"A.D. 1402. In expensis in alumpnacione magni gradalis in choro per dominum Ricardum de Stretton, 20s."
Throughout these accounts, and others too lengthy to note, it will be noticed that the value of the parchment, gold, colours, and current expenses, falls not very far short of the total cost of the labour of the illuminator.
"Treasures of Art in Great Britain," vol. i. p. 160. The same distinguished critic, who has made a special study of the illuminated MSS. of Europe, and especially of the French (see his "Kunstwerken und Kunstlern in Paris"), in describing some of the pictures in Queen Mary's Psalter (unquestionably English), observes (p. 166), "Upon the whole, I am acquainted with no miniatures, either Netherlandish, German, or French, of this time" (the 14th century) "which can compare in artistic value with the pictures executed by the best hand in this manuscript."
It is to be regretted that Count Bastard failed to complete more than thirty-two plates of the splendid work he announced under the title of "Librairie de Jean de France, Duc de Berri, frère de Charles V., publié en son entier pour la première fois." Paris, 1834. Fol. max. &c.
"De l'Art en Allemagne," tome ii. page 153. Paris, 1842.
See casts from his bronze doors and columns in the Crystal Palace, and his Three Gospels in the treasury of the Cathedral at Hildesheim. In Dr. F. H. Müller's "Beiträge zur teutschen Kunst und Geschichtskunde," very careful engravings of the plastic art of Bernward and Willigis may be compared with facsimiles of contemporary German illumination.