| Portrait of Richard II. |
Portrait of Richard II.A fine example of portraiture in a manuscript is to be seen in the Epistre au Roy Richard II. d'Angleterre (Brit. Mus. Royal Manuscripts 20 B. vi) written by a Hermit of the Celestin Order in Paris. The upper half of the first page is occupied by an exquisite miniature of Richard II. on his throne, surrounded by courtiers, accepting the bound copy of the manuscript from the monastic author, who kneels on one knee, presenting his book with one hand, while in the other he holds a sacred banner embroidered with the Agnus Dei. The background is of the sumptuous chess-board pattern in gold, blue and red, and the whole page is surrounded with the so-called ivy-leaf border.
| Portraits of Henry VI. and his Queen. |
Portraits of Henry VI. and his Queen.The Shrewsbury manuscript, containing a collection of chivalrous Romances (Brit. Mus. Royal Manuscripts 15 E vi), has another beautiful example of miniature portraiture. The first painting represents John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, for whom this interesting manuscript was illuminated, kneeling to present the book to Queen Margaret of Anjou on the occasion of her marriage with Henry VI. The King and Queen are represented side by side on a double throne, and around is a group of courtier attendants. The kneeling figure of Earl Talbot is interesting for its costume; the mantle which the Earl wears is powdered (semée) with small garters embroidered in gold; an early but now obsolete form of state robe worn by Knights of the Order of the Garter. Both these manuscripts, though executed for English patrons, are of French workmanship.
Some of the most magnificent manuscripts of the fifteenth century and earlier were, like Lord Lovel's Lectionary, illuminated at the cost of some wealthy layman for the purpose of presentation to a Cathedral or Abbey Church. In return for the gift the Church often agreed to keep a yearly obiit or annual Mass for the donors soul, which in England was called "the years mind"; and this kind of gift thus often served to provide a "Chantry" of a limited kind.
| Queen Mary's Prayer-book. |
Queen Mary's Prayer-book.One of the finest examples of English manuscript art in the fourteenth century is a Psalter commonly known as "Queen Marys Prayer-book". This exquisite manuscript, which is in the British Museum, contains, before the Psalter, a large number of miniatures of Biblical scenes executed in outline, treated with delicate washes of transparent colour. The Psalter is illuminated in quite a different style, with brilliant gold and colours in all the miniatures and borders, which are painted with wonderful delicacy of touch, unsurpassed by the best French work. A Bestiary is introduced into the margins of the Psalter; and at the end there are beautiful paintings of New Testament scenes. The date of this book is c. 1330; in 1553 it was given to Queen Mary.
| MSS. of Dan Lydgate. |
MSS. of Dan Lydgate.Another English manuscript of special interest both for its text and its beautiful illuminations is a copy in the British Museum of Dan Lydgate's Life of Saint Edmund, which was written and illuminated in 1433 by a Monk in the Benedictine Monastery at Bury Saint Edmunds; it is an early and very beautiful example of a manuscript in the Vulgar tongue. In style the illuminated borders are not unlike those in "Queen Mary's Prayer-book."
Another very similar manuscript both in date and style was sold at the Perkins sale, in June, 1873, for £1320[[121]]. This is a magnificently illuminated folio of "The Siege of Troye compiled by Dann John Lydgate, Monke of Bury"; it contains seventy miniature paintings, chiefly of battle scenes, in which the combatants wear armour of the first half of the fifteenth century. The illuminated borders are of the boldly decorative English type mentioned above, and the miniatures are large in scale, in many cases extending across the whole width of the page with its double column of text.