proof: thus for Mainz, at the
end of the superb copy of the Mazarine Bible, now at Paris, is the
following inscription: "Iste liber illuminatus, legatus and completus
est henricum Cremer vicari? ecclesie collegiate Sancti Stephani
Moguntini sub anno dni Melesimo quatring entesimo quinquagesimo Sexto,
festo assumptiois gloriose Virginis Marie. Deo gratias alleluya." This
was in 1456, the year before the first press was set up. In 1524 we have
two most splendidly illuminated MSS.--a Missal and a Prayer-book--executed by order of Albert of Brandenburg, Archbishop of
Mainz. Two richer examples of the German Renaissance cannot easily be
imagined. We cannot dilate upon them. We may, however, truly say that
together with very many other examples of illuminated work, both in
manuscripts and printed books, they show the art of the illuminator to be
no less splendid or elaborate after the invention of printing than it
was before.

On the last page of the Missal is written: "Ich Niklas Glockendon zu
Nurenberg hab dieses Bhuch illuminiert ond vollent im jar 1524."

The Prayer-book is similarly adorned with miniatures and brightly
coloured borders. On the cover is a copy of the Archbishop's portrait,
painted by Dürer, and on folio 1 is written by the Archbishop himself:
"Anno domini MDXXXI completum est presens opus, Sabbato post
'Invocavit.' Albertus Cardinalis moguntinus manu propria scripsit."

Other Glockendon books exist in other libraries. Then there is the Beham
Prayer-book at Aschaffenburg and a Bible in the library at Wolfenbüttel
in two thick 4° volumes--a work well worth examination. At Nuremberg is
the Service-book executed by Conrad Frankendorfer, of Nuremberg, in
1498.

In the British Museum is the fine German MS.--the Splendor Sous, a
sixteenth century MS. (Harl. 3469).

In the National Library at Paris is the Prayer-book of William of Baden
(10567-8) executed at Strassburg by Frederic Brentel in 1647.

Augsburg was producing illuminated Service-books ten years after Günther
Zainer had set up the press in that city.

Munich, also, with the Penitential Psalms, etc., by Hans Mielich.
Vienna, too, can show a magnificent Missal by Georg Hoefnagel, bearing
the dates 1582 to 1590. Venice is represented in the work of Benedetto
Bordone and the Ducali. Florence in the splendid Missals, etc., of
Attavante and his contemporaries.

Milan shows the gorgeous Graduals of the Brera belonging to the
sixteenth century and the Sforziadas of London and Paris. So we might
pass from city to city almost all over Western Europe. The great Spanish
choir-books were almost all produced under Philip II. Several Papal
Service-books are represented in the fifteenth-and sixteenth-century
examples of the scrap-book 21412 of the British Museum; and the works of
Clovio, the most noted of Italian illuminators, all belong to the
sixteenth century.

These instances are amply sufficient to prove that in every city in
Europe where printing was in full practice the art of the illuminator
continued to flourish until the progress of modern inventions and
various processes, added to the general cheapening of books, led to its
disuse. Its present application seems to be almost solely to diplomas
and testimonials, and in point of quality, usually as poor and
spiritless as the incapacity of most of its professors can make it.

There seems, however, no reason why the artistic skill and elaborate
methods of reproduction of the present day should not produce
magnificent books--indeed the "Imitation" of Thomas à Kempis, and other
continental examples prove that this is amply possible.

The next few years will probably show that readers are still desirous of
possessing beautiful books, and that artists are still found capable of
producing them.




MANUSCRIPTS THAT MAY BE CONSULTED AS EXAMPLES

(Partly taken by permission from the Victoria and Albert Museum
Handbook)

CLASSICAL AND EARLY CHRISTIAN

--+------------- +-------------------------+---------+---------------------
No|    Name.    |   Where    | Where Kept. |  Date.  |      Remarks.
  |             |  Produced. |             |         |
--+-------------+------------+-------------+---------+---------------------
 1|Vergil       |......      |Vatican Lib.,|3rd or   |Doubtful which is the
  |(fragment)   |            |Rome, Cod.   |4th cent.|older
  |             |            |Vat. 3225    |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 2|Vergil       |......      |Vat. Lib.    |4th cent.|"
  |             |            |3867         |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 3|Rom.         |......      |Imp. Lib.,   |"        |
  |Calend.(f.)  |            |Vienna       |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 4|Genesis (f.) |......      |"            |5th cent.|Gold and silver text
  |             |            |             |         |on purple vellum; 88
  |             |            |             |         |miniatures.
  |             |            |             |         |
 5|Genesis (f.) |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |Much burnt in 1731.
  |             |            |Cott. Oth. B.|         |
  |             |            |6            |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 6|Iliad (f.)   |......      |Ambros. Lib.,|"        |Fine handwriting and
  |             |            |Milan        |         |clever pictures.
  |             |            |             |         |
 7|Joshua (f. of|......      |Vat. Lib.,   |......   |15 leaves, 32 ft.
  |Roll)        |            |Rome         |         |long, 11 in. wide.
  |             |            |             |         |Contains from ch.
  |             |            |             |         |222 to 1018, brush
  |             |            |             |         |outlines to
  |             |            |             |         |miniatures. Rivers,
  |             |            |             |         |etc., personified in
  |             |            |             |         |Byzantine manner.
  |             |            |             |         |
 8|Dioscorides, |......      |Imp. Lib.,   |_c._     |Personifications of
  |etc.         |            |Vienna       |500-5    |abstract qualities.
  |             |            |             |         |
 9|Bible of     |......      |Laurent.     |_c._ 540 |Valuable as a
  |Montamiata   |            |Lib.,        |         |theological document,
  |             |            |Florence     |         |but poor work, and in
  |             |            |             |         |bad condition.
  |             |            |             |         |
10|Syriac       |Monastery of|"            |_c._ 586 |Brought to Florence
  |Gospels      |Zagba, in   |             |         |in 1497. Remarkable
  |             |Mesopotamia |             |         |Crucifixion, see
  |             |            |             |         |_Byzantine_, 1.
  |             |            |             |         |
11|Terence      |......      |Nat. Lib.,   |9th cent.|Copy of a 5th-cent.
  |             |            |Paris        |         |MS. pen-drawings.
  |             |            |             |         |
12|Pentateuch   |Tours       |Nat. Lib.,   |7th cent.|Called the Ashburnham
  |             |            |Paris, Nouv. |         |Pentateuch; 19 large
  |             |            |acq. 2334    |         |miniatures.


BYZANTINE

--+-------------+------------+-------------+---------+---------------------
No|    Name.    |   Where    | Where Kept. |  Date.  |      Remarks.
  |             |  Produced. |             |         |
--+-------------+------------+-------------+---------+---------------------
 1|Syriac       |Zagba, in   |Laur. Lib.,  |_c._ 586 |Shows Byzantine
  |Gospels      |Mesopotamia |Florence     |         |influence.
  |             |            |             |         |
 2|Gospel-book  |Byzantium   |Brit. Mus.,  |6th cent.|Lettering, etc., on
  |(f.)         |            |Add. 5111    |         |gold ground.
  |             |            |             |         |
 3|Menologium   |"           |Vat. Lib.,   |9th cent.|A typical Byzantine
  |             |            |Gr. 1613     |         |MS.
  |             |            |             |         |
 4|Gregory of   |Byzantium   |Nat. Lib.,   |9th cent.|Fine antique design
  |Nazianzum    |            |Paris, Gr.   |         |and composition.
  |             |            |510          |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 5|"            |"           |Nat. Lib.,   |"        |Good small figures.
  |             |            |Paris, Gr.   |         |
  |             |            |543          |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 6|"            |"           |Nat. Lib.,   |"        |Good small figures
  |             |            |Paris, Gr.   |         |and headings.
  |             |            |550          |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 7|Evangeliary  |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |
  |             |            |Arund. 547   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 8|"            |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |
  |             |            |Burney 19,   |         |
  |             |            |20.          |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 9|Lectionary   |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |10th     |Fine initials.
  |             |            |Harl. 5598   |cent.,   |
  |             |            |             |end      |
  |             |            |             |         |
10|Chrysostom   |......      |Nat. Lib.,   |10th     |Remarkable initials.
  |             |            |Paris, Gr.   |cent.    |
  |             |            |654          |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
11|Simeon       |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |11th     |Fine ornaments.
  |Metaphrastes |            |Add. 11870   |cent.    |
  |             |            |             |         |
12|Evangeliary  |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |Beautiful headings.
  |             |            |Add. 11838   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
13|Psalter      |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |12th     |Executed for
  |             |            |Add. Egert.  |cent.    |Melisenda, daughter
  |             |            |1139         |         |of King of Jerusalem.


IRISH OR CELTIC

--+-------------+--------------------------+---------+---------------------
No|    Name.    |   Where    | Where Kept. |  Date.  |      Remarks.
  |             |  Produced. |             |         |
--+-------------+------------+-------------+---------+---------------------
 1|Gospels of   |......      |Trin. Coll., |7th cent.|
  |St. Columba  |            |Dublin       |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 2|Gospels of   |St. Arnoul's|Nuremberg    |"        |
  |St. Arnoul,  |Abbey, Metz |Museum       |         |
  |of Metz      |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 3|Book of St.  |......      |Roy. Lib.,   |"        |
  |Columbanus   |            |Naples       |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 4|Bible of St. |......      |Cath. Lib.,  |8th cent.|Curious Crucifixion.
  |Kilian       |            |Wurzburg     |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 5|Gospels of   |Monastery of|Pub. Lib.,   |"        |Signed "Thomas
  |"Thomas"     |Hanow       |Trèves       |         |scribsit."
  |             |            |             |         |
 6|Psalter      |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |Anglo-Irish, with
  |             |            |Cott. Vesp.  |         |arched frame-border.
  |             |            |a. 1         |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 7|Gospels of   |......      |Bodl. Lib.,  |9th cent.|_See_ Westwood,
  |MacRegol     |            |Oxford       |         |_Palæographia Sacra
  |             |            |             |         |Pict._, pl. 16.
  |             |            |             |         |
 8|Book of      |......      |Roy. Irish   |"        |P. 103. Remarkable.
  |Armagh       |            |Acad., Dublin|         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 9|St. Chad's   |......      |Lichfield    |"        |Fine Anglo-Irish.
  |Gospels      |            |Cath. Lib.   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
10|Lindisfarne  |Lindisfarne |Brit. Mus.,  |7th cent.|Anglo-Celtic--a very
  |Gospels      |Monastery   |Cott, Nero D.|         |fine example.
  |             |            |4            |         |


CAROLINGIAN

--+-------------+--------------------------+---------+---------------------
No|    Name.    |   Where    | Where Kept. |  Date.  |      Remarks.
  |             |  Produced. |             |         |
--+-------------+------------+-------------+---------+---------------------
 1|Sacramentary |Abbey of    |Nat. Lib.,   |_c._ 750 |Symbolism. Given by
  |             |Gellone     |Paris, MS.   |         |Ct. William of
  |             |            |Lat. 12048   |         |Toulouse.
  |             |            |             |         |
 2|Ada-Codex    |Abbey of St.|Municip.     |_c._ 775 |Written for Ada,
  |             |Mesmin, of  |Lib., Trèves |         |sister of
  |             |Trèves      |             |         |Charlemagne, Abbess
  |             |            |             |         |of St. Mesmin.
  |             |            |             |         |
 3|Psalter of   |.....       |Imp. Lib.,   |_c._ 780 |Written for Queen
  |Dagolfus     |            |Vienna Theol.|         |Hildegardis, wife of
  |             |            |Lat. 1861    |         |Charlemagne.
  |             |            |             |         |
 4|Evangeliarium|Abbey of St.|Nat. Lib.,   |"        |Written for
  |of Godescale |Sernin, of  |Paris, nouv. |         |Charlemagne and
  |             |Toulouse    |acq. 1203    |         |Hildegardis. Has gold
  |             |            |             |         |and silver letters on
  |             |            |             |         |purple vellum.
  |             |            |             |         |
 5|Sacramentary |Abbey of St.|Abb. St.     |"        |Franco-Saxon.
  |of Gelasius  |Gall        |Gall, No. 348|         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 6|Evangeliarium|Abbey of St.|Town Lib.,   |_c._ 793 |On purple vellum.
  |of St.       |Riquier     |Abbeville    |         |
  |Angilbert    |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 7|Alcuin Bible |Abbey of    |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 800 |Coronation gift to
  |             |Tours       |Add. 10546   |         |Charlemagne. Very
  |             |            |             |         |fine example.
  |             |            |             |         |
 8|Bible        |Tours       |Cantonal     |"        |Like 7.
  |             |            |Lib., Zurich |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 9|"            |"           |Bamberg Roy. |"        |Said to be an exact
  |             |            |Lib          |         |copy of 7.
  |             |            |             |         |
10|Gospels of   |"           |Imp. Lib.,   |"        |Found by Emperor Otho
  |Charles the  |            |Vienna       |         |III. in tomb of
  |Great        |            |             |         |Charlemagne.
  |(Charlemagne)|            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
11|Sacramentary |Abbey of    |Nat. Lib.    |_c._ 814 |The gift of
  |of Drogo,    |Metz, or    |Paris, Theol.|         |Charlemagne to his
  |Abp. of Metz |Tours       |Lat. 9428    |         |natural son Drogo.
  |             |            |             |         |
12|Golden       |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 835 |A splendid example.
  |Gospels of   |            |Harl. 2788   |         |
  |Athelstan    |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
13|Golden       |......      |Roy. Lib.,   |_c._ 850 |Ditto, written in
  |Gospels of   |            |Munich       |         |gold letters.
  |Charles the  |            |             |         |
  |Bald         |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
14|Evangeliary  |Abbey of St.|Nat. Lib.,   |"        |Remarkably beautiful.
  |of Lothaire  |Martin's,   |Paris, Theol.|         |
  |             |Tours       |Lat. 266     |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
15|Golden       |Abbey of St.|Nat. Lib.,   |"        |One of most beautiful
  |Gospels      |Médard, of  |Paris, Theol.|         |Carol. MSS. known.
  |             |Soissons    |Lat 8850     |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
16|Bible of     |Abbey of St.|Nat. Lib.,   |"        |Presented to Charles
  |Count Vivien |Martin, of  |Paris, Theol.|         |the Bald in 850.
  |             |Tours       |Lat 1        |         |Miniature of
  |             |            |             |         |presentation.
  |             |            |             |         |
17|Bible of St. |......      |Monastery of |_c._ 860 |Written for Charles
  |Paul's       |            |St. Calixtus,|         |the Bald by Ingobert.
  |             |            |Rome         |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
18|Prayer-book  |......      |Nat Lib.,    |_c._ 866 |Written by Ingobert
  |(or Hours) of|            |Paris        |         |and presented to
  |Charles the  |            |             |         |Charles the Bald in
  |Bald         |            |             |         |866.
  |             |            |             |         |
19|Golden       |Abbey of St.|Lib. at St.  |_c._ 870 |Written for Abbot
  |Gospels of   |Gall        |Gall, No. 22 |         |Grimwold, or Hartmut.
  |St. Gall     |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
20|Psalter of   |"           |Lib. at St.  |"        |Written for Abbot
  |Folchard     |            |Gall, No. 23 |         |Hartmut. Gold and
  |             |            |             |         |silver initials.
  |             |            |             |         |
21|Evangeliarium|St. Gall    |Lib., St.    |_c._ 920 |Written by Sintramn
  |Longum       |            |Gall         |         |of the "Wondrous
  |             |            |             |         |Hand." Profile
22|Evangeliary  |......      |Roy. Lib.,   |_c._ 925 |foliages in gold and
  |             |            |Brussels, No.|         |silver.
  |             |            |16383        |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
23|"            |......      |Nat. Lib.,   |_c._ 940 |Large 4°, written
  |             |            |Paris        |         |entirely in gold
  |             |            |             |         |letters; 5 miniatures
  |             |            |             |         |and 12 porticoes.
  |             |            |             |         |
24|Psalter      |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 995 |Transition to the
  |             |            |Harl. 2904   |         |style of the
  |             |            |             |         |Benedictionals.


WINCHESTER WORK AND SIMILAR

--+-------------+--------------------------+---------+---------------------
No|    Name.    |   Where    | Where Kept. |  Date.  |      Remarks.
  |             |  Produced. |             |         |
--+-------------+------------+-------------+---------+---------------------
 1|King Edgar's |Hyde Abbey, |Brit. Mus.,  |966      |Style of the
  |Charter      |Winchester  |Cott. Vesp.  |         |Benedictionals of
  |             |            |A. 8         |         |Æthelwold and Robert.
  |             |            |             |         |
 2|Breviarium   |Monte       |Mazarine     |......   |Tendency to same
  |Cassinense   |Cassino?    |Lib., Paris, |         |style colouring as in
  |             |            |759          |         |school of Metz.
  |             |            |             |         |
 3|Æthelwold's  |Hyde Abbey, |Lib. of Duke |_c._ 970 |Best example known.
  |Benedictional|Winchester  |of Devonshire|         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 4|Benedictional|"           |Pub. Lib.,   |_c._ 980 |Drawing bold, but
  |of Abp.      |            |Rouen        |         |colouring unequal to
  |Robert       |            |             |         |3.
  |             |            |             |         |
 5|Gospels      |......      |Trin. Coll., |_c._ 900 |Borders like
  |             |            |Camb         |         |Winchester work.
  |             |            |             |         |
 6|Psalter      |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |......   |Fol. frames similar.
  |             |            |Harl. 2904   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 7|"            |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1000|Init. D on f. 115.
  |             |            |Tib. C. 7    |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 8|"            |Winchester  |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |
  |             |            |Arund. 60    |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 9|"            |"           |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |
  |             |            |Arund. 155   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
10|Cnut's       |"           |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1017|Fine example.
  |Gospels      |            |Roy. 1 D. 9  |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
11|Leofric      |......      |Bodl. Lib.,  |10th     |Byzantine influence.
  |Missal       |            |Oxford No.   |cent.    |
  |             |            |579          |         |


MONASTIC STYLES

--+-------------+--------------------------+---------+---------------------
No|    Name.    |   Where    | Where Kept. |  Date.  |      Remarks.
  |             |  Produced. |             |         |
--+-------------+------------+-------------+---------+---------------------
 1|Weissobrun   |Weissobrun  |Roy. Lib.,   |_c._ 814 |Netherlandish.
  |Prayer-book  |            |Munich       |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 2|Gospels      |......      |Nat. Lib.,   |_c._ 975 |Medallions of
  |             |            |Paris, 8851  |         |Emperors Henry I. and
  |             |            |             |         |Otho I and II.
  |             |            |             |         |
 3|Egbert Codex |Reichenau   |Pub. Lib.    |977-93   |Beautiful initials.
  |             |            |Trèves, No.  |         |
  |             |            |24           |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 4|Gospels      |Echternach  |Gotha Museum |_c._ 990 |Portrait of Otho III.
  |             |            |             |         |and Theophanu.
  |             |            |             |         |Jewelled covers.
  |             |            |             |         |
 5|Otho Codex   |......      |Roy. Lib.,   |_c._ 998 |See p. 91.
  |             |            |Munich Cimel.|         |
  |             |            |58           |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 6|Gospels      |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |10th     |Branch-work initials.
  |             |            |Egert. 608   |cent.    |
  |             |            |             |         |
 7|Bernward's   |Hildesheim  |Cath. Lib.,  |993-1022 |
  |Gospels      |            |Hildesheim   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 8|Ellinger's   |Tegernsee   |Roy. Lib.,   |_c._ 1056|
  |Gospels      |            |Munich No. 31|         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 9|Hortus       |Landsberg   |Formerly at  |_c._     |Burnt in 1670.
  |Deliciarum   |            |Strassburg   |1175-80  |
  |             |            |             |         |
10|Life of      |Tegernsee   |Roy. Lib.,   |1173-1200|Written, etc., for
  |Virgin       |            |Berlin       |         |the Emperor Frederick
  |             |            |             |         |I. by Werinher.
  |             |            |             |         |
11|Plenarium    |Quedlinburg |Town Lib.,   |1184-1203|Written for Abbess
  |             |            |Quedlinburg  |         |Agnes.
  |             |            |             |         |
12|Passionale   |Arnstein,   |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1194|
  |             |near Trèves |Harl. 2800-2 |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
13|Bible        |"           |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1190|
  |             |            |Harl. 2803   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
14|"            |Floreffe    |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1253|Chronological tables
  |             |            |Add. 17737-8 |         |in coloured inks.
  |             |            |             |         |
15|Missal       |St. Bavon of|Brit. Mus.,  |1150-1175|
  |             |Ghent       |Add. 16949   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
16|Chronicle of |......      |Roy. Lib.,   |......   |Fine miniatures--
  |Jerusalem    |            |Brussels, No.|         |costumes.
  |             |            |11142        |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
17|Psalter      |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |12th     |Transition from
  |             |            |Arund. 157   |cent.    |Winchester to
  |             |            |             |         |Othonian.
18|"            |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |
  |             |            |Lansd. 420   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
19|"            |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |
  |             |            |Lansd. 431   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
20|"            |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |
  |             |            |Roy. I D.X.  |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
21|Bible        |St.         |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |Typical 12th cent.
  |             |Nicholas, of|Harl. 2798   |         |MS.
  |             |Arnstein    |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
22|Vauclere     |......      |Pub. Lib.,   |......   |A perfect type of
  |Psalter      |            |Laon, No. 29 |         |12th cent.
  |             |            |             |         |illumination.
  |             |            |             |         |
23|Mater        |Scheyern    |Roy. Lib.,   |......   |By Conrad of
  |Verborum     |            |Munich       |         |Scheyern, with all
  |             |            |             |         |manner of diagrams,
  |             |            |             |         |etc.


FRENCH AND ANGLO-FRENCH GOTHIC

--+-------------+--------------------------+---------+---------------------
No|    Name.    |   Where    | Where Kept. |  Date.  |      Remarks.
  |             |  Produced. |             |         |
--+-------------+------------+-------------+---------+---------------------
 1|Psalter of   |.....       |Musée Condé, |1193-1236|27 large miniatures
  |Queen        |            |Ghantilly    |         |Transitional to
  |Ingeburga    |            |             |         |Gothic
  |             |            |             |         |
 2|Psalter of   |.....       |Arsenal Lib.,|_c._ 1220|Hieratic, and
  |Queen        |            |Paris, Theol.|         |transitional to
  |Blanche,     |            |Lat. 165 B.  |         |Gothic.
  |mother of    |            |             |         |
  |Louis IX.    |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 3|Psalter of   |.....       |Nat. Lib.,   |_c._ 1250|Transitional to
  |St. Louis    |            |Paris, No.   |         |Gothic. 78 delicate
  |(IX.)        |            |10525        |         |miniatures.
  |             |            |             |         |
 4|Joinville's  |.....       |Nat. Lib.,   |1287     |Gothic portrait of
  |Credo        |            |Paris        |         |St. Louis.
  |             |            |             |         |
 5|Alfonso      |Blackfriar's|Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1284|See article in _Fine
  |Psalter      |London      |Add. 24686   |         |Arts Qu. Rev._, i.
  |(Tenison)    |            |             |         |77, and
  |             |            |             |         |_Bibliographica_, pt.
  |             |            |             |         |4.
  |             |            |             |         |
 6|Bible        |.....       |Brit. Mus.,  |1225-52  |Richly illuminated.
  |             |            |Burney 3     |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 7|Somme le Roy |.....       |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1300|9 large
  |             |            |Add. 28162   |         |illuminations.
  |             |            |             |         |
 8|Life of St.  |.....       |Nat. Lib.,   |1316-22  |Contains view of
  |Denis        |            |Paris, fds.  |         |Paris, and portrait
  |             |            |fr. 2090-2   |         |of Philip V.
  |             |            |             |         |Drolleries, coloured
  |             |            |             |         |shading of draperies.
  |             |            |             |         |
 9|Bible        |.....       |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._     |Typical work,
  |             |            |Roy. 1 D. 1  |1310-15  |English.
  |             |            |             |         |
10|Ormsby       |Norwich     |Bodl. Lib.,  |_c._ 1295|English work.
  |Psalter      |            |Oxford, Douce|         |
  |             |            |366          |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
11|Bible        |.....       |Brit. Mus,   |Late 13th|A typical MS.
  |             |            |Add. 17341   |cent.    |
  |             |            |             |         |
12|Psalter      |.....       |Brit. Mus.,  |Early    |Drolleries and
  |             |            |Roy. 2 B. 7  |14th     |interesting scenes.
  |             |            |             |cent.    |
  |             |            |             |         |
13|Miroir       |.....       |Arsen. Lib., |_c._ 1356|Large folio richly
  |Historiale   |            |Paris        |         |illuminated.
  |             |            |             |         |
14|Louterell    |.....       |Lulworth     |_c._ 1340|Fine diapered
  |Psalter      |            |Castle       |         |backgrounds.
  |             |            |             |         |
15|Missal       |.....       |Westreenen   |1366     |"Gouache" painting in
  |             |            |Mus., The    |         |miniatures.
  |             |            |Hague        |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
16|Chronicle of |.....       |Nat. Lib.,   |1375-80  |Miniature in gold and
  |St. Denis    |            |Paris, 8395  |         |grey.
  |             |            |             |         |
17|Hours of     |.....       |Roy. Lib.,   |Finished |Illuminated by André
  |John, Duke of|            |Brussels,    |1380     |Beauneveu and
  |Berry        |            |11060        |         |Jacquemart de Hesdin.
  |             |            |             |         |
18|Epistle to   |Paris       |Brit. Mus.,  |1370-80  |Fine ivy-branch
  |Richard II.  |            |Roy. 20 B. 6 |         |style.
  |             |            |             |         |
19|Offices      |.....       |Brit. Mus.,  |.....    |Prayer-book of
  |B.M.V.       |            |Harl. 2897   |         |Margaret of Bavaria.
  |             |            |             |         |A typical MS.
  |             |            |             |         |
20|Little Hours |.....       |Nat. Lib.,   |_c._ 1400|113 beautiful
  |of Berry     |            |Paris, 18014 |         |miniatures.
  |             |            |             |         |
21|Psalter of   |Paris       |Nat. Lib.,   |1401     |Contains 24 fine
  |the Duke of  |            |Paris, No.   |         |miniatures by André
  |Berry        |            |13091        |         |Beauneveu.
  |             |            |             |         |
22|Grandes      |"           |Nat. Lib.,   |1409     |By Jacquemart de
  |Heures de    |            |Paris, fds.  |         |Hesdin, André
  |Berry        |            |Lat. 919     |         |Beauneveu, and Pol de
  |             |            |             |         |Limbourg.
  |             |            |             |         |
23|Heures de    |"           |Musée Dondé, |1410     |Considered the finest
  |Berry        |            |Chantilly    |         |example known.
  |             |            |             |         |
24|Poems of     |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |1400-6   |Fine miniatures--
  |Christine de |            |Harl. 4431   |         |costumes and
  |Pisan        |            |             |         |portraits.
  |             |            |             |         |
25|Talbot       |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |1400     |Curious miniatures,
  |Romances     |            |Roy. 15 E. 6 |         |portraits of Henry
  |             |            |             |         |VI., etc.
  |             |            |             |         |
26|Bedford      |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1435|Richly illuminated.
  |Offices      |            |Add. 18850   |         |Contains French,
  |             |            |             |         |English, and
  |             |            |             |         |Netherlandish work.
  |             |            |             |         |
27|Bedford      |......      |Nat. Lib.,   |_c._ 1430|Contains English and
  |Breviary     |            |Paris, fds.  |         |French work.
  |             |            |Lat. 17294   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
28|Pontifical   |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1450|Fine borders.
  |             |            |Add. 16610   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
29|Valerius     |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |Northern French and
  |Maximus      |            |Harl. 4375   |         |Netherlandish.
  |             |            |             |         |
30|Girart de    |......      |Nat. Lib.,   |_c._ 1470|Netherlandish--
  |Nevers       |            |Paris, fds.  |         |costumes, etc.
  |             |            |fr. 4092     |         |


GERMAN AND BOHEMIAN

--+-------------+--------------------------+---------+---------------------
No|    Name.    |   Where    | Where Kept. |  Date.  |      Remarks.
  |             |  Produced. |             |         |
--+-------------+------------+-------------+---------+---------------------
 1|Minnelieder  |......      |Nat. Lib.,   |_c._ 1300|Hunting scenes,
  |             |            |Paris, fds.  |         |costumes.
  |             |            |fr. 7266     |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 2|Wilhelm von  |......      |Pub. Lib.,   |1334     |Written for Henry
  |Oranse       |            |Cassel       |         |Landgrave of Hesse.
  |             |            |             |         |French influence.
 3|Picture Bible|......      |Lib. of      |_c._ 1300|
  |             |            |Prince       |         |
  |             |            |Lobkowitz,   |         |
  |             |            |Prag         |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 4|Passionale of|Prag        |Univ. Lib.,  |1312     |Transparent
  |Abbess       |            |Prag, xiv. A.|         |water-colour. No
  |Cunigunda    |            |17           |         |French influence.
  |             |            |             |         |
 5|Weltchronik  |......      |Roy. Lib.,   |_c._ 1350|Old Cologne school.
  |of Rudolf v. |            |Stuttgart    |         |
  |Hohen-Ems    |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 6|Liber        |Prag        |Bohem. Mus., |_c._ 1360|Written for John v.
  |Viaticus     |            |Prag         |         |Neumarkt, Bishop of
  |             |            |             |         |Leitomischl.
  |             |            |             |         |
 7|Mariale      |"           |Bohem. Mus., |_c._ 1345|Written for Arnestus
  |             |            |Prag         |         |v. Pardubitz,
  |             |            |             |         |Archbishop of Prag
  |             |            |             |         |(1344-64). Bohemian
  |             |            |             |         |school.
  |             |            |             |         |
 8|Orationale   |"           |Bohem. Mus., |_c._ 1345|Written for same
  |             |            |Prag         |         |prelate, in French
  |             |            |             |         |Gothic style.
  |             |            |             |         |
 9|Bible of     |"           |Imp. Lib.,   |......   |Executed by order of
  |Emperor      |            |Vienna, No.  |         |Martin Rotlöw for
  |Wenzel       |            |2759         |         |presentation to the
  |             |            |             |         |Emperor.
  |             |            |             |         |
10|Gospels of   |"           |Imp. Lib.,   |1368     |Beautiful penmanship
  |John of      |            |Vienna       |         |and ornaments.
  |Oppavia      |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
11|Wilhelm von  |"           |Ambras       |1387     |Fine diapered
  |Oranse       |            |Museum,      |         |backgrounds,
  |             |            |Vienna, No. 7|         |costumes, and armour.
  |             |            |             |         |
12|Salzburg     |......      |Roy. Lib.,   |_c._ 1350|In 5 fol. vols.
  |Missal       |            |Munich, Lat. |         |Splendid colouring.
  |             |            |15710        |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
13|Weltchronik  |......      |15710 Pub.   |_c._ 1383|Large folio.
  |of Rudolf v. |            |Lib.,        |         |Westphalian school.
  |Hohen-Ems    |            |Stuttgart    |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
14|Durandus     |......      |Imp. Lib.,   |1384     |Written for Albert
  |             |            |Vienna, No.  |         |III., Duke of
  |             |            |2765         |         |Austria. Illuminated
  |             |            |             |         |in later Bohemian.
  |             |            |             |         |
15|Golden Bull  |Prag        |Imp. Lib.,   |_c._ 1399|Rich soft-leaved
  |of Charles   |            |Vienna, jus. |         |foliages. Ornament
  |IV.          |            |c. 338       |         |superior to
  |             |            |             |         |miniatures.
  |             |            |             |         |
16|Wurzburg     |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |After    |Large foliages, fine
  |Bible        |            |Arund. 106   |1400     |initials, bright
  |             |            |             |         |colours.
  |             |            |             |         |
17|Missal of    |......      |Imp. Lib.,   |1448     |German work.
  |Emperor      |            |Vienna       |         |
  |Frederick    |            |             |         |
  |III.         |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
18|Gospels      |......      |Pub. Lib.,   |1498     |43 miniatures and
  |             |            |Nuremberg    |         |splendid borders,
  |             |            |             |         |etc., by Conrad
  |             |            |             |         |Frankendorfer.
  |             |            |             |         |
19|Choir-book of|Abbey of St.|Lib.,        |1489     |Written by L. Wagner,
  |SS. Ulrich   |Ulrich,     |Augsburg     |         |and illuminated by G.
  |and Afra,    |Augsburg    |             |         |Beck.
  |Augsburg     |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
20|Miniature of |Augsburg    |Vict. and    |_c._ 1489|Taken from 19.
  |presentation |            |Alb. Mus.,   |         |
  |of 19        |            |South        |         |
  |             |            |Kensington   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
21|Offices      |Upper       |Brit. Mus.,  |1513     |
  |B.M.V.       |Carinthia   |Add. 15711   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
22|Prayer-book  |Nuremberg   |Aschaffenburg|1524     |Illuminated by A.
  |of Albert of |            |Castle       |         |Glockendon.
  |Brandenburg  |            |Library      |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
23|Prayer-book  |"           |Imp. Lib.,   |1535     |Illuminated by Albert
  |of William   |            |Vienna, No.  |         |Glockendon.
  |IV. of       |            |1880         |         |
  |Bavaria      |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
24|Prayer-book  |"           |Brit. Mus.,  |1584     |School of Glockendon.
  |             |            |Add. 17525   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
25|Splendor     |......      |Harl. 3469   |Late 16th|Astrological
  |Solis        |            |             |cent.    |diagrams, etc.,
  |             |            |             |         |scenes.
  |             |            |             |         |
26|Penitential  |Munich      |Roy. Lib.,   |1570     |Painted by Hans
  |Psalms       |            |Munich,      |         |Mielich.
  |             |            |Cimel. Saal  |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
27|Horæ         |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |Late 16th|Fine foliages and
  |             |            |Egert. 1146  |cent.    |initials.
  |             |            |             |         |
28|Prayer-book  |Strassburg  |Nat. Lib.,   |1647     |2 vols., 8°.
  |of William of|            |Paris, Nos.  |         |Renaissance by
  |Baden        |            |10567-8      |         |Frederic Brentel.


SICILIAN AND ITALIAN

--+-------------+--------------------------+---------+---------------------
No|    Name.    |   Where    | Where Kept. |  Date.  |      Remarks.
  |             |  Produced. |             |         |
--+-------------+------------+-------------+---------+---------------------
 1|De arte      |Palermo     |Vat. Lib.,   |_c._ 1225|Composed by Emperor
  |venandi cum  |            |Rome, palat. |         |Frederick II.
  |avibus       |            |1071         |         |(1212-50). Paintings
  |             |            |             |         |of birds and hunting
  |             |            |             |         |scenes.
  |             |            |             |         |
 2|Offices,     |Gubbio      |Acad. Lib.,  |......   |Attributed to
  |"ordo offic. |            |Siena        |         |Oderigi.
  |Senensis"    |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 3|Legends      |Florence?   |Canon. Lib., |_c._     |Attributed to Giotto.
  |             |            |             |1327-43  |
  |             |            |             |         |
 4|Vergil       |Florence?   |Rome Ambros. |_c._ 1310|Attributed to Simone
  |             |            |Lib., Milan  |         |Martini.
  |             |            |             |         |
 5|Durandus     |Siena?      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1330|Fine work.
  |             |            |Add. 31032   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 6|Aristotle    |Bologna?    |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1335|Like the "Avignon"
  |             |            |Harl. 6331   |         |Decretals.
  |             |            |             |         |
 7|Stefaneschi  |Rome?       |Canon. Lib., |1327-43  |In same vol. with 3,
  |Missal       |            |Rome         |         |and attributed to
  |             |            |             |         |Giotto.
  |             |            |             |         |
 8|Poems of     |Naples?     |Brit. Mus.,  |1309-43  |Bold "gouache"
  |Convenevole  |            |Roy. 6 E. 9  |         |painting. Executed
  |da Prato[66] |            |             |         |for King Robert of
  |             |            |             |         |Naples.
  |             |            |             |         |
 9|Breviarium   |Florence?   |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1400|Fine initials.
  |Romanum      |            |Harl. 2903   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
10|Concordantiæ |Bologna?    |Nat. Mus.,   |_c._ 1350|Allegorical figures
  |Canonicæ     |            |Naples       |         |and "gouache"
  |             |            |             |         |painting.
  |             |            |             |         |
11|Statuts de   |Naples      |Nat. Lib.,   |_c._ 1354|Executed for Louis
  |l'Ordre do   |            |Paris, fds.  |         |I., of House of
  |St. Esprit   |            |fr. 4274     |         |Anjou, King of Sicily
  |             |            |             |         |and Jerusalem.
  |             |            |             |         |
12|Romance of   |Avignon?    |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1355|Executed for Louis
  |Meliadus     |            |Add. 12228   |         |II. of Naples.
  |             |            |             |         |
13|Triumphs of  |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1370|Small miniatures and
  |Fr. Petrarch |            |Harl. 3109   |         |initials in older
  |             |            |             |         |style.
  |             |            |             |         |
14|"            |......      |Nat. Lib.,   |......   |Miniatures of
  |             |            |Paris        |         |triumphs.
  |             |            |             |         |
15|Joannes      |......      |Abp. of St.  |_c._ 1370|Fine Bolognese
  |Andreae, Lib.|            |Florian      |         |miniatures.
  |VI.          |            |             |         |
  |Decretalium  |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
16|Glossa       |Bologna?    |Laon, No. 382|_c._     |Very finely
  |Joannis      |            |             |1330-43  |illuminated.
  |Andreae in   |            |             |         |
  |Clementinas  |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
17|Rubrics on   |"           |Laon, No. 357|1332     |Many grotesque
  |the Decretals|            |             |         |figures.
  |             |            |             |         |
18|Decretum     |"           |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1375|Exquisitely
  |Gratiani     |            |Add. 15274,  |         |illuminated.
  |             |            |15275        |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
19|Missale      |"           |Roy. Lib.,   |_c._ 1374|By Nicolaus de
  |Romanum      |            |Munich, Lat. |         |Bononia.
  |             |            |10072        |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
20|"            |"           |St. Mark's,  |_c._ 1370|"
  |             |            |Venice, cl.  |         |
  |             |            |iii. xcvii.  |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
21|"            |Florence?   |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._     |Fine pen work diapers
  |             |            |Add. 21973   |1380-1400|and initials.
  |             |            |             |         |
22|Latin Bible  |Bologna?    |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._     |Sweet colouring and
  |             |            |Add. 18720   |1375-1400|fine foliages.
  |             |            |             |         |
23|Hymnarium    |Sienese?    |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1400|Fine initials.
  |Heremitarum  |            |Add. 30014   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
24|Questions on |Naples      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._     |Written by Hippolytus
  |4 Books of   |            |Add. 15270-3 |1458-94  |Lunensis for
  |Sentences by |            |             |         |Ferdinand I., King of
  |Job. Scot,   |            |             |         |Naples, and finely
  |Franciscan   |            |             |         |illuminated.
  |             |            |             |         |
25|Platonis     |"           |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1470|Written for Ferdinand
  |Opera        |            |Harl. 3481   |         |I., King of Naples.
  |             |            |             |         |Finely illuminated.
  |             |            |             |         |
26|Cæsar        |            |Brit. Mus.,  |1462     |White stem-work.
  |             |            |Add. 16982   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
27|"            |Rome?       |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1460|Executed for Pius II.
  |             |            |Harl. 2683   |         |Roman Renaissance
  |             |            |             |         |(1458-64).
  |             |            |             |         |
28|Petrarch     |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1465|White stem-work.
  |Sonnets, etc.|            |Harl. 3411   |         |Written by J. And.
  |             |            |             |         |Mussolini.
  |             |            |             |         |
29|Offices      |Milan?      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1475|A pretty little
  |             |            |Add. 19417   |         |volume of Milanese
  |             |            |             |         |work.
  |             |            |             |         |
30|Missale      |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |Like MSS. executed
  |Romanum      |            |Add. 15260   |         |for the Dukes of
  |             |            |             |         |Ferrara. Very fine.
  |             |            |             |         |
31|"            |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1480|Of Florentine type.
  |             |            |Harl. 2875   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
32|Officium     |Florence    |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1475|A small volume, but
  |B.M.V.       |            |Add. 15528   |         |rich initials.
  |             |            |             |         |
33|Missale      |Bologna     |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1495|Like 32, but finer.
  |Romanum      |            |Add. 15814   |         |Written by Jo. de
  |             |            |             |         |Lyvonia for one of
  |             |            |             |         |the Visconti.
  |             |            |             |         |
34|Josephus     |Rome        |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1490|Roman Renaissance.
  |             |            |Harl. 3699   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
35|Herodean     |Florence    |Brit. Mus.,  |1487     |Written by Alexander
  |             |            |Add. 23773   |         |Verazzanus.
  |             |            |             |         |
36|Scrapbook of |Rome and    |Brit. Mus.,  |1480-1500|A very interesting
  |cutting's    |Florence    |Add. 21412   |         |collection. Roman and
  |             |            |             |         |Florentine.
  |             |            |             |         |
37|Grant of     |Milan       |Brit. Mus.,  |1494     |Illuminated by
  |Ludovico     |            |Add. 21413   |         |Antonio da Monza.
  |Sforza (il   |            |             |         |
  |Moro)        |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
38|Offices      |Naples      |Brit. Mus.,  |1500     |Written and
  |             |            |Add. 21591   |         |illuminated for
  |             |            |             |         |Frederick of Aragon,
  |             |            |             |         |King of Naples.
  |             |            |             |         |
39|Prayer-book  |"           |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1455|Finest Neapolitan
  |of Alfonso I.|            |Add. 28962   |         |work. Portraits
  |             |            |             |         |(1416-58).
  |             |            |             |         |
40|Orations of  |"           |Imp. Lib.,   |_c._ 1490|Executed for
  |Cicero       |            |Vienna       |         |Ferdinand I., King of
  |             |            |             |         |Naples (1458-94).
  |             |            |             |         |Very fine.

[66] Petrarch's tutor.


RENAISSANCE ILLUMINATION

ITALIAN

--+-------------+--------------------------+---------+---------------------
No|    Name.    |   Where    | Where Kept. |  Date.  |      Remarks.
  |             |  Produced. |             |         |
--+-------------+------------+-------------+---------+---------------------
 1|Life of      |Florence    |Brit. Mus.,  |1506     |Neat in execution.
  |Manetti      |            |Add. 9770    |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 2|Life of St.  |"           |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1505|Very fine
  |Francis      |            |Harl. 3229   |         |illumination.
  |             |            |             |         |
 3|Eusebius     |"           |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1515|
  |             |            |Harl. 3308   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 4|Life of      |"           |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1525|
  |Manetti      |            |Lansd. 842   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 5|Eusebius     |Milan       |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |
  |             |            |Roy          |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 6|Missale      |Venice      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1530|Attributed to
  |             |            |Add. 15813   |         |Benedetto Bordone.
  |             |            |             |         |
 7|Ethics of    |Naples or   |Imp. Lib.,   |_c._     |Fine Renaissance
  |Aristotle    |Calabria    |Vienna       |1490-1510|work. Elaborately
  |             |            |             |         |designed frames, and
  |             |            |             |         |fine miniatures
  |             |            |             |         |painted in a strong
  |             |            |             |         |"gouache," by Rinaldo
  |             |            |             |         |Piramo, for And.
  |             |            |             |         |Matt. Acquavira, 8th
  |             |            |             |         |Duke of Atri.
  |             |            |             |         |
 8|St. Jerome on|Florence    |Imp. Lib.,   |_c._     |Illuminated by
  |Ezechiel     |            |Vienna, No.  |1490-1520|Attavante for Matt.
  |             |            |654          |         |Corvinus, King of
  |             |            |             |         |Hungary (1443-90).
  |             |            |             |         |
 9|Philostratus |"           |Imp. Lib.,   |"        |Illuminated probably
  |(Latin)      |            |Vienna, No.  |         |by Attavante for
  |             |            |25           |         |Matt. Corvinus.
  |             |            |             |         |
10|Missale      |"           |Roy. Lib.,   |"        |Illuminated by
  |Romanum of   |            |Brussels     |         |Attavante for
  |Corvinus     |            |             |         |Corvinus. Used for
  |             |            |             |         |admission oaths of
  |             |            |             |         |Governors of
  |             |            |             |         |Netherlands.
  |             |            |             |         |
11|Augustine:   |"           |Imp. Lib.,   |_c._ 1495|Illuminated by
  |Epistles     |            |Vienna       |         |Attavante for Matt.
  |             |            |             |         |Corvinus. Signed
  |             |            |             |         |"Attavantes pinsit."
  |             |            |             |         |
12|Martianus    |"           |Lib. St.     |_c._ 1500|Illuminated by
  |Capella      |            |Mark's,      |         |Attavante for Matt.
  |             |            |Venice       |         |Corvinus. Signed.
  |             |            |             |         |Written by Al,
  |             |            |             |         |Verazzanus
  |             |            |             |         |
13|Psalter      |"           |Ducal Lib.,  |"        |Illuminated by
  |             |            |Wolfenbüttel |         |Attavante.
  |             |            |             |         |
14|Diurnale     |"           |Laurent.     |"        |Illuminated by
  |             |            |Lib.,        |         |Attavante or
  |             |            |Florence     |         |Gherardo.
  |             |            |             |         |
15|Missal of Bp.|"           |Pub. Lib.,   |"        |Illuminated by
  |of Dôle      |            |Lyons        |         |Attavante.
  |             |            |             |         |
16|St. Gregory  |"           |Estense Lib.,|"        |Illuminated by
  |on Ezechiel  |            |Modena       |         |Attavante. Signed.
  |             |            |             |         |
17|Dionysii Opp.|"           |Pub. Lib.,   |"        |"
  |             |            |Besançon     |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
18|"Gran"       |"           |Nat. Lib.,   |"        |Probably illuminated
  |Breviary     |            |Paris, MS.   |         |by Boccardino il
  |             |            |Lat. 8879    |         |Vecchio, though
  |             |            |             |         |attributed to
  |             |            |             |         |Attavante.
  |             |            |             |         |
19|Hieronymi    |"           |Nat. Lib.,   |1488-1500|Written for Matt.
  |Breviar. in  |            |Paris, MS.   |         |Corvinus by Anton
  |psalmos      |            |Lat. 16839   |         |Sinibaldi, and
  |             |            |             |         |illuminated by
  |             |            |             |         |Attavante.
  |             |            |             |         |
20|Poems of     |Rome        |Imp. Lib.,   |_c._ 1536|Illuminated by Giulio
  |Eurialo      |            |Vienna       |         |Clovio (1498-1578).
  |d'Ascoli     |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
21|"Rothesay"   |"           |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1546|Illuminated by
  |Offices      |            |Add. 20927   |         |Clovio.
  |             |            |             |         |
22|Commentary on|"           |Soane Mus.,  |_c._ 1536|Executed for Cardinal
  |St. Paul's   |            |London       |         |Grimani by Clovio.
  |Epistles     |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
23|Psalter of   |"           |Nat. Lib.,   |_c._ 1542|Illuminated by
  |Paul III.    |            |Paris, MS.   |         |Vincenzio Raimondi.
  |             |            |Lat. 702.    |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
24|Papal        |"           |Lenox Lib.,  |_c._ 1546|By Clovio and his
  |Lectionary   |            |New York     |         |assistants.
  |(Towneley    |            |             |         |
  |Clovio)      |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
25|Dante        |"           |Vat. Lib.,   |_c._ 1555|Illuminated in part
  |             |            |No. 365      |         |by Clovio.
  |             |            |             |         |
26|Investiture  |"           |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1560|Very fine ornament.
  |from Duke of |            |Add. 22660   |         |
  |Urbino       |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
27|Triumphs of  |"           |Lib. of Capt.|_c._ 1550|Fine miniatures.
  |Petrarch     |            |Holford,     |         |
  |             |            |London       |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
28|Missal of    |"           |Rylands Lib.,|_c._ 1520|Fine miniatures.
  |Card. Colonna|            |Manchester   |         |Attributed, but
  |             |            |             |         |without authority, to
  |             |            |             |         |Raffaelle.
  |             |            |             |         |
29|Prayer-book  |Rome, or    |Barberini    |_c._ 1500|Many fine miniatures.
  |             |Florence    |Lib., Rome,  |         |
  |             |            |No. 324      |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
30|Missal of    |Rome        |Chigi Lib.,  |_c._     |Executed for Pius II.
  |Pius II.     |            |Rome         |1460-70  |
  |             |            |             |         |
31|Missal of    |"           |Corsini Lib.,|_c._ 1530|Fine framed
  |Card. Corsini|            |Rome, No.    |         |miniatures.
  |             |            |1015         |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
32|Missal of    |"           |Minerva Lib.,|_c._ 1520|Fine miniatures.
  |Card. Cornaro|            |Rome         |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
33|"Pavia"      |Milan       |Brera Lib.,  |1530-80  |By several artists,
  |Graduals     |            |Milan        |         |especially G.
  |             |            |             |         |Berretta. Enormous
  |             |            |             |         |folios.
  |             |            |             |         |
34|Prayer-book  |......      |Roy. Lib.,   |_c._ 1574|Finest Roman
  |of Albert IV.|            |Munich, Cim. |         |Renaissance, but
  |of Bavaria   |            |Saal. 42     |         |written by Hans
  |             |            |             |         |Lenker, of Munich
  |             |            |             |         |(not a Clovio).
  |             |            |             |         |
35|Apologia di  |Rome        |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1510|Executed for Henry
  |Colenuccio   |            |Roy. 12, c.  |         |VIII. of England.
  |             |            |viii.        |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
36|Prayer-book  |Milan       |Roy. Lib.,   |_c._ 1450|Illuminated by
  |Bianca Maria |            |Munich, No.  |         |Giovanni da Como.
  |of Milan     |            |99A          |         |Contains Visconti and
  |             |            |             |         |Sforza arms.
  |             |            |             |         |
37|Hours of Bona|"           |Brit Mus.,   |_c._ 1490|Finest Milanese
  |Sforza of    |            |Add. 34294   |         |Renaissance, with
  |Milan        |            |             |         |some Flemish
  |             |            |             |         |additions.


FRENCH

--+-------------+--------------------------+---------+---------------------
No|    Name.    |   Where    | Where Kept. |  Date.  |      Remarks.
  |             |  Produced. |             |         |
--+-------------+------------+-------------+---------+---------------------
 1|The          |Tours       |Nat. Lib.,   |......   |Attributed to Jehan
  |"Versailles" |            |Paris, 6907  |         |Fouquet of Tours.
  |Livy         |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 2|The          |"           |Nat. Lib.,   |......   |Attributed to Jehan
  |"Sorbonne"   |            |Paris, fds.  |         |Fouquet of Tours.
  |Livy         |            |Sorb. 297    |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 3|Antiquities  |"           |Nat. Lib.,   |......   |Fouquet's
  |of the Jews  |            |Paris, Resew.|         |masterpiece.
  |             |            |6891         |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 4|Boccacio     |"           |Roy. Lib.,   |......   |Executed for Etienne
  |             |            |Munich       |         |Chevalier.
  |             |            |             |         |
 5|Trésor des   |"           |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1490|Fine aërial
  |Histoires    |            |Cott. Aug. v.|         |perspective and
  |             |            |             |         |landscape.
  |             |            |             |         |
 6|Valerius     |Paris       |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |A very fine MS.
  |Maximus      |            |Harl. 4374-5 |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 7|Hours of Anne|"           |Nat. Lib.,   |_c._ 1508|A magnificent
  |of Brittany  |            |Paris        |         |example, eclectic in
  |             |            |             |         |style, with natural
  |             |            |             |         |flowers and insects
  |             |            |             |         |in borders, and fine
  |             |            |             |         |figure-painting.
  |             |            |             |         |
 8|Hours of     |"           |Vicomte de   |_c._ 1550|Attributed to Jean
  |Claude       |            |Janzé        |         |Cousin. Influence of
  |Gouffier     |            |             |         |glass-painting.
  |             |            |             |         |
 9|Offices      |"           |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1530|Probably executed for
  |             |            |Add. 18853   |         |Francis I. of France.
  |             |            |             |         |Excellent work,
  |             |            |             |         |eclectic in style.
  |             |            |             |         |
9a|Hours of     |"           |Libr. of     |1549     |Same style as 8 and
  |Montmorency  |            |Count of     |         |9, and probably by J.
  |             |            |Haussonville |         |Cousin,
  |             |            |             |         |
10|Offices      |Tours?      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1525|Architectural details
  |             |            |Add. 18854   |         |of School of Tours.
  |             |            |             |         |Written for Fr. de
  |             |            |             |         |Dinteville, Bp. of
  |             |            |             |         |Auxerre.
  |             |            |             |         |
11|"            |"           |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |Architectural frames
  |             |            |Add. 18855   |         |to miniatures as in
  |             |            |             |         |
12|"            |Paris       |Nat. Lib.,   |1531     |10, but larger and
  |             |            |Paris, Lat.  |         |more fanciful
  |             |            |10563        |         |details, somewhat
  |             |            |             |         |like 7 in portions.
  |             |            |             |         |
13|Epistres     |......      |Nat. Lib.,   |_c._ 1500|Executed for Louise
  |d'Ovide      |            |Paris, fds.  |         |de Savoie, mother of
  |             |            |fr. 875      |         |Francis I.
  |             |            |             |         |
14|Boece        |Paris       |Nat. Lib.,   |"        |Fine miniatures with
  |             |            |Paris, u.    |         |Renaissance
  |             |            |fds. Lat.    |         |architectural
  |             |            |6643         |         |details.
  |             |            |             |         |
15|Epistres     |"           |Nat. Lib.,   |"        |Translated by
  |             |            |Paris, 6877  |         |Octavien de d'Ovide
  |             |            |             |         |St. Gelay. Beautiful
  |             |            |             |         |miniatures.
  |             |            |             |         |
16|Petrarch's   |......      |Nat. Lib.,   |_c._ 1520|Very fine miniatures
  |Triumphs     |            |Paris, f. fr.|         |of triumphs. Italian
  |             |            |7079         |         |influence.
  |             |            |             |         |
17|Chants royaux|......      |Nat. Lib.,   |"        |Fine miniatures.
  |             |            |Paris, 6987  |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
18|Chants Royaux|Paris       |Nat. Lib.,   |"        |Magnificent
  |             |            |Paris, f. fr.|         |miniatures under
  |             |            |379          |         |Italian influence of
  |             |            |             |         |Andrea del Sarto.
  |             |            |             |         |
19|Petrarch     |"           |Nat. Lib.,   |_c._ 1503|Miniature of
  |             |            |Paris, f. fr.|         |presentation to Louis
  |             |            |225          |         |XII. Many full-page
  |             |            |             |         |miniatures.
  |             |            |             |         |
20|Fleur des    |"           |Nat. Lib.,   |_c._ 1505|Executed for Cardinal
  |Histoires    |            |Paris, f. fr.|         |d'Amboise.
  |             |            |54           |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
21|Chron. de    |"           |Nat. Lib.,   |"        |Three large folio
  |Monstrelet   |            |Paris,       |         |vols. Vol. i.
  |             |            |20360-2      |         |contains five
  |             |            |             |         |equestrian portraits
  |             |            |             |         |of Louis XII.
  |             |            |             |         |
22|Les Echecs   |"           |Nat. Lib.,   |_c._ 1500|Executed for use of
  |amoreux      |            |Paris, f. fr.|         |Francis, d. of
  |             |            |143          |         |Angoulème, and his
  |             |            |             |         |sister Marguerite.
  |             |            |             |         |
23|Boccace de   |"           |Nat. Lib.,   |"        |By same illuminator
  |claris et    |            |Paris, f. fr.|         |as 22. Executed for
  |nobilibus    |            |599          |         |Louise de Savoie.
  |mulieribus   |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
24|Reception de |"           |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1514|"Avec belles
  |Marie        |            |Vesp. B. 2   |         |peintures."
  |d'Angleterre |            |             |         |
  |à Paris      |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
25|Chants Royaux|"           |Nat. Lib.,   |1515     |Presented in 1515 to
  |             |            |Paris, f. fr.|         |Louise de Savoie by
  |             |            |145          |         |the City of Amiens.
  |             |            |             |         |The miniatures
  |             |            |             |         |painted in grisaille
  |             |            |             |         |by J. Plastel, and
  |             |            |             |         |coloured by J.
  |             |            |             |         |Pinchon. Contains
  |             |            |             |         |portrait of Louise.
  |             |            |             |         |
26|Commentaires |"           |Brit. Mus.   |_c._ 1519|Attributed to
  |de César,    |            |             |         |Geoffroy Tory. Part
  |Vol. i.      |            |             |         |grisaille. Written in
  |             |            |             |         |Roman text. See
  |             |            |             |         |_Dict. Miniat._ iii.
  |             |            |             |         |312.
  |             |            |             |         |
  |Commentaires |"           |Nat. Lib.,   |"        |"
  |de César,    |            |Paris, 13429 |         |
  |Vol. ii.     |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
  |Commentaires |"           |Lib. of Duc  |"        |"
  |de César,    |            |d'Aumale     |         |
  |Vol. iii.    |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
27|Dutillet,    |......      |Nat. Lib.,   |......   |Presented to Charles
  |French Kings,|            |Paris, 2848  |         |IX.
  |etc.         |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
28|Hours of     |......      |Nat. Lib.,   |_c._ 1595|Peculiar style and
  |Henry IV.    |            |Paris, Lat.  |         |colouring.
  |             |            |1171         |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
29|Gospel of St.|Boisleduc   |Brit. Mus.,  |......   |Finely written, but
  |John         |            |Roy., E. 5   |         |not illuminated by
  |             |            |             |         |Pet. Meghen.
  |             |            |             |         |
30|"Sol         |"           |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1682|Painted by Pierre
  |Gallicus"    |            |Add. 23745   |         |Mignard.
  |             |            |             |         |
31|Psalter      |London      |Brit. Mus.,  |1565     |Written by Petrucco
  |             |            |Roy. 2 B. 9  |         |Ubaldini, a
  |             |            |             |         |Florentine.
  |             |            |             |         |
32|Book of      |English?    |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1600|Very elegant borders.
  |Sentences for|London?     |Roy. 17 A. 23|         |
  |Lady Sumley  |            |             |         |


ENGLISH ILLUMINATION

FROM THE THIRTEENTH TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

--+-------------+--------------------------+---------+---------------------
No|    Name.    |   Where    | Where Kept. |  Date.  |      Remarks.
  |             |  Produced. |             |         |
--+-------------+------------+-------------+---------+---------------------
 1|Offices and  |Westminster |Brit. Mus.,  |1240     |Imitation of stained
  |Prayers      |            |Roy. 2 A. 22 |         |glass. Typical MS.
  |             |            |             |         |
 2|Bible in     |Canterbury  |Brit. Mus.,  |1245     |
  |Latin        |            |Burney 3     |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 3|"            |Salisbury   |Brit. Mus.,  |1254     |Written by Will de
  |             |            |Roy. 1 B. 12 |         |Hales.
  |             |            |             |         |
 4|Tenison      |London      |Brit. Mus.,  |1294     |Written and
  |Psalter      |            |Add. 24686   |         |illuminated by order
  |             |            |             |         |of Edward I.
  |             |            |             |         |
 5|Bible in     |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |13th     |Written by Will of
  |Latin        |            |Roy. 1 D 1   |cent.    |Devon.
  |             |            |             |         |
 6|Apocalypse in|......      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1330|See _Bibliographica_,
  |French       |            |Roy. 19 B. 15|         |pt. v. pl. 1.
  |             |            |             |         |
 7|Arundel      |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |See _Bibliographica_,
  |Psalter      |            |Arund. 83    |         |pt. v. pl. 2
  |             |            |             |         |
 8|Psalter of   |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |1380     |Transition from
  |Joan of Kent |            |Roy. 2 B. 8  |         |French Gothic to
  |             |            |             |         |Lancastrian.
  |             |            |             |         |
 9|Pontifical   |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1400|Early Lancastrian.
  |             |            |Lansd. 451   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
10|Bible in     |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |Large folio. See
  |Latin        |            |Roy. 1 E. ix.|         |_Bibliographica_, pt.
  |             |            |             |         |v. pl. 4.
  |             |            |             |         |
11|Breviary     |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |Something like 7.
  |             |            |Harl. 2975   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
12|Offices      |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._     |
  |             |            |Add. 16968   |1390-1400|
  |             |            |             |         |
13|"            |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1410|Executed for Anne
  |             |            |Add. 16998   |         |Mauleverer.
  |             |            |             |         |
14|Liber Albus  |London      |Guildhall    |"        |Bracket borders.
  |             |            |Lib., London |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
15|Liber de Hyda|Winchester  |Shirburn     |"        |Richly illuminated
  |             |            |Castle Lib.  |         |borders, some
  |             |            |             |         |unfinished. See Rolls
  |             |            |             |         |Series. 1866.
  |             |            |             |         |
16|Offices      |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._     |Early Lancastrian.
  |             |            |Roy. 2 B. 1  |1400-1410|
  |             |            |             |         |
17|Grandison    |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1410|Fine initials with
  |Offices      |            |Roy. 2 A. 18 |         |Lancastrian brackets.
  |             |            |             |         |See _Bibliographica_,
  |             |            |             |         |v. pl. 5.
  |             |            |             |         |
18|Occleve de   |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1415|Traceried backgrounds
  |Regim.       |            |Ar. 38       |         |in Bohemian manner.
  |Principum    |            |             |         |Cf. Will. v. Orange
  |             |            |             |         |MS.
  |             |            |             |         |
19|Ormonde      |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1420|Similar to 17. Called
  |Offices      |            |Roy. 2 B. 15 |         |by Humphreys (_Books
  |             |            |             |         |of Middle Ages_)
  |             |            |             |         |_Queen Mary's
  |             |            |             |         |Breviary_.
  |             |            |             |         |
20|Gower's      |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |"        |Lancastrian style.
  |Confessio    |            |Harl. 3490   |         |
  |Amantis      |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
21|Psalter of   |St. Alban's |Brit. Mus.,  |1460     |Fine English work.
  |Queen Mary   |            |Roy. 2 B. 7  |         |Presented in 1553 to
  |             |            |             |         |Queen Mary
  |             |            |             |         |
22|Horæ         |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1460|Many mediocre
  |             |            |Harl. 2884   |         |illuminations.
  |             |            |             |         |
23|Gospels and  |London      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1508|Given by Stephen and
  |Epistles,    |            |Roy. 2 B. 12,|         |Margaret Jenyns to
  |etc.         |            |13           |         |the church at
  |             |            |             |         |Aldermanbury, London.
  |             |            |             |         |
24|Bourchier    |"           |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1458|Contains Bourchier
  |Psalter      |            |Roy. 2 B. 14 |         |obituaries.
  |             |            |             |         |
25|Psalter and  |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |_c._ 1470|Good text and many
  |Canticles,   |            |Harl. 1719   |         |illuminated letters
  |etc.         |            |             |         |and borders.


SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE

--+-------------+--------------------------+---------+---------------------
No|    Name.    |   Where    | Where Kept. |  Date.  |      Remarks.
  |             |  Produced. |             |         |
--+-------------+------------+-------------+---------+---------------------
 1|Hours, etc., |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |......   |Netherlandish
  |Lat. and     |            |Add. 18193   |         |influence.
  |Catalan.     |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 2|Offices      |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |......   |Italian influence.
  |B.M.V.       |            |Add. 28271   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 3|Hidalguia    |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |1604     |In Genoese manner.
  |             |            |Add. 12214   |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 4|Diploma of   |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |17th     |"
  |Philip III.  |            |Roy. Claud.  |cent.    |
  |             |            |B. x.        |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 5|Patent to    |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |1797     |Allegorical designs.
  |Princ. de la |            |Add. 1706    |         |
  |Paz          |            |             |         |
  |             |            |             |         |
 6|Ordo Miss.   |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |17th     |Roman text, good
  |Pontificales |            |Add. 30857   |cent.    |initials.
  |             |            |             |         |
 7|Portuguese   |......      |Brit. Mus.,  |......   |Written for John
  |Missal       |            |Stowe 597    |         |III., King of
  |             |            |             |         |Portugal.
  |             |            |             |         |
 8|Hidalguia de |Spain       |Brit. Mus.,  |1578     |Granted by Philip
  |Gonsalo de   |            |Add. 22143   |         |II., with his
  |Castro Cepeda|            |             |         |portrait.




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Lecoy de la Marche, A. _Les MSS. et la Miniature._ 12mo. Paris, 1884.
Woodcuts.

Leitschuh, F.F. _Geschichte der Karolingischen Malerei, etc._ Berlin,
1894. Many prototype facsimiles.

Libri, Gul. _Monumens inédits._ Folio. London, 1864. 65 plates.


Madden, Sir Fred. _Universal Palæography._ 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1850.

Marchal, J. _Cat. des MSS. de la bibl. royale des dues de Bourgogne._ 3
vols. 4to. Brussels, 1842.

Middleton, J.H. _Illuminated MSS. in Classical and Mediæval Times: their
Art and their Technique._ Large 8vo. Cambridge University Press, 1892.

Milanesi, G. _Documenti per la Storia dell' arte Senese,_ etc. 8vo.
Siena, 1854-56.

Molinier, A. _Les MSS. et les Miniatures._ 12mo. Paris, 1892. Woodcuts.

Monte Cassino. _Paleografia artistica._ Monte Cassino, 1877. Folio.
Facsimiles in gold and colours, etc., from Gothic and Lombardic MSS.

Montfaucon. _Palæographia Græca._ Small folio. Parisiis, 1708.

Mugnier, Fr. _Les MSS. à miniatures de la Maison de Savoie, etc._ 8vo.
Moutiers-Tarantaise, 1894. 17 phototypes.


Ottley, W.Y. _History of Engraving._ 4to. London, 1816.


Peignot, Gabr. _Essai sur l'histoire du parchemin et du vélin._ 8vo.
Paris, 1812.

Pinchart, A. _Miniaturistes, Enlumineurs, et Calligraphes Employés par
Philippe le Bon, etc._ 8vo. Bruxelles, 1865.

_Publications of the Palæographical Society of London._ Folio. Vol.
vii., etc. Very useful.


Quaritch, B. _Examples of the Art of Book-illumination during the Middle
Ages._ 4to. London, 1899. Fine facsimiles in gold and colours.


Raczynski, A. (Cte.). _Les arts en Portugal._ 8vo. Paris, 1846.

Rahn, J.R. _Das Psalterium Aureum v. Sanct Gallen._ Folio. St. Gallen,
1878. u chromolithogr. in colours and gold. 7 lithogr. and many
woodcuts. (A capital account of Carolingian and Irish MSS.)


Sacken, Ed. Frh. von. _Die Ambraser Sammlung._ 8vo. Wien, 1855.

Sakcinski, J.K. _Leben des Giulio Clovio._ 8vo. Agram, 1852.

Sakcinski, J.K. _Slovnik umjetnah Jugoslavenskih. (Biographical Dict. of
South Slavonic Artists.)_ 8vo. Uzagreba, 1858.

Sanftl, K. _Dissertatio in aureum ac pervetustum SS. Evangelior. Codicem
MS. Monast. S. Emmerani._ 410. Ratisbonæ, 1786. Gives a large folding
plate of the Gospel-book cover, and facsimiles of illumination and
writing.

Schönemann. _100 Merkwürdigkeiten des Herzoglichen Biblioth. zu
Wolfenbüttel._ 8vo. Hannover, 1849.

Schultz, A. _Deutsches Leben in 14ten und 15ten Jahrh._ 2 vols. Large
8vo. Wien, 1892. (Contains many facsimiles in gold and colours, from
German and Bohemian MSS.)

Serapeum, _Zeitschrift für Bibliothekens Wissenschaft._ 8vo. Leipzig.
Vol. vii.

Seroux D'Agincourt, J. _Historie de l'Art par les Monuments._ Folio. 3
vols. Paris, 1823. London, 1847. Engravings.

Shaw, H. _The Art of Illuminating as Practised in the Middle Ages._
Second edition. 4to. London, 1845. Plates.

Shaw, H. _Alphabets, Numerals, and Devices of the Middle Ages._ Folio.
London, W. Pickering, 1845. Many plates, some in gold and colours.

Silvestre, J.B. _Paléographie universelle._ 4 vols. Folio. Paris, 1841.
600 plates. (Plates very good.)

Smet, J.J. de. _Quelques recherches sur nos anciens enlumineurs, etc._
In _Bulletin de l'Académie de Belgique,_ t. xiv., pt. 2, p. 78, and
_Bullet. du Bibliophile Belge_, t. iii., p. 376, t. iv., p. 176.

Stokes, M. _Early Christian Art in Ireland._ 12mo. London, 1887.
Woodcuts. (Victoria and Albert M. Handbook.)

Swarzenski, G. _Die Regensburger Buchmalerei des X. und XI.
Jahrhunderts._ Large 8vo. Leipzig, 1901. 35 phototypes.


Tambroni, G. _Cennino Cennini: Trattato della Pittura._ 8vo. Roma, 1821.
Later edition (Milanesi), Firenze, 1859. (Contains many practical
directions and recipes.)

Thompson, Sir Edward M. _English Illuminated MSS._ In _Bibliographica_,
vol. i. pp. 129, 385, etc. Large 8vo. London, 1895.


Venturi, Ad. _La miniatura ferrarese nel secolo XV., etc._ Folio. Roma,
1899. 4 chromolithographs and 7 phototypes. In _Le Gallerie Nazionale
Italiane._ Vol. iv., 187.

Viel-Castel, Cte. _Horace de. Statuts de l'Ordre du Saint-Esprit, etc.
MS. du 14e Siècle avec une notice sur la peinture des MSS._ Large
folio. Paris, 1853. 17 very fine facsimiles in gold and colours.

Vogelsang, W. _Holländische Miniaturen des späteren Mittelalters._ Large
8vo. Strassburg, 1899. Many phototype facsimiles.


Wailly, J.N. de. _Élémens de Paléographie._ 2 thick vols. 4to. Paris,
1838. Many plates of writing, seals, etc.

Wallther, J.L. _Lexicon diplomaticum._ Folio. 1751. Many examples of
writings.

Waagen, G.F. _On the Importance of MSS. with Miniatures in the History
of Art._ 8vo. Philobiblon Society. Vol. i. London, 1854.

Waagen, G.F. _Die Vornehmsten Künstler in Wien._ 8vo. Wien, 1866. (MSS.
in Imperial Library, etc., in Vienna.)

Warner, G.F. _Miniatures and Borders from the Hours of Bona Sforza,
Duchess of Milan._ Small 4to. London, 1894. 65 sepia facsimiles.

Warner, G.F. _Illuminated MSS. in the British Museum._ 4to. London,
1899, etc. Many coloured facsimiles.

Wattenbach, W. _Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter._ 8vo. Leipzig, 1871.

Westwood, J.O. _Palæographia Sacra Pictoria._ 4to. London, 1845. 50
facsimile plates, mostly in colours and gold.

Westwood, J.O. _Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and Irish MSS._
Folio. Oxford, 1868. Many fine facsimiles in colours.

Wyatt, M.D., and Tymms. _The Art of Illuminating._ Large 8vo. London,
1860. Many facsimiles in gold and colours.





End of Project Gutenberg's Illuminated Manuscripts, by John W. Bradley