BY H. N. HUMPHREYS, ESQ.
LONDON:
WILLIAM SMITH, 113, FLEET STREET.
MDCCCXLIV.
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LONDON:
BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS
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ADVERTISEMENT.
The idea of publishing these illuminations was suggested by the great success which has attended the reprint of the Chronicles of Monstrelet and Froissart; the extensive sale of which books bears strong testimony to the searching spirit of inquiry now abroad. We are no longer content to read our early history through the filtered medium of a compilation, but seek it in the vivid pages of the chroniclers, who drew from the life, and sketched off in simple and quaint, but earnest language, the stirring panorama of their times. But the pleasure of reading such an historian as Froissart, in an ordinary printed book, is small when compared with that of reading him in one of the curious manuscripts of his own time.
To unclose the gilded clasps of one of those ponderous velvet-bound volumes, to turn over the crisp vellum, and read the story of those exciting times traced in quaint Gothic characters by careful clerks; but above all to admire the curious and elaborate borderings of the illuminated pages, and dwell on the miniature pictures, wrought with the greatest care and beauty by the most skilful contemporary limners, to embody more tangibly the narration of the author, is indeed a pleasure;—yet one which but few can enjoy. To afford that enjoyment to the many, and place before them some of the most interesting of these rare illuminations, is the object of the present publication.
The British Museum contains a magnificent MS. of Froissart, profusely illuminated with such miniature pictures. This MS. came into the Museum with the Harleian Collection, but how it found its way into that collection is unknown; we possess, however, only two of the volumes, the other two being in the Bibliothèque Royale of Paris. The work appears to be one of Flemish art, probably executed by some Flemish artist resident in Paris, as the public buildings in Paris are very correctly delineated, whilst those of other places are frequently altogether imaginary. It seems likely that the work was executed for Philip De Commines the historian, as it was evidently produced in his time, and as the arms of De Commines frequently occur in the ornamental borderings in the way it was usual to introduce those of the person for whom such a book was illuminated. The MS. is supposed[Pg 10] to have been written between the years 1460 and 1480, very shortly after the time of Froissart; so that, though it is true that artists of that time painted all costumes from those of their own day, yet, as the fashions did not change so rapidly then as now, we may fairly imagine that we see the heroes and worthies of Froissart paraded before us in the very dresses which they wore; their glittering and complicated plate armour, their embroidered surcoats, emblazoned banners, and all the gorgeous paraphernalia of chivalry.
In these pictures we see them at their tournaments, exhibiting their well-trained horsemanship, their strength and skill in arms,—in their wars we see them in the more earnest exercise of their reckless valour; we see their vast engines of warfare which preceded cannon; and the first rude cannon of wood hooped with iron—we see also their frail ships, in which, without fear, the daring spirits of those times trusted themselves recklessly to the treacherous ocean. We see the burghers in their towns, and the lords in their castles; we see them in the intimacy of their domestic life and habits; we see the very patterns of the hangings of their rooms, and every minute incident of their household arrangements, their banquets and their festivals, represented by an artist of no mean skill; and when we consider that these illuminations were executed before Raphael was born, we cannot (with all their faults of perspective) but be astonished at their beauty and life-like accuracy, and frequently at the fine arrangement of drapery, and beautiful distribution of colour.
The present illuminations, copied from the precious MS. above alluded to, will be made as near fac-similes as possible, without any attempt at correction, or alteration in the drawing, so as to show the true spirit of the Gothic artist, and exhibit the state of art at the period. They are also the same size as the originals; yet so arranged, by occasionally sacrificing a little margin, that our subscribers may bind them up with the recent edition of Froissart (now the only one in print), and so possess a book nearly as interesting as the original MS. itself.
The ornamental letters given on the title-page, as well as the border in which are the arms of De Commines, are taken from the MS. referred to.[Pg 11]
LIST OF PLATES,
WITH
REFERENCES TO SMITH’S EDITION OF “FROISSART,” IN TWO VOLUMES.