That illumination was excessively popular in England during the 14th

century among the leading families, is proved by the numbers of coats of

arms emblazoned in many of the most remarkable English manuscripts. Thus in

the Salisbury Lectionary, in the Douce, in Queen Mary's, and in the

Braybrooke Psalters, appear the ancient coats of some of the best blood in

the country. A most interesting contemporary illustration of the precise

terms upon which these noble patrons employed the best illuminators of the

day has been furnished me by a kind and learned antiquarian friend,[65] in

the shape of an extract from the fabric rolls of "York Minster,"[66] of

which the following is a translation:--

"August 26th, 1346.--There appeared Robert Brekeling, scribe, and swore

that he would observe the contract made between him and Sir John Forbor,

viz., that he the said Robert would write one Psalter with the Kalender for

the work of the said Sir John for 5_s._ and 6_d._; and in the same Psalter,

in the same character, a _Placebo_ and a _Dirige_, with a Hymnal and

Collectary, for 4_s._ and 3_d._ And the said Robert will illuminate

('luminabit') all the Psalms with great gilded letters, laid in with

colours; and all the large letters of the Hymnal and Collectary will he

illuminate with gold and vermilion, except the great letters of double

feasts, which shall be as the large gilt letters are in the Psalter. And

all the letters at the commencement of the verses shall be illuminated with

good azure and vermilion; and all the letters at the beginning of the

_Nocturns_ shall be great uncial (unciales) letters, containing V. lines,

but the _Beatus Vir_ and _Dixit Dominus_ shall contain VI. or VII. lines;

and for the aforesaid illumination and for colours he [John] will give

5_s._ 6_d._, and for gold he will give 18_d._, and 2_s._ for a cloak and

fur trimming. Item one robe--one coverlet, one sheet, and one pillow."[67]

Under such contracts, and on much more extravagant terms, were no doubt

produced the finest of those "specimens of English miniature painting" of

the Edwardian period, which Dr. Waagen considers "excel those of all other

nations of the time, with the exception of the Italian, and are not

inferior even to these."[68]

There is probably no document in existence which better illustrates the

nature, cost, and classification of illuminated and other manuscripts

during the 14th and 15th centuries, than the catalogue of the library

founded by William of Wykeham, himself one of the greatest English patrons

of literature, at the College of St. Mary, near Winchester. This catalogue

has been printed _in extenso_ in the "Archæological Journal" (vol. xv. pp.

69 to 74), with notes by the Rev. W. H. Gunner. It is essentially a

_catalogue raisonné_, divided into the following classes, which give a good

idea of the staple commodities in mediæval and monastic libraries:--

"Ordinalia, Antiphonaria, Portiphoria, Legendæ, Collectaria, Graduales,

Manualia, Processionalia, Gradales, Pontificates et Epistolares, Libri

Theologiæ, Doctores super Bibliam, Libri Sententiarum, Doctores super

Sententias, Libri Historiales, Psalteria Glossata, Libri Augustini, Libri

Gregorii, Libri Morales Diversorum Doctorum [to which in many libraries

might, I fear, be added, Libri Immorales Diversorum Auctorum], Libri

Chronici, Libri Philosophiæ [strange to say, a total blank in the

Winchester Collection], Libri Juris Canonici, Decreta et Doctores super

Decreta, Decretales, Libri Sexti cum Doctoribus, Clementinæ, Summæ et alii

Tractatus Diversorum Doctorum Juris Canonici, Libri Juris Civilis, and

Libri Grammaticales."

Most of the volumes in this library were donations from both laity and

clergy, but mainly from the former. The price of every volume is given. The

founder himself presented one Missal valued at £20, and John Yve, "formerly

a fellow of this College, bequeathed a great Portiphoriam for laying before

the senior fellow standing on the right hand of the upper stall," valued at

an equal amount. The York contract, previously quoted, shows precisely how

much illumination could be obtained for much less than one pound; and we

may therefore form from it a tolerable idea of the magnificence of volumes

upon the production of which such large sums were expended. The student

will find this catalogue well repay his careful examination.

During the last half of the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th, the

art of illumination received a great impulse in France, from the

magnificent patronage bestowed upon it by Jean, Duc de Berri, brother of

Charles V. Of his unique library, which excited the envy of all the princes

of his time, and stimulated especially Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy,

and the great Duke of Bedford, to enter into competition with him, many

magnificent specimens still remain--such as his Psalter, his two

Prayer-books, and his copy of the "Merveilles du Monde."[69]

French illumination attained perfection in these works, and in some few

specimens of the more decidedly Renaissance period, such as the unsurpassed

"Hours of Anne of Brittany," executed about the year 1500: all of these are

models for the study of the illuminator of the 19th century, since in them

gaiety and charm of ornament will be found united to a style of

miniature-painting of real excellence in art. In the MSS. of the period of

Jean de Berri, we meet with the perfection of that lace-like foliation

known as the Ivy pattern--one that attained an extraordinary popularity in

France, England, and the Netherlands.

In the illuminations of both France and England, during the 14th and first

half of the 15th centuries, the application of raised and highly-burnished

gold became a leading feature, and reached its highest pitch of perfection.

When used, as it frequently was, as a ground for miniature subjects and

ornaments, it was frequently diapered in the most brilliant and delicate

manner. This diapered background gave way at length to an architectural,

and, ultimately, under the influence of the Italian school and that of the

Van Eycks, to a landscape one.

It may be well now to advert to those styles of illumination which, through

the Flemings settled in this country, greatly affected English art; and

which, through the House of Burgundy, equally powerfully wrought upon the

French styles, not so much of ornament, as of miniature-painting. As M.

Hippolyte Fortoul[70] justly remarks, "The powerful school established at

Bruges by the Van Eycks, at the close of the 14th century, exercised an

immense influence on all the schools of Europe, not excepting those of

Italy;"--an influence which was, indeed, not altogether dissimilar from

that brought to bear upon mannerism in Art by the Pre-Raffaelitism of the

present day. The foundations of the Netherlandish school were sufficiently

remote, but may be satisfactorily traced through existing miniatures and

paintings. Herr Heinrich Otte, in his "Handbuch der Kirchlichen

Kunst-Archäologie" (p. 187), gives a chronological list of the principal

MSS. of Germanic production from the Carlovingian period to the

commencement of the 13th century. Up to that period the Byzantine manner

prevailed, mixed with a peculiar rudeness, such as may be recognised in the

works of the great saint and bishop, Bernward of Hildesheim, whom Fiorillo

and other writers look upon, with Willigis of Mainz, as the great animator

of German art in the 11th century.[71] The conversion of this latter

element into Gothic originality appears to have taken place during the 13th

century, and a fine manuscript in the British Museum (B. R 2, b. 11),

ascribed by Dr. Waagen to a period between 1240 and 1260, illustrates the

transition.[72]

With the commencement of the 14th century appear the "Lay of the

Minnesingers," one of the most peculiar of the Paris manuscripts, and

others cited by Dr. Kugler, which carry on the evidence of progressive

development until the power of expression obtained in painting by Meisters

Wilhelm and Stephen of Cologne, is reflected in the contemporary

miniatures.

Even did not the celebrated "Paris Breviary," and the British Museum

"Bedford Missal," or, more correctly speaking, "Book of Hours," both

executed in part by the three Van Eycks, Hubert, Jan, and Margaretha, for

the great Regent of France, exist, the style of the panel-pictures painted

by them would be quite sufficient to show that they must have been

illuminators before they became world-renowned _oil-painters_. Through

their conscientious study of nature, both in landscape and in portrait

subjects, a complete change was wrought in the miniatures of all

manuscripts produced after their influence had had time to penetrate into

the scriptoria and ateliers of the contemporary artist-scribes. Had not the

invention of printing rapidly supervened, there can be no doubt that even

more extraordinary results than followed the general appreciation of their

graces as illuminators would have been ensured.

It is not in publications such as this little manual that any attempts

could be successfully made to reproduce the pictorial results achieved by

such masters in such volumes; but an attempt may certainly be made to

convey some idea both of the general character of the handwriting and of

the ornamental adjuncts by which its effect, and that of the beautiful

little pictures framed in by its brilliant playfulness, was so greatly

heightened. In plates 10, 11, and 12 of this manual, Mr. Tymms has

collected from the "Bedford Book of Hours" much that the student will find

worthy of his careful attention. Well, indeed, may the enthusiastic Dr.

Dibdin soar off into the most transcendental raptures over a volume which,

tested even by the ignoble touchstone of a public sale in 1815, was not

knocked down to its eager purchaser, the then Marquis of Blandford, for a

less sum than £687. 15s. It has now happily found a final resting-place in

the British Museum (ranking as "add. 18,850"), of which it must always

remain as, probably, the greatest treasure, both from its historical

association and its intrinsic excellence and beauty--containing, as it

does, not less than fifty-nine whole-page miniatures, and about a thousand

smaller ones, enriched throughout with gilded lace-work, and ornaments of

the description of that shown in our plates, and commended to the student's

diligent observation.

The later manuscripts of the German and Netherlandish schools of

miniature-painting generally reflect the mixed cleverness and angularities

of such masters as Rogier van der Weyde the elder, Lucas van Leyden, Martin

Schongauer, &c.; where, however, the manner of Hemling prevailed, spiritual

beauty and refinement followed.

To dwell upon Spanish illuminated manuscripts would be comparatively

profitless to the practical student; for all the peculiarities and

excellencies they would appear to have at any time possessed, may be found

more perfectly developed at first in French, subsequently in Netherlandish,

and ultimately in Italian volumes.[73] In one most remarkable and indeed

historical volume, the actual alliance of Spanish writing and initial

illumination with Flemish subject-painting and Arabesque is clearly to be

recognized. The result of the union is certainly most happy, for few more

beautiful books exist than the exquisite missal which in a passage of

golden letters and honied words Francesco de Roias offers to Isabella "the

Catholic." This magnificent volume, from which our plates (Technical

Manual) Nos. 10, 11, and 12, have been taken, was purchased by the

authorities of the British Museum, in whose catalogue it figures as add.

18,851, of Messrs. W. and T. Boone in 1852. In this work the brush triumphs

over the pen, its decorations are essentially pictorial, and many of them

recall, if not the hand, at least the style, of Memling and Van Eyck.

Unlike volumes of earlier periods in which the illustrations are generally

the work of one hand throughout, in this elaborate volume, a division of

labour obtains. In this, as in many others of about the same period, not

only are the penman and the painter two individuals, but the latter

especially becomes half a dozen. This was, no doubt to a great extent,

occasioned by the almost universal substitution of lay for clerical

illuminators in the latter part of the 15th century, and by the production

at that date of illuminated books for dealers adopting the principles and

practice of that system of economic production which ultimately permitted

manufacture to almost universally supersede Art throughout Europe. It

remains now only to sketch, with a brevity altogether out of proportion to

the great interest of the subject, the progress of the art in Italy.

If the delineation of naïve and graceful romantic incident, combined with

elegant foliated ornament, reached perfection in the illuminations of the

French school; if blazoning on gilded grounds was carried to its most

gorgeous pitch in Oriental and Byzantine manuscripts; if intricate

interlacements and minute elaboration may be regarded as the special

characteristics of Hiberno-Saxon scribes; and if a noble tone of solid

colour, combined with great humour and intense energy of expression, marked

England's best productions,--it may be safely asserted, that it was

reserved for the Italians to introduce into the embellishment of

manuscripts those higher qualities of art, their peculiar aptitude for

which so long gave them a pre-eminence among contemporaneous schools.

I therefore proceed to trace the names and styles of some few of the most

celebrated among their illuminators; premising by a reminder to the student

of the miserably low pitch to which art had been reduced in Italy during

the 12th century. Even the most enthusiastic and patriotic writers agree in

the all but total dearth of native talent. Greeks were employed to

reproduce Byzantine mannerisms in pictures and mosaics, and to a slight

extent no doubt as scribes. Illumination was scarcely known or recognized

as an indigenous art; for Dante, even writing after the commencement of the

14th century, speaks of it as "quell' arte, che Alluminar è chiamata a

Parisi."[74]

Probably the earliest Italian manuscript showing signs of real art, is the

"Ordo Officiorum Senensis Ecclesiæ," preserved in the library of the

academy at Sienna, and illuminated with little subjects and friezes with

animals, by a certain Oderico, a canon of the cathedral, in the year 1213.

The Padre della Valle[75] expressly cautions the student against

confounding this Odericus with the Oderigi of Dante,[76] who died about the

year 1300. The latter was unquestionably an artist of some merit, for

Vasari[77] speaks of him as an "excellente miniatore," whose works for the

Papal library, although "in gran parte consumati dal tempo," he had himself

seen and admired. Some drawings by the hand of this "valente uomo," as he

is styled, Vasari speaks of possessing in his own collection.

Baldinucci makes out Oderigi to have been of the Florentine school on no

other grounds than because Vasari describes him as "molto amico di Giotto

in Roma;" and because Dante appears to have known him well. Lanzi,[78]

however, more correctly classes him with the Bolognese school, from his

teaching Franco Bolognese at Bologna, and on the strength of the direct

testimony of one of the earliest commentators on Dante--Benvenuto da Imola.

This same Franco worked much for Benedict IX., and far surpassed his

master.

Vasari especially commends the spirit with which he drew animals, and

mentions a drawing in his own possession of a lion tearing a tree as of

great merit. Thus Oderigi, the contemporary of Cimabue, and Franco, the

pupil of Oderigi and contemporary of Giotto, appear to have been to the Art

of Illumination what Cimabue and his pupil Giotto were to the Art of

Painting,--the pupil in both cases infinitely excelling the master. To them

succeeded, about the middle of the 14th century, a scarcely less celebrated

pair--Don Jacopo Fiorentino, and Don Silvestro, both monks in the

Camaldolese monastery, "degli Angeli," at Florence. The former, Baldinucci

tells us, "improving, with infinite study, every moment not devoted to his

monastic duties, acquired a style of writing greatly sought after for

choral books." The latter, who was rather an artist than a scribe, enriched

the productions of his friend with miniatures so beautiful, as to cause the

books thus jointly produced to excite, at a later period, the special

admiration of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and his son, the no less magnificent

Leo X.[79] So proud were their brother-monks of the skill of Frati Jacopo

and Silvestro, that after their death they preserved their two right hands

as honoured relics.

About a century later, the leading illuminators were Bartolomeo and

Gherardo,--the former abbot of San Clemente, at Arrezzo, and the latter a

Florentine painter and "miniatore," whom Vasari confounds with Attavante, a

painter, engraver, and mosaicist. Of all the Italian artists who adopted

the style of the illuminators, if they did not themselves illuminate, the

most celebrated certainly are Fra Angelico da Fiesole[80] and Gentile da

Fabriano. The majority of the works of both are little else than magnified

miniatures of the highest merit.

The school of Siennese illumination was scarcely less distinguished than

that of Florence. M. Rio dwells with enthusiasm on the books of the Kaleffi

and Leoni, still preserved in the Archivio delle Riformazioni, and

especially on those decorated by Nicolo di Sozzo, in 1334. The greatest

master of the school, Simone Memmi,[81] the intimate friend of Petrarch,

was himself an illuminator of extraordinary excellence, as may be seen by

the celebrated Virgil of the Ambrosian Library at Milan, which contains,

amongst other beautiful miniatures by his hand, the fine portrait of

Virgil, and a very remarkable allegorical figure of Poetry, quite equal in

artistic merit to any of the artist's larger and better-known works in

fresco or tempera.[82]

It is, however, in the library of the cathedral at Sienna, which retains

many of the magnificent choir-books executed by Fra Benedetto da Matera, a

Benedictine of Monte Cassino, and Fra Gabriele Mattei of Sienna, that the

greatest triumphs of the school are still to be recognized. This series of

volumes, although much reduced from its original extent by the abstractions

made by Cardinal Burgos, who carried off a vast quantity to Spain, is still

the finest belonging to any capitular establishment in Italy, and worthily

represents the grandeur of Italian illumination in "cinque cento" days.

The series of similar volumes next in importance to those of Sienna, is

attached to the choir of the church and monastic establishment of the

Benedictines at Perugia, known as "San de' Casinensi." Of these, nothing

more need be said than that they are worthy of the stalls of the same

choir, the design of which is attributed to Raffaelle, and the execution to

Stefano da Bergamo, and Fra Damiano, of the same town, the great

"intarsiatore."

Formerly, as M. Rio observes,[83] "Ferrara could boast of possessing a

series of miniatures, executed principally in the seclusion of its

convents, from the time of the Benedictine monk Serrati, who in 1240

ornamented the books of the choir with figures of a most noble

character,[84] till that of Fra Girolamo Fiorino, who, towards the

beginning of the 15th century, devoted himself to the same occupation in

the monastery of San Bartolomeo, and formed in his young disciple Cosmè a

successor who was destined to surpass his master, and to carry this branch

of art to a degree of perfection till then unknown. Even at the present day

we may see, in the twenty-three volumes presented by the Bishop Bartolomeo

delia Rovere to the cathedral, and in the twenty-eight enormous volumes

removed from the Certosa to the public library, how much reason the

Ferrarese have to be proud of the possession of such treasures, and to

place them by the side of the manuscripts of Tasso and Ariosto.

The "subjects generally treated by these mystical artists were marvellously

adapted to their special vocation: they were the life of the holy Virgin,

the principal festivals celebrated by the Church, or popular objects of

devotion; in short, all the dogmas which were susceptible of this mode of

representation, works of mercy, the different sacraments, the imposing

ceremonies of religion, and, in general, all that was most poetical in

liturgy or legend. In compositions of so exclusive a character, naturalism

could only be introduced in subordination to the religious element."[85]

While this was the case with the majority of illuminations executed under

the auspices of the Church, in those of a secular nature, undertaken for

the great princes and nobles, another set of characteristics prevailed. For

the Gonzagas, Sforzas, D'Estes, Medici, Strozzi, Visconti, and other great

families, the best artists were constantly employed in decorating both

written and printed volumes, in which portraiture is freely introduced, and

picturesque and historical subjects are represented with great vivacity and

attention to costume and local truth. Thus in the truly exquisite "Grant of

Lands," by Ludovico il Moro to his wife Beatrice D'Este, dated January

28th, 1494, and preserved in the British Museum, speaking portraits of both

Ludovico and Beatrice are introduced, with their arms and beautiful

arabesques.[86] Again, in the Hanrot "Sforziada," the first page contains

exquisite miniatures of three members of the princely family of the

Sforzas, by the hand of the all-accomplished Girolamo dai Libri.[87] This

artist, a truly celebrated Veronese and worthy fellow-townsman, with the

almost equally able Fra Liberale, whose work in the manner of Giovanni

Bellini excited the utmost envy on the part of the Siennese illuminators,

was himself the son of a miniature-painter, known as Francesco dai Libri,

and bequeathed the name and art of his father to his own son,--thus

maintaining the traditions of good design acquired in the great school of

Padua, under Andrea Mantegna[88] and Squarcione, during three generations

of illuminators. Girolamo was by far the most celebrated of the three. As a

painter, his works possess distinguished merit, and there still remain good

samples of his abilities in the churches of San Zeno and Sant' Anastasia,

at Verona. He also derives some credit from the transcendent merits of his

pupil Giulio Clovio. Vasari's description of the talents of Girolamo[89]

gives so lively a picture of the style which reached its highest vogue at

the end of the 15th, and during the first half of the 16th centuries in

Italy, that I am tempted to translate it. "Girolamo," he says, "executed

flowers so naturally and beautifully, and with so much care, as to appear

real to the beholder. In like manner he imitated little cameos and other

precious stones and jewels cut in intaglio, so that nothing like them, or

so minute, was ever seen. Among his smallest figures, such as he

represented on gems or cameos, some might be observed no larger than little

ants, and yet in all of them might be made out every limb and muscle, in a

manner which to be believed must needs be seen."

Mr. Ottley supposes that Giulio Clovio (born 1498, died 1578) worked

previous to his receipt of the instruction of Girolamo in a drier manner,

in which no evidence appears of that imitation of Michael Angelesque pose

in his figures, which in his subsequent production became so leading a

characteristic of his style. It is in his earlier manner that Giulio is

believed to have illuminated for Clement VII.[90] (1523-1534), while for

his successor, Paul III. (1534-1539), he worked abundantly, and gradually

acquired that which is best known as his later manner, in which he

continued to labour, according to Vasari, until 1578, at the great age of

eighty years. Mr. Ottley, however, recognizes his hand in MSS. which must

have been at least five years later--during the Pontificate of Gregory

XIII.[91]

It is obviously impossible, in such an essay as the present, to dwell in

detail upon the merits of so accomplished a master of his art. Fortunately

we possess in this metropolis two fine specimens of his skill, both

tolerably accessible--one in the Soane[92] and the other in the British

Museum.[93] A third, of great splendour, is in the possession of Mr.

Towneley, and a fourth, in the shape of an altar-card, attributed to him,

is to be found in the Kensington Museum; and several fragments, formerly in

Mr. Rogers's possession, have passed to Mr. Whitehead and to the British

Museum. All of these exhibit a refinement of execution, combined with a

brilliancy of colour and excellence of drawing, which has never been

surpassed by any illuminator. Vasari gives a complete list and description

of his principal works, and proves him to have been not less industrious

than able.

A contemporary of Giulio's, whose name has been overpowered by the greater

brilliancy of that of the Cellini of illumination, was a certain Apollonius

of Capranica, or, as he signs himself, "Apollonius de Bonfratellis de

Capranica, Capellæ et Sacristiæ Apostolicæ Miniator." Mr. Ottley most

justly states,[94] "that it is impossible to speak in too high terms of the

beauty of his borders, wherein he often introduces compartments with small

figures, representing subjects of the New Testament, which are touched with

infinite delicacy and spirit." His drawing, which is of a decidedly

Michael-Angelesque character, is of less merit when the nude is represented

on a larger scale. His harmony of colour is extraordinary, rather lower in

tone than Giulio Clovio's, but equally glowing, and more powerful. Some

beautiful specimens of his handicraft remain in the possession of Mr. T. M.

Whitehead. The late Mr. Rogers possessed many fragments, the most precious

of which have found their way into the National Collection. His work is

usually dated, and the dates appear to range from 1558 to 1572. Apollonius

having been official illuminator to the very institution from which Celotti

derived his richest spoils, it may readily be imagined that his collection

included an unprecedented series of beautiful examples of Buonfratelli's

style.

Long after the invention of printing, the Apostolic Chamber retained its

official illuminators; and among them one of the most noteworthy is

unquestionably the artist who signs his works, "Ant. Maria Antonotius

Auximas"--a native of Osimo, and a _protégé_ of the princely house of the

Barberini and its magnificent head, Urban VIII. (1623-1644). He was a pupil

of Pietro da Cortona, and an artist of great skill and refinement.[95]

For still more recent popes artists of great excellence continued to be

employed, including for Alexander VII. the celebrated Magdalena Corvina,

who worked from 1655 to 1657; and for Innocent XI (1676 to 1689) a German,

who signs his productions "Joann, frid-Heribach." As the popes retained

their illuminators for the decoration of precious documents, so did the

doges of Venice; and probably the most magnificent of all illumination,

executed after the general spread of printed books had checked, although

not extinguished, the art, may be found in the precious "Ducales," wrought

indeed by several of the greatest Venetian painters.[96]

I need scarcely remind the reader, that the earliest wood-cut and printed

books were made to imitate manuscripts so closely as to deceive the

inexperienced eye. "Artes moriendi," "Specula," "Bibliæ Pauperum," and

"Donatuses,"--the principal types of block books,[97]--represent

illuminated manuscripts in popular demand at the date of the introduction

into Europe of Xylographic Art. Spaces were frequently left, both in the

block books and in the earliest books printed with movable type, for the

illumination, by hand, of initial letters, so as to carry the illusion as

far as possible. This practice was abandoned as soon as the learned

discovered the means by which such wonderfully cheap apparent transcripts

of voluminous works could be brought into the market; and the old decorated

initial and ornamental letters were reproduced from type and wood blocks.

The Mainz Psalter of 1457, and other books printed by Fust and Schoeffer,

required only the addition of a little colour here and there to delude any

inexperienced eye into the belief that they were really hand-worked

throughout. Such imitations were but poor substitutes for the originals in

point of beauty, however excellent when regarded from a utilitarian point

of view.

Every country has more or less cause to mourn the senseless destruction of

many noble old volumes which the printing-press never has, and now, alas!

never can replace; but none more than England, in which cupidity and

intolerance destroyed recklessly. Thus, after the dissolution of monastic

establishments, persons were appointed to search out all missals, books of

legends, and such "superstitious books," and to destroy or sell them for

waste paper; reserving only their bindings, when, as was frequently the

case, they were ornamented with massive gold and silver, curiously chased,

and often further enriched with precious stones; and so industriously had

these men done their work, destroying all books in which they considered

popish tendencies to be shown by illumination, the use of red letters, or

of the Cross, or even by the--to them--mysterious diagrams of mathematical

problems--that when, some years after, Leland was appointed to examine the

monastic libraries, with a view to the preservation of what was valuable in

them, he found that those who had preceded him had left little to reward

his search.

Bale, himself an advocate for the dissolution of monasteries, says:

"Never had we bene offended for the losse of our lybraryes beyng so many in

nombre and in so desolate places for the moste parte, yf the chief

monuments and moste notable workes of our excellent wryters had bene

reserved, yf there had bene in every shyre of Englande but one solemyne

lybrary to the preservacyon of those noble workes, and preferrements of

good learnynges in our posteryte it had bene yet somewhat. But to destroye

all without consyderacion is and wyll be unto Englande for ever a most

horryble infamy amonge the grave senyours of other nations. A grete nombre

of them wych purchased of those superstycyose mansyons reserved of those

lybrarye bokes, some to serve their jaks, some to scoure theyr

candelstyckes, and some to rubbe theyr bootes; some they solde to the

grossers and sope sellers, and some they sent over see to the bokebynders,

not in small nombre, but at tymes whole shippes ful. I know a merchant man,

whyche shall at thys tyme be namelesse, that boughte the contents of two

noble lybraryes for xl shyllyngs pryce, a shame it is to be spoken. Thys

stuffe bathe he occupyed in the stide of greye paper for the space of more

than these ten years, and yet hathe store ynough for as manye years to

come. A prodyguous example is thys, and to be abhorred of all men who love

theyr natyon as they shoulde do."

Wherever the Reformation extended throughout Europe, a corresponding

destruction of ancient illuminated manuscripts took place, and in

localities where fanaticism failed to do its work of devastation,

indifference proved a consuming agent of almost equal energy; and, indeed,

there is no more forcible illustration of the untiring zeal and industry of

the illuminators of old, than the fact, that, after all that has been done

to stamp out the sparks still lingering in their embers, their works should

still glow with such shining lights in all the great public libraries of

Europe.

Despite all this ruthless destruction, and the universal extension of the

art of printing, ornamental penmanship has never been altogether

extinguished as a pictorial art. The Apostolic Chamber, as we have

remarked, retained, until quite recently, its official illuminator.

The luxuriant magnates of the court of the "Grande Monarque" still provided

employment for men like Jary and Prévost, while in England many heraldic

and genealogical MSS. of the 17th, and even 18th centuries, still exist to

prove that the Art was dormant rather than extinct. That it has a brilliant

future yet in store for it no one can hesitate to believe who is enabled to

recognize the power of design, and the capability to execute--either on

paper or vellum--with the brush or pen--by hand, or by calling in the aid

of the printer and lithographer for the rapid multiplication and

dissemination of beautiful specimens--manifested by Owen Jones, his pupil

Albert Warren, and many other able artists and amateurs, still gracing this

19th century of ours with works, many of which will doubtless survive to

our honour and credit so long as Arts and States may endure.

It is in a humble effort to assist in such a consummation that these little

manuals have been written, illustrated, and published.

M. DIGBY WYATT.

END OF PART I.

WHAT ILLUMINATING SHOULD BE IN THE PRESENT DAY.

Illumination, in whatever form practised, can never be properly regarded as

any other than one of the genera into which the art of Polychromatic

decoration may be subdivided. What was originally termed illumination, was

simply the application of minium or red lead, as a colour or ink, to

decorate, or draw marked attention to, any particular portion of a piece of

writing, the general text of which was in black ink. The term was retained

long after the original red lead was almost entirely superseded by the more

brilliant cinnabar, or vermilion. As ornaments of all kinds were gradually

superadded to the primitive distinctions, marked in manuscripts by the use

of different-coloured inks, the term acquired a wider significance, and,

from classical times to the present, has always been regarded as including

the practice of every description of ornamental or ornamented writing.

Because such embellishments were, during the early and Middle Ages, and, in

fact, until long after the invention of printing, almost invariably

executed on vellum, there is no reason whatever why illumination should be

applied to that material, or to paper, which has taken its place, only;

wood, metal, slate, stone, canvass, plaster, all may be made to receive it.

Again: because ancient illumination was almost entirely executed in

colours, in the use of which water and some glutinous medium were the only

"vehicles," there is no reason why modern illumination should not be worked

in oil, turpentine, encaustic, fresco, tempera, varnish, and by every

process in which decorative painting is ever wrought in these days. It is

in such an extension that the most valuable functions of the art are likely

to consist in all time to come. That utilitarian application which it,

originally and for so many centuries, found in the production of beautiful

books, copies of which could be elaborated by no other means than hand

labour, has been, to a great extent, superseded by chromolithography and

chromotypy. No doubt a wide field for useful, and even productive labour,

is still left to the practical illuminator on paper and vellum, in

designing and preparing exquisite originals for reproduction by those

processes, as well as in the rich and tasteful blazoning of pedigrees,

addresses, family records and memorials, and in the illustration for

presentation, or for private libraries, of transcripts from favourite

authors; but, at the same time, an equally elegant and useful application

of the art would be to enrich ceilings, walls, cornices, string-courses,

panels, labels round doors and windows, friezes, bands, chimney-pieces, and

stained and painted furniture in churches, school-rooms, dwellings, and

public buildings of all kinds, with beautiful and appropriate inscriptions,

of graceful form and harmonious colouring. Such illumination would form,

not only an agreeable, but an eminently useful decoration. How many texts

and sentences, worthy, in every sense, of being "written in letters of

gold," might not be thus brought prominently under the eyes of youth,

manhood, and old age, for hope, admonition, and comfort. No more skill,

energy, and taste are requisite for the production of this class of

illumination than are essential for satisfactory work upon vellum and

paper; and while in the one case the result of the labour may be made an

incessant enjoyment for many, in the other, it is seldom more than a

nine-days' wonder, shut up in a book or portfolio, and seen so seldom as

scarcely to repay the amateur for the expense and trouble involved in its

execution.

This, if I may be allowed the term, manifold application of forms,

primarily available for book decoration only, has not been lost sight of in

the selection and arrangement of the illustrations, both in this and in the

"Historical Manual." Mr. Tymms has, with excellent judgment, so arranged

them as to lead the student who may occupy himself in copying them, or

enlarging from them, gradually onwards from the comparatively easy to the

more difficult varieties of the art. Adopting, in all cases, the alphabet

of capital letters as a starting-point, the beginner will do well to learn

to write before attempting to learn to draw: he should copy the alphabet,

say on Plate I., fig. 1, on waste paper--common cartridge, or

paper-hanger's lining paper, will be best--many time; at first, in

fac-simile, then twice the size as printed, then four times, then eight

times, until he may be able to form letters as much as six inches high,

correctly. Having so far mastered the capitals, let him try in exactly the

same way to produce and reproduce the same text, or lower-case letters in

which the passages from Scripture, say Plate No. 1, fig. 2, have been

written. Let him then try a sentence not given in the plates, using for it

the capital and lower-case letters he has been learning how to form, and

let him work out his own sentence in as many different sizes as he has

previously tried Mr. Tymms's in. By the time he has drawn the enriched

initial letters of the same plate several times, he will find that his eye

and hand will have probably gained sufficient command to justify his

attempting to copy, in outline as before, on waste paper, and both on a

small and large scale, the ornaments given on Plate No. 3. In the intervals

between his outline studies, the young illuminator may occupy himself in

mastering the instructions given in this volume, so that he may have a

general idea of the theory of the different processes before be commences

an attempt to put them in practice. His first lesson in colouring should

then commence by his attempting to colour Plate No. 3, in fac-simile of

Plate No. 2.

It will be well to begin gilding and silvering with shell-gold and

aluminium, reserving for more advanced experiments the use of gold or

silver paper and leaf. The student may then with advantage copy in outline,

first of all the outline Plate No. 6, inking it in so as to produce, on

fine-grained drawing paper or card, a fac-simile of the printed plate. He

should next proceed to colour the printed plate to correspond with Plate

No. 5. Avoiding any defects he may have made in this operation, he may

colour his own outline as he had done the printed one; he will then find

himself able to copy both outline and colour on a small scale.

In his next set of lessons a much heavier demand will be made on his

capabilities.

To satisfactorily reproduce, either upon the same or upon an enlarged

scale, the compact black letter of Plate VII., and the solid brilliant

colours of Plate VIII., with the golden grounds, which should in this case

be highly burnished, will be found a much more difficult task than any yet

encountered. The student must not be discouraged by a little failure at

first. The technical operations of illumination are essentially

manipulative, and like the fingering of a musical instrument, must be

learnt by frequent and active exercise. The mere degree of skill requisite

to enable the artist to lay on a perfectly flat tint of very strong or of

very delicate colour, is only likely to be acquired after he may have

washed some fifty different tints, more or less cloudy and muddled. Few

hands will be found capable of tracing out a pure, firm, even outline, of

equal thickness and force in every part, with either pen, pencil, or brush,

which have not made many a score of ragged, feeble, or blotched attempts at

steadiness. To keep a number of lines perfectly upright, parallel, or

evenly spaced, demands an amount of dexterity which can only be gained by

laborious practice. The student must not therefore feel discouraged if at

first his hand may scarcely answer to the call made upon it. The failure of

to-day, with proper attention and perseverance, may become the germ of the

success of to-morrow; all that is essential is never on one day to repeat

the fault of its predecessor. Nothing will tend to give the beginner

greater confidence than the habit of working out the same forms and

processes upon various scales. Taking, for instance, such an initial letter

as the P, fig. 1, Plate X.; it would be an improving lesson to copy it in

pen-and-ink outline, exactly as it is shown, and then to copy it, say six

times the size given on the plate, thickening the lines, of course, in

proportion. Then let the student once again try to copy it in fac-simile,

and he will himself be probably surprised to find how much better and more

easily he will accomplish his task than he was enabled to do on his first

trial. A corresponding experiment, involving the application of gold and

brilliant colours, such as would be essential to a reproduction of figs. 1,

2, 3, 4, or 5, of Plate II., on various scales, will be found probably no

less useful and satisfactory.

A similar technical principle to that which has governed the selection and

order of the plates in this manual has also determined those in its

companion, the "Historical Manual."

Beginning with the simpler conventional styles of the Carlovingian school,

in Plates I., II., and III. (from the fragments of the Bible of Charles the

Bald, Harleian, 7,551), involving outline and flat tinting only, the

student may advance to the lightly-shaded pen-work and foliation of the

Romanesque style given in Plates IV., V., and VI., from the British Museum,

Reg. 1, C. VII. In the purely mediæval illumination of the 14th century,

Plates VII., VIII., and IX., from the British Museum (Reg. 1, D 1), the

tints become more solid; while the raised and embossed gold, the

complicated diapers, and more fully-shaded foliage, demand both

considerable mechanical dexterity, and some real artistic capability on the

part of the amateur, who would successfully revive the brilliant and

powerful execution of the master-scribes of the Edwardian age. Towards the

end of the 15th century, the miniatures of the illuminated books reflected

the general advance made all over Europe in the art of painting. Imitative

art rapidly superseded conventional, and although much ornament is freely

introduced in combination with small pictures, it is made to participate in

the general system of light and shade and arrangement of colour which

dominates over the more essentially-pictorial portions of the decoration.

Such a style of ornament is well shown in Plates X., XI., and XII., from

the Bedford (so called) missal, and in the three last plates of this

manual, from the beautiful Missal of Ferdinand and Isabella--British

Museum, add. 18,851.

Thus the student will find, that his own progress will tally with the

transitional changes of the art, from its infancy to its most artistic

phase, and that long before he may have learnt enough to enable him to

imitate successfully the miniature style of the 15th century, he may be in

a position to produce tolerably satisfactory reproductions of the early and

mediæval work.

Having thus suggested the most profitable mode in which the student can, I

believe, make use of the beautiful examples Mr. Tymms has prepared for his

assistance, I consider it well to proceed to offer to his notice such

counsel, as may, I trust, tend to induce him not to rest contented with

reproduction of old examples upon a small scale, but rather to extend the

sphere of his studies and operations into the origination of a fresh and

expanded system of decoration, based as a starting-point upon the labours

of the most zealous masters of the craft.

In the few remarks I am about to offer in respect to what the Art of

Illumination really should be now, I propose to treat briefly, but

specifically, of its application to each of the different substances on

which it may be most satisfactorily worked, in the following series:

vellum, paper, tracing-paper, canvass, plaster, stone, metal, wood. Dealing

with design only in this section of my essay, I propose, in the following

and concluding one, to adhere to the same order in noticing the best

processes by which amateurs may carry out the class of work I would

recommend to their notice.

To commence, therefore, with vellum: it is obvious that good copies of

ancient illuminated manuscripts can be made on this material only, for

there is a charm about the colour and texture of well-prepared calf-skin,

which no paper can be made to possess. For the same reason, and on account

of its extraordinary toughness and durability, it is especially suitable

for pedigrees, addresses, and other documents which it may be considered

desirable to preserve for future generations. To transcribe on vellum and

decorate the writings of ancient and modern authors so as to form unique

volumes, appears to me--nowadays, when God gives to every man and woman so

much good hard work to do, if they will but do it--little else than a waste

of human life. In days when few could read, and pictures drawn by hand were

the only means within the reach of the priesthood, of bringing home to the

minds of the ignorant populace the realities of Biblical history, and of

stimulating the eye of faith by exhibiting to the material eye pictures of

those sufferings and triumphs of saints and martyrs, on which the Church of

Rome during the Middle Ages mainly based its assertions of supremacy, it

was all very well to spend long lives of celibacy and monastic seclusion in

such labours; but the same justification can never be pleaded again. I am

quite ready to admit that the exceptional manufacture of these pretty

picture-books may be not only agreeable, but even useful: it is the abuse,

and not the occasional resort to the practice, I would venture to denounce.

For instance, a mother could scarcely do a thing more likely to benefit her

children, and to fix the lessons of love or piety she would desire to plant

in their memories, than to illuminate for them little volumes, which, from

their beauty or value, they might be inclined to treasure through life.

Interesting her children in her work as it grew under her hand, how many

precious associations in after-life might hang about these very books.

Again: for young people, the mere act of transcription, independent of the

amount of thought bestowed upon good words and pure thoughts, and the

selection of ornament to appropriately illustrate them, would tend to an

identification of the individual with the best and highest class of

sentiments.

All that has been said with respect to illumination on vellum applies, with

equal force, to illumination on paper. There has to be borne in mind,

however, the essential difference that exists between the relative

durability of the two substances. Elaboration is decidedly a great element

of beauty in illumination: and neatly-wrought elaboration cannot be

executed without care, patience, and a considerable sacrifice of time: why,

therefore, bestow that care, patience, and time upon a less permanent

material, when one only a trifle more costly, but infinitely more lasting,

is as easily procured? Work on paper, therefore, only as you would write

exercises or do sums upon a slate; learn and practise upon paper, but

reserve all more serious efforts for vellum only. No effect can be got upon

the former material, which cannot, with a little more dexterity, be

attained upon the latter.

As none of the other substances mentioned as those on which illumination

may be executed are available for making up into books, before proceeding

to a consideration of the special conditions under which the art may be

applied to them, I beg to offer the following recommendations with respect

to design, as suitable for book-illustration generally.[98]

Firstly:--Take care that your text be perfectly legible; for, however

cramped and confused the contents of many of those volumes we most admire

may now appear, it is to be remembered that they were all written in the

handwriting most easily read by the students of the periods in which they

were written. The old scribes never committed the solecism of which we are

too often guilty, of bestowing infinite pains on writing that which, when

written, not one in a hundred could, or can, decipher.

Secondly:--Fix the scale of your writing and ornament with reference to the

size of your page, and adhere to it throughout the volume. This rule, which

was rigidly observed in all the best periods of the art, is incessantly

disregarded in the present day; and to such an extent, that not only does

scale frequently differ, as we turn page after page, but the same page will

frequently exhibit scroll-work, derived from some great choral folio,

interwreathed with leafage borrowed from some pocket Missal or Book of

Hours.

Thirdly:--If you adopt any historical style or particular period as a basis

on which your text, miniatures, or ornamentation are to be constructed,

maintain its leading features consistently, so as to avoid letting your

work appear as though it had been begun in the 10th century, and only

completed in the 16th; or, as I have once or twice seen, _vice versâ_. For

however erratic changes of style may appear to be in Art, as they run one

another down along the course of time, it will be invariably found that

there exists a harmony between all contemporary features, which cannot be

successfully disregarded; and this it is which has ever rendered

eclecticism in art a problem,--not impossible, perhaps, to solve, but one

which, as yet at least, has never met with a satisfactory practical

solution.

Fourthly:--Sustain your energies evenly throughout your volume; for,

remember, your critics will estimate your powers, not by your best page,

but by a mean struck between your best and your worst. Book illumination is

generally looked upon as microscopic work, demanding the greatest

exactitude; and whatever merits any page may display, they will go for

little, if that page is disfigured by a crooked line, or a single leaf

insufficiently or incorrectly shadowed; and the greater the merit, the more

notable the drawback.

Fifthly:--Rigidly avoid contrasting natural with conventional foliage.

Adopt which you like, for by either beautiful effects may be produced; but

mix them, and the charm of both is gone. Natural foliage may be

successfully combined with any other varieties of conventional ornament,

excepting those based upon natural foliage.

Sixthly:--Take care that some at least of your dominant lines and borders

are kept parallel to the rectangular sides of your pages; for unless your

flowing and wayward ornaments are corrected by this soberer contrast, they

will, however beautiful in themselves, have a straggling and untidy

appearance in the volume. Where the lines of text are strongly marked, as

in black ink on a white ground, and the page is so far filled with text as

to leave but little space for ornament, this rule may be, to a great

extent, disregarded, for the lines of the text will themselves supply the

requisite contrast to the flowing forms; but where the page is nearly

filled with ornament, or when the text is faint only, as in gold lettering

on a white ground, it becomes imperative.

Seventhly:--Be decided, but temperate, in your contrasts of colour. It

would obviously exceed the limits of these notes to attempt in them to

enter upon the principles of the "harmony of colour;" they must be studied

from treatises specially devoted to the subject. Such study must, however,

be accompanied by constant experiment and practice; for it would be as

foolish to expect a man to be a good performer upon any instrument, because

he had learnt the theory of music, as it would be to suppose that he must

necessarily paint in harmonious colouring, because he studied the theory of

balance in combination. To the experienced eye and hand, functions become

intuitive, which, to the mere theorist, however profound, are toil and

weariness of spirit.

Such are a few of the rules, by attention to which the illuminators of old

achieved some of their happiest effects, and which can never be safely

disregarded by those who would emulate their efforts.

In taking up the class of substances on which illumination, as applied to

general decoration, may be best executed, we meet, firstly, with one

occupying a somewhat intermediate position,--viz., tracing-paper. I term

its position intermediate, because, it may be wrought upon in either oil or

water colour; and because, when so wrought upon, it may be either mounted

on paper or card, and so made to contribute to book or picture enrichment;

or attached to walls or other surfaces, brought forward in oil-colours, and

be so enlisted in a general system of mural illumination. How this may best

be done technically will be hereafter described; here I may notice only the

use which may be made of this convenient material, by many not sufficiently

advanced in design or drawing to be able to invent or even copy correctly

by free hand, and yet desirous of embellishing some particular surface with

decorative illumination. For instance, let it be desired to fill a

rectangular panel of any given dimension with an illuminated inscription.

Take a sheet of tracing-paper the exact size, double it up in both

directions, and the creases will give the vertical and horizontal

guidelines for keeping the writing square and even: then set out the number

of lines and spaces requisite for the inscription, fixing upon certain

initial letters or alphabets for reproduction on an enlarged scale, from

this work, or any other of a similar kind, and making the height of the

lines correspond therewith. Then lay the tracing over either the original

or the rough enlargement, and trace with pen, pencil, or brush, each letter

in succession, taking care to get each letter into its proper place, in

reference to the whole panel, to the letter last traced, and to the other

letters remaining to be traced. When this is completed, trace on whatever

ornaments may best fill up the open spaces and harmonize with the style of

lettering. When the tracing is completed, with a steady hand pick in all

the ground-tint, keeping it as even as possible; and heighten the letters

or ornaments in any way that may be requisite to make them correspond with

the models from which they may have been taken. By adopting this method of

working, with care and neatness of hand, very agreeable results may be

obtained, without its being indispensable for the illuminator to be a

skilful draughtsman. The tracing-paper may be ultimately attached to its

proper place, and finished off, as will be hereafter recommended; and, if

cleverly managed, it will be impossible to detect that that material has

ever been employed.

The special convenience of illuminating upon canvass is, that instead of

the operator having to work either from a ladder or scaffold, or on a

vertical or horizontal surface, he may do all that is necessary at an easel

or on a table on terra firma. His work when completed may be cut out of the

sheet of canvass on which it has been painted, and may be fastened to the

wall, ceiling, or piece of furniture for the decoration of which it may

have been intended. All that is essential, with respect to the designs

which may be wrought upon it, is, to take care that they are fitted for the

situations they may be ultimately intended to occupy. Thus it must be

obvious that it would be an entire waste of time to elaborate designs

destined to be fixed many yards from the eye, as minutely as those which

would be in immediate proximity to it. No branch of designing illuminated

or other ornament requires greater experience to succeed in than the

adjustment of the size of parts and patterns to the precise conditions of

light, distance, foreshortening, &c., under which they are most likely to

be viewed.

Illumination on plaster may be executed either in distemper, if the walls

or ceiling have been sized only, or in oil if they have been brought

forward in oil-colours. The former is the most rapid, but least durable

process. Hence decoration is usually applied in oil to walls which are

liable to be rubbed and brushed against, and in distemper, to ceilings,

which are, comparatively speaking, out of harm's way. Very pretty

decorations on plaster may be executed by combining hand-worked

illumination with diapered or other paper-hangings. Thus, for instance,

taking one side of a room, say about eleven feet high, to the under-side of

the plaster cornice, mark off about a foot in depth on the wall from the

bottom of the cornice, set out the width of the wall into three or more

panels, dividing the panels by upright pilasters of the same width as the

depth of the top border. At the height of about four feet from the ground

mark off the top edge of another horizontal band, which make also one foot

deep; continue on the lines of the pilasters to within six inches of the

top of the skirting, and draw in a horizontal border, six inches high,

running all round upon the top edge of the skirting: then paint, in a plain

colour, a margin, three or four inches wide, all round the panels formed by

the bands and pilasters, and let the paper-hanger fill in the panels with

any pretty diapered paper which may agree with the style and colour in

which you may desire to work your illumination. The side of your room will

then present two horizontal lines--one next the cornice, and one at about

dado-height, suitable for the reception of illuminated inscriptions. In

setting these out, care must be taken to bring a capital letter into a line

with the centre of each pilaster, so that a foliated ornament, descending

from the upper inscription, and ascending from the lower one, may meet and

intertwine on the pilasters, forming panelled compartments for the

introduction of subjects, if thought desirable.[99]

It is by no means necessary for the sides of these pilasters, or the

bounding lines of the bands containing inscriptions, to be kept straight;

they may be varied at pleasure, so long as they are kept symmetrical in

corresponding parts, and uniformly filled up with foliation emanating from,

or connected with, the illuminated letters. Agreeable results may be

produced by variations of such arrangements as the one suggested.

Frequently round doors, windows, fireplaces, &c., inscriptions may be

executed with very good effect, either on label-scrolls or simple borders,

and with greater or less brilliancy of colour, according to the

circumstances of the case. Often simplicity and quiet have greater charms

than glitter or brilliancy; thus black and red, on a light-coloured ground,

the most primitive combination in the history of writing, is always sure to

produce an agreeable impression: blue, crimson, or marone on gold, or _vice

versâ_, are no less safe: black, white, and gold, counterchanged, can

hardly go wrong.

Few amateurs will be likely to attempt illuminations upon plaster ceilings,

owing to the great difficulty they will experience in working overhead with

a steady hand. They will generally do wisely--to execute the principal

portions on paper, tracing-paper, or canvas,--to fasten them up, as will be

hereafter directed,--and to confine the decoration actually painted on the

ceiling, to a few panels, lines, or plain bands of colour, which may be

readily executed by any clever house-painter or grainer, even if altogether

ignorant of drawing and the art of design. The most beautiful illuminated

ceiling of mediæval times I believe to be that of the chapel in the

celebrated Jacques Coeur's house, at Bourges, in France. It is vaulted, and

each compartment contains inscribed labels held by floating angels. The

white draperies of the angels are relieved on a delicate blue ground only,

so that the stronger contrast of the black writing on the white labels

gives a marked predominance to the inscriptions; which, being arranged

symmetrically, produce in combination agreeable geometrical figures.

Most of the preceding remarks apply equally to stone; but in reference to

that material, there is one point to specially enforce,--namely, the

advisability of not covering the whole of the surface with paint. There is

about all stone a peculiar granulation, and in many varieties a slight

silicious sparkle, which it is always well to preserve as far as possible.

Illuminate, by all means, inscriptions, panels, friezes, &c., colour

occasionally the hollows of mouldings, and gild salient members

sufficiently to carry the colour about the monument, whether it may be a

font, a pulpit, a tomb, a reredos, a staircase, a screen, or a doorway, and

prevent the highly-illuminated portion from looking spotty and unsupported;

but by no means apply paint all over. It is not necessary to produce a good

effect; it destroys the surface and appearance of the stone, making it of

no more worth than if it were plaster, and it clogs up all the fine arrises

and angles of the moulded work or carving. Wherever stained glass is

inserted in stonework, the application of illumination, or at any rate of

coloured diaper-work of an analogous nature, is almost an imperative

necessity, in order to balance the appearance of chill and poverty given to

the stonework by its contrast with the brilliant translucent tints of the

painted glass. In illuminating stonework, it seldom answers to attempt to

apply decoration executed on paper or canvass; it should in all cases

(excepting when it is at a great distance from the eye) be done upon the

stone itself. The only exception is the one to which I shall allude in

speaking of metal.

Slate, although from its portability and non-liability to change its shape

under variations of temperature, a convenient material for filling panels,

and forming slabs for attachment to walls, is not to be recommended to the

amateur, owing to the difficulty he will experience in effecting a good and

safe adhesion between his pigments and the surface of the slate. In what is

called enamelled slate, an excellent attachment is secured by gradually and

repeatedly raising the slate to a high temperature; but the process would

be far too troublesome and expensive for practice by the great majority of

amateurs.

Metal in thin sheets is liable only to the objection from which slate is

free,--namely, that it is difficult to keep its surface from undulation in

changes of temperature. In all other respects, both zinc, copper, lead, and

iron, bind well with any oleaginous vehicle, and offer the great

convenience that they may be cut out to any desired shape, and attached to

any other kind of material by nails, screws, or even by strong cements,

such as marine glue. Zinc is, perhaps, the best of all, as it cuts more

readily than copper or iron, and keeps its shape better than lead; care

should, however, be always taken to hang it from such points as shall allow

it to freely contract and expand. If this is not attended to, its surface

will never remain flat. It is a material particularly well adapted for

cutting out into labels to surmount door and window arches, or to fill the

arcading of churches and chapels, and to be illuminated with texts or other

inscriptions. Very beautiful effects may be produced by combining

illumination with the polished brass-work which is now so admirably

manufactured by Messrs. Hardman, Hart, and others. Care should, however, be

taken not to overdo any objects of this nature. Let the main lines of

construction always remain unpainted, so that there may be no question as

to the substance in which the article is made, and restrict the application

of coloured ornament or lettering to panels, and, generally speaking, to

the least salient forms. Of course, where it can be afforded, enamelling

offers the most legitimate mode of illuminating metal-work; and ere long it

is to be hoped that the beautiful series of processes by means of which so

much durable beauty of colour was conferred on Mediæval metal-work may be

restored to their proper position in British Industry, and popularized as

they should, and, I believe, might readily be.

To woodwork, illumination may be made a most fitting embellishment; and the

application of a very little art will speedily be found to raise the

varnished deal cabinet or bookcase far above the majority of our standard

"institutions" in the way of heavy and expensive mahogany ones, in interest

at least, if not in money value. Almost every article of furniture may thus

be made, as it were, to speak and sympathize; for the return every

decorated object makes to the decorator is always in direct proportion to

the amount of life and thought he has put into his work. It is a common

saying, that, "what comes from the heart goes to the heart;" and in nothing

does it hold good more than in the production of works of art of all kinds,

including Illumination, which, through its special dealing with written

characters, has so direct an access to the intellect and affections.

In all appeals the decorative artist can make to the brain through the eye,

he has open to him two distinct channels of communication in making out the

scheme of his ornamentation,--the one by employing conventional forms,--and

the other by introducing representations of natural objects. In the former

he usually eschews light, shade, and accidental effects altogether; and in

the latter he aims at reproducing the aspect of the object he depicts as

nearly as possible as it appears to him. Both modes have found favour in

the eyes of the great illuminators of old, and by the best they have been

frequently and successfully blended. Under the "conventional" series maybe

classed all productions dependent on either an Oriental or Hiberno-Saxon

origin; among the "natural," the later, Netherlandish, Italian, and French

illuminations may be generally grouped; and, in a mixed style, the majority

of the book-decorations of the Mediæval period.

To be enabled to recognize intuitively how to blend or contrast, to adopt

or avoid, these different modes of treatment of ornament, is given to but

few, and is revealed to those few only, after years of study and of

practice. Rules may assist,[100] but can never suffice to communicate the

power; work of the most arduous kind, and persistent observation, can alone

bestow it. Still, with good models upon which to base his variations, and

goodwill, the amateur may do much, and will probably best succeed by

recurring incessantly to Nature, and combining direct, or nearly direct,

imitation of Nature with geometrical lines and masses of colour

symmetrically disposed. To aid his footsteps in this direction, I know no

more convenient councillor than Mr. Llewellyn Jewitt, whose historical

introduction to his brother's "Manual of Illuminated and Missal Painting"

contains some just remarks upon the subject.[101]

Having thus rapidly touched upon the series of materials upon which the Art

may be brought to bear, and the leading principles of design suitable under

different circumstances, I proceed to suggest the class of "legends," as

the mediæval decorators called them, likely to prove most fitting for

special situations. No doubt many more apt and piquant may suggest

themselves to some practical illuminators than the few I have culled (with

the assistance of one or two kind friends), principally from old English

writers; but to others, those I now present may not be without, at any

rate, a convenient suggestiveness. Something similar to the following I

would recommend for the embellishment of ceilings, friezes, string-courses,

or flat walls of the different apartments indicated. Of some I have given

four lines--one, say, for each side of a room; of others but a line, such

as might go over a door. Between the two are many suitable for panels or

irregular situations; and in one or two cases passages of many lines have

been chosen, fit for illumination on vellum or paper, and for framing to

hang up in the apartments specified, or to be inserted in panels or

furniture or on screens.

FOR DRAWING-ROOMS.

"For trouble in earth take no melancholy;

Be rich in patience, if thou in goods be poor.

Who lives merry, he lives mightily;

Without gladness avails no treasùre."

WM. DUNBAR.

"Since earthly joy abideth never,

Work for the joy that lestis ever;

For other joy is all in vain;

All earthly joy returns in pain."

_Idem._

"Who shuts his hand hath lost his gold;

Who opens it, hath it twice told."

GEORGE HERBERT.

"No bliss so great but cometh to an end;

No hap so hard but may in time amend."

ROBERT SOUTHWELL.

"Freedom all solace to man gives;

He lives at ease, that freely lives."

JOHN BARBOUR.

"That which is not good, is not delicious

To a well-governed and wise appetite."

MILTON.

FOR A STUDIO.

"Order is Nature's beauty, and the way

To order is by rules that Art hath found."

GWILLIM.

FOR A FAMILY PORTRAIT-GALLERY OR HALL.

"Boast not the titles of your ancestors,

Brave youths: they're their possessions, none of yours.

When your own virtues equall'd have their names,

'Twill be but fair to lean upon their fames,

For they are strong supporters; but till then

The greatest are but growing gentlemen."

BEN JONSON.

FOR BREAKFAST OR DINING ROOMS.

"A good digestion turneth all to health."

WORDSWORTH.

"If anything be set to a wrong taste,

'Tis not the meat there, but the mouth's displeased.

Remove but that sick palate, all is well."

BEN JONSON.

"Nature's with little pleased, enough's a feast;

A sober life but a small charge requires;

But man, the author of his own unrest,

The more he has, the more he still requires."

"To bread or drink, to flesh or fish,

Yet welcome is the best dish."

JOHN HEYWOOD.

"It is the fair acceptance, Sir, creates

The entertainment perfect, not the cates."

BEN JONSON, _Epigrams_, ci.

"No simple word

That shall be utter'd at our mirthful board,

Shall make us sad next morning."

_Ibid._

"To spur beyond

Its wiser will the jaded appetite,

Is this for pleasure? Learn a juster taste,

And know that temperance is true luxury."

ARMSTRONG, _Art of Preserving Health_, book ii.

"What an excellent thing did God bestow on man,

When He did give him a good stomach!"

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

"The stomach is the mainspring of our system. If it be not sufficiently

wound up to warm the heart and support the circulation, we can neither

_Think_ with precision,

_Sleep_ with tranquillity,

_Walk_ with vigour,

Or sit down with comfort."

DR. KITCHENER.

"The destiny of Nations has often depended upon the digestion of a Prime

Minister."--DR. KITCHENER.

"Is't a time to talk

When we should be munching?"

JUSTICE GREEDY, in MASSINGER'S _New Way to pay Old Debts_.

"No roofs of gold o'er riotous tables shining,

Whole days and sums devoured with endless dining."

CRASHAW'S _Religious House_.

"Now good digestion wait on appetite,

And health on both."

SHAKSPERE.

"When you doubt, abstain."

ZOROASTER.

"Where there is no peace, there is no feast."

CLARENDON.

"Not meat, but cheerfulness, makes the feast."

"Who carves, is kind to two; who talks, to all."

GEORGE HERBERT.

FOR KITCHENS.

"A feast must be without a fault;

And if 'tis not all right, 'tis nought."

KING'S _Art of Cookery_.

"Good-nature will some failings overlook,

Forgive mischance, not errors of the cook."

_Ibid._

FOR SUPPER-ROOMS.

"Oppress not nature sinking down to rest

With feasts too late, too solid, or too full."

ARMSTRONG, _Art of Preserving Health_.

"As men

Do walk a mile, women should talk an hour

After supper: 'tis their exercise."

BEN JONSON, _Philaster_, act 2, sc. 4.

FOR STILL-ROOMS.

"The nature of flowers Dame Physic doth show;

She teaches them all to be known to a few."

TUSSER, _Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry_.

"The knowledge of stilling is one pretty feat,

The waters be wholesome, the charges not great."

_Id. ibid._

FOR A STORE-ROOM.

"He that keeps nor crust nor crumb,

Weary of all, he shall want some."

SHAKSPERE.

FOR MUSIC-ROOMS.

"Music removeth care, sadness ejects,

Declineth anger, persuades clemency;

Doth sweeten mirth, and heighten piety,

And is to a body, often ill inclined,

No less a sovereign cure than to the mind."

BEN JONSON.

"Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music

Creep in our ears."

SHAKSPERE, _Merchant of Venice_.

"Play on and give me surfeit."

_Ibid._

FOR SMOKING-ROOMS.

"Tobacco's a physician,

Good both for sound and sickly;

'Tis a hot perfume,

That expels cold rheum,

And makes it flow down quickly."

BARTEN HOLLIDAY.

"Tobacco hic! Tobacco hic!

If you are well, 'twill make you sick;

Tobacco hic! Tobacco hic!

Twill make you well, if you are sick."

FOR DRINKING-ROOMS.

"Backe and syde goo bare goo bare,

Both hande and fote goo colde;

But belly, God sende the gode ale inoughe,

Whether hyt be newe or olde."

BP. STILL, in _Gammer Gurton's Needle_.

"The first draught serveth for health,

The second for pleasure,

The third for shame,

The fourth for madness."

"The greatness that would make us grave

Is but an empty thing;

What more than mirth would mortals have:

The cheerful man's a king."

ISAAC BICKERSTAFF.

FOR PUBLIC COFFEE-ROOMS.

"If you your lips would keep from slips,

Five things observe with care:

Of whom you speak, to whom you speak,

And how, and when, and where."

"Every creature was decreed

To aid each other's mutual need."

GAY.

FOR BILLIARD-ROOMS.

"The love of gaming is the worst of ills;

With ceaseless storms the blacken'd soul it fills,

Inveighs at Heaven, neglects the ties of blood,

Destroys the power and will of doing good;

Kills health, poisons honour, plunges in disgrace."

YOUNG, _4th Satire_.

"Play not for gain, but sport: who plays for more

Than he can lose with pleasure, stakes his heart,

Perhaps his wife too, and whom she hath bore."

GEO. HERBERT, _The Church Porch_.

FOR BEDROOMS.

"Rise with the lark, and with the lark to bed;

The breath of night's destructive to the hue

Of every flower that blows.

* * * Oh, there is a charm

Which morning has, that gives the brow of age

A smack of youth, and makes the life of youth

Shed perfume exquisite. Expect it not,

Ye who till noon upon a down bed lie,

Indulging feverous sleep."

HURDIS, _Village Curate_.

"Watch and ward,

And stand on your guard."

IZAAK WALTON.

"Sleep is Nature's second course."

UPON A LOOKING-GLASS.

"Since as you know, you cannot see yourself

So well as by reflection, I your glass

Will modestly discover to yourself

That of yourself which you yet know not of."

SHAKSPERE.

FOR LADIES' BOUDOIRS.

"_Birth_, _beauty_, _wealth_, are nothing worth alone.

All these I would for good additions take:

Tis the mind's beauty keeps the _others_ sweet."

SIR THOMAS OVERBURY, _The Wife_.

"'Tis beauty that doth oft make women proud;

'Tis virtue that doth make them most admired;

'Tis modesty that makes them seem divine."

SHAKSPERE.

FOR A DRESSING-ROOM.

"The apparel oft proclaims the man."

FOR SCHOOLROOMS.

"Extend generosity, it is profuseness;

Confine economy, it is avarice;

Unbridle courage, it is rashness;

Indulge sensibility, it is weakness."

"Catch Time by the forelock; he's bald behind."

"Nothing is truly good that may be excell'd."

_Motto of King Arthur's Table._

"He may do what he will that will but do what he may."

ARTHUR WARWICK.

"God dwelleth near about us,

Ever within,

Working the goodness,

Consuming the sin."

FULKE GREVILLE, LORD BROOKE, born 1554.

FOR LIBRARIES, STUDIES, AND BOOK-ROOMS.

"Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge: it is

thinking makes what we read ours. We are of the ruminating kind, and it is

not enough to cram ourselves with a great load of collections: unless we

chew them over again, they will not give us strength or

nourishment."--LOCKE.

"Crafty men contemn studies; simple men admire them; and wise men use

them."--BACON.

"Read not to contradict and refute, nor to believe and take for granted,

nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider."--_Idem._

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be

chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts;

others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and

with diligence and attention."--_Idem._

"In reading, we hold converse with the wise; in the business of life,

generally with the foolish."--BACON.

"That place that does

Contain my books, the best companions, is

To me a glorious court, where hourly I

Converse with the old sages and philosophers."

J. FLETCHER.

"Bookes are a part of man's prerogative,

In formal inke they thoughts and voyces hold,

That we to them our solitude may give,

And make time present travel that of old.

Our life fame peceth longer at the end,

And bookes it farther backward doe extend."

SIR THOMAS OVERBURY, _The Wife_.

"Books should for one of these four ends conduce,--

For wisdom, piety, delight, or use."

SIR JOHN DENHAM.

"Cease not to learne until thou cease to live;

Think that day lost wherein thou draw'st no letter,

Nor gain'st no lesson, that new grace may give

To make thyself learneder, wiser, better."

_Quadrains of Pibrac_, translated by JOSHUA SYLVESTER.

"Who readeth much and never meditates,

Is like a greedy eater of much food,

Who so surcloyes his stomach with his cates,

That commonly they do him little good."

_Ibid._

"Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact

man."--BACON'S _Essays--Of Studies_.

"Calm let me live, and every care beguile,--

Hold converse with the great of every time,

The learn'd of ev'ry class, the good of ev'ry clime."

REV. SAMUEL BISHOP.

"Of things that be strange,

Who loveth to read,

In these books let him range

His fancy to feed."

RICHARD ROBINSON.

FOR MUSEUMS OR LABORATORIES.

"O mickle is the powerful grace that lies

In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities:

For nought's so vile that on the earth doth live,

But to the earth some special good doth give."

SHAKSPERE.

"Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee."

SOLOMON.

FOR A SURGICAL MUSEUM.

"There is no theam more plentifull to scan,

Than is the glorious, goodly frame of Man."

JOSHUA SYLVESTER'S _Du Bartas_, 6th day.

FOR JUSTICE-ROOMS.

"'Tis not enough that thou do no man wrong,--

Thou even in others must suppress the same,

Righting the weake against th' unrighteous strong,

Whether it touch his life, his goods, his name."

_Quadrains of Pibrac_, trans. by JOSHUA SYLVESTER.

"Upon the Law thy Judgments always ground,

And not on man: For that's affection-less.

But man in Passions strangely doth abound;

Th' one all like God: Th' other too like to beasts."

_Id. cod._

FOR CASINOS OR SUMMER-HOUSES.

"Abusèd mortals, did you know

Where joy, heart's ease, and comfort grow,

You'd scorn proud towers,

And seek them in these bowers;

Where winds, perhaps, sometimes our woods may shake,

But blustering care can never tempest make."

SIR HENRY WOTTON.

"We trample grasse, and prize the flowers of May;

Yet grasse is greene when flowers doe fade away."

ROBERT SOUTHWELL.

"Blest who no false glare requiring,

Nature's rural sweets admiring,

Can, from grosser joys retiring,

Seek the simple and serene."

ISAAC BICKERSTAFF.

FOR A COUNTING-HOUSE.

"Omnia Somnia."

"Gae, silly worm, drudge, trudge, and travell,

So thou maist gain

Some honour or some golden gravell:

But Death the while to fill his number,

With sudden call

Takes thee from all,

To prove thy daies but dream and slumber."

JOSHUA SYLVESTER, _Mottoes_.

FOR OFFICES OR WORKSHOPS.

"Have more than thou showest;

Speak less than thou knowest;

Lend more than thou owest;

Learn more than thou trowest."

SHAKSPERE.

"A spending hand that always poureth out,

Had need to have a bringer-in as fast;

And on the stone that still doth turn about

There groweth no moss: these proverbs yet do last."

SIR T. WYATT.

"How many might in time have wise been made,

Before their time, had they not thought them so?

What artist e'er was master of his trade

Yer he began his prenticeship to know?

"To some one act apply thy whole affection,

And in the craft of others seldom mell;

But in thine own strive to attain perfection,

For 'tis no little honour to excell."

_Quadrains of Pibrac_, translated by JOSHUA SYLVESTER.

"If youth knew what age would crave,

Youth would then both get and save."

"Flee, flee, the idle brain;

Flee, flee from doing nought;

For never was there idle brain,

But bred an idle thought."

"Get to live; then live to use it, else it is not true that thou hast

gotten."--G. HERBERT.

"To him that is willing, ways are not wanting."

FOR SHOPS.

"Whoso trusteth ere he know,

Doth hurt himself and please his foe."

SIR THOMAS WYATT.

"Think much of a trifle,

Though small it appear;

Small sands make the mountain,

And moments the year."

FOR A BELL-TURRET.

"We take no note of time

But from its loss; to give it then a tongue

Is wise in man."

YOUNG'S _Night Thoughts_.

FOR A BATHING-HOUSE.

"Do not fear to put thy feet

Naked in the river sweet;

Think nor leach, or newt, or toad

Will bite thy foot, where thou hast trod."

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER, _Faithful Shepherdess_.

With those still more admirable "legends" which may be selected from the

Bible I do not meddle. In it golden words of comfort and admonition lie

strewn so thickly, that error cannot be made by a selector. It may not be

amiss, also, for the illuminator to remember, that not unfrequently "a

verse may find him whom a sermon flies."

I cannot quit this portion of my theme without one word of summary, in the

way of advice, to the designer of illumination, on whatever material

applied. Briefly, then, let him eschew quaintness, and aim at beauty; let

him not shrink from beauty in old times because it was masked in

quaintness; but with a discriminating eye let him learn to winnow the chaff

from the wheat, and, scattering the one to the winds, let him garner up the

other in the storehouse of his memory, and for the sustenance of his

artistic life; and let him rest assured that the best designers, in all

ages, have been usually those who have gathered most widely and profoundly

from the failures, successes, and experiences of their predecessors.