Chapter XXV: Appendix (2)

[194] The _Antiphonals_ which Liberale illuminated at Monte Oliveto are now
preserved in the Chapter library at Chiusi. Those which he painted at
Siena are now in the Cathedral library. Records of money paid to
Liberale for these choir-books are published by Milanesi, _Documenti
per la Storia dell' Arte Sanese_, Vol. II. pp. 384-386; and
Milanesi's edition of Vasari, Vol. V. pp. 326-334.

[195] Examples of Attavante's and Liberale's miniatures are illustrated by
Eug. Müntz, _La Renaissance en Italie et en France_, Paris, 1885, p.
188 seq.

[196] See page 200, and compare pages 163 and 175 for examples of similar
influence due to the manuscript illuminators of Germany and Italy.

[197] For examples of this see above, page 175.

[198] Each of these painters (in some pictures) also signs himself
_Alamanus_, meaning not necessarily that they were Germans, but
possibly natives of Lombardy, who were often called _Alamani_ by
their Italian neighbours.

[199] Especially in his magnificently decorative altar-piece of the
Adoration of the Magi in the Florentine Academy, dated 1423.

[200] Clovio is the Italianized form of a harsh Croatian name; the artist
adopted the name Giulio as a compliment to his friend and teacher
Giulio Romano, Raphael's favourite pupil.

J. W. Bradley, _Life of Giulio Clovio_, London, 1891, gives an
interesting account of him and of his times; see also Vasari, Ed.
Milanesi, Vol. VII. p. 557.

[201] The ex-king of Naples' library possesses a _Book of Hours_, on the
illuminations of which (Vasari tells us) Giulio Clovio spent nine
years. It certainly is a marvel of human patience and misdirected
skill; the text was written by a famous scribe named Monterchi, who
was specially renowned for the beauty of his writing.

[202] An interesting little volume on this subject has been published by
Eug. Müntz, _La Bibliothèque du Vatican_, Paris, 1886; it deals
chiefly with the growth of the library during the sixteenth century.

[203] Fra Sebastiano was called "del Piombo" from his office as
superintendant of the pendant lead seals, _piombi_ or _bullae_, which
were attached to Papal Briefs and other documents, one class of which
were called _Bulls_ from their lead _bullae_.

[204] See Montault, _Livres de choeur des églises de Rome_, Arras, 1874, p.
9.

[205] The Fitzwilliam Museum possesses two noble vellum choir-books of this
class dated 1604 and 1605. Though the miniatures are poor, the
writing of the text and the music might well pass for the work of a
fifteenth century scribe.

[206] A valuable but by no means exhaustive list of manuscript illuminators
is given by J. W. Bradley, _Dictionary of Miniaturists, Illuminators
and Caligraphers_, London, 1887. The names of Italian miniaturists
are specially numerous, partly because Italian manuscripts are more
frequently signed by their illuminators than the manuscripts of other
countries. See also Bernasconi, _Studj sopra la storia della pittura
Italiana dei secoli xiv e xv_, Verona, 1864.

[207] J. R. Green, in his _Short History of the English People_, chap.
III., gives an interesting sketch of the development of literature
and the art of the scribe in the great Monasteries of England,
especially from the eleventh to the fourteenth century.

[208] The carvings on the _misericords_ (or turn-up seats) of choir-stalls
were frequently a vent for the pent-up humour and even spite of many
a monastic carver.

[209] The Poems of Walter Map were edited by Thos. Wright for the Camden
Society, 1841.

[210] Walter Map subsequently obtained various degrees of preferment, and
in 1197 became Archdeacon of Oxford.

[211] Theophilus, _Schedula diversarum Artium_, I. 30-33, writes as if
every illuminator had to beat out or grind his own gold.

[212] In this respect, as is noted above at page 33, the manuscripts of
classical date appear to have been inferior to those of the mediaeval
period.

[213] Monte Cassino the first and chief of the Benedictine monasteries,
founded by Saint Benedict himself, was for many centuries one of the
chief centres in Italy for the writing and illumination of
manuscripts.

[214] According to the severe Cistercian Rule richly illuminated
manuscripts were not allowed to be written or even used in Houses of
that Order, which in England from the end of the twelfth century came
next in size and importance to the monasteries of the parent
Benedictine Order.

[215] See the plan of the Abbey of St Gallen, published by Prof. Willis,
_Arch. Jour._, Vol. v. page 85 seq.

[216] The Abbey of Westminster is a well preserved example of the typical
Benedictine plan.

[217] One walk of the Benedictine cloister, usually that on the west, was
used as the school-room where the novices repeated their "Donats" and
other lessons. Hence in many cloisters one sees the stone benches cut
with marks for numerous "go-bang" boards--a favourite monastic game.

[218] No monk could borrow a book to read without the express permission of
his superiors given in the Chapter House.

[219] The word _carrel_ is probably a corruption of the French _carré_,
from the _square_ form of these little rooms.

[220] When the great Benedictine Abbey of Gloucester was suppressed, Henry
VIII. made the Church into a Cathedral by creating a new See; and so,
happily, the very beautiful cloister was saved from destruction.

[221] Gloucester is exceptional in having the cloister on the north side of
the Church; and also in having these stone recesses in the
_scriptorium_ alley.

[222] The Gloucester cloister and the carrel recesses shown in this woodcut
date from the latter part of the fourteenth century.

[223] Published by the Surtees Society, London, 1842; see p. 70.

[224] Frequently in the Linen-armourers' Guild, that of makers of defensive
armour of linen padded and quilted, a very important protection
against assassination, which was used till the seventeenth century.

[225] Dante selected the Apothecaries' and Physicians' Guild.

[226] This phrase was used in the twelfth century by Ordericus Vitalis,
_Hist. Eccles._ Lib. III. p. 77, Ed. Le Prevost.

[227] Mediaeval saddlery, with its cut, gilt and stamped leather (_cuir
bouillé_), rich and elaborate in design, was a decorative art of no
mean character; and in technique was akin to that of the bookbinder,
which in most places was included in the same Guild.

[228] See _Le Beffroi_, Bruges, Vol. IV. 1873.

[229] In poetic beauty, however, they cannot be compared to the glory of
the French _Apocalypses_ such as that in the library of Trinity
College, Cambridge.

[230] Gérard David is mentioned above as one of the illuminators of the
famous Grimani _Breviary_; see page 165.

[231] See pages 117 and 122 for examples of this.

[232] That is, for noting or writing the plain song of certain parts of the
service which were sung at Christmas and during Holy Week. This
explanation I owe to my friend Mr J. T. Micklethwaite.

[233] Evidently mis-spelt for _psalterio_; and again in the next item.

[234] The _quaternion_ was a gathering of four sheets of vellum, each
folded once; thus forming sixteen pages.

[235] This book was partly written on sheets of vellum which were _in
stauro_ (in stock), and therefore do not come into the accounts.

[236] Twelve quires of vellum which were in stock were also used for this
_Antiphonale_.

[237] See _Trans. Bristol and Glouces. Arch. Soc._ Vol. XV. 1891, pp. 257
and 260.

[238] See Peignot, _Essai sur l'histoire du parchemin et du vélin_, Paris,
1812.

[239] Strictly speaking the word _vellum_ should denote parchment made from
calfskin, but the word is commonly used for any of the finer
qualities of parchment which were used for manuscripts.

[240] Quoted by Hook, _Lives of Archbishops of Canterbury_, Vol. III. p.
353; the Rev. Canon G. F. Browne kindly called my attention to this
passage. Other examples of the cost of vellum are given in the
preceding chapter.

[241] The same arrangement is to be seen in books printed on vellum.

[242] For example, the mere vellum required to print a small thick folio,
such as Caxton's _Golden Legend_, would now cost about £40.

[243] I owe many of the facts in the following account of early paper to
the excellent article on that subject in the _Encyclopædia
Britannica_, ninth edition, Vol. XVIII. by Mr E. Maunde Thompson. See
also E. Egger, _Le papier dans l'antiquité et dans les temps
modernes_, Paris, 1866.

[244] A good illustrated account of early water-marks is given by Sotheby,
_Principia Typographia_, London, 1858.

[245] Some fifteenth century paper has a special maker's mark, but more
usually a general town or district mark was used, such as the
cross-keys, a Cardinal's hat, an Imperial crown or double-eagle.

[246] What is now called "foolscap paper" originally took its name from a
paper-mark in the form of a _fool's cap and bells_, a device which
was frequently used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

[247] Some of Caxton's books, printed in Westminster, bear many different
paper-marks of Germany and Flanders, even in the same volume.

[248] Paper was also made at an early date in Constantinople, through its
intimate relationship with the East. Hence the Monk Theophilus,
writing in the eleventh century, calls linen-paper "Greek vellum,"
_pergamena Graeca_; see I. 24.

[249] This old paper is almost as stout, tough and durable as
parchment--very unlike modern machine-made paper.

[250] The size was made by boiling down shreds of vellum. Blotting-paper is
paper that has not been sized. A coarse grey variety was used as
early as the fifteenth century, though, as a rule, fine sand was used
for this purpose till about the middle of the present century,
especially on the Continent.

[251] Modern "shell gold" is practically the same thing as the fluid gold
of the mediaeval illuminators, except that it is not made with the
pure, unalloyed metal.

[252] The following are the most useful and easily accessible books on the
technical processes of the illuminator; Theophilus, _Schedula
diversarum Artium_, Hendrie's edition with a translation, London,
1847; Cennino Cennini, _Trattato della pittura_, 1437, edited, with a
translation, by Mrs Merrifield, London, 1844; and a large and
valuable collection of early manuscripts on the same subject, edited
and translated by Mrs Merrifield under the title of _Original
Treatises on the Arts of Painting_, 2 Vols., London, 1849.

[253] See page 144.

[254] That is to say, it looks as if the whole substance, mordant and all,
were one solid mass of gold, nearly as thick as a modern
half-sovereign; see Theophilus, I. 24 and 25.

[255] So when William Torell was about to gild the bronze effigy of Queen
Eleanor in Westminster Abbey he procured a large number of gold
florins from Lucca.

[256] Not even the smallest admixture of alloy was permitted in the gold
coinages of the Middle Ages. Dante (_Inf._ XXX. 73) mentions the
coiner Maestro Adamo who had been burnt at Romena in 1280 for issuing
florins which had scarcely more alloy than a modern sovereign.

[257] The gold penny of Henry III. and the florin and its parts of Edward
III. were only struck as patterns. The gold noble was first issued in
1341; its value was 6_s._ 8_d._ or half a _mark_. So many nobles were
destroyed to make gold leaf for illuminating, and for other purposes,
that an Act was passed prohibiting, under severe penalties, the use
of the gold coinage for any except monetary purposes.

[258] In the same way the gold leaf used by the Greeks was comparatively
thick. The famous Erechtheum inscription of 404 B.C. gives one
drachma as the cost of each leaf ([Greek: petalon]) used for gilding
the marble enrichments; see _Cor. Ins. Att._ I. 324, fragment C, col.
ii. lines 35 and 42. Eighteen-pence will now buy 100 leaves of gold.

[259] The best account of the way to make the mordant was given about 1398
by a Lombard illuminator called Johannes Archerius; see Mrs
Merrifield's interesting collection of _Treatises on Painting_, Vol.
I. page 259 seq.

[260] See Theophilus, I. 25.

[261] See Mrs Merrifield, _op. cit._ Vol. I. p. 154.

[262] In Cennino's time, the early part of the fourteenth century, in
Europe, sugar was sold by the ounce as a costly drug. Apothecaries,
not grocers, dealt in it. In Persia, Syria and some other Moslem
countries cane sugar was made and used in comparatively large
quantities throughout the mediaeval period; but in Europe it did not
come into use as an article of food till the 16th century, and even
then it was very expensive.

[263] The date of this receipt is about 1410; it is quoted in Jehan de
Begue's manuscript published by Mrs Merrifield, Vol. I. pp. 9, 95,
and 154; see also Theophilus, I. 31, who speaks of burnishing fluid
gold laid on a mordant of red lead and cinnabar.

[264] See Theophilus, I. 33 and 34; he recommends white of egg as a medium
for ceruse, minium and carmine, and for most other pigments, ordinary
vellum _size_.

Jehan le Begue's manuscript gives the same advice as to the use of
white of egg, but advises the use of gum Arabic with other pigments;
see § 197.

[265] The British Museum possesses an interesting manuscript on pigments,
entitled _De coloribus Illuminatorum_ (Sloane manuscripts, 1754); see
also Eraclius, _De artibus Romanorum_, published by Raspe, London,
1783 and 1801; and the twelfth century _Mappae Clavicula_ printed in
_Archæologia_, Vol. XXXII. pp. 183 to 244. The first book of
Theophilus, _Diversarum artium schedula_, written in the eleventh
century, contains much interesting matter on this subject; see also
the works mentioned above at page 230.

[266] _The Journal of the Society of Arts_, Dec. 25, 1891, and Jan. 8 and
15, 1892, has a valuable series of papers on "The pigments and
vehicles of the Old Masters" by Mr A. P. Laurie, who throws new light
on the treatises edited by Mrs Merrifield with the help of his own
chemical investigations.

[267] This word is spelt in many different ways.

[268] In mediaeval times this was done by first embedding the powdered
stone in a lump of wax and resin, from which the blue particles were
laboriously extracted by long-continued kneading and washing. The
theory of this apparently was that the wax held the colourless
particles and allowed the blue to be washed out; see Mrs Merrifield,
_Treatises on Painting_, Vol. I. pp. 49, and 97 to 111.

[269] The modern value of ultramarine is about equal to its weight in gold.
Sir Peter Lely, in the time of Charles II., paid £4. 10_s._ an ounce
for it.

[270] The Prior in question was the Superior of the Convent of the Frati
Gesuati in Florence.

[271] The German blue was also liable to turn to a bright emerald green if
exposed to damp air. This change has taken place in a great part of
the painted ceilings of the Villa Madama, which Raphael designed for
Cardinal de' Medici (afterwards Clement VII.) on the slopes of Monte
Mario, a little distance outside the walls of Rome.

[272] Because it was used by goldsmiths in _soldering gold_.

[273] _Minium_ was largely used in the manuscripts of classical times; this
is mentioned by Pliny (_Hist. Nat._ XXXIII. 122) who says _minium in
voluminum quoque scriptura usurpatur_.

[274] All natural earthy pigments owe their colours to the various metals,
which in combinations with different substances give a great variety
of tints. Thus, _iron_ gives red, brown, yellow and black; _copper_
gives many shades of brilliant blues and greens; and _manganese_
gives a quiet purple, especially in combination with an alcaline
silicate.

[275] Plutarch (_De defec. Or._ § 41) mentions flour made from beans as
being used with _murex_ purple and _kermes_ crimson to give them
sufficient body for the painter's purpose.

[276] Kermes is the Arabic name for this insect.

[277] It should be remembered that a large number of the mediaeval receipts
and processes were not based on any reasonable principle, and endless
complications were often introduced quite needlessly; this is well
shown in a very interesting paper by Prof. John Ferguson of Glasgow
on _Some Early Treatises on Technological Chemistry_, read before the
Philos. Soc. Glasgow, Jan. 6, 1886.

[278] The use of litharge as a drier was one of the most important
improvements made in the technique of oil painting by the Van Eycks
of Bruges in the first half of the fifteenth century. Before then,
oil paintings on walls had often been laboriously dried by holding
charcoal braziers close to the surface of the picture. Among the
accounts of the expenses of painting the Royal Palace of Westminster
in the thirteenth century (see above, page 110) charcoal for this
purpose is an important item in the cost. Paintings on panel, being
moveable, were usually dried by being placed in the sun; but, in
every way, a good drier like litharge answers better than heat,
either of the fire or of sunshine.

[279] See Theophilus, I. 39.

[280] See Vitruvius, VII. 10; and Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ XXXV. 41; and
Dioscorides, V. 183.

[281] Sometimes accidentally produced in domestic life by some overdrawn
tea remaining on a steel knife.

[282] The modern "lead-pencil" is wrongly named, being made of _graphite_,
which is pure carbon. This does not appear to have been used in
mediaeval times.

[283] The vellum was not prepared in any way to receive the silver-point
drawing; but when an artist wanted to make a finished study in
silver-point he covered his vellum or paper with a priming of fine
_gesso_, powdered marble, or wood-ashes; this gave a more biting
surface to the paper, and made the silver rub off more easily and
mark much more strongly. In the case of manuscript illuminations a
strongly marked line was not needed, as the outline was only intended
as a guide to the painter.

[284] See above, pages 29 and 30, on the pens and inkstands of the
classical scribes.

[285] Usually meant for Saint Jerome translating or revising the Latin
edition of the Bible.

[286] Again, the first miniature in the French and Flemish _Horae_ usually
represents _Saint John in Patmos_ writing his Gospel. The eagle
stands by patiently holding the Evangelist's inkhorn. In some
manuscripts the Devil, evidently in much awe of the eagle's beak,
makes a feeble attempt to upset the ink. In the latest manuscript
_Horae_ this scene is replaced by the one of _Saint John at the Latin
Gate._

[287] A two-columned page of text had, of course, two sets of framing
lines, one for each patch of writing.

[288] In some manuscripts lines are ruled in blue or purple, but much less
frequently than in the more decorative vermilion.

[289] In certain classes of books, such as large Bibles and Prayer-books,
the custom of ruling red lines lasted till the present century.

[290] These guiding letters were used in all the early printed books which
had initials painted in by an illuminator.

[291] As a rule these manuscript signatures in printed books were written
close to the edge of the page, and so have been cut off by the
binder; in some tall copies, however, they still exist.

[292] The next stage was the numbering of each _folio_ or leaf, and the
last system was to number each page. Folios appear to have been first
numbered in books printed at Cologne about the year 1470. A further
modification has recently been introduced, namely, in two column
pages, to number each column separately.

[293] The _Lectionary_ mentioned on p. 120 was written and signed by a
monastic scribe called Sifer Was.

[294] Some fine examples of magnificently bound manuscripts are illustrated
by Libri, _Monumens inédits_; _Hist. Ornam._ Paris, 1862-1864.

[295] In Geyler's _Fatuorum Navicula_, of which many editions, copiously
illustrated with woodcuts, were published shortly before and after
the year 1500, the cut showing the first fool of the series, the
Bibliomaniac, represents him surrounded with books, all of which are
bound after this design.

[296] A complete sixteenth century Venetian library, consisting of a
hundred and seventy volumes, all with painted illuminations on their
edges, is now in the library of Mr Thos. Brooke, at Armitage Bridge,
near Huddersfield. The whole collection forms a beautiful array of
delicately painted miniatures, mostly the work of Cesare Vecellio, a
Venetian illuminator of the latter part of the sixteenth century; see
_Catalogue of Mr Brooke's library_, London, 1891, Vol. II., pp. 663
to 681.

[297] An analogous change took place in the reign of Elizabeth in England
when coins, which up to that time had always been made by hammering,
were first struck by the "mill and screw."

[298] In the miniature pictures in manuscripts of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries one often sees ladies represented with their
_Horae_ suspended in this way from their girdle.

[299] See page 167.

[300] See page 167.

[301] The same want of appreciation extends to bindings. As a rule a book
in a fine mediaeval binding sells for no more than if it were in a
modern binding by Bedford. It is only the sixteenth century bindings
of so-called "Grolier style" and the like which add largely to the
value of a book.

[302] This library is now deposited in the Guildhall; the press-mark is
probably that of an old monastic library.

[303] Probably a blundered version of Pliny's statement (_Hist. Nat._
XXXVII. 119) that azure blue (_cyanus_) was invented by a king of
Egypt.

[304] This is evidently a different thing from the _epicausterium_ or
brazier for hot coals mentioned below. My friend Mr J. T.
Micklethwaite suggests that it was a board covered with leather on
which to stretch and dry vellum before writing on it.

[305] An explanation of the nature and constitution of the Breviary will be
found in the preface to the Psalter-volume of the Cambridge
University Press edition of the Sarum Breviary, lately published.