A common feature in the illuminated pages of the books of the Middle Ages was the dividing of the pages into four compartments with ornamental borders, and each compartment holding the figure of a saint or symbols of the Evangelists, or having a miniature on the top half of the page and two small columns of text below.
Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, with classical treatment of the figure designs, may be seen in the King’s Library at the British Museum. The figures have the attenuated Byzantine character, with the linear treatment of the draperies, and with the long lobe-like forms which strongly mark the intended position of the limbs under the drapery; while others show the influence of the early Christian paintings of the catacombs at Rome and Naples.
The “Charter” of the foundation of Newminster at Winchester (966) and several “Gospels” in Latin of the eleventh century in the British Museum, are examples of the best kind of Anglo-Saxon illuminated manuscripts.
“Psalteries,” “Gospels,” and botanical works known as “Herbals” were among the principal kinds of illustrated books, which were executed in considerable numbers during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The text in these books was usually in solid columns, neatly written in a kind of half-uncial letter in Latin, with large initials and surrounded by broad borders, having little scrolls and trefoil leaves or flowers in which four or six miniatures were placed at intervals. Some pages had the upper half or more occupied by a miniature and had less text, but nearly always there were the accompanying delicate borders designed with great spirit and freedom, and consisting of ornament made up of leaves, flowers, fruit, stems, lines, and spirals, executed on the vellum ground in bright colours and burnished gold.
A characteristic of some of the missals of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was the calendar pages at the beginning of the book. The pages which contained the calendar had also, in some cases, miniatures in the borders representing the seasons.
The Bedford Missal (1442), in the British Museum, is a good example of the best French book decoration of that period. It contains a calendar, and was the work of a French artist, though executed in England.
Towards the end of the fifteenth century the miniature began to assume more importance and to occupy the whole of the page. The borders had become more realistic in treatment; foliage, flowers, and insects were rendered almost naturally on gold or coloured grounds, with cast shadows, so as to give the utmost relief.
This treatment was not an improvement on the former flat Gothic style, as it tended to lead to shadowy and meretricious work.
Two of the very finest books of this period are the “Romance of the Rose,” in the British Museum, and the Grimani “Breviary” in St. Mark’s, Venice. In the latter magnificent book some of the miniatures are ascribed to the Flemish artist Memling.
The miniatures of the splendid choir books of Siena Cathedral are the masterly designs of Girolamo da Cremona and Liberale da Verona, who were famous at this kind of work. The quantity, variety, and purely Italian character of the decoration of these books would almost be sufficient to form a school of Renaissance art in itself.