Note that, though the writing occasionally runs into the margin, the line-finishings stop at the marginal-line.
The photograph shows red dark and blue light: e.g. the Bird is red, the Lion and the Fish are blue. The fifth Line-finishing is a red filigree with blue “berries”—it can hardly be described as a “floral growth,” as the “branching” is reversed: the rubricator gained speed and uniformity by the simple repetition of the whorls all along the line—the upper branches were probably put in afterwards, and the “berries” were added later when he was making the blue Line-finishings.
The more complex decoration (not shown in the plate) in this MS. is inferior to the penmanship: the small background Capitals with which the verses begin—presumably put in by a different hand—are more pretentious, and do not match the Line-finishings.
General Note.—When a space occurs at the end of a line of writing, it is often best to leave it, and in a plain MS., if it be “well and truly” written, there is no objection to varying lengths of line (see pp. [263], [371]). But a book, such as a Psalter, divided into many short verses—in which the last line usually falls short of the marginal [p426] line—offers a fair field for such simple and effective decoration. (See also pp. [428], [486], fig. [130], and [Plate XXIII.])
[PLATE XV.]—English Writing and Illumination, circa 1284 A.D. (Psalter). Brit. Museum, Addl. MS. 24686.
THE WRITING is a fine, freely formed, “Gothic” (p. [331]). Note, the i’s are “dotted.” Note the double MARGINAL LINES (p. [343]).
THE SMALL INITIALS are of the “Lombardic” type (p. [210]), in which the Serifs are much thickened and ornamented. Note the tails of the Q’s are turned to the left to clear the writing. The LINE-FILLINGS match the small initials (p. [193]).
THE LARGE INITIAL, &c.—The plate shows the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth Psalm (
