Illuminated illustrations of Froissart; Selected from the ms. in the British museum.

ILLUMINATED ILLUSTRATIONS TO FROISSART.
The present Volume completes the selection of Pictures made from the two volumes of the MS. in the British Museum. As these volumes, however, consist only of the Fourth Book of Froissart, none of the Illustrations have reference to any of the first three Books of the history. It has been determined, therefore, at the earnest solicitation of very many of the Subscribers to the present series, to publish a selection from the first, second and third Books, contained in the celebrated MS. in the Bibliothèque Royale at Paris, to correspond in extent and price with that now completed.
By this arrangement, the entire Chronicles will be illustrated; and as the drawings in the Paris MS. are, in many respects, very superior to those in the two volumes at the Museum, it is hoped that the publication of the additional twelve Numbers will give general satisfaction.
The first Number from the Paris MS. will be published on the first of January, price 3 s. 6 d.
December 1st, 1843.
ILLUMINATED ILLUSTRATIONS OF FROISSART.
The idea of publishing these illuminations was suggested by the great success which has attended the reprint of the Chronicles of Monstrelet and Froissart; the extensive sale of which books bears strong testimony to the searching spirit of inquiry now abroad. We are no longer content to read our early history through the filtered medium of a compilation, but seek it in the vivid pages of the chroniclers, who drew from the life, and sketched off in simple and quaint, but earnest language, the stirring panorama of their times. But the pleasure of reading such an historian as Froissart, in an ordinary printed book, is small when compared with that of reading him in one of the curious manuscripts of his own time.
To unclose the gilded clasps of one of those ponderous velvet-bound volumes, to turn over the crisp vellum, and read the story of those exciting times traced in quaint Gothic characters by careful clerks; but above all to admire the curious and elaborate borderings of the illuminated pages, and dwell on the miniature pictures, wrought with the greatest care and beauty by the most skilful contemporary limners, to embody more tangibly the narration of the author, is indeed a pleasure;—yet one which but few can enjoy. To afford that enjoyment to the many, and place before them some of the most interesting of these rare illuminations, is the object of the present publication.