Chapter I: Front Matter

Illuminated
Manuscripts

John Bradley

BRACKEN BOOKS
LONDON

CONTENTS

BOOK I

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

What is meant by art?--The art faculty--How artists may be compared--The aim of illumination--Distinction between illumination and miniature--Definition of illumination--The first miniature painter--Origin of the term "miniature"--Ovid's allusion to his little book.

CHAPTER II

VELLUM AND OTHER MATERIALS

Difference between vellum and parchment--Names of different preparations--The kinds of vellum most prized for illuminated books--The "parcheminerie" of the Abbey of Cluny--Origin of the term "parchment"--Papyrus.

CHAPTER III

WRITING

Its different styles--Origin of Western alphabets--Various forms of letters--Capitals, uncials, etc.--Texts used in Western Europe--Forms of ancient writings--The roll, or volume--The codex--Tablets--Diptychs, etc.--The square book--How different sizes of books were produced.

CHAPTER IV

GREEK AND ROMAN ILLUMINATION

The first miniature painter--The Vatican Vergils--Methods of painting--Origin of Christian art--The Vienna Genesis--The Dioscorides--The Byzantine Revival.

CHAPTER V

BYZANTINE ILLUMINATION

The rebuilding of the city of Byzantium the beginning of Byzantine art--Justinian's fondness for building and splendour--Description of Paul the Silentiary--Sumptuous garments--The Gospel-book of Hormisdas--Characteristics of Byzantine work--Comparative scarcity of examples--Rigidity of Byzantine rules of art--Periods of Byzantine art--Examples--Monotony and lifelessness of the style.

CHAPTER VI

CELTIC ILLUMINATION

Early liturgical books reflect the ecclesiastical art of their time--This feature a continuous characteristic of illumination down to the latest times--Elements of Celtic ornament--Gospels of St. Chad--Durham Gospels--Contrast of Celtic and Byzantine--St. Columba--Book of Kells--Details of its decoration.

CHAPTER VII

CELTIC ILLUMINATION--_continued_

The Iona Gospels--Contrast with Roman and Byzantine--Details--Treatment of animal forms--Colour schemes--The Gospel-book of St. Columbanus--That of Mael Brith Mac Durnan--The Lindisfarne Gospels--Cumdachs--Other book-shrines.

CHAPTER VIII

SEMI-BARBARIC ILLUMINATION

Visigothic--Merovingian--Lombardic--Extinction of classic art--Splendid reign of Dagobert--St. Eloy of Noyon--The Library of Laon--Natural History of Isidore of Seville--Elements of contemporary art--Details of ornament--Symbolism--Luxeuil and Monte Cassino--Sacramentary of Gellone--"Prudentius"--"Orosius"--Value of the Sacramentary of Gellone.

CHAPTER IX

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".

CHAPTER X

FIRST ENGLISH STYLES

Transition from Iona to Lindisfarne--Influence of Frankish art--The "Opus Anglicum"--The Winchester school and its characteristics--Whence obtained--Method of painting--Examples--Where found and described.

CHAPTER XI

CAROLINGIAN ILLUMINATION

Why so-called--Works to be consulted--The Library of St. Gall--Rise and progress of Carolingian art--Account of various MSS.--Feature of the style--Gospels of St. Sernin--The Ada-Codex--Centres of production--Other splendid examples--The Alcuin Bible--The Gospel of St. Médard of Soissons.

CHAPTER XII

MONASTIC ILLUMINATION

Introductory--Monasteries and their work from the sixth to the ninth century--The claustral schools--Alcuin--Warnefrid and Theodulf--Clerics and monastics--The Golden Age of monasticism--The Order of St. Benedict--Cistercian houses--Other Orders--Progress of writing in Carolingian times--Division of labour.

CHAPTER XIII

MONASTIC ILLUMINATION--_continued_

The copyist--Gratuitous labour--Last words of copyists--Disputes between Cluny and Citeaux--The Abbey of Cluny: its grandeur and influences--Use of gold and purple vellum--The more influential abbeys and their work in France, Germany, and the Netherlands.

CHAPTER XIV

OTHONIAN ILLUMINATION

Departure from Carolingian--Bird and serpent--Common use of dracontine forms in letter-ornament--Influence of metal-work on the forms of scroll-ornament--The vine-stem and its developments--Introduction of Greek taste and fashion into Germany--Cistercian illumination--The Othonian period--Influence of women as patronesses and practitioners--German princesses--The Empress Adelheid of Burgundy--The Empress Theophano--Henry II. and the Empress Cunegunda--Bamberg--Examples of Othonian art.

CHAPTER XV

FRANCONIAN ILLUMINATION

The later Saxon schools--Bernward of Hildesheim--Tuotilo and Hartmut of St. Gallen--Portrait of Henry II. in MS. 40 at Munich--Netherlandish and other work compared--Alleged deterioration of work under the Franconian Emperors not true--Bad character of the eleventh century as to art--Example to the contrary.

CHAPTER XVI

ARTISTIC EDUCATION IN THE CLOISTER

The "Manual"--Its discovery--Its origin and contents--Didron's translation--The "Compendium" of Theophilus--Its contents--English version by Hendrie--Benedictine and Cistercian illumination--How they differ--Character of monastic architects and artists.

CHAPTER XVII

THE RISE OF GOTHIC ILLUMINATION

Germany the chief power in Europe in the twelfth century--Rise of Italian influence--The Emmeram MSS.--Coronation of Henry II.--The Apocalypse--The "Hortus Deliciarum"--Romanesque--MS. of Henry the Lion--The Niedermünster Gospels--Description of the MS.--Rise of Gothic--Uncertainty of its origin--The spirit of the age.

BOOK II

CHAPTER I

THE GOLDEN AGE OF ILLUMINATION

The Gothic spirit--A "zeitgeist" not the invention of a single artist nor of a single country--The thirteenth century the beginning of the new style--Contrast between North and South, between East and West, marked in the character of artistic leaf-work--Gradual development of Gothic foliage--The bud of the thirteenth century, the leaf of the fourteenth, and the flower of the fifteenth--The Freemasons--Illumination transferred from the monastery to the lay workshop--The Psalter of St. Louis--Characteristics of French Gothic illumination--Rise of the miniature as a distinct feature--Guilds--Lay artists.

CHAPTER II

RISE OF NATIONAL STYLES

The fourteenth century the true Golden Age of Gothic illumination--France the cradle of other national styles--Netherlandish, Italian, German, etc.--Distinction of schools--Difficulty of assigning the _provenance_ of MSS.--The reason for it--MS. in Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge--The Padua Missal--Artists' names--Whence obtained.

CHAPTER III

FRENCH ILLUMINATION FROM THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY TO THE RENAISSANCE

Ivy-leaf and chequered backgrounds--Occasional introduction of plain burnished gold--Reign of Charles VI. of France--The Dukes of Orleans, Berry, and Burgundy; their prodigality and fine taste for MSS.--Christine de Pisan and her works--Description of her "Mutation of Fortune" in the Paris Library--The "Roman de la Rose" and "Cité des Dames"--Details of the French style of illumination--Burgundian MSS., Harl. 4431--Roy. 15 E. 6--The Talbot Romances--Gradual approach to Flemish on the one hand and Italian on the other.

CHAPTER IV

ENGLISH ILLUMINATION FROM THE TENTH TO THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

Organisation of the monastic _scriptoria_--Professional outsiders: lay artists--The whole sometimes the work of the same practitioner--The Winchester Abbeys of St. Swithun's and Hyde--Their vicissitudes--St. Alban's--Westminster--Royal MS. 2 A 22--Description of style--The Tenison Psalter--Features of this period--The Arundel Psalter--Hunting and shooting scenes, and games--Characteristic pictures, grotesques, and caricatures--Queen Mary's Psalter--Rapid changes under Richard II.--Royal MS. 2 E. 9--Their cause.

CHAPTER V

THE SOURCES OF ENGLISH FIFTEENTH-CENTURY ILLUMINATION

Attributed to the Netherlands--Not altogether French--The home of Anne of Bohemia, Richard II.'s Queen--Court of Charles IV. at Prag--Bohemian Art--John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia--The Golden Bull of Charles IV.--Marriage of Richard II.--The transformation of English work owing to this marriage and the arrival of Bohemian artists in England--Influence of Queen Anne on English Art and Literature--Depression caused by her death--Examination of Roy. MS. 1 E. 9 and 2 A. 18--The Grandison Hours--Other MSS.--Introduction of Flemish work by Edward IV.

CHAPTER VI

ITALIAN ILLUMINATION

Barbaric character of Italian illumination in the twelfth century--Ravenna and Pavia the earliest centres of revival--The "Exultet"--La Cava and Monte Cassino--The writers of early Italian MSS. not Italians--In the early fourteenth century the art is French--Peculiarities of Italian foliages--The Law Books--Poems of Convenevole da Prato, the tutor of Petrarch--Celebrated patrons--The Laon Boethius--The Decretals, Institutes, etc.--"Decretum Gratiani," other collections and MSS.--Statuts du Saint Esprit--Method of painting--Don Silvestro--The Rationale of Durandus--Nicolas of Bologna, etc.--Triumphs of Petrarch--Books at San Marco, Florence--The Brera Graduals at Milan--Other Italian collections--Examples of different localities in the British Museum--Places where the best work was done--Fine Neapolitan MS. in the British Museum--The white-vine style superseded by the classical renaissance.

CHAPTER VII

GERMAN ILLUMINATION FROM THE THIRTEENTH TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

Frederick II., _Stupor Mundi_, and his MS. on hunting--The Sicilian school mainly Saracenic, but a mixture of Greek, Arabic, and Latin tastes--The Franconian Emperors at Bamberg--Charles of Anjou--The House of Luxembourg at Prag--MSS. in the University Library--The Collegium Carolinum of the Emperor Charles IV.--MSS. at Vienna--The Wenzel Bible--The Weltchronik of Rudolf v. Ems at Stuttgard--Wilhelm v. Oranse at Vienna--The Golden Bull--Various schools--Hildesheimer Prayer-book at Berlin--The Nuremberg school--The Glockendons--The Brethren of the Pen.

CHAPTER VIII

NETHERLANDISH ILLUMINATION

What is meant by the Netherlands--Early realism and study of nature--Combination of symbolism with imitation--Anachronism in design--The value of the pictorial methods of the old illuminators--The oldest Netherlandish MS.--Harlinda and Renilda--The nunnery at Maas-Eyck--Description of the MS.--Thomas à Kempis--The school of Zwolle--Character of the work--The use of green landscape backgrounds--The Dukes of Burgundy--Netherlandish artists--No miniatures of the Van Eycks or Memling known to exist--Schools of Bruges, Ghent, Liége, etc.--Brussels Library--Splendid Netherlandish MSS. at Vienna--Gerard David and the Grimani Breviary--British Museum--"Romance of the Rose"--"Isabella" Breviary--Grisailles.

CHAPTER IX

THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE

Communication with Italy--Renaissance not sudden--Origin of the schools of France and Burgundy--Touraine and its art--Fouquet--Brentano MSS.--"Versailles Livy"--Munich "Boccaccio," etc.--Perréal and Bourdichon--"Hours of Anne of Brittany"--Poyet--The school of Fontainebleau--Stained glass--Jean Cousin--Gouffier "Heures"--British Museum Offices of Francis I.--Dinteville Offices--Paris "Heures de Montmorency", "Heures de Dinteville," etc.

CHAPTER X

SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE ILLUMINATION

Late period of Spanish illumination--Isidore of Seville--Archives at Madrid--Barcelona--Toledo--Madrid--Choir-books of the Escorial--Philip II.--Illuminators of the choir-books--The size and beauty of the volumes--Fray Andrés de Leon and other artists--Italian influence--Giovanni Battista Scorza of Genoa--Antonio de Holanda, well-known Portuguese miniaturist in sixteenth century--His son Francesco--The choir-books at Belem--French invasion--Missal of Gonçalvez--Sandoval Genealogies--Portuguese Genealogies in British Museum--The Stowe Missal of John III.

CHAPTER XI

ILLUMINATION SINCE THE INVENTION OF PRINTING

The invention of printing--Its very slight affect on illuminating--Preference by rich patrons for written books--Work produced in various cities in the sixteenth century--Examples in German, Italian, and other cities, and in various public libraries up to the present time.

MANUSCRIPTS THAT MAY BE CONSULTED

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS