ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
IN CLASSICAL
AND MEDIAEVAL TIMES,
THEIR ART AND THEIR TECHNIQUE
BY
J. HENRY MIDDLETON,
SLADE PROFESSOR OF FINE ART, DIRECTOR OF THE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM,
AND FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE;
AUTHOR OF "ANCIENT ROME IN 1888",
"THE ENGRAVED GEMS OF CLASSICAL TIMES" &c.
CAMBRIDGE:
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS:
1892
[All Rights reserved.]
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Preface and List of Authorities. Page xiii to xix.
List of Illustrations. Page xxi to xxiv.
Classical Manuscripts written with a Stilus.
Survival of classical methods in mediaeval times; epigraphy and palaeography; manuscripts on metal plates; lead rolls; tin rolls; gold amulets; Petelia tablet; waxed tablets and diptychs; tablets shown on gems and coins; tablets found in tombs; tablets from Pompeii; Consular diptychs; many-leaved tablets; the form of the waxed tablets; whitened boards used by the Greeks; late survival of tablets; "bidding the beads;" lists of members of guilds; wooden book in Norway; ivory tablets and diptychs; inscribed Anglo-Saxon lead tablet; "horn-books."
Classical Manuscripts written with Pen and Ink.
Two forms of manuscripts, the roll and the codex; Egyptian Books of the Dead; Book of Ani; existing manuscripts on papyrus; the library of papyrus rolls found at Herculaneum; Herodotus on manuscripts; use of parchment; manuscripts on linen; inscribed potsherds or ostraka; manuscripts on leaves of trees; Greek libraries; Roman libraries; a list of the public libraries in Rome; Roman library fittings and decorations; recently discovered library in Rome; authors' portraits; closed bookcases; booksellers' quarter; cost of Roman books; slave scribes; librarii of Rome. The technique of ancient manuscripts; parchment and vellum; palimpsests; papyrus manuscripts; process of making papyrus paper; use of papyrus in Greece and Rome; ancient papyrus manuscripts; the qualities of papyrus paper; the form of papyrus rolls; the wooden roller; inscribed titles; coloured inks; use of cedar oil; black carbon ink, its manufacture and price; red inks and rubrics; purple ink; double inkstands; pens of reeds and of metal; Egyptian scribes' palettes, pen-cases, and pens.
Classical Illuminated Manuscripts.
Use of minium; Egyptian miniatures; illuminations in Roman manuscripts; Greek illuminations; two sources of knowledge about classical illuminations; the Ambrosian Iliad; the Vatican Virgil; the style of its miniatures; later copies of lost originals; picture of Orpheus in a twelfth century Psalter; another Psalter with copies of classical paintings; the value of these copied miniatures.
Byzantine Manuscripts.
The very compound character of Byzantine art; love of splendour; Gospels in purple and gold; monotony of the Byzantine style; hieratic rules; fifth century manuscript of Genesis; the Dioscorides of the Princess Juliana; the style of its miniatures; imitations of enamel designs; early picture of the Crucifixion in the Gospels of Rabula; the splendour of Byzantine manuscripts of the Gospels; five chief pictures; illuminated "Canons"; Persian influence; the Altar-Textus used as a Pax; its magnificent gold covers; the Durham Textus; Byzantine figure drawing, unreal but decorative; Byzantine mosaics; the iconoclast schism, and the consequent decadence of Byzantine art.
Manuscripts of the Carolingian period.
The age of Charles the Great; the school of Alcuin of York; the Gospels of Alcuin; the golden Gospels of Henry VIII.; the Gospels of the scribe Godesscalc; Persian influence; technical methods; the later Carolingian manuscripts; continuance of the Northumbrian influence; beginning of life-study; the Gospels of Otho II.; period of decadence in the eleventh century.
The Celtic School of Manuscripts.
The Irish Church; Celtic goldsmiths; technical processes of the metal-workers copied by illuminators of manuscripts; the Book of Kells, its perfect workmanship and microscopic illuminations; copies of metal spiral patterns; the "trumpet pattern;" Moslem influence; absence of gold in the Irish manuscripts; the Book of Durrow; the monks of Iona; the Celtic missionaries to Northumbria; the Gospels of St Cuthbert; the Viking pirates; the adventures of St Cuthbert's Gospels; the Anglo-Celtic school; improved drawing and use of gold; Italian influence; the early Gospels in the Corpus library; the Gospels of MacDurnan; the Book of Deer; the Gospels of St Chad; the Celtic school on the Continent; the Psalter of St Augustine; Scandinavian art; the golden Gospels of Stockholm and its adventures; the struggle between the Celtic and the Roman Church; the Synod of Whitby; the Roman victory, and the growth of Italian influence; the school of Baeda at Durham.
The Anglo-Saxon School of Manuscripts.
The Danish invasions; revival of art under king Alfred; the Benedictional of Aethelwold; signs of Carolingian influence; the Winchester school; St Dunstan as an illuminator; Anglo-Saxon drawings in coloured ink; Roll of St Guthlac; the great beauty of its drawings; Canute as a patron of art; the Norman Conquest.
CHAPTER VIII. Page 106 to 125.
The Anglo-Norman School.
The Norman invasion; development of architecture and other arts; creation of the Anglo-Norman school; magnificent Psalters; the Angevin kingdom; the highest development of English art in the thirteenth century; Henry III. as an art patron; the rebuilding and decorating of the Church and Palace of Westminster; paintings copied from manuscripts; the Painted Chamber; English sculpture; the Fitz-Othos and William Torell; English needlework (opus Anglicanum); the Lateran and Pienza copes; Anglo-Norman manuscripts of the Vulgate; the style of their illuminations; manuscripts produced in Benedictine monasteries; unity of style; various kinds of background in miniatures; magnificent manuscripts of the Psalter; the Tenison Psalter; manuscripts of the Apocalypse; their extraordinary beauty; their contrast to machine-made art; English manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; the results of the Black Death; the Poyntz Horae; the Lectionary of Lord Lovel; the characteristics of English ornament; the introduction of portrait figures; the Shrewsbury manuscript; "Queen Mary's Prayer-book;" the works of Dan Lydgate; specially English subjects; manuscripts of Chronicles and Histories.
French Manuscripts.
The age of Saint Louis; archaism of costume in miniatures; French manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; historiated Bibles; the ivy-pattern; the Horae of the Duc de Berri; the treasure-book of Origny Abbey; the Anjou Horae; costly and magnificent French Horae; their beautiful decorations; their numerous miniatures; the Bedford Breviary; the Bedford Missal; various styles in the same manuscript; manuscripts in Grisaille; manuscripts of secular works; Cristina of Pisa; Chronicles and Travels; Romances and Poems; Italian influence in the south of France; the growth of secular illuminators; the inferiority of their work; cheap and coarsely illuminated Horae; manuscripts of the finest style; use of flowers and fruit in borders and initials; influence of the Italian Renaissance; the Horae of Jehan Foucquet of Tours.
Printed Books with painted Illuminations.
Horae printed on vellum in Paris; their woodcut decorations; the productions of the earliest printers; the Mazarine Bible; the Mentz Psalter; illuminators becoming printers; Italian printed books with rich illuminations; the colophons of the early printers; the books of Aldus Manutius; invention of Italic type; manuscripts illustrated with woodcuts; block-books; the long union of the illuminators' and the printers' art.
Illuminated Manuscripts of the Teutonic School after the Tenth Century.
Revival of art in Germany in the eleventh century; the Missal of the Emperor Henry II.; the designs used for stained glass; the advance of manuscript art under Frederic Barbarossa; grotesque monsters; examples of fine German illuminations of the twelfth century; their resemblance to mural paintings; the school of the Van Eycks; the Grimani Breviary; GÉrard David of Bruges; examples of Flemish miniatures; the use of gold; grotesque figures; the influence of manuscript art on the painters of altar-pieces; the school of Cologne; triptych by the elder Holbein; book illuminated by Albert DÜrer; Dutch fifteenth century manuscripts; their decorative beauty; their realistic details; illumination in pen outlines in blue and red.
The Illuminated Manuscripts of Italy and Spain.
Italian art slow to advance; its degraded state in the twelfth century; illuminators mentioned by Dante; Missal in the Chapter library of Saint Peter's; the monk Don Silvestro in the middle of the fourteenth century; his style of illumination; the monk Don Lorenzo; Fra Angelico as an illuminator; Italian Pontifical in the Fitzwilliam library; manuscripts of the works of Dante and Petrarch; motives of decoration; Italian manuscripts after 1453; introduction of the "Roman" hand; great perfection of writing, and finest quality of vellum; the illuminators Attavante, Girolamo dai Libri, and Liberale of Verona; manuscripts of northern Italy; their influence on painting generally; Italian manuscripts of the sixteenth century, a period of rapid decadence; Giulio Clovio a typical miniaturist of his time; the library of the Vatican; its records of the cost of illuminating manuscripts. The manuscripts of Spain and Portugal; the manuscripts of Moslem countries, especially Persia.
CHAPTER XIII. Page 206 to 223.
The Writers of Illuminated Manuscripts.
Monastic scribes; the great beauty of their work, and the reasons for it; their quiet, monotonous life; examples of monastic humour; no long spells of work in a monastery; care in the preparation of pigments; variety of the schemes of decoration; the scriptoria of Benedictine monasteries; their arrangement in one alley of the cloister; the row of armaria; the row of carrels; the carrels in the Durham cloister described in the Rites of Durham; the scribes of other regular Orders. Secular scribes; the growth of the craft-guilds; the guilds of Bruges; their rules, and advantages to both buyer and seller; the production of cheap Horae; wealthy patrons who paid for costly manuscripts; women illuminators, such as the wife of GÉrard David; the high estimation of fine manuscripts. Extract from the fourteenth century accounts of St George's at Windsor showing the cost of six manuscripts. Similar extract from the Parish books of St Ewen's at Bristol in the fifteenth century, giving the cost of a Lectionary.
The Materials and Technical Processes of the Illuminator.
The vellum used by scribes, its cost and various qualities; paper made of cotton, of wool and of linen; the dates and places of its manufacture; its fine quality. The metals and pigments used in illuminated manuscripts; fluid gold and silver; leaf gold, silver and tin; the highly burnished gold; leaf beaten out of gold coins; the goldsmith's art practised by many great artists; the mordant on which the gold leaf was laid; how it was applied; a slow, difficult process; laborious use of the burnisher; old receipts for the mordant: the media or vehicles used with it; tooled and stamped patterns on the gold leaf; the use of tin instead of silver; a cheap method of applying gold described by Cennino Cennini.
The Materials and Technical Processes of the Illuminator (continued).
The coloured pigments. The vehicles used; blue pigments, ultramarine; its great value; story told by Pliny and Vasari; smalto blues; "German blue;" Indigo and other dye-colours; how they were made into pigments; green pigments; terra verde, verdigris, smalt, leek-green; red pigments, minium red lead, vermilion, red ochre (rubrica); murex and kermes crimson; kermes extracted from scraps of red cloth by illuminators; madder-red; lake-red; purples; yellow pigments, ochre, arsenic and litharge; white pigments, pure lime (Bianco di San Giovanni), white lead, biacca or cerusa. Black inks, carbon ink and iron ink (incaustum or encaustum and atramentum); red and purple inks; writing in gold; the illuminator's pens and pencils; the lead-point and silver-point; red chalk and amatista. Pens made of reeds, and, in later times, of quills; brushes of ermine, minever and other hair, mostly made by each illuminator for himself; list of scribes' implements and tools. Miniatures representing scribes; the various stages in the execution of an illuminated manuscript; ruled lines; writing of the plain text; outline of ornament sketched in; application of the gold leaf; the painting of the ornaments and miniatures; preparation for the binder.
The Bindings of Manuscripts.
Costly covers of gold, enamel and ivory; the more usual forms of binding; oak boards covered with parchment and strengthened by metal bosses and corners; methods of placing the title on the cover; pictures on wood covers; stamped patterns on leather; English stamped bindings; bag-like bindings for portable manuscripts; bindings of velvet with metal mounts; the costly covers of the Grimani Breviary and other late manuscripts. The present prices of mediaeval manuscripts; often sold for barely the value of their vellum; modern want of appreciation of the finest manuscripts.
Directions to scribes, from a thirteenth century manuscript at Bury St Edmund's.
Note on Service-books by the late Henry Bradshaw. Extract from the Cistercian Consuetudines.
Painting on panel by a fifteenth century artist of the Prague school; it represents St Augustine as an Episcopal scribe. The background and the ornaments of the dress are stamped in delicate relief on the gesso ground and then gilt. This picture, which is now in the Vienna Gallery, was originally part of the painted wall-panelling in the Chapel of the Castle of Karlstein.
PREFACE.
The object of this book is to give a general account of the various methods of writing, the different forms of manuscripts and the styles and systems of decoration that were used from the earliest times down to the sixteenth century A.D., when the invention of printing gradually put an end to the ancient and beautiful art of manuscript illumination.
I have attempted to give a historical sketch of the growth and development of the various styles of manuscript illumination, and also of the chief technical processes which were employed in the preparation of pigments, the application of gold leaf, and other details, to which the most unsparing amount of time and labour was devoted by the scribes and illuminators of many different countries and periods.
An important point with regard to this subject is the remarkable way in which technical processes lasted, in many cases, almost without alteration from classical times down to the latest mediaeval period, partly owing to the existence of an unbroken chain of traditional practice, and partly on account of the mediaeval custom of studying and obeying the precepts of such classical writers as Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder.
To an English student the art-history of illuminated manuscripts should be especially interesting, as there were two distinct periods when the productions of English illuminators were of unrivalled beauty and importance throughout the world[1].
In the latter part of this volume I have tried to describe the conditions under which the illuminators of manuscripts did their work, whether they were monks who laboured in the scriptorium of a monastery, or members of some secular guild, such as the great painters' guilds of Bruges or Paris.
The extraordinary beauty and marvellous technical perfection of certain classes of manuscripts make it a matter of interest to learn who the illuminators were, and under what daily conditions and for what reward they laboured with such astonishing patience and skill.
The intense pleasure and refreshment that can be gained by the study of a fine mediaeval illuminated manuscript depend largely on the fact that the exquisite miniatures, borders and initial letters were the product of an age which in almost every respect differed widely from the unhappy, machine-driven nineteenth century in which we now live.
With regard to the illustrations, I have to thank Mr John Murray for his kindness in lending me a clichÉ of the excellent woodcut of the scriptorium walk in the cloisters of the Benedictine Abbey of Gloucester, which was originally prepared to illustrate one of Mr Murray's valuable Guides to the English Cathedrals.
The rest of the illustrations I owe to the kindness of Mr Kegan Paul. They have previously appeared in the English edition of Woltmann and Woermann's valuable History of Painting, 1880-7.
I have to thank my friend and colleague Mr M. R. James for his kindness in looking through the proofs of this book. He is not responsible for the opinions expressed or for the errors that remain, but he has corrected some of the grosser blunders.
J. HENRY MIDDLETON.
King's College, Cambridge.
