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Illuminated Manuscripts

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ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS. Illumination, in art, is a term applied to the embellishment of written or printed text or design with colours or gold and, rarely, with silver. The old form of the verb "to illuminate" was "to enlumine," and i3th cen tury laymen who practised the art were called "enlumineurs." While the term should be strictly applied to the brilliant book ornamentation which was developed in the middle ages, it has been extended, by usage, to the illustration and decoration of early mss. in general.

The decisive changes in the history of the book are similarly turning points in the art of illumination. (See BooK.) The produc tion of precious illuminated mss. survived the introduction of printing by nearly a century. So far as we know, the art of deco rating mss. did not create new forms through a development based on writing, but rather it took over pictures and ornaments from other forms of art. The written pages appear at first simple and unadorned, even where the parchment is coloured and the writing is in silver or gold; then simple enlarged initial letters and calli graphic ornament ; in the Codices richly adorned title-pages and brilliant displays of ornament in the Canon-tables of Gospel mss. The form and position of the pictures vary exceedingly. Some times the illustrations are placed haphazard in the picture borders, in the text, or as framed pictures in the text ; they may also occupy full pages, or in the form of a running band in the Codex above or below the text, or, as in the roll, running in a continuous series of pictures from end to end.

Illumination in Antiquity.

The little surviving from the first great period in the history of illumination which reached to about the 4th century, consists of numerous fragments of papyrus rolls. Such fragments include the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, in which the illustrations are either dashing drawings or coloured pictures. The only fragmentary examples of illustrated rolls of the classical period were found in Egyptian excavations, and our knowledge of this period, as a whole, is very slight. The most ancient and important of these are the fragmentary copy of the Iliad, on vellum, in the Ambrosian library, Milan (variously assigned the 3rd and 5th centuries), of which there are 58 pic tures of various sizes, obviously the remains of a magnificent ms.; the small Virgil at the Vatican (Lat. 3,225, 4th century) with pic tures set off in a simple frame and inserted in the text, all of which are considered to have been based on Augustan models ; and the later Vatican Virgil (Codex Romanus, Lat. 3,867, sth or 6th cen tury), the work of an artist who did not understand his model's technique in painting and was, therefore, unable to copy it. (See MANUSCRIPTS, PALAEOGRAPHY.) Illumination of Christian Books in the illumination dates back to the times to which the few early pro fane illuminated mss. in our possession belong. The number of ancient Christian illuminated mss. in Greek or in oriental languages 1S very small. (See BIBLE, MANUSCRIPTS.) Other Theological and Profane Manuscripts.—Among illuminated theological or profane mss. which survive in the original, the most important is the Dioscorides (early 6th century) in Vienna. Few of the manuscripts are dated and localized and many important to early Christian art are preserved only in mediaeval copies; even those actually written in early Christian times may not be originals, but merely copies. Only on this basis can we explain why the Viennese Genesis, made up of various series of illuminations, is closely allied to the Codex Rossanensis, which belongs to another stage in the development of the style. The style is determined mainly by paintings of late antiquity based on Hellenistic models influenced by indigenous art (Coptic, Syrian, etc.).

Miniatures in the Middle Byzantine Period.

The devel opment in Byzantium cannot be traced clearly until after the iconoclastic controversy. As art flourished again, the works of the Byzantine Renaissance, as it is called, began to be produced. To this renaissance belong those Codices which hand on works of late antique or early Christian times, partly in accurate copies, partly in free imitations (Joshua Roll, Kosmas Indikopleustes), Psalters like that at Paris (Grec. 139). On the other hand, the typical middle Byzantine art modelled its style on monumental art.

Although Constantinople decided the trend of artistic produc tion, illumination was also cultivated outside the capital. As practised in the monasteries of Athos, its importance was far reaching. From the II th century a school of miniaturists developed in Russia, the works of which are, at first, scarcely to be dis tinguished from those of Byzantium. The Menology at the Vatican is the only Byzantine ms. in which each miniature is signed by the artist. The style in the later works, and especially in the productions of the monasteries, became dry, but still it persisted.

not only through the Latin conquest (1 204-61), but it was also capable of a rebirth after the restoration of the empire under the Palaeologues (1261) .

Western Illumination in Early Christian and Carolin gian Times.—Few early Christian illuminated manuscripts of Western origin have survived. A comparison between the Quedlin berg Itala fragment in Berlin of this period and the Virgil of the Vatican (Lat. 3,225) proves that the scriptoria which produced it also executed Christian illuminated mss. The affinity between the two is extraordinarily close ; the style is clear and simple in character; the pictorial conception gives evidence of naturalness and it is without a trace of the Byzantine spirit. There is evidence that style quickly deteriorated in the West, but the process cannot be traced in detail.

The most important original ms. is St. Augustine's Gospels at Corpus Christi, Cambridge (Nr. 286) which was probably exe cuted in Lower Italy. The Ashburnham Pentateuch at Paris is of a different type; its 19 miniatures are stylistically and icono graphically unique, and indicate a connection with oriental models; they are possibly of Spanish origin. These mss. bear witness to a survival of late antique and early Christian art in the West. By comparison, the mass of the mss. produced in the monasteries of the Frank and Lombard kingdoms in the 7th and 8th centuries have quite a different character. Among the large number pre served only a few have figurative representations. Illuminated Bi bles or Gospels hardly occur at all. Ornament, in general, is re stricted to initials and decorated pages, a method of embellishment based on the art of the scribe, not of the painter. Compared with the simplicity of the text in late antique mss., it is a complete revo lution. Part of the material originated in upper Italy and south France, apparently in the early 7th century. Later, the art was transplanted to central and northern France. The majority of the mss., and especially those richest in decoration, arose in north France in the latter half of the 8th century, i.e., not until the Irish and Anglo-Saxon arts of illumination were already highly developed.

In Britain two fundamentally different tendencies must be dis tinguished, the Irish and the English. The development in Eng land was determined by the Roman mission and by the close rela tions kept up between the Italo-Saxon churches and monasteries and Rome itself. In the 8th century, from which period a series of splendid mss. have been handed down, the artists endeavoured to continue the early Christian figurative tradition in stiffly out lined forms, and at the same time displayed rich decorative splen dour in the Irish fashion. The most important works of the Can terbury school are S. Augustine's Psalter with a portrait of David (British Museum) and the Codex Aureus in Stockholm.

Irish Illumination.

In spite of numerous contacts with Eng land, Irish illumination is a world apart. It is one of the most interesting phenomena in the whole range of mediaeval art. In the art of illumination it represents, perhaps, a climax never again reached. It is the more remarkable in that it suddenly appears be fore us, fully developed, without any preliminary stages and with no source to which it can be traced. The three chief Irish works are the Book of Durrow (Dublin, Trinity college, A. 4, 5.), the Book of Kells (ibid. A. 1, 6) and the Lindisfarne Gospels (British Museum Cotton, New D. IV.). The Book of Durrow (c. 700) is pure Irish in style ; the Book of Kells (for which the date ~, oo has been disputed in favour of a later period) shows traces of foreign ornamental ideas, and the Lindisfarne Gospels (written soon after 700), have pictures of the Evangelists, which are not Irish in style, but are only explained by the influences of the Italo-Saxon mon asteries. The contrast arises from the refusal of the Irish artists to attempt naturalistic representation in order to make as free play with the figures of a picture as if they were calligraphic de signs, that it is often difficult to see what these plaited figures really mean. This anti-naturalistic method of representation stands in sharp contrast to the whole range of classical antique art in all its derivations. Irish mss. show a richness of decoration un paralleled, so far as is known, up to that time. The various Gospels are preceded by whole pages with carpet-like designs, and the initials at the beginning of the text grow and spread until they, too, cover the whole page.

The Carolingian Renaissance.

Simultaneously with the re form of writing, a project of Charlemagne, there arose a number of new schools of painting which aimed at restoring the connec tion with antique and early Christian art. The chief works prob ably did not arise before the beginning of the 9th century; they include the Gospel-book of Ada ( ? Charlemagne's sister), at Trier, after which we call all these works the Ada-group. These mss. include rich Canon-tables, pictures of the Evangelists and of their symbols under large arcades, symbolical representations of the Church, the Fountain of Life, etc. Obviously there is an ancient pictorial tradition, which we can trace back, on the one side to Syria, on the other to Italy and England. The colouring is varied and splendid, the figures dramatic in movement, the faces fine and full of expression, the outlines of the figures rich in style. On the whole, the treatment, with its sharp and clear outlining of form, shows more of the spirit of drawing than of painting. All this points to models of high artistic importance.

Of a group of schools where work is in decided stylistic con trast to the Ada group is the Palatine school of Aix-la-Chapelle. Its chief work, the Gospel-book of Charlemagne, is preserved among the Crown treasures at Vienna. The treatment is alto gether pictorial, the colouring fine and simple without being too varied. The plain style of embellishment, with the greatness of conception in the figures and the soft pictorial treatment, point to early Christian models. This tendency is continued in the school of Hautvillers, where a Gospel-book at Epernay town library was made for Ebo of Reims (816-3 5) . Significant changes of style have set in however; the broad pictorial technique has made room for a hatched treatment, so that it has been supposed that the artist had been accustomed to using a drawing-pen. The style is that of the Utrecht Psalter, which has great affinity with later Anglo-Saxon work, and which subsequently exercised a strong influence on development in England. The Utrecht Psalter (Utrecht University library), is at once the most magnificent and the strangest production of Carolingian art. The composition with landscape like stage-scenery reminds one of early Christian models (Joshua-roll). Without a doubt, the Utrecht Psalter has some connection with early Christian art. Nevertheless, it is an essen tial creation of Carolingian times. The school of Tours was at its prime towards the middle of the 9th century under the lay abbot, Count Vivian. The Gospel-book destined for the em peror Lothaire is the most important work (Paris B.N., Lat. 266). The Tours mss. took over from early Christian models a large number of Bible illustrations, and introduced them into mediaeval art. A quite distinctive style marks the works of the Franco Saxon school. It shows, unmistakably, a continuation of the Irish and Hiberno-Saxon school, enriched by Carolingian elements. Its strength is based entirely on ornament and it is notable for having spread the art of the initial as developed in England and Ireland.

Anglo-Saxon Illumination.

Anglo-Saxon illumination be gan to flourish once more under King Edgar (c. 96o). The new style, based on Carolingian art, suddenly makes its appearance completely developed, in the works of the Winchester school. It is one of the most original and attractive in the whole range of mediaeval art. The artist is not satisfied by normal movements of the neck or head, so the line of the neck is unnaturally pro longed and curved ; the draperies appear as if driven by a gale of wind, and end in fluttering points; the seams are broken into numberless small folds. From the standpoint of correctness, much fault might be found with these figures, but as the expres sion of immense spiritual force they excite our wonder. Anglo Saxon art, too, reaches its climax when it dispenses with painting in thick colours and contents itself with sketch-like drawings, which may be tinted with various light colours. The chief work of the early period is the Benedictional, which Bishop Aethelwold caused to be written, by the scribe Godeman (Chats worth library).

One of the most important seats of Anglo-Saxon art was at Canterbury. A copy of the Utrecht Psalter (Brit. Mus. Harl. 603) is supposed to have been executed there. 1\lore than three hands worked at it, so it must have been made in a large scrip torium. The Anglo-Saxon style remained full of life until the middle of the i ith century. It was not confined to England; during the Toth century it crossed the Channel. There the style appears in many works in such freshness and spontaneity that it is likely that Anglo-Saxon artists had emigrated to France. Of this type is the Evangeliar (Boulogne library, No. i i) written at the Abbey of S. Bertin. In northern France there arose, side by side with the illuminations influenced by the Anglo-Saxons, other mss. which, independent in style, are full of intense expression.

Illuminated Manuscripts

The Ottonian Renaissance.

The Ottonian Renaissance flourished in Germany about the same time as the Winchester school. Its political background was the renewal of the Holy Ro man Empire by Otto I. Within a few decades an almost inconceiv able abundance of magnificent mss. was produced, which we can allot to a number of different schools. These schools differ exceed ingly in character, according to whether the artists used Carolin gian models or went back direct to early Christian. Middle Byzan tine art, too, begins to exercise its influence at this period. The great number of pictures in the Ottonian mss. springs from these various sources. All these schools, on the other hand, are very cre ative in ornament. They used whole page illuminations with a purple ground and richly formed initials of golden foliated branch work, similar to those found occasionally in Carolingian times, especially in the Metz school. In all the schools of the Ottonian period, painting with thick colours prevails. In the works of the golden age of Ottonian art we notice the intention to approach the illusionistic conception of the late antique. But these endeavours are soon frustrated, and at the beginning of the it th century de cline sets in. The painting becomes more mediaeval in character, the background of the pictures is divided up by ornamental and coloured stripes, for which occasionally the Byzantine gold back ground is substituted. One of the most prominent centres of artistic activity was the monastery of Reichenau, situated on an island in Lake Constance.

Romanesque Illumination in England, France, Germany and the Low Countries.—Middle i i th century illumination stands at the parting of the ways. Anglo-Saxon schools and the German Ottonian Renaissance were dying out, and so the con nection with antique painting disappears. From now onwards the whole of the West is governed by a style based on linear, not pictorially treated, outline-drawing, for which colour is used to tint the surfaces in the flat, with only slight modelling of forms. Art abandons the last reminiscences of the illusionistic manner of the late antique, in which the picture was based on a reality seen either bodily or in the mind's eye. The mediaeval style, which now establishes itself, dispenses with illusion, it gives us the different components of the pictures, i.e., the figures and whatever else is necessary to understand the action, but releases them from contact with natural space. Even the background has chiefly an ornamental importance. A gold ground becomes more and more popular, or border and background consist of a system of frames. This manner of representation permits the artist to pack the most complicated ideas into a picture, if only he has created the corresponding frame to hold the conceptions together, and this tendency now completely dominates the art of illustration. A counter movement is only to be seen in Byzantine art which never altogether lost contact with the antique, and which preserved formulas from the illusionistic age. In the I2th and I3th centuries Byzantine influence penetrated further and further forward into Italy and obtained a strong hold in Germany.

In the West of Europe, especially in northern France and in England, Byzantine influence may also be traced, but it was powerless to check the development which led to Gothic painting, and which was furthered most of all by the art of stained glass. For technical reasons, stained glass, with all its beauty of colour, can never know real modelling; it is based on outline-drawing in the proper sense of the word. It had an extremely strong influence on the method of painting, described above, in which numerous figurative representations are combined within a system of frames. Already, in the I2th, and especially in the 13th century, many illuminated mss. show evident traces of having been imitated from stained glass.

Anglo-Norman Illustration.

Soon after I too we find various Anglo-Norman scriptoria at the height of their power. Their productions are chiefly enormous Bibles, separate books of the Bible with commentaries, and especially the Psalter. The style abandons the lightness of Anglo-Saxon times. It is now based on stiff linear designs filled up with opaque pigments of harsh colour. The figures are, especially early in the i 2th cen tury, heavy and awkward. A little later the style becomes more spirited. The initial ornaments are astonishingly rich in invention and design, and they are enlivened with numerous fantastic forms of men and animals in strange colours.

Bury St. Edmunds produced the first of the large Bibles so characteristic of the I2th century. Winchester again became, about the middle of the i 2th century, the seat of an important school. It produced the Psalter of Bishop Henry of Blois (British Museum, Nero C. IV.).

The wave of Byzantine art had now reached England also and the deeply agitated style with its singular types is replaced by an almost classical conception of art. The chief work of this tendency is the Winchester Psalter of the British Museum. Well-propor tioned forms of measured placidity and solemnity of movement meet us in these pictures. Of the greatest importance is the latest copy of the Utrecht Psalter, which was only finished afterwards in Italy (Paris B.N. Lat. 8846).

Continental Schools.

Our knowledge of the history of minia ture in France is altogether much slighter than in England. We know of the quick rise and decline of an important scriptorium at Citeaux, the founder of which was Abbot Stephen Harding. Numerous mss. with most peculiar decoration, especially initial letters of quite fantastic formation, emanate from Limoges and western France. The productions of monasteries in Belgium and northern France are extraordinarily numerous. Many of these are dated and indicate the names of the artists. In the eastern part of this territory, a style approaching the Rhenish predomi nates, while towards the west, where the narrowness of the straits provided a natural connection with England, the Anglo-Norman affinities already mentioned make their appearance.

In these districts, also, we can establish the presence of a strong Byzantine influence in the critical period round about 1200.

In Germany the development of art, after the Ottonian Renais sance, varied in the different territories. In the south-east, the Middle Byzantine influence, already perceptible in the early i ith century, now became permanent.

In the western and northern districts of Germany Byzantine influence was not so powerful in the i 2th century. One work, however, the famous Hortus Deliciarum of the abbess Herrad of Landsberg, in Alsace, occupies a position of its own on account of the unusual illuminations it contained. (The original perished in 1870.) Pure pen-drawing had spread in all directions. On the lower Rhine and in north Germany some miniatures were executed in opaque pigments. These are clear and calm in style, and at times they rise to an extraordinary height of monumental dignity, e.g., in the Gospel Book of unknown origin at Paris (B. N. Lat. 17,325) or the Hildesheim mss. of the I2th century (Hildesheim, Ratman Missal, etc.) .

With the beginning of the 13th century Byzantine influence ex tended its power over almost all the country, and its style displays great restlessness. In the latter part of the 13th century the desire to create original forms and to express passionate feeling was so strong that the style was often positively distorted. The Byzantine tendency attains its zenith in the Gospel-book of the town hall at Goslar, and the Missal (Pierpont Morgan's library), executed in the first third of the 13th century. Immediately after the middle of the 13th century numerous fine works were produced, especially in south Germany, where refined Byzantinesque style predomi nated (Psalter, Munich, Staatsbibl. Lat. 3,9oo).

Gothic Illumination in France, England, Germany and the Lower Countries.—In the first half of the 13th century a complete change came over French illumination which transformed the fundamental ideas of book-ornamentation. It is based, to begin with, on the cultivation of a refined and dainty style which caused the contrast between miniatures in Gothic mss. and the art of monumental painting to appear sharper than ever before. It rested, moreover, on the closer assimilation of picture and text, so that the historiated initial becomes predominant in Gothic mss. When the miniature remained independent, it bears the character of a small medallion or of a quatrefoil. The initials, however, expand more and more until they have twined them selves all round the pages of text. Figures dispersed at random in the margin, called drolleries, although they may represent any sort of object conceivable, introduced a new style of embellish ment on which all development to 1500 is founded. Paris is re garded as the birth-place of the new style. Several mss. are desig nated as the property of Queen Blanche or of St. Louis, among them the Psalter of the Arsenal library in Paris. It is the first to show the substitution of medallions for the usual rectangular series of pictures. From other books it is still clearer that the illuminators are keeping very close to the example of stained glass windows (see Colour Plate), from which they borrow the com plicated arrangement of the medallions.

Great as is the advance made by the mss. of the Bible moralisee and the allied mss:, they had not yet produced the pure type of Gothic ms. Many other miniatures, however, display a strongly dramatic and restless style, which has a certain affinity to con temporary German work rather than with French Gothic. A number of splendid mss. which are supposed to emanate from Salisbury, are illustrated in this style. Early English examples include the magnificent pictures of the Apocalypse at Trinity college, Cambridge. A great new style, which was to oust all the previous tendencies in France and England, was created under the strong influence of monumental art in Paris about the middle of the 13th century. Its chief works are the Psalters written for St. Louis or other member of the royal family (Paris B.N. Lat. 10,525) and the liturgical mss. executed for the Ste. Chapelle. These works combine two qualities, firstly, the greatest simplicity of style, in that they work out the pure Gothic line, and secondly, a marked attention to reality in ornament and in architectonic details, in costume, etc. It is very difficult to distinguish between French and English work of this period. In spite of numerous English traits we can probably localize in Paris the Psalter of the municipal library at Nuremberg and the Psalter of Queen Isabella, Edward II.'s wife, at Munich. Queen Mary's Psalter at the British Museum is, beyond dispute, an early 14th century English master piece. In the work of the East Anglian school can be seen the gradual giving up of Gothic outline-drawing for the sake of a broader pictorial treatment. Its most singular characteristic is extravagant richness of ornamentation displayed in the large border-frames of the decorated pages, interlaced with figures of every shape and kind. In Parisian illumination the characteristic style of the miniaturist, Jean Pucelle, shows the change unmis takably. From now onwards we can follow in the miniatures of the mss. the development of modern painting. The fundamental revolution in style which takes place during this period can only be explained on the assumption of Italian influence arising out of the close connection between Italian and French art, based, in its turn, on political and dynastic relations and the transference of the papal court to Avignon. This may account for the fact that one of Pucelle's masterpieces, the Breviary of Queen Jeanne of Navarre (Yates Thompson collection), contains certain minia tures that can only be understood as imitating Italian pictures of the Trecento.

From the middle of the 14th century onwards, the naturalistic tendency becomes more and more powerful. For this period the phrase, "the naturalism of head and hand," has been coined. Its influence is seen most clearly in the dedication-pictures, where the elements of portraiture in the persons represented, as e.g., Charles V., are unmistakable. In religious pictures, however, Gothic idealism continued until the beginning of the 15th century. The miniatures executed for Charles V. are often set in quatrefoil frames, and grey monochrome (grisaille) is preferred to painting in colours. The decisive change in the direction of modernity may best be studied in the mss. illuminated for Charles V.'s brother, the duke of Berry. The name of Andre Beauneveu. of Valenciennes, is given for the Psalter at Paris (B.N. Fr. 13,o91), that of Jacquemart de Hesdin for the Prayer Books at Paris (B. N. Lat. 959) and Brussels (B.R. 11,060-61). In these mss. there is a change in the borders, the dainty sprays of ivy, which had hitherto sprouted loosely over the margins, now completely fill them up, and new motifs add to the wealth of ornament. In the miniatures we can see the old Gothic tradition gradually being displaced by Italian art, with a rapid progress in naturalism. The new art reaches its climax in the second decade of the 15th century in two mss. begun for the duke of Berry, which must be classed, beyond dispute, among the most magnificent illustrated books of all times. The unfinished Prayer Book at Chantilly (called, ac cording to the Inventory, Tres riches Heures du duc de Berry), was illuminated by Pol de Limbourg and his brothers. Pictures which remind us of famous Italian mural paintings stand side by side with faithful representations of reality, as e.g , the Calendar pictures with the views of the duke's castles or the genre-like February snow-landscape. We are taken a step further by the Prayer Book begun for the duke of Berry, but after his death continued for Count William IV. of Bavaria-Holland. In the pictures of William IV.'s time the Italian style has been com pletely replaced by a style so near to that of the brothers van Eyck that some of the best pictures have been attributed to them. The miniatures of the two last-named mss. are invaluable to the history of painting.

Spanish and Italian Illumination in the Middle Ages.— Spanish and Italian illumination had only a slight share in the Renaissance movement on which Carolingian, Ottonian and Anglo Saxon art was based. In Spain, as in Italy, tendencies prevailed, during this period, which can best be compared with the Franco Saxon school. The Spanish mss. of the 9th to r 1 th centuries dis play a rich, but fantastic decoration in which early Christian and Moorish elements are mixed. The figures are anti-naturalistic, reminding one of the Irish style. The most singular Spanish crea tion is the great series of illustrations to Beatus of Liebana's Commentaries on the Apocalypse which have survived in many copies from the 9th (?) to the 12th centuries (the oldest in the Yates Thompson college, a later one in the P. Morgan library).

The character of Italian illumination varies extremely in the different Italian territories, according to their relations with East and West. A curious blend of contrasting tendencies is to be seen in the book-ornamentation of the Benedictines at Monte Cassino in the 11th and 12th centuries. Here Hiberno-Saxon, Ottonian and Byzantine stylistic elements are intimately combined. Southern Italy made a speciality of Exultet-rolls, as they are called, i.e., mss. adorned with miniatures and written in the form of rolls. Various Italian monasteries produced, from the irth to the 13th centuries, gigantic Bibles, some of which show a singular beauty of initial which was afterwards imitated in the r 5th century. The origin of these Bibles is partly to be sought in Tus cany, where, in the reign of the margravine Matilda, works of a pronounced original character were produced, e.g., the Gospel book which Matilda presented, in 1109, to the Abbey of Polirone (P. Morgan library). During the 13th century, Italian illumina tion in the large university towns of northern Italy developed freely and in a manner quite its own. Legal text-books, Bibles, etc., were executed and taken by the students all over Europe. Moreover, the 13th century produced a new type of book, the immense choir-book, which was everywhere used at church serv ices. In general, large miniatures are rare in Italian illuminated mss. Most have only historiated initials, but these are drawn out to great length and spread out over the margins in branch and leaf work. Drolleries were added very early, so that one feels inclined to assume that they made their way to the North from Italy. All this, however, does not exhaust the importance of Italian miniature. Just as in mural and panel painting, Italy was foremost in diffusing the Byzantine style.

We must not overlook the immediate influence of the Crusades in causing an interpenetration of the Western and Byzantine ele ments. In the Latin kingdoms of the Orient, there were executed for churches and princes magnificent mss. in which such a mixture of styles was inevitable, e.g., the Psalter of Queen Melissenda of Jerusalem (British Museum), the Missal of the Holy Sepulchre church at Jerusalem (Paris), and many others. Similar works probably emanated from those districts of Italy which were partic ularly exposed to Byzantine influence. We may, perhaps, put in this class the Missal at Madrid. A similar mixture of style is evident, in a much coarser form, in the Epistolary, written in 12S9 at Padua (cathedral treasure). About 130o a large number of Byzantesque illuminations were produced at Bologna, which are distinguished by copious border-decoration, with figures in the pseudo-classic style. Splendid works of this kind are the Bibles at Paris (B.N. Lat. 18) and at the British Museum (Add. 18,72o).

During the 14th century, throughout Italy's busy scriptoria, as at Naples, where French influence is noticeable, numerous mss. rich in miniatures were produced (Bible, subsequently Leo X.'s, now Berlin, Kupferstich-Kabinett). Only rarely can we connect miniatures with the artists who painted on panel. A Virgil in Milan and the Ufficio di San Giorgio in the of S. Peter at Rome, are assigned to Simone Martini of Siena.

Miniature Since the 15th Century.—Many illuminated mss. of the later 15th and i6th centuries surpass in wealth of pictures and magnificent embellishment, even the works from the time of the duke of Berry. Their place is finally taken in the i6th century by black and white. The splendid miniatures of the 15th and i6th centuries are, like those of the preceding period, chiefly destined for princes and great courtiers. Three large centres of production are prominent : Flanders (Ghent, Bruges) ; France (Paris, Tours) ; Italy (Florence, Ferrara, etc.). Illumination in this period acknowledged no restriction on its choice of subject. The Books of Hours, indeed, still played an important part, but, besides these, there were profane mss. of an incredible variety, among which the Chronicles on the one hand, and the Romances on the other, are prominent.

Flanders.—In the generation following the van Eycks it can only rarely be proved that painters on panel had a hand in illumi nation. We know a number of miniaturists from their works or from documents, e.g., Jean le Tavernier, Willem Vrelant, Loyset Lyedet, Philippe de Mazerolles, the Bening family. About the middle of the i6th century the activity of the Flemish scriptoria seems to have died out. It is important to note Simon Marmion, unsurpassed in landscape (Book of Hours, British Museum Add. 38,126). A master belonging to the circle of Roger von der Weyden is called after the Romance of Girart de Roussillon Jean le Tavernier, who adorned the Conquetes de Charlemagne executed for Philip the Good (Vienna, Staatsbibl. 2,549). His second masterpiece, the Chronicle of Hennegau, is at Brussels. (Brussels, B.R. 9,066.) France.—The production of French mss. during the 15th cen tury will not bear comparison with the Flemish. In connection with the mss. of the duke of Berry, there is the Bedford Missal (British Museum) and the Salisbury Breviary in Paris, with its numberless miniatures. About the middle of the 15th century Jean Fouquet, the most important personality among the French miniaturists, makes his appearance. He died about 148o, at Tours, where he had lived before and after his journey to Rome (between . Attested works of his are parts of the Antiquites Judaiques at Paris, and the miniatures cut out from the Heures d'Etienne Chevalier at Chantilly. Fouquet's art has a touch of the Renaissance which otherwise shows affinities with Flemish natural ism. The miniature survived under Francis I., and even into the time of Louis XIV.

Germany.—In Germany, in the 15th century, illustration passes a humble existence in monasteries and scriptoria which engage in large-scale manufacture of mss. (Diebold Lauber in Hagenau). In contrast with this mass production, there are the splendid mss. of the emperor Maximilian. The finest is the superb border, executed by Diirer and other great German artists, in a copy of the Prayer Book printed by Schonsperger (Munich, Staatsbibl. and Besancon).

Italy.—In Italy the renaissance in the mss. begins with the introduction of the scrittura umanistica, which goes back to the model of the fine Italian mss. of the I I th and I 2th centuries, from which was also taken the scroll-work design in the frames enclosing the pages of text. Illumination does not really flourish until the middle of the 15th century, when there arose, almost always in connection with the luxury of courts, a number of studios which created a new style and new decorative forms. As in Flanders, the artists are seldom identical with the painters on panel, although, for example, the great art of Mantegna is reflected in miniature. In northern Italy, Milan and Verona were two of the centres. A masterpiece is the Book of Hours of Bona of Savoy, widow of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, duke of Milan, which afterwards came into the possession of Charles V. (British Museum Add. In the Ferrara school, where a number of miniaturists worked for the ducal family of Este, Taddeo Crivelli takes the first place (Borso d'Este's Bible, 1455-62, Modena). The most important miniaturist under Borso's successor, Ercole I., is Martino da Modena (Ercole I.'s Breviary at Vienna). Min iature-painting in central Italy was chiefly concentrated at Flor ence ; Francesco d'Antonio del Cherico, with Attavante degli Attavanti, were the two chief miniaturists. (See PAINTING; MIN IATURE PAINTING; BYZANTINE ART; BOOKS ; BIBLE ; PRINTING; PALAEOGRAPHY.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-The most convenient book of reference is: H. Bibliography.-The most convenient book of reference is: H. Omont, Listes de recueil de facsimiles et de reproductions de mss. con serves a la Bibl. Nat. (end ed., Paris, 1912) . Numerous articles of the highest importance are scattered through the scientific periodicals.

1. General.

I. A. Hubert, Illuminated Manuscripts (London, 1911) ; C. Couderc, Les Enluminures des Mss. du Moyen-Age (Paris, 1926) ; A. Michel, Histoire de l'Art, contributions from Leprieur, Haseloff, Millet, Durrieu, Bernath (Paris, 19o5 et seq.) ; M. Bernath, Die Malerei des Mittelalters (Leipzig, 1916) .

2. Reproductions:—Comte de Bastard, Peintures et Ornements des Mss. (Paris, 1832-69) ; G. Leidinger, Meisterwerke der Buchmalerei aus Mss. der Bayerischen Staats-bibl. Munchen (Munich, 192o) ; H. Martin, Les Joyaux de l'Enluminure a la Bibl. Nat. (Paris, 1926) ; G. Warner, Illuminated Mss. in the British Museum (1899-1903) ; British Museum Reproductions of Illuminated Mss. (1923) ; Schools of Illumination (1914-26).

Great Britain and Ireland:—E. G. Millar, English Manuscripts Illumination from the loth to the 13th Century (Paris, 1926) ; English Illuminated Manuscripts of the r4th and rsth Century (Paris, 1928) ; I. A. Bruun, Celtic Illuminated Mss. (Stockholm, 1897) ; E. G. Millar, The Lindisfarne Gospels (London, 1923) ; E. Sullivan, The Book of Kells (London, Paris, New York, 192o) ; O. Homburger, Die Anfange der Malerschule von Winchester (Leipzig, 1912) ; Warner and Wilson, The Benedictional of St. Aethelwold (Roxburghe Club, 191o) ; M. R. James, The Trinity College Apocalypse (Roxburghe Club, 1909) ; S. C. Cockerell, The Gorleston Psalter (London, 1907) ; I. van den Gheyn, Le Psautier de Peterborough (Haarlem, 1906) ; G. F. Warner, Queen Mary's Psalter (London, 1912) ; J. A. Herbert, The Sherborne Missal (Roxburghe Club, 192o) .

France.

Lauer, La Miniature en France des Origins au r3e Siecle (Paris) ; H. Martin, La Miniature en France du z au rse Siecle (Paris, 1923) ; Les Miniaturistes Francais (Paris, 1906) and Les Peintres des Mss. et la Miniature en France (Paris, 1909) ; Oursel, La Miniature du 12e Siecle a l'Abbaye de Citeaux (Dijon, 1926) ; Graf Vitzthum, Die Pariser Buchmalerei (Leipzig, 1907) ; Cockerell, A Psalter and Hours Executed before 127o for a Lady connected with St. Louis, probably his Sister Isabella of France (London, 1905) ; Comte P. Durrieu, Les An tiquites Judaiques et le Peintre Jean Fouquet (Paris, 1908), and Le Boccace de Munich (Munchen, 1909).

Low Countries.

Byvanck and Hoogewerff, Noord-Nederlandsche Miniaturen (1922-25) ; A. W. Byvanck, La Miniature Hollandaise (Paris, in prep.) ; Comte P. Durrieu, La Miniature Flamande (Paris, 1921) ; F. Winkler, Die fiamische Buchmalerei (Leipzig, 1925) ; Comte P. Durrieu, Les Tres Riches Heures de Jean de France Duc de Berry (Paris, 1904) , and Les Heures de Turin (Paris, 1902) ; G. Hulin de Loo, Les Heures de Milan (Brussels and Paris, 1911) .

Germany.

F. Jacoby, Die Deutsche Buchmalerei (Munich, 1923) ; A. Goldschmidt, Die Deutsche Buchmalerei (I. die Karolingische, II. die ottonische) (Florence and Munich, 1928) ; M. Bernath, La Miniature Allemande de la Periode des Othons jusqu'au 16e Siecle (Paris, in prep.) ; Sauerland u. Haseloff, Der Psalter Erzbischofs Egberts in Trier (Trier, 1901) ; G. Swarzenski, Regensburger Buchmalerei (Leipzig, 1901), and Salzburger Malerei (Leipzig, 1913) ; H. Ehl, Die ottonische 'Coiner Buchmalerei (Bonn u. Leipzig, 1922) ; A. Merton, Die Buch malerei in St. Gallen (Leipzig, 1912) ; E. F. Bange, Eine Bayerische Malerschule (Munich, 1923) ; A. Haseloff, Eine thiiringisch-sachsische Malerschule (Strasbourg, 1897) ; K. Loffler, Schwabische Buchmalerei (Augsburg, 1928) ; K. V. Amira, Die Dresdener Bilderhandschrift des Sachsenspiegels (Leipzig, 1902 and 1924) .

Italy:—See also the respective histories of art by Bertaux, Marie, Toesca, Venturi. P. d'Ancona, La Miniature Italienne du au r6e Siecle (Paris, 1924) ; La Miniatura Fiorentina (Florence, 1914) ; P. Toesca, La Pittura e la Miniatura nella Lombardia (Milan, 1912) ; G. F. Warner, The Gospels of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany (Roxburghe Club, 1917) ; Graf Erbach-Fiirstenau, Die Manfredbibel (Leipzig, 1910).

Spain:—W. S. Cook, La Miniature Espagnole (Paris, in prep.) ; W. Neuss, Die Katalanische Buchmalerei (Bonn u. Leipzig, 1922).

(A. Hz.)

mss, art, style, century, paris, illumination and psalter