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

by J. H. Middleton

MS. Bibles.

MS. Bibles.The historiated Bibles of Paris in the thirteenth century were equal in beauty and very similar in style to those of the Anglo-Norman miniaturists, but they do not appear to have been produced in such immense quantities as they were in the more northern monasteries.

In the fifteenth century the influence of the Church tended to check the study of the Bible on the part of the laity, and very few manuscripts of the Bible were then written. Their place was to some extent taken by the Books of Hours, enormous numbers of which were produced in France and the Netherlands, all through the fifteenth century; see page [141].

French illuminated Manuscripts of the XIVth and XVth centuries. To this class belong a great many of the magnificent manuscripts of the Apocalypse which have been described under the head of Anglo-Norman manuscripts. No hard and fast line can be drawn between the manuscript styles of Normandy and the northern provinces of France.

Archaism of style.

Archaism of style.In the fourteenth century Paris and Saint Denis were important centres for the production of manuscripts of the most highly finished kind. Historiated Bibles, both in Latin and in French, continued to be produced in great number till past the middle of the fourteenth century. Some of these French translations, executed as late as 1370, are what may be called archaistic in style; that is to say, the subjects selected and the method of their treatment and execution continued to be almost the same as that of the historiated Vulgates of France and Normandy at the beginning of the century. The miniatures are very minute in scale, and are often painted on backgrounds of the brilliant chess-board and other diapers in red, blue and gold. Though extremely decorative and beautiful, the miniatures of this class are not quite equal to those of the thirteenth century Bibles, either in vigour of drawing or in delicacy of touch.

The ivy pattern.

The ivy pattern.On the whole, in the fourteenth century, the French schools of illumination were the finest in the world, and the manuscripts of Northern France were the most sumptuously decorated of all. One specially beautiful style of ornament was introduced early in the century and lasted with little modification for more than a hundred years. This was the method of writing on a wide margined page, and then covering the broad marginal space by delicate flowing scrolls or curves of foliage, leaves and small blossoms of various shapes being used, but more especially one form of triple-pointed leaf which is known commonly as the "ivy" or "thorn-leaf pattern." Brilliant effect is given to these rich borders by forming some of the leaves in burnished gold; and variety is given to the foliage by the introduction of minutely painted birds of many kinds, song-birds, game-birds and others, treated with much graceful realism[^[127]].

Fig. 23. Miniature representing King Conrad of Bohemia, with an attendant, hawking; from a manuscript of the fourteenth century, showing the influence of French art.