DEVELOPMENT OF THE INITIAL
The initial and initial paragraph the main object of decoration in
Celtic illumination--Study of the letter L as an example--The I of "In
principio" and the B of "Beatus Vir."
From the moment when the initial was placed beneath the miniature the
object of the whole design was not to give prominence to the initial but
to the picture. Until then, that is, whilst the initial remains above or
beside or outside the picture, it is the initial we must watch for style
and development. And therefore we seize on one letter among those of the
latter part of the eighth century, because of the frequency of its
occurrence in the Gospel-book or Evangeliary, one of the commonest books
of the time. This the letter L of "Liber Generationis," etc., the
commencing words of St. Matthew. This passage is always made of
importance, and on the initial and arrangement of the words the artist
expends his best efforts.
Properly I should here display pictorially the series of which I speak.
It would certainly be the quickest way of explaining the matter. But as
this is out of the question for many reasons, and as the present little
guide aims rather at showing the way than marching through it, the
reader must be content to take its advice about where to look for
examples which it cannot reproduce.
Regarding the letter L as an index of time and style, first we may take
the Irish L of the Book of Kells on p. 17, pt. 1, of Miss Stokes' _Early
Christian Art in Ireland_. Note first the form of the letter, then the
way it is filled up with ornament. Compare this, which dates from the
seventh century, with a similar L in the Ada-Codex in the Town Library
at Trèves, No. 22. A black and white copy of this is given in taf. 6 of
Lamprecht Initial Ornamentik. This carries up the work to the second
half of the eighth century. Next, say the L in the Town Archives at
Cologne, No. 147. This belongs to the second half of the ninth century.
The chief departure here is towards the knotted band work which figures
so largely afterwards both in German and Italian book ornament, the form
is still unchanged. But with the tenth century comes change of form as
well as of mode of filling, as for example taf. 19 of Lamprecht, in
which there is a complete alteration of treatment. The student may take
for similar comparison also the I of "In principio" of St. John's
Gospel, and the B of the first psalm in the Psalter, and carry the
comparison on to the end of the fourteenth century, by referring to the
MSS. in the British Museum and other public libraries, or in the
numerous illustrated works to be found in those collections.