A charming example is shown in (f), which is from a Book of Hours (Stowe MS. 17). The initial D contains a miniature, as also does the A. This is probably either late thirteenth or early fourteenth century. David and Goliath are also represented. The whole MS. is delightful in style.
[Fig. 24] shows some more examples. Another page from a Book of Hours is given in (g) (Egerton MS. 2781). This is a fourteenth-century MS. The initials and borders are rather rough in technique, but they are very interesting from the point of view of design. The large initial D has a miniature representing a legendary story of the childhood of Christ.
The initial A shown in (h) is from a fourteenth century Missal (Harley MS. 2891). The letter is filled with a most delightful miniature.
The next example (i) is a very beautiful initial taken from a Bible executed in England during the latter part of the fourteenth century (Royal MS. 1 E. IX.). A number of the initials are filled with foliage, as in this case, and others contain miniatures. The backgrounds of these letters are usually of burnished gold with patterns indented upon them.
A simple, but very beautiful, type is given in (j). This is taken from an extremely fine MS. written, also, at the end of the fourteenth century (Royal MS. 20 B. VI.). It is a very interesting MS., being an Epistle by Philippe de Maizières to Richard II. of England, advocating peace and friendship between him and Charles VI. of France. This type of initial was fairly common at this period. It is a type of letter that should be very useful for the beginner.
Fig. 24.
In the fifteenth century the initial letter lost a good deal of its importance. The result of this was that the decoration became debased in character, until it finally became nothing more or less than a number of naturalistic renderings of flowers and insects, painted on a gold border and represented as throwing shadows upon it. There is, however, a certain amount of sweetness about some of this work, especially when it is compared with some of the work of the present day. However, some of the MSS. that were produced in the earlier part of this century are very fine pieces of work. The example illustrated by (k) is from a Psalter of Henry VI., about 1425–1430 (Cotton MS. Domitian A. XVII.). The large initial D is joined to a miniature.
Several initials are given in (l). These are all of the thirteenth century. The E is of raised and burnished gold on a blue block, the centre being red and the whole finished with white lining. The N, P, and U are of a type largely used, being generally red with blue pen-work, or vice versâ. The others are similar to the E, but are shown as an example of how they were joined when coming close together.
Excellent reproductions of these examples have been published by the British Museum authorities in a series of collotype plates, the only exception being (e) in [Fig. 23], of which an illustration is published in the Guide to the MSS., Part III.