Appendix.

The following Extract from a Letter to the Editor, gives a general and comprehensive view of all the old service books, as far as illumination is concerned:—
“I think where and when the Missal came into use as an altar book, the Breviary was compiled as a Morning, Day and Evening Service-book, for use in the Quire, as well as for the private recitation of the several offices. The Gradual was to the Missal what the Antiphonary was to the Breviary. I think the main books of private devotion were the Horæ B. M. V. I do not think that the common Horæ or Hour-books, which were simply Breviaries without lessons, were ever popular, or even of much use among the laity. When the great Colbert would have a book to himself, he compiled a brief Breviary, i. e., a Breviary abbreviated. Men of more unction and less sense used ‘Hours of the Blessed Virgin,’ and they were often, especially in the Calendar, very gorgeously illuminated. Horæ Diurnæ or Diurnales were hand-books for clerks, to say all the hours from, except matins; they were easy to carry. Indeed, my experience of illuminated books has run thus:—

Horæ B. M. V.—These seem to me most numerous and elaborate in the 15th and 16th century work.

Evangelisteria.—Books of Gospels next, of very much older execution.

Missalia.—Comparatively recent; rich in the Canon and Preface illuminations.

Breviaria richly and profusely illuminated are really scarce. One wonders at it; but so it is. Every now and then a handsome 15th or 16th century Breviary, commonly of French art, turns up, but not very frequently, and then not prodigally illuminated.

I have been told that some of the huge Spanish Graduals or Mass Anthem books are grandly illuminated in the way of capitals. I have seen several mutilated copies which seem to affirm the same thing.”

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