PART I.

Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).

* * * * *

[Illustration]

THE HISTORY,

THEORY, AND PRACTICE

OF

ILLUMINATING.

SKETCHED BY

M. DIGBY WYATT, V.P.R.I.B.A.

ETC.

With Illustrations by

W. R. TYMMS.

CONDENSED FROM

"The Art of Illuminating,"

BY THE

SAME ILLUSTRATOR AND AUTHOR.

_London_:

DAY AND SON, _Lithographers to the Queen_,

GATE STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.

HISTORICAL MANUAL.

LIST OF PLATES.

PLATE I.--From the fragments of the Bible of Charles the Bald, preserved

in the British Museum, Harleian 7551. In most of the MSS. of the date of

Charlemagne and his immediate successors, the ornamental forms are

generally compounded of Anglo-Saxon and semi-classical details; thus,

fig. 1 presents us with a lunette, or arch-filling, borrowed from some

Latin type; while in figs. 3, 4, 5, the interlaced knots, and in figs. 2

and 6 the "zoomorphic" terminations, are equally characteristic of Celtic

art. This class of conventional design, although apparently complicated,

is of comparatively easy execution, and on that account forms a suitable

style for the young illuminator to try his "'prentice hand" upon.

PLATE II. gives the outline of the preceding plate, and the beginner may

make his first attempt at practical illumination in an endeavour to make

it resemble Plate I. as closely as possible.

PLATE III., from the same source as Plate I., gives, in figs. 1 and 4,

two alphabets, and in fig. 2 one sentence, in the characters in which the

Latin text of the original is written throughout the volume, with the

usual form of initial letter; together with, in fig. 3, an ornament

showing, on a largish scale, the principle upon which the most common

interlacement of the Saxon school is usually worked out.

It may be here noted that, considering it as likely to be more useful to

the student, throughout these illuminations the characters, which in the

originals express Latin, French, or barbarous English, have been arranged

to exhibit Scripture texts of simple language, such as may be frequently

desired for the embellishment of churches or schoolrooms.

PLATE IV., from the British Museum, Reg. 1, c. vii. This manuscript

consists of the Books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth, in the Vulgate

version, with St. Jerome's prologues. It is probably of German execution,

and is attributed by Sir Frederick Madden to the middle of the 12th

century. In its illustrations may be recognised a series of good

specimens of Romanesque forms. In these the scroll may be observed as

having almost entirely superseded the Carlovingian interlacement, while

in the foliated ends of the leading stems (more particularly in fig. 1)

the germination of Gothic is distinctly perceptible. The student will

scarcely fail to observe how entirely dependent this style of

illumination is upon the steadiness with which the pen is handled for all

its charm of expression.

PLATE V. gives the outline of the preceding plate, to be coloured as a

lesson in shading with the brush.

PLATE VI. provides an alphabet of capital letters, some initials, and a

complete sentence, taken from the same MS. which has furnished materials

for the two preceding plates.

PLATE VII. contains fully-coloured examples from the British Museum, Reg.

1 D, fully described at pages 47 and 48. In these we meet with the

plenitude of English mediæval illumination,--its freedom of drawing, its

vigour of colour, its exquisite delicacy, and the general facility of

design its wayward lines attest. In the best work there is a playfulness

not to be often found in the productions of the contemporary European

schools. It needs but little ingenuity to expand such features as those

which constitute figs. 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, from small book embellishments to

large _motives_ of elegant mural decoration.

PLATE VIII. is the corresponding outline to Plate VII.

PLATE IX. supplies the student with models taken from the same MS. (Reg.

1 D), of capital and initial letters, and ordinary text, suitable for

combination with the rich ornaments of Plate VII.

In this, as in all corresponding plates, the object aimed at is to

provide forms of lettering, at once tolerably legible, well-proportioned,

and adapted to harmonize, both historically and artistically, with the

styles of pictorial illumination given in connection with them. There are

few faults more common in modern work, or more offensive to the educated

eye, than the association of styles of lettering and styles of

ornamentation warring with each other in the proprieties of both time and

form. Against such it is our earnest object to guard the student, both by

precept and example.

PLATE X. furnishes some specimens of the beautiful borderings which

enrich the pages of that most precious relic of the 15th century, the

"Bedford Missal," or, more properly speaking, "Book of Hours." This

exquisite volume has been so fully dwelt upon at pages 55 and 56, that it

is necessary only to refer the reader to the notice given thereat.

In the examples collected on this plate, it is manifest that the

pictorial has not been allowed to usurp the proper province of the

conventional element of design, as it too frequently does in many works

of the same period, particularly in Italy,--undoubtedly beautiful as much

of the illumination of the 15th century was in that country.

PLATE XI. provides an outline of Plate X., for fully colouring in

facsimile.

PLATE XII. shows the general style of the lettering, both capital and

lower-case, the initials, and the borders which pervade this beautiful

triumph of Flemish art. Of these, figs. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 are

especially adapted for mural decoration, on, of course, a greatly

enlarged scale.

M. D. W.

37, TAVISTOCK PLACE, LONDON.

_April, 1861._

TECHNICAL MANUAL.

LIST OF PLATES.

PLATE I. is from the Speyer Passavant Charlemagne Bible, British Museum

add. 10,546, described at page 39 of the "Historical Manual." The student

cannot fail to observe how distinctly legible, and indeed how entirely

Roman in character, the alphabet of capitals remained so long after the

Augustan period as the ninth century after Christ. In the lower-case

letters, in which the text is written, the legibility is evident; but the

classical derivation through the uncial form of writing is not equally

manifest. Desiring to guide the beginner in the class of exercises most

likely to lead him on satisfactorily, we have in this technical manual in

every case allowed the outline illustrations of each style of writing to

precede the fully-coloured specimens of the corresponding ornament of the

leading epochs of the art of illumination; enforcing thereby our

conviction that the study and practice of that, which of old fell more

directly within the province of the scribe than within that of the

miniature painter, should invariably receive the student's first and

chief attention--for, let it always be remembered that good writing looks

well if enhanced by little, or the very simplest, ornament, while in

illumination the effect of the best possible painting is irretrievably

marred if the writing is irregular and badly formed or spaced.

PLATE II., from the same precious volume, provides some simple but

excellent conventional forms, suitable for execution both on a small and

on an enlarged scale. By repeating either one of the three borders at the

bottom of the plate, very pretty margins may be produced, suitable either

for surrounding a page of writing or for enclosing a panel in mural

decoration.

PLATE III. is an outline for practising colouring upon. In using these

outlines, it may be a profitable exercise occasionally to vary the

colours from those given on the corresponding plate. A comparison of the

effect produced by the original, and by its copy with variations, will

tend to fix on the memory of the artist the exact degree of merit of the

original and of the altered combinations of colour. The practical value

of an educated eye, no less than of an educated mind, is dependent on the

force and intelligence of the memory, and every exercise which can assist

in fixing a fleeting image on the brain is no less efficacious in

strengthening the one than it can be in developing the other.

PLATE IV., from the Harleian MS. No. 2,804, gives one of our usual

exercises upon the main structural features of all illumination--the

alphabets, initial letters, and small borderings. These, in this case in

the Romanesque style, have been taken from a very remarkable Bible

formerly belonging to the church of St. Mary, near Worms. For further

notice of this and similar volumes, see "Historical Manual," page 43. The

main use to the student of this class of lesson is to give him steadiness

of hand in the use of the pen; a word or two of counsel upon which may

not be altogether unprofitable to him. Firstly, then, let him avoid the

habit of allowing the pen to touch the paper before he has clearly made

up his mind where it is to go and when it is to be taken off. An

ill-directed line instantly reveals a listless mind, and a careful master

can generally detect the exact points in his work at which the attention

of a usually diligent pupil has been abstracted from it. Secondly, he

should never express by half a dozen or more separate strokes forms which

may be defined by a single continuous line. Thirdly, let him practise

moving the pen or pencil, not up and down only, but in every direction,

until equal facility is acquired in drawing spirals from left to right

and from right to left. Fourthly, it is well to hold the pen or pencil

nearly vertical, just touching, but scarcely ever pressing heavily on,

the surface of the drawing. Fifthly, he should by no means aim at dash or

spirit until he is quite sure that his lines are correct: nothing betrays

the ill-educated artist more surely and readily to those who know better

than a bold stroke where a delicate one would be more appropriate, or a

dark touch in the wrong place. It is the ignorant only who are misled by

an appearance of _bravura_, vigour, and facility.

PLATE V., fully coloured from the same source as Plate IV., offers in

figs. 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8, some easy borders, well adapted for enriching

string courses or filling in long upright panels or pilasters. The

initial letters (figs. 1 and 6) are designed with great spirit, and the

student may profitably amuse himself by endeavouring to invent other

capital letters made up as these are of apocryphal animals writhing in

convoluted scrollwork.

PLATE VI. gives the outline for colouring in _fac simile_ of Plate V.

PLATE VII., from a Latin Bible of fine English illumination early in the

fourteenth century (British Museum, Reg. 15, D. 2), corresponds in the

general character of both its technical and chronological peculiarities

with those shown on Plates VII., VIII., and IX., of the "Historical

Manual." The two MSS., however, from which the two series of plates have

been taken, differ in some material respects, and it will be well for the

student to practise the leading characteristics of each. One is of

extraordinary delicacy, the other of great vigour of execution. The

latter stamps the MS. from which the plate under consideration is taken.

The student is invited to observe the grace and freedom with which the

floral terminations of the principal initial (fig. 2) dash away,

extending to both the top and bottom of the page, and not unfrequently in

similar examples embracing, as it were, the text on two or more sides.

(See "Historical Manual," page 47.) Great attention must now be bestowed

upon the writing; so that neither the true Mediæval character may be

destroyed, nor so exaggerated as to lose clearness and legibility: a

little care and dexterity may preserve both.

PLATE VIII. is intended to draw out all the capabilities of the

illuminator. Raised, burnished, and engraved, or indented gold, are

essential to a proper realization of a revival of such old work; and the

student who would rival in his productions the sober richness of the

brushes of the artist monks of the fourteenth century, must carefully

study the combinations of colour given in the "Mappæ Clavicula." Figs. 2,

5, and 6, offer examples of the tesselated burnished diaper grounds, and

fillings in, which superseded to a great extent the flat burnished golden

grounds of earlier dates. Such diapers are little less well adapted for

walls or ceilings than they are for book decoration. It can be scarcely

necessary to dwell upon what must be perfectly obvious, the great beauty

of the initial letters (figs. 1, 3, and 4) given on this sheet.

PLATE IX. is a careful outline of the above.

PLATE X., from the Missal of Ferdinand and Isabella (British Museum, Add.

1851), described at page 57 of the "Historical Manual," introduces us to

the pictorial, or rather miniature style,--one, which can only be

excelled in by those who are prepared to devote themselves to painting as

no longer a decorative, but as essentially a "fine art." Far am I from

saying that the highest possible art was not brought to bear upon much

Mediæval illumination; all that I would convey is, that care and neatness

may produce very respectable reproductions of ordinary ornamental work,

such as was commonly used during the fourteenth, and early in the

fifteenth centuries; but that they alone will be found quite inadequate

to imitate successfully the highly modelled and fully shadowed foliage,

landscape, architectural groups, and figure subjects, which incessantly

recur in books illuminated at periods corresponding with the great

Renaissance of art under the Van Eycks and Memlings of Flanders, the

Durers of Germany, and the Peruginos, Pinturicchios, and Raffaelles, of

Italy.

PLATE XI., fully coloured from the same source as Plate X., can only be

satisfactorily copied by the student, who may have learnt to shadow with

the brush from either objects "in the round," or from really good copies,

either by very great personal devotion and perseverance, or under an

experienced master.

PLATE XII. gives a careful outline of the preceding plate.

M. D. W.

37, TAVISTOCK PLACE, LONDON.

_April, 1861._

[Illustration]

PART I.

WHAT ILLUMINATING WAS.

In the following pages an attempt has been made to concentrate into limited

dimensions that which has generally been treated very voluminously. Few

authors, who have tried both, will feel inclined to deny, that it is a much

more difficult task to compress a great subject into a little book

successfully, than it is to expand a little subject into a great book.

Where materials of the highest interest, historically, artistically, and

intellectually, abound, the danger is lest suppression and condensation may

not break the links essential to bind a perspicuous narrative together. I

must, therefore, on these grounds claim the indulgence of the reader, who

may, I trust, be induced by the very imperfections of my story, to recur to

the pages of those more copious and learned writers on the subjects, who

have bestowed upon its elucidation long lives of exemplary and pertinacious

industry.

Before, however, entering on my theme, it is my duty to point out to the

reader, that although, for popular convenience and simplicity, it has been

deemed expedient to divide the history of the Art of Illuminating from the

theory of its use and practice, I have considered that each of the

subdivided parts would be made more valuable by association, and by being

made mutually suggestive and illustrative--by being, in fact, cast as two

parts of one work, rather than as two separate works. I have not,

therefore, hesitated to refer in this, the "Historical Manual," to the

historical interest of plates contained in the technical, nor in the

"Technical Manual" to the technical interest of plates contained in the

historical. Much, indeed, of the matter contained in both should be

considered as common to the two. Thus the ancient technical processes are

no less historically interesting, than they may be likely, by a judicious

revival of such as may be worthy, to prove practically valuable in the

present day. Again, whatever proficiency a student may attain in the

manipulation of his or her drawing, gilding, or painting, it will be in

vain to hope to be enabled to produce a work of art which shall be

satisfactory to the educated eye and taste, until a very considerable

acquaintance has been made with the peculiarities of the various styles in

which our forefathers delighted. No originality can ever be permanently

agreeable which does not discard the precise conventional form of a period,

which is but a mode or transient fashion, in favour of the principles which

pervade all synchronous works of art, and which, transmute them as we may,

must ever remain permanent through all time. Historically we should

remember that miniature ornament of every period reflects on a diminished

scale, and frequently in a highly concentrated form, the leading spirit

which may have pervaded the greater revolutions of monumental art. Owing to

the license which the diminished scale afforded, the imagination of the

artist in these works was restricted by none of those material impediments

which, in the execution of the major monuments of art, protracted the

realization of the changing fashions of the day, frequently until long

after the period when the original impulse may have been communicated to

the art in which those variations were possibly but transient fluctuations.

Thus it is that in these relics of the past may frequently be traced

artistic impulses destined to find no other embodiment than the form in

which they are presented to us in the pages of a manuscript. The

copiousness, then, of such documentary illustrations of the invention of

remote periods is one of the most valuable features of the teaching they

should convey to us. No revival nowadays of any historical style by the

architect can be satisfactory which is not based upon a knowledge, not of

the purely architectural features of the period alone, but of the condition

and characteristics of all those decorative details which distinguished it

as a living reality from the effete and denuded relic which may now only

present itself for our information. Thus even the Saxon and Romanesque

styles of architecture may, through the architect's careful attention to

the decorative features exhibited to us in the pages of ancient illuminated

books, be revived, not in their rude and structural nudity, but as glowing

with those colours, and decorated with those forms, which we may observe as

peculiarly affected in the ornamental and pictorial embellishments of the

best artists of the days when those styles were the only ones popularly

adopted. And not only are the beautiful ornaments and decorative features

of illuminated manuscripts valuable as supplying us with correct

information as to the system of embellishment regarded by the best artists

of each period as harmonizing most perfectly with the structural styles

prevalent in their days; but in the measure of their permanent beauty they

are no less valuable to us as indications of what is excellent for all

time.

Thus, then, they may be used, either as enabling us to restore the most

brilliant features of the historic styles with an accuracy to be acquired

from no other sources of information, or they may be regarded as providing

us with materials for that more extended system of eclectic selection which

must afford the only basis of perfection and originality in any styles

which we may desire now or hereafter to originate; and the origination and

perfection of which we may desire to bequeath to succeeding generations, as

testimonies that, in the nineteenth century, there lived men as capable of

the creation of beauty as any whose happiest inventions are to be found in

the pages of these ancient and most precious volumes.

In opening this historical sketch, I need scarcely recall the facts, that

not only was that which we know as the earliest type of writing the most

pictorial, but that it was also embellished with colour from the most

remote ages. A glance at the pages of Rosselini or Lepsius will suffice to

convince us that the monumental hieroglyphics of the Egyptians were almost

invariably painted with the liveliest tints; and when similar hieroglyphics

were executed on a reduced scale, and in a more cursive form upon papyri,

or scrolls made from the leaves of the papyrus, the common flowering rush

of the Nile, illumination was also employed to make the leading pages more

attractive to the eye. Nor was such illumination peculiar to hieroglyphic

characters; it prevailed also, but not to the same extent, in the hieratic

and demotic modes of writing. Of such papyri notable specimens may be seen

in the British Museum; the most wonderful in existence, however, is the

remarkably interesting and graphic illustration of the funeral of a

Pharaoh, preserved in the Royal Museum at Turin.

Extraordinary dexterity was acquired in a conventional mode of expressing

complicated forms by a few rapid touches, and the life and spirit with

which familiar scenes are represented, and ornaments executed, in both the

early and late papyri, are truly remarkable. The precise extent to which

the Greeks and Romans were indebted to the Egyptians for the origination

and use of alphabetic symbols, the learned have not yet agreed upon. They

have, however, concurred in recognizing the fact that Egypt certainly

supplied the principal materials by means of which writing was ordinarily

practised. The primitive books of the ancients were no other than rolls

formed of papyri, prepared in the following manner:--Two leaves of the rush

were plastered together, usually with the mud of the Nile, in such a

fashion that the fibres of one leaf should cross the fibres of the other at

right angles; the ends of each being then cut off, a square leaf was

obtained, equally capable of resisting fracture when pulled or taken hold

of in any direction. In this form the papyri were exported in great

quantities. In order to form these single leaves into the "scapi," or rolls

of the ancients (the prototypes of the rotuli of the Middle Ages), about

twenty were glued together end to end. The writing was then executed in

parallel columns a few inches wide, running transversely to the length of

the scroll. To each end of the scrolls were attached round staves similar

to those we use for maps. To these staves, strings, known as "umbilici,"

were attached, to the ends of which bullæ or weights were fixed. The books

when rolled up, were bound up with these umbilici, and were generally kept

in cylindrical boxes or capsæ, a term from which the Mediæval "capsula," or

book-cover, was derived. The mode in which the students held the rolls in

order to read from them is well shown in a painting in the house of a

surgeon at Pompeii. One of the staves, with the papyrus rolled round it,

was held in each hand, at a distance apart equal to the width of one or

more of the transverse columns of writing. As soon as the eye was carried

down to the bottom of a column, one hand rolled up and the other unrolled

sufficient of the papyrus to bring a fresh column opposite to the reader's

eye, and so on until the whole was wound round one of the staves, when, of

course, the student had arrived at the end of his book. Eumenes, king of

Pergamus, being unable to procure the Egyptian papyrus, through the

jealousy of one of the Ptolemies, who occupied himself in forming a rival

library to the one which subsequently became so celebrated at Pergamus,

introduced the use of parchment properly "dressed" for taking ink and

pigments; and hence the derivation of the word "pergamena" as applied to

parchment or vellum; the former substance being the prepared skin of sheep,

and the latter of calves.[1]

The sheets of parchment were joined end to end, as the sheets of papyrus

had been, and when written upon, on one side only, and in narrow columns

across the breadth of the scroll, were rolled up round staves and bound

with strings, to which seals of wax were occasionally attached, in place of

the more common leaden bullæ.

The custom of dividing books into pages is said by Suetonius to have been

introduced by Julius Cæsar, whose letters to the Senate were so made up,

and after whose time the practice became usual for all documents either

addressed to, or issuing from, that body, or the emperors. As that form

subsequently crept into general use, the books were known as "codices;" and

hence the ordinary term as applied to manuscript volumes. All classes of

books, the reeds for writing in them, the inkstands, and the "capsæ" or

"scrinia," the boxes in which the "scapi" or rolls were kept, are minutely

portrayed in ancient wall-paintings and ivory diptychs. The inkstands are

generally shown as double, no doubt for containing both black and red ink,

with the latter of which certain portions of the text were written.[2]

Nearly two thousand actual rolls were discovered at Herculaneum, of course

in a highly-carbonized condition, and of them some hundreds have been

unrolled. None appear to have been embellished with illumination;[3] so

that for proof of the practice of the art in classical times, we are thrown

back upon the classical authors themselves. The allusions in their writings

to the employment of red and black ink are frequent. Martial, in his first

epistle, points out the bookseller's shop opposite the Julian Forum, in

which his works may be obtained "smoothed with pumice-stone and decorated

with purple." Seneca mentions books ornamented "cum imaginibus." Varro is

related by Pliny to have illustrated his works by likenesses of more than

seven hundred illustrious persons. Pliny again informs us that writers on

medicine gave representations in their treatises of the plants which they

described. Martial dwells on the editions of Virgil, with his portrait as a

frontispiece. The earliest recorded instance of the richer adornments of

golden lettering on purple or rose-stained vellum, is given by Julius

Capitolinus in his life of the Emperor Maximinus the younger. He therein

mentions that the mother of the emperor presented to him, on his return to

his tutor (early in the 3rd century), a copy of the works of Homer, written

in gold upon purple vellum. Whether derived from Egypt or the East, this

luxurious mode of embellishment appears to have been popular among the

later Greeks, a class of whose scribes were denominated "writers in gold."

From Greece it was, no doubt, transplanted to Rome, where, from about the

2nd century, it, at first slowly, and ultimately rapidly, acquired

popularity. St. Jerome, indeed, writing in the 4th century, in a well-known

passage in his preface to the Book of Job, exclaims:--"Habeant qui volunt

veteres libros vel in membranis purpureis auro argentoque descriptos vel

uncialibus, ut vulgo aiunt, literis, onera magis exarata quam codices;

dummodo mihi meisque permittant pauperes habere scedulas, et non tam

pulchros codices quam emendatos."[4]

This almost pathetic appeal of the great commentator was scarcely necessary

to assure us that such sumptuous volumes were executed for the rich alone,

since the value of the gold and vellum, irrespective of the labour

employed, must necessarily have taken them, as he indicates, altogether out

of the reach of the poor. Evidence indeed is not wanting, that many of the

Fathers of the Church laboured with their own hands to supply themselves

with writings, which no golden letters or purpled vellums could make more

valuable to them or their primitive followers: thus, Pamphilus, the martyr,

who suffered in the year 309, possessed, in his own handwriting,

twenty-five stitched books, containing the works of Origen. St. Ambrose,

St. Fulgentius, and others, themselves transcribed many volumes, precious

to themselves and most edifying to the faithful. Whatever ornaments or

pictures these volumes contained, no doubt reproduced the style of art

fostered, if not engendered, in the Catacombs.

Roman illuminated manuscripts would appear, therefore, to have been mainly

divisible into two classes; firstly, those in which the text, simply but

elegantly written in perfectly-formed, or rustic (that is, inclined)

capitals, mainly in black and sparingly in red ink, was illustrated by

pictures, usually square, inserted in simple frames, generally of a red

border only; and secondly, the richer kind, in which at first gold letters,

on white and stained vellum grounds, and subsequently black and coloured

letters and ornaments on gold grounds, were introduced. The first of these

appears to have been the most ancient style, and to have long remained

popular in the Western Empire, while the second, which, as Sir Frederick

Madden has observed, no doubt came originally to the Romans from the

Greeks, acquired its greatest perfection under the early emperors of the

East.

Of both styles there are still extant some invaluable specimens, which,

although not of the finest periods of art, may still be regarded as typical

of masterpieces which may have existed, and which fire or flood, Goth or

Vandal, may have destroyed. Before proceeding, however, to an enumeration

of any of these, it may be well to define certain terms which must be

employed to designate the peculiarities of character in which the different

texts were written, some slight knowledge of which is of great assistance

in arriving at a proximate knowledge of the dates at which they may have

been executed. Such a definition cannot be more succinctly given than in

the following passage, extracted from Mr. Noel Humphrey's interesting work

"On the Origin and Progress of the Art of Writing:"--[5]

"Nearly all the principal methods of ancient writing may be divided into

square capitals, rounded capitals, and cursive letters; the square capitals

being termed simply _capitals_, the rounded capitals _uncials_, and the

small letters, or such as had changed their form during the creation of a

running hand, _minuscule_. Capitals are, strictly speaking, such letters as

retain the earliest settled form of an alphabet; being generally of such

angular shapes as could conveniently be carved on wood or stone, or

engraved in metal, to be stamped on coins. The earliest Latin MSS. known

are written entirely in capitals, like inscriptions in metal or marble.

"The uncial letters, as they are termed, appear to have arisen as writing

on papyrus or vellum became common, when many of the straight lines of the

capitals, in that kind of writing, gradually acquired a _curved_ form, to

facilitate their more rapid execution. However this may be, from the 6th to

the 8th, or even 10th century, these uncials or partly-rounded capitals

prevail.

"The modern minuscule, differing from the ancient cursive character,

appears to have arisen in the following manner. During the 6th and 7th

centuries, a kind of transition style prevailed in Italy and some other

parts of Europe, the letters composing which have been termed

_semi-uncials_, which, in a further transition, became more like those of

the old Roman cursive. This manner, when definitively formed, became what

is now termed the minuscule manner; it began to prevail over uncials in a

certain class of MSS. about the 8th century, and towards the 10th its

general use was, with few exceptions, established. It is said to have been

occasionally used as early as the 5th century; but I am unable to cite an

authentic existing monument. The Psalter of Alfred the Great, written in

the 9th century, is in a small Roman cursive hand, which has induced Casley

to consider it the work of some Italian ecclesiastic."

To return from this digression on the character of ancient handwriting, to

the examples still extant of the two great sections into which the

manuscripts of classical ages may be divided, I would observe, that, first

in importance and interest of the first class may certainly be reckoned the

Vatican square Virgil with miniatures, which has been referred by many of

the best palæographers to the 3rd century. It is written throughout in

majuscule Roman capitals, which, although MM. Champollion and Sylvestre[6]

describe them as of an "elegant but careless form," appeared to me, when I

examined the volume minutely in 1846,[7] to exhibit great care and

regularity. The miniatures, many engravings from drawings traced from which

are given in D'Agincourt's "Histoire de l'Art par les Monuments,"[8] are

altogether classical, both in design and in the technical handling of the

colours, which are applied with a free brush, and apparently in the true

antique manner, _i.e._, with scarcely any previous or finishing outline.

These miniatures have also been engraved by Pietro Santo Bartoli, but not

with his usual accuracy of style. A complete set of coloured tracings made

by him are in the British Museum (Lansdowne Coll.), but they even are not

quite satisfactory. The Terence of the Vatican, which is without

miniatures, is in a somewhat similar writing, and belongs to about the same

period. The third in importance of the ancient Vatican manuscripts of this

class, is in the rustic instead of elegant capital lettering, and is

supposed to be of the 5th century; certainly not later. It is a Virgil,

decorated throughout with pictures executed in apparent imitation of the

square Virgil, but in a much more barbarous and lifeless style.[9] From an

entry of the 13th century contained in the volume,[10] and from our

knowledge of its having been long and at a remote period, preserved in

France, it would appear to have belonged to the Parisian monastery of St.

Denis, if not to the Saint himself.

So far as antiquity, irrespective of merit in point of illumination is

concerned, the most remarkable ancient Roman manuscript[11] existing

belongs to the curious class known as "Palimpsests," or books from which

the colouring matter of an original writing has been discharged, in order

to prepare the vellum for receiving an altogether different text, the

latter being generally written at right angles to the former.[12] This

precious document is the celebrated treatise "de Republicâ," by Cicero,

written in uncial characters, evidently in an Augustan period, and was

discovered by Cardinal Angelo Mai, under a copy of St. Augustine's

Commentary on the Psalms, made previous to the 10th century.

The Ambrosian Library at Milan contains a codex of Homer, of equal

antiquity with the Cicero, with fifty-eight pictures, much in the style of

the Vatican square Virgil. This important MS. has been commented upon by

the same distinguished antiquary.[13]

The Vienna Roman calendar, supposed to have been executed in the 4th

century, and embellished with eight allegorical figures of the months, is

both an early and very important specimen of Roman illumination, not only

on account of the elegance and dexterous execution of these figures, but

because it is the most ancient manuscript in which anything like ornament,

independent of pictured illustration of the author's text, is introduced.

Of little less note in the history of art, is the celebrated Dioscorides of

the same imperial library, the date of which is fixed by the fact of its

being enriched with a very graceful portrait of the Empress Juliana Anicia,

for whom it is known to have been written at the commencement of the 6th

century. Both Lambecius[14] and D'Agincourt give various facsimiles

(omitting colour) of the fine illustrations which decorate this remarkable

volume.

Another 5th century Virgil of remarkable purity in the text, although

without miniatures, is the well-known "Medicean" of the Laurentian Library

at Florence. The Paris Prudentius, in elegant rustic capitals of the 6th

century, is another fine codex of the same type. There are, in addition to

those already cited, various other early texts of the classics contained in

the different public libraries of Europe; and it is singular to remark,

that (so far as I have been able to ascertain) none of them are embellished

with those richer decorations, which appear to have been reserved after the

end of the 5th century, for the great text-books of the Christian, and more

particularly of the Eastern Church. Of these sacred volumes, that which is

generally supposed to be the oldest complete version of the Bible in

Greek,[15] is the Codex Alexandrinus of the British Museum, attributed, by

consent of all the best Palæographers, to the commencement of the 5th

century. It is without gold altogether, and has no other illumination than

the occasional contrast of red and black inks, and a line slightly

flourished, at the close of each book.[16] The next fragment of the

Scriptures, in point of probable date, is the once celebrated Cottonian

Genesis, or at least its ghost; for unfortunately a few charred and

shrunken fragments are all that have been saved from the disastrous fire

which destroyed so many of Sir Robert Cotton's precious volumes in 1731. In

its original state, as we know from several collations made previous to the

fire, it contained, on 165 pages, no less than 250 miniatures, each about

four inches square. Astle[17] has given a facsimile of a page, which, on

comparison with the existing shrivelled fragments, proves that in their

present state they are just about one half their original size. The

paintings are in all respects antique, and correspond in general character

with contemporary secular miniatures. Dr. Waagen[18] remarks that "only the

hatched gold upon the borders, the glories, and the lights on the crimson

mantle indicate the commencement of Byzantine art." The great rival to the

"Codex Cottonianus Geneseos" is the "Codex Vindobonensis Geneseos," which

consists of twenty-six leaves with eighty-eight miniatures. It forms one of

the four great lions of the Vienna Imperial Library. These two remarkable

versions of Genesis are supposed to be of nearly equal date, and correspond

as to the character of the truly antique miniatures very fairly; the fact,

however, of the text of the English version being in black ink with very

regularly-formed letters, while that of the Vienna one is, for the most

part, written in gold and silver, and in less evenly-distributed

characters, induces a fair presumption in favour of the greater antiquity

of the Cottonian fragments. In the more gorgeous details of the Vienna

Genesis, coupled with its square and unadorned classic pictures, we may

thus clearly recognize the transition from our first or Latin class of

ancient illumination, to our second or purely Byzantine style. We

especially designate this class as "Byzantine," because as art in

illumination, as in all other branches, declined in the seven-hilled city,

it rose in the seat of empire founded in the East by the first great

Christian emperor. It is true that ideal art degenerated almost

contemporaneously in the capitals of both empires; but in decorative art,

at least, there can be no question but that Byzantium gained, as Rome lost,

ground. The former no doubt drew fresh inspiration from her close

intercourse with the Persian and other nations of the East, while the

latter was content to produce little, and that little in slavish

reminiscence of the past. Italy no doubt fed the earliest monastic

libraries of Western Europe with the quantities of texts of ancient authors

we know them to have contained; but we may fairly assume those texts to

have been but rarely illustrated, since the original styles of illumination

produced in those countries to which the classic volumes travelled, would

unquestionably have betrayed an antique influence more strongly than they

did, had the means of deriving that influence been brought copiously within

their reach.

I proceed now to a slight notice of the second class of ancient codices,

that on which the ultimate splendour of the Byzantine school was founded.

Fortunately, time has spared to our days several brilliant specimens of the

richest of these quasi-classic manuscripts. Of such, the principal are, as

Sir Frederick Madden observes,[19] "the celebrated Codex Argenteus of

Ulphilas, written in silver and gold letters on a purple ground, about A.D.

360, which is, perhaps, the most ancient existing specimen of this

magnificent mode of caligraphy; after it, may be instanced the copy of

Genesis at Vienna," already mentioned, the Psalter of St. Germain des Prés,

at Paris, and the fragment of the New Testament in the Cottonian Library,

Titus C. xv., all executed in the 5th and 6th centuries.

The first-named of these contains, on about 160 leaves, a considerable

portion of the four gospels, and is now preserved in the Royal Library of

Upsal, in Sweden. It is the earliest version of any part of the sacred

writings in the Moesogothic or ancient Wallachian dialect.[20] The second

of Sir Frederick Madden's notabilities has been alluded to as of transition

character. The third, the Psalter of St. Germain des Prés, is ascribed by

M. Champollion Figeac, who has given a portion of it in coloured facsimile

in the "Moyen Age et la Renaissance"[21] to the 6th century. It is

unquestionably a beautiful specimen of gold writing on purple; but neither

in the size of the letters nor in the ample spacing of the lines, will it

bear comparison with the, no doubt, earlier example, the Cottonian, Titus

C. xv. Our greatest authority upon all matters connected with early

illuminated versions of the Holy Scriptures, Mr. Westwood, remarks, in

speaking of this last-named manuscript, that "Codices purpureo-argentei are

much rarer than those in golden writing, the latter material being used not

only on purple, but also on white vellum; whereas the silver letters would

not easily be legible except on a dark ground. The writing is in very large

and massive Greek uncials; the words denoting God, Father, Jesus, Lord,

Son, and Saviour, being, for dignity's sake, written in golden letters. The

colour of the stain has faded into a dingy reddish purple, and the silver

is greatly tarnished and turned black. This fragment is stated by Horne to

be one of the oldest (if not the most ancient) manuscripts of any part of

the New Testament that is extant, and is generally acknowledged to have

been executed at the end of the 4th, or, at the latest, at the beginning of

the 5th century."

The Vienna gold, silver, and purple Gospels, the lettering of which

corresponds closely with that last described, may be regarded as certainly

next in importance, and are of about equal antiquity. In none of these

relics of magnificence are we enabled to trace the Eastern or Persian

influence, which unquestionably imported a previously unknown originality

and character into the art of Byzantium during the reign of Justinian the

Great, A.D. 527 to 565. It is, no doubt, true, as Dr. Waagen remarks,[22]

that "the style of painting up to his time, both in conception, form, and

colour, was much the same as that which has been preserved to us in the

paintings at Pompeii; while the spirit of Christianity, operating upon the

artistic Greek nature, stimulated it anew to beautiful and original

inventions. In a few single instances this style of art was maintained

until the 10th century; but, generally speaking, a gradual degeneracy

ensued, which may be dated from Justinian's period. The proportions of the

figures gradually became exaggerated, elongated, the forms contracted with

excessive meagreness, the motives of the drapery grew paltry, appearing

either in narrow parallel folds stiffly drawn together, or so overladen

with barbaric pearls and jewels as to exclude all indication of form. The

flesh assumed a dark tone, the other colours became heavy, gaudy, and hard;

while in glories, hatchings, and grounds, gold was called into requisition.

In these qualities, united to a gloomy and ascetic character of heads,

consist the elements of the Byzantine school." But, on the other hand, it

is ever to be remembered that the mortification of the old flesh was but a

symptom of the more active life beneath it, sloughing off the Pagan

tradition, and gradually replacing it by that new and healthy Christian

vigour which, for many centuries, nourished and aided the northern and

western nations of Europe in their efforts to organize those national

styles of Christian Art which are commonly designated as Gothic.[23]

To return to Justinian, and his direct influence on the change of style

which took place during his reign, it may be noted as a curious fact, that

the year in which the great Church of Sta. Sophia was commenced was the

very year in which he concluded an eternal peace with Chosroes Nushirvan,

king of Persia. In one or two reigns antecedent to his, Greek artists had

been employed in Persia, and there had been a friendly communication

between the two countries. It may be therefore assumed, that when Justinian

proposed to build this structure in so short a time, he not only enlisted

the ability of those about him, but that he recalled those straying Greeks

who had gone to seek their fortunes in other countries. He most likely,

indeed, employed not only his own subjects, but foreigners; and in that way

probably a considerable portion of what no one can fail to recognize as

Oriental Art, was mixed with that known as Byzantine. Certain it is that in

many of the mosaic ornaments of Sta. Sophia a very marked Oriental

character is still to be traced.

On a close comparison of these mosaics[24] with the unique Eusebian Canons

on an entirely gold ground, two leaves of which, painted on both sides, are

preserved in the British Museum (Addit. No. 5111),[25] the student will

certainly, I think, be induced rather to agree with Sir Frederick Madden,

in ascribing them to the 6th century, than with Dr. Waagen, who considers

that they "can scarcely be older than the 9th century." To the practical

illuminator, these fragments are of far higher importance than all the

others to which we have as yet alluded, since, while of equal archæological

interest, they constitute the earliest specimens from which really

decorative illumination can be studied.[26]

Another illustration of the Eastern influence brought to bear upon

Christian manuscripts of the age of Justinian, is furnished by the

celebrated Syriac Gospels of the 6th century, written in the year 586

(one-and-twenty years after the emperor's death), by Rabula, a scribe in

the monastery of St. John, in Zagba, a city of Mesopotamia, and now

preserved in the Laurentian Library at Florence. Mr. Westwood regards this

as "so important a manuscript in respect to the history of the arts of

illumination and design in the East," and by reflection in the West, that

he is induced[27] to give an elaborate description of its embellishments,

from which the following is a short extract:--

"The first illumination represents Christ and the twelve apostles seated in

a circle, with three lamps burning beneath a wide arch supported by two

plain columns, with foliated capitals, and with two birds at the top. The

second illumination represents the Virgin and Child standing within a

double arch, the columns supporting which are tessellated, and the upper

arch with several rows of zigzags, and peacocks standing at the top. The

third represents Eusebius and Ammonius standing beneath a kind of tent-like

canopy, supported by three columns, with undulated ornament, two peacocks

with expanded tails standing at the top. The nineteen following plates are

occupied by the tables of the Eusebian Canons, arranged in columns, between

pillars supporting rounded arches, generally enclosed between larger and

more ornamented columns supporting a large rounded arch, on the outsides of

which are represented various groups of figures illustrating scriptural

texts, plants, and birds. In some of these, however, the smaller arches are

of the horseshoe character. The capitals are, for the most part, foliated;

but in one or two they are composed of human faces, and a few of birds'

heads. The arches, as well as the columns by which they are supported, are

ornamented with chevrons, lozenges, nebules, quatrefoils, zigzags, flowers,

fruit, birds, &c.; many of which singularly resemble those found in early

Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, especially in the columns supporting the Eusebian

Canons in the purple Latin Gospels of the British Museum (MS. Reg. I. E.

6). There is, however, none of the singular interlacing of the patterns so

characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon and Irish manuscripts."

I have dwelt thus in detail upon these Greek pictorial and decorative

features, because there can be no doubt that the exportation of books so

adorned, by the early missionaries, who carried Christianity and a degree

of civilization to the Northern and Western countries, supplied the

original types from which, however barbaric the imitations, the first

attempts were made to rival, in the extreme West, the arts and spiritual

graces of the East. On this plea, I hope I may be pardoned for dwelling yet

further upon some of the leading distinctions between the Byzantine and

Latin (that is, between the Eastern and Western) modes of working out

religious conceptions, which were, that in the Western or Latin mode

symbolism was universal; the art of the Catacombs was followed distinctly,

though frequently remotely, developing itself in mythical and sentimental

forms, and systems of parallelism between type and prototype. In the Greek

Church, the exposition of faith, through art, took a more tangible form.

Symbolism was avoided on all possible occasions, and the direct

representation of sacred themes led to a partial transfer to the

representation of the adoration due to the thing represented. Iconoclasm

was the reaction to this abuse. In the advanced periods of Greek art, this

realistic tendency led to a painful view of the nature of religion, more

particularly in connection with the martyrdom of saints, and the physical

sufferings of our Saviour and his followers, which are frequently

represented in the most positive and repellent forms.

Long, however, before Byzantine Art had time to deviate much from its

ancient traditions, and even while it maintained an easy supremacy over the

Western empire, the Lombard kingdom, and all the Visi- and Moeso-Gothic and

Frankish races, a formidable competitor for the leadership in the Art of

Illumination had sprung up in the extreme West, in the island homes of the

Celtic races.

It is not necessary now to prove, what historians have freely admitted,

that Ireland was certainly christianized for a long time previous to the

date of the mission of Augustine to England. The disputes which arose

between the followers of that saint and the Irish priests, so soon as they

clearly apprehended the nature of the supremacy claimed by the Church of

Rome, assure us of their early isolation in the Christian world. Even in

their, at first entire, and ultimately partial, rejection of the Vulgate

text of the Gospels, and their retention of the older versions, from which

no doubt their formulas of faith were derived, they steadily maintained

their Ecclesiastical freedom from the dogmatism of Rome. As their creed was

independent, so was their Art original; nothing resembling it can be traced

previous to it.

Before proceeding to examine the precise form assumed by this "original

art," it may be well to remind the student that, with the exception of a

few manuscripts decorated in the style of the Laurentian Syriac Gospels and

the British Museum golden fragments, the general character of the

decoration of all writings, previous to the origination of the Celtic style

in Ireland, had been limited to the use of different-coloured, golden, and

silver inks, on stained purple and white vellum grounds, to the occasional

enlargement of, and slight flourishing about, initial letters; to the

introduction of pictures, generally square, or oblong, enclosed in plain,

or slightly bordered, frames; and, occasionally, to the scattering about,

throughout the volumes, of a few lines and scrolls. Let us now see--in the

words of Mr. Westwood, who has done more than any previous writer had done

to vindicate the honour of the Irish school of caligraphy[28]--what

features of novelty it was mainly reserved for that school to originate.

"Its peculiarities,"[29] he states, "consist in the illumination of the

first page of each of the Sacred Books,--the letters of the first few

words, and more especially the initial, being represented of a very large

size, and highly ornamented in patterns of the most intricate design, with

marginal rows of red dots; the classical Acanthus being never represented.

The principles of these most elaborate ornaments are, however, but few in

number, and may be reduced to the four following:--1st. One or more narrow

ribbons, diagonally but symmetrically interlaced, forming an endless

variety of patterns. 2nd. One, two, or three slender spiral lines, coiling

one within another till they meet in the centre of the circle, their

opposite ends going off to other circles. 3rd. A vast variety of lacertine

animals and birds, hideously attenuated, and coiled one within another,

with their tails, tongues, and top-knots forming long narrow ribbons

irregularly interlaced. 4th. A series of diagonal lines, forming various

kinds of Chinese-like patterns. These ornaments are generally introduced

into small compartments, a number of which are arranged so as to form the

large initial letters and borders, or tessellated pages, with which the

finest manuscripts are decorated. The Irish missionaries brought their

national style of art with them from Iona to Lindisfarne in the 7th

century, as well as their fine, large, very characteristic style of

writing; and as these were adopted by their Anglo-Saxon converts, and as

most of the manuscripts which have been hitherto described are of

Anglo-Saxon origin, it has been the practice to give the name of

Anglo-Saxon to this style of art. Thus several of the finest facsimiles

given by Astle as Anglo-Saxon, are from Irish manuscripts; and thus

Sylvestre, who has copied them (without acknowledgment), has fallen into

the same error; whilst Wanley, Casley, and others, appear never to have had

a suspicion of the existence of an ancient school of art in Ireland."

The monks of Iona, under the great Irish saint and scribe Columba, or

Columbkill, and their Anglo-Saxon disciples at Lindisfarne, under his

friend St. Aidan, together with the Irish monks at Glastonbury, spread

Celtic ornament in England, from whence it had, to a great extent, retired

with the expulsion of the ancient British. St. Boniface, the principal

awakener of Germany to Christianity, carried with him his

singularly-ornamented book of Gospels, which is still preserved as a relic

at Fulda. Similar evidence of the transmission of the Art prevalent during

the early centuries of the Church in Ireland, to other lands, by means of

the missionaries who left her shores, is to be found in the books of St.

Kilian, the apostle of Franconia, still preserved at Wurtzburg; in those of

St. Gall, now in the public library of St. Gall, in the canton of

Switzerland which still bears his name; and in the very important series,

of which Muratori has given an interesting catalogue, connected with the

monastic institution founded by St. Columbanus, at Bobbio, in Italy, and

now principally in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. Many of these pious men

were themselves scribes, and their autograph copies of the Holy Gospels are

still in existence, with the name of the writers, in some cases,

identifying the volumes, and absolutely fixing their date. Thus we have the

Gospels of St. Columba, the Leabhar Dhimma, or Gospels of St. Dhimma

MacNathi, and the MacRegol Gospels in the Bodleian Library. All of these

are anterior to the 9th century, and are distinguished by an elaborate

style of ornament unlike any other European type. The extent of influence

exercised by these eminent men and the "Episcopi Vagantes," or

missionaries, is strongly insisted upon by M. Libri, unquestionably one of

the most eminent and correctly-informed bibliographers of the present day.

Speaking of the latitudinarianism of some among these Christian men, he

observes, "No doubt certain pious but narrow minds hoped to open the door

to ecclesiastical literature only; but the exclusion sometimes pronounced

against the classics was never general amongst writers who, even in their

rudeness, always showed themselves imitators of antiquity. Thus we find

that the celebrated manuscript of Livy, in the Imperial Library at Vienna,

belonged to Sutbert, an Irish monk, one of those wandering bishops who,

towards the close of the seventh century, had gone to preach Christianity,

and, as it would seem also, to teach Roman history in Belgium. One cannot

help remarking, that the most celebrated of these pious missionaries, St.

Columbanus, laid the foundations at Luxeuil in France, at St. Gall in

Switzerland, and at Bobbio in Italy, of three monasteries which afterwards

became famous for their admirable manuscripts, in many of which the

influence of the Irish and Anglo-Saxon schools can be recognized at a

glance. The library of St. Gall is too celebrated to require mention. The

Bobbio manuscripts are known everywhere by the discoveries which have been

made in the _palimpsests_ which once belonged to that collection. As for

the manuscripts of Luxeuil, they have been dispersed; but the specimens of

them which are to be found in the Libri collection, joined to what has been

published on the subject by Mabillon, O'Conor, and others, prove

unanswerably that in this abbey, as well as in that of Stavelot in Belgium,

and other ancient monasteries on the Continent, a school of writing and

_miniature_ had sprung up as remarkable for the beauty of its caligraphy,

as for the care applied to reproduce the forms of the Anglo-Irish

schools."[30]

In delicacy of handling, and minute but faultless execution, the whole

range of palæography offers nothing comparable to these early Irish

manuscripts, and those produced in the same style in England. When in

Dublin, some years ago, I had the opportunity of studying very carefully

the most marvellous of all--"The Book of Kells;" some of the ornaments of

which I attempted to copy, but broke down in despair. Of this very book,

Mr. Westwood examined the pages, as I did, for hours together, without ever

detecting a false line, or an irregular interlacement. In one space of

about a quarter of an inch superficial, he counted, with a

magnifying-glass, no less than one hundred and fifty-eight interlacements,

of a slender ribbon pattern, formed of white lines, edged by black ones,

upon a black ground. No wonder that tradition should allege that these

unerring lines should have been traced by angels.[31] However "angelic" the

ornaments may be, but little can be said in favour of the figure subjects

occasionally introduced. In some manuscripts, such as the Book of Kells, in

pose and motive it is generally obvious that some ancient model has been

held in view; but nothing can be more barbaric than the imitation; while in

the other specimens, such as the so-called autograph Gospels of St.

Columba, or Columbkill, who died A.D. 594, two years before the advent of

St. Augustine--the Book of St. Chads, or the Gospels of MacRegol--no such

evidence of imitation is to be met with, and the figures are altogether

abortive.

I was enabled some years ago, by the kindness of the Rev. J. H. Todd, the

learned librarian of Trinity College, Dublin, to compare the so-called

autograph Gospels of St. Columba, with the Book of Kells, which is

traditionally supposed to have belonged to that saint, and remained

strongly impressed with the superior antiquity of the former to the latter.

The one may have been his property, and the other illuminated in his honour

after his death, as was the case with the Gospels of St. Cuthbert. In none

of them, at any period, were shadows represented otherwise than by apparent

inlayings under the eyes and beside the nose; and yet, at the same time,

the ornaments were most intricate, and often very beautiful, both in form

and colour. The purple stain is frequently introduced, and is of excellent

quality; but gold appears, so far as I have been able to observe, only in

the Durham Book, and in that even most sparingly.[32] It is the most

celebrated production of the Anglo-Hibernian monastery of Lindisfarne,

founded by St. Aidan and the Irish monks of Iona, or Icolumkille, in the

year 634.

St. Cuthbert, who was made bishop of Lindisfarne in 685, was renowned as

well for his piety as for his learning; he died in 698, and, as a monument

to his memory, his successor, Bishop Eadfrith, caused to be written this

noble volume, generally called the Durham Book, and known also as St.

Cuthbert's Gospels, now in the British Museum. This manuscript, surpassed

in grandeur only by the Book of Kells, in the same style, was greatly

enriched by Æthelwald, bishop of Lindisfarne, who succeeded Eadfrith in

721, and caused St. Cuthbert's book to be richly illuminated by the hermit

Bilfrith, who prefixed an elaborate painting of an Evangelist to each of

the four Gospels, and also illuminated the capital letters at the

commencement of each book. The bishop caused the whole to be encased in a

splendid binding of gold, set with precious stones; and in 950, a priest

named Aldred rendered the book still more valuable by interlining it with a

Saxon version of the original manuscript, which is the Latin text of St.

Jerome.

Want of space alone prevents our following Simeon of Durham in his touching

narrative of the circumstances which attended the translation of this

volume, together with the body of the much-loved saint, to Durham

Cathedral, in which both were long and profoundly venerated. The peculiar

importance of this volume in the history of Illumination, consists in its

clearly establishing, by its coincidence with earlier examples, the class

of caligraphy practised by that primitive Church[33] and people, to whom

Gregory the Great despatched St. Augustine, at the end of the 6th century.

With the mission, which reached its destination, and effected the

conversion of Ethelbert and of many of his subjects, in the year 597,

Gregory forwarded certain sacred volumes, of which the following were long

preserved with the greatest veneration:--A Bible in two volumes; two

Psalters; two books of the Gospels; a book of Martyrology; apocryphal Lives

of the Apostles, and expositions of certain Epistles and Gospels.

The first--the Bible--which was beautifully written on purple and

rose-coloured leaves, with rubricated capitals, was certainly in existence

in the reign of James I. Mr. Westwood ("Palæographia Sacra," 1843-45) looks

upon the magnificent purple Latin Gospels of the British Museum (Royal

Library, 1 E 6) as "no other than the remains of the Gregorian Bible." In

this, with the utmost respect for his opinion, I cannot concur, since the

fragment exhibits far too many genuine Saxon features to have been possibly

executed in the Eastern or Western empires previous to the date of the

mission of St. Augustine. That it may have been produced in this country,

in imitation of the more classical original, by the immediate followers of

the saint, is, I consider, highly probable.

The second--the two Psalters--have disappeared. Several learned men have

indeed looked upon the British Museum Cottonian MSS. Vesp. A 1, as one of

these celebrated books, but, as I venture to think, erroneously; for it is

difficult to believe that ornaments, so entirely of the Anglo-Irish school

of Lindisfarne, as those which decorate this volume, could have been

executed at Rome during either the 6th or even the 7th century. Nothing is

more probable than that, out of the forty persons who are believed to have

constituted Augustine's mission, several should have been skilled, as most

ecclesiastics then were, in writing and in the embellishment of books; and

in any school, established by St. Augustine for the multiplication of those

precious volumes, without which ministrations and teachings in consonance

with Roman dogmas could not be carried on in the new churches and monastic

institutions founded among the converts, it is most likely that the native

scribes, on their conversion, should be employed to write and decorate the

holy texts, with every ornament excepting those of a pictorial nature. In

the execution of these, they could scarcely prove themselves as skilful as

the followers of St. Augustine would, from their retention of some

classical traditions, be likely to be. Thus, and thus only, as I believe,

can we account for the singular combination of semi-antique with Saxon

writing, and of Latin body-colour pictures, executed almost entirely with

the brush, and regularly shadowed (such as David with his Attendants, in

the frontispiece to the Vespasian A 1 Psalter), with ornaments of an

absolutely different character, such as the arch and pilaster which form

the framework for this very picture of King David. Another argument, which

weighs greatly in my mind against the probability of such a Psalter as

Vespasian A 1 being a prototype, is the fact, that the Utrecht and Harleian

Psalters, to both of which I shall have occasion again to allude, in their

pictorial illustrations, present us with evident copies, in outline, of

some classic coloured original; just, in fact, of such a manuscript of the

Psalms as the celebrated Vatican Roll[34] is of the book of Joshua. What

more likely than that one of the venerated Psalters brought from Rome

should have been such a manuscript, and should have been the very one

copied in the case of the Utrecht Psalter, in the "rustic capitals" of the

original, and in the later Harleian replica in the current Saxon uncial?

As respects the third class of Augustinian books--the Gospels--the case is

far different; for the accredited and traditional originals are, in every

respect, such as would be likely to have been produced at Rome or at

Constantinople, but most probably the former, during the pontificate of

Gregory the Great. Fragments of the most important of these Gospels are

preserved in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. They are

written in black ink generally, with occasional lines in red, in the

ancient manner. Two pages only of illuminations are left, though it is

evident that the volume once contained a large and complete series. The

most important of these represents St. Luke, clad in tunic and toga, seated

under just such a triumphal arch as is frequently to be met with in the

Roman Mosaics of the 5th and 6th centuries.[35] The second illuminated page

comprises a series of small square pictures, framed round with the simple

red line of the oldest Latin manuscripts.

The other Augustinian fragmentary Gospel is to be found among the Hatton

manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford: it is without any other

illumination than the contrast of red and black ink, and a few ornaments

about some of the initial letters. The evidence, upon which it may be

assumed that these volumes were either brought to this country by St.

Augustine, or formed some of the "codices multos,"[36] sent by Gregory the

Great to the mission on its establishment, rests not only upon the

antiquity and purely Latin character of the fragments, but on the fact that

both Gospels contain entries in Saxon of upwards of one thousand years old,

connecting them with the library of the Abbey of St. Augustine at

Canterbury; and, furthermore, they correspond with the description given by

a monk of that monastery, who, writing in the reign of Henry V., dwells

upon the "primitie librorum totius Ecclesie Anglicane" preserved in that

library, as the very Gospels in the version of St. Jerome, brought to

England by St. Augustine himself.

The Martyrology, the apocryphal Lives of the Apostles, and the Expositions

which completed the series, cannot be now identified.

To rapidly multiply copies of these text-books of the Church of Rome, was,

no doubt, one of the first and most important duties of the monks of

Canterbury; and from the traces we may detect in various manuscripts of the

Anglo-Saxon mode of writing and ornamenting writing, combined with

paintings such as the Anglo-Saxons were incompetent to execute for some

time after the close of the 6th century, we may safely infer that the monks

both worked themselves and largely employed the native scribes. Thus, as

Mr. Westwood observes in a recent article in the "Archæological Journal,"

"We have sufficient evidence that, soon after the settlement of the

followers of St. Augustine, there must have been established a

_scriptorium_, where some of the most beautiful manuscripts were written in

the purest uncial or rustic capitals, but decorated with initials in the

Anglo-Saxon or Irish style. Of such MSS. we can now record--

"1. The purple Gospels at Stockholm, written in very large uncials, but

with illuminated title-pages, with pure Anglo-Saxon ornaments, and grand

figures of the Evangelists in a mixed classical and Anglo-Saxon style.

"2. The Utrecht Gospels.

"3. The Gospels in the Cathedral Library, Durham; Astle's 'Origin and

Progress of Writing,' pl. 14, fig. B, p. 83.

"4. The Utrecht Psalter.

"5. The so-called Psalter of St. Augustine, MSS. Cotton., Vespasian, A 1;

Astle, pl. 9, fig. 2.

"6. The Bodleian MS. of the Rule of St. Benedict, Lord Hatton's MSS., No.

93; Astle, pl. 9, fig. 1, p. 82.

"Were it not for the initials, and other illuminations in the genuine

Anglo-Saxon style, not one of these MSS. could be supposed to have been

executed in England. They are, nevertheless, among the finest specimens of

early caligraphic art in existence."

One of the most important of this interesting class of manuscripts is,

unquestionably, that of the Psalms, now preserved in the public library at

Utrecht. It was formerly in the possession of Sir Robert Cotton, and should

be now with the rest of his library in the British Museum. The volume

contains, besides the Psalms, the "Pusillus eram," the Credo, and the

Canticles, with a few leaves from the Gospel of St. Matthew. It is written

upon vellum, and each psalm has a pen-and-ink illustration, in the same

style as those in the Harleian Psalter, No. 603, which was written in the

10th century; and similar also to those in the Cambridge Psalter of the

12th century. The writing in the Utrecht Psalter is executed in Roman

rustic capitals; it is arranged in three columns in each page; and the

elegance with which the letters are formed, would place the manuscripts

amongst those of the 6th or 7th century: but the illustrations before

mentioned, with the large uncial B, heightened with gold, in the Saxon

interlaced style, which commences the first psalm, would give it a later

date, certainly not earlier than the 7th or 8th century; and the

pen-and-ink drawings were probably executed a century later.

Mr. Westwood, to whose highly interesting "Archæological Notes of a Tour in

Denmark, Prussia, and Holland," published in the "Archæological Journal," I

am indebted for the above information, tells us that the date of the few

pages of the Gospel, mentioned as being bound up in this volume, is as

uncertain as that of the Psalter; the text being written in a style which

would place it amongst the works of the 6th or 7th century, whilst the word

"Liber," with which it commences, is written in large square Roman

capitals, in gold, with the remains of ornament similar to that in

Vespasian, A 1.

That which gives, however, its greatest value to the Utrecht Psalter, is

the remarkable freedom and cleverness of the pen-and-ink drawings with

which it is embellished. In them may be recognized, I believe, the earliest

trace of those peculiar fluttered draperies, elongated proportions, and

flourished touches, which became almost a distinct style in later

Anglo-Saxon illumination. So different is it, both from the Anglo-Hibernian

work, prevalent in England up to the advent of St. Augustine, and from the

contemporary imitation of the antique, practised by Byzantine, Latin,

Lombard, or Frankish illuminators, that the conclusion seems, as it were,

forced upon us, that it can have been originated in no other way than by

setting the already most skilful penman, but altogether ignorant artist, to

reproduce, as he best could, the freely-painted miniatures of the books,

sacred and profane, imported, as we know, in abundance, from Rome, during

the 7th and 8th centuries.

To so great an extent do antique types and features prevail in the earlier

specimens of this class of Anglo-Saxon volumes, that, until comparatively

recently, the catalogue of the Utrecht Library has designated the

illustrations of the Psalter now under notice, as evidently productions of

the reign of Valentinian;[37] while the outline subjects, in a similar

style, and of considerably later date, which are introduced in the British

Museum "Aratus," were attributed, by even Mr. Ottley's critical judgment,

to a somewhat similar period.

The Harleian Psalter (No. 603), to which allusion has been already made,

although written in later characters, is decorated with many pictures, all

but identical with those in the Utrecht manuscript, thereby demonstrating,

with comparative certainty, that both were taken from some popular

prototype, possibly one of the Augustinian Psalters already alluded to.[38]

The Bodleian Cædmon's, or pseudo-Cædmon's, "Metrical Paraphrase of the Book

of Genesis," written and illustrated in outline,[39] during the 10th or

11th century, and the Ælfric's Heptateuch of the British Museum,

"Cottonian, Claudius B iv.," of a somewhat later date, afford excellent

illustrations of the enduring popularity of this peculiar mode of

outline-drawing. The striking difference may, however, be noted between

these later and the earlier specimens in the same style, that whereas the

types of the latter are, with scarcely any exception, antique, those of the

former are comparatively original, and exhibit that strong inclination to

caricature, which has always formed one of the leading features of English

illumination.

While, in this class of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, the influence of Latin art

may be traced on the original Hiberno-British school of scribes, a

corresponding change was effected, through the introduction into this

country of specimens of the more brilliant examples of Byzantine execution

or derivation. Thus, as Sir Frederick Madden observes,[40] "The taste for

gold and purple manuscripts seems only to have reached England at the close

of the 7th century, when Wilfrid, archbishop of York, enriched his church

with a copy of the Gospels thus adorned; and it is described by his

biographer, Eddius (who lived at that period or shortly after), as

'inauditum ante seculis nostris quoddam miraculum,'--almost a miracle, and

before that time unheard of in this part of the world. But in the 8th and

9th centuries the art of staining the vellum appears to have declined, and

the colour is no longer the same bright and beautiful purple, violet, or

rose-colour of the preceding centuries. It is rare also to meet with a

volume stained throughout; the artist contenting himself with colouring a

certain portion, such as the title, preface, or canon of the mass.

Manuscripts written in letters of gold, on white vellum, are chiefly

confined to the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries. Of these, the Bible and Hours

of Charles the Bald, preserved in the Royal Library at Paris, and the

Gospels of the Harleian collection, No. 2788, are probably the finest

examples extant. In England, the art of writing in gold seems to have been

but imperfectly understood in early times, and the instances of it very

uncommon. Indeed, the only remarkable one that occurs of it is the charter

of King Edgar to the new minster at Winchester, in the year 966. This

volume is written throughout in gold."

Although but few books were thus gorgeously written, many were sumptuously

decorated; and, indeed, there exist no more brilliant volumes than some of

those produced by Anglo-Saxon scribes. Of these several have been

preserved; but if two or three only are noticed, it will be quite

sufficient to establish the leading characteristics of the school, which

appears to have been organized under Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester, at

New Minster, or Hyde Abbey, near Winchester, during the 10th century. The

names of several leading masters of that great nursery of illumination have

been handed down to us. Thus Ethric and Wulfric--monks--are recorded as

having been "painters;" but Godemann is spoken of as the greatest of all.

Fortunately, a magnificent specimen of his art is preserved in the

celebrated benedictional of St. Ethelwold, in the library of the Duke of

Devonshire, and engraved _in extenso_, with great care, in the

twenty-fourth volume of the "Archæologia."[41] This is one of the most

sumptuous manuscripts which has been executed in any age by any scribe, and

differs widely from the Anglo-Saxon MSS. previously described. The text is

generally enclosed within a rich framework, formed by wide and solid bars

of gold, about and over which twine and break elegantly-shaded masses of

conventional foliation. In the initial letters, and occasionally in the

ornament, the peculiarly Saxon interlacing and knotwork is retained; but in

most of the embellishments, a reaction can be traced from the Carlovingian

manuscripts themselves, originally acted upon, as will be hereafter seen,

by the Saxon school of caligraphy.[42] The figure subjects in this volume

are cramped in style and action, exhibit but little classical influence,

and possess, as a leading merit, only a singularly sustained brilliancy of

tint and even execution throughout.

Next to this great masterpiece, and from the same fountain-head, come the

following, several of which are exceedingly beautiful:--The two Rouen

Gospels; the Gospels of King Canute, in the British Museum, Reg. D 9; the

Cottonian Psalter, Tib. C vi.; the Hyde Abbey Book, lately in the Stowe

Library; and the Gospels of Trinity College, Cambridge. The ornaments in

all these volumes are painted in thick body-colours, and with a vehicle so

viscid in texture, that Dr. Dibdin[43] infers from its character, as

evidenced in the Benedictional, "the possibility or even probability of oil

being mixed up in the colours of the more ancient illuminations." In this

opinion I do not concur, as I believe the peculiar body and gloss of the

pigment to be produced by the use of white of egg.

If the character of Anglo-Saxon architecture and sculpture agreed with the

representations of both given in the Benedictional of Ethelwold--as I have

every reason to believe it did--it must have been massive and elaborate in

the highest degree; and there is no reason to suppose that a people who

were capable of drawing so well as they assuredly could, should have

limited their productions in the sister arts to the rude and clumsy, long

and short, and other similar work, which we are in the habit of supposing,

characterized all their principal productions.

I have dwelt in some detail upon Saxon illumination, for two reasons:

firstly, because it is a theme on which some national self-gratulation may

be justifiably entertained;[44] and, secondly, because it is one on which,

although much has been written, comparatively little light has as yet been

thrown. Before leaving it, however, some general observations should be

made upon the classes of books most in demand, and the means by which they

were multiplied in this country; and, indeed, with slight local

differences, on the great continent of Europe as well,--Byzantium, Ravenna,

Rome, Monte Cassino, Subiaco, Paris, Tours, Limoges, Arles, Soissons,

Blois, Aix-la-Chapelle, Cologne, Hildesheim, Worms, Treves, Glastonbury,

Canterbury, Winchester, York, Durham, Lindisfarne, Wearmouth, Jarrow,

Croyland, and Peterborough, being the great centres of production.

From the earliest period religious zeal was much shown in its offerings to

the Church, by laymen, more or less pious,--the least pious being, in fact,

sometimes the most liberal donors,--and very large sums were expended in

illuminating and ornamenting manuscripts for that purpose. Many of these

books were remarkable for the extreme beauty of the paintings and

ornamental letters enriched with gold and silver, which decorate them, as

well as for the execution of the writing, the most precious bindings

frequently adding greatly to their cost. Gospels, books of anthems, and

missals, were most frequently chosen for such gifts; but they were not

confined to sacred subjects, including occasionally the best writings of

Greece and Rome, which were eagerly sought after as models of eloquence,

and, still more, as often being supposed to contain prophecies of the

coming of Christ, and proofs of the truth of his doctrines.

The piety of individuals often led them to expend large sums in the

preparation of their offerings to the Church; the finest and best parchment

which could be procured being used for manuscripts. When black ink was used

in liturgical writings, the title-page and heads of the chapters were

written in _red ink_; whence comes the term Rubric. Green, blue, and yellow

inks were used, sometimes for words, but chiefly for ornamental capital

letters; the writers and miniature-painters exercising their own taste and

judgment in the decoration, and heightening its effect with gold and the

most expensive colours, such as azure and the purest cinnabar or vermilion.

The greater part of these works were intrusted to monks and their clerks,

who were exhorted, by the rules of their order, to learn writing, and to

persevere in the work of copying manuscripts, as being one most acceptable

to God; those who could not write being recommended to learn to bind books.

Alcuin entreats all to employ themselves in copying books, saying, "It is a

most meritorious work, more useful to the health than working in the

fields, which profits only a man's body, whilst the labour of a copyist

profits his soul."[45]

Home production could, however, by no means suffice to multiply books, and

especially religious books, with sufficient rapidity to satisfy the eager

demand for them. Long journeys appear to have been taken to foreign

countries, by learned ecclesiastics, for scarcely any other purpose than

the collection of manuscripts; while quantities were imported into England

from abroad. Thus Bede tells us, that Wilfrid, bishop of Wearmouth and

Jarrow, and Acca, Wilfrid's successor, collected many books abroad for

their libraries, at the end of the seventh century. Thus Theodore of Tarsus

brought back an extensive library of Grecian and Roman authors, on his

return to Canterbury, in 668, from a mission to Rome; and thus, as we are

told by Mr. Maitland,[46] when "Aldhelm, who became Bishop of Schireburn in

the year 705, went to Canterbury, to be consecrated by his old friend and

companion Berthwold (pariter literis studuerant, pariterque viam religionis

triverant), the archbishop kept him there many days, taking counsel with

him about the affairs of his diocese. Hearing of the arrival of the ships

at Dover during this time, he went there to inspect their unloading, and to

see if they had brought anything in his way (_si quid forte commodum

ecclesiastico usui attidissent nautæ qui e Gallico sinu in Angliam,

provecti librorum copiam apportassent_). Among many other books, he saw one

containing the whole of the Old and New Testaments, which he at length

bought: and William of Malmesbury, who wrote his life in the twelfth

century, tells us it was still preserved at that place."

How deeply must all lovers of illumination regret the infinite destruction

of books that has prevailed in all ages! Of all this "librorum copiam," how

few survive. Even in the days of Alfred the Great, the Danes had destroyed

the majority of them; for, as that great royal Bibliomaniac exclaims, in

his preface to the "Pastoral of Gregory,"--"I saw, before _all_ were

spoiled and burnt, how the churches throughout Britain were filled with

treasures and books."

I now leave our own country for a while, and return to the general

continent of Europe; having, I trust, satisfactorily established the

individuality of those three great styles of illumination, from the fusion

of which the Romanesque, and ultimately the Mediæval, system sprang,--viz.,

the Roman, or pictorial; the Greek, or golden; and the Hiberno-Saxon, or

intricate. The commencement of that fusion has been traced in the later

Anglo-Saxon work, and it now remains to observe the circumstances under

which a similar, and even more marked, amalgamation took place on the

continent, under the auspices of Charlemagne, the greatest patron of the

art who ever lived.

Much has been assumed by early Palæographers, and even some recent ones,

with respect to the influence exercised by the Lombard MSS. executed

between the establishment of the Lombard kingdom in the year 568, and its

absorption A.D. 774, in the empire of Charlemagne, on the class of

illumination introduced under his auspices; but the specimens which have

descended to these days exhibit such an entire decrepitude of style, as to

justify the belief that, with the exception of a peculiar broken-backed

letter, known as "Lombard brisé," the Lombards themselves contributed

little or nothing to the results which attended the efforts made by that

great sovereign to raise the art of book-decoration in his day to its

highest pitch. It was mainly by the aid, and through the direct

instrumentality, of the learned Anglo-Saxon, Alcuin, that Charlemagne

carried out his laudable design. This industrious ecclesiastic, who was

born in the year 735, received his education under Egbert and Elbert,

successive archbishops of the see of York,--having been appointed at an

early age "custodian" to the library collected by the former. On the death

of Elbert, he was sent to Rome to receive the pallium of investiture for

the new archbishop Enbalde. On his journey home, in 780, he passed through

Parma, where Charlemagne happened to be at the time. The consequence of

their meeting in that city was, that Alcuin received and accepted an

invitation to take up his residence at the court of the Frankish sovereign.

During four-and-twenty years, until his death, indeed, in 804, he retained

the affection and respect of his royal patron, and occupied himself in

incessant labour for the advancement of learning, and the multiplication of

pure texts of the Holy Scriptures and other good books. Several of Alcuin's

letters to Charlemagne are still extant, in which the supremacy of the

English schools and libraries is distinctly recognized, as well as the

direct influence exercised by them on Frankish literature, and, as in those

days literature and illumination were inseparable, on illumination also.

Thus, in one place he begs his master to give him "those exquisite books of

erudition which I had in my own country by the good and devout industry of

my master Egbert, the archbishop." Again, referring to the same "treasures

of wisdom," he proposes,--"If it shall please your wisdom, I will send some

of our boys, who may copy from thence whatever is necessary, and carry back

into France the flowers of Britain; that the garden may not be shut up in

York, but the fruits of it may be placed in the paradise of Tours."

One of the evidences of the eagerness with which this task of multiplying

the sources of learning was carried on, is to be found in the attempts made

to abridge and expedite labour. Thus, as M. Chassant[47] observes in his

useful little manual of abbreviations[48] used during the Middle Ages, the

texts of all documents of importance were comparatively free from

contractions from the period when Justinian the Great banished them, by an

imperial edict, from all legal instruments, until the accession of

Charlemagne, "during whose reign, either to save time or vellum, the

scribes revived the ancient Roman practice of using initials, and

frequently arbitrary signs, to represent whole words of frequent

recurrence."

It is, however, in the quality, rather than the quantity, of Carlovingian

MSS. that the reader is most likely to be interested; and I therefore

hasten to note two or three of the most imposing specimens. The earliest of

the grand class is believed to be the Evangelistiarium, long preserved in

the Abbey of St. Servin, at Toulouse, and ultimately presented to Napoleon

I., on the baptism of the King of Rome, in the name of the city. From

contemporary entries, it appears to have been completed, after eight years'

labour, in the year 781, by the scribe Godescalc. Of whatever nation

"Godescalc" may have been, the volume[49] exhibits far too many composite

features to justify the belief that any one individual, or even many

individuals of one nation, could have executed the whole. The paintings are

probably by an Italian hand, being executed freely with the brush, in

opaque colours, in the antique manner. Many of the golden borders are quite

Greek in style, while the initial letters, and others of the borders, are

thoroughly Hiberno-Saxon. A nearly similar dissection would apply to most

of the manuscripts executed for Charlemagne's descendants, to the third

generation. The volume contains 127 leaves, every leaf, not entirely filled

with illumination, being stained purple, with a white margin, and covered

with a text, written in golden initials, in two columns, separated by very

graceful and delicately-executed borders. Our plates, Technical Manual,

Nos. 1 and 2, taken from the great Charlemagne Bible of the British Museum,

give a good idea of the nature of the ornament usually employed in similar

MSS. to fill up such borders and to form and decorate initial letters. They

will serve to show also the common type of the Alphabets in use.

From Charlemagne's "Scriptorium," which was no doubt the head-quarters of

the best artists of all nations in his time, proceeded many other volumes

of scarcely less interest and magnificence. Among these, the most

noteworthy are, the Gospels of St. Medard de Soissons,[50] so called

because believed to have been presented by Charlemagne to that Abbey;[51]

the Vienna Psalter, written for Pope Hadrian; the Gospels preserved in the

library of the Arsenal at Paris, and formerly belonging to the Abbaye of

St. Martin des Champs;[52] the Gospels found upon the knees of the Emperor

on opening his tomb at Aix-la-Chapelle; the Harleian MS. No. 3788, known as

the "Codex Aureus";[53] and last, not least, the Bible, known as that of

San Calisto, preserved in the Benedictine monastery of that saint at Rome,

and formerly in the monastery of San Paolo fuori le Mura. The frontispiece

to this volume, which is no less than one foot four inches high, by one

foot one inch wide, represents a sitting emperor holding a globe, on which

are inscribed various letters, arranged in the peculiar form adopted by

Charlemagne in his signs manual.

The learned have disputed hotly whether this portrait is intended for that

of Charlemagne, or of Charles the Bald, his grandson. Whether this

manuscript, which, in all respects, except beauty in the figure-subjects, I

look upon as the finest I have ever seen, was executed in the days of the

former or latter monarch, is of no very great moment, as its leading

features would harmonize very well with accredited reliques of either. It

still contains no less than 339 pages, and is one blaze of illumination

from the first page to the last.[54] The large initial letters are quite

Saxon in form; the borders, of which there are endless and beautiful

varieties, are more strictly classic in character than is usual in Caroline

manuscripts; and the pictures are in an indeterminate style, between Greek,

Latin, and that original Frankish, which subsequently absorbed in Western

Europe all previous tradition, and grew into the peculiar type of French

12th century work--the progenitor of the pure Gothic of the 13th.

Ample materials happily exist for tracing the gradual development of this

Frankish element; at first through the works of the immediate descendants

of Charlemagne, and subsequently through various liturgical works,

collected from suppressed abbeys, and preserved for the most part in the

Imperial library at Paris. Of these, some of the most important are, the

Bible of Louis le Debonnaire, executed in the eighth year of his reign; the

Gospels of the same monarch; and the Sacramentaire de Metz,--all produced

for sons of Charlemagne. The first-named is of the barbaric style, on which

Alcuin and others improved; the second contains some very curious symbolic

initial letters; and the third, a good deal of originality, both in

ornaments and figures.

The principal volumes still preserved, once belonging to the grandsons of

Charlemagne, appear less original in several respects, than do those

executed for his sons. Thus, in the case of Louis le Debonnaire's eldest

son Lothaire, whose Gospels, written and decorated at the Abbey of St.

Martin, at Tours, exhibit a mixed Latin and Saxon style, with but little

specifically Frankish work,--and thus also in the person of Lothaire's

youngest brother, Charles the Bald, whose two celebrated Bibles, the one

known as the Bible of St. Denis, and the other as that presented to the

monarch by Count Vivien, abbot of the same monastery at which the Gospels

of Lothaire were executed,--illustrate a similar composite, but scarcely

original, style. The former manuscript is illuminated with intertwined

lacertine monsters, knotwork, single (but not the three-whorl) spirals, and

rows of red dots following many of the leading outlines, all of which may

be regarded as distinctive features of the Hiberno-Saxon school; while the

latter, with several of the above peculiarities freely introduced, combines

an unmistakable classicality, shown in the various figure-subjects, and

especially in the arcading which encloses the Eusebian Canons at the

commencement of the volume.

The British Museum is fortunate in possessing in the Harleian MS.--No.

7551--a curious collection of ancient Biblical fragments, and amongst these

are a few pages taken from a Bible executed for Charles the Bald. From

these Mr. Tymms has selected the elegant Alphabets, initial letters, and

ornaments which are to be found in plates 1, 2, and 3, of this manual. In

these the student will not fail to recognize what he may have already

observed in studying the specimens given from the Charlemagne Bible

(Technical manual, plates 1, 2, and 3), that while the form of the text and

the ornamental borderings are founded on antique models, the initial

letters scarcely ever fail to exhibit in their Celtic animals' heads and

interlaced strap-work the influence of Alcuin and the Saxon scribes.

We can feel but little surprise at the production of such works at the

Abbey of St. Martin, at Tours, for it was within the walls of that

"Paradise," as Alcuin calls it, that the Saxon sage gave all the latter

years of his life to the recension of the Holy Scriptures,[55] and to the

organization of a "scriptorium" worthy of his affectionate patron.

The impulse given to the Art of Illumination in that celebrated

establishment was speedily communicated to rival scriptoria in other

localities; thus from the abbeys of St. Martial, at Limoges, from Metz,

Mans, St. Majour in Provence, Rheims, St. Germain and St. Denis at Paris,

issued, from the age of Charlemagne to the 13th century, an almost

uninterrupted series of highly-illuminated volumes, many of which still

remain to attest the vigorous efforts by which the foreign elements were

gradually thrown aside in France, to make way for that expressive and

original outline style[56] which achieved its greatest power in the early

part of the 13th century. The throes and struggles by which this was

achieved, are singularly well shown by a page engraved in Count Bastard's

splendid work from the "Apocalypse of St. Sever," written during the first

half of the 11th century. The page presents a curious emblematical

frontispiece, the general form of which is perfectly Oriental; the border

ornaments are founded on Cufic inscriptions; the animals which decorate the

Arabian framework are classical; and the interlacing fretwork of several

portions of the design is purely Saxon.

Many Byzantine features were brought into French illumination through the

schools at St. Martial's and the other abbeys of Limoges, but it was at

Paris itself that the greatest changes and improvements were effected;

thus, at St. Germain and St. Denis were produced, during the first half and

middle of the 11th century, two volumes, still existing in the Imperial

Library of France, which distinctly show the budding of "Gothic." The St.

Germain "Mysteries of the Life of Christ" is illustrated by many original

and very spirited outline compositions, some of which are slightly

coloured; while the "Missal of St. Denis," of a few years later, displays

that peculiar grace and _naïveté_ in the action and expression of the

figures, together with that soft elegance in foliated ornament, which for

several centuries remained a dominant excellence in the best French

illuminations.

As classical tradition and Hiberno-Saxon intricacies died out in France to

make way for the true Mediæval styles, so did they, although somewhat more

slowly, in England, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands. In Italy, a

degeneracy occurred, from which the revival at length, under Cimabue and

Giotto, was as rapid and brilliant as the previous collapse appears to have

been fatal.[57]

Alike from any such complete change, complete degeneracy, or ultimate

attainment of life and perfection, the genuine Greek style of the Byzantine

empire was exempted. That Oriental splendour of gold and colour by which so

early as the days of Justinian the Great, it sought to gloss over the

feebleness of its reminiscences of classical beauty, remained the unchanged

leading characteristic of its illuminations down to the final extinction of

the empire in 1453.

In such an essay as the present, it is quite impossible to convey any idea

of the minute, but extremely interesting varieties of type adopted in

Byzantine manuscripts; it must suffice to state, in general terms,--that

the dispersion of many of the most skilful Greek artists, by the

iconoclastic emperors (commencing with Leo the Isaurian, A.D. 726), gave a

great impetus to the arts of design in those countries in which they took

refuge, and no doubt contributed specially to the improvements effected

under Charlemagne,--that on the abandonment of such religious persecutions,

in the middle of the 9th century, a fresh start appears to have been

taken,[58]--and that from the date of that revival, which may be specially

noted under the reign of Basil the Macedonian, until about the year 1200,

many very noble and dignified pictures[59] were executed. From the

last-named era, until the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, although

the treatment of figure-subjects became more and more weak and mannered,

much beautiful ornament was painted upon gold grounds, and the influence

originally communicated to Arabian art from the Eastern Empire, was

reflected back upon its later productions from the contemporary schools of

Saracenic and Moorish decoration.[60] It is scarcely necessary to remark,

that in all these inflexions of style the Russian, Syrian, and Armenian

illuminators closely followed the example set them by the Byzantine scribes

and painters.

Returning from the East to the extreme west of Europe, it is worthy of note

how entirely the primitive Saxon styles, which wrought so important an

influence upon the rest of Europe, were lost in the country from which they

had been mainly promulgated. The successive social and political changes

wrought by the ascendancy of the Danes, and ultimately of the Normans, put

an almost total stop to Saxon illumination; and so complete was the

abandonment of the Saxon character, that Ingulphus, in describing the fire

which destroyed the noble library of his abbey at Croyland, in the year

1091, after dwelling on the splendour of the "chirographs written in the

Roman character, adorned with golden crosses and most beautiful paintings,"

and especially "the privileges of the kings of Mercia, the most ancient and

the best, in like manner beautifully executed with golden illuminations,

but written in the Saxon character," goes on to state: "All our documents

of this kind, greater and less, were about four hundred in number; and in

one moment of a most dismal night, they were destroyed and lost to us by

this lamentable misfortune. A few years before, I had taken from our

archives a good many chirographs, written in the Saxon character, because

we had duplicates, and in some cases triplicates, of them; and had given

them to our cantor, Master Fulmar, to be kept in the cloister, to help the

juniors to learn the Saxon character, because that letter had for a long

while been despised and neglected by reason of the Normans,[61] and was now

known only to a few of the more aged; that so the younger ones, being

instructed to read this character, might be more competent to use the

documents of their monastery against their adversaries in their old age."

The Normans, a warlike but unlettered race, did but little for the first

century after the Conquest, to restore the taste for learning which they

and the Danes had displaced. While English progress in illumination was

thus comparatively paralyzed, in France and Germany new styles,

corresponding with those known in architecture as Romanesque, rapidly

sprang into popularity. Of the leading decorative features of such styles,

as well as of the corresponding alphabets and initial letters, we have

endeavoured to give some elegant reductions in plates 4, 5, and 6 of this

manual, and in plates 4, 5, and 6 of its technical companion. The

illustrations in the former have been taken from the British Museum, "Reg.

1, C. VII.," a folio MS., of bold rather than beautiful execution, but

containing throughout many well-designed initial letters and ornaments. The

volume comprises the vulgate version of the books of Joshua, Judges, and

Ruth, and it is believed by Sir Frederick Madden, no doubt the most

competent judge in this country, to have been executed about the middle of

the 12th century. The materials for the plates in the Technical Manual,

Nos. 4, 5, and 6 have been gleaned from a manuscript of rather later date,

preserved in the Harleian Collection, Nos. 2803 and 2804. There can be

little doubt that the numerous ornaments which decorate this great Bible

were the work of German industry, for, independently of the evidences of

style offered by the writing and illumination, an entry in the volume

informs us that it once belonged to the church of the Blessed Virgin, in

one of the suburbs of Worms. All of the ornaments in this series of

illustrations show a manifest disposition on the part of their designers to

break away from the rigidity of pure convention into a class of foliation,

which, if not directly copied from nature, at least recalls the general

aspect of her germinating, growing, and, finally, luxuriant forms of

vegetation. The combination, with reminiscences of Carlovingian knotted

ends to the initial letters, of foliated ornament, during the 12th century,

may be frequently found developed, in Germany especially, into a fresh

luxuriant, and complete system. The complicated conventionality of foliage

shown in many Teutonic manuscripts, and greatly encouraged by the Emperor

Frederick Barbarossa, A.D. 1152 to 1190, was never entirely abandoned by

the Germans in their ornament; and at the end of the 13th and early part of

the 14th centuries, when France and England were successfully imitating

nature, they continued to cling to that peculiarly crabbed style of

crinkled foliation, which they reluctantly abandoned only in the 17th

century.

With the accession of the Plantagenets, in 1154, and especially through the

marriage of Henry II. with Eleanor of Guienne, French influence acquired a

marked predominance in English illumination; and for about one hundred

years from that date, the progress of style in England and France was

parallel and almost identical. Gradually, in each, the Romanesque features

disappeared, and by the middle of the 13th century, the fulness of mediæval

illumination, as reflecting the perfection of Gothic architecture, was

attained. The rapid growth of the Dominican and Franciscan orders during

the first half of the century, and their eagerness to dispel the drowsiness

into which the old well-to-do monastic establishments were fast slipping,

gave a new life to all arts, including, of course, that of the

transcription and illumination of the sources of learning, and in those

days, consequently, of power.

The present appears to be the most fitting place for a few notes, derived

chiefly from the "Consuetudines" of the regulars,[62] on the general

mediæval practice in relation to monastic libraries, of which England,

France, Germany, and Italy possessed many during the 13th, 14th, and 15th

centuries, rich, not only in sacred and patristic, but in profane

literature as well.

The libraries of such establishments were placed by the abbot under the

sole charge of the "armarian," an officer who was made responsible for the

preservation of the volumes under his care: he was expected frequently to

examine them, lest damp or insects should injure them; he was to cover them

with wooden covers to preserve them, and carefully to mend and restore any

damage which time or accident might cause; he was to make a note of any

book borrowed from the library, with the name of the borrower; but this

rule applied only to the less valuable portion of it, as the "great and

precious books" could only be lent by the permission of the abbot himself.

It was also the duty of the armarian to have all the books in his charge

marked with their correct titles, and to keep a perfect list of the whole.

Some of these catalogues are still in existence, and are curious and

interesting, as showing the state of literature in the Middle Ages, as well

as giving us the names of many authors whose works have never reached us.

In perusing these catalogues, it is impossible not to be struck by the

assiduous collection of classical authors, whose works sometimes equal, and

at others actually preponderate over, the books of scholastic divinity. It

was also the duty of the armarian, under the orders of his superior, to

provide the transcribers of manuscripts with the writings which they were

to copy, as well as with all the materials necessary for their labours; to

make bargains as to payment, and to superintend the works during their

progress. These books were not always destined for the library of the

monastery in which they were transcribed, but were often eagerly bought by

others, or by some generous layman, for the purpose of presenting to a

monastic library; and their sale, particularly at an early period, added

largely to the revenues of the establishment in which they were written or

illuminated.

The different branches of the transcribing trade were occasionally united

in the same person, but were more generally divided and practised

separately, and by secular as well as by religious copyists. Of the former,

there were at least three distinct branches--the illuminators, the notarii,

and the librarii antiquarii. The last-mentioned were employed chiefly in

restoring and repairing old and defaced manuscripts and their bindings. The

public scribes were employed chiefly by monks and lawyers, sometimes

working at their own houses; and at others, when any valuable work was to

be copied, in that of their employer, where they were lodged and boarded

during the time of their engagement.

A large room, as has been already stated, was in most monasteries set apart

for such labours, and here the general transcribers pursued their

avocation; but there were also, in addition, small rooms or cells, known

also as scriptoria, which were occupied by such monks as were considered,

from their piety and learning, to be entitled to the indulgence,[63] and

used by them for their private devotions, as well as for the purpose of

transcribing works for the use of the church or library. The scriptoria

were frequently enriched by donations and bequests from those who knew the

value of the works carried on in them, and large estates were often devoted

to their support. The tithes of Wythessy and Impitor, two shillings and

twopence,--and some land in Ely, with two parts of the tithes of the

lordship of Pampesward, were granted by Bishop Nigellus to the scriptorium

of the monastery of Ely, the charter of which still exists in the church

there. A Norman named Robert gave to the scriptorium of St. Alban's the

tithes of Redburn, and two parts of the tithes of Hatfield; and that of St.

Edmondesbury was endowed with two mills, by the same person.

During the whole of the 12th and 13th centuries the pen played a more

distinguished part than the brush in the art of illumination; since, not

only was the former almost exclusively employed in outlining both foliage

and figures, but the use of the latter was generally limited to filling up,

and heightening with timid shadowing, the various parts defined by the

former, and which were altogether dependent upon it for expression. In

fact, it appears as if the principal patterns in 13th century illumination

had been designed by stained-glass painters, the black outlines being

equivalent in artistic result to the lead lines which, in the best

specimens of grisaille and mosaic windows, keep the forms and colours

distinct and perfect. This firm dark outlining was retained in England

later than in France, and was combined in the former country with a more

solid and somewhat less gay tone of colour than ever prevailed in the

latter.

So late as the 15th century, this correspondence between stained glass work

and illumination still obtained; thus, as Mr. Scharf remarks, in a note to

his interesting paper on the King's College, Cambridge, windows, in the

Transactions of the Archæological Institute for 1855, "The forty windows of

the monastery of Horschau contained a series of subjects minutely

corresponding to those of the Biblia Pauperum," &c.

The initial letters which in Romanesque illumination had expanded into very

large proportions as a general rule,[64] diminished; but, in compensation,

effloresced, as it were, into floreated terminations, which were at last

not only carried down the side of the page, but even made to extend right

across both the top and bottom of it. During the reigns of the three first

Edwards in England, the tail, as it might be called, of the initial letter,

running down the side of the page, gradually widened, until at length it

grew into a band of ornament, occasionally panelled, and with small

subjects introduced into the panels. In such cases, the initial letter

occupying the angle formed by the side and top ornaments of the page,

became subsidiary to the bracket-shaped bordering, which, in earlier

examples, had been decidedly subsidiary to the initial letter.

As no one can doubt that the 14th century was the period during which

illumination attained its highest perfection, not only in point of artistic

spirit in design, but in the dexterous processes of execution as well, it

has been considered that it might prove useful to the English student to

supply him or her with as large a proportion as possible of illustration of

that which we may really regard in matter of illuminating as our national

style. Thus our plates in this manual, Nos. 7, 8, and 9, have been taken

from a Latin Bible (B. M. Reg. 1, D. 1), exquisitely written on Uterine

vellum, about the commencement of the 14th century, by an English scribe,

whose autograph at the end of the holy text declares that

"Wills. devoniensis scripsit istum librum."

Well may the pious writer render thanks as he does, in a paragraph just

preceding the colophon, "to God, to Jesus Christ, to the Blessed Virgin

Mary, and to all Saints," on the completion of such a volume, in every

respect a model of what illuminated writing may be. It is somewhat

deficient in pictures, although in the prologue and in that part of the

Psalms in which David prophesies concerning our Saviour, specimens of the

artist's abilities on a more extended scale than usual may be met with. In

these, as in the initials and borders, manual dexterity is pushed to

perfection, and combined with that occasional feeling for beauty and

constant appreciation of humour, which form leading characteristics of that

English school of illumination, of which "William of Devon" must ever be

ranked among the worthiest. The expression of the little heads, and of the

hands and feet, which are unusually well drawn for the period, is

invariably given with the pen, scarcely any attempt being made at shading

with the brush. The high lights are touched on most delicately with pure

white; and deep blue, and burnished gold grounds looking like solid metal,

are universal throughout the volume.

Our plates, Technical Manual, Nos. 7, 8, 9, also from a Latin Bible in the

Royal collection (No. 15, D 2), are of nearly the same period and style,

but not quite so delicately wrought perhaps as the illuminations are which

we meet with in Reg. 1, D 1. The former offer, however, the least

exceptional aspect of English illumination of the Edwardian period--one in

which vigorous but rather heavy colouring and firm but rather loaded

outline dominate. In these specimens we at length see natural leafage of

the vine, maple, &c., introduced, but scarcely yet allowed to throw itself

about in Nature's wildly wilful way.

From the 12th century onwards, important illuminated manuscripts exist to

the present day in such profusion as to deter me from individualizing in

this necessarily brief essay. I shall rather dwell upon general

characteristics of style, and upon the influence of the leading patrons of

the art, in its palmiest days, in England, France, Germany, and the

Netherlands. In these countries the infinite activity of the mendicant

friars kept up a steady demand for manuscripts of all kinds: thus Richard

de Bury, bishop of Durham, the greatest bibliophile of his age, and the

tutor when prince, and friend while sovereign, of Edward III., relates,

that in all his book-hunting travels: "Whenever we happened to turn aside

to the towns and places where the aforesaid paupers had convents, we were

not slack in visiting their chests and other repositories of books; for

there, amidst the deepest poverty, we found the most exalted riches

treasured up; there, in their satchels and baskets, we discovered not only

the crumbs that fell from the masters table for the little dogs, but,

indeed, the show-bread without leaven,--the bread of angels, containing in

itself all that is delectable."

These mendicant friars were looked upon with great jealousy by the clergy,

who attributed to them the decrease in the number of students in the

universities. Fitz Ralph, archbishop of Armagh and chaplain to Richard de

Bury, accuses them of doing "grete damage to learning:" curiously enough,

his accusation, contained in an oration denouncing them, bears testimony to

their love of books and to their industry in collecting them. "For these

orders of beggers, for endeles wynnynges that thei geteth by beggyng of the

foreside pryvyleges of schriftes and sepultures and othere, thei beth now

so multiplyed in conventes and in persons. That many men tellith that in

general studies unnethe, is it founde to sillynge a pfitable book of ye

faculte of art, of dyvynyte, of lawe canon, of phisik, other of lawe civil,

but all bookes beth y bougt of freres so that en ech convent of freres is a

noble librarye and a grete, and so that ene sech frere that hath state in

schole, siche as thei beth nowe, hath an hughe librarye. And also y sent of

my sugettes to schole thre other foure persons, and hit is said me that

some of them beth come home agen for thei myst nought find to selle ovn

goode Bible; nother othere couenable books." Richard de Bury's example gave

a stimulus to those who succeeded him, both at Durham and elsewhere.

As the styles of architecture varied in England and France,--agreeing in

leading particulars, but each acquiring for itself a set of distinctive

characteristics,--so did the art of illumination. In the purely Gothic

work, such as prevailed from 1250 to 1400, extreme _finesse_ in execution,

tenderness of colour, gentleness of expression, piquancy of ornament, and

elegance of composition, may be regarded as almost invariable attributes of

French productions. In England, on the other hand, the style was not so

harmonious but more vigorous, the colouring was fuller and deeper, the

action of the figures more intense, the power of expression more

concentrated, and reaching occasionally in its energy almost to caricature,

the sense of humour always freely developed, and a more generally active

sentiment of life impressed upon design, not only in figure subjects, but

in ornament. In the latter, monkeys and other animals, dragons, and comic

incidents, are very frequently intermingled with graceful foliage and

heraldic embellishments. In fact it is to the credit of both countries

that, with so much that is excellent in common, they should still have

displayed such free and distinctive features as marked the works of each

respectively. About the year 1400, in both countries the mechanical

reproduction of the accredited types and leading incidents of Scripture and

of Catholic faith began to be abandoned; and, mainly from the necessity of

giving to the historical personages introduced in secular romances and

chronicles individual force and vigour, an attention to portraiture and a

transcription of characteristic traits of active life are freely developed.

Considering how few traces of the art of painting, as exhibited either in

panel pictures or in mural embellishments, remain to attest the condition

of the arts in England and France in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and

fifteenth centuries, it is impossible for the student of Gothic art to

overestimate the extreme interest which attaches to the chronological

series of specimens of the painter's art which may be examined in the great

metropolitan libraries of either country. It is very fortunate for our

reputation that we are enabled, through so large a series of volumes as

still exist, to trace such distinctive and national characteristics as

enable us to assert, without fear of error, that so far as graphic

dexterity is concerned, the English artificers were fully competent to

execute all the artistic productions which have as yet been found upon our

soil. That foreigners were freely employed there can be no doubt, but that

the works which were executed by them could not have been executed by

Englishmen, no one can with safety assert, who has traced with any

considerable care the gradual development of English art through a series

of English illuminated manuscripts.