Illuminated manuscripts in classical and mediaeval times, their art and their technique

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.

CHAPTER XIV. Page 224 to 238.

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.

CHAPTER XV. Page 239 to 256.

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.

CHAPTER XVI. Page 257 to 264.

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.

APPENDIX. Page 265 to 270.

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.

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.

BOOKS ON ILLUMINATED MSS.

The following are some of the most important works on this subject, and the most useful for the purposes of a student. Many others, which deal with smaller branches of the subject, are referred to in the following text.

Bastard, Peintures et Ornemens des Manuscrits, classés dans un ordre Chronologique, Imper. folio, Paris, 1835, &c.; a very magnificent book, with 163 plates, mostly coloured.

Birch and Jenner, Early drawings and illuminations, London, 1879; this is a useful index of subjects which occur in manuscript miniatures.

Bradley, J. W., Dictionary of Miniaturists and Illuminators, 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1887-1890.

Chassant, Paléographie des Chartes et des Manuscrits du XIme au XVIIIme Siècle, 12mo.; a useful little handbook, together with the companion volume, Dictionnaire des Abbréviations Latines et Françaises, Paris, 1876.

Denis, F., Histoire de l'Ornementation des manuscrits; 8vo. Paris, 1879.

Fleury, E., Les Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque de Laon étudiés au point de vue de leur illustration, 2 vols., Laon, 1863. With 50 plates.

Humphreys, Noel, Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages, folio, London, 1849; a handsome, well-illustrated book.

Humphreys, Noel, The Origin and Progress of the Art of Writing; sm. 4to., with 28 plates; London, 1853.

Kopp, Palaeographia Critica, 4 vols. 4to., Manheim, 1817-1819; a book of much historical value for the student of Palaeography.

Lamprecht, K., Initial-Ornamentik des VIII.-XIII. Jahrh., Leipzig, 1882.

Langlois, Essai sur la Calligraphie des Manuscrits du Moyen Age et sur les Ornements des premiers livres imprimés, 8vo. Rouen, 1841.