English Illuminated Manuscripts
English Illuminated Manuscripts
English Illuminated Manuscripts
ENGLISH ILLUMINATED
MANUSCRIPTS
Strictly limited to an edition of 300 copies,
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER
AND COMPANY, LIMITED
1895
NV
t42
JAN 1 5 1965
"%
"'"^^r
?r3/^^
4.
'
Scenes from the Psychomachia of
Prudentius loth and nth Cen-
;
... 39
13. Scene from the Life of Offa ; 13th
Century. (Cottonian ms., Nero D.i.) 41
... 45
16. Scenes from an Apocalypse; about
A.D. 1330. (Royal MS. 19 B. xv.) .
53
17. Page from
a Psalter; before a.d.
1339. (Arundel ms. 83) .
55
18 and 19. Initial Letters from a Bible;
end of the 14th Century. (Royal
MS. I E. ix.) . 59.61 . . .
3
ENGLISH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
Kells, probably executed towards the end of the
seventh century, burst upon us with fully developed
designs. It would be out of place to attempt to
'
St. Cuthbert's Gospels,' or the Durham Book,'
'
indignus et miserrimus
'
—
which natural or conventional modesty demanded,
he affectionately remembers his parents, and takes
5
ENGLISH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
care to tell us who they were
—Alfred, and '
a good
woman, Tilwin.'
The manuscript remained at Lindisfarne till the
time of the Danish invasion in 875, when it was
carried away for safety together with the shrine of
St. Cuthbert and, as we are told by the historian,
;
is filled with —
gold the only instance of the use of
that metal in the whole design. Gold is not found
at all in native Irish manuscripts, and is applied
very sparingly in this masterpiece of the school of
Lindisfarne. The interlacings on the bow of the
letter are in sections of red and blue those on the
;
^&«:.
o
^*^€j^i
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Cf.
ENGLISH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
right, the heathen are rebuked (v. 5), and the idol
falls from its base in the centre are the destroyed
;
18
(1)
-7>^/^-
(2) (3)
4.
ENGLISH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
an allegorical Latin poem on the subjection of the
vices by the virtues, written in the fourth century by
Aurelius Prudentius, an officer of high military rank,
who was born in Spain, and who solaced himself in
retirement by composing this and other poems of a
like character. The Psychomachia,'
'
like the illus-
trated Psalter, appears to have been a favourite
work for reproduction in this country, as there still
survive several copies with illustrative drawings of
the Anglo-Saxon period. But the manuscript in
question, which formerly belonged to Archbishop
Tenison's library and is now in the British Museum
(Additional MS., 24199), was certainly written abroad,
and we believe that its drawings were also executed
on the continent. The writing is distinctly of the
as
type which has been called Caroline minuscule,
used in the Prankish Empire in the ninth and
tenth centuries. The hand was indeed occasionally
adopted by English scribes of the latter century,
but they stamped a character of their own upon it
which is not to be mistaken. In this manuscript,
which is of the latter part of the tenth century, there
is no trace of the English impress upon the writing ;
23
ENGLISH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
words must be given to the subject of its decora-
tion. In connection with the miniatures or in full-
page ornamental designs the artist most frequently
drew a border surrounding the page and composed
of conventional foliage interlaced and entwined
with the supporting framework of the border.
There can be no doubt that the germ of this foliage
is to be found in the classical architectural leaf-
28
ENGLISH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
the decorator and his facile dexterity in execution
are often marvellous, the draughtsman of the
miniature was usually an artist of a higher order.
At first the distinction is not so great, drawing and
decoration would be executed by the same hand ;
being, it is
hardly necessary to remind the reader,
not unusual in mediaeval art. The tree which fills
the background, with its curiously close-packed
top
of foliage and its wide-spreading branches, is not
the least interesting feature in the scene, for in it
(as also, to some extent, in the leafage of the
border) we can recognise a connection with the
luxuriant leaf-ornamentation of Anglo-Saxon manu-
scripts of the southern school. And, before dis-
missing the scene, we may note an instance of the
survival of the memory of early classical models in
the attitude of the two dancing kids. '
Ici escust
'
equally good.
While we might expect to find, at such a centre
of Anglo-Saxon art as Winchester had been, the in-
fluence of the older style still prevailing, as in the
case of the manuscript which we have just been
considering, the decided change in illumination to
which we have referred above as the result of the
Norman Conquest is manifest in examples pro-
duced in places where contact with foreign art
was more frequent. Thus, as early as the twelfth
century, we already experience, in not a few in-
stances, a difficulty in discriminating between manu-
scripts ornamented in England and those produced
in Northern France or the Netherlands ;
and every
one who has studied the subject knows how this
difficulty increases as we proceed through the next
century and a half. It is frequently by small
indications alone that we can fix the nationality ;
^.6
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omntutrturtconfwiaitfcfttnb po
in;tvb tmi^aummritos attirncm
Ttham tianrans cnismomni po-
fnnr ftt&ftaiutanr uos omnee fa- mittaiionjjantmttHrt- atmgauot
mfyntnc aTtf qui oc ccfans tjomo ff- ogms admits ro ? pii qui oigrios
,
(SianaoonnninfiiHUjtViminfpi' no&fmrtiipammfomefcdiiimT
ttniittbamcn- iitmtnc qui mpmrnos be potrait
'Ttncma?i i ftimutrintrgnttm filii
dilctaonis funn quolfcmtisitiq)
11.
ENGLISH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
unfolded the scroll of his Epistle to the Colossians.
Green, blue, red, lake, and gold arc employed in
the finials of the letter and also compose the initial
;
II omtnttmnantmtaattcmnrtatctttptmttr
ttmrttmoic^alitttmt ctatttmm «B—bbbb
p ttontatn tomtmts tn gmcmttonetttfla eft
ranfilittm tno|)t8 cottfttwfltsrquontdni tamt
tuts to cms C(fc |>J^^^^SK:--:-^ tv.s<>Ki4^^
tttemwrer^ontaxttmtttfiact^cmnattet
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aasptc ftimccfttjB, pi$t(tnof|tt08|
12.
ENGLISH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
manuscripts.
As the century proceeds we are sensible of an
expansion in style. As the handwriting gradually
relaxes its severe stiff character and assumes a
certain roundness and pliancy in its strokes, so
the rather rigid drawing of the middle of the century
begins to bend into those more yielding lines which
are typical of the art of the fourteenth century.
Our next example is selected, as an instance of
highly-finished decoration of the later half of the
thirteenth century, from the Additional ms. 24686
in the British Museum, known as the Tenison
Psalter, from its having once formed part of the
library of Archbishop Tenison. This Psalter is one
of the most beautiful illuminated English manu-
scripts of its time, but unfortunately only in part,
for it was not finished in the perfect style in which
it was begun. The whole book is illuminated, but
in the first quire of the text the ornamentation is
of peculiar beauty and differs in style from that
of the rest of the volume. It appears, from the
evidence of coats of arms and other indications, to
have been undertaken as a royal gift on the in-
tended marriage of Alphonso, son of King Edward
the First, with a daughter of Florent, Count of
Holland, which, however, was never accomplished
owing to the young prince's death in the year
1284. The book was afterwards finished in an
inferior style, and was probably given to the prin-
cess Elizabeth, fourth daughter of Edward the
First, who was married successively to John, Count
of Holland, and to Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of
Hereford and Constable of England.
39
ENGLISH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
In Plate 12 is produced one of the pages
of the quire ornamented for Alphonso and the ;
a church :
'
Offa orans et oblatus Deo ;
his afflic-
tions being told in two hexameter lines :
'
Ve, vc, quo fato regali stem[m]ate nato,
Os michi mutescit, oculorum lumen ebescit.'
'
Te,
rex delire, cum filio diffiducio,' in company with
'
an evil-faced follower, a suggestor malorum.'
After making due allowance for imperfect know-
ledge of perspective and faults in proportion, which
are common to the time and not characteristic of
the individual, no one can fail to admire the bold-
ness of the outlines and the artistic treatment of
the drapery nor can it be denied that the draughts-
;
14.
ENGLISH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
decoration in England reached its highest standard
of excellence. And we commence our review of
the work of that period with the
very finest manu-
script of its kind, probably unique in its com-
bination of excellence of drawing, brilliance of
illumination, and extent and variety of subjects.
The Royal ms. 2 B. vii., commonly known as
'
spectatus et honestus
vir,' Baldwin Smith, a customs officer in the
port
of London, wisely laid hands on it and
presented
it to the
Queen in October 1553. It is bound in
crimson velvet worked on each cover with a
large
pomegranate,— the Queen's badge, which had been
that of her Spanish mother, —
but now much worn ;
•K
15.
ENGLISH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
excellence and the general character of the sumptu-
;
45
Ill
_
But before proceeding with the detailed descrip-
tion of examples which are to illustrate the
present
article, we may briefly trace the growth of the
^
ground is of a
very deep blue, with a broad frame
of vermilion. In the other picture we have the
representation of Heaven, where the Apostle heard
'a great voice of much people' (Rev. xix. 1-4).
Here again the worshipping figures and the sur-
rounding clouds are left white and are thrown up in
strong relief by the deep blue of the background.
The symbols of the Evangelists in the four corners,
'
'
modified representations of the four beasts that
fell down and
worshipped God that sat on the
'
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17.
ENGLISH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
and with His left hand placed upon the globe, is
enthroned within a vesica; the robes are tinted
russet, green, and violet and the cruciform nimbus
;
_
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relieved with
white, being the leading colours.
Unfortunately the page of the manuscript is too
large to be brought, even on a reduced scale, within
the scope of a plate. We
can only conclude our
remarks on the border by asking the reader to
repeat in imagination at the four corners of the
page the round-flower ornament shown in this plate,
and to take, as a sample of the twin stem which
forms the square frame-work of the border, the
small section here presented. Nor must we pass
by in silence the very pretty ornamental spray
which issues from the initial, with its delicate little
flowers. It is not uncommon to meet examples of
this fine work in company with more heavily laden
borders.
Astill better idea of the decoration of this
'
' '
'
'
Ecce ancilla domini, fiat michi secundum [verbum
'
mimimi ma.
;iDramrnira> moiii8pmi:unuBcrOui)l)ii0.
(fi^niitrDoffmrfdnam \m fim pito jM qui miUifranr flU ujUflnnf.^fr
Inucnoinijiil 4)8. (fill mniraiirgio
'
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21.
ENGLISH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
66
ENGLISH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
under the Anglo-Saxon kings was incomparably
superior to the dead copies from Byzantine models
which were in favour abroad. The artistic instinct
was not destroyed, but rather strengthened, by the
incoming of Norman influence and of the twelfth
;
67
/O
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