Illuminated manuscripts in classical and mediaeval times, their art and their technique

Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
      A carat character is used to denote superscription: a single
      character or bracketed group following the carat is superscripted
      (examples: xviij^o S^{te}).

Images of the original plates are available through Internet Archive. See
      https://archive.org/details/illuminatedmanu00midd

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ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
IN CLASSICAL
AND MEDIAEVAL TIMES,

THEIR ART AND THEIR TECHNIQUE

BY

J. HENRY MIDDLETON,

SLADE PROFESSOR OF FINE ART, DIRECTOR OF THE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM,
AND FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE;
AUTHOR OF "ANCIENT ROME IN 1888",
"THE ENGRAVED GEMS OF CLASSICAL TIMES" &c.

CAMBRIDGE:

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

1892

[_All Rights reserved._]




TABLE OF CONTENTS.


PREFACE AND LIST OF AUTHORITIES. Page xiii to xix.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page xxi to xxiv.


CHAPTER I. Page 1 to 10.

CLASSICAL MANUSCRIPTS WRITTEN WITH A STILUS.

Survival of classical methods in mediaeval times; epigraphy and
palaeography; manuscripts on metal plates; lead rolls; tin rolls; gold
amulets; Petelia tablet; waxed tablets and diptychs; tablets shown on gems
and coins; tablets found in tombs; tablets from Pompeii; Consular diptychs;
many-leaved tablets; the form of the waxed tablets; whitened boards used by
the Greeks; late survival of tablets; "bidding the beads;" lists of members
of guilds; wooden book in Norway; ivory tablets and diptychs; inscribed
Anglo-Saxon lead tablet; "horn-books."


CHAPTER II. Page 11 to 30.

CLASSICAL MANUSCRIPTS WRITTEN WITH PEN AND INK.

Two forms of manuscripts, the roll and the codex; Egyptian Books of the
Dead; Book of Ani; existing manuscripts on papyrus; the library of papyrus
rolls found at Herculaneum; Herodotus on manuscripts; use of parchment;
manuscripts on linen; inscribed potsherds or _ostraka_; manuscripts on
leaves of trees; Greek libraries; Roman libraries; a list of the public
libraries in Rome; Roman library fittings and decorations; recently
discovered library in Rome; authors' portraits; closed bookcases;
booksellers' quarter; cost of Roman books; slave scribes; librarii of Rome.
The technique of ancient manuscripts; parchment and vellum; palimpsests;
papyrus manuscripts; process of making papyrus paper; use of papyrus in
Greece and Rome; ancient papyrus manuscripts; the qualities of papyrus
paper; the form of papyrus rolls; the wooden roller; inscribed titles;
coloured inks; use of cedar oil; black carbon ink, its manufacture and
price; red inks and rubrics; purple ink; double inkstands; pens of reeds
and of metal; Egyptian scribes' palettes, pen-cases, and pens.


CHAPTER III. Page 31 to 44.

CLASSICAL ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS.

Use of minium; Egyptian miniatures; illuminations in Roman manuscripts;
Greek illuminations; two sources of knowledge about classical
illuminations; the Ambrosian _Iliad_; the Vatican Virgil; the style of its
miniatures; later copies of lost originals; picture of Orpheus in a twelfth
century _Psalter_; another _Psalter_ with copies of classical paintings;
the value of these copied miniatures.


CHAPTER IV. Page 45 to 61.

BYZANTINE MANUSCRIPTS.

The very compound character of Byzantine art; love of splendour; _Gospels_
in purple and gold; monotony of the Byzantine style; hieratic rules; fifth
century manuscript of _Genesis_; the Dioscorides of the Princess Juliana;
the style of its miniatures; imitations of enamel designs; early picture of
the Crucifixion in the _Gospels_ of Rabula; the splendour of Byzantine
manuscripts of the _Gospels_; five chief pictures; illuminated "Canons";
Persian influence; the Altar-Textus used as a Pax; its magnificent gold
covers; the Durham Textus; Byzantine figure drawing, unreal but decorative;
Byzantine mosaics; the iconoclast schism, and the consequent decadence of
Byzantine art.


CHAPTER V. Page 62 to 79.

MANUSCRIPTS OF THE CAROLINGIAN PERIOD.

The age of Charles the Great; the school of Alcuin of York; the _Gospels_
of Alcuin; the _golden Gospels_ of Henry VIII.; the _Gospels_ of the scribe
Godesscalc; Persian influence; technical methods; the later Carolingian
manuscripts; continuance of the Northumbrian influence; beginning of
life-study; the _Gospels_ of Otho II.; period of decadence in the eleventh
century.


CHAPTER VI. Page 80 to 97.

THE CELTIC SCHOOL OF MANUSCRIPTS.

The Irish Church; Celtic goldsmiths; technical processes of the
metal-workers copied by illuminators of manuscripts; the _Book of Kells_,
its perfect workmanship and microscopic illuminations; copies of metal
spiral patterns; the "trumpet pattern;" Moslem influence; absence of gold
in the Irish manuscripts; the _Book of Durrow_; the monks of Iona; the
Celtic missionaries to Northumbria; the _Gospels_ of St Cuthbert; the
Viking pirates; the adventures of St Cuthbert's _Gospels_