Appendix.
The following Extract from a Letter to the Editor, gives a general
and comprehensive view of all the old service books, as far as
illumination is concerned:—
“I think where and when the Missal
came into use as an altar book, the Breviary was compiled as a Morning,
Day and Evening Service-book, for use in the Quire, as well as for
the private recitation of the several offices. The Gradual was to the
Missal what the Antiphonary was to the Breviary. I think the main
books of private devotion were the Horæ B. M. V. I do not think that
the common Horæ or Hour-books, which were simply Breviaries without
lessons, were ever popular, or even of much use among the laity. When
the great Colbert would have a book to himself, he compiled a brief
Breviary, i. e., a Breviary abbreviated. Men of more unction and
less sense used ‘Hours of the Blessed Virgin,’ and they were often,
especially in the Calendar, very gorgeously illuminated. Horæ Diurnæ or
Diurnales were hand-books for clerks, to say all the hours from, except
matins; they were easy to carry. Indeed, my experience of illuminated
books has run thus:—
Horæ B. M. V.—These seem to me most numerous and elaborate in the 15th and 16th century work.
Evangelisteria.—Books of Gospels next, of very much older execution.
Missalia.—Comparatively recent; rich in the Canon and Preface illuminations.
Breviaria richly and profusely illuminated are really scarce. One wonders at it; but so it is. Every now and then a handsome 15th or 16th century Breviary, commonly of French art, turns up, but not very frequently, and then not prodigally illuminated.
I have been told that some of the huge Spanish Graduals or Mass Anthem books are grandly illuminated in the way of capitals. I have seen several mutilated copies which seem to affirm the same thing.”
PRINTED IN COLOURS BY C. WHITING, LONDON.