Some of the border-frames are drawn in sepia, others in red-brown or burnt siena, and highly finished with gold. The writing is a small Roman hand. On the whole it is richer in illustration than 18853, but not so perfect in drawing, yet it is a very fine MS. Sometimes it has a border like those in the “Hours of Anne of Brittany.” On fol. 26 v. is a curious border of twisted ribbons covered with mottoes, such as “Virtutis fortuna comes,” “Ingrates servire nephas,” etc.
Some of the tiny miniatures of the saints in the Memoriæ are very charmingly painted: St. Mary Magdalene, for instance, on fol. 147 v. The pillar architecture of some of the borders, with pendant festoons of flowers, is also very handsome.
18855, folio, is a Book of Offices written in a Gothic text. The miniatures are large full-page paintings within architectural frames or porches, with coloured pillars or pilasters with panels of rich blue, covered with golden traceries, bronze gold pendants at side,—occasional borders as in the “Hours of Anne of Brittany.” The work is of the older school of Tours, but loaded with ornamental details from North Italian pilaster-work. Among the best miniatures are the Nativity (34 v.), the Adoration of the Magi (42 v.), and the Bathsheba. The last perhaps a little too open a scene for a lady's bathroom, but placed within a most gorgeous architectural window or doorway (fol. 62 v). Compare also Harl. 5925, No. 574, for a title-page of French Renaissance style from a printed book, which suggests Venice as the source of the style of 18853.
In the National Library at Paris are, of course, a number of this class of MSS., such as the Offices (MS. Lat. 10563), “Officium Beatæ Mariæ Virginis ad usum Romanor” (1531), or the exquisitely painted “Heures de Henry 2d” (fds. Lat. 1429), or the magnificent “Epistres d'Ovide” of Louisa of Savoy (fds. fr. 875), and others.
By no means of less importance we may cite the beautiful volume belonging to the late Comte d'Haussonville, now in the Musée Condé at Chantilly, called the “Heures du Connétable Anne de Montmorency,” and the “Heures de Dinteville” (MS. Lat. 10558), the decoration of which is quite on a par with the “Heures de Montmorency,” or those of Henry II., also the Psalter of Claude Gouffier (Arsenal Lib., 5095), containing the Psalms of Marot.
It is scarcely worth while to carry the subject further. What is done later than Francis II. does not grow finer or better: it only becomes more overloaded with ornament, too much gold, too much richness. Even foliages are often variegated like pearls, or change gradually from colour to colour on the same sweep of acanthus as in a MS. in the British Museum attributed to Pierre Mignard (“Sol Gallicus,” Add. 23745). Compare also the “Heures de Louis XIV.” Now and then an exceptional work, like that of D'Eaubonne at Rouen, belongs to no particular school.
CHAPTER X
SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE ILLUMINATION
Late period of Spanish illumination—Isidore of Seville—Archives at Madrid—Barcelona—Toledo—Madrid—Choir-books of the Escorial—Philip II.—Illuminators of the choir-books—The size and beauty of the volumes—Fray Andrés de Leon and other artists—Italian influence—Giovanni Battista Scorza of Genoa—Antonio de Holanda, well-known Portuguese miniaturist in sixteenth century—His son Francesco—The choir-books at Belem—French invasion—Missal of Gonçalvez—Sandoval Genealogies—Portuguese Genealogies in British Museum—The Stowe Missal of John III.