DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14714#0022
THE ILLUMINATED BOOKS
ILLUMINATED DIPLOMAS.
Example._the frontispiece of an illuminated diploma
in the british museum.
In Venice it was the practice to illuminate in a very rich
manner the first page of the diplomas granted to every
governor of a Venetian dependency, on his appointment. In
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, some of these illumina-
tions were of a very high character of art; it heing part of
the duties of the painter of the Republic for the time being,
to paint the principal portion. The one I have given as an
example is a work of the sixteenth century, and the miniature
was formerly supposed to be a late production of the hand of
Titian, who was painter to the Republic at or near that
period The excellency of the work affords some support to
the hypothesis. The border, or rather frame, is in a very
grand"style of ornament, in the same feeling as some of the
magnificent ceilings of the ducal palace, executed about that
time.
THE SPANISH SCHOOL OF ILLUMINATION.
The Spanish style of illumination ought, perhaps, to have
found a place here, had space permitted, but I have not
attempted to separate the French, Flemish, and German
schools, as they all followed pretty nearly the same course;
and the Spanish (with the exception of a Moresque character,
produced by the horse-shoe arch in the architectural features
of early illuminations) followed a very similar routine of
development to that of the other countries of Western Europe.
The last specimens being illuminations of printed books as late
as the middle of the seventeenth century, in a debased but
brilliant style, one example of which, a most superb specimen,
was destroyed by the unfortunate fire which consumed the fine
library at Hafod. _
THE CHARACTER OF ILLUMINATIONS AT THE
END OF THE SIXTEENTH, AND DURING THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
Example.—a page from the prayer-book of louis xiv.
It may be conceived that the wide extension of the per-
fected art of printing, which, even in the beginning of the six-
teenth century, had become very general, would have entirely
stopped the development of those of the scribe and illumina-
tor ; but this was far from being the case. The first quarter
of the sixteenth century was the most prolific in examples of
illuminations of the richest class; and even until the com-
mencement of the seventeenth, the art continued to be
practised with success. A style derived from that of Lucas
von Leyden and his followers, mucli overloaded with orna-
ment, was practised as late as 1601, of which the celebrated
St. Croix Missal, in the British Museum, is an elaborate
example.
A more chaste style, however, grew up among the higher
class of illuminators, and books executed for Francis I. of
France, and his immediate successors, generally exhibit a sub-
dued tone of colouring and design, which was probably very
attractive after the almost over-wrought richness of the styles
that had preceded it. Some of the borders of this period
have a gold ground, subdued in its brightness by a wasli of
light brown, on which chaste decorations are sparingly intro-
duced in bright gold, relieved with a deep brown, such as
interlacing initials in a style approaching the modern cursive
manner; scrolls for mottoes, occasionally surmounted by the
coronet, crown, or arms of the person for whom the book was
illuminated, the whole executed in different tones of gold and
brown; sometimes relieved under the outside of the gold border
by a delicately-executed shadow of ultramarine on the plain
vellum. In Italy, a simpler style was also gradually adopted
among the superior illuminators, of which a fine example may
be seen in the well-known Missal of the King Sigismund of
Poland, now in the British Museum.*
Illuminations were also executed in printed books from
the very commencement of the art of printing, so that the
finest examples of the art of illumination, after the middle of
the fifteenth century, are not always confined to MSS., but
are frequently to be found in printed books — the noble
Bible of Fust and Scheffer, being one of the earliest and finest
examples, of which a beautiful copy is preserved in the
British Museum; the capital letters of this book exhibit
* Formerly in the Collection of the late Dulie of Sussex. Westwood
Pal. Saer. Pict. pi. 36.
OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
some of the finest examples of German illumination of the
period. Another (imperfect), carried to Venice for the
purpose, has the illuminated letters in the Italian manner.
The life of Francesco Sforza, printed on vellum, and exqui-
sitely illuminated by Girolamo dai Libri, is another Italian
example of the alliance of the arts of printing and illumination.
It was the presentation copy of the work to Cardinal Sforza,
and the original gorgeous binding is still perfect. It was be-
queathed to the British Museum, with the most valuable
portion of his splendid library, by the late Mr. Grenville. A
splendid volume, printed on vellum, and illuminated by
Herrera, for Philip IV. of Spain, as late as 1637, was one of
the most elaborate and beautiful specimens of the art. It
formed part of Mr. Johnes' celebrated library at Hafod, and
was unfortunately destroyed by fire, with nearly the whole of
the other literary treasures there collected. But examples of
illumination in printed books do not come within the scope
of the plan of this work, and some of the rich styles which
mark the decadence of the art, are not sufficiently distinct to
demand a specimen in illustration. The last style of all,
however, that which originated in France in the reign of
Louis XIV., though far from being a good or pure style, is
yet so distinct as to require an illustrative example in this
work.
It is founded on the style of art generally known in
France as the " Genre Versaille," and originated in the florid
pencils, and still more exuberant fancies, of Le Brun and Le
Pautre. Its minute peculiarities will be found detailed in the
description of our specimen-page from the Prayer-book of
Louis XIV. A specimen of the style, truly magnificent from
its dimensions, being nearly three feet in height, is the famous
Rouen Missal, completed as late as 1682, after having occu-
pied its illuminator thirty years in its execution. It is shown
in the public library of that city.
But it may be taken as a general rule that no illuminations
of any consequence were executed after about 1650. French
books were, however, still occasionally illuminated, though
in a weaker and weaker style of gradually sinking art, till
the middle of the eighteenth century; but after 1780, the
revolutionary politics of France, seeking the ancient Re-
publics of Greece and Rome as their standard of excellence,
were followed by the fine arts; and as the remains of
classical art offered no examples of the art of illumination,
that beautiful branch of design became extinct. Thus, the
intricate and beautiful school of art which had been deve-
loped with wonderful originality and variety throughout the
whole of the middle ages now died away, and was, except
by a few enthusiastic antiquaries, forgotten. The only style
of general art in vogue was that founded on crude and
meagre imitations of the worst classical models, producing, as
practised, the most wretched effect on the art of other schools:
for a French supremacy in art seems to have been acknow-
ledged without dispute throughout Europe. This feeling of
crudely copying antique art existed with more or less intensity
till about 1820, when a reaction as extraordinary again took
place; the works of the middle ages, and even the worst spe-
cimens of the worst periods, being sought with great avidity.
This taste continued to extend, and within the last few years
became a lamentable mania; the most servile imitations of
the bad drawing, the crude combinations, and even the rude
finishing, being considered evident marks of the most accom-
plished taste. A better feeling is now rising; the finest features
of the art of any age are alone considered worthy of study
or reproduction ; and beautiful works of the middle ages are
sought, not for the purpose of making close and servile copies
of them with all their defects, but of studying the principles
upon which they were composed, and with those principles
producing works more in accordance with the spirit and
sympathies of the present age, than the works of any former
era can possibly afford.
Such a series as the present will therefore not only afford
gratification to the general amateur, from the beauty, intricacv,
and variety of its successive examples, beautifully exhibiting
the course and progress of an exquisite branch of decorative
art for above a thousand years, but will afford to artists in
that department a body of original and ingenius combina-
tions of form, colour, and general effect, such as no single
imagination could ever realise, and upon which—by carefully
studying the principles of composition rather than their
superficial effect—they may found new designs in accordance
Ayith the great advance of other branches of modern civiliza-
tion, and which will, thus treated, have the advantage of
being as original as the beautiful but quaint compositions on
which they are founded.
For references to MSS. of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, see the following list. jj. n. H.
ILLUMINATED DIPLOMAS.
Example._the frontispiece of an illuminated diploma
in the british museum.
In Venice it was the practice to illuminate in a very rich
manner the first page of the diplomas granted to every
governor of a Venetian dependency, on his appointment. In
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, some of these illumina-
tions were of a very high character of art; it heing part of
the duties of the painter of the Republic for the time being,
to paint the principal portion. The one I have given as an
example is a work of the sixteenth century, and the miniature
was formerly supposed to be a late production of the hand of
Titian, who was painter to the Republic at or near that
period The excellency of the work affords some support to
the hypothesis. The border, or rather frame, is in a very
grand"style of ornament, in the same feeling as some of the
magnificent ceilings of the ducal palace, executed about that
time.
THE SPANISH SCHOOL OF ILLUMINATION.
The Spanish style of illumination ought, perhaps, to have
found a place here, had space permitted, but I have not
attempted to separate the French, Flemish, and German
schools, as they all followed pretty nearly the same course;
and the Spanish (with the exception of a Moresque character,
produced by the horse-shoe arch in the architectural features
of early illuminations) followed a very similar routine of
development to that of the other countries of Western Europe.
The last specimens being illuminations of printed books as late
as the middle of the seventeenth century, in a debased but
brilliant style, one example of which, a most superb specimen,
was destroyed by the unfortunate fire which consumed the fine
library at Hafod. _
THE CHARACTER OF ILLUMINATIONS AT THE
END OF THE SIXTEENTH, AND DURING THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
Example.—a page from the prayer-book of louis xiv.
It may be conceived that the wide extension of the per-
fected art of printing, which, even in the beginning of the six-
teenth century, had become very general, would have entirely
stopped the development of those of the scribe and illumina-
tor ; but this was far from being the case. The first quarter
of the sixteenth century was the most prolific in examples of
illuminations of the richest class; and even until the com-
mencement of the seventeenth, the art continued to be
practised with success. A style derived from that of Lucas
von Leyden and his followers, mucli overloaded with orna-
ment, was practised as late as 1601, of which the celebrated
St. Croix Missal, in the British Museum, is an elaborate
example.
A more chaste style, however, grew up among the higher
class of illuminators, and books executed for Francis I. of
France, and his immediate successors, generally exhibit a sub-
dued tone of colouring and design, which was probably very
attractive after the almost over-wrought richness of the styles
that had preceded it. Some of the borders of this period
have a gold ground, subdued in its brightness by a wasli of
light brown, on which chaste decorations are sparingly intro-
duced in bright gold, relieved with a deep brown, such as
interlacing initials in a style approaching the modern cursive
manner; scrolls for mottoes, occasionally surmounted by the
coronet, crown, or arms of the person for whom the book was
illuminated, the whole executed in different tones of gold and
brown; sometimes relieved under the outside of the gold border
by a delicately-executed shadow of ultramarine on the plain
vellum. In Italy, a simpler style was also gradually adopted
among the superior illuminators, of which a fine example may
be seen in the well-known Missal of the King Sigismund of
Poland, now in the British Museum.*
Illuminations were also executed in printed books from
the very commencement of the art of printing, so that the
finest examples of the art of illumination, after the middle of
the fifteenth century, are not always confined to MSS., but
are frequently to be found in printed books — the noble
Bible of Fust and Scheffer, being one of the earliest and finest
examples, of which a beautiful copy is preserved in the
British Museum; the capital letters of this book exhibit
* Formerly in the Collection of the late Dulie of Sussex. Westwood
Pal. Saer. Pict. pi. 36.
OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
some of the finest examples of German illumination of the
period. Another (imperfect), carried to Venice for the
purpose, has the illuminated letters in the Italian manner.
The life of Francesco Sforza, printed on vellum, and exqui-
sitely illuminated by Girolamo dai Libri, is another Italian
example of the alliance of the arts of printing and illumination.
It was the presentation copy of the work to Cardinal Sforza,
and the original gorgeous binding is still perfect. It was be-
queathed to the British Museum, with the most valuable
portion of his splendid library, by the late Mr. Grenville. A
splendid volume, printed on vellum, and illuminated by
Herrera, for Philip IV. of Spain, as late as 1637, was one of
the most elaborate and beautiful specimens of the art. It
formed part of Mr. Johnes' celebrated library at Hafod, and
was unfortunately destroyed by fire, with nearly the whole of
the other literary treasures there collected. But examples of
illumination in printed books do not come within the scope
of the plan of this work, and some of the rich styles which
mark the decadence of the art, are not sufficiently distinct to
demand a specimen in illustration. The last style of all,
however, that which originated in France in the reign of
Louis XIV., though far from being a good or pure style, is
yet so distinct as to require an illustrative example in this
work.
It is founded on the style of art generally known in
France as the " Genre Versaille," and originated in the florid
pencils, and still more exuberant fancies, of Le Brun and Le
Pautre. Its minute peculiarities will be found detailed in the
description of our specimen-page from the Prayer-book of
Louis XIV. A specimen of the style, truly magnificent from
its dimensions, being nearly three feet in height, is the famous
Rouen Missal, completed as late as 1682, after having occu-
pied its illuminator thirty years in its execution. It is shown
in the public library of that city.
But it may be taken as a general rule that no illuminations
of any consequence were executed after about 1650. French
books were, however, still occasionally illuminated, though
in a weaker and weaker style of gradually sinking art, till
the middle of the eighteenth century; but after 1780, the
revolutionary politics of France, seeking the ancient Re-
publics of Greece and Rome as their standard of excellence,
were followed by the fine arts; and as the remains of
classical art offered no examples of the art of illumination,
that beautiful branch of design became extinct. Thus, the
intricate and beautiful school of art which had been deve-
loped with wonderful originality and variety throughout the
whole of the middle ages now died away, and was, except
by a few enthusiastic antiquaries, forgotten. The only style
of general art in vogue was that founded on crude and
meagre imitations of the worst classical models, producing, as
practised, the most wretched effect on the art of other schools:
for a French supremacy in art seems to have been acknow-
ledged without dispute throughout Europe. This feeling of
crudely copying antique art existed with more or less intensity
till about 1820, when a reaction as extraordinary again took
place; the works of the middle ages, and even the worst spe-
cimens of the worst periods, being sought with great avidity.
This taste continued to extend, and within the last few years
became a lamentable mania; the most servile imitations of
the bad drawing, the crude combinations, and even the rude
finishing, being considered evident marks of the most accom-
plished taste. A better feeling is now rising; the finest features
of the art of any age are alone considered worthy of study
or reproduction ; and beautiful works of the middle ages are
sought, not for the purpose of making close and servile copies
of them with all their defects, but of studying the principles
upon which they were composed, and with those principles
producing works more in accordance with the spirit and
sympathies of the present age, than the works of any former
era can possibly afford.
Such a series as the present will therefore not only afford
gratification to the general amateur, from the beauty, intricacv,
and variety of its successive examples, beautifully exhibiting
the course and progress of an exquisite branch of decorative
art for above a thousand years, but will afford to artists in
that department a body of original and ingenius combina-
tions of form, colour, and general effect, such as no single
imagination could ever realise, and upon which—by carefully
studying the principles of composition rather than their
superficial effect—they may found new designs in accordance
Ayith the great advance of other branches of modern civiliza-
tion, and which will, thus treated, have the advantage of
being as original as the beautiful but quaint compositions on
which they are founded.
For references to MSS. of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, see the following list. jj. n. H.