Writing & Illuminating, & Lettering

Here again no natural work would come of a modern attempt to imitate so complex a “design”—natural and even inevitable 600 years ago. But the spirit of delicacy and fantasy, the ingenious contrivance, and the balancing and disposal of form and colour shown by the antique art, may well be matter for imitation by the modern draughtsman-illuminator, and even by the mere penman.

PLATE XIV.—Thirteenth-century Line-finishings: Pen-work. (Psalter). Brit. Museum, Royal MS. 1. D. x.

THE LINE-FINISHINGS (see p. 205), of which there are very many throughout the book, all in red or blue pen-work, are very varied. Nine kinds are shown in the plate (which represents about a quarter of a page), and three others from the same MS. are given in figs. 87 (b) and 126 (f, g).

The directions of the thick and thin strokes indicate a pen held at right angles to its usual position (almost “upside down,” in fact: see fig. 126, g), and the penmanship exhibits great speed and lightness of hand—the rapidity and skill are indeed quite remarkable (e.g. in the Lion in the eighth line).

Note that, though the writing occasionally runs into the margin, the line-finishings stop at the marginal-line.

The photograph shows red dark and blue light: e.g. the Bird is red, the Lion and the Fish are blue. The fifth Line-finishing is a red filigree with blue “berries”—it can hardly be described as a “floral growth,” as the “branching” is reversed: the rubricator gained speed and uniformity by the simple repetition of the whorls all along the line—the upper branches were probably put in afterwards, and the “berries” were added later when he was making the blue Line-finishings.

The more complex decoration (not shown in the plate) in this MS. is inferior to the penmanship: the small background Capitals with which the verses begin—presumably put in by a different hand—are more pretentious, and do not match the Line-finishings.

General Note.—When a space occurs at the end of a line of writing, it is often best to leave it, and in a plain MS., if it be “well and truly” written, there is no objection to varying lengths of line (see pp. 263, 371). But a book, such as a Psalter, divided into many short verses—in which the last line usually falls short of the marginal [p426] line—offers a fair field for such simple and effective decoration. (See also pp. 428, 486, fig. 130, and Plate XXIII.)

PLATE XV.—English Writing and Illumination, circa 1284 A.D. (Psalter). Brit. Museum, Addl. MS. 24686.

THE WRITING is a fine, freely formed, “Gothic” (p. 331). Note, the i’s are “dotted.” Note the double MARGINAL LINES (p. 343).

THE SMALL INITIALS are of the “Lombardic” type (p. 210), in which the Serifs are much thickened and ornamented. Note the tails of the Q’s are turned to the left to clear the writing. The LINE-FILLINGS match the small initials (p. 193).

THE LARGE INITIAL, &c.—The plate shows the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth Psalm ( ). Note “Arabic” numerals (15) in margin.

The tail of the Initial is formed of a dragon, the head of which rests on the O-part: its wings project into the inner margin (and these in the plate, which shows a fragment of a verso page, run into the fold between the pages): the tail (together with the background) descends till a convenient point is reached from which the lower scroll-work springs. The tail, wing, and claws above, belong to a magpie which is perched on the initial.

THE DRAWING: see reference to this at p. 203, and below.

Sir Edward Maunde Thompson (p. 39, “English Illuminated MSS.”) says of this—

PLATE XVI.—Italian Fourteenth-century MS., Brit. Mus., Addl. MS. 28841.

THE VOLUME: one of two (the other numbered 27695), a Latin treatise on the Virtues and Vices (The miniatures, drawings, &c., probably by “the Monk of Hyères,” Genoa). The vellum leaves have been separated, and are now preserved in paper books. The leaf illustrated shows a margin of vellum of less than 316 inch all round (the plate).

The decorative borders are much more naturalistic in [p428] form and colouring than any other old illumination that I have seen (see reference to Plate XVI., p. 203).

The foliage is a delicate green, the berries are dark purple, the single fruits plain and pale orange-red; the two beetles in crimson and brown are made darker and too prominent in the photograph. The bands of small “Lombardic” Capitals are in burnished gold.

Note how skilfully and naturally the upper corners of the border are managed, and also the beautiful way in which the branches run into and among the text (see p. 213).

PLATE XVII.—French Fifteenth-century Writing, with Illuminated Borders. Ex libris E. Johnston.

THE PAGE 912 inches by 618 inches: MARGINS, approx.: Inner 118 inch, Head 138 inch, Side 238 inches, Foot 278 inches (the edges have been slightly cut down). The marginal lines (from head to foot of the page) and the writing lines are RULED in faint red.

THE WRITING is a late formal “Gothic”—the thin strokes have evidently been added (p. 47). The written Capitals are blotted with yellow (see p. 140). The ILLUMINATED INITIAL Q is in blue, white lined, on a gold ground, contains a blue flower and five ornaments in “lake.” The LINE-FILLINGS are in blue and “lake,” separated by a gold circle, triangle, or lozenge.

THE FILIGREE ILLUMINATION springs from the initial in the narrow margin, and from a centre ornament (see “knot,” fig. 127) in the wide side margin. The side margins are treated similarly on either page (see p. 213); the inner margins are generally plain. This repetition gives to the pages a certain sameness—which is a characteristic rather than a fault of the treatment.

The border on the recto of the vellum leaf shows through on the verso or back of the leaf. The main lines of the first border, however, are freely traced and [p429] followed on the verso (and so nearly hidden) by the second border. This is also suggestive of the more rapid methods of book production in the 15th century.

This type of illumination is discussed in pp. 197–202. Its chief points are its simplicity and rapidity. A penman or a novice in illuminating can, by taking a little pains, beautify his MSS. easily and quickly; and he may perhaps pass on from this to “higher” types of illumination.

PLATE XVIII.—Italian Fifteenth-century Writing and Illumination. (Perotti’s translation of Polybius). Ex libris H. Yates-Thompson.

THE VOLUME consists of 174 leaves (1318 inches by 9 inches); 35 lines to the page. The plate shows a portion of the upper part of the Initial (recto) page.

THE WRITING.—The Capitals are simple-written, slanted-pen “Roman”—slightly ornamental—forms. They are freely copied on a large scale in fig. 168: see p. 297. The Small-letters match the Capitals—they are “Roman” forms with a slight “Gothic” tendency. Both these and the Capitals would make very good models for free Roman hands.

THE INITIAL is a “Roman” A in burnished gold. Note the exceedingly graceful shaping of the limbs, the ornamental, V-shaped cross-bar, and the absence of serifs (see fig. 116). [p430]

The “White Vine Pattern” (see p. 202), most delicately and beautifully drawn, interlaces with the letter and itself, and covers the BACKGROUND very evenly. The interstices of the background are painted in blue, red, and green, and its edge is adapted to the slightly projecting flowers and leaves. There are groups ( and ) of white dots on the blue parts of the background.

THE BORDER (of which a small part is shown) is approximately 12 inch wide in the narrow margin at the side of the text—it is separate from the Initial. It extends above and below the text, where its depth is greater, matching the greater depth of the margins. Its treatment is similar to, though perhaps a little simpler than, that of the Initial decoration.

PLATE XIX.—Italian MS., dated 1481. Ex libris S. C. Cockerell.

“Part of a [verso] page from a book containing the Psalter of St. Jerome and various Prayers, written and decorated by Joachinus de Gigantibus of Rotenberg in 1481 for Pope Sixtus IV. Joachinus was employed at Naples by Ferdinand I., and there are other fine examples of his work at the British Museum and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. In each of these, as well as in the present book, he states that he was both scribe and illuminator.”—[S. C. C.]

THE VOLUME contains 31 leaves (612 inches by 434 inches): MARGINS, approx.: Inner 78 inch, Head 78 inch, Side 112 inch, Foot 134 inch. (The head margin, together with the edge of the book-cover, is shown in the plate.)

THE WRITING.—Very clear, slightly slanted-pen “Roman.” Note the blending of b and p with e and o (see fig. 76, & p. 77). The CAPITALS are quite simple and plain, made (in (A)NIMA CHRISTI and in text) in black with the text pen. Note the long, waved serifs (see p. 289). The last two lines of the preceding prayer are made in burnished gold with a larger pen.

[Continued on p. 481    

THE COLLOTYPE PLATES

NOTES ON THE PLATES Plate XIX, Continued

THE INITIAL A, its frame, the frame of the border, and the “furred” berries () are all in burnished gold, outlined black. The “white vine pattern” is rather simpler, and has a rather thicker stalk (in proportion) than that in the previous plate (see above). Its treatment is very similar, but it may be noted that the border is in this case attached to the Initial, and the pattern has almost an appearance of springing from the Initial. The pattern—save one escaped leaf—is straitly confined, by gold bars, throughout the length of the text, but at the ends it is branched out and beautifully flourished in the free margins above and below. These terminals of the pattern having a broad blue outline (dotted white) may be said to carry their background with them.

The (recto) page opposite that shown in the plate has an initial D and a border similarly treated, and each one of the Psalms and Prayers throughout the book is begun in like manner.

PLATE XX.—One page of an Italian (late) Fifteenth-century MS. Ex libris S. C. Cockerell.

“From a book containing the Penitential Psalms in Italian, the Psalter of St. Jerome, and various prayers. Written with great delicacy by Mark of Vicenza for some one named Evangelista [see 11th line] in the last quarter of the fifteenth century. Other works of this accomplished scribe are known.”—[S. C. C.]

THE VOLUME—of which a complete (recto) page is shown—contains 60 leaves (512 inches by 334 inches): MARGINS, approx.: Inner 12 inch, Head 78 inch, Side 1316 inch, Foot 11316 inch.

This very fine WRITING is typical of the practical style and beautiful workmanship which should be the aim of a modern scribe (see pp. 47, 310).

It is written with a very narrow nib, hence the pen-forms [p482] are not so obvious as in some early formal hands; and for this reason alone it would be better to practise such a hand as the tenth-century MS. (Plate VIII.) before seriously attempting to model a hand on the above (see pp. 416, 311, 324).

The use of a fine pen is apt to flatter the unskilled penman, and he finds it hard to distinguish between delicate pen-work which has much character, and that which has little or none. And he will find, after some knowledge of penmanship gained in practice with a broad nib, that the copying of this fine Italian writing—while in reality made much more feasible—may even appear more difficult than before.

CONSTRUCTION.—The pen has a moderate slant—see thin stroke in e. The letters are very square, the tops flat (especially in m, n, and r), and the lower parts flat (as in u). This shows the same tendency that there is in the tenth century and other hands to avoid thin or high arches in the letters.

The feet in some of the letters (in i, for example) are in the nature of stroke-serifs, but the pen probably made these with an almost continuous movement—from the stem.

Note—

• the fine form of the a;
• that b and l have an angle where the stem joins the lower part;
• that f was made something like t, and the upper part was added: this was a common mode—see fig. 180 (the f shown in plate is unfortunately not a good specimen);
• that g—a very graceful letter—lacks the coupling serif;
• that i, p, u have triangular heads, and m, n, r hooks;
• that the ascenders have triangular heads, and the descenders p and q, stroke-serifs;
• that the ascending and descending stems are longer than the bodies, and the writing is in consequence fairly widely spaced. [p483]

Like most of the finest writings, this bears evidences of considerable speed (see pp. 84, 311). Besides the great uniformity of the letters, the coupling strokes are occasionally carried over the succeeding stroke, the arches of b, h, m, n, p, r (and the heads of the ascenders) frequently are separated from the stems, and the o and b occasionally fail to join below. These broken forms are the results of speed, and are not to be imitated except as to that which is both a cause and a result—their uniformity (p. 254).

The RULING is in faint ink: there are two vertical marginal lines on the left and one on the right of every page.

The DECORATION of the MS. is very simple. The Initial (here shown) is in green and powder-gold, on a lake ground, with white pattern: there is a very fine brownish outline, probably drawn first. The two upper lines of writing and are in red.

PLATE XXI.—Italian (early) Sixteenth-century “cursive” or “Italic” MS. Ex libris S. C. Cockerell. (See enlargement, fig. 178.)

“From the Poems of Cardinal Bembo, a fine example of the cursive writing perfected in Italy in the first half of the sixteenth century. The book measures 812 by 514 inches, and contains 79 leaves.”—[S. C. C.]

THE MARGINS of the page from which the plate is taken are approximately: Inner 58 inch, Head 34 inch, Side 2 inches, Foot 112 inch. Note.—The lines of writing begin as usual at the left margin, but do not extend to the (true) margin on the right, hence the latter (the side margin on the recto, and the inner margin on the verso) would appear unnaturally wide, but the effect is carried off by the (true) side margins being already exceptionally wide (and by the writing on the backs of the leaves showing through the semi-transparent vellum and so marking the true margins). [p484]

This mode is very suitable for a book of poems, in which the lengths of the lines of writing may vary considerably, because the writing-line being longer than the ordinary line of writing allows room for extraordinarily long lines, and any appearance of irregularity is carried off by the extra wide side margins.

THE WRITING is very beautiful, clear, and rapid—made with a “slanted pen” (see “Italics,” p. 311, and fig. 178). Note the slightness of the slope of the letters (especially of the Capitals), and the length of the stems and the wide spacing.

Note, also, the flatness of the curves in a c d e g o q and the horizontal top stroke in a d g q, oblique in e c (giving angular tops). The branching away from the stem of the first part of the arch in b h m n p r (seen also reversed in a d g q u), and the pointed, almost angular, quality of the arch. This, which is apt to become a fault in a more formal upright hand (see note on Plate XXII.) is helpful in a more rapid running hand, and gives clearance to the junctions of the strokes ()—see fig. 182.

The heads, simple or built-up, hooks tending to become triangular.

The letters in this MS. are rarely coupled.

The very graceful g has a large pear-shaped lower loop touching the upper part.

PLATE XXII.—“Communion Service” written and illuminated by E. Johnston, 1902 A.D. (“Office Book,” Holy Trinity Church, Hastings). Reduced (nearly 34 scale).

The MS. on 160 leaves (15 inches by 10 inches) of fine parchment (“Roman Vellum,” see p. 173), contains the Communion Service and many collects, epistles, and gospels for special festivals, &c. MARGINS: Inner 118 inch, Head 134 inch, Side 234 inches, Foot 334 inches. [p485]

THE WRITING—after tenth century model (see Plate VIII.)—has the fault (referred to at p. 421) of showing too much thin line (running up obliquely), the upper and lower parts of the letters are not flat enough. The tail of the g is inadequate, and the lines of writing are too near together. The writing is readable, however, and fairly regular. The CAPITALS are Uncials (after Plate V.) and occasional “Romans.”

The RUBRIC (“¶ Then shall be said or sung”) is in red, fitted in beside the round initial and marking the top left-hand corner of the page (see footnote, p. 211).

The word “GLORY” (and decoration)—and also the F and T, showing in recto page—are in raised burnished gold, which, it will be seen, has cracked considerably in the G (see p. 164).

The STAVES are in red (p. 140), the notes above GLORY in raised gold, those in the lower stave, black.

The BOOK was of a special nature (see pp. 344–5), being intended for use in a certain church and on certain special festivals: hence a considerable degree of ornament and a generally decorative treatment was permitted (p. 330). The Prayer of Consecration, together with a miniature, occupied a complete opening, the eight margins of which were filled with solid, framing borders (p. 213) in red, blue, green, and gold. Coats-of-arms and other special symbols and devices were introduced on the Title page and in other places.

PLATE XXIII.—The Story of Aucassin and Nicolette, written and illuminated by W. H. Cowlishaw, 1898 A.D.

THE VOLUME consists of 50 + leaves of “Roman Vellum” (712 inches by 512 inches).

MARGINS, approx.: Inner 34 inch, Head 1516 inch, Side 138 inch, Foot 2 inches.

THE WRITING, very legible, rather “Gothic-Roman.” [p486]

THE CAPITALS are illuminated throughout the text in gold on blue and red grounds. The backgrounds are square, with edges pointed or indented, outlined black, and lined inside white. The INITIAL n is in gold on blue: the moon and stars are in white and gold and white.

THE LINE-FINISHINGS, mostly in black pen-work, consist of little groups (sometimes of sprays) of flowers, &c. Sprays from the border separate the “Song” from the “Tale.”

THE MUSIC.—Staves black; Clefs, gold; Notes, red.

THE BORDERS (in the opening from which the plate is taken) frame the text on both pages—nearly filling the margins (see p. 213): the side and foot edges of the (verso) page are shown in the plate. The main pattern is a wild rose, flowers and all, outlined with a rather broad blue line: the stalks and leaves (lined white) are apple-green, the flowers are painted white with raised gold hearts, the thorns are red. Through the wild rose is twined honeysuckle and woody nightshade: stalks—(h) red, (wn) black; and flowers—(h) red with yellow spots, (wn) purplish red with gold centres.

The whole effect is very brilliant and charming. The freedom and naturalness of the “design” remind one of a country hedgerow (p. 213), and show that vital beauty which is the essence of true illumination.

PLATE XXIV.—Inscription cut in Stone by A. E. R. Gill, 1903 A.D. Reduced (316 scale). Note.—To view these incised letters have light on the left of plate (or cover with thin tissue-paper).

The STONE—a slab of “Hopton Wood” (p. 395), 30 inches by 18 inches by 2 inches, is intended to go over a lintel. It has a simple moulding. Note how the INSCRIPTION occupies the space (pp. 352, 394): the LETTERS have approximately the same apparent weight (p. 328)—the large stems are more than twice the height of the small; they are only 13 wider. [p487]

Note the strongly marked and elegantly curved serifs; the straight-tailed R; the I drawn out (marking the word IN); the beaked A, M, and N; the Capital form of U.

The letters DEO would be rather wide for ordinary use (p. 270), but as special letters, occupying a wide space,135 are permissible.

Even in the collotype, I think this inscription shows to what a high level modern inscription cutting might be raised by the use of good models and right and simple methods.