Chapter XIV: Exeunt Omnes (6)

The finest specimen of English illumination of the tenth century is the Duke of Devonshire's celebrated Benedictional, by St. AEthelwald, bishop of Winchester, written and painted between 963 and 984. The first page is a magnificent picture of a number of glorified confessors; it was written by a monk, of whom we shall speak hereafter. Up to the twelfth century decorations were the peculiar characteristics of illumination, although some Saxon MSS. written during those periods have pictures drawn in outline; but the great point in all richly illuminated MSS. was the initial letter, and every effort of art was exerted to make that as rich and magnificent as possible. After that time we find these initial letters ornamented also with drawings of the human form, animals, birds, etc, in addition to the foliage which had hitherto predominated. The coloring of the period was richer also, and these MSS. so decorated with pictures were called "historiated," and led by degrees to the fine historical illuminations of subsequent centuries. Gradually these initial letters became larger and longer, until their tales reached nearly the whole length of the page. They were then carried round the bottom, until out of this progression of the initial letter arose what is called the "Gothic bracket"--and ornamentation like a clasp which ran round three sides of the page. During the fourteenth century miniatures were again introduced, and were improving and becoming more finished up to the middle of the sixteenth century. The Gothic bracket was also extended gradually, until it at last embraced the whole page, and became {307} one of the great features of of subsequent illumination--the "border." In these borders all kinds of subjects were crowded--foliage, flowers, birds, animals, and miniatures, and toward the end of the fifteenth century a background was added, first in parts, and ultimately entirely. A work which appeared in the thirteenth century exerted, however, a great influence over the art of illumination, even down to the time of its decline, three centuries later. It was a series of meditations on the life of Christ, known as St. Bonaventura, by John Fidenza, and the minute descriptions it gave of the various scenes of which it treated formed a sort of ideal, the influence of which may be traced in nearly all subsequent treatment of similar subjects, and accounts for their general uniformity. During the Byzantine period illuminating was confined to manuscripts of the Scriptures, the works of the fathers, and books for the services in the church. To these were then added volumes for private devotion, such as Horae, or prayers four hours and holy days, sometimes called Missals. Legends, history, and poetry followed, and in the fourteenth century the works of Chaucer and the Chronicles of Froissart opened a vast field to the illuminators for the delineation of battles, sieges, religious ceremonies, public events, and scenes of domestic life. Some copies of classical authors also were then illuminated, until by the end of the fifteenth century nearly every kind of formal document was illuminated, including charters, wills, indentures, patents of nobility, statutes of foundations, and mortuary registers. But the printing-press was looming in the distance, and the death-knell of this beautiful art began to toll. Its fall, which was inevitable, was, however, gradual. Men could not be weaned at once from these illuminated books, and a sort of temporary alliance between the two arts was effected. The earliest printed books were illuminated, spaces which had been formerly left by the copyist were now reserved by the printer, and the whole work when it left his hands was given over to the artist; then the subjects were engraven on wood, and transferred to the vellum by means of ink and the press; but the manuscript style was still preserved, and the closest imitation of written volumes was retained by the early printers, and with such dexterity that it is not an easy thing to detect some of the earliest printed books from manuscripts. Perhaps the last effort to illuminate a book by the printer's art to the extent of the older MSS., was an edition of the Liturgy, brought out in 1717 by John Short, entirely engraven on copper plates. The pages were surrounded by borders, and embellished with pictures and decorated initial letters. Even down to the early part of the present century books were printed with ornamental initial letters, and borders on the top and bottom of each page, both of which may be seen occasionally in the present day, more especially in books issued from presses which seek to revive the antique type and style. In concluding this portion of our sketch, we may mention another characteristic of early MS. writing which exists in some of our books in present use. If we take up an edition of a Greek classic printed some forty or fifty years ago, or even less, we shall find it almost unintelligible, from the number of contractions used in the printing; and if we go further back still, we shall find these contractions more numerous. It arose in the eighth or ninth century; the scribes introduced in the copying of Greek MSS. a system of contraction called tacygraphy, by which two, three, or more letters were expressed by one character, which was termed "nexus litterarum." The editors of the early period of printing adopted them in their type, and they continued in use down to the beginning of the present century.

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As we have thus given a condensed review of the history and development of that most beautiful art of illuminating MSS., we shall proceed to describe the details of the work as it was carried on for centuries in the various monasteries in Europe. The parchment was cut into sheets of the required size, and prepared for the copyist in the following manner--They were first rubbed over with the powdered bone of the cuttle-fish, or with the ashes of a certain kind of bone or wood burned and pulverized; a wheel with sharp teeth at equal distances was then run down each side of the sheet, and lines ruled across from point to point between which the matter was to be written; it was then handed to the scribe, who began his work. In the ancient manuscripts there is to be found no paging or table of contents. The whole work was divided into packets of parchment sheets, each containing about four leaves; these packets were sometimes marked with a number temporarily on the first page, which was cut off when the whole was bound. At the end of each section of leaves the scribe wrote the word with which the next section should commence, a practice continued by printers under the title of "catch-words." If a manuscript contained several treatises on different subjects, a list of contents was appended, the initial word of each tract, and the number of sections. As soon as the copying was finished, the work of illustration commenced. The outlines were traced with a pencil made of silver, or brass with a silver point; then the metallic outlines were gone over with a fine quill pen, dipped in a preparation of lampblack and gum. There are many MSS. extant originally intended to be illuminated, but from some unknown cause have come down to us in this unfinished state of outline sketches. The next step was to wash in the shades with ink and water of three degrees of strength; at this point the gilding was done, in order that the burnishing might not interfere with the colors. The raised or embossed gold grounds were done first by laying the metal leaf on a thick smooth bed made of fine plaster, carefully ground; they were then burnished, and if it were intended to decorate these raised gold grounds with engravings or patterns cut in the metal, that was done as the next stage. After this the large masses of flat, painted gilding were added and the colors laid on with the utmost care as to the tint. The last process, which was intrusted only to superior hands, was that of diapering, pencilling, inserting brilliant touches of gold and white, and in fact finishing the whole work. These two forms of gold work, the embossed and the flat, are to be found in perfection in MSS. of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. They prepared their gold with great care. In the fourteenth century the gold leaf was ground with honey carefully washed, and the powder mixed with gum water. In a treatise written by Theophilus, [Footnote 70] the pulverization of gold for painting forms a difficult process; he directs that the pure gold should be filed into a cup, and then washed with a pencil in the shell of a sea fish, after which it is to be milled in a mortar made of copper and tin, with a long pestle worked by a strap and wheel.

[Footnote 70: THEOP.: De Diversis Artibus.]

Then the gold filings are to be milled in water for two or three hours and gradually poured off. The powder thus produced was to be tempered with isinglass and laid on a ground of red lead, mixed with the white of an egg; after this it was burnished with a bloodstone, a shining horn tablet being placed under the gilded picture. The Anglo-Saxons used to rub gold filings in a mortar with sharp vinegar, and then dissolve them with salt and nitre. The principle colors used, according to Theophilus, were vermilion orpiment, Greek green, dragon's-blood, granetum carminium, saffron, folium, brunum, minium, white and black. After they had ground their colors on a slab of porphyry, they placed them in covered glass vessels under water, which not only only preserved them from dust, but {309} kept them always soft and ready for use. The old painters never touched their colors with iron, but used as a palette-knife a thin blade of wood. They made their own pencils and brushes, the pencils being made of minever tails, set in quills, and the brushes of the bristles of the white domestic pig, bound to a stick. When a manuscript had passed through all these stages of copying and illuminating, it had to be bound, a work also done in the scriptorium. The sacred MSS. at an early period were bound between two wooden boards, covered with engraved plates of gold and silver set off with crystals and rubies. But the usual binding of volumes for the services for the church was in the skins of deer, sheep, and calves, pieces of which were stretched over the boards, and the leaves were sewn together by the same material cut into strips. The ecclesiastics were forbidden to indulge in the pleasure of the chase, although the love of that sport was a universal passion, and it was with great difficulty they could be restrained from joining in such diversions; but Charlemagne granted permission to priests to hunt for the purpose of procuring deer-skins to bind books. Grants were made to monasteries by other sovereigns of a certain number of skins annually. The corners of the covers of large service-books were protected by plates and bosses of metal; there was a metal center with a large projected hemisphere on each side, and across the book were too strong loops of leather for the purpose of lifting it when closed. The service-books of the church were necessarily very large, because they were placed on a high sloping shelf, around which the choristers stood while the precentor, standing behind them, turned over the leaves with a staff from above their heads. Such are a few of the details of the art of illuminating manuscripts, which flourished in the monasteries from the eighth to the eighteenth centuries, when it died in Europe under Louis XIV. The schools of this art, which sprung up from its cultivation, may be enumerated by six denominations, as shown in the following table:

GREEK or BYZANTINE, from the eighth to the tenth century: the _Irish-Saxon, Anglo-Saxon, Franco-Saxon_, and the painting of _Russia_ belong to this school.

EARLY ROMAN, tenth to the fourteenth century, which includes also the _Anglo-Norman_.

ITALIAN, fourteenth to sixteenth century, including the _Spanish_ and _Portuguese_.

EARLY FRENCH, fourteenth to seventeenth century, under which may be ranged the _later English_.

FLEMISH, GERMAN, AND DUTCH, from the close of the fifteenth century.

LATER FRENCH, during the seventeenth eighteenth centuries.

We have already remarked that a genius for illumination and excellence in copying were at one time sure recommendations for promotion. The memory of men too who had spent their lives in this occupation were tenderly cherished; and two incidents preserved in history attesting the fact we shall mention. Baldinucci, in his History of Painting, gives an account of two brethren in the Camaldulan Monastery, Degli Angeli, at Florence, who were most indefatigable copyists. Dom Jacopo Fiorentino made his appearance at the Monastery of Degli Angeli, in the year 1340; he is described as a monk of holy manners who, when he was not engaged in monastic duties, spent all his time in copying. He acquired an extraordinary expertness and elegance in writing the peculiar character used in the books of the choir. His talents were appreciated, and Dom Jacopo was seldom idle. He wrote twenty massive choral books for his own monastery, the largest ever seen in Italy, and a great many others for Rome, Venice, and Murano. His fame spread abroad, and after his death the brethren of the order preserved {310} the right hand of this scribe, which had done so much good work, as a lasting memorial of his name. Dom Silvestro, another monk living in the monastery of Degli Angeli at the same time, excelled in miniature painting, and to his lot fell the decoration of those very books, as they issued from the facile pen of Dom Jacopo. His work was thoroughly appreciated by the great artists of the best ages of Italy. Lorenzo the Magnificent, and Leo X., his son, were pleased to accord their admiration. When he died his right hand was also embalmed. Although this work of copying and illuminating was carried on generally in the scriptorium of the monastery, yet occasionally a monk had a room to himself for the purpose, bearing the same name. Giraldus Cambrensis, in his Life of St. David, tells us that the great bishop commenced writing a copy of St. John's Gospel in gold and silver letters in his own scriptorium at Menevia:

"Scriptorium suum locumque laboris." [Footnote 71]

[Footnote 71: Anglia Sacra, vol. ii., p.635.]

Many of the names of great illuminators are lost in oblivion, but some have been preserved. Of these, as our investigation is more particularly into the monachism of our own country, we shall dwell more largely upon those men who were born on British soil. We have already adverted to the peculiarly advanced state of the Irish monasteries in the very earliest times. There can be no doubt that both as missionaries and educators they took the lead in those remote periods. Muratori, the groat Italian historian of the middle ages, mentions Ireland as surpassing other nations in the west in the career of letters, [Footnote 72] and we have already quoted the testimony of Bede.

[Footnote 72: Muratori--Antiq. Ital. Medii AEvi, Dissert. 43.]

We shall therefore commence our review of the English art of illumination with the name of the Irish abbot already alluded to, as the first upon record, _Dagaeus_, abbot of Iniskeltra, who died about the year 587, and excelled not only in writing, but in binding and decoration. The next in order is the monk _Genereus_, an Anglo-Saxon, who had both studied and taught in the Irish schools; his services were retained by Adamnanus to teach the Saxon monks in the monastery of Iona; and the third, as we have before mentioned, is an Irish monk, _Ultan_, who, at the end of the eighth century, was renowned as an illuminator. The seed fell upon good soil, and bore abundant fruit, for we next read of _Eadfrith_ and _Ethelwold_, both abbots of Lindisfarne, and bishops of Durham, who, early in the eighth century, wrote and illuminated the magnificent copy of the Gospels in golden letters, to the honor of St. Cuthbert, which is now preserved in the Cottonian Library at the British Museum, and known as the Durham Book. There is good reason to suppose that _Dunstan_ excelled in illumination. In a manuscript in the Bodleian Library, there is a drawing purporting to be by his hand--a figure of Christ appearing to the prelate, who is prostrate at his feet. _Godeman_, whom we have also mentioned, was chaplain of Ethelwold, bishop of Durham, at whose instigation he undertook the task of writing and illuminating the celebrated Benedictional, which is preserved in the Duke of Devonshire's library. In return for this work, Ethelwold made him abbot of Thorney. He flourished about 970. _Ervenius_, a monk of St. Edmonsbury Abbey, was renowned as illuminator, about ten years later. In a life of Wulstan, Bishop of Winchester, written by William of Malmesbury, we are told that Ervenius was his tutor, and that young Wulstan was first attracted to letters by the beautiful illustrations of a sacramentarium and Psalter, from which he was taught. "Thus," says the biographer, "the youth Wulstan acquired, almost by miracle, the chief heads of the most precious things, for while those lustrous beauties entered in at the apertures of his eyes, he received the {311} knowledge of sacred letters into his very part." [Footnote 73]

[Footnote 73: Habebat tunc (Wulstan) magistrum Ervenium nomine, in
scribendo et quidlibet coloribus effingendo peritum. Is libros
scriptos Sacramentarium et Psalterium quorum principales literas
auro effigiaverit puero Wulstano delegandos curabit. Ille
preciosorum apicum captus miraculo dum pulchritudinem intentis
oculis rimatur et scientiam literatum internis haurit
medullis.--GULIEL. MALMS.: _De Vita Wulstan, in Ang. Sacra_, vol.
ii., p. 224.]

A similar instance is recorded in the life of Alfred, who, when a child, was drawn toward books by the charm of the illustrations. In Brompton's Chronicle we are told that _Osmund_, the Bishop of Salisbury, in the year 1076, did not disregard the labor of writing, binding, and illuminating of books. [Footnote 74]

[Footnote 74: Ipse episcopus libros scribere, illuminare et ligare,
non fastidiret.--Brompton Chron. ann. 1076.]

Eadwinus, a monk of Canterbury, in the middle of the twelfth century, has left a monument of his labors behind him, in the shape of an elaborate psalter, preserved in Trinity College, Cambridge. At the end of this psalter are two drawings, one of Christ Church and the monastery at Canterbury, and the other a full-length portrait of himself. In the same volume are many historical figures, with initial letters in gold, silver, and vermilion. We include in our list _Matthew Paris_, the historian, who, although he is supposed to have been a Frenchman, yet passed his life in St. Alban's monastery, wrote an English history, [Footnote 75] and may at least be taken as a naturalized, if not a born Englishman.

[Footnote 75: Or rather a continuation of one, the first part of it,
from 1066 to 1235, is attributed to Roger of Wendover, who was in
the same monastery. William of Rishanger continued it to the year
1273, from the point where Matthew Paris leaves off (1259), but the
whole is frequently quoted as by Matthew Paris. The probabilities
are greater in favor of his being an Englishman than the contrary.
His works were admired by the early Reformers, for the bold and
vigorous manner in which he wrote upon ecclesiastical affairs.]

He is reported to have had a good knowledge of painting, architecture, and the mathematics. The history which is called Historia Major, up to the year 1235, was in all probability the work of another. Matthew Paris wrote the continuation, and copied the whole as it is now in the British Museum, and illustrated it. The next English name rescued from the oblivion of the past, is that of _Alan Strayler_, who was also a monk of St. Alban's, about the year 1463. His work is contained in a volume called the Golden Register of St. Alban's, extant in the Cottonian library. [Footnote 76]

[Footnote 76: Cotton MSS.--Nero, D vii.]

It is a record of the benefactors of the monastery down to the year 1463. His own portrait is inserted as a benefactor, inasmuch as, according to the text, "he had given to the adorning of the present book very much labor, and had also remitted a debt of 3s. 4d. due to him for colors." Beneath his portrait are two lines in Latin, to the effect that--

"The painter, Alan Strayler, here is given.
Who dwells forever with the choir of heaven."

There are many other portraits of royal and noble personages, holding their respective donations. About thirty years afterward died an eccentric recluse, _John Rous_, called the hermit of Guy's Cliff. He was chantry-priest at a small chapel, founded by Guy, earl of Warwick, at Guy's Cliff, and from the austere solitary life he led there, acquired the appellation of the "hermit." He was an antiquary and an historian. He wrote a life of Richard Beauchamp, fourteenth earl of Warwick, and illustrated it with fifty-three large drawings, executed with a pen, which style of sketching in those days was called "tricking," or "drawing in trick." This MS. is still to be seen in the Cottonian collections. [Footnote 77]

[Footnote 77: Cotton MSS.--Julius, E iv. ]

Rous spent his time in the study of history and genealogy, and wrote and ornamented several manuscripts, one of which was a roll of the earls of Warwick. This is the last Englishman who is recorded to have attained to any excellence in the art of illumination. We must not omit some of the most prominent of foreign artists who distinguished themselves in this study, and in the thirteenth century _Orderico_, canon of Sienna, is mentioned as being one of the most renowned. Lanzi, in his History of Painting in Italy, [Footnote 78] gives a description of one of here's MSS., which is preserved in the library of the academy at Florence, decorated with initials, ornaments, and figures of animals, painted by him in 1213. The names of two celebrated illuminators are mentioned by Dante in his Divine Comedy.

[Footnote 78: Lanzi--Hist. of Painting, book ii., Siennese School.]

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_Oderigi d'Agubbio_, whom Dante wrote of, was born at Agubbio, near Perugia, and died about the year 1300; he was the friend of Giotto and Dante at Rome. He was introduced by Giotto to Benedict VIII., for whom he illuminated many volumes. _Francis of Bologna_, the other mentioned by the poet, was also in the employ of Benedict, and executed many works for the Papal library. There is an account in Baldinucci of one _Cybo_, who lived in the fourteenth century, and is better known as the Monk of the Golden Islands, from his custom of retiring from his monastery at Lerino every spring and autumn to an island in the Mediterranean off the coast of France, for the wise purpose of the contemplation of nature. "He would walk abroad," we are informed, "not only to contemplate the beautiful prospects offered by the shores of those islands, the mountains, villages, and the sea itself, but also the birds, the flowers, the trees, the fruits, the rarer fishes of the sea, and the little animals of the earth, all of which he would draw and imitate in a wonderful manner." [Footnote 79]

[Footnote 79: Baldinucci--Notizie de' Professore del Disegno.]

Would that such an inspiration might steal over the minds of some of our modern artists! In 1433, according to Lanzi, flourished one _Fra Giovanni da Fiesola_, a Dominican friar, who attained to great fame as an illuminator. Then from the monastery of Degli Angeli came again another artist _Dom Bartolommeo_, abbot of St. Clement, who was a painter from youth. Vasari speaks of books and beautiful illustrations executed by him for the monks of Sante Flora and Lucilla in the Abbey of Arezzo, and in a missal given to Sixtus IV. Two great French illuminators come next up on the scene, one of whom, _Andrieu de Beauneveu_, is mentioned in the Chronicles of Froissart. [Footnote 80] One of his works, called Le Petit Psautier, was valued at eighty livres, about £120 of modern English money. Another of his works was The Great Hours of the Duke de Berri, fac-similes of which will be found in the works of Sylvestre and Noel Humphreys. [Footnote 81] He died in the year 1416, leaving a volume of Hours behind him unfinished, which was bought by the French government for 13,000 francs. The other French artist was _Jean Foucquet_, a native of Tours, who is spoken of as one of the glories of the fifteenth century. His principal works were the illumination of a book called L'Anciennrté des Juifs, and the Hours of Anne of Bretagne, two specimens of which may be found in Mr. Noel Humphrey's excellent work before alluded to. [Footnote 82] The greatest artist in the Italian miniature was _Don Giulio Clovio_, whose advent closes the history of the art in the fifteenth century. The incidents of his career may be found in Vasari; they are eventful; he was driven into a monastery in early life, when the Spaniards devastated Rome in 1527. He through up the cowl some years after by the Pope's permission, and went into the service of Cardinal Grimani, for whom he executed many of his best works. An office of the Virgin occupied him nine years in painting; it is still extant in the Musco Borbonico at Naples. He also illuminated a copy of Grimani's Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans: this is now in the Soane Museum. In Sylvestre's Palaeography, [Footnote 83] is a copy of one of Clovio's miniatures from the MS. of Dante's Vision, now in the Vatican.

[Footnote 80: Chroniques de Floissart, vol. iv., p. 71, Lyons.]

[Footnote 81: Paléog. Univ., plate 195: Madden, ii. 544-7.
Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages, plate xxi.]

[Footnote 82: Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages, plates xxxi.
and xxxii.]

[Footnote 83: Sylvester--Paléog. Univ.. plate 162.]

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Another splendid relique of this artist consists of a large miniature of the crucifixion, executed for Gregory XIII.; it was brought from the Vatican during the campaigns in Italy, in the time of the French Revolution, by the Abbé Celotti. He was called the Michael Angelo of painters, and died in 1578, at the advanced age of eighty. His last days were spent in peace, as Vasari tells us "he does not study or do anything, but seek the salvation of his soul by good works, and a life spent wholly apart from mundane affairs." _Godefroy_ and _Dutillet_ were two distinguished French illuminators of the sixteenth century, and _Johan Banzel_ of Ulm, is the one with whom Vasari concludes his anecdotes of painting. This list is scanty enough, and there can be no doubt that hundreds of names have sunk in the oblivion of the times; devotees to this beautiful art, and victims to the negligence with which the art-historians of the times treated their labors; they slumber in their unknown graves, but their works exist to the admiration and speculation of modern times. We have given a very cursory and rapid review of the rise and development of this most beautiful art; the most beautiful thing that mediaeval Christianity has bequeathed to us. We have endeavored also to give a few names of such of our countrymen who excelled in its exercise, and it only remains to say a few words upon its use, as a work of refined piety, before we proceed to glean a few historical lessons as to the doctrinal development of the church, to be drawn from these art expressions of different periods, for there is nothing upon which a nation or a community stamps the characteristics of its individuality more clearly than upon its art.

These illuminations have a great historical value, as evidences of the life of the times. Were it not for them the past as a life would be lost to us. We should be almost ignorant of the modes and manners of existence of our ancestors. We might have descriptive representations of the deeds they did, but their customs, their habits, their amusements, and their interior existence would have been lost to us forever. It is that which enables us to put as it were a soul into history, to revive a past life in our minds, to resuscitate it, and make it live again before us; all this, but for the preservation of illuminated MSS., would have been irretrievably lost. It is from them alone we can see the customs of the domestic life of our ancestors, their habits at home, at table, in the field, in society, for those pictures, though executed to represent a life of Eastern and Biblical incident, have this peculiarity about them, that the paraphernalia of the scenes are in keeping with the times of their execution; so that unconsciously these monks, when decorating their psalters and their missals, have handed down to us the very best illustration of the written history of their times. [Footnote 84]

[Footnote 84: I know of no better evidence of the value of these
MSS. than the excellent and valuable work compiled by Mr. Thomas
Wright, a great authority on Saxon antiquities, called The Domestic
Manners and Sentiments of the Middle Ages in England. The work is
compiled principally from these sources, the illustrations are
copied from ancient MSS., and it contains a repertoire of nearly all
that can be gleaned from them, forming a picture of the life of
Saxons, Normans, and early English, as it was sketched by
themselves--a most valuable work, both for the historian and general
reader.]

We have hitherto reviewed this labor as a work of art, but we must not forget its higher and nobler motive. Art may be kindled by the fire of ambition or the love of gain, but the motive which inspired the monastic illuminator was a far higher one. Whatever we may think of what we sometimes call the folly of spending years in illustrating a gospel or a psalter, we must be driven to the conclusion that as these monks were situated, it was a work of devotion. No other feeling could prompt them to give their lives to such a labor, because it was labor unrequited. In our times, or in fact in all times, men will accomplish marvels for money, but these men were paid nothing for their labor, not even the flattery of admiration. In the {314} early periods of the art, it is true that in one or two cases an illuminator was made an abbot or a bishop, but those cases were so exceptional that scarcely half a dozen instances could be found in history of such honor being conferred upon an obscure monastic artist. The works over which they spent their long days and longer nights were sent into the church for use; gems of art they were, but exhibited to no public admiration, to no applauding critics; there they lay hidden in monastic libraries, in church vestries, in convent chests, to moulder in obscurity for the amusement and commercial speculation of an after age, when the life they embellished had died out in the world, and it should become impossible to ascertain the names of the men whose busy fingers were plied with such magic skill. Nothing but devotion could have prompted such labor as that, and how are we to say that in the eyes of the Almighty the devotion which could spend years lovingly over the embellishment of a gospel, to illustrate it with the choicest productions of genius, and to offer up to it all that was beautiful and good in thought, fancy, and execution--how are we to say that such an offering may not have been, under the circumstances in which they were placed, as acceptable in the eyes of God as the limited devotion of modern life, with its mechanical modes, its periodical days of worship, amid long intervals of sin? The devotion of modern times may sometimes manifest itself in the erection of hospitals and churches, but we are not always sure that such deeds are free from the taint of ostentation of wealth or jealousy of hated heirs--to flaunt the one or to balk the others; but the devotion which found vent in missal-painting and copying the scriptures by hand in the dark ages must have been pure; for we cannot, even by the most prejudiced investigation, discover any sordid or ambitious motive for it. Where there is no payment we may rest assured that labor is a labor of love. The best proof of the fact is the difficulty to get people to illuminate missals now. It was an exquisitely beautiful art, and ought not to have died out so completely. Latterly however, in the church, to the scandal of vigilant Protestants, there has been a sort of attempt at a revival of mediaevalism; it has become the vogue to appeal to the fathers to sing mediaeval hymns, and to decorate the corners of prayer-books and the interiors of churches with mediaeval art; but it has proved to be more a revival of mediaeval forms than mediaeval devotions. It has also become fashionable to study illumination--an elegant amusement for an idle hour--and many have tried it as an art, but it has failed both as an art and a work; as an art, even in these days of art excellence, it has failed, and as a work, it has not been pursued with that avidity to bring success, because the modern stimulant is wanting--it pays not; it is lifeless, automaton-like, a dead body galvanized, missal-painting without devotion. [Footnote 85] But in our admiration of the genius and piety of these monastic artists we must not overlook one great fact, that this art is not only a representation of the interior life of the nation, a representation of its manners, customs, and modes of existence, but it is also a reflection of the state of the church at each successive period. Chroniclers may differ in their accounts, historians may quarrel with each other, but the history which a church rights in its art and literature, in it's sculpture, painting, and poetry, is traced, as it were, by the events themselves, and graven by the very fingers of time.

[Footnote 85: It must be borne in mind that the author of this paper
is a Protestant, and we believe a minister of the Church of England.
--Ed. C. W.]

We take up a manuscript supposed to be written about the year 900. [Footnote 86]

[Footnote 86: Cotton MSS.--Tiberius, A H. ]

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It is an evangeliarum. It contains a picture of St. Matthew, with his left hand resting upon a desk, and his right holding a pen. On the next page is the word "Liber," the beginning of the gospel written on a crimson ground in letters outlined in vermilion and gold; at page 72 there is a picture of St. Mark; all the evangelists are delineated, but no other figures. In a Psalter, [Footnote 87] written in the year 1000, the same simplicity prevails. It is written in capital letters, with an interlinear Anglo-Saxon version. The title-page contains the figure of Christ in the act of blessing, but the principal picture, which occupies a whole page, is a representation of David in his youth, playing on a lyre-shaped psalter, accompanied by six smaller figures, below which are two others dancing. In another Psalter [Footnote 88] of the same period there is a picture of the crucifixion, with Mary, the mother of Jesus, on the one side, and St. John the Baptist on the other. A Psalter of the year 1000, [Footnote 89] very fully illuminated, is a fine specimen of the purely Biblical nature of the illustrations of that period. The calendar at the beginning contains a representation of three persons at a table, and two kneeling attendants. On page 7 is a youthful Christ, holding a large scroll, upon which the word "vita" is written; also God the Father, as creator of the world, in the Mosaic type; the figure is hidden up to the face by a globe, and from the mouth issue two blue lines, representing streams of water, over one of which a dove hovers--one of the oldest specimens of this conception of the Almighty. Another representation, on the next page, is the figure of David tearing open the lion's jaws; then the temptation of our Saviour--the devil is represented as having a beaked nose and claws. On page 10 is the washing of the disciples' feet, with an angel descending from heaven with a cloth. Page 14, Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene. On page 18, the Last Judgment, in which Christ is most prominent, holding in one hand a horn, and in the other a cross; below him is the Book of Life open, and at his side are two large angels blowing trumpets. Page 30 contains David playing on the psalter; and on page 114 there is a large figure of Christ, holding in his left hand the Book of Life, in his right a sceptre, with which he is piercing the jaws of a lion beneath his feet, and a dragon at his side is biting the lion (see Psalm xci. 13).

[Footnote 87: Cotton MSS.--Vespasian, A i.]

[Footnote 88: Harleian MSS., 2904.]

[Footnote 89: Cotton MSS.--Tiberius, C vi.]

One of the most interesting specimens of the opening of the eleventh century (1006) is a manuscript called AElfric's heptateuch, in Anglo-Saxon. [Footnote 90] Its principal subjects of illumination are the fall of angels, the first person in the Trinity enthroned, Lucifer, the days of creation, the creation of Adam, the fail, and the expulsion from Paradise. But we wish to call attention to the close resemblance of the Saxon of that period to our modern English. We shall quote a passage from the Anglo-Saxon text, which might almost be translated by the same words in modern English. The passage is Genesis iv. 9, 10. The Saxon runs: "Tha cwoeth drihten to Caine, hwoer is Abel thin brothor? Tha answarode he and ewoeth, ic nat. Segat thu sceolde ic minne brothor healdon? Tha cwoeth drihten to Caine, hwoet dydest thu? thines brothor blod clypath up to me of eorthan." Which may be rendered in English by almost the same words, thus: "Then quoth the Lord to Cain, where is Abel thy brother? Then answered he and quoth, I know not Sayest thou should I hold my brother? Then quoth the Lord to Cain, What didst thou? thy brother's blood crieth up to me off the earth."

[Footnote 90: Cotton MSS.--Claudius, B iv.]

In the first half of the eleventh century, representations of the Virgin are multiplied in the MSS. of the period, though not yet as the predominant figure. In a Psalter of that date [Footnote 91] we have a representation of David in prayer; then Christ enthroned, with angels around him; below in a row are eleven heads; and below all, the Virgin and twelve Apostles in full-length figures.

[Footnote 91: Cotton MSS.--Galba, A xviii.]

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In the representation of the ascension, Christ is the main figure borne up by two angels, and below are two other angels and the Virgin with her hands raised in prayer. In a picture Bible [Footnote 92] of this period, she is again introduced.

[Footnote 92: Cotton MSS.--Nero, C iv.]

Page 8 contains a representation of the root of Jesse--below lies Abraham, then David, and next the Virgin, above all is Christ; but at page 20, we have the death of the Virgin, and the Virgin enthroned in heaven. In the thirteenth century MSS., we find the Virgin taking the most prominent position, and Christ represented as a child; saints, too, creep into the illuminations, more especially Thomas à Becket, whose murder appears to have been always diligently inserted by the monks in their MSS., as we shall see. In a Psalter [Footnote 93] of the year 1200, among many other pictures, is a burial of a saint in his episcopal mitre; and the anointing of David is followed a few pages after by the murder of Thomas à Becket.

[Footnote 93: Harleian MSS., 5102]

In Matthew Paris's History of the English nation (died 1259), there is a picture of the Virgin enthroned as the queen of heaven, with Christ as a little child; she is bending her crowned head, with her hair flowing down, toward the child, pressing her cheek against his, while with her right hand she gives him a fruit. In a Psalter [Footnote 94] of the same period we find the annunciation of the Virgin, the visitation of the Virgin, and the Virgin crowned, with Christ again as a little child.

[Footnote 94: Biblia Regia, 2 A xxii]

In a copy of the Vulgate [Footnote 95] the fourth page is full of pictures; there is the Virgin, with Christ as a child, St. Peter on one side, and St. Paul on the other; below is St. Martin, above the crucifixion, with the Virgin and St. John; above that are two cherubim and quite above all, in the position formerly accorded to Christ, is a representation of the coronation of the Virgin.

[Footnote 95: MSS. Regia, 1 D i.]

In the fragment of a lectionary [Footnote 96] executed for Lord Lovell by one John Siferwas, a Benedictine monk, there is on the title-page a portrait of Lord Lovell looking at a book, upon the cover of which is a picture of the coronation of the Virgin; on the inner border of page 3, there is the Virgin as the queen of heaven, holding the child with her robe in the left hand, and a sceptre in her right.

[Footnote 96: Harleian MSS., 7026]

After three or four more representations of her, we meet with the presentation of the Virgin; in the centre is the Virgin crowned by the first person of the Trinity, who is represented as having a long white beard; another with the Virgin and child upon the moon, surrounded with rays; on page 23, the Virgin surrounded by the pope, bishops, and others, and on page 27, the birth of the Virgin. The office of the Virgin was confirmed by Pope Urban II, at the Council of Clermont There are several of these offices extant. In an office of the Virgin and prayers [Footnote 97] of the date 1420, we find pictures of John the Baptist, St. James of Compostello enthroned, St. Thomas Aquinas, also enthroned, and St. Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata or wounds of Christ.

[Footnote 97: Bib. Regia 2 A xviii.]

On page 11, the Virgin and child seated on a bench with St. Anna; on page 13 St. Catherine, page 15 St. Margaret, and page 21 the annunciation. In another office of the Virgin, [Footnote 98] we find the evangelists, the annunciation and visitation of the Virgin, the murder of Thomas à Becket, St. Catherine, St. Margaret, the scourging of Christ, adoration of kings, and in the most prominent picture the coronation of the Virgin, in which she is represented as being supported by an angel while the Almighty is pointing with his right hand to a cherub who, accompanied by two angels is about to place the crown on her head.

[Footnote 98: Harleian MSS., 2900.]

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At the conclusion there is a picture of the Virgin on a throne with the child Christ. There are several offices of the Virgin in the Harleian collection, [Footnote 99] but we shall only notice one more, which bears date from 1490 to 1500. [Footnote 100]

[Footnote 99: Harleian MSS., 2646, 2884, 2858, etc.]

[Footnote 100: MSS. Addit., 17012.]

On pages 20 and 21 are autographs of Henry VII. and Henry VIII., which will justify the supposition that it belonged to both. Its illustrations include, among other things, the murder of Thomas à Becket, St. George and the Dragon, St. Christopher, the Virgin and child, with St. Anna, St. Catherine, St. Barbara, and St. Margaret. There is a religious poem, illustrated with miniatures, and bearing date from 1420 to 1430, [Footnote 101] which elaborately delineates the intercessorial attributed to the Virgin.

[Footnote 101: Cotton MSS.--Faustina, B vi.]

The picture in which this is set forth is a remarkable one. In the lower part of it is a man dying on a bed, at the foot of which stands death, in the usual form of a skeleton, making ready to pierce the heart of the dying man with a spear, and there is a black demon, with a hook reaching toward him; at the head of the bed is an angel receiving his soul, which is represented as a naked infant; about is the Virgin, with a crown upon her head, baring her bosom to Christ, and imploring him, by the breasts which nourished him, to take pity upon the soul of the dying man. They are both kneeling before the Almighty, and Christ is represented in a red mantle as showing his wounds, in token of granting his mother's request. The Almighty is represented as seated upon a throne, robed in a blue mantle, and having the usual long white beard; he is lifting his hand in benediction. An idea was set on foot that the Virgin had fainted at the crucifixion; and in some of these later manuscripts she is represented in the act. In a Psalter [Footnote 102] Page 256, there is a picture of the crucifixion, with the Virgin in the act of fainting.

[Footnote 102: MSS. Regia, 2 B vii.]

Mrs. Jamieson in noticing this fact in her History of Our Lord as exemplified in Art, has remarked that it was condemned by Catholic writers themselves. Thomas Cajetani wrote of it as "indecens et improbabile;" and other writers are quoted by Molanus, who inveighed against it, and stigmatized it as a thing "temerarium, scandalosum et periculosum."

But it was at the period of the Reformation, and after then, that these treasures of art suffered, and the natural iconoclasm of human nature broke out. Men gazed around them upon gorgeous temples, decorated with splendid paintings, stained glass windows, marvellous sculpture, and to their zealous minds it was all idolatry; and they tore down frescoes, destroyed paintings, overturned altars, broke up statues, and burned sacred books to exterminate error if possible, not by the powers of truthful preaching and godly lives, but by the battle-axe and the bonfire; not by uprooting error itself, so much as by beating down and destroying its mere evidences.

It was in consequence of this iconoclasm that much of the art productions of Christianity has been lost to us; nay, much of literature and history also, for in the sack of a monastery little discrimination was used, save as to precious metals. We frequently read of valuable books and manuscripts being consigned to the flames, but the cups, chalices, the contents of the coffers, invariably found their way to the treasury. We must always remember this, that human nature was not wholly confined to Roman Catholics, but that there was a considerable amount of it among the Reformers. Still, in spite of iconoclasm, in spite of misguided zeal, sufficient has escaped destruction, and been preserved to our inspection, to convince us of the beauty of those arts which sprang up in the wake of Christianity, though they did ultimately become tainted with human error. And we may see in all this {318} painting and sculpture, poetry and music, the marvellous adaptability of Christianity as a regenerator and stimulant, how it takes up what is good in the world--genius, skill, love, devotion, and starts them into new channels, with increased vigor and nobler aim. It took up philosophy, purged it of its errors, and of philosophers made fathers; it took up science, and bid it labor to alleviate human suffering, and assuage the physical condition of humanity; it took up art, and not only embellished it, but gave it an inexhaustible realm of subjects--a realm in which it has been laboring ever since, and though improving advancing in each age, will never exhaust its treasures; it has been, as it's Founder declared it should be, the salt of the earth; it has rescued the world in moments of darkness and danger, aroused it from apathy and indifference, purged it, stimulated it, sent it on in the right way, and brought it back again when it had peevishly wandered; and not the least evidence of its purifying, elevating effects upon the fine arts is this, which we have been endeavoring to describe in the rise and development of missal painting, that beauty of cloistered: holiness.

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From The Month.

THE FAIREST FAIR.

(FROM ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS.)

"My beloved is the mountains,
The solitary wooded valleys."
--_St. John of the Cross_.

I.

Mountains, that upward to the clouds arise,
Odorous with thyme, whereon the wild bees linger,
Jewell'd with flowers of a thousand dyes.
Their petals tinted by no mortal finger;
How solemn in their gray-worn age they stand,
Hills piled on hills in silent majesty!
Lofty and strong, and beautiful and grand:
All this and more is my belov'd to me.

II.

Come forth into the woods,--in yonder valley.
Where rippling waters murmur through the glade;
There, 'neath the rustling boughs of some green alley,
We'll watch the golden light and quivering shade:
Or couch'd on mossy banks we'll lie and listen
To song-birds pouring forth their vernal glee.
Wave on, ye woods; ye faery fountains, glisten:
But more, far more is my beloved to me.

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III.

Know ye the land where fragrant winds awaken
In spicy forests hidden from the eye:
Where richest perfumes from the boughs are shaken,
And flowers unnotic'd bloom and blush and die?
Sweet is th' eternal spring that there reposes
On wondrous isles that gem the sunny sea,
And sweet the gales that breathe o'er beds of roses:
But sweeter far is my belov'd to me.

IV.

The roaring torrents from the ice-cliffs leaping--
I see them foaming down the mountain side,
Through the green dells and valleys onward sweeping,
They fill the hollows with their mighty tide:
Their voice is as the voice of many waters;
Onward they rush, exulting to be free;
But ah! their thunder fails, their music falters:
Far more than this is my belov'd to me.

V.

A gentler sound wakes in the hush of even.
The whisper of a light and cooling breeze;
It stirs when twilight shades are in the heaven,'
And bows the tufted foliage of the trees;
It fans my cheek; its music softly stealing
Speaks to my heart in loving mystery.
Ah, gentle breeze! full well thou art revealing
The joy that my beloved is to me.

VI.

Night comes at last, in mystic shadows folding
The nodding forest and the verdant lawn,
Till the day breaks, and Nature starts, beholding
The golden chariot of the coming dawn:
Then on each bough the feathered chanters, waking,
Pour forth their music over bush and tree.
Cease, cease your songs, ye birds; my heart-strings breaking
Lack words to say what Jesus is to me.

VII.

Yea, all the fairest forms that Nature scatters.
And all melodious sounds that greet the ear;
The murmuring music of the running waters.
The golden harvest-fields that crown the year,
The crimson morn, the calm and dewy even,
The tranquil moonlight on the slumbering' sea,--
All are but shadows, forms of beauty given
To tell what my beloved is to me.

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THE GODFREY FAMILY; OR, QUESTIONS OF THE DAY.