[Footnote 72: Muratori—Antiq. Ital. Medii AEvi, Dissert. 43.]
We shall therefore commence our review of the English art of illumination with the name of the Irish abbot already alluded to, as the first upon record, Dagaeus, abbot of Iniskeltra, who died about the year 587, and excelled not only in writing, but in binding and decoration. The next in order is the monk Genereus, an Anglo-Saxon, who had both studied and taught in the Irish schools; his services were retained by Adamnanus to teach the Saxon monks in the monastery of Iona; and the third, as we have before mentioned, is an Irish monk, Ultan, who, at the end of the eighth century, was renowned as an illuminator. The seed fell upon good soil, and bore abundant fruit, for we next read of Eadfrith and Ethelwold, both abbots of Lindisfarne, and bishops of Durham, who, early in the eighth century, wrote and illuminated the magnificent copy of the Gospels in golden letters, to the honor of St. Cuthbert, which is now preserved in the Cottonian Library at the British Museum, and known as the Durham Book. There is good reason to suppose that Dunstan excelled in illumination. In a manuscript in the Bodleian Library, there is a drawing purporting to be by his hand—a figure of Christ appearing to the prelate, who is prostrate at his feet. Godeman, whom we have also mentioned, was chaplain of Ethelwold, bishop of Durham, at whose instigation he undertook the task of writing and illuminating the celebrated Benedictional, which is preserved in the Duke of Devonshire's library. In return for this work, Ethelwold made him abbot of Thorney. He flourished about 970. Ervenius, a monk of St. Edmonsbury Abbey, was renowned as illuminator, about ten years later. In a life of Wulstan, Bishop of Winchester, written by William of Malmesbury, we are told that Ervenius was his tutor, and that young Wulstan was first attracted to letters by the beautiful illustrations of a sacramentarium and Psalter, from which he was taught. "Thus," says the biographer, "the youth Wulstan acquired, almost by miracle, the chief heads of the most precious things, for while those lustrous beauties entered in at the apertures of his eyes, he received the [{311}] knowledge of sacred letters into his very part." [Footnote 73]
[Footnote 73: Habebat tunc (Wulstan) magistrum Ervenium nomine, in scribendo et quidlibet coloribus effingendo peritum. Is libros scriptos Sacramentarium et Psalterium quorum principales literas auro effigiaverit puero Wulstano delegandos curabit. Ille preciosorum apicum captus miraculo dum pulchritudinem intentis oculis rimatur et scientiam literatum internis haurit medullis.—GULIEL. MALMS.: De Vita Wulstan, in Ang. Sacra, vol. ii., p. 224.]
A similar instance is recorded in the life of Alfred, who, when a child, was drawn toward books by the charm of the illustrations. In Brompton's Chronicle we are told that Osmund, the Bishop of Salisbury, in the year 1076, did not disregard the labor of writing, binding, and illuminating of books. [Footnote 74]
[Footnote 74: Ipse episcopus libros scribere, illuminare et ligare, non fastidiret.—Brompton Chron. ann. 1076.]
Eadwinus, a monk of Canterbury, in the middle of the twelfth century, has left a monument of his labors behind him, in the shape of an elaborate psalter, preserved in Trinity College, Cambridge. At the end of this psalter are two drawings, one of Christ Church and the monastery at Canterbury, and the other a full-length portrait of himself. In the same volume are many historical figures, with initial letters in gold, silver, and vermilion. We include in our list Matthew Paris, the historian, who, although he is supposed to have been a Frenchman, yet passed his life in St. Alban's monastery, wrote an English history, [Footnote 75] and may at least be taken as a naturalized, if not a born Englishman.
[Footnote 75: Or rather a continuation of one, the first part of it, from 1066 to 1235, is attributed to Roger of Wendover, who was in the same monastery. William of Rishanger continued it to the year 1273, from the point where Matthew Paris leaves off (1259), but the whole is frequently quoted as by Matthew Paris. The probabilities are greater in favor of his being an Englishman than the contrary. His works were admired by the early Reformers, for the bold and vigorous manner in which he wrote upon ecclesiastical affairs.]
He is reported to have had a good knowledge of painting, architecture, and the mathematics. The history which is called Historia Major, up to the year 1235, was in all probability the work of another. Matthew Paris wrote the continuation, and copied the whole as it is now in the British Museum, and illustrated it. The next English name rescued from the oblivion of the past, is that of Alan Strayler, who was also a monk of St. Alban's, about the year 1463. His work is contained in a volume called the Golden Register of St. Alban's, extant in the Cottonian library. [Footnote 76]
[Footnote 76: Cotton MSS.—Nero, D vii.]
It is a record of the benefactors of the monastery down to the year 1463. His own portrait is inserted as a benefactor, inasmuch as, according to the text, "he had given to the adorning of the present book very much labor, and had also remitted a debt of 3s. 4d. due to him for colors." Beneath his portrait are two lines in Latin, to the effect that—