DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14721#0011
EEGAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES,
etc. etc.
A DESCBIPTION OF THE PLATES.
PLATE L
KING EDGAR.
This engraving is taken from a curious and ancient illumination found in
a book of grants,1 given by king Edgar himself to Winchester Cathedral. It is
dated A.D. 966, and is written entirely in letters of gold, in the old Saxon
character.
Edgar is here delineated as piously adoring our blessed Saviour, who appears
above seated on a globe, to shew his empire, and supported by four angels,
emblems of the four gospels ; under his feet are two folding doors, intended
perhaps to represent the entrance into the bottomless pit, which is so placed
to convey the idea of his triumph over Death and Hell; in his left hand he
holds the book of judgment, which is to be opened in the last day. The
figure on the right hand of the king, I fancy, may be done for Cuthbert, the saint
of Durham, whose holy life is recorded by the venerable Bede. The woman, not
unlikely, is the famous Etheldrida, abbess of Ely, who, though she were twice
married, yet lived and died a pure virgin.2
1 The first fifteen plates of this collection are taken from the illuminations of antient MSS. in the
Cottonian library, at the British Museum ; and this book of grants is marked Vespasianus, A. VIII.
2 [Mr. Strutt has not given us his reasons for these suppositions, and Mr. Young Ottley in a letter
to Mr. George Rokewood respecting the beautiful Benediction of St. Athelwold in the possession of
his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, calls them St. Peter and the Virgin Mary. Vide Archaeologia.
Vol. 24, p. 33.—Ed.]
etc. etc.
A DESCBIPTION OF THE PLATES.
PLATE L
KING EDGAR.
This engraving is taken from a curious and ancient illumination found in
a book of grants,1 given by king Edgar himself to Winchester Cathedral. It is
dated A.D. 966, and is written entirely in letters of gold, in the old Saxon
character.
Edgar is here delineated as piously adoring our blessed Saviour, who appears
above seated on a globe, to shew his empire, and supported by four angels,
emblems of the four gospels ; under his feet are two folding doors, intended
perhaps to represent the entrance into the bottomless pit, which is so placed
to convey the idea of his triumph over Death and Hell; in his left hand he
holds the book of judgment, which is to be opened in the last day. The
figure on the right hand of the king, I fancy, may be done for Cuthbert, the saint
of Durham, whose holy life is recorded by the venerable Bede. The woman, not
unlikely, is the famous Etheldrida, abbess of Ely, who, though she were twice
married, yet lived and died a pure virgin.2
1 The first fifteen plates of this collection are taken from the illuminations of antient MSS. in the
Cottonian library, at the British Museum ; and this book of grants is marked Vespasianus, A. VIII.
2 [Mr. Strutt has not given us his reasons for these suppositions, and Mr. Young Ottley in a letter
to Mr. George Rokewood respecting the beautiful Benediction of St. Athelwold in the possession of
his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, calls them St. Peter and the Virgin Mary. Vide Archaeologia.
Vol. 24, p. 33.—Ed.]