Chapter III: Part I: What Illuminating Was (2)

To rapidly multiply copies of these text-books of the Church of Rome, was, no doubt, one of the first and most important duties of the monks of Canterbury; and from the traces we may detect in various manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon mode of writing and ornamenting writing, combined with paintings such as the Anglo-Saxons were incompetent to execute for some time after the close of the 6th century, we may safely infer that the monks both worked themselves and largely employed the native scribes. Thus, as Mr. Westwood observes in a recent article in the "Archæological Journal," "We have sufficient evidence that, soon after the settlement of the followers of St. Augustine, there must have been established a _scriptorium_, where some of the most beautiful manuscripts were written in the purest uncial or rustic capitals, but decorated with initials in the Anglo-Saxon or Irish style. Of such MSS. we can now record--

"1. The purple Gospels at Stockholm, written in very large uncials, but with illuminated title-pages, with pure Anglo-Saxon ornaments, and grand figures of the Evangelists in a mixed classical and Anglo-Saxon style.

"2. The Utrecht Gospels.

"3. The Gospels in the Cathedral Library, Durham; Astle's 'Origin and Progress of Writing,' pl. 14, fig. B, p. 83.

"4. The Utrecht Psalter.

"5. The so-called Psalter of St. Augustine, MSS. Cotton., Vespasian, A 1; Astle, pl. 9, fig. 2.

"6. The Bodleian MS. of the Rule of St. Benedict, Lord Hatton's MSS., No. 93; Astle, pl. 9, fig. 1, p. 82.

"Were it not for the initials, and other illuminations in the genuine Anglo-Saxon style, not one of these MSS. could be supposed to have been executed in England. They are, nevertheless, among the finest specimens of early caligraphic art in existence."

One of the most important of this interesting class of manuscripts is, unquestionably, that of the Psalms, now preserved in the public library at Utrecht. It was formerly in the possession of Sir Robert Cotton, and should be now with the rest of his library in the British Museum. The volume contains, besides the Psalms, the "Pusillus eram," the Credo, and the Canticles, with a few leaves from the Gospel of St. Matthew. It is written upon vellum, and each psalm has a pen-and-ink illustration, in the same style as those in the Harleian Psalter, No. 603, which was written in the 10th century; and similar also to those in the Cambridge Psalter of the 12th century. The writing in the Utrecht Psalter is executed in Roman rustic capitals; it is arranged in three columns in each page; and the elegance with which the letters are formed, would place the manuscripts amongst those of the 6th or 7th century: but the illustrations before mentioned, with the large uncial B, heightened with gold, in the Saxon interlaced style, which commences the first psalm, would give it a later date, certainly not earlier than the 7th or 8th century; and the pen-and-ink drawings were probably executed a century later.

Mr. Westwood, to whose highly interesting "Archæological Notes of a Tour in Denmark, Prussia, and Holland," published in the "Archæological Journal," I am indebted for the above information, tells us that the date of the few pages of the Gospel, mentioned as being bound up in this volume, is as uncertain as that of the Psalter; the text being written in a style which would place it amongst the works of the 6th or 7th century, whilst the word "Liber," with which it commences, is written in large square Roman capitals, in gold, with the remains of ornament similar to that in Vespasian, A 1.

That which gives, however, its greatest value to the Utrecht Psalter, is the remarkable freedom and cleverness of the pen-and-ink drawings with which it is embellished. In them may be recognized, I believe, the earliest trace of those peculiar fluttered draperies, elongated proportions, and flourished touches, which became almost a distinct style in later Anglo-Saxon illumination. So different is it, both from the Anglo-Hibernian work, prevalent in England up to the advent of St. Augustine, and from the contemporary imitation of the antique, practised by Byzantine, Latin, Lombard, or Frankish illuminators, that the conclusion seems, as it were, forced upon us, that it can have been originated in no other way than by setting the already most skilful penman, but altogether ignorant artist, to reproduce, as he best could, the freely-painted miniatures of the books, sacred and profane, imported, as we know, in abundance, from Rome, during the 7th and 8th centuries.

To so great an extent do antique types and features prevail in the earlier specimens of this class of Anglo-Saxon volumes, that, until comparatively recently, the catalogue of the Utrecht Library has designated the illustrations of the Psalter now under notice, as evidently productions of the reign of Valentinian;[37] while the outline subjects, in a similar style, and of considerably later date, which are introduced in the British Museum "Aratus," were attributed, by even Mr. Ottley's critical judgment, to a somewhat similar period.

The Harleian Psalter (No. 603), to which allusion has been already made, although written in later characters, is decorated with many pictures, all but identical with those in the Utrecht manuscript, thereby demonstrating, with comparative certainty, that both were taken from some popular prototype, possibly one of the Augustinian Psalters already alluded to.[38]

The Bodleian Cædmon's, or pseudo-Cædmon's, "Metrical Paraphrase of the Book of Genesis," written and illustrated in outline,[39] during the 10th or 11th century, and the Ælfric's Heptateuch of the British Museum, "Cottonian, Claudius B iv.," of a somewhat later date, afford excellent illustrations of the enduring popularity of this peculiar mode of outline-drawing. The striking difference may, however, be noted between these later and the earlier specimens in the same style, that whereas the types of the latter are, with scarcely any exception, antique, those of the former are comparatively original, and exhibit that strong inclination to caricature, which has always formed one of the leading features of English illumination.

While, in this class of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, the influence of Latin art may be traced on the original Hiberno-British school of scribes, a corresponding change was effected, through the introduction into this country of specimens of the more brilliant examples of Byzantine execution or derivation. Thus, as Sir Frederick Madden observes,[40] "The taste for gold and purple manuscripts seems only to have reached England at the close of the 7th century, when Wilfrid, archbishop of York, enriched his church with a copy of the Gospels thus adorned; and it is described by his biographer, Eddius (who lived at that period or shortly after), as 'inauditum ante seculis nostris quoddam miraculum,'--almost a miracle, and before that time unheard of in this part of the world. But in the 8th and 9th centuries the art of staining the vellum appears to have declined, and the colour is no longer the same bright and beautiful purple, violet, or rose-colour of the preceding centuries. It is rare also to meet with a volume stained throughout; the artist contenting himself with colouring a certain portion, such as the title, preface, or canon of the mass. Manuscripts written in letters of gold, on white vellum, are chiefly confined to the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries. Of these, the Bible and Hours of Charles the Bald, preserved in the Royal Library at Paris, and the Gospels of the Harleian collection, No. 2788, are probably the finest examples extant. In England, the art of writing in gold seems to have been but imperfectly understood in early times, and the instances of it very uncommon. Indeed, the only remarkable one that occurs of it is the charter of King Edgar to the new minster at Winchester, in the year 966. This volume is written throughout in gold."

Although but few books were thus gorgeously written, many were sumptuously decorated; and, indeed, there exist no more brilliant volumes than some of those produced by Anglo-Saxon scribes. Of these several have been preserved; but if two or three only are noticed, it will be quite sufficient to establish the leading characteristics of the school, which appears to have been organized under Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester, at New Minster, or Hyde Abbey, near Winchester, during the 10th century. The names of several leading masters of that great nursery of illumination have been handed down to us. Thus Ethric and Wulfric--monks--are recorded as having been "painters;" but Godemann is spoken of as the greatest of all. Fortunately, a magnificent specimen of his art is preserved in the celebrated benedictional of St. Ethelwold, in the library of the Duke of Devonshire, and engraved _in extenso_, with great care, in the twenty-fourth volume of the "Archæologia."[41] This is one of the most sumptuous manuscripts which has been executed in any age by any scribe, and differs widely from the Anglo-Saxon MSS. previously described. The text is generally enclosed within a rich framework, formed by wide and solid bars of gold, about and over which twine and break elegantly-shaded masses of conventional foliation. In the initial letters, and occasionally in the ornament, the peculiarly Saxon interlacing and knotwork is retained; but in most of the embellishments, a reaction can be traced from the Carlovingian manuscripts themselves, originally acted upon, as will be hereafter seen, by the Saxon school of caligraphy.[42] The figure subjects in this volume are cramped in style and action, exhibit but little classical influence, and possess, as a leading merit, only a singularly sustained brilliancy of tint and even execution throughout.

Next to this great masterpiece, and from the same fountain-head, come the following, several of which are exceedingly beautiful:--The two Rouen Gospels; the Gospels of King Canute, in the British Museum, Reg. D 9; the Cottonian Psalter, Tib. C vi.; the Hyde Abbey Book, lately in the Stowe Library; and the Gospels of Trinity College, Cambridge. The ornaments in all these volumes are painted in thick body-colours, and with a vehicle so viscid in texture, that Dr. Dibdin[43] infers from its character, as evidenced in the Benedictional, "the possibility or even probability of oil being mixed up in the colours of the more ancient illuminations." In this opinion I do not concur, as I believe the peculiar body and gloss of the pigment to be produced by the use of white of egg.

If the character of Anglo-Saxon architecture and sculpture agreed with the representations of both given in the Benedictional of Ethelwold--as I have every reason to believe it did--it must have been massive and elaborate in the highest degree; and there is no reason to suppose that a people who were capable of drawing so well as they assuredly could, should have limited their productions in the sister arts to the rude and clumsy, long and short, and other similar work, which we are in the habit of supposing, characterized all their principal productions.

I have dwelt in some detail upon Saxon illumination, for two reasons: firstly, because it is a theme on which some national self-gratulation may be justifiably entertained;[44] and, secondly, because it is one on which, although much has been written, comparatively little light has as yet been thrown. Before leaving it, however, some general observations should be made upon the classes of books most in demand, and the means by which they were multiplied in this country; and, indeed, with slight local differences, on the great continent of Europe as well,--Byzantium, Ravenna, Rome, Monte Cassino, Subiaco, Paris, Tours, Limoges, Arles, Soissons, Blois, Aix-la-Chapelle, Cologne, Hildesheim, Worms, Treves, Glastonbury, Canterbury, Winchester, York, Durham, Lindisfarne, Wearmouth, Jarrow, Croyland, and Peterborough, being the great centres of production.

From the earliest period religious zeal was much shown in its offerings to the Church, by laymen, more or less pious,--the least pious being, in fact, sometimes the most liberal donors,--and very large sums were expended in illuminating and ornamenting manuscripts for that purpose. Many of these books were remarkable for the extreme beauty of the paintings and ornamental letters enriched with gold and silver, which decorate them, as well as for the execution of the writing, the most precious bindings frequently adding greatly to their cost. Gospels, books of anthems, and missals, were most frequently chosen for such gifts; but they were not confined to sacred subjects, including occasionally the best writings of Greece and Rome, which were eagerly sought after as models of eloquence, and, still more, as often being supposed to contain prophecies of the coming of Christ, and proofs of the truth of his doctrines.

The piety of individuals often led them to expend large sums in the preparation of their offerings to the Church; the finest and best parchment which could be procured being used for manuscripts. When black ink was used in liturgical writings, the title-page and heads of the chapters were written in _red ink_; whence comes the term Rubric. Green, blue, and yellow inks were used, sometimes for words, but chiefly for ornamental capital letters; the writers and miniature-painters exercising their own taste and judgment in the decoration, and heightening its effect with gold and the most expensive colours, such as azure and the purest cinnabar or vermilion.

The greater part of these works were intrusted to monks and their clerks, who were exhorted, by the rules of their order, to learn writing, and to persevere in the work of copying manuscripts, as being one most acceptable to God; those who could not write being recommended to learn to bind books. Alcuin entreats all to employ themselves in copying books, saying, "It is a most meritorious work, more useful to the health than working in the fields, which profits only a man's body, whilst the labour of a copyist profits his soul."[45]

Home production could, however, by no means suffice to multiply books, and especially religious books, with sufficient rapidity to satisfy the eager demand for them. Long journeys appear to have been taken to foreign countries, by learned ecclesiastics, for scarcely any other purpose than the collection of manuscripts; while quantities were imported into England from abroad. Thus Bede tells us, that Wilfrid, bishop of Wearmouth and Jarrow, and Acca, Wilfrid's successor, collected many books abroad for their libraries, at the end of the seventh century. Thus Theodore of Tarsus brought back an extensive library of Grecian and Roman authors, on his return to Canterbury, in 668, from a mission to Rome; and thus, as we are told by Mr. Maitland,[46] when "Aldhelm, who became Bishop of Schireburn in the year 705, went to Canterbury, to be consecrated by his old friend and companion Berthwold (pariter literis studuerant, pariterque viam religionis triverant), the archbishop kept him there many days, taking counsel with him about the affairs of his diocese. Hearing of the arrival of the ships at Dover during this time, he went there to inspect their unloading, and to see if they had brought anything in his way (_si quid forte commodum ecclesiastico usui attidissent nautæ qui e Gallico sinu in Angliam, provecti librorum copiam apportassent_). Among many other books, he saw one containing the whole of the Old and New Testaments, which he at length bought: and William of Malmesbury, who wrote his life in the twelfth century, tells us it was still preserved at that place."

How deeply must all lovers of illumination regret the infinite destruction of books that has prevailed in all ages! Of all this "librorum copiam," how few survive. Even in the days of Alfred the Great, the Danes had destroyed the majority of them; for, as that great royal Bibliomaniac exclaims, in his preface to the "Pastoral of Gregory,"--"I saw, before _all_ were spoiled and burnt, how the churches throughout Britain were filled with treasures and books."

I now leave our own country for a while, and return to the general continent of Europe; having, I trust, satisfactorily established the individuality of those three great styles of illumination, from the fusion of which the Romanesque, and ultimately the Mediæval, system sprang,--viz., the Roman, or pictorial; the Greek, or golden; and the Hiberno-Saxon, or intricate. The commencement of that fusion has been traced in the later Anglo-Saxon work, and it now remains to observe the circumstances under which a similar, and even more marked, amalgamation took place on the continent, under the auspices of Charlemagne, the greatest patron of the art who ever lived.

Much has been assumed by early Palæographers, and even some recent ones, with respect to the influence exercised by the Lombard MSS. executed between the establishment of the Lombard kingdom in the year 568, and its absorption A.D. 774, in the empire of Charlemagne, on the class of illumination introduced under his auspices; but the specimens which have descended to these days exhibit such an entire decrepitude of style, as to justify the belief that, with the exception of a peculiar broken-backed letter, known as "Lombard brisé," the Lombards themselves contributed little or nothing to the results which attended the efforts made by that great sovereign to raise the art of book-decoration in his day to its highest pitch. It was mainly by the aid, and through the direct instrumentality, of the learned Anglo-Saxon, Alcuin, that Charlemagne carried out his laudable design. This industrious ecclesiastic, who was born in the year 735, received his education under Egbert and Elbert, successive archbishops of the see of York,--having been appointed at an early age "custodian" to the library collected by the former. On the death of Elbert, he was sent to Rome to receive the pallium of investiture for the new archbishop Enbalde. On his journey home, in 780, he passed through Parma, where Charlemagne happened to be at the time. The consequence of their meeting in that city was, that Alcuin received and accepted an invitation to take up his residence at the court of the Frankish sovereign. During four-and-twenty years, until his death, indeed, in 804, he retained the affection and respect of his royal patron, and occupied himself in incessant labour for the advancement of learning, and the multiplication of pure texts of the Holy Scriptures and other good books. Several of Alcuin's letters to Charlemagne are still extant, in which the supremacy of the English schools and libraries is distinctly recognized, as well as the direct influence exercised by them on Frankish literature, and, as in those days literature and illumination were inseparable, on illumination also. Thus, in one place he begs his master to give him "those exquisite books of erudition which I had in my own country by the good and devout industry of my master Egbert, the archbishop." Again, referring to the same "treasures of wisdom," he proposes,--"If it shall please your wisdom, I will send some of our boys, who may copy from thence whatever is necessary, and carry back into France the flowers of Britain; that the garden may not be shut up in York, but the fruits of it may be placed in the paradise of Tours."

One of the evidences of the eagerness with which this task of multiplying the sources of learning was carried on, is to be found in the attempts made to abridge and expedite labour. Thus, as M. Chassant[47] observes in his useful little manual of abbreviations[48] used during the Middle Ages, the texts of all documents of importance were comparatively free from contractions from the period when Justinian the Great banished them, by an imperial edict, from all legal instruments, until the accession of Charlemagne, "during whose reign, either to save time or vellum, the scribes revived the ancient Roman practice of using initials, and frequently arbitrary signs, to represent whole words of frequent recurrence."

It is, however, in the quality, rather than the quantity, of Carlovingian MSS. that the reader is most likely to be interested; and I therefore hasten to note two or three of the most imposing specimens. The earliest of the grand class is believed to be the Evangelistiarium, long preserved in the Abbey of St. Servin, at Toulouse, and ultimately presented to Napoleon I., on the baptism of the King of Rome, in the name of the city. From contemporary entries, it appears to have been completed, after eight years' labour, in the year 781, by the scribe Godescalc. Of whatever nation "Godescalc" may have been, the volume[49] exhibits far too many composite features to justify the belief that any one individual, or even many individuals of one nation, could have executed the whole. The paintings are probably by an Italian hand, being executed freely with the brush, in opaque colours, in the antique manner. Many of the golden borders are quite Greek in style, while the initial letters, and others of the borders, are thoroughly Hiberno-Saxon. A nearly similar dissection would apply to most of the manuscripts executed for Charlemagne's descendants, to the third generation. The volume contains 127 leaves, every leaf, not entirely filled with illumination, being stained purple, with a white margin, and covered with a text, written in golden initials, in two columns, separated by very graceful and delicately-executed borders. Our plates, Technical Manual, Nos. 1 and 2, taken from the great Charlemagne Bible of the British Museum, give a good idea of the nature of the ornament usually employed in similar MSS. to fill up such borders and to form and decorate initial letters. They will serve to show also the common type of the Alphabets in use.

From Charlemagne's "Scriptorium," which was no doubt the head-quarters of the best artists of all nations in his time, proceeded many other volumes of scarcely less interest and magnificence. Among these, the most noteworthy are, the Gospels of St. Medard de Soissons,[50] so called because believed to have been presented by Charlemagne to that Abbey;[51] the Vienna Psalter, written for Pope Hadrian; the Gospels preserved in the library of the Arsenal at Paris, and formerly belonging to the Abbaye of St. Martin des Champs;[52] the Gospels found upon the knees of the Emperor on opening his tomb at Aix-la-Chapelle; the Harleian MS. No. 3788, known as the "Codex Aureus";[53] and last, not least, the Bible, known as that of San Calisto, preserved in the Benedictine monastery of that saint at Rome, and formerly in the monastery of San Paolo fuori le Mura. The frontispiece to this volume, which is no less than one foot four inches high, by one foot one inch wide, represents a sitting emperor holding a globe, on which are inscribed various letters, arranged in the peculiar form adopted by Charlemagne in his signs manual.

The learned have disputed hotly whether this portrait is intended for that of Charlemagne, or of Charles the Bald, his grandson. Whether this manuscript, which, in all respects, except beauty in the figure-subjects, I look upon as the finest I have ever seen, was executed in the days of the former or latter monarch, is of no very great moment, as its leading features would harmonize very well with accredited reliques of either. It still contains no less than 339 pages, and is one blaze of illumination from the first page to the last.[54] The large initial letters are quite Saxon in form; the borders, of which there are endless and beautiful varieties, are more strictly classic in character than is usual in Caroline manuscripts; and the pictures are in an indeterminate style, between Greek, Latin, and that original Frankish, which subsequently absorbed in Western Europe all previous tradition, and grew into the peculiar type of French 12th century work--the progenitor of the pure Gothic of the 13th.

Ample materials happily exist for tracing the gradual development of this Frankish element; at first through the works of the immediate descendants of Charlemagne, and subsequently through various liturgical works, collected from suppressed abbeys, and preserved for the most part in the Imperial library at Paris. Of these, some of the most important are, the Bible of Louis le Debonnaire, executed in the eighth year of his reign; the Gospels of the same monarch; and the Sacramentaire de Metz,--all produced for sons of Charlemagne. The first-named is of the barbaric style, on which Alcuin and others improved; the second contains some very curious symbolic initial letters; and the third, a good deal of originality, both in ornaments and figures.

The principal volumes still preserved, once belonging to the grandsons of Charlemagne, appear less original in several respects, than do those executed for his sons. Thus, in the case of Louis le Debonnaire's eldest son Lothaire, whose Gospels, written and decorated at the Abbey of St. Martin, at Tours, exhibit a mixed Latin and Saxon style, with but little specifically Frankish work,--and thus also in the person of Lothaire's youngest brother, Charles the Bald, whose two celebrated Bibles, the one known as the Bible of St. Denis, and the other as that presented to the monarch by Count Vivien, abbot of the same monastery at which the Gospels of Lothaire were executed,--illustrate a similar composite, but scarcely original, style. The former manuscript is illuminated with intertwined lacertine monsters, knotwork, single (but not the three-whorl) spirals, and rows of red dots following many of the leading outlines, all of which may be regarded as distinctive features of the Hiberno-Saxon school; while the latter, with several of the above peculiarities freely introduced, combines an unmistakable classicality, shown in the various figure-subjects, and especially in the arcading which encloses the Eusebian Canons at the commencement of the volume.

The British Museum is fortunate in possessing in the Harleian MS.--No. 7551--a curious collection of ancient Biblical fragments, and amongst these are a few pages taken from a Bible executed for Charles the Bald. From these Mr. Tymms has selected the elegant Alphabets, initial letters, and ornaments which are to be found in plates 1, 2, and 3, of this manual. In these the student will not fail to recognize what he may have already observed in studying the specimens given from the Charlemagne Bible (Technical manual, plates 1, 2, and 3), that while the form of the text and the ornamental borderings are founded on antique models, the initial letters scarcely ever fail to exhibit in their Celtic animals' heads and interlaced strap-work the influence of Alcuin and the Saxon scribes.

We can feel but little surprise at the production of such works at the Abbey of St. Martin, at Tours, for it was within the walls of that "Paradise," as Alcuin calls it, that the Saxon sage gave all the latter years of his life to the recension of the Holy Scriptures,[55] and to the organization of a "scriptorium" worthy of his affectionate patron.

The impulse given to the Art of Illumination in that celebrated establishment was speedily communicated to rival scriptoria in other localities; thus from the abbeys of St. Martial, at Limoges, from Metz, Mans, St. Majour in Provence, Rheims, St. Germain and St. Denis at Paris, issued, from the age of Charlemagne to the 13th century, an almost uninterrupted series of highly-illuminated volumes, many of which still remain to attest the vigorous efforts by which the foreign elements were gradually thrown aside in France, to make way for that expressive and original outline style[56] which achieved its greatest power in the early part of the 13th century. The throes and struggles by which this was achieved, are singularly well shown by a page engraved in Count Bastard's splendid work from the "Apocalypse of St. Sever," written during the first half of the 11th century. The page presents a curious emblematical frontispiece, the general form of which is perfectly Oriental; the border ornaments are founded on Cufic inscriptions; the animals which decorate the Arabian framework are classical; and the interlacing fretwork of several portions of the design is purely Saxon.

Many Byzantine features were brought into French illumination through the schools at St. Martial's and the other abbeys of Limoges, but it was at Paris itself that the greatest changes and improvements were effected; thus, at St. Germain and St. Denis were produced, during the first half and middle of the 11th century, two volumes, still existing in the Imperial Library of France, which distinctly show the budding of "Gothic." The St. Germain "Mysteries of the Life of Christ" is illustrated by many original and very spirited outline compositions, some of which are slightly coloured; while the "Missal of St. Denis," of a few years later, displays that peculiar grace and _naïveté_ in the action and expression of the figures, together with that soft elegance in foliated ornament, which for several centuries remained a dominant excellence in the best French illuminations.

As classical tradition and Hiberno-Saxon intricacies died out in France to make way for the true Mediæval styles, so did they, although somewhat more slowly, in England, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands. In Italy, a degeneracy occurred, from which the revival at length, under Cimabue and Giotto, was as rapid and brilliant as the previous collapse appears to have been fatal.[57]

Alike from any such complete change, complete degeneracy, or ultimate attainment of life and perfection, the genuine Greek style of the Byzantine empire was exempted. That Oriental splendour of gold and colour by which so early as the days of Justinian the Great, it sought to gloss over the feebleness of its reminiscences of classical beauty, remained the unchanged leading characteristic of its illuminations down to the final extinction of the empire in 1453.

In such an essay as the present, it is quite impossible to convey any idea of the minute, but extremely interesting varieties of type adopted in Byzantine manuscripts; it must suffice to state, in general terms,--that the dispersion of many of the most skilful Greek artists, by the iconoclastic emperors (commencing with Leo the Isaurian, A.D. 726), gave a great impetus to the arts of design in those countries in which they took refuge, and no doubt contributed specially to the improvements effected under Charlemagne,--that on the abandonment of such religious persecutions, in the middle of the 9th century, a fresh start appears to have been taken,[58]--and that from the date of that revival, which may be specially noted under the reign of Basil the Macedonian, until about the year 1200, many very noble and dignified pictures[59] were executed. From the last-named era, until the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, although the treatment of figure-subjects became more and more weak and mannered, much beautiful ornament was painted upon gold grounds, and the influence originally communicated to Arabian art from the Eastern Empire, was reflected back upon its later productions from the contemporary schools of Saracenic and Moorish decoration.[60] It is scarcely necessary to remark, that in all these inflexions of style the Russian, Syrian, and Armenian illuminators closely followed the example set them by the Byzantine scribes and painters.

Returning from the East to the extreme west of Europe, it is worthy of note how entirely the primitive Saxon styles, which wrought so important an influence upon the rest of Europe, were lost in the country from which they had been mainly promulgated. The successive social and political changes wrought by the ascendancy of the Danes, and ultimately of the Normans, put an almost total stop to Saxon illumination; and so complete was the abandonment of the Saxon character, that Ingulphus, in describing the fire which destroyed the noble library of his abbey at Croyland, in the year 1091, after dwelling on the splendour of the "chirographs written in the Roman character, adorned with golden crosses and most beautiful paintings," and especially "the privileges of the kings of Mercia, the most ancient and the best, in like manner beautifully executed with golden illuminations, but written in the Saxon character," goes on to state: "All our documents of this kind, greater and less, were about four hundred in number; and in one moment of a most dismal night, they were destroyed and lost to us by this lamentable misfortune. A few years before, I had taken from our archives a good many chirographs, written in the Saxon character, because we had duplicates, and in some cases triplicates, of them; and had given them to our cantor, Master Fulmar, to be kept in the cloister, to help the juniors to learn the Saxon character, because that letter had for a long while been despised and neglected by reason of the Normans,[61] and was now known only to a few of the more aged; that so the younger ones, being instructed to read this character, might be more competent to use the documents of their monastery against their adversaries in their old age."

The Normans, a warlike but unlettered race, did but little for the first century after the Conquest, to restore the taste for learning which they and the Danes had displaced. While English progress in illumination was thus comparatively paralyzed, in France and Germany new styles, corresponding with those known in architecture as Romanesque, rapidly sprang into popularity. Of the leading decorative features of such styles, as well as of the corresponding alphabets and initial letters, we have endeavoured to give some elegant reductions in plates 4, 5, and 6 of this manual, and in plates 4, 5, and 6 of its technical companion. The illustrations in the former have been taken from the British Museum, "Reg. 1, C. VII.," a folio MS., of bold rather than beautiful execution, but containing throughout many well-designed initial letters and ornaments. The volume comprises the vulgate version of the books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth, and it is believed by Sir Frederick Madden, no doubt the most competent judge in this country, to have been executed about the middle of the 12th century. The materials for the plates in the Technical Manual, Nos. 4, 5, and 6 have been gleaned from a manuscript of rather later date, preserved in the Harleian Collection, Nos. 2803 and 2804. There can be little doubt that the numerous ornaments which decorate this great Bible were the work of German industry, for, independently of the evidences of style offered by the writing and illumination, an entry in the volume informs us that it once belonged to the church of the Blessed Virgin, in one of the suburbs of Worms. All of the ornaments in this series of illustrations show a manifest disposition on the part of their designers to break away from the rigidity of pure convention into a class of foliation, which, if not directly copied from nature, at least recalls the general aspect of her germinating, growing, and, finally, luxuriant forms of vegetation. The combination, with reminiscences of Carlovingian knotted ends to the initial letters, of foliated ornament, during the 12th century, may be frequently found developed, in Germany especially, into a fresh luxuriant, and complete system. The complicated conventionality of foliage shown in many Teutonic manuscripts, and greatly encouraged by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, A.D. 1152 to 1190, was never entirely abandoned by the Germans in their ornament; and at the end of the 13th and early part of the 14th centuries, when France and England were successfully imitating nature, they continued to cling to that peculiarly crabbed style of crinkled foliation, which they reluctantly abandoned only in the 17th century.

With the accession of the Plantagenets, in 1154, and especially through the marriage of Henry II. with Eleanor of Guienne, French influence acquired a marked predominance in English illumination; and for about one hundred years from that date, the progress of style in England and France was parallel and almost identical. Gradually, in each, the Romanesque features disappeared, and by the middle of the 13th century, the fulness of mediæval illumination, as reflecting the perfection of Gothic architecture, was attained. The rapid growth of the Dominican and Franciscan orders during the first half of the century, and their eagerness to dispel the drowsiness into which the old well-to-do monastic establishments were fast slipping, gave a new life to all arts, including, of course, that of the transcription and illumination of the sources of learning, and in those days, consequently, of power.

The present appears to be the most fitting place for a few notes, derived chiefly from the "Consuetudines" of the regulars,[62] on the general mediæval practice in relation to monastic libraries, of which England, France, Germany, and Italy possessed many during the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, rich, not only in sacred and patristic, but in profane literature as well.

The libraries of such establishments were placed by the abbot under the sole charge of the "armarian," an officer who was made responsible for the preservation of the volumes under his care: he was expected frequently to examine them, lest damp or insects should injure them; he was to cover them with wooden covers to preserve them, and carefully to mend and restore any damage which time or accident might cause; he was to make a note of any book borrowed from the library, with the name of the borrower; but this rule applied only to the less valuable portion of it, as the "great and precious books" could only be lent by the permission of the abbot himself. It was also the duty of the armarian to have all the books in his charge marked with their correct titles, and to keep a perfect list of the whole. Some of these catalogues are still in existence, and are curious and interesting, as showing the state of literature in the Middle Ages, as well as giving us the names of many authors whose works have never reached us. In perusing these catalogues, it is impossible not to be struck by the assiduous collection of classical authors, whose works sometimes equal, and at others actually preponderate over, the books of scholastic divinity. It was also the duty of the armarian, under the orders of his superior, to provide the transcribers of manuscripts with the writings which they were to copy, as well as with all the materials necessary for their labours; to make bargains as to payment, and to superintend the works during their progress. These books were not always destined for the library of the monastery in which they were transcribed, but were often eagerly bought by others, or by some generous layman, for the purpose of presenting to a monastic library; and their sale, particularly at an early period, added largely to the revenues of the establishment in which they were written or illuminated.

The different branches of the transcribing trade were occasionally united in the same person, but were more generally divided and practised separately, and by secular as well as by religious copyists. Of the former, there were at least three distinct branches--the illuminators, the notarii, and the librarii antiquarii. The last-mentioned were employed chiefly in restoring and repairing old and defaced manuscripts and their bindings. The public scribes were employed chiefly by monks and lawyers, sometimes working at their own houses; and at others, when any valuable work was to be copied, in that of their employer, where they were lodged and boarded during the time of their engagement.

A large room, as has been already stated, was in most monasteries set apart for such labours, and here the general transcribers pursued their avocation; but there were also, in addition, small rooms or cells, known also as scriptoria, which were occupied by such monks as were considered, from their piety and learning, to be entitled to the indulgence,[63] and used by them for their private devotions, as well as for the purpose of transcribing works for the use of the church or library. The scriptoria were frequently enriched by donations and bequests from those who knew the value of the works carried on in them, and large estates were often devoted to their support. The tithes of Wythessy and Impitor, two shillings and twopence,--and some land in Ely, with two parts of the tithes of the lordship of Pampesward, were granted by Bishop Nigellus to the scriptorium of the monastery of Ely, the charter of which still exists in the church there. A Norman named Robert gave to the scriptorium of St. Alban's the tithes of Redburn, and two parts of the tithes of Hatfield; and that of St. Edmondesbury was endowed with two mills, by the same person.

During the whole of the 12th and 13th centuries the pen played a more distinguished part than the brush in the art of illumination; since, not only was the former almost exclusively employed in outlining both foliage and figures, but the use of the latter was generally limited to filling up, and heightening with timid shadowing, the various parts defined by the former, and which were altogether dependent upon it for expression. In fact, it appears as if the principal patterns in 13th century illumination had been designed by stained-glass painters, the black outlines being equivalent in artistic result to the lead lines which, in the best specimens of grisaille and mosaic windows, keep the forms and colours distinct and perfect. This firm dark outlining was retained in England later than in France, and was combined in the former country with a more solid and somewhat less gay tone of colour than ever prevailed in the latter.

So late as the 15th century, this correspondence between stained glass work and illumination still obtained; thus, as Mr. Scharf remarks, in a note to his interesting paper on the King's College, Cambridge, windows, in the Transactions of the Archæological Institute for 1855, "The forty windows of the monastery of Horschau contained a series of subjects minutely corresponding to those of the Biblia Pauperum," &c.

The initial letters which in Romanesque illumination had expanded into very large proportions as a general rule,[64] diminished; but, in compensation, effloresced, as it were, into floreated terminations, which were at last not only carried down the side of the page, but even made to extend right across both the top and bottom of it. During the reigns of the three first Edwards in England, the tail, as it might be called, of the initial letter, running down the side of the page, gradually widened, until at length it grew into a band of ornament, occasionally panelled, and with small subjects introduced into the panels. In such cases, the initial letter occupying the angle formed by the side and top ornaments of the page, became subsidiary to the bracket-shaped bordering, which, in earlier examples, had been decidedly subsidiary to the initial letter.

As no one can doubt that the 14th century was the period during which illumination attained its highest perfection, not only in point of artistic spirit in design, but in the dexterous processes of execution as well, it has been considered that it might prove useful to the English student to supply him or her with as large a proportion as possible of illustration of that which we may really regard in matter of illuminating as our national style. Thus our plates in this manual, Nos. 7, 8, and 9, have been taken from a Latin Bible (B. M. Reg. 1, D. 1), exquisitely written on Uterine vellum, about the commencement of the 14th century, by an English scribe, whose autograph at the end of the holy text declares that

"Wills. devoniensis scripsit istum librum."

Well may the pious writer render thanks as he does, in a paragraph just preceding the colophon, "to God, to Jesus Christ, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to all Saints," on the completion of such a volume, in every respect a model of what illuminated writing may be. It is somewhat deficient in pictures, although in the prologue and in that part of the Psalms in which David prophesies concerning our Saviour, specimens of the artist's abilities on a more extended scale than usual may be met with. In these, as in the initials and borders, manual dexterity is pushed to perfection, and combined with that occasional feeling for beauty and constant appreciation of humour, which form leading characteristics of that English school of illumination, of which "William of Devon" must ever be ranked among the worthiest. The expression of the little heads, and of the hands and feet, which are unusually well drawn for the period, is invariably given with the pen, scarcely any attempt being made at shading with the brush. The high lights are touched on most delicately with pure white; and deep blue, and burnished gold grounds looking like solid metal, are universal throughout the volume.

Our plates, Technical Manual, Nos. 7, 8, 9, also from a Latin Bible in the Royal collection (No. 15, D 2), are of nearly the same period and style, but not quite so delicately wrought perhaps as the illuminations are which we meet with in Reg. 1, D 1. The former offer, however, the least exceptional aspect of English illumination of the Edwardian period--one in which vigorous but rather heavy colouring and firm but rather loaded outline dominate. In these specimens we at length see natural leafage of the vine, maple, &c., introduced, but scarcely yet allowed to throw itself about in Nature's wildly wilful way.

From the 12th century onwards, important illuminated manuscripts exist to the present day in such profusion as to deter me from individualizing in this necessarily brief essay. I shall rather dwell upon general characteristics of style, and upon the influence of the leading patrons of the art, in its palmiest days, in England, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. In these countries the infinite activity of the mendicant friars kept up a steady demand for manuscripts of all kinds: thus Richard de Bury, bishop of Durham, the greatest bibliophile of his age, and the tutor when prince, and friend while sovereign, of Edward III., relates, that in all his book-hunting travels: "Whenever we happened to turn aside to the towns and places where the aforesaid paupers had convents, we were not slack in visiting their chests and other repositories of books; for there, amidst the deepest poverty, we found the most exalted riches treasured up; there, in their satchels and baskets, we discovered not only the crumbs that fell from the masters table for the little dogs, but, indeed, the show-bread without leaven,--the bread of angels, containing in itself all that is delectable."

These mendicant friars were looked upon with great jealousy by the clergy, who attributed to them the decrease in the number of students in the universities. Fitz Ralph, archbishop of Armagh and chaplain to Richard de Bury, accuses them of doing "grete damage to learning:" curiously enough, his accusation, contained in an oration denouncing them, bears testimony to their love of books and to their industry in collecting them. "For these orders of beggers, for endeles wynnynges that thei geteth by beggyng of the foreside pryvyleges of schriftes and sepultures and othere, thei beth now so multiplyed in conventes and in persons. That many men tellith that in general studies unnethe, is it founde to sillynge a pfitable book of ye faculte of art, of dyvynyte, of lawe canon, of phisik, other of lawe civil, but all bookes beth y bougt of freres so that en ech convent of freres is a noble librarye and a grete, and so that ene sech frere that hath state in schole, siche as thei beth nowe, hath an hughe librarye. And also y sent of my sugettes to schole thre other foure persons, and hit is said me that some of them beth come home agen for thei myst nought find to selle ovn goode Bible; nother othere couenable books." Richard de Bury's example gave a stimulus to those who succeeded him, both at Durham and elsewhere.

As the styles of architecture varied in England and France,--agreeing in leading particulars, but each acquiring for itself a set of distinctive characteristics,--so did the art of illumination. In the purely Gothic work, such as prevailed from 1250 to 1400, extreme _finesse_ in execution, tenderness of colour, gentleness of expression, piquancy of ornament, and elegance of composition, may be regarded as almost invariable attributes of French productions. In England, on the other hand, the style was not so harmonious but more vigorous, the colouring was fuller and deeper, the action of the figures more intense, the power of expression more concentrated, and reaching occasionally in its energy almost to caricature, the sense of humour always freely developed, and a more generally active sentiment of life impressed upon design, not only in figure subjects, but in ornament. In the latter, monkeys and other animals, dragons, and comic incidents, are very frequently intermingled with graceful foliage and heraldic embellishments. In fact it is to the credit of both countries that, with so much that is excellent in common, they should still have displayed such free and distinctive features as marked the works of each respectively. About the year 1400, in both countries the mechanical reproduction of the accredited types and leading incidents of Scripture and of Catholic faith began to be abandoned; and, mainly from the necessity of giving to the historical personages introduced in secular romances and chronicles individual force and vigour, an attention to portraiture and a transcription of characteristic traits of active life are freely developed.

Considering how few traces of the art of painting, as exhibited either in panel pictures or in mural embellishments, remain to attest the condition of the arts in England and France in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, it is impossible for the student of Gothic art to overestimate the extreme interest which attaches to the chronological series of specimens of the painter's art which may be examined in the great metropolitan libraries of either country. It is very fortunate for our reputation that we are enabled, through so large a series of volumes as still exist, to trace such distinctive and national characteristics as enable us to assert, without fear of error, that so far as graphic dexterity is concerned, the English artificers were fully competent to execute all the artistic productions which have as yet been found upon our soil. That foreigners were freely employed there can be no doubt, but that the works which were executed by them could not have been executed by Englishmen, no one can with safety assert, who has traced with any considerable care the gradual development of English art through a series of English illuminated manuscripts.

That illumination was excessively popular in England during the 14th century among the leading families, is proved by the numbers of coats of arms emblazoned in many of the most remarkable English manuscripts. Thus in the Salisbury Lectionary, in the Douce, in Queen Mary's, and in the Braybrooke Psalters, appear the ancient coats of some of the best blood in the country. A most interesting contemporary illustration of the precise terms upon which these noble patrons employed the best illuminators of the day has been furnished me by a kind and learned antiquarian friend,[65] in the shape of an extract from the fabric rolls of "York Minster,"[66] of which the following is a translation:--

"August 26th, 1346.--There appeared Robert Brekeling, scribe, and swore that he would observe the contract made between him and Sir John Forbor, viz., that he the said Robert would write one Psalter with the Kalender for the work of the said Sir John for 5_s._ and 6_d._; and in the same Psalter, in the same character, a _Placebo_ and a _Dirige_, with a Hymnal and Collectary, for 4_s._ and 3_d._ And the said Robert will illuminate ('luminabit') all the Psalms with great gilded letters, laid in with colours; and all the large letters of the Hymnal and Collectary will he illuminate with gold and vermilion, except the great letters of double feasts, which shall be as the large gilt letters are in the Psalter. And all the letters at the commencement of the verses shall be illuminated with good azure and vermilion; and all the letters at the beginning of the _Nocturns_ shall be great uncial (unciales) letters, containing V. lines, but the _Beatus Vir_ and _Dixit Dominus_ shall contain VI. or VII. lines; and for the aforesaid illumination and for colours he [John] will give 5_s._ 6_d._, and for gold he will give 18_d._, and 2_s._ for a cloak and fur trimming. Item one robe--one coverlet, one sheet, and one pillow."[67]

Under such contracts, and on much more extravagant terms, were no doubt produced the finest of those "specimens of English miniature painting" of the Edwardian period, which Dr. Waagen considers "excel those of all other nations of the time, with the exception of the Italian, and are not inferior even to these."[68]

There is probably no document in existence which better illustrates the nature, cost, and classification of illuminated and other manuscripts during the 14th and 15th centuries, than the catalogue of the library founded by William of Wykeham, himself one of the greatest English patrons of literature, at the College of St. Mary, near Winchester. This catalogue has been printed _in extenso_ in the "Archæological Journal" (vol. xv. pp. 69 to 74), with notes by the Rev. W. H. Gunner. It is essentially a _catalogue raisonné_, divided into the following classes, which give a good idea of the staple commodities in mediæval and monastic libraries:--

"Ordinalia, Antiphonaria, Portiphoria, Legendæ, Collectaria, Graduales, Manualia, Processionalia, Gradales, Pontificates et Epistolares, Libri Theologiæ, Doctores super Bibliam, Libri Sententiarum, Doctores super Sententias, Libri Historiales, Psalteria Glossata, Libri Augustini, Libri Gregorii, Libri Morales Diversorum Doctorum [to which in many libraries might, I fear, be added, Libri Immorales Diversorum Auctorum], Libri Chronici, Libri Philosophiæ [strange to say, a total blank in the Winchester Collection], Libri Juris Canonici, Decreta et Doctores super Decreta, Decretales, Libri Sexti cum Doctoribus, Clementinæ, Summæ et alii Tractatus Diversorum Doctorum Juris Canonici, Libri Juris Civilis, and Libri Grammaticales."