DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14714#0052
DESCRIPTION OF MS.
THE SALISBURY BOOK,
A MAGNIFICENT LECTION ARIUM, IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
A i. k eat portion of this fine manuscript has been lost, but from what remains it appears that every page was richly illuminated in
the style of the annexed specimen. From the dimensions of the volume, an immense folio, the size of the writing, and the original
character of the decorations, this book forms one of the finest and most interesting existing monuments of the art of illumination at the
close of the fourteenth century. Some of the features of ornament, and their mode of introduction, are quite peculiar to this
manuscript, and will be referred to more in detail in the accompanying text of this work.
This book was executed for John Lord Lovell, of Tichmersh,* for the purpose of presentation to the Cathedral Church of
Salisbury, as appears by a large miniature at the commencement of the volume, representing the Lord Lovell in the act of receiving
the book from the friar John Sifrewas ; the miniature bearing an inscription on a scrolled label to this effect: —" Pray for the soul of the
Lord Lovell, who ordered this book for the Cathedral Church of Sarum, for the spiritual memory of himself and his wife." The Latin
is abbreviated, as, " Orate pro ana dni Lovell qui hue libru ordinavit ecclie Catthedrali Sar' p' spuali memoria sui et uxoris;" which
should read, " Orate pro anima domini Lovell qui hunc librum ordinavit ecclesie Catthedrali Sarum pro spirituali memoria sui et uxoris."
The volume was most probably partially destroyed and removed from Salisbury at the suppression of the Monasteries, in the
reign of Henry VIII. By an inscription and pedigree inserted at the end of the volume in the year 1600, it appears to have been
subsequently discovered by Joseph Holland, of the Inner Temple, a descendant of Lord Lovell, with whose family, however, it did not
remain, for we find an accurate description of it in the sale catalogue of the books of " Mr. Thomas Grainger, gent.," dated 1732,
at which sale it was doubtless purchased by Edward Harley, second Earl of Oxford, of that name; and, with the whole of the Harleian
collection, it came eventually to the British Museum.
The page contains the last few words of some foregoing sentence, and then a portion of the " Sermon on the Mount," beginning
Matt., ch. v., ver. 1:—" In those days (it reads), seeing the multitudes, Jesus ascended into a mountain ;" after this it continues as in the
usual version, with the exception of inverting the order of the verses, beginning—"Blessed are the meek;" and "Blessed are
they that mourn." The Latin, without the abbreviations, should read : —
"me in ipsis sit, et ego in eis in die evangelium
in illo tempore S>- Matheum
videns turbas ihesus: as-
cendit in montem et
cum sedisset: aecesserunt
ad eum discipuli ejus. Et apereriens os suum do-
-cebat eos dicens. Beati pauperes spiritu quoniam
ipsorum est regnum celorum. Beati mites quoniam
ipsi possidebunt terram. Beati qui lugent
quoniam ipsi eonsolabuntur. Beati qui esuriunt et
siciunt justiciam quoniam ipsi saturabuntur. Bea-
-ti misericordes; quoniam ipsi miseracordiam consequent.
Beati mundo corde, quoniam ipsi deum videbunt.
Beati paciflci quoniam filii dei vocabuntur."
The niche containing the two figures, with its long slender support, is intended to form the letter I, beginning the Mords
" In illo"—its form, however, is rendered less apparent by the addition of the square picture, containing " all the Saints," and the
"Virgin" enthroned in the midst; referred to in the labels held by the male and female figures in the niche; which are evidently
intended for the Lord and Lady Lovell. The scroll of the male figure has, " Pray for us, all ye saints of God"—(Orate pro nobis
omnes sancti Dei). That of the female figure has, " May the Virgin bless us with our relations"—(Nos cum parentibus benedicat Virgo).
The scroll on the top is, " As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters"—(Sicut lilia inter spinas, sic arnica mea inter
filias)—Solomon's Song, ch. ii., ver. 2. The scroll held by the angel has, "In honour of the blessed Virgin and all the saints"—(In
honore beate Marie et omnium sanctorum); in allusion to the prayers of the two principal figures. The whole design, as well as
that of all the other decorations, was most probably arranged under t he special direction of the Lord Lovell himself, as seems implied
by the word ordinavit in the scroll accompanying the large portraits at the commencement of the volume;—the friar Sifrewas, there
depicted, being most probably the artist illuminator who thus carried out the suggestions of his patron.
* The will of this Lord Lovell is dated 1408, in the ninth of Henry IV
THE SALISBURY BOOK,
A MAGNIFICENT LECTION ARIUM, IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
A i. k eat portion of this fine manuscript has been lost, but from what remains it appears that every page was richly illuminated in
the style of the annexed specimen. From the dimensions of the volume, an immense folio, the size of the writing, and the original
character of the decorations, this book forms one of the finest and most interesting existing monuments of the art of illumination at the
close of the fourteenth century. Some of the features of ornament, and their mode of introduction, are quite peculiar to this
manuscript, and will be referred to more in detail in the accompanying text of this work.
This book was executed for John Lord Lovell, of Tichmersh,* for the purpose of presentation to the Cathedral Church of
Salisbury, as appears by a large miniature at the commencement of the volume, representing the Lord Lovell in the act of receiving
the book from the friar John Sifrewas ; the miniature bearing an inscription on a scrolled label to this effect: —" Pray for the soul of the
Lord Lovell, who ordered this book for the Cathedral Church of Sarum, for the spiritual memory of himself and his wife." The Latin
is abbreviated, as, " Orate pro ana dni Lovell qui hue libru ordinavit ecclie Catthedrali Sar' p' spuali memoria sui et uxoris;" which
should read, " Orate pro anima domini Lovell qui hunc librum ordinavit ecclesie Catthedrali Sarum pro spirituali memoria sui et uxoris."
The volume was most probably partially destroyed and removed from Salisbury at the suppression of the Monasteries, in the
reign of Henry VIII. By an inscription and pedigree inserted at the end of the volume in the year 1600, it appears to have been
subsequently discovered by Joseph Holland, of the Inner Temple, a descendant of Lord Lovell, with whose family, however, it did not
remain, for we find an accurate description of it in the sale catalogue of the books of " Mr. Thomas Grainger, gent.," dated 1732,
at which sale it was doubtless purchased by Edward Harley, second Earl of Oxford, of that name; and, with the whole of the Harleian
collection, it came eventually to the British Museum.
The page contains the last few words of some foregoing sentence, and then a portion of the " Sermon on the Mount," beginning
Matt., ch. v., ver. 1:—" In those days (it reads), seeing the multitudes, Jesus ascended into a mountain ;" after this it continues as in the
usual version, with the exception of inverting the order of the verses, beginning—"Blessed are the meek;" and "Blessed are
they that mourn." The Latin, without the abbreviations, should read : —
"me in ipsis sit, et ego in eis in die evangelium
in illo tempore S>- Matheum
videns turbas ihesus: as-
cendit in montem et
cum sedisset: aecesserunt
ad eum discipuli ejus. Et apereriens os suum do-
-cebat eos dicens. Beati pauperes spiritu quoniam
ipsorum est regnum celorum. Beati mites quoniam
ipsi possidebunt terram. Beati qui lugent
quoniam ipsi eonsolabuntur. Beati qui esuriunt et
siciunt justiciam quoniam ipsi saturabuntur. Bea-
-ti misericordes; quoniam ipsi miseracordiam consequent.
Beati mundo corde, quoniam ipsi deum videbunt.
Beati paciflci quoniam filii dei vocabuntur."
The niche containing the two figures, with its long slender support, is intended to form the letter I, beginning the Mords
" In illo"—its form, however, is rendered less apparent by the addition of the square picture, containing " all the Saints," and the
"Virgin" enthroned in the midst; referred to in the labels held by the male and female figures in the niche; which are evidently
intended for the Lord and Lady Lovell. The scroll of the male figure has, " Pray for us, all ye saints of God"—(Orate pro nobis
omnes sancti Dei). That of the female figure has, " May the Virgin bless us with our relations"—(Nos cum parentibus benedicat Virgo).
The scroll on the top is, " As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters"—(Sicut lilia inter spinas, sic arnica mea inter
filias)—Solomon's Song, ch. ii., ver. 2. The scroll held by the angel has, "In honour of the blessed Virgin and all the saints"—(In
honore beate Marie et omnium sanctorum); in allusion to the prayers of the two principal figures. The whole design, as well as
that of all the other decorations, was most probably arranged under t he special direction of the Lord Lovell himself, as seems implied
by the word ordinavit in the scroll accompanying the large portraits at the commencement of the volume;—the friar Sifrewas, there
depicted, being most probably the artist illuminator who thus carried out the suggestions of his patron.
* The will of this Lord Lovell is dated 1408, in the ninth of Henry IV