DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14714#0066
DESCRIPTION OF MS.
THE COMEDIES OF TERENCE
IN THE LIBRARY OF THE ARSENAL OF PARIS,
VOLUME, containing the works of Terence, preserved in the library of the Arsenal in Paris, has furnished the
present truly magnificent specimen. The book, as indicated by the royal banners, was evidently written and
illuminated for a sovereign of France—possibly Charles VI.; but most probably, as the style of illumination
would suggest, for his son Charles VII., during his early predilection for learning and the arts, fostered by
the beautiful and accomplished Agnes Sorel, in the early part of the fifteenth century. The style of art
exhibited in this work is that of the highest development of the phase of illumination that may be strictly
termed Gothic ; before the appearance of those new features which the revival of the taste for Roman and Grecian models had
already begun to engraft upon the art of illumination in Italy, but which had not yet passed the Alps. The present illumination,
consisting of a picture enclosed with a highly decorative border, exhibits no trace of these innovations,—at all events in the border
portion,—and may be considered, as I have said, a pure specimen of the highest degree of development of that style of art, which had
been gradually unfolding its capacities since the beginning of the thirteenth century, and which may be generally termed the
" Angular Gothic." In this exquisitely beautiful border we find nothing but strictly northern fancies, in which the picturesque
association of flowers and fairies perform so prominent a part, and which are here so gracefully and artistically employed as decorative
features : leaves expand to disclose a race of pigmy beings within their folds,—and flowers unfold their gorgeous petals to allow tiny
standard-bearers to burst from their cells. Here, also, we see the northern heraldry of that chivalric age made equally subservient to
the designer's will,—the emblazoned banners, not merely indicating for whom the book was decorated, but forming a beautiful portion of
the decoration itself, with such infinite art are they worked into the composition. Then we have the tortuous labellings, with the
Gothic letters, exhibiting the motto " De bien en mieux." These, and many other strictly northern devices, form this graceful
border, the whole woven together and treated with that peculiar angularity and intricacy of outline which form the principal feature
and perhaps the principal charm of the style.
The only part of the page which exhibits some leaning towards the classical is in the picture contained within the border
just described, in the figures of which the illuminator endeavours to display something approaching to correct Roman costume, instead
of the hitherto prevalent custom of dressing all personages in the common habits of the time. In this attempt, however, he has
given us, to a great extent, his own notions,—modified, no doubt, by a reference to such authorities as were within his reach,—in the
shape of bassi relievi and pieces of sculpture then still existing about buildings since swept away ;—for it would seem that more works of
Roman art have been destroyed during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, than during the long ages of comparative
barbarism that preceded them.
The circular form given by the artist of the Roman theatre accords with the form which he would see in the finely preserved
amphitheatres of Aries and Nismes; and, as usual at the period, he has made his plan more clear by inscribing their names on
the different portions of the building, &c., such as theatre (theatrum), players f joculatoresj, Roman people or spectators fpopulus
Romanus), &c, &c. Below we have a singular bird's-eye view of a town (in which the laws of relative proportion are not much
observed), with people on their way to the theatre, and others about entering it. By a section of one of the houses, Terence himself
is shown, presenting a book, his last comedy perhaps, to a personage at the door,—probably intended to represent the manager of a
theatre ; or possibly the artist had a more poetical view of the subject, and intended to show Terence presenting his immortal works to
the Roman people—a lasting glory to their language, even when it should cease to be spoken. The buildings are in the usual style found
in manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
The book is written with exquisite care, and is full of illuminated letters, such as the A at the commencement of this description;
but there are no borderings of any importance after the first page, and the only other ornamental feature is the rather unusual one, for
the period, of the title of the subject at the top of each page in ornamental letters, of which the letters E U N U at the head
of this description are specimens, being part of the word Eunuchus, which occurs all through the comedy of the Eunuch, the other
portion of the word being on the opposite page.
THE COMEDIES OF TERENCE
IN THE LIBRARY OF THE ARSENAL OF PARIS,
VOLUME, containing the works of Terence, preserved in the library of the Arsenal in Paris, has furnished the
present truly magnificent specimen. The book, as indicated by the royal banners, was evidently written and
illuminated for a sovereign of France—possibly Charles VI.; but most probably, as the style of illumination
would suggest, for his son Charles VII., during his early predilection for learning and the arts, fostered by
the beautiful and accomplished Agnes Sorel, in the early part of the fifteenth century. The style of art
exhibited in this work is that of the highest development of the phase of illumination that may be strictly
termed Gothic ; before the appearance of those new features which the revival of the taste for Roman and Grecian models had
already begun to engraft upon the art of illumination in Italy, but which had not yet passed the Alps. The present illumination,
consisting of a picture enclosed with a highly decorative border, exhibits no trace of these innovations,—at all events in the border
portion,—and may be considered, as I have said, a pure specimen of the highest degree of development of that style of art, which had
been gradually unfolding its capacities since the beginning of the thirteenth century, and which may be generally termed the
" Angular Gothic." In this exquisitely beautiful border we find nothing but strictly northern fancies, in which the picturesque
association of flowers and fairies perform so prominent a part, and which are here so gracefully and artistically employed as decorative
features : leaves expand to disclose a race of pigmy beings within their folds,—and flowers unfold their gorgeous petals to allow tiny
standard-bearers to burst from their cells. Here, also, we see the northern heraldry of that chivalric age made equally subservient to
the designer's will,—the emblazoned banners, not merely indicating for whom the book was decorated, but forming a beautiful portion of
the decoration itself, with such infinite art are they worked into the composition. Then we have the tortuous labellings, with the
Gothic letters, exhibiting the motto " De bien en mieux." These, and many other strictly northern devices, form this graceful
border, the whole woven together and treated with that peculiar angularity and intricacy of outline which form the principal feature
and perhaps the principal charm of the style.
The only part of the page which exhibits some leaning towards the classical is in the picture contained within the border
just described, in the figures of which the illuminator endeavours to display something approaching to correct Roman costume, instead
of the hitherto prevalent custom of dressing all personages in the common habits of the time. In this attempt, however, he has
given us, to a great extent, his own notions,—modified, no doubt, by a reference to such authorities as were within his reach,—in the
shape of bassi relievi and pieces of sculpture then still existing about buildings since swept away ;—for it would seem that more works of
Roman art have been destroyed during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, than during the long ages of comparative
barbarism that preceded them.
The circular form given by the artist of the Roman theatre accords with the form which he would see in the finely preserved
amphitheatres of Aries and Nismes; and, as usual at the period, he has made his plan more clear by inscribing their names on
the different portions of the building, &c., such as theatre (theatrum), players f joculatoresj, Roman people or spectators fpopulus
Romanus), &c, &c. Below we have a singular bird's-eye view of a town (in which the laws of relative proportion are not much
observed), with people on their way to the theatre, and others about entering it. By a section of one of the houses, Terence himself
is shown, presenting a book, his last comedy perhaps, to a personage at the door,—probably intended to represent the manager of a
theatre ; or possibly the artist had a more poetical view of the subject, and intended to show Terence presenting his immortal works to
the Roman people—a lasting glory to their language, even when it should cease to be spoken. The buildings are in the usual style found
in manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
The book is written with exquisite care, and is full of illuminated letters, such as the A at the commencement of this description;
but there are no borderings of any importance after the first page, and the only other ornamental feature is the rather unusual one, for
the period, of the title of the subject at the top of each page in ornamental letters, of which the letters E U N U at the head
of this description are specimens, being part of the word Eunuchus, which occurs all through the comedy of the Eunuch, the other
portion of the word being on the opposite page.