THE LINDISFARNE GOSPELS.
By kind permission of
the British Museum.
CLASSICAL AND BYZANTINE ILLUMINATION
It is known from the Epigrams of Martial, who himself lived in the first century, that vellum MSS. were illuminated as early as A.D. 100. Although this was undoubtedly the case, very few MSS. have survived. It is very difficult to state exactly the date of the earliest of these, but most authorities are of the opinion that the third or fourth century is the earliest date that any of them can be assigned to. Some think that the MS. of Virgil in the Vatican (No. 3225) is the oldest illuminated MS. This MS. is written on seventy-six leaves of vellum. It has fifty miniatures, but of this number five are scarcely visible at the present time. These miniatures are framed with gilt or coloured bands, but the MS. displays nothing in the way of ornament which is generally associated with illuminated work.
Another early MS. is the Ambrosian Iliad, at Milan, which some think to be of the third century and others of the fourth or fifth. This is noted for its fine handwriting and also its illustrations.
These early MSS. are really illustrated rather than illuminated, as the term is generally understood.
Following on after this comes the Byzantine School of illumination. The most important of the early MSS. are the Dioscorides and the Genesis of the Vienna Library. These two MSS. are both thought to be of the sixth century. The first of these, called after its principal author the “Dioscorides,” is a collection of treatises on botany, hunting, etc., by several Greek physicians. This was written for the Princess Juliana Anicia, daughter of Flavius Anicius Olybrius, who was Emperor of the West in 472. It is written in uncial characters and contains, amongst other things, a portrait of Juliana. It contains also a number of coloured drawings of plants, birds, insects, etc., illustrating the text.
In the Vienna Genesis the text is written in gold and silver on purple vellum. It has forty-eight miniatures which are placed in square frames, and there is no marginal decoration. Gold is occasionally used, but it is not burnished.
There is also a fragment of a Genesis Codex in the British Museum (Cott. Otho. B. VI.), which is supposed to be of the same period.