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

by J. H. Middleton

Writing in gold.

Writing in gold.Again, two centuries later the mother of Maximus, who was titular Caesar from 235 to 238 A.D., is said to have given him a manuscript of Homer's poems written in gold letters on purple vellum; see Jul. Capit., Max. Vita.

There is, in short, abundant evidence to show that illuminated manuscripts were common among the Romans of the Imperial period; and there is a very strong probability that manuscripts decorated with miniatures were no less frequent in the great libraries of the Ptolemies and of the Attalid kings, in fact throughout the Greek world from the time of Alexander the Great downwards, if not earlier still.

Greek miniatures.

Greek miniatures.Some notion of the great beauty of the illustrations in Greek manuscripts may perhaps be gathered from an examination of the masterly and delicately graceful drawings incised in outline which decorate the finest of the Greek bronze cistae. Nothing could surpass the perfect beauty of the outline engravings on the so-called Ficoronian cista, which is now preserved in the Museo del Collegio Romano in Rome. Part of this series representing scenes from the adventures of the Argonauts is shown on fig. [1].

Two sources of knowledge.

Two sources of knowledge.With regard to the general scheme of decoration in classical manuscripts, we have the evidence of a few existing examples dating from about the time of Constantine, and also a large number of copies of Roman manuscript-pictures of earlier date than the third century A.D., which are to be seen in various Italian and Byzantine manuscripts of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Fig. 1. Part of the drawing engraved on the bronze cista of Ficoroni, dating from the early part of the fourth century B.C. A beautiful example of Greek drawing.

Isolated pictures. Mediaeval method.