| Woodcut initials. |
Woodcut initials.In England the introduction of the art of printing in 1477 seems to have brought the illuminator's art to an end more quickly than was the case in Continental countries. Caxton's later books have printed initials[[122]], instead of blank spaces left for the illuminator, as in most of the early printed books of Germany, France and Italy; and English book-buyers appear to have been soon satisfied with simple illustrations in the form of rather rudely executed woodcuts.
The subjects represented in English miniatures are for the most part the same as those in contemporary French manuscripts; but the martyrdom of Saint Thomas of Canterbury occurs more frequently in English than in any continental manuscripts[[123]]. Almost immediately after the event in 1170 this scene began to be represented; see above, page [108].
| St George and the Dragon. |
St George and the Dragon.Another specially English subject is Saint George, who was at first the Crusaders' Patron and then the national Saint of England. He is usually represented as a Knight on horseback slaying the dragon with a lance. This subject did not come into popular use till the fourteenth century[[124]].
Both in England and in France, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, manuscript Chronicles and Histories of both ancient and modern times formed a large and important class of manuscripts; and these were usually copiously illustrated with miniatures. The Chronicles of Sir John Froissart was justly a very favourite book on both sides of the Channel[[125]], and many richly illuminated manuscripts of it still exist; see below, page [139].
| MS. Chronicles. |
MS. Chronicles.The British Museum possesses a magnificent manuscript of the Chronicles of England in seven large folio volumes, which were compiled and written at the command of Edward IV. The miniatures which decorate this sumptuous work are partly Anglo-Norman and partly Flemish, in the style of the school of the Van Eycks at Bruges.
One favourite form of Chronicle, giving an abstract of the whole World's history, was in the shape of a long parchment roll, illuminated with miniatures in the form of circular medallions. Some of these great rolls were written and illuminated by English miniaturists, but they appear not to have been as common in England as they were in France; see below, page [139]. On these rolls the writing usually continues down the strip, not at right angles to the long sides, as on classical papyrus rolls.