England from Cyprus by Cesnola. The ornamental border at the top is
somewhat freer and less stiff in style than those which we find in most of
the Byzantine MSS.; and the writing is neater and less negligent than if it
had been executed in the eleventh or twelfth century. It slopes a little
backwards and has the breathings in their antique form as halves of the
letter H. Hence I have assigned it to the latter part of the tenth century.
On plate 7 I have given a reduction after Westwood of a page from an Irish
MS. now in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth. Although it is of
comparatively late date (the ninth century), and the writing is the Irish
script in its second or wholly minuscule stage, the ornamentation is
{86}sufficient to show what Irish work had been and still was. The
marvellously elaborate convolutions and interlacements, the dexterous use
of colours, the utter absence of gold, and the introduction of grotesque
animal figures, are all seen in this plate from the Gospelbook of
MacDurnan. (While I write I am reminded of a personal experience which I
may be forgiven for setting down in print. When Westwood's great book had
come out, I was one day speaking with an English lady of high social
position, cultivated and accomplished in many branches of knowledge, to
whom after mentioning Westwood I expressed my admiration of what the Irish
calligraphers had done in the seventh and eighth centuries, when art was so
low in most of the other lands of Europe. The lady listened with patient
good-breeding, till I paused, and then said quietly, "I presume that you
are yourself an Irishman!" She had evidently mistaken one unfamiliar accent
for another, and her remark was a polite criticism upon my credulity or
veracity.)
Plate 21 (which ought to have been inserted in succession to plate 7)
reproduces a miniature from a Breviary written about 1150-60 for Isengrim,
Abbot of the Benedictine Monastery at Ottenbeuern in Suabia.
The miniature reproduced is a picture of the Ascension, and shows the
Saviour standing in an almond-shaped frame, supported and borne aloft by
four angels. The Virgin and the Apostles are looking upwards from below,
and the picture is enclosed within a square blue border, this being lighted
by ornamental fretwork in white. The faces are generally well drawn, and
the rapt attention in the eyes of the uplookers is very skilfully depicted.
The colours used are blue, green, yellow, red, chesnut, and white. The
whole effect is reminiscent of Anglo-Saxon work, and one might easily, at
first sight, mistake it for a picture out of an English book of the tenth
century. A somewhat similar design of the same subject is found in King
Athelstan's Psalter--an Anglo-Saxon MS. of the late ninth century, now
{87}in the British Museum; but the Suabian illustration is decidedly
inferior in taste and delicacy of treatment. It shows, however, such a
kinship that we are inclined to believe in a nearer connexion between
German and English art than between German and French Carolingian.
Plates 8 and 9 reproduce miniatures from two manuscripts of the Latin
Bible,--the first page of Genesis in each. The first is either English or
Norman work, perhaps rather the latter than the former, and is interesting
as affording one of the earliest examples of the border with leaves of the
so-called ivy pattern. The writing is a beautiful early gothic of the
transition period between the Carolingian round hand and the mediæval
square gothic. It is unmistakably Norman, if not Anglo-Norman, but may have
been English. If the reds in the tiny miniatures had been a little more
pinkish, and the blue a little lighter, we should have had no hesitation in
calling it English work. In plate 9, the writing is somewhat rounder and
the ink is paler--showing that the work is neither English nor Norman; and
we find in the minute pictures a style of design, both in the figures and
the draperies, which reminds us of late classical art. The interlaced
pattern in the lowest portion of the ornament is also a survival of the
Celtic manner which might be found in Southern France, but which had ceased
to be used in English work, except in the decoration of letters. On the
plate, the picture is dated "1310-20"; but we may venture to think that it
was executed in South-Eastern France about the year 1300.
The design and the writing on plate 10 are thoroughly English of the end of
the thirteenth century. The picture is unfinished, having been left by the
artist in its sketch-condition, uncoloured. The faces are blank, and the
drawing simply in outline; but the careful treatment of the folds in the
drapery is remarkable. The miniature is one of several illustrating the
Apocalypse, which were done in the convent at Eaton or Nun-Eaton in
Warwickshire about 1280. The {88}Apocalypse is not given in its Latin
summaries, as was usual, but in French quatrains of English origin. The
volume which contains these drawings is interesting, as having been a sort
of _omnium gatherum_, made up for the ladies of Eaton at the end of the
thirteenth century. One of the pieces it contains is a Bestiaire by William
the Trouvère, an Englishman of the twelfth century; a French poem called
the Chastel d'Amours by Raymond Grosseteste; and a popular English poem of
the time, of which another example has been lately published in facsimile
in his "English Palæography" by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat.
The miniature of the Crucifixion which is reproduced on plate 11 is visibly
Italian work of the rudest style. It is taken from a Missal, written in a
hand which is also Italian of the end of the thirteenth century, but gothic
in form. The liturgical character of the book is, however, such that we may
believe it to have been produced in England, perhaps by an Italian
Cistercian monk. The writing on the miniature is in so-called Lombardic
uncials, a script which was used for capitals nearly everywhere in the
thirteenth century. The three figures in the picture have red or auburn
hair, a favourite colour at all times among the Italians, even after the
Flemings had introduced a blackhaired Christ. Another noticeable feature is
the building with an arcade and windows, in the lower background.
Plate 12 is an illustration of the story of Troilus and Cressida, taken
from Guido Colonna's Tale of Troy. It is Venetian, of about the years
1330-40, and exhibits the Italian style of using strong pigments for their
figures. Whatever the faults of drawing may be, this is a real painting
done with a full brush. There is no appearance of the outlines drawn with a
pen or a fine brush, such as we see in French and English work, and the
folds in the draperies appear to be produced by broad shadowings after the
main body of colour had been painted. In fact, it seems to be, like other
Italian illuminations, the work of a painter, not {89}of a miniaturist. The
place of origin is revealed by the calligrapher's instructions to the
artist, which occur on several pages in a minute hand, and which are
written in a pure Venetian dialect. The manuscript is illustrated with an
unusual quantity of pictorial designs. The writing is remarkable as
resembling that of the English charters of the same period, but with
greater regularity and evenness in the downstrokes.
Plate 13 is reproduced from a French Apocalypse of the fourteenth century,
with a text in French prose. The writing is gothic, much changed from the
style of the thirteenth century, and less regular and elegant. The picture
is thoroughly French, of the time when English illuminators had yielded up
their supremacy to the men of the French school. We see the fine outlines
and features as we are accustomed to see them in thirteenth century work,
offering in their delicate style a curious contrast to the broad free
paintiness of the illustration in plate 12. The Apocalypse, from which the
plate is taken, is a French work of the middle of the fourteenth century,
showing a good deal of the feeling of the preceding century, but tending
visibly towards the manner of the time when Charles V of France and his
brothers were associated with manuscripts of an unusually beautiful kind.
Plate 14 is an example of French grisaille in its earlier stage. The four
designs look like fine chalk drawings prepared for the use of an engraver,
rather than like finished illustrations in a book. There is an ease and
freedom in the figure-drawing which reveal the hand of a true artist, and
the treatment of the draperies is excellent; but the landscape accessories
in the lower two divisions are primitive in their absurdity and childish
execution. The writing in this example, and in plate 13 also, is typical
fourteenth century gothic; small, cramped, square, and angular. The border
is of the early ivy-leaf pattern, stiff and not natural, but not inelegant
as decoration. The style and character of {90}the two plates are
essentially French, and could not be found in examples of illumination at
the period anywhere outside of France.
Plate 15 introduces us to a totally different kind and style of ornament.
There is no appearance of stiffness here in the border, with its bold
conventional foliage of light blue and green, and the long feathery lines
that sweep out from it in free and graceful curves. The miniature too is
full of merit both in design and execution, its only drawback being the
rather ugly pattern of the green flooring. The seated priest is in the full
costume of a doctor or literatus of Chaucer's time; and the expression in
his features, as well as in those of the kneeling Gower, is excellently
rendered. The writing here is not the square angular gothic of the two
preceding plates, but a more rounded script, partaking of the nature of the
charter hand, which was appropriated to the English language. The a is the
only letter in it quite identical with that of the fourteenth century
gothic, and the p (for _th_) shows the survival of Anglo-Saxon writing,
just as the w shows us a modern English letter at a tolerably early stage
of its growth. The k is likewise noteworthy, as being the peculiar form of
the letter which had been evolved in the rapid writing of court-scribes,
and which is still used in German manuscript.
Plate 16 shows us Franco-Flemish art in a phase in which the simple mastery
of design had become subordinate to the brilliancy and magnificence of
decoration. The inner border of interwoven blue and red lines upon a ground
of gold is connected with, and grows out of, the illuminated initial in a
suitably appropriate fashion, but the outer border of conventional foliage,
red, blue, green, and yellow, with its inserted figures of a kneeling man
and a hybrid dromedary, has no comprehensible affinity to the rest of the
work, and is tacked on without any reason beyond the desire for splendour
and variety. The style is not distinctively Flemish, although the painting
was done at {91}Tournay. It is rather a development out of
Franco-Burgundian models, and more suggestive of French origin than any
other; in fact, the extension of central French influence northwards
through Burgundy.
In plate 17 there is real Flemish work. Here is pure grisaille at its best;
no infusion of extraneous colour in the design, except in the tesselated
pavement of yellow and white marble, and no glitter of illumination beyond
what is given by a gold crown in the hands of one figure, and a couple of
gold chains on the breasts of two others. This is indeed a true historical
picture broadly conceived, well composed, and admirably executed. The
perspective is excellent, and we realise clearly the size and depth of the
large vaulted chamber, lighted only from the doorways and the open
window-spaces,--in which the eight personages are grouped. The manuscript
from which the miniature is taken was written and illustrated, almost
undoubtedly, at Bruges about 1470 for a nobleman of the Lannoy family, a
member not of the principal house which still flourished in Flanders, but
of the transplanted branch in Picardy.
Plate 18 is taken from an English manuscript of considerable interest. A
number of armorial bearings, which are found on the margins of the pages,
show that it was written either for the Marquis of Dorset, Edward IV's
son-in-law, or for one of his children. Whichever was the case, the book
was in the possession of John Grey, dominus de Blisworth, the son or near
relative of the Marquis, in the early part of the sixteenth century; and
there is a record added in the calendar of the death of Dame Elizabeth
Grey, this John's wife, about 1520-30. The miniatures are good, but not
excellent; better in composition than in design, and showing grave
deficiencies with regard to perspective. They are, however, well executed
and well painted; and the borders are remarkably elegant. The conventional
large foliage, of architectonic character, is admirably disposed upon small
and appropriate fields of gold; and the twining {92}branchlets that bear
tiny buds and small leaves and flowers are not so crowded as to hide the
vellum ground. The border is indeed a fine decorative composition, without
a fault, and thoroughly English in style. There is an inscription at the
foot of the miniature which inspires curiosity to learn who the writer was.
She was evidently a woman of high position; for only such a personage would
have been allowed to write in a Prayerbook of the kind. The words are,
"Madame, I pray you remember her that ys yours and evver sall be," but the
bookbinder has unfortunately cut off the signature. The person addressed
was no doubt Dame Elizabeth Grey. The writing is strangely like that of
Henry VII, but cannot of course have been his. It is possibly as late as
1520.
Plate 22 is from a Prayerbook written and illuminated about 1520-30 for a
certain Giovanni Bentivoglio. If the book had been a dozen or twenty years
earlier than it seems to be, one might have supposed that it was executed
at Bologna, by the order and for the use of the last Bentivoglio who ruled
in that city. As, however, he died in exile and misfortune in 1508, the
Giovanni to whom the prayerbook belonged, must have been his grandson, born
about 1510, who was in the imperial service in 1530. The artistic merit of
the illumination is considerable, but they are over-florid and mark a decay
of taste. The colours are vivid and harmonious, gold is plentifully used,
and the beauty of the work is undeniable; but it is meretricious and
corrupt in style. Italian examples of the period are, however, rare and
highly prized.
On plate 19 we have a large initial (O) cut from an Italian Antiphonal or
Gradual, written probably about 1540-50. It encloses a miniature
representing the Adoration of the three Kings, painted with so much skill
as to suggest the hand of some student of Titian's school. In design,
composition, and execution, it is very good; the only drawback being the
superfine air of courtly elegance {93}which is seen in every figure beneath
the thatched roof of the stable. There is a theatrical character in the
whole performance, that reminds us of Federico Baroccio.
Of similar date is the picture on plate 20. It comes from a Gospel-lesson
book, written in a mitred abbey on the German side of the Rhine, probably
not far from Cologne, in the year 1548. The design of the company of monks
headed by their Abbot, all in white raiment and kneeling before an unseen
altar, is excellent German work. The landscape with distant towers, seen
through the pillars of an arcade behind would look better than it does, if
it were not for the floating cherubs who hover in the spaces, and support
two armorial shields. The border is a close imitation of the late Flemish
style. On a yellow ground, lighted with twining gold branchlets, cut
flowers are vividly painted, along with figures of a bee, a fox, a bird, a
rabbit, and a hybrid animal like an ape.
{94}INDEX.
Aachen, metropolis of the Frankish Empire, 44
Abyssinia, writing in, 12,13
Abyssinian MS. Life of the Virgin, 85
Adamnan (St.), 28, 36
Adoration of the Magi, a miniature, 92
Ai-gupt, Semitic name of the Delta, 8
Akkadian writing, 7, 9
Alcuin at Tours and Aachen, 44
Amber-trade, 29
Ambrosian use in the Milanese liturgy, 53
Angles civilized, 34
Anglo-Saxon alphabet, 26, 32
-- decoration of MS., 35, 37
Antiphonale, 54
Apocalypse MSS., 73, 89
Apocalyptic designs, English work, 87
Arabian writing (Arabic), 20
Arabian (South) writing, 12
Arabic language, 21
-- writing, 20, 84
Aragonese Kings of Naples, 80
Aramæan Chaldees, 11, 12
Ascension, Pictures of the, 86
Asoka's Rock-inscriptions, 18
Assyrian Empire formed, 10
Assyriology, 6
Attavante, work done by, 81, 82
Babylonian monarchies, 7, 9, 10
Bactrian Kingdom, 18
Barbarians, movements of the, 42
Baroccio (Federico), 93
Bastaruæ, a Gothic people, 29
Bede, the Venerable, 34, 37
Bentivoglio (Giovanni), Prayer book, 92
Berossus, Assyrian Chronicle, 6
Bible, its influence on writing, 23
-- multiplied by scribes, 52
-- Greek, 24 {95}
-- Syriac, 24
-- Hebrew, 24
-- Latin MSS., 87
Bologna school of law, 57
Book (origin of the word), 2
Borders in MSS., 62, 65, 71, 76
Boustrophedon writing, 16
Brégilles Livre d'Heures, 75
Breviary, foundation of the, 53
-- constitution of the, 67
-- MS. written at Ottenbeuern, 86
Britain Celtiberian, 27
-- Gallic, 27
-- Latin, 27
-- English, 27
British Isles, age of writing in, 27
Bruges MSS., 81, 91
Burgundian school of art, 65, 74, 91
Burmese writing, 21
Byzantine ornamentation, 25
-- Art not Hellenic, 47
Cadmus the Phoenician, 10
Calendars in Prayer books, 67
Calligraphy extinguished by Printing, 80
Canon Law, 57
Canonical Hours, 53
Canterbury school of writing, 59
Capitals in writing, 25
Carolingian art, 35, 37, 43, 59
-- writing, 40, 43
Celtic Church, 53
Cesnola (L. P. di), 85
Chaldæa, age of writing in, 7
Chaldees (Turanian or Akkad), 9
-- (Aramæan or Semitic), 11
Charles the Great, 35, 41, 43
Charters, style of writing used in, 26, 54, 55
Charter hand in England, 72
Chastel d'Amours, MS., 88
Chinese origins, 13
Christ blackhaired in pictures, 88
Chronology of the Bible, 6 {96}
Chrysography, 3, 26, 60
Churches (Early Christian), 53
Civil Law, 57
Classic survival in Italy, 35
Clovio (Giulio) Miniatures, 81
Colonna (Guido) Tale of Troy, 88
Colours in miniatures and ornament, 61
Columba (St.), 36
Coptic alphabet, 25
-- writing, 9, 84
Cufic writing, 20
Cursive Roman, 26, 28
Cymry of North England, 33
-- settled in Wales, 33
Cyril (St.), 52
Cyrillic alphabet, 51
David (Gerard) of Bruges, 78, 80
Decoration of MSS., Irish, 35, 36
-- Anglo-Saxon, 35
-- Frankish, 37, 43
-- Gallo-Roman, 44, 47
-- English, 45
-- German, 45
-- Spanish, 46
-- Italian, 46
-- Byzantine, 46, 47
Demotic writing (Egyptian), 9, 84
Deutsch, meaning of the word, 31
Devanagari alphabet, 18, 21
Diplomatic writing, 26, 54, 55
Drawing and design, Mediæval, 62
Durer (Albert), 79
Durham school of writing, 59
Eginhart, the Frank, 43
Egypt called Khem, 5, 8
-- -- Aigupt, 8
-- -- Mizraim, Misr, 8
-- Age of writing in, 5
Egyptology, 6
England the centre of French art and literature, 62
English Art in MSS., 49, 60, 62, 72, 90, 91
-- Calendars in Horæ, 69
-- illuminated borders, 65, 77, 90 {97}
-- MS. Bible Sec. XIII., 87
Estrangelo Syriac, 20
Ethiopic language, 85
-- writing, 12
Etruscan alphabet, 16
Euchologium, 54
Evangeliarium, German MS., 93
Flemish school of art, 74, 76, 79, 90, 91
-- Calendars in Horæ, 68
-- illuminated borders, 78
Floral borders, 65
Florentine miniatures, 78, 81
Formation and use of books, 3
France (Central) MSS. produced in, 62
Frankish empire, 39
-- writing, 28, 37, 39
French art in MSS., 60, 62, 73
-- Calligraphy and ornamentation, 49
-- Calendars in Horæ, 68
-- illuminated borders, 65, 77
-- MS. Latin Bibles, 1300, 87
Gallic language, 30
Gallican use in liturgy, 53
Gaul, Age of writing in, 22
-- Greek writing in, 22
German Art in MSS., 86
-- Calendar in liturgies, 70
-- illumination, 61
-- -- in Flemish style, 93
-- writing, 71
Germany, name of, 30
Girolamo dai Libri, 81
Glagolitic alphabet, 51
Glastonbury school of writing, 59
Gloucester calendar, 69
Gospel of St. Peter, 48
Gothic alphabet (Wulfila's), 25, 28, 31
-- Kingdom in Spain, 23
-- Kingdom in Italy, 41
-- mediæval writing, 32, 65
Goths and Germans, 28
Gower (John) in a miniature of the Confessio Amantis, 90
Graduale of the missal, 54
Greek alphabet, 10, 13, 14
-- Bibles, 53
-- Colonies, 15 {98}
-- Gospels, MS., Sec. X., 85
-- writing, minuscules, 47
Gregory (St.), 54
Grey (Thomas) Marquis of Dorset, 91
-- (John and Elizabeth), 91
Grimani Breviary, 80
Grisaille painting, 75, 89, 91
Grosseteste (Raymond), 88
Guthones, 29
Hebrew language, 19
-- writing in square letters, 19, 84
Hellenised Oriental peoples, 23
Herculaneum, writing at, 25
Heures d'Anne de Bretagne, 78
Hieratic writing in Egypt, 9
-- MS. on papyrus, 84
Hieroglyphic writing (Egyptian), 9
-- MS. on papyrus, 83
Himyaritic alphabet, 12
Horæ for private prayer, 56, 67
-- of French work, 74
-- of English work, 69, 76, 77, 90
-- constitution of, 67
Horologium, 54
Hours, the Canonical, 53, 56
Hours of the Virgin, _see_ Horæ
Hrabanus Maurus, 30
Huntingfield Psalter, MS., 73
Hyksos or Shepherd Kings in Egypt, 11
Hymnals, 54, 58
Iberian writing in Spain, 22
Iceland and its literature, 51
Illumination (Mediæval), origin of, 36
India, age of writing in, 18, 21
Indian languages (modern), 21
Initials illuminated, 62, 64
Ink used in MSS., 3
Ireland, writing in, 28, 32
Irish alphabet, 26
-- MS., 28, 36
-- MacDurnan's Gospels, 85
-- ornamentation in MSS., 85
-- teachers of the Angles, 34
Isengrim, Abbot of Ottenbeuern, 86
Italian art, 62, 79, 92 {99}
-- late classical art, 60
-- miniatures, 88, 92
-- Picture of the Crucifixion, 88
-- Schools of Illumination, 70
-- Saints in Calendars, 70
Italic characters, 83
Italy, age of writing in, 15
Italy, various hands used in, 83
Ivy-leaf borders, 63
Jerome (St.), 51
Jornandes the Gothic historian, 42
Juana la Loca, 80
Khem, name of old Egypt, 5, 8
Lannoy, Low country family, 91
Latin alphabet, origin of the, 17
Latin Bible, 52
-- -- MSS., 87
-- Liturgies, 53
Lectronaries, 54
Lenormant (Francois), 11
Liturgical books, 66
-- frequently transcribed, 53
Liturgies in the vernacular, 57
Lindisfarne school of writing, 59
Livres d'Heures--_see_ Horæ
Lombardic writing, 38, 40, 41
-- uncials, 88
Lombards, The Kingdom of the, 40
Lombardy (Cisalpine Gaul), 22
-- under the Goths, 40, 41
-- under the Lombards, 41
-- under the Franks, 41
MacDurnan's Gospels, Irish MS., 86
Madden (Sir Frederick), 37
Manchu script, 22
Manetho, Egyptian Chronicle, 6
MSS. on purple vellum, 27, 60
Marcomanni, 30
Margaret of Austria, 80
Marseilles, Greek colony, 15, 22
Materials of books, 3
Mathias Corvinus, 80 {100}
Medici, patrons of art, 80
-- (Lorenzo dei) Prayer book, 82
-- (Pietro dei) Prayer book, 82
Memling (Hans), 78
Menologium, Greek Liturgy, 54
Merowingian writing, 28, 38
Minuscule letters, 26
Miroir Historial, MS., 75, 91
Missal, MSS., 54
-- formation of, 53
-- constitution of, 66
-- Anglo-Italian MS., 88
Mizraim, Misr, names of Egypt, 8
Moeso-Gothic Alphabet, 31, 41
Mongolian script, 22
Mozarabic liturgy, 53
Nagari alphabet, 18, 21
Naples, work done at, 82
Naskhi Arabic writing, 20
Norman Conquest of England, 62
Norse Runes, 30
Nuneaton Convent, work done in, 87
Ornamentation in MSS., 60
Oscan and Umbrian writing, 16
Ostrogoths, 32
Ottenbeuern MSS., 86
Oxford School of Law, 58
Padua University, 58
Palæography (the word), 2
Papal prohibition of vernacular liturgies, 57
Papyrus for books, 4
-- in Assyria, 8
Parchment for books, 4
Paris University, 44, 58
Patrick (St.), 28
Pehlvi writing, 19
Penitentialia, 57
Persian writing (Cuneiform), 7
-- Pehlvi, 19
-- Talik, 21
Perspective in miniatures, 76
Petrarch MS. attributed to Attavante, 81
Philip I. of Castile (Archduke of Austria), 80
Phoenician colonies, 15
-- use of letters, 10 {101}
Photius, Bibliotheca, 54
Phrygian use of letters, 12
Pontificale, 54
Prakrit language, 18, 21
Prayer books for private persons, 55, 56
Primers, 56
Prisse Papyrus, 5
Processimale, 54
Psalter in the Liturgy, 54
-- for private prayer, 55
Ptah Hotep's Precepts, 5
Punic writing in Spain, 22
Reformation in the Church, 57
Renaissance of Literature, 58
Roman letters in their modern forms, 83
Roman origins, 16
-- writing, 25
Rougé (Vicomte Emm. de), 11
Runic letters, 29
Rustic capitals, 25
Ruskin (John), 2