THE ARTS IN THE MIDDLE AGES, 
 
 AND AT THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE. 
 
i 
 
THE ARTS 
 
 IN 
 
 THE MIDDLE AGES, 
 
 AND AT THE PERIOD OF 
 
 THE RENAISSANCE. 
 
 Eh PAUL LACROIX 
 
 (Bibliophile Jacob), 
 CURATOR OF THE IMPERIAL LIBRARY OF THE ARSENAL, PARIS. 
 
 Illttstnitct) toith 
 
 NINETEEN CHROMOLITHOGRAPHIC PRINTS BY V. K.ELLERHOVEN 
 
 AND UPWARDS OF 
 
 FOUR HUNDRED ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. 
 
 FOURTH THOUSAND. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 BICKERS AND SON, i, LEICESTER SQUARE. 
 
PREFACE OF THE EDITOR 
 
 HE aim and scope of this work are so explicitly set forth 
 in the appended Preface by its Author as to require 
 for the book no further introduction. The position held 
 by M. Lacroix in the Imperial Library of the Arsenal, 
 Paris, is a sufficient guarantee of his qualifications for 
 undertaking a publication of this nature. How far his labours were 
 appreciated in France is evident from the fact that, when the first edition 
 made its appearance, it was exhausted within a few days. 
 
 It may fairly be presumed that The Arts in the Middle Ages will 
 find equal favour in England, where so much attention has of late years 
 been given to the subject in all its various ramifications ; and where,' — 
 in our National Museum, Kensington, especially, — we are accumulating so 
 extensive and valuable a collection of objects associated with the epochs 
 referred to by M. Lacroix. 
 
 In preparing these sheets for the press, my task has been little more 
 than to put an excellent and conscientious literal translation of the 
 French text into language somewhat in harmony with the construction 
 
 b 
 
vi 
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 of our own. In so doing, however, it has been my object to retain, as 
 far as practicable, the peculiar — sometimes the quaint — phraseology of 
 the original writing. A few notes are added when they appeared necessary 
 by way of explaining terms, &c, or to render them more intelligible to 
 the general reader. But some words are used by the Author for which 
 no English equivalent can be found : these have been allowed to stand 
 without note or comment. 
 
 JAMES DAFFOKNE. 
 
 Brixton, February, 1870. 
 
PEEFACE TO THE SECOND FEENCH EDITION. 
 
 ORE than twenty years ago we published, with 
 the aid of our friend Ferdinand Sere, whose 
 loss we regret, and with the co-operation of 
 other learned men and of the most eminent 
 writers and artists, an important work, en- 
 titled "The Middle Ages and the Renais- 
 sance." That work, which consists of no less than five large 
 quarto volumes, treated in detail the manners and customs, 
 the sciences, literature, and the arts of those two great epochs, 
 a subject as vast as it is interesting and instructive. Thanks to 
 the learning it displays, to its literary merit and its admirable 
 execution, it had the rare good fortune to attract immediately the atten- 
 tion of the public, and even now it maintains the interest which marked 
 its first appearance. It has taken its place in the library of the amateur, 
 not only in France but also among foreigners ; it has become celebrated. 
 
 This exceptional result, especially as regards a publication of such 
 extent, induces us to believe that our work, thus known and appreciated 
 by the learned, may and ought henceforth to have still greater success by 
 addressing itself to a yet larger number of readers. 
 
 With this conviction we now present to the public one of the principal 
 portions of that important work, and perhaps the most interesting, in a 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 form more simple, easier, and more pleasing ; within the reach of youth 
 who desire to learn without weariness or irksomeness, of females interested 
 in grave authors, of the family that loves to assemble round a book 
 altogether instructive and attractive. We would speak of the "Arts in 
 the Middle Ages, and at the Period of the Renaissance." After 
 having reunited the scattered materials on this subject, we have ranged 
 them each in its own rank, taking care to discard all crudity of learning 
 and to preserve in our work the brilliant colouring in which it was first 
 clothed. 
 
 All the Arts are interesting in themselves. Their productions awaken 
 attention and excite curiosity. But here it is not one Art only that is 
 treated of. We pass in review all the Arts, starting from the fourth 
 century to the second half of the sixteenth — Architecture raising churches 
 and abbeys, palaces and public memorials, strong fortresses and the 
 ramparts of cities; Sculpture adorning and perfecting other Arts by its 
 works in stone, marble, bronze, wood, and ivory ; Painting, commencing 
 with mosaic and enamels, contributing to the decoration of buildings 
 jointly with stained glass and frescoes, embellishing and illuminating 
 manuscripts before it arrived at its highest point of perfection, with the 
 Art of Giotto and Raphael, of Hemling and Albert Diirer ; Engraving 
 on wood and metal, with which is associated the work of the medallist 
 and the goldsmith ; and after attempting to touch upon Playing-cards and 
 Niello-work, we suddenly evoke that sublime invention destined to change 
 the face of the world — Printing. Such are, in brief, some of the principal 
 features of this splendid picture. One can imagine what an infinity, what 
 variety and richness, of details it should contain. 
 
 Our subject presents, at the same time, another kind of interest more 
 elevated and not less alluring. Here each Art appears in its different 
 phases and in its diversified progress. It is a history, not alone of the 
 Arts, but of the epoch itself in which they were developed ; for the Arts, 
 regarded in their generality, are the truest expression of society. They 
 speak to us of tastes, of ideas, of character : they exhibit us in their works. 
 Of all an age can leave to the future concerning itself, that which repre- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ix 
 
 sents it most vividly is Art : the Arts of an epoch, revivify it, and bring it 
 back before our eyes. 
 
 It is this which forms our book. Yet, we must remark, here its interest 
 is redoubled, for we retrace not only a single era, but two eras very distinct 
 from each other. In the first, that of the Middle Ages, which followed 
 the invasion of the Northmen, society was in a great measure formed of 
 new and barbarous elements, which Christianity laboured to break up and 
 fashion. In the second epoch, on the contrary, society was organised and 
 firmly established; it enjoyed peace, and reaped its fruits. The Arts 
 followed the same phases. At first rude and informal, they rose slowly 
 and by degrees, like society, out of chaos. At length they flourished in 
 perfect freedom, and progressed with all the energy of which the human 
 mind is capable. Hence the successive advances whose history presents 
 a marvellous interest. 
 
 During the Middle Ages, Art generally followed the inspirations of 
 that Christian spirit which presided at the formation of this new 
 world. It arose to reproduce in an admirable manner the religious ideal. 
 Only towards the end of that period it searched out for beauty of form, 
 and began to find it when the Renaissance made its appearance : the 
 Renaissance, that is, the intellectual revolution, which, in the fifteenth 
 and sixteenth centuries, restored among modern nations the sceptre to 
 Literature and the Arts of antiquity. Then, with the Renaissance, the 
 Arts changed their direction, and especially the principal Arts, those by 
 which the genius of man expresses most forcibly his ideas and his feelings. 
 Thus, in the Middle Ages, a new style of architecture is created that 
 rapidly attained the highest degree of perfection, the ogival (later Gothic 
 or flamboyant), of which we see the chefs-d'oeuvre in our cathedrals : at 
 the Renaissance, this was replaced by architecture derived from that of 
 the Greeks and Romans, which also produced admirable works, but almost 
 always less in harmony with the dignity and splendour of worship. In 
 the Middle Ages, Painting chiefly applied itself to represent the beau 
 ideal of the religious mind reflecting itself in the countenance ; at the 
 Renaissance, it is the beauty of the physical form, so perfectly expressed 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 by the ancients. Sculpture, which comes nearer to Painting, followed at 
 the same time all similar phases, drawing the art of Engraving with it. 
 Do not the diversified changes through which the Arts passed, as retraced 
 in this book during two epochs, present to the intelligent reader a succes- 
 sion of facts of the highest interest and a history most instructive ? 
 
 Our work is the only existing one on this great and magnificent 
 subject, of which the materials are scattered through a multitude of 
 volumes. Thus for the success of this undertaking it became necessary 
 to unite with us in our task men most distinguished by their learning and 
 talents : we are permitted to cite the names of MM. Ernest Breton, 
 Aime Champollion, Champollion-Figeac, Pierre Dubois, Duchesne, Fer- 
 dinand Denis, Jacquemart, Arch. Juvinal, Jules Labarte, Lassus, Louandre, 
 Prosper Merimee, Alfred Michiels, Gabriel Peignot, Riocreux, De Saulcy, 
 J ean Designeur, le Marquis de Yarennes. After such a list we record our 
 own name only to acknowledge that we have gone over and recast these 
 various works, and presented them in a form which gives them more unity, 
 but owes to them all the interest and all the charm it may offer. 
 
 The numerous illustrations that adorn the work will engage the eye, 
 while the text will speak to the intelligence. The designs in chromo- 
 lithography are executed by M. Kellerhoven, who for several years has 
 made the art one of a high order, worthy to shine among the finest works 
 of our greatest painters, as is proved by his " Chefs-d'oeuvre of the Great 
 Masters," "Lives of the Saints," and " Legend of St. Ursula." 
 
 No one is ignorant of the attention given in these days to archseology. 
 Information about objects of antiquity is necessary to every instructed 
 person. It ought to be studied so far as to enable us to appreciate, or 
 at least to recognise, the examples of olden time in Architecture, Paint- 
 ing, &c, that present themselves to our notice. Thus it has become for 
 the young of each sex indispensable to good education. The perusal of 
 this book will be for such an attractive introduction to that knowledge 
 which for too long a time was the exclusive domain of the learned. 
 
 PAUL LACROIX 
 
 (Bibliophile Jacob). 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 FURNITURE : HOUSEHOLD AND ECCLESIASTICAL P T 
 
 Simplicity of Furniture among the Gauls and Franks.— Introduction of costly taste in 
 articles of Furniture of the Seventh Century.— Arm-chair of Dagobert.— Eound Table 
 of King Artus.— Influence of the Crusades.— Regal Banquet in the time of Charles V. 
 —Benches.— Sideboards.— Dinner Services.— Goblets.— Brassware.— Casks.— Light- 
 ing.— Beds.— Carved-wood Furniture.— Locksmith's "Work.— Glass and Mirrors.— 
 Eoom of a Feudal Seigneur.— Costliness of Furniture used for Ecclesiastical Purposes. 
 — Altars.— Censers.— Shrines and Reliquaries.— Gratings and Iron-mountings. 
 
 TAPESTRY 37 
 
 Scriptural Origin of Tapestry.— Needlework Embroidery in Ancient Greek and Boman 
 Times.— Attalic Carpets.— Manufacture of Carpets in Cloisters.— Manufactory at 
 Poitiers in the Twelfth Century.— Bayeux Tapestry, named "De la Heine Mathilde." 
 —Arras Carpets.— Inventory of the Tapestries of Charles V. ; enormous Value of these 
 Embroidered Hangings.— Manufactory at Fontainebleau, under Francis I.— The 
 Manufacture of the Hopital de la Trinite, at Paris.— The Tapestry Workers, Dubourg 
 and Laurent, in the reign of Henry IV. — Factories of Savonnerie and Gobelins. 
 
 CERAMIC ART 53 
 
 Pottery Workshops in the Gallo-Eomano Period.— Ceramic Art disappears for several 
 Centuries in Gaul : is again found in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries.— Probable 
 Influence of Arabian Art in Spain.— Origin of Majolica.— Luca della Robbia and his 
 Successors.— Enamelled Tiles in France, dating from the Twelfth Century.— The 
 Italian Manufactories of Faenza, Rimini, Pesaro, &c— Beauvais Pottery.— Invention 
 and Works of Bernard Palissy; his History; his Chefs -d'ceuvre.— The Faience of 
 Thouars, called "Henri II." 
 
 ARMS AND ARMOUR 75 
 
 Arms of the Time of Charlemagne.— Arms of the Normans at the Time of the Conquest 
 of England.— Progress of Armoury under the Influence of the Crusades.— The Coat of 
 Mail— The Crossbow.— The Hauberk and the Hoqueton.— The Helmet, the Hat of 
 Iron, the Cerveliere, the Greaves, and the Gauntlet; the Breastplate and the Cuish.— 
 The Casque with Vizor.— Plain Armour and Ribbed Armour.— The Salade Helmet.— 
 Costliness of Armour.— Invention of Gunpowder.— Bombards.— Hand-Cannons.— The 
 Culverin, the Falconet.-The Arquebus with Metal-holder, with Match, and with 
 Wheel.— The Gun and the Pistol. 
 
xn 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CARRIAGES AND SADDLERY 107 
 
 Horsemanship among the Ancients. — The Eiding-horse and the Carriage-horse. — 
 Chariots armed with Scythes. — Vehicles of the Eomans, the Gauls, and the Franks: 
 Carruca, the Petoritum, the Cisium, the Plastrum, the Basterna, the Carpentum. — 
 Different kinds of Saddle-horses in the Days of Chivalry.— The Spur a distinctive 
 Sign of Nobility : its Origin. — The Saddle, its Origin and its Modifications.— The 
 Tilter. — Carriages. — The Mules of Magistrates. — Corporations of Saddlers and Harness- 
 makers, Lorimers, Coachmakers, Chapuiseurs, Blazonniers, and Saddle-coverers. 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER WORK 123 
 
 Its Antiquity. — The Tresor de Guarrazar. — The Merovingian and Carlovingian Periods. 
 — Ecclesiastical Jewellery. — Pre-eminence of the Byzantine Goldsmiths. — Progress of 
 the Art consequent on the Crusades. — The Gold and Enamels of Limoges. — Jewellery 
 ceases to he restricted to Purposes of Religion. — Transparent Enamels. — Jean of Pisa, 
 Agnolo of Siena, Ghiherti. — Great Painters and Sculptors from the Goldsmiths' 
 Workshops. — Benvenuto Cellini. — The Goldsmiths of Paris. 
 
 HOROLOGY . . , 169 
 
 Modes of measuring Time among the Ancients. — The Gnomon. — The Water-Clock. — 
 The Hour-Glass. — The Water- Clock, improved by the Persians and by the Italians. 
 — Gerbert invents the Escapement and the moving Weights. — The Striking -bell. — 
 Maistre Jehan des Orloges. — Jacquemart of Dijon. — The first Clock in Paris. — Earliest 
 portable Timepiece. — Invention of the spiral Spring. — First appearance of Watches. 
 — The Watches, or " Eggs," of Nuremberg. — Invention of the Fusee. — Corporation of 
 Clockmakers. — Noted Clocks at Jena, Strasburg, Lyons, &c. — Charles-Quint and 
 Jannellus. — The Pendulum. 
 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 
 
 Music in the Middle Ages.— Musical-Instruments from the Fourth to the Thirteenth 
 Century. — Wind Instruments : the Single and Double Flute, the Pandean Pipes, the 
 Reed-pipe. — The Hautboy, the Flageolet, Trumpets, Horns, Olifants, the Hydraulic 
 Organ, the Bellows-Organ. — Instruments of Percussion : the Bell, the Hand-bell, 
 Cymbals, the Timbrel, the Triangle, the Bombulum, Drums. — Stringed Instruments : 
 the Lyre, the Cithern, the Harp, the Psaltery, the Nable, the Chorus, the Organistrum, 
 the Lute and the Guitar, the Grout, the Rote, the Viola, the Qigue, the Monochord. 
 
 PLAYING-CARDS 223 
 
 Supposed Date of their Invention.— Existed in India in the Twelfth Century. — Their 
 connection with the Game of Chess. — Brought into Europe after the Crusades. — First 
 Mention of a Game with Cards in 1379.— Cards well known in the Fifteenth Century 
 in Spain, Germany, and France, under the name of Tarots. — Cards called Charles the 
 Sixth's must have been Tarots. — Ancient Cards, French, Italian, and German.— Cards 
 contributing to the Invention of Wood-Engraving and Printing. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 xiu 
 
 GLASS-PAINTING 251 
 
 Painting on Glass mentioned by Historians in the Third Century of our Era.— Glazed 
 Windows at Brioude in the Sixth Century.— Coloured Glass at St. John Lateran and 
 St. Peter's in Rome.— Church- Windows of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries in 
 Prance : Saint-Denis, Sens, Poitiers, Chartres, Bheims, &c— In the Fourteenth and 
 Fifteenth Centuries the Art was at its Zenith. — Jean Cousin. — The Celestins of Paris : 
 Saint-Gervais.— Robert Pinaigrier and his Sons.— Bernard Palissy decorates the 
 Chapel of the Castle of Ecouen. — Foreign Art : Albert Diirer. 
 
 FRESCO-PAINTING 269 
 
 The Nature of Fresco.— Employed by the Ancients.— Paintings at Pompeii.— Greek and 
 Roman Schools.— Mural Paintings destroyed by the Iconoclasts and Barbarians.— 
 Revival of Fresco, in the Ninth Century, in Italy.— Fresco-Painters since Guido of 
 Siena.— Principal Works of these Painters.— Successors of Raphael and Michael 
 Angelo.— Fresco in Sgraffito.— Mural Paintings in France from the Twelfth Century. 
 —Gothic Frescoes of Spain.— Mural Paintings in the Low Countries, Germany, and 
 Switzerland. 
 
 PAINTING ON WOOD, CANVAS, Etc. . , . . . 283 
 
 The Rise of Christian Painting.— The Byzantine School.— First Revival in Italy.— 
 Cimabue, Giotto, Fra Angelico.— Florentine School: Leonardo da Vinci, Michael 
 Angelo.— Roman School : Perugino, Raphael.— Venetian School : Titian, Tintoretto, 
 Veronese.— Lombard School : Correggio, Parmigianino.— Spanish School.— German 
 and Flemish Schools : Stephen of Cologne, John of Bruges, Lucas van Leyden, 
 Albert Diirer, Lucas van Cranach, Holbein.— Painting in France during the Middle 
 Ages.— Italian Masters in France.— Jean Cousin. 
 
 ENGRAVING 31 5 
 
 Origin of Wood-Engraving.— The St. Christopher of 1423.— "The Virgin and Child 
 Jesus." — The earliest Masters of Wood-Engraving. — Bernard Milnet. — Engraving in 
 Camdieu.— Origin of Engraving on Metal.— The " Pax " of Maso Finiguerra.— The 
 earliest Engravers on Metal.— Niello Work.— Le Maitre of 1466.— Le Maitre of 1486. 
 Martin Schbngauer, Israel van Mecken, Wenceslaus of Olmutz, Al ert Diirer, Marc 
 Antonio, Lucas van Leyden.— Jean Duret and the French School.— The Dutch 
 School. — The Masters of Engraving. 
 
 SCULPTURE 339 
 
 Origin of Christian Sculpture.— Statues in Gold and Silver.— Traditions of Antique Art. 
 —Sculpture in Ivory.— Iconoclasts.— Diptychs.— The highest Style of Sculpture 
 follows the Phases of Architecture.— Cathedrals and Monasteries from the year 1000. 
 — Schools of Burgundy, Champagne, Normandy, Lorraine, &c. — German, English, 
 Spanish, and Italian Schools. — Nicholas of Pisa and his Successors.— Position of ' 
 French Sculpture in the Thirteenth Century.— Florentine Sculpture and Ghiberti.— 
 French Sculptors from the Fifteenth to the Sixteenth Century. 
 
 ARCHITECTURE 373 
 
 The Basilica the first Christian Church.— Modification of Ancient Architecture.— Byzan- 
 tine Style.— Formation of the Norman Style— Principal Norman Churches.— Age 
 
 C 
 
XIV 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 of the Transition from Norman to Gothic— Origin and Importance of the Ogive.— 
 Principal Edifices in the pure Gothic Style. — The Gothic Church, an Emblem of 
 the Eeligious Spirit in the Middle Ages. — Florid Gothic— Flamboyant Gothic. — 
 Decadency.— Civil and Military Architecture : Castles, Fortified Enclosures, Private 
 Houses, Town-Halls. — Italian Eenaissance : Pisa, Florence, Rome. — French Re- 
 naissance : Mansions and Palaces. 
 
 PARCHMENT AND PAPER 418 
 
 Parchment in Ancient Times. — Papyrus. — Preparation of Parchment and Vellum in the 
 Middle Ages. — Sale of Parchment at the Fair of Lendit.— Privilege of the University 
 of Paris on the Sale and Purchase of Parchment. — Different Applications of Parch- 
 ment—Cotton Paper imported from China.— Order of the Emperor Frederick. II. 
 concerning Paper. — The Employment of Linen Paper, dating from the Twelfth 
 Century.— Ancient Water-Marks on Paper— Paper Manufactories in France and 
 other parts of Europe. 
 
 MANUSCRIPTS 423 
 
 Manuscripts in Olden Times. — Their Form. — Materials of which they were composed. 
 —Their Destruction by the Goths.— Rare at the Beginning of the Middle Ages. — 
 The Catholic Church preserved and multiplied them.— Copyists. — Transcription of 
 Diplomas. — Corporation of Scribes and Booksellers. — Palasography. — Greek Writings. 
 — Uncial and Cursive Manuscripts. — Sclavonic Writings. — Latin Writers. — Tironian 
 Shorthand. — Lombardic Characters. — Diplomatic. — Capetian. — Ludovicinian . — 
 Gothic. — Runic— Visigothic. — Anglo-Saxon. — Irish. 
 
 MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS 448 
 
 Miniatures at the Beginning of the Middle Ages— The two "Vatican" Virgils.— Painting 
 of Manuscripts under Charlemagne and Louis le Debonnaire. — Tradition of Greek Art 
 in Europe.— Decline of the Miniature in the Tenth Century. — Origin of Gothic Art. — 
 Fine Manuscript of the time of St. Louis. — Clerical and Lay Miniature-Painters. — Cari- 
 cature and the Grotesque. — Miniatures in Monochrome and in Grisaille. — Illuminators 
 at the Court of France and to the Dukes of Burgundy. — School of John Fouquet. — 
 Italian Miniature-Painters. — Giulio Clovio. — French School under Louis XII. 
 
 BOOKBINDING 471 
 
 Primitive Binding of Books. — Bookbinding among the Romans. — Bookbinding with 
 Goldsmith's Work from the Fifth Century. — Chained Books.— Corporation of Zieura, 
 or Bookbinders. — Books bound in Wood, with Metal Corners and Clasps. — First 
 Bindings in Leather, honeycombed {waffled ?) and gilt. — Description of some celebrated 
 Bindings of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. — Sources of Modern Book- 
 binding. — John Grollier. — President de Thou. — Kings and Queens of France Biblio- 
 maniacs. — Superiority of Bookbinding in France. 
 
 PRINTING 485 
 
 Who was the Inventor of Printing? — Movable Letters in ancient Times. — Block 
 Printing. — Laurent Coster. — Donati and Specula. — Gutenberg's Process. — Partner- 
 ship of Gutenberg and Faust. — Schceffer. — The Mayence Bible. — The Psalter of 
 14-57. — The "Rationale " of 1459. — Gutenberg prints by himself. — The " Catholicon" 
 of 1460. — Printing at Cologne, Strasbourg, Venice, and Paris. — Louis XL and 
 Nicholas Jenson. — German Printers at Rome. — Incunabula. — Colard Mansion. — 
 Caxton. — Improvement of Typographical Processes up to the Sixteenth Century. 
 
TABLE OF ILLUSTBATIONS. 
 
 I. CHROMOLITHOGRAPHS. 
 
 Plate To face page 
 
 1. The Annunciation. Fac-simile of Minia- 
 
 ture taken from the "Hours" of Anne 
 de Bretagne, formerly belonging to 
 Catherine de Medicis. . Frontispiece 
 
 2. Distaff and Bedposts of the Sixteenth 
 
 Century 20 
 
 3. Adoration of the Magi. Bernese Ta- 
 
 pestry of the Fifteenth Century .... 46 
 
 4. Paris in the Fifteenth Century. Beau- 
 
 vais Tapestry 50 
 
 5. Encaustic Tiles 58 
 
 6. Biberon of Henri Deux Faience 64 
 
 7. Casque, Morion, and Helmets 82 
 
 8. Entrance of Queen Isabella of Ba- 
 
 varia into Paris. From Froissart's 
 
 "Chronicles" 118 
 
 9. Jewelled Crosses of the Visigoths, found 
 
 at Guarrazar. Seventh Century. ... 124 
 
 Page 
 
 Abbey of St. Denis 416 
 
 Alhambra, Interior of the 405 
 
 Alphabet, Specimen of Grotesque 327 
 
 Altar-cloth of the Fifteenth Century 30 
 
 „ Cross ascribed to St. Eloi 137 
 
 „ of Gold 130 
 
 „ Tray and Chalice 31 
 
 Arch, Restoration of a Norman 343 
 
 Archer of Normandy 79 
 
 Archers of the Fifteenth Century, France . . 88 
 
 Aries, Sculptures on St. Trophimus. . . . 384, 385 
 
 Armour, Convex, of the Fifteenth Century. 84 
 
 „ Knights in complete 89 
 
 ,, Lion 90 
 
 ,, of the Due d'Alencon 92 
 
 Plain, of the Fifteenth Century . . 83 
 
 Plate To face page 
 
 10. Drageoir, or Table Ornament. German 
 
 work 154 
 
 11. Clock of Damaskeened Iron of the Fif- 
 
 teenth Century ; and Watches of the 
 Sixteenth Century 180 
 
 12. Francis I. and Eleanor his Wife at their 
 
 Devotions. Sixteenth Century .... 266 
 
 13. The Dream of Life, a Fresco by Orcagna 276 
 
 14. St. Catherine and St. Agnes, by Mar- 
 
 garet van Eyck 300 
 
 15. Clovis the First and Clotilde his Wife . . 352 
 
 16. Decoration of La Sainte-Chapelle, Paris 386 
 
 17. Coronation of Charles the Fifth of 
 
 France. From Froissart's " Chro- 
 nicles" 464 
 
 18. Panel of a Book-cover of the Ninth 
 
 Century 472 
 
 19. Diptych of Ivory 474 
 
 Page 
 
 Arms of the Cardmakers of Paris 250 
 
 „ Goldsmiths of Paris 160 
 
 Arquebus with Wheel and Match 103 
 
 Arquebusier 102 
 
 Atelier of Etienne Delaulne 158 
 
 Bagpiper, Thirteenth Century 199 
 
 Banner of Paper-makers of Paris 422 
 
 „ Printers-Booksellers of Angers. . 479 
 
 „ Printers-Booksellers of Autun . . 484 
 
 „ Saddlers of Tonnerre 121 
 
 „ Sword-cutlers of Angers 105 
 
 ,, Tapestry Workers of Lyons 51 
 
 Banners of Corporations 161 
 
 Banquet in the Fifteenth Century 12 
 
 Basilica of Constantine, at Treves 374 
 
 II. ENGRAVINGS. 
 
ENGRA VINGS. 
 
 Basilica of St. Peter's, Eome, Interior of . . 407 
 
 Bas-relief in carved wood 34 
 
 Battle-axe and Pistol, Sixteenth. Century . . 104 
 
 Bed furnished with Canopy and Curtains . . 19 
 
 Belfry of Brussels 404 
 
 Bell in a Tower of Siena, Twelfth Century 206 
 
 Bells of the Ninth Century, Chime of ... . 208 
 
 Bolt of the Sixteenth Century, with Initial. 23 
 
 Bombards on fixed and rolling carriages . . 96 
 
 Bookbinders' Work-room 482 
 
 Bookbinding for the Gospels 474 
 
 „ in an Unknown Material. . . . 480 
 
 „ in Gold, with precious Stones 474 
 Borders : — 
 
 Bible called Clement VII.'s 463 
 
 Bible of St. Martial of Limoges 450 
 
 Book of the Gospels, Eighth Century . . 446 
 
 Book of the Gospels, Eleventh Century 451 
 
 Book of the Gospels in Latin 451 
 
 Employed by John of Tournes 519 
 
 Froissart's " Chronicles " 465 
 
 Gospel in Latin 456 
 
 Lectionary in Metz Cathedral 448 
 
 '•' Livre d'Heures " of Anthony Verard 516 
 
 " Livre d'Heures " of Geoffroi Tory . . 517 
 
 Lyons School 518 
 
 Missal of Pope Paul V 467 
 
 " Ovid," Fifteenth Century 465 
 
 Prayer-book of Louis of France 461 
 
 Sacramentary of St. JEthelgar 453 
 
 Bracelet, Gallic 124 
 
 Brooch, chased, enamelled, &c 167 
 
 Cabinet in damaskeened Iron, inlaid 22 
 
 ,, for Jewels 21 
 
 Cameo-setting of the time of Charles V. . . 140 
 
 Cannon, Earliest Models of 98 
 
 ,, Hand 99 
 
 Caparison of the Horse of Isabel the Catholic 117 
 
 Capital of a Column, St. Genevieve,Paris . . 392 
 
 „ „ St. Julien, Paris 392 
 
 „ „ The Celestins, Paris . . 393 
 
 Carruca, or Pleasure-carriage 108 
 
 Cart drawn by Oxen, Fifteenth Century . . 109 
 
 Castle of Marcoussis, near Rambouillet. . . . 397 
 
 „ Coucy, in its ancient state 399 
 
 ,, Vincennes, Seventeenth Century 399 
 
 Cathedral of Amiens, Interior of 391 
 
 „ Mayence 388 
 
 Censer of the Eleventh Century 32 
 
 Chains . , • 165 
 
 Chair called the " Fauteuil de Dagobert" . . 3 
 
 „ of Christine de Pisan 9 
 
 „ of Louise de Savoie 10 
 
 „ of Louis IX 7 
 
 „ of the Ninth or Tenth Century '4 
 
 Chalice of the Fourth or Fifth Century 31 
 
 „ said to be of St. Remy 135 
 
 Page 
 
 Chateau de Chambord 409 
 
 Chess-Players 225 
 
 Chest shaped like a Bed, and Chair 20 
 
 Choron, Ninth Century 211 
 
 Chorus with Single Bell-end with Holes . . 199 
 
 Church of Mouen. Remains of the 378 
 
 ,, St. Agnes, Rome 377 
 
 St. Martin, Tours 377 
 
 St. Paul-des-Champs, Paris 381 
 
 „ St. Trophimus, Aries, Portal 384, 385 
 
 ,, St. Vital, Ravenna 376 
 
 Clock, Astronomical, of Strasburg Cathedral 184 
 
 „ of Jena, in Germany 183 
 
 „ Portable, of the time of the Valois . . 178 
 
 „ with Wheels and Weights 177 
 
 Clockmaker, The 170 
 
 Cloister of the Abbey of Moissac, Guyenne. 386 
 
 Coffee-pot of German Ware 72 
 
 Concert ; a Bas-relief (Normandy) 193 
 
 and Musical Instruments 194 
 
 Cooper's Workshop, Sixteenth Century 16 
 
 Crossbow Men protected by Shield-bearers 85 
 
 Cross, Gold-chased 163 
 
 Crout, Three-stringed, Ninth Century 217 
 
 Crown of Suintila, King of the Visigoths . . 125 
 
 Crozier, Abbot's, enamelled 138 
 
 ,, Bishop's 138 
 
 Cup, Italian Ware 62 
 
 „ of Lapis-lazuli, mounted in Gold .... 152 
 
 Diadem of Charlemagne 127 
 
 Diptych in Ivory 345 
 
 Dish, Ornament of a 74 
 
 Doorways of the Hotel de Sens, Paris .... 403 
 
 Dragonneau, Double-barreled 101 
 
 Drinking-cup of Agate 134 
 
 Dwelling-room of a Seigneur of the Four- 
 teenth Century 26 
 
 Enamelled Border of a Dish 63 
 
 ,, Dish, by Bernard Palissy .... 71 
 
 ,, Terra-cotta 57 
 
 Engine for hurling Stones 95 
 
 Engraving : — ■ 
 
 Columbus on board his Ship 325 
 
 Ferdinand 1 335 
 
 Herodias 329 
 
 Letter N, Grotesque Alphabet 327 
 
 Lutma, of Groningen 337 
 
 Isaiah with Instrument of his Martyr- 
 dom 323 
 
 Maximilian, Coronation of 321 
 
 Phalaris, Tyrant of Agrigentiim 333 
 
 Repose of the Holy Family 334 
 
 St. Catherine on her Knees 319 
 
 St. Hubert praying before the Cross 
 
 borne by a Stag 331 
 
 The Holy Virgin 338 
 
ENGRA VINGS. 
 
 xvii 
 
 Page 
 
 Engraving : — 
 
 The Prophet Isaiah 323 
 
 The Virgin and Child 318 
 
 The Virgin and Infant Jesus 316 
 
 Ensign of the Collar of the Goldsmiths of 
 
 Ghent 144 
 
 Escutcheon in Silver- gilt 145 
 
 Escutcheon of France, Fourteenth Century 470 
 
 Ewer in Limoges Enamel 157 
 
 Fac-simile of a Bible of 1456 503 
 
 „ " Catholicon" of 1460 506 
 
 „ Engraving on Wood 487 
 
 ,, Inscription Ex libris 441 
 
 ,, Miniature drawn with a pen 450 
 
 „ Miniature of a Psalter 455 
 
 „ Miniature, Thirteenth Cen- 
 tury 457 
 
 „ Page of a " Livre d'Heures" 510 
 
 „ Page of a Psalter of 1459 505 
 
 „ Page of the " Ars Moriendi " 495 
 „ Page of the most ancient 
 
 Xylographic " Donatus " 49 1 
 ,, Xylographic Page of the 
 
 " Biblia Pauperum " 493 
 
 Fiddle, Angel playing on the 220 
 
 Flute, Double 197 
 
 Fresco-Painting : — 
 
 Christ and his Mother 273 
 
 Creation, The 278 
 
 Death and the Jew 281 
 
 Disciples in Gethsemane 275 
 
 Fra Angelico, of Fiesole 282 
 
 Fraternity of Crossbowmen 280 
 
 Group of Saints 277 
 
 Pope Sylvester 1 274 
 
 Gargoyles in the Palais de Justice, Rouen 372 
 
 Gate of Mo ret 401 
 
 „ St. John, Provins 402 
 
 Glass-Painting : — 
 
 Citadel of Pallas 262 
 
 Flemish Window 265 
 
 Legend of the Jew piercing the Holy 
 
 Wafer 260 
 
 St. Paul, an Enamel 264 
 
 St. Timothy the Martyr 255 
 
 Temptation of St. Mars 267 
 
 The Prodigal Son 257 
 
 Window, Evreux Cathedral 261 
 
 Goblet, by Bernard Palissy 69 
 
 Goldsmiths of Paris carrying a Shrine .... 162 
 
 Goldsmiths' Stamps : — 
 
 Chartres 159 
 
 Lyons 159 
 
 Melun 159 
 
 Orleans 159 
 
 Gutenburg, Portrait of 492 
 
 Page 
 
 Harp, Fifteen- stringed, Twelfth Century. . 214 
 
 „ Minstrel's, Fifteenth Century 216 
 
 „ Triangular Saxon, Ninth Century . . 214 
 
 Harper of the Fifteenth Century 215 
 
 Harpers of the Twelfth Century 215 
 
 Helmet of Don Jaime el Conquistador .... 80 
 
 „ of Hughes, Vidame of Chalons. ... 82 
 Henry VIII. in the Camp of the Field of 
 
 the Cloth of Gold 119 
 
 Horn, or Olifant, Fourteenth Century .... 201 
 
 „ Shepherd's, Eighth Century 201 
 
 Hour-glass of the Sixteenth Century .... 173 
 
 Hour-glass, Top of 186 
 
 Initial Letter, Ninth Century 476 
 
 Initial Letters from Manuscripts 445 
 
 Initial Letters extracted from the " Rouleau 
 
 Mortuaire " of St. Vital 454 
 
 Jacquemart of Notre-Dame at Dijon 176 
 
 Key of the Thirteenth Century 23 
 
 King William, as represented on his Seal 77 
 
 Knight armed and mounted for War .... 114 
 
 „ entering the Lists Ill 
 
 „ in his Hauberk 81 
 
 Knights, Combat of 89 
 
 Lament composed shortly after the Death of 
 
 Charlemagne 188, 189 
 
 Lamps of the Nineteenth Century 17 
 
 Lancer of William the Conqueror's Army 77 
 
 Library of the University of Leyden 475 
 
 Lute, Five-stringed, Thirteenth Century. . 216 
 
 Lyre, Ancient 209 
 
 „ of the North 209 
 
 Mangonneau of the Fifteenth Century 97 
 
 Miniatures : — 
 
 Anne de Bretagne's Prayer-book .... 468 
 
 Book of the Gospels of Charlemagne. . 447 
 
 Consecration of a Bishop 449 
 
 Dante's " Paradiso " 466 
 
 Evangelist, An, transcribing 415 
 
 Four Sons of Aymon 458 
 
 Les Femmes Ulustres 461 
 
 Margrave of Baden's " Livre d'Heures" 469 
 
 Miniature of the Thirteenth Century. . 457 
 
 Missal of the Eleventh Century 452 
 
 Order of the Holy Ghost, Instituting the 464 
 
 Psalter of John, Duke of Berry 462 
 
 Psalter of the Thirteenth Century .... 455 
 
 " Roman de Fauvel," from the 459 
 
 "Virgil," in the Vatican, Rome 444 
 
 Mirror for Hand or Pocket 25 
 
 Monochord played with a Bow 221 
 
 Musician sounding Military Trumpet .... 202 
 
 Musicians playing on the Flute, &c 198 
 
 „ „ Violin 219 
 
 Nabiilum, Ninth Century 211 
 
xviii ENGRA VINGS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Notre-Dame la Grande of Poitiers 383 
 
 Paris 390 
 
 ,, Rouen 379 
 
 Organ, Great, of the Twelfth Century .... 204 
 
 „ Pneumatic, of the Fourth Century 203 
 
 „ Portable, of the Fifteenth Century 205 
 
 „ with single Key-board 205 
 
 Organistrum, Ninth Century 213 
 
 Oxford, Saloon of the Schools 396 
 
 Painting on Wood, Canvas, &c. : — 
 
 Baptism of King Clovis 286 
 
 Christ crowned with Thorns 304 
 
 Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci 292 
 
 Princess Sibylla of Saxony 305 
 
 St. Ursula 302 
 
 Sketch of the Virgin of Alba 312 
 
 The Holy Family 294 
 
 The Holy Virgin, St. George, and St. 
 
 Donat 300 
 
 The Last Judgment , 311 
 
 The Patriarch Job 290 
 
 The Tribute Money 309 
 
 Paper-maker, The 420 
 
 Pendant, adorned with Diamonds, &c 164 
 
 „ after aDesign by Ben venuto Cellini 150 
 Playing- Cards : — 
 
 Ancient French 236 
 
 Buffoon, from a Pack of Tarots 230 
 
 Charles VI. on his Throne 233 
 
 Engravings, Coloured, analogous to 
 
 Playing-Cards 227 
 
 From a Game of "Logic " 245 
 
 German Round-shaped 247 
 
 Italian Tarots 242 
 
 Justice 231 
 
 King of Acorns 244 
 
 Knave of Clubs 238 
 
 Knight from a Pack engraved by 
 
 "The Master of 1466" 249 
 
 La Damoiselle 248 
 
 Moon, The 231 
 
 Roxana, Queen of Hearts 242 
 
 Specimen of the Sixteenth Century . . 236 
 
 Three and Eight of Bells 243 
 
 Two of a Pack of German Lansquenet 245 
 
 Two of Bells 244 
 
 Porte de Hal, Brussels 410 
 
 Pottery Figures, Fragments of 68 
 
 „ Ornamentation on 67 
 
 Printers' Marks, Arnold de Keyser, Ghent 511 
 „ „ Bonaventure and Elsevier, 
 
 Leyden 520 
 
 „ ,, Colard Mansion, Bruges 512 
 
 „ „ Eustace, W 483 
 
 ,, „ Fust and Schoeffer 511 
 
 ,, ,, Galliot du Pre, Paris .... 513 
 
 „ „ Gerard Leeu, Gouwe .... 511 
 
 Page 
 
 Printers' Marks, Gryphe, Lyons 515 
 
 „ „ J. Le Noble, Troyes .... 515 
 
 „ !„ Philippe le Noir, &c, Paris 514 
 
 ,, ,, Plantin, Antwerp 515 
 
 „ „ Robert Estienne, Paris .. 515 
 
 „ „ Vostre, Simon, Paris .... 513 
 
 „ ,, Temporal, Lyons 514 
 
 „ „ Trechsel, Lyons 512 
 
 Printing-office, Interior of a 499 
 
 Psalter ion, Performer on the 212 
 
 „ Twelfth Century 211 
 
 Psaltery, Buckle-shaped 211 
 
 „ to produce a prolonged Sound . . 210 
 
 Reredos in Carved Bone 363 
 
 Rebec of the Sixteenth Century 221 
 
 Reading-desk of the Fifteenth Century. ... 33 
 
 Reliquary, Byzantine 129 
 
 Silver-gilt 143 
 
 Rings 165 
 
 Rote, David playing on a 218 
 
 Saddle-cloth, Sixteenth Century 118 
 
 Salt-cellar, Enamelled 155 
 
 „ Interior base of 156 
 
 Sambute, or Sackbut, of the Ninth Century 202 
 
 Sansterre, as represented on his Seal 79 
 
 Saufang, of St. Cecilia's at Cologne, The . . 206 
 
 Scent-box in Chased Gold 142 
 
 Scribe or Copyist in his Work-room 432 
 
 Sculpture : — 
 
 Altar of Castor 340 
 
 Altar of Jupiter Ceraunus 341 
 
 Bas-relief of Dagobert 1 347 
 
 Citizens relieving Poor Scholars 351 
 
 Coronation of the Emperor Sigismund 360 
 
 Fragment of a Reredos in Bone 363 
 
 Francis I. and Henry VIII. on the 
 
 Field of the Cloth of Gold 369 
 
 Gargoyles on the Palace of Justice, 
 
 Rouen 372 
 
 Roman Triumphal Arch 342 
 
 "Le Bon Dieu," Paris 364 
 
 St. Eloi 366 
 
 St. John the Baptist preaching 368 
 
 St. Julien and his Wife conveying Jesus 
 
 Christ in their boat 362 
 
 Statue of Philip Chabot 370 
 
 Statue of Dagobert 1 347 
 
 Statue said to be of Clovis 1 353 
 
 Statues on Bourges Cathedral 357 
 
 Statuette of St. Avit 361 
 
 Stone Tomb 343 
 
 The " Beau Dieu d' Amiens " 355 
 
 The Entombment 371 
 
 Tomb of Dagobert 349 
 
 Seal of the Goldsmiths of Paris 159 
 
 „ King of La Basoche 419 
 
ENGRA VINGS. 
 
 xix 
 
 Seal of the University of Oxford 478 
 
 „ University of Paris 417 
 
 Seals 166 
 
 Seats, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. 8 
 
 Sedan Chair of Charles V 120 
 
 Shrine in Copper-gilt 132 
 
 Shrine in Limoges 131 
 
 „ of the Fifteenth Century 147 
 
 Soldiers, Gallo-Romano 76 
 
 Spurs, German and Italian 113 
 
 Staircase of a Tower 398 
 
 Stall of the Fifteenth Century 33 
 
 Stalls in St. Benolt-sur-Loire 35 
 
 Sword of Charlemagne 126 
 
 Syrinx, Seven-tubed 197 
 
 Table of King Artus of Brittany 5 
 
 Tapestry: — 
 
 Construction of Boats for the Con- 
 queror 44 
 
 Hunting Scene 49 
 
 Marriage of Louis XII. and Anne of 
 
 Brittany 46 
 
 Mounted Men of Duke William's army 45 
 
 The Weaver 50 
 
 Tintinnabulum, or Hand-bell 206 
 
 Toledo, Gothic Architecture at 393 
 
 Tour de Nesle, Paris 400 
 
 Tournament Helmet, screwed on the Breast- 
 plate 82 
 
 Tournament Saddles, ornamented with 
 
 Paintings 116 
 
 Page 
 
 Tree of Jesse. From a Miniature 195 
 
 Triangle of the Ninth Century 222 
 
 Trumpet, Curved, Eleventh Century 200 
 
 „ Straight, with Stand 200 
 
 Tympanum of the Thirteenth Century .... 208 
 
 Vase of Rock-crystal, mounted in Silver- 
 gilt 152 
 
 Vases of ancient shape 54, 55 
 
 Vielle, Juggler playing on a 220 
 
 „ Oval 220 
 
 „ Player on the 220 
 
 Watches of the Valois Epoch 181 
 
 Water-jug, Four-handled 72 
 
 Water-marks on Paper 421 
 
 Window with Stone Seats 398 
 
 Wood-block cut in France, about 1440.... 488 
 
 ,, Print cut in Flanders 486 
 
 Writing Caligraphic Ornament 442 
 
 „ Cursive, of the Fifteenth Century 439 
 
 „ "Diplomatic, of the Tenth Century 438 
 
 „ of the Eighth Century 436, 437 
 
 „ of the Fifteenth Century 442 
 
 „ of the Fourteenth Century 440 
 
 „ of the Seventh Century 435,436 
 
 „ of the Sixth Century 435 
 
 „ of the Tenth Century 437 
 
 ,, Tironian, of the Eighth Century 437 
 „ Title and Capital Letters of the 
 
 Seventh Century 435 
 
THE AETS IN THE MIDDLE AGES, 
 
 AND AT THE PERIOD OF 
 
 THE EENAISSANCE. 
 
 FUBNHUBE : 
 
 ORDINARY HOUSEHOLD, AND APPERTAINING TO ECCLESIASTICAL PURPOSES. 
 
 Simplicity of Furniture among the Gauls and Franks.— Introduction of costly taste in articles of 
 Furniture of the Seventh Century.— Arm-chair of Dagobert — Round Table of King Artus. — 
 Influence of the Crusades.— Regal Banquet in the time of Charles V.— Benches. — Sideboards. 
 —Dinner Services.— Goblets.— Brassware.— Casks.— Lighting.— Beds.— Carved Wood Furni- 
 ture.— Locksmith's Work.— Glass and Mirrors.— Room of a Feudal Seigneur.— Costliness of 
 Furniture used for Ecclesiastical Purposes.— Altars.— Censers.— Shrines and Reliquaries.— 
 Gratings and Iron .-mountings. 
 
 jgg§^j||gSi^ ) E shall he readily believed when we assert that the 
 furniture used by our remote ancestors, the Grauls, was 
 of the most rude simplicity. A people essentially 
 addicted to war and hunting,— at the best, agri- 
 culturists, — having for their temples the forests, for 
 their dwellings huts formed out of turf and thatched 
 with straw and branches, would naturally be indifferent to the form 
 and description of their furniture. 
 
 Then succeeded the Eoman Conquest. Originally, and long sub- 
 sequent to the formation of their warlike republic, the Romans had also 
 lived in contempt of display, and even in ignorance of the conveniences of 
 life. But when they had subjugated Gaul, and had carried their victorious 
 arms to the confines of the world, they by degrees appropriated whatever the 
 manners and habits of the conquered nations disclosed to them of refined 
 luxury, material progress, and ingenious devices for comfort. Thus, the 
 Romans brought with them into Graul what they elsewhere had acquired. 
 
2 
 
 FURNITURE. 
 
 Again, when, in their turn, the semi-barbarous hordes of Germany and of 
 the Northern steppes invaded the Roman empire, these new conquerors 
 did not fail to accommodate themselves instinctively to the social condition 
 of the vanquished. 
 
 This, briefly stated, is an explanation — we admit, rather concise — of 
 the transition connecting the characteristics of the society of olden days 
 with those of modern society. 
 
 Society in the Middle Ages — that social epoch which may be compared 
 to the state of a decrepid and worn-out old man, who, after a long, dull 
 torpor awakes to new life, like an active and vigorous child — society in 
 the Middle Ages inherited much from preceding times, though, to a certain 
 extent, they were disconnected. It transformed, perhaps ; and it perfected, 
 rather than invented ; but it displayed in its works a genius so peculiar 
 that we generally recognise in it a real creation. 
 
 Proposing rapidly to pursue our archaeological and literary course 
 through a twofold period of birth and revival, we cannot indulge the belief 
 that we shall succeed in exhibiting our sketches in a light the best adapted 
 to their effect. However, we will make the attempt, and, the frame being 
 given, will do our best to fill in the picture. 
 
 If we visit any royal or princely abode of the Merovingian period, we 
 observe that the display of wealth consists much less in the elegance or in 
 the originality of the forms devised for articles of furniture, than in the 
 profusion of precious materials employed in their fabrication and embellish- 
 ment. The time had gone by when the earliest tribes of Gauls and of 
 Northmen, who came to occupy the West, had for their seats and beds only 
 trusses of straw, rush mats, and bundles of branches ; and for their tables 
 slabs of stone or piles of turf. From the fifth century of the Christian era, 
 we already find the Franks and the Goths resting their muscular forms on 
 the long soft seat which the Romans had adopted from the East, and which 
 have become our sofas or our couches ; changing only their names. In 
 front of them were arranged low horse-shoe tables, at which the centre seat 
 was reserved for the most dignified or illustrious of the guests. Couches at 
 the table, suited only to the effeminacy induced by warm climates, were soon 
 abandoned by the Gauls ; benches and stools were adopted by these most 
 active and vigorous men ; meals were no longer eaten reclining, but sitting : 
 while the thrones of kings, and the chairs of state for nobles, were of the 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 3 
 
 richest suraptuousness. Thus, for instance, we find St. Eloi, the celebrated 
 worker in metals, manufacturing and embellishing two state-chairs of gold 
 for Clotaire, and a throne of gold for Dagobert. The chair ascribed to 
 St. Eloi, and known as the Fauteuil de Dagobert (Fig. 1), is an antique con- 
 sular chair, which originally was only a folding one ; the Abbe Suger, in the 
 twelfth century, added to it the back and arms. Artistic display was equally 
 
 Fig. i. — The Curule Chair called the " Fauteuil de Dagobert," in gilt bronze, now in the Musee des 
 
 Souverains. 
 
 lavished on the manufacture of tables. Historians tell us that St. Remy, a 
 contemporary of Clovis, had a silver table decorated all over with sacred 
 subjects. The poet Fortunat, Bishop of Poitiers, describes a table of the 
 same metal, which had a border representing a vine with bunches of grapes. 
 
 Coming to the reign of Charlemagne, we find, in a passage in the 
 writings of Eginhard, his minister and historian, that, in addition to a 
 golden table which this great monarch possessed, he had three others of 
 
4 
 
 FURNITURE. 
 
 chased silver ; one decorated with designs representing the city of Rome, 
 another Constantinople, and the third " all countries of the universe." 
 
 The chairs or seats of the Romanesque period (Fig. 2) exhibit an attempt 
 to revive in the interior of the buildings, where they were used, the archi- 
 tectural style of contemporary monuments. They were large and massive, 
 and were raised on clusters of columns expanding at the back in three semi- 
 circular rows. The anonymous monk of Saint- Gall, in his chronicle written 
 in the ninth century, alludes to a grand banquet, at which the host was 
 seated on cushions of feathers. Legrand d'Aussy tells us, in his " Histoire 
 de la Vie Privee des Francais," that at a later date — referring to the reign 
 
 Fig. 2.— Chair of the Ninth or Tenth Century, taken from a Miniature of that period (MS. de la Bibl. 
 
 Imp. de Paris). 
 
 of Louis le Gros, in the beginning of the twelfth century— the guests were 
 seated, at ordinary family repasts, on simple stools; but if the party was 
 more of a ceremonious than intimate character, the table was surrounded 
 with benches, or bancs, whence the term banquet is derived. The form of 
 table was commonly long and straight, but on occasions of state it was 
 semicircular, or like a horse-shoe in form, recalling the Romanesque round 
 table of King Artus of Brittany (Fig. 3). 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 5 
 
 The Crusades, bringing together men of all the countries of Europe with 
 the people of the East, made those of the West acquainted with luxuries and 
 customs which, on returning from their chivalrous expeditions, they did not 
 fail to imitate. We find feasts at which they ate sitting cross-legged on the 
 
 p; g 3 —Round Table of King Artus of Brittany, from a Miniature of the Fourteenth Century (MS. de la Bibl. 
 
 Imp. de Paris). 
 
 ground, or stretched out on carpets in the Oriental fashion, as represented 
 and described in miniatures contained in the manuscripts of that period. 
 The Sire de Joinville, the friend and historian of Louis IX., informs us that 
 this saintly king was in the habit of sitting on a carpet, surrounded by his 
 barons, and in that manner he dispensed justice ; but at the same time the 
 
6 
 
 FURNITURE. 
 
 practice of using large chair -es, or arm-chairs, continued, for there still is to 
 be seen a throne in massive wood belonging to that period, and called Ic 
 banc de Monseigneur St. Louis, embellished with carvings representing fanciful 
 and legendary birds and animals. It is unnecessary to add that the lower 
 orders did not aspire to so much refinement. In their abodes the seats in 
 use were settles, chests, or at best benches, the supports of which were, to a 
 slight extent, carved. 
 
 This was the period when the practice commenced of covering seats with 
 woollen stuffs, or with silk figured on frames, or embroidered by hand, 
 displaying ciphers, emblems, or armorial bearings. From the East was 
 introduced the custom of hangings for rooms, composed of glazed leather, 
 stamped and gilt. These skins of the goat or sheep were called or basane, 
 because plain gilt; or embossed leather, in gold colour, was made from 
 them. Or basane was also used to conceal the bare look of arm-chairs. 
 Towards the fourteenth century, tables of precious metals disappeared, in 
 consequence of fashion ruling in favour of the stuffs which covered them ; 
 tapestry, tissues of gold, and velvets thenceforth formed the table-cloths. 
 On great occasions, the place of the principal guests was distinguished by a 
 canopy, more or less rich, erected above their seats, as represented in the 
 account of the sumptuous feast given by King Charles Y. to the Emperor 
 Charles of Luxemburg, in the great hall of the palace. M. Freguier thus 
 describes the banquet from contemporary documents in the "Histoire de 
 1' Administration de la Police de Paris:" — 
 
 " The dinner was served on a marble table. The Archbishop of Rheims, 
 who had officiated that day, first took his place at table. The Emperor then 
 sat down, then the King of France, and the King of Bohemia, the son of 
 the Emperor. Above the seat of each of the three princes was a separate 
 canopy of gold cloth, embroidered all over with fleurs-de-lis. These three 
 canopies were surmounted by a larger one, also of cloth of gold, which 
 covered the whole extent of the table, and was suspended behind the guests. 
 After the King of Bohemia, three bishops took their place, but far removed 
 from him, and near the end of the table. Under the nearest canopy the 
 Dauphin was seated, at a separate table, with several princes or nobles of 
 the Court of France, or of the Emperor. The hall was adorned with three 
 buffets, or dressers, covered with gold and silver plate ; these three dressers, 
 as well as the two large canopies, were protected by a railing, to prevent the 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 7 
 
 intrusion of the crowds of people who had been permitted to witness the 
 magnificence of the display. Finally, there were to be seen five other 
 canopies, under which were assembled princes and barons round private 
 tables ; also numerous other tables." 
 
 It is noteworthy that from the time of St. Louis these same chairs and 
 seats, carved, covered with the richest stuffs, inlaid with precious stones, and 
 engraved with the armorial bearings of great houses, issued for the most 
 part from the workshops of Parisian artisans. Those artisans, carpenters, 
 manufacturers of coffers and carved chests, and furniture -makers, were so 
 celebrated for works of this description, that in inventories and appraisements 
 of furniture great care was taken to specify that such and such articles 
 among them were of Parisian manufacture ; ex operagio Parisiensi (Fig. 4). 
 
 Fig. 4. — Louis IX. represented in his Regal Chair, tapestried in fleurs-de-lis, from a Miniature 
 of the Fourteenth Century. (MS. de la Bibl. Imp. de Paris.), 
 
 The following extract, from an invoice of Etienne La Fontaine, the royal 
 silversmith, affords, in terms which require no comment, an idea of the cost- 
 liness lavished on the manufacture of an arm-chair, then called faudesteuil, 
 intended for the King of France, in 1352 : — 
 
 " For making a fauteuil of silver and of crystal decorated with precious 
 stones, delivered to the said seigneur, of which the said seigneur ordered the 
 
8 
 
 FURNITURE. 
 
 said goldsmith to make the framework, who ornamented it with several 
 crystals, illuminated pieces, many designs, pearls, and other stones .... 
 vn c lxxiiii m (774 louis). 
 
 " For illuminated pieces placed under the crystals of the said fauteuil, of 
 which there are 40 of the armorial bearings of France, 61 of the prophets 
 holding scrolls, 112 half-length figures of animals on gold ground, and 4 
 large representations of the judgments of Solomon .... vi xx M (620 louis). 
 
 " For twelve crystals for the said fauteuil, of which five are hollow to 
 hold the batons, six flat, and one round," &c. 
 
 It was only towards the commencement of the fifteenth century that 
 chairs stuffed with straw or rushes first appeared ; they folded in the form of 
 the letter X (Fig. 5) ; the seats and arms being stuffed. In the sixteenth 
 
 century chairs with backs (chaires or tihayeres d dorseret), in carved oak or 
 chestnut, painted and gilt, fell into disuse, even in the royal castles, as 
 being too heavy and inconvenient, and on account of their enormous size 
 (Figs. 6 and 7). 
 
 The dresser, which has just been described as used at the grand feast of 
 Charles V., and which moreover has been retained, altered to a sideboard with 
 shelves, almost to our time, was an article manufactured much less for use 
 than for show. It was upon this dresser, — the introduction of which does 
 not appear to go further back than the twelfth century, and the name 
 whereof sufficiently describes its purpose, — that there was displayed, in the 
 vast halls of manorial residences, not only all the valuable plate required for 
 the table, but many other objects of goldsmith's work which played no part 
 in the banquet — vases of all sorts, statuettes, figures in high relief, jewels, 
 
 Fig. 5. — Seats from Miniatures of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 9 
 
 and even reliquaries. In palaces and mansions, the dressers were of gold, 
 silver, or copper gilt ; as were previously the tables. Persons of inferior rank 
 had only wooden tables, but they were scrupulous in covering them with 
 tapestry, embroidered cloth, and fine table-cloths. At one time the display 
 
 Fig 6. — Christine de Pizan, contemporary with Charles V. and Charles VI., seated on a Chair in carved wood 
 with back and canopy, and tapestry of worsted or figured silk. The box or chest which formed the writing- 
 table contained books. (Miniature from a MS. in the Bibl. of Burgundy -Bruxelles, Fifteenth Century.) 
 
 of wealth on the dressers in ecclesiastical establishments attained to such a 
 point, that we are reminded, among other censures levelled againt that 
 fashionable exhibition of vanity, of the expostulations of Martial d'Auvergne, 
 author of the historical poem, " Les Vigil es de Charles VII.," addressed to 
 the bishops on the subject. One item significant enough is mentioned in 
 ancient documents ; it is the tribute of half-a-dozen small bouquets, which 
 
10 
 
 FURNITURE. 
 
 the inhabitants of Chaillot were bound to tender annually to the Abbey of 
 Saint-German des Pres, to decorate the dressers of Messire the Abbot. 
 
 Fig. 7. — Louise de Savoie, Duchess of Angouleme, mother of Francis I., seated in a high-backed Chair of carved 
 wood. (Miniature from a MS. in the Imp. Bibl. of Paris.) 
 
 More plain, but also more useful, were the abace and the credence, other 
 kinds of sideboards which generally stood at a little distance from the table ; 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 on one of these were placed the dishes and plates for removes, on the other 
 the goblets, glasses, and cups. It may be added that the credence, before 
 it -was introduced in the dining-halls, had from very remote times been used 
 in churches, where it was placed near the altar to receive the sacred vessels 
 during the sacrifice of mass. 
 
 Posidonius, the Stoic philosopher, who wrote about a hundred years before 
 the Christian era, tells us that, at the feasts of the Gauls, a slave used to 
 bring to table an earthenware, or a silver, jug filled with wine, from which 
 every guest quaffed in turn, and allayed his thirst. We thus see the practice 
 of using goblets of silver, as well as of earthenware, established among the 
 Gauls at a period we consider primitive. In truth, those vessels of silver 
 were probably not the productions of local industry, but the spoil which 
 those martial tribes had acquired in their wars against more civilised nations. 
 "With regard to the vases of baked clay, the majority of those frequently 
 exhumed from burial-grounds prove how coarse they were, though they 
 seem to have been made with the help of the potter's wheel, as among the 
 Romans. However that may be, we think it best to omit the consideration 
 of the question in this place, and to resume it in the chapter on the Ceramic 
 Art. But we must not forget to notice the custom which prevailed among the 
 earliest inhabitants of our country, of offering to those most renowned for their 
 valour beverages in a horn of the urus, which was either gilt or ornamented 
 with bands of gold or silver. The urus was a species of ox, now extinct, 
 that existed in a wild state in the forests with which Gaul was then partly 
 covered. This horn goblet long continued to be the emblem of the highest 
 warlike dignity among the nations who succeeded the Gauls. William of 
 Poitiers relates, in his " Histoire de Guillaume le Conquerant," that towards 
 the end of the eleventh century, this Duke of Normandy still drank out of 
 the horn of a bull, when he held his full court at Fecamp. 
 
 Our ancient kings, whose tables were made of the most precious metals, 
 failed not also to display rare magnificence in the plate that stood on those 
 superb tables. Chroniclers relate, for example, that Chilperic, " on the 
 pretext of doing honour to the people whom he governed, had a dish made 
 of solid gold, ornamented all over with precious stones, and weighing fifty 
 pounds ;" and again, that Lothaire one day distributed among his soldiers 
 the fragments of an enormous silver basin, on which was designed "the 
 world, with the courses of the stars and the planets." In the absence of any 
 
I 2 
 
 FURNITURE. 
 
 authentic documents, it must be presumed that, in contrast to this regal 
 style, or rather far removed therefrom, the rest of the nation scarcely used 
 any other utensils but those of earthenware, or wood ; or else of iron or 
 copper. 
 
 Advancing in the course of centuries, and till the period when the 
 progress of the ceramic art enabled its productions at length to rank among 
 articles of luxury, we find gold and silver always preferred for dinner 
 services ; but marble, rock crystal, and glass appeared in turn, artistically 
 worked in a thousand elegant or singular forms, as cups, ewers, large 
 tumblers, goblets, &c. (Fig 8). 
 
 Fig. 8.— A State Banquet in the Fifteenth Century, with the service of dishes brought in and handed round to the 
 sound of musical instruments. (Miniature irom a MS. in the Imp. Lib. in Paris.) 
 
 To the goblet, especially, seem to belong all honorary privileges in the 
 etiquette of the table ; for the goblet, a sort of large chalice on a thin stem, 
 was more particularly regarded as an object of distinction by the guests, on 
 account of the supposed antiquity of its origin. Thus we see represented 
 among the presents given to the Abbey of St. Denis by the Emperor 
 Charles the Bald, a goblet which is alleged to have belonged to Solomon, 
 "which goblet was so marvellously wrought, that never (oncques) was there 
 in all the kingdoms of the world a work so delicate (subtile)." 
 
 The goldsmiths, sculptors, and workers in copper had recourse to all the 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 •3 
 
 devices of art and imagination to embellish goblets, ewers, and salt-cellars. 
 We find allusions, in the recitals of chroniclers, the romances of chivalry, 
 and especially in old invoices and inventories, to ewers representing men, 
 roses, and dolphins ; to goblets covered with flowers and animals ; to salt- 
 cellers in the form of dragons, &c. 
 
 Several large pieces of gold plate, discontinued at a later period, glittered 
 then at grand banquets. Especially may be noted the portable fountains 
 raised in the middle of the table, and from which, during the repast, flowed 
 several sorts of beverages. Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, had one 
 in the form of a fortress with towers, from the summit of which the figure 
 of a woman poured out hippocras (spiced wine) from her bosom, and that 
 of a child, which sprinkled perfumed water. 
 
 There were also plate-holders, well described by Du Cange as large 
 dishes made to contain vessels, cups, knives ; comfit-boxes, which have been 
 replaced by our modern bonbonnieres, and which formerly were valuable 
 caskets chased and damaskeened; and lastly, almsboxes, a description of 
 metal-urns, richly chased ; these were placed before the guests in order that, 
 according to an ancient custom, each might place therein some portions of 
 meat, to be subsequently distributed to the poor. 
 
 If we glance at the other minor objects which completed the table- 
 service — knives, spoons, forks, bottle- stands, plate-mats, &c. — we shall see 
 that they no less indicate refinement and luxury. Forks, that now seem 
 to us so indispensable, are mentioned for the first time in 1379, in an 
 inventory of Charles V. They had only two prongs, or rather two long 
 sharp points. As for knives, which, with spoons, had to supply the place 
 of forks for the guests to eat with, their antiquity is undoubted. Posidonius, 
 whom we have already quoted, says, when speaking of the Celts : — 
 " They eat in a very slovenly manner, and seize with their hands, like 
 lions with their claws, whole quarters of meat, which they tear in pieces 
 with their teeth. If they find a tough morsel, they cut it with a small 
 knife which they always carry in a sheath at their side." Of what were 
 these knives made ? Our author does not tell us ; but we may assume that 
 they were of flint or of polished stone, like the hatchets and arrow-heads so 
 frequently found where these ancient people dwelt, and which bear testimony 
 to their industry. 
 
 In the thirteenth century mention is made of knives, under the name of 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 mensacidce and artavi, which a little later were known by the word kenivet, 
 from which evidently is derived canif. To complete this connection, we may 
 remark that it is to be gathered, from a passage by the same author, that 
 the blades of some knives of that period were made to slide into the handle 
 by means of a spring, like our pocket-knives. 
 
 Spoons, which necessarily were used by all nations as soon as dishes more 
 or less liquid were introduced, are described from the date of almost our 
 earliest history. Accordingly, we see, in the " Life of St, Radegonde," that 
 that princess, who was constantly engaged in charitable acts, used a spoon 
 for feeding the blind and the helpless whom she took under her care. 
 
 At a very remote period we find in use turquoises, or nut- crackers. 
 Cruet-stands were, excepting in form, very similar to stands for two 
 bottles ; for they are thus described : — " A kind of double-necked bottle in 
 divisions, in which to place two sorts of liquors without mixing them." The 
 plate-mats were our dessons de pled, made of wicker, wood, tin, or other metal. 
 
 The manufacture of the greater number of these articles, if intended for 
 persons of rank, did not fail to engage the industry of artisans and the 
 talent of artists. Spoons, forks, nut-crackers, cruet-stands, sauce-boats, &c, 
 furnished inexhaustible subjects for embellishment and chasing ; knife- 
 handles, made of ivory, cedar-wood, gold, or silver, were also fashioned in 
 the most varied forms. Until ceramic art introduced plates more or less 
 costly, they naturally enough followed the shape of dishes, which in fact 
 they are, on a small scale. But if the dishes were of enormous size, the 
 plates were always very small. 
 
 If from the dining-room we pass to the kitchen, so as to form some idea 
 of culinary utensils, we must admit that, anterior to the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, the most circumstantial documents are all but silent on the subject. 
 Nevertheless, some of the ancient poets and early romancers allude to those 
 huge mechanical spits on which, at one and the same time, large joints of 
 different kinds, entire sheep, or long rows of poultry and game, could be 
 roasted. Moreover, we know that in palaces, and in the mansions of the 
 nobility, copper cooking-utensils possessed real importance, because the 
 care and maintenance of the copper-ware was entrusted to a person who 
 bore the title of maignen, a name still given to the itinerant tinker. 
 We also find that from the twelfth century there existed the corporation of 
 braziers {dinans), who executed historical designs, in relievo, by the use of 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 15 
 
 the hammer in beating out and embossing copper, — designs that would bear 
 comparison with the most elaborate works produced by the goldsmith's art. 
 Some of these artisans obtained such reputation that their names have 
 descended to us. Jean d'Outremeuse, Jean Delamare, Gautier de Coux, 
 Lambert Patras, were among those who conferred honour on the art of 
 brazier's work (dinanderie). 
 
 From the kitchen to the cellar the distance is usually but short. Our 
 forefathers, who were large consumers, and in their way had a delicate 
 appreciation, of the juice of the vine, understood how to store the barrels 
 which contained their wines in deep and spacious vaults. The cooper's art, 
 when almost unknown in Italy and Spain, had existed for a long time in 
 France, as is attested by a passage taken from the " Memoires de l'Academie 
 des Inscriptions:" — "We see by the text of the Salic law that, when an 
 estate changed hands, the new proprietor gave, in the first place, a feast, 
 and the guests were bound to eat, in the presence of witnesses, a plate of 
 boiled minced meat. It is remarked in the ' Glossaire de Du Cange ' 
 that, among the Saxons and Flemings, the word boden means a round table ; 
 because the peasantry used the bottom of a barrel as a table. Tacitus says 
 that for the first meal of the day the Germans had each their own table ; 
 that is to say, apparently a full or empty barrel placed on end." 
 
 A statute of Charlemagne alludes to bons barils (bonos barridos). These 
 barrels were made by skilled coopers (Fig. 9), who gave all their care to 
 form of staves, hooped either with wood or iron, the casks destined to hold 
 the produce of the vintage. According to an old custom, still in vogue 
 in the south of France, the inside of the wine-skin used to be painted 
 with tar, in order to give a flavour to the wine ; to us this would perhaps 
 be nauseous, but at that time it was held in high favour. In alluding to 
 wine-skins, or sewn skins coated with pitch, we may remark that they date 
 from the earliest historic times. They are still employed in countries where 
 wine is carried on pack-animals, and they were much used for journeys. 
 If a traveller was going into a country where he expected to find 
 nothing to drink, he would fasten a wine-skin on the crupper of his horse's 
 saddle, or, at least, would sling a small leather wine- skin across his shoulder. 
 Etymologists even maintain that from the name of these light wine-skins, 
 outres legeres, was derived the old French word bouteitte; that, first having 
 been designated boiiehiaux, and boutiaux, they finally were named bouties and 
 
\6 
 
 FURNITURE. 
 
 boutilles. When, in the thirteenth century, the Bishop of Amiens was setting 
 out for the wars, the tanners of his episcopal town were bound to supply him 
 with two leathern bouchiaux — one holding a hogshead, the other twenty- 
 four setters. 
 
 Some archaeologists maintain that, when there had been a very abund- 
 ant vintage, the wine was stored in brick-built cisterns, such as are still 
 made in Normandy for cider ; or that they were cut out of the solid rock, 
 as we see them sometimes in the south of France ; but it is more pro- 
 
 F'g- 9-— A Cooper's Workshop, drawn and engraved, in the Sixteenth Century, by J. Amman. 
 
 bable that these ancient cisterns, which are perhaps of an earlier date than 
 the Middle Ages, were more especially intended for the process of fermenta- 
 tion — that is to say, for making wine, and not for storing it ; which, indeed, 
 under such unfavourable circumstances, would have been next to impossible. 
 
 What light did our ancestors use ? History tells us that at first they 
 used lamps with stands, and hanging lamps, in imitation of the Romans ; 
 which, however, must not lead us to the conclusion that, even in the remotest 
 times of our annals, the use of fat and wax for such purposes was absolutely 
 unknown. This fact is the less doubtful because, from the time when trade 
 corporations were formed, we find the makers of candles and wax-chandlers 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 '7 
 
 of Paris governed by certain statutes. As for the lamps, which, as in ancient 
 times, were on stands placed for this purpose in the houses, or were sus- 
 pended by light chains (Figs. 10 and 11), they were made in accordance 
 with the means of those for whom they were intended, and were of baked 
 earth, iron, brass, and gold or silver, all more or less ornamented. Lamps 
 and candlesticks are not unfrequently mentioned in the inventories of the 
 Middle Ages. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, German artisans 
 made torch-holders, flambeaux, and chandeliers in copper, wrought and 
 embellished with representations of all kinds of natural or fantastic objects ; 
 
 Figs, io and n. — Hanging Lamps of the Ninth Century, from Miniatures in the Bible of Charles 
 the Bald (Bibl. Imp. de Paris). 
 
 and in those days these works of art were much in request. The use of 
 lamps was all but general in the early days of the monarchy ; but as the 
 somewhat dim and smoky flame which they furnished did not give sufficient 
 brilliancy to the entertainments and solemn assemblies held in the evening, 
 it became an established custom to add to these lamps the light of resinous 
 torches, which serfs held in their hands. The tragic episode of the Ballet 
 des Ardents, as told by Froissart — which we shall hereafter relate in the 
 chapter on Playing Cards — shows that this custom, which we already see 
 
 D 
 
i8 
 
 FURNITURE. 
 
 alluded to in Gregoire de Tours, our earliest historian, was in fashion until 
 the reign of Charles VI. 
 
 In subjugating the East, the Romans assumed and brought back with 
 them extreme notions of luxury and indolence. Previously their bedsteads 
 were of planks, covered with straw, moss, or dried leaves. They borrowed 
 from Asia those large carved bedsteads, gilt and plated with ivory, whereon 
 were piled cushions of wool and feathers, with counterpanes of the most 
 beautiful furs and of the richest materials. 
 
 These customs, like many others, were handed down from the Romans to 
 the Gauls, and from the Gauls to the Franks. With the exception of bed- 
 linen, which came into use much later, we find, from the time of our earliest 
 kings, the various sleeping appliances nearly as they are now — the pillow 
 (auricular e) , the foot-coverlet (lorale), the counterpane (culcita), &c. No 
 mention, however, is made of curtains (or courtines) . 
 
 At a later period, while still retaining their primitive furniture, bed- 
 steads vary in their shapes and dimensions : those of the poor and of the 
 monks are narrow and homely ; among kings and nobles they, in process of 
 time, became veritable examples of the joiner's work, and only to be reached 
 by the aid of stools, or even steps (Fig. 12) . The guest at a chateau could 
 not receive any greater honour than to occupy the same bed as the lord of 
 the manor ; and the dogs by whom the seigneurs — all great sportsmen — 
 were constantly surrounded had the privilege of reposing where their masters 
 slept. Hence we recognise the object of these gigantic bedsteads, which 
 were sometimes twelve feet in width. If we are to believe the chronicles, 
 the pillows were perfumed with essences and odoriferous waters ; this we 
 can understand to have been by no means a useless precaution. We see, in 
 the sixteenth century, Francis I. testifying his great regard for Admiral 
 Bonnivet by occasionally admitting him to share his bed. 
 
 Having completed our review of furniture, properly so called, we have 
 now to treat of that which may be termed highly artistic articles of furni- 
 ture — that is, those on which the workers in wood exercised their highest 
 talents — elevated seats of honour, chairs and arm-chairs, benches and 
 trestles ; all of which were frequently ornamented with figures in relief, 
 very elaborately sculptured with a knife (canivet) ; the bahuts, a kind of chest 
 with either a flat or convex top, resting on feet, and opening on the upper 
 side, whereon were placed stuffed leather cushions (Fig. 13) ; tubs, buffets, 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 19 
 
 presses, coffers both large and small, chess-boards, dice-tables, comb-boxes, 
 which have been superseded by our dressing-cases, &c. Many specimens 
 of these various kinds of furniture have descended to our time ; and they 
 prove to what a degree of perfection and of elaborate finish the art of 
 
 Fig. 12.— Bed furnished with Canopy and Curtains, from a Miniature at the end of the Fourteenth Century. 
 
 (MS. de la Bibl. Imp. de Paris.) 
 
 cabinet-making and of inlaying had attained in the Middle Ages. Elegance 
 and originality of design in inlaid metals, jasper, mother-of-pearl, ivory ; 
 carving, various kinds of veneering, and of stained woods, are all found 
 combined in this description of furniture; some of which was ornamented 
 
20 
 
 FURNITURE. 
 
 with extreme delicacy of taste (Plate I.), and still remains inimitable, if not 
 in all the details of execution, at least in rich and harmonious effect. 
 
 At the time of the Renaissance, cabinets 
 with numerous drawers and in several compart- 
 ments were introduced : these were known in 
 Germany by the name of artistic cabinets 
 (armoires artistiques) : the sole object of the 
 maker was to combine in one piece of furniture, 
 under the pretext of utility, all the fascination 
 and gorgeous caprices of decorative art. 
 
 To the Germans must be awarded the merit 
 of having been the first to distinguish them- 
 selves in the manufacture of these magnificent 
 cabinets, or presses ; but they soon found rivals 
 in both the French (Fig. 14) and Italians 
 
 (Fig. 15), who 
 proved them- 
 selves equally 
 skilful and in- 
 genious in the 
 execution of 
 this kind of 
 manufacture. 
 
 The art of 
 working in 
 iron, which 
 can legiti- 
 mately rank 
 as one of the 
 most notable 
 industries of 
 the Middle 
 Ages, soon 
 
 came to lend its aid to that of cabinet-making, both in embellishing and 
 giving solidity to its chefs-d'oeuvre. The ornamentation of cabinets and coffers 
 was remarkable for the good taste and the high finish displayed in them. 
 
 Fig-. 13. — Chest shaped like a Bed, standing- in front of a Fireplace, and a Chair 
 with cushions, in carved wood, from Miniatures of the Fifteenth Century. (Bibl. 
 Roy. de Bruxelles.) 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 In the hands of skilful artisans, of unknown artists dating from the twelfth 
 to the sixteenth century, iron seemed to assume great ductility — indeed, we 
 might say unprecedented submission. Observe, in the gratings of court- 
 yards, in the iron- work of gates, how those lines are interlaced, how attrac- 
 tive are those designs, how those wrought stems are delicately lengthened 
 
 Fig. 14.— Small Cabinet for Jewels, in carved wood, after the style of Jean Goujon, from the Chateau d'Ecouen, 
 and which formerly belonged to the Montmorency family. (In the Collection of M. Double.) 
 
 out, at once strong but light, and finally how they expand with natural 
 grace into leaves, fruits, and symbolic figures. 
 
 Moreover, the workers in metal did not confine themselves to the applica- 
 tion of iron on articles already prepared and manufactured by other artisans ; 
 they had also to originate and execute, to ornament caskets and reliquaries : 
 but their special art was to manufacture bolts (Fig. 16), locks, and keys ; 
 
22 
 
 FURNITURE. 
 
 examples of this kind of ancient work will always be admired. " Locks," 
 says M. Jules Labarte, "were at that time carried to such, a degree of 
 perfection, that they were considered as veritable objects of art ; they were 
 carried from place to place, as would have been done with any other valuable 
 article of furniture. Nothing could be more artistic than the figures in 
 high relief, the armorial bearings, the letterings, the ornaments and the 
 engravings which embellished that portion of the key which the fingers 
 grasp (Fig. 17), and for which we have substituted a common ring." 
 
 Fig-. 15.— Cabinet in Damaskeened Iron, inlaid with gold and silver. An Italian work of the Sixteenth Century. 
 
 Glass and glazing claim particular notice. It may be said that glass was 
 known in the remotest ages, for Phoenicia and ancient Egypt were, in the 
 time of Moses, renowned for their innumerable productions in vitrified sand. 
 In Eome they cast, cut, and engraved glass— they even worked it with the 
 hammer, if we are to believe Suetonius, who relates that a certain artist had 
 discovered the secret of making glass malleable. This industrial art, which 
 extended and improved under the emperors, found its way to Byzantium, 
 where it flourished during several centuries ; until Venice, claiming as she 
 then did a prominent position in the history of the arts, imported the process 
 of the Byzantine method of making glass, and in her turn excelled in this 
 manufacture. Although articles in glass and crystal, painted, enamelled, 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 23 
 
 and engraved, are frequently alluded to in historical and poetical narratives, 
 and also in the inventories of the Middle Ages, we know they were all the 
 result of Greek or Yenetian manufacture. In this art France especially 
 seems to have been somewhat late in taking her first artistic step ; such 
 
 Fig. 16.— Bolt of the Sixteenth Century, Fig. 17— Key of the Thirteenth Century, with 
 
 with Initial of Henry II. two Figures of Chimeras, back to back. 
 
 (In the Castle of Chenonceaux.) (Soltykoff Collection.) 
 
 objects as were manufactured for the use of the rich never passed beyond 
 the limits of the rudest art. We should, however, observe that France 
 must have long been acquainted, with the art of glazing, for in the middle of 
 the seventh century we find St. Benoit — called Biscop, who built so many 
 churches and convents in England — coming to France in search of workmen 
 for the purpose of glazing the church and the cloisters of his abbey at 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 Canterbury. And it is also mentioned in the chronicles of the Venerable 
 Bede, that the French taught their art to the English glaziers. 
 
 Towards the fourteenth century the windows of even the commonest 
 houses were generally glazed ; at that date glass manufactories were found 
 in operation everywhere ; and although they may not have rivalled in a 
 remarkable degree their predecessors of the Merovingian period, they never- 
 theless made in large quantities all kinds of articles ordinarily in use, as we 
 can judge by the terms of a charter, dated 1338, by which one Guionnet, in 
 order to have the privilege of establishing a glass factory in the forest of 
 Chambarant, was bound to furnish as an annual due to his seigneur, Humbert, 
 Dauphin of Yiennois, one hundred dozen glasses in the shape of a bell, twelve 
 dozen small shallow glasses, twenty dozen goblets, twelve dozen amphorae, 
 twenty dozen lamps, six dozen candlesticks, "one dozen large cups, one large 
 stand (or nef), six dozen dishes without borders, twelve dozen jars, &c. 
 
 We have alluded to Venice and the celebrity she attained in the art 
 of working glass. It was especially for the manufacture of mirrors and 
 looking-glasses that this large and industrious city made herself renowned 
 over all the world. If we are to believe Pliny, the Romans purchased their 
 glass mirrors at Sidon, in Phoenicia, where, in the remotest ages, they 
 had been invented. At this time were these mirrors silvered ? We must 
 believe that they were, for a plate of glass, without quicksilvering, could 
 never be anything than glass more or less transparent, and would permit 
 of the light passing through, without reflecting objects. But Pliny asserts 
 nothing of the kind ; and, moreover, as the practice of using mirrors of 
 polished metal, which was taken from the Romans, was for a long time 
 maintained among modern nations, we may conclude either that the inven- 
 tion of glass mirrors was not a great success, or that the secret of making 
 them was lost. In the thirteenth century an English monk wrote a treatise 
 on optics, in which allusion is made to mirrors lined with lead. Nevertheless, 
 mirrors of silver continued in use among the rich, and of iron and polished 
 steel by the poorer classes, till the time when glass became less expensive, 
 and Venetian looking-glasses were introduced, or cleverly imitated, in all 
 European countries ; metal mirrors, which easily became dim, and did not 
 give the natural colour to reflected objects, were then discontinued. At 
 the same time, the elegant shape of the ancient hand-mirrors was retained, 
 the workers in gold and silver still continuing to encircle them with most 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 25 
 
 graceful designs ; the only difference being that the surface of polished steel 
 or silver was replaced by a thick and bright piece of Yenetian glass, some- 
 times ornamented with reflected designs produced in the coating of quick- 
 silver (Fig. 18). 
 
 From all these details, the reader will have the gratification of ascertaining 
 at a glance the general effect of furniture in use for domestic purposes ; and 
 thus, after the analysis, he will have its opposite. Fig. 19, a reproduction, 
 taken from the " Dictionnaire du Mobilier Francais," by M. Viollet-le-Duc, 
 
 E 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 27 
 
 represents a dwelling-room of a rich nobleman in the fourteenth century. 
 What we now designate as a bedroom, and which was then called simply 
 cambre or chambre, contained, besides the bed — which was very large — a 
 variety of other furniture in use for the ordinary requirements of daily life ; 
 for the time that was not given to business, to out-door amusements, to 
 state receptions, and to meals, was passed, both by nobles and citizens, in 
 this room. In the fourteenth century requirements for comfort had developed 
 themselves in a remarkable degree in France. To be convinced of this, we 
 have only to glance at the inventories, to read the romances and narratives 
 of the day, and to study with some little care the mansions and houses 
 erected in the reign of Charles V. A huge chimney admitted many persons 
 to the fireside. Near the hearth was placed the chaire (seat of honour) of 
 the master or of the mistress. The bed, which usually stood in a corner, 
 surrounded by thick curtains, was effectually screened, and formed what was 
 then called a clotet ; that is, a sort of small room enclosed by tapestry. Near 
 the windows were bancals, or benches with backs covered with drapery, on 
 which persons could sit and talk, read, or work, while enjoying the view. A 
 dresser was ranged along one side of the room, and on its shelves were 
 placed pieces of valuable plate, dishes for comfits, and flower- vases. Small 
 stools, arm-chairs, and, especially, numerous cushions were placed here and 
 there in the room. Flemish carpets, and those which were called sarra- 
 sinois, covered the floor ; this was composed of enamelled tiles ; or, in the 
 northern provinces, of thick squares of polished oak. These large, lofty, 
 wainscoted rooms always communicated with private staircases, through 
 dressing-rooms and wardrobes in which were located the domestics in imme- 
 diate attendance. 
 
 Let us now pass from domestic furniture to that used for ecclesiastical 
 purposes. We now leave the palaces of kings, the mansions of nobles, 
 and the dwellings of the rich, and enter the buildings consecrated to 
 worship. 
 
 We know that in the early ages of Christianity religious ceremonies were 
 characterised by the greatest simplicity, and that the buildings in which 
 the faithful were wont to assemble were for the most part devoid of any 
 kind of decoration. By degrees, however, rich display entered into churches, 
 and pomp accompanied the exercise of religious worship, especially at the 
 period when Constantine the Great put an end to the era of persecutions 
 
28 
 
 FURNITURE. 
 
 and proclaimed himself the protector of the new faith. It is related that 
 among the rich presents which this emperor distributed throughout the 
 Christian temples in Rome, were a golden cross weighing two hundred 
 pounds, patens of the same metal, lamps representing animals, &c. At a 
 later period, in the seventh century, St. Eloi, who was a celebrated goldsmith 
 before he became Bishop of Noyon, gave his whole mind and talents to the 
 manufacture of church ornaments. He enlisted from among the monks 
 of the various monasteries that were subject to his episcopal authority, all 
 those whom he fancied had an aptitude for these works of art ; he instructed 
 and directed them himself, and made them excellent artists ; he transformed 
 entire monasteries into gold and silver- smiths' workshops; and numerous 
 remarkable works increased the splendour of the Merovingian basilicas ; 
 such, for example, were the shrine of St. Martin of Tours, and the tomb of 
 St. Denis, the marble roof of which was profusely ornamented with gold and 
 precious stones. " The bounty of Charlemagne," says M. Charles Louandre, 
 "added new riches to the immense wealth already accumulated in the 
 churches. Mosaics, sculpture, the rarest kinds of marble, were lavished on 
 those basilicas for which the emperor evinced partiality ; but all these 
 treasures were dispersed by the Norman invasions. From the ninth to the 
 eleventh centuries it would seem that, with the exception of a few shrines 
 and crosses, objects employed for ecclesiastical purposes were not enriched by 
 the addition of anything note-worthy ; at any rate, the works of that period 
 and those of anterior date have not been handed down to us, if we except 
 some rare fragments. The reason is, that, independently of the constant 
 causes of destruction, the furniture of churches was renewed towards the end 
 of the eleventh century, when the edifices themselves were rebuilt ; and it is 
 only from the date of this mystical Renaissance that we begin to find in the 
 texts precise indications, and in museums or temples perfectly preserved 
 monuments." 
 
 Ecclesiastical appendages include altars, altar-screens, the pulpit, mon- 
 strances, chalices, incense-burners, candlesticks or lamps, shrines, reliquaries, 
 basins for containing holy water, and some other objects of lesser relative 
 importance, as crosses, bells, and banner-poles. To these we may add votive 
 offerings, which were generally either of gold or silver. 
 
 In the infancy of religious worship the altar took two distinct shapes ; 
 sometimes the form of a table, with a top of stone, wood, or metal sup- 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 2Q 
 
 ported by legs or by columns ; sometimes it resembled an ancient tomb, 
 or a long coffer, narrowed at the base, and surmounted by a similar 
 covering, which invariably formed the upper portion, or the table, of the 
 altar. 
 
 In addition to altars, more or less monumental, which were fixtures 
 in the churches, and which, from the earliest period, were placed under 
 ciboria (a kind of dais or canopy supported by columns), small portable altars 
 were employed, in order to meet the requirements of the service. They were 
 intended to accompany the bishops, or the ordinary clergy, who had to 
 preach the faith in countries where no churches existed. These altars, which 
 were alluded to when the Christian religion had made but slight progress, 
 were no longer seen after it became general ; but we again find them at the 
 time of the Crusades, when pious pilgrims, who journeyed from place to 
 place preaching the Gospel, were obliged to say mass in fields and public 
 places, where the faithful assembled to hear them, and to " take up the cross." 
 M. Jules Labarte gives the following summary description of a portable altar 
 of the twelfth century : — " It consists of a slab of lumachella marble, set in 
 a box of gilt copper, 36 centimetres in height by 27 in width, and 3 in 
 thickness. The top of the box is cut in such a manner as to leave 
 uncovered the stone on which the chalice was placed during the celebra- 
 tion of mass." 
 
 Throughout all the periods of the Middle Ages, the ardent faith of which 
 seemed to consider sufficient honour could never be rendered to the real 
 presence of God in the holy sacrifice, the ornamentation of the altar was 
 everywhere looked upon as an object of the most extraordinary pomp and of 
 the most elevated artistic taste. Among the marvels of this kind we must 
 name, as occupying a leading place, the gold altar of St. Ambrose, in Milan, 
 which dates from 835, and those of the cathedrals of Basle and Pistoia, which 
 belong to the eleventh and twelfth centuries. These gold altars, wrought 
 with the hammer, were chased and sometimes enamelled, and in addition to 
 remarkably well executed designs in carved work, taken from religious 
 books, they usually also had on them portraits of the donors. 
 
 The altars and tabernacles were executed with an equal amount of art 
 and costliness ; and from the earliest period of the fabrication or the 
 importation of carpets, embroideries, and gold and silver fabrics, we see them 
 employed for the purpose of covering, adorning, and of rendering more 
 
30 
 
 FURNITURE. 
 
 striking and imposing the altar and its accessories, to which the name of 
 chancel was given (Fig. 20). 
 
 The chalice and the altar-vessels, which date from the very cradle of 
 Christian worship, since without these sacred vases the fundamental services 
 of the religion of Jesus Christ could not have been performed, perhaps owe 
 it to this exceptional fact that they are not spoken of before the eleventh 
 century (Fig. 21). In truth, nowhere do we find an indication of their 
 ordinary shape, nor of the mode of their manufacture in early times ; but it 
 is reasonable to suppose that the chalice originally was identical, as it was in 
 times approaching nearer to our own, with the goblet of the ancients ; or 
 
 Fig. 20. — An Altar-cloth embroidered in silver on a black ground, representing the procession of a friar of the 
 Abbey of St. Victor. Fifteenth Century (copied from the original belonging to N. Achille Jubinal). 
 
 perhaps, to define it more particularly, was the well-known hanap (drinking- 
 cup), the earliest type of which tradition endeavours to trace to so early a 
 date. At a later period, and until the time when the artists of the Renaissance 
 period were called upon to remodel sacred ornaments, and they transformed 
 » them into marvels of art on which were lavished all the resources of casting, 
 chasing, and glyptic, we observe that chalices continued to be manufactured 
 with the greatest care, adorned with exquisite elegance, and enriched with 
 all the brilliancy that art can give them. 
 
 All that can be said regarding the chalice applies equally to the mon- 
 strances and the pyxes employed to contain and to exhibit the consecrated 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 3i 
 
 wafers, as also to the censers, which originated in the J ewish form of worship, 
 and which, in accordance with the successive epochs of Christianity, affected 
 different mystical and symbolic shapes (Fig. 22). Of these M. Didron gives 
 the following description : — " They were first formed of two openwork 
 spheroids, in cast and chased copper, ornamented with figures of animals 
 and inscriptions." Originally they were suspended by three chains, which, 
 according to tradition, signified " the union of the body, the soul, and the 
 divinity in Christ." At another period the censers represented, in miniature, 
 churches and chapels with pointed arches. Again, at the Renaissance, they 
 took the form of that now in use. 
 
 Fig. 21. — An Altar-Tray and Chalice, in enamelled gold, supposed to be of the Fourth or Fifth Century, found 
 at Gourdon, near Chalon-sur-Sa6ne, in 1846. (Cabinet des Antiques, Bibl. Imp. de Paris.) 
 
 From the first, the lighting of churches was, to a certain extent, carried 
 out on much the same principle as that employed in princely abodes and 
 important mansions. Fixed or movable lamps were used ; also wax candles 
 in chandeliers, for the ornamentation of which pious donors and pious 
 artisans, the former paying the latter, vied with each other in skill and 
 liberality. We may here observe that even in the early days of Christianity, 
 numerous candlesticks were generally emploj^ed both by day and by night. 
 The candlesticks on the altar represented the apostles surrounding Christ ; 
 thus their number ought to be twelve. Placed around the dead, they sig- 
 
32 
 
 FURNITURE. 
 
 nified that the Christian finds light beyond the grave. To the faithful 
 they typified the day which shines brightly in celestial Jerusalem. 
 
 The worship of relics, established in the early days of the Church, 
 subsequently led to the introduction of shrines and reliquaries, a kind of 
 portable tomb which the disciples of the Gospel devoted to the memory, and 
 in honour, of martyrs and confessors of the faith. Thus from the first, in 
 collecting these holy relics, to which the faithful attached every kind of 
 miraculous powers, they dedicated what, according to ecclesiastical writers, 
 had been the temple of the living God, a gorgeous sanctuary, worthy of so 
 
 Fig. 22 — Censer of the Eleventh Century, recalling the shape of the Temple of Jerusalem, in copper 
 repousse. (Formerly in Metz Cathedral, now at Treves.) 
 
 many virtues and miracles. Hence the introduction of shrines into churches, 
 and reliquaries into private houses. 
 
 Owing to the care bestowed on some of these by St. Eloi, from the seventh 
 century, they had become real marvels of intrinsic richness and artistic 
 finish. Nevertheless we are unacquainted with the shape which, in accord- 
 ance with the Christian liturgy, was originally given to the shrines and 
 reliquaries, although the Latin word capsa, from which the word chdsse 
 (shrine) is derived, conveys the idea of a kind of box or coffer. Indeed this 
 shape was retained for a long time by the whole of Christendom ; but the 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 33 
 
 majority of shrines in gold and silver work which do not date further back 
 than the eleventh or twelfth century represent tombs, chapels, and even 
 cathedrals. This symbolic shape continued in use to the time of the 
 Eenaissance, but with successive modifications suggested by the architectural 
 style of each period. We thus see there was no precious material or 
 delicate workmanship which was not employed to contribute in making the 
 shrines and reliquaries more magnificent. Gold, silver, rare marbles, precious 
 
 lllftMt iVMIill 
 
 stones, were lavished on their construction ; the chaser and enameller embel- 
 lished with figures and emblems, with incidents taken from Holy Writ and 
 from the lives of saints, the shrines in which are deposited their remains. 
 
 We know that in the early days of Christianity the rite of baptism was 
 performed by immersion in rivers or in fountains, but at a period nearer to 
 our own time, basins or vessels of various dimensions were placed in a small 
 detached edifice, by the side of the church ; into these the neophytes were 
 
34 
 
 FURNITURE. 
 
 plunged when receiving the first sacrament. These baptistries disappeared 
 as soon as the practice of sprinkling holy water on the forehead of the 
 catechumen was definitely substituted for that of immersion. Baptismal 
 fonts then became what they now are, that is, a kind of small erection 
 above the level of the floor — piscinas, shells (casques), or basins, recalling to 
 our minds, though on a reduced scale, the primitive baptistries. They were 
 placed inside the church, either near the entrance, or in one of the side- 
 chapels. At various periods they were made of stone, marble, or bronze ; 
 and were ornamented with subjects relating to the rite of baptism. It was 
 the same with the holy-water basins, which, according to ancient custom, 
 
 in the Choir of the Cathedral of Rouen (Fifteenth Century). 
 
 were placed at the entrance to the church, and generally assumed the 
 form of a shell, or of a large amphora, when not made simply of a hollowed 
 stone to recall the ancient baptismal vessels. 
 
 We must not overlook the altar and procession-crosses, which, as being 
 typical of the divine emblem of the Christian faith, could not fail to 
 become real objects of art even from the time of the catacombs. It would be 
 needless repetition to enumerate here the different materials used in the 
 manufacture of crosses, the various shapes that were given to them, according 
 to the purpose for which they were intended, and the subjects and figures 
 they represented. The sculptor, the modeller, the chaser, the enameller, and 
 even the painter, were associated with the goldsmith in producing most 
 
FURNITURE. 
 
 35 
 
 exquisite works of this kind. The art of the wood-carver and that of the 
 worker in iron, which we have seen executing such marvels for household 
 furniture, could not fail to find scope in the manufacture of objects used for 
 religious purposes. It was especially in making pulpits, ornamental screens, 
 wainscoting, and stalls, that the art of the wood- carver became renowned ; he 
 was no longer simply an artisan, but became an artist of the highest order. 
 In the ornamentation of railings of choirs and tombs, the iron-work on 
 doors, of bolts, locks, and keys, the remarkable talent of the locksmiths 
 of the Middle Ages was displayed. Let us here remark, that in the early 
 days of worship the pulpit was simply a kind of stool on which the preacher 
 stood in order that his congregation might see him. By degrees the pulpit 
 was raised on supports or columns ; and later again, but only towards the end 
 of the fifteenth century, we find it fixed at a great height against one of 
 the central pillars of the church, and usually magnificently carved, as was 
 also the dais, and the sounding-board by which it was surmounted. 
 
 To form an idea of the degree of perfection attained in wood-carving from 
 the thirteenth to the fourteenth century, we ought to inspect the stalls of 
 St. Justine, at Padua, those of the cathedrals of Milan and Ulm, the church 
 of Aosta (Figs. 23 and 24), &c, and the stalls of the churches of Rodez, 
 Albi, Amiens, Toulouse, and Rouen (Fig. 25). And if we would examine 
 a very ancient example of the art attained by workers in iron, we have but 
 to notice the hinges, dating from the thirteenth century, which stretch, 
 in arabesque designs, over the panels of the western door of Notre-Dame, 
 Paris. 
 
 Fig. 26. — Design on the Stalls in the Church of St Benoit-sur-Loite. 
 
TAPESTRY. 
 
 Scriptural Origin of Tapestry. — Needlework Embroidery in Ancient Greek and Roman Times. — 
 Attalic Carpets. — Manufacture of Carpets in Cloisters. — -Manufactory at Poitiers in the 
 Twelfth Century. — Bayeux Tapestry, named " De la Reine Mathilde." — Arras Carpets.— 
 Inventory of the Tapestries of Charles V. ; enormous Value of these Embroidered Hangings. 
 — Manufactory at Fontainebleau, under Francis I. — The Manufacture of the Hopital de Ja 
 Trinite, at Paris. — The Tapestry Workers, Dubourg and Laurent, in the reign of Henry IV. — 
 Factories of Savonnerie and Gobelins. 
 
 F there is an art which bears brilliant testimony to the 
 industry and ingenuity of mankind in the remotest ages, 
 undoubtedly it is that of weaving, or of embroidering 
 tapestry ; for, however far back we trace the annals of 
 nations, we find this art flourishing and producing mar- 
 vels of workmanship. 
 
 Let us first open the Bible, the oldest of all historical 
 documents ; we read therein of woven fabrics, not only 
 worked on the loom, but also made by hand, that is, 
 richly embroidered in needlework on linen or canvas. 
 These magnificent fabrics, which were laboriously and 
 minutely executed, represented all kinds of designs in 
 relief and in colours ; they were used as decorations for the holy temple, 
 and as ornamental garments for the priests who performed the religious 
 ceremonies. Indubitable proof of this is the description, in the book 
 of Exodus, of the curtains surrounding the tabernacle. Some of these 
 embroideries, in the manufacture of which gold and silver thread, combined 
 with dyed wools and silk, was used, were named opus plumarii (work in 
 imitation of bird's plumage ; others — such, for example, as the veil of the 
 Holy of Holies, which represented cherubim in the act of adoration — were 
 called opus artificis (work of the artisan), because they were made by the 
 weaver on the loom ; and, with the aid of numerous shuttles, the woof of 
 wools and silks of various hues was introduced. 
 
 In the traditions of the magnificent city of Babylon we also find figured 
 
38 
 
 TAPESTRF. 
 
 tapestry delineating the mysteries of religion, and handing down to us the 
 recollection of historical incidents. " The palace of the kings of Babylon," 
 says Philostratus, in the "Life of Apollonius of Tj^ana," "was ornamented 
 with tapestries in gold and silver tissues, which recorded the Grecian fables 
 of Andromeda, of Orpheus, &c." The Greek poet Apollonius of Bhodes, who 
 wrote a century before our era, relates in his poem of "The Argonauts" 
 that the women of Babylon excelled in the execution of these gorgeous 
 textures. The famous tapestries which were sold in the time of Metellus 
 Scipio for 800,000 sesterces (about 165,000 francs), and a hundred years 
 later were purchased for the exorbitant sum of two million sesterces (about 
 412,000 francs) by Nero, to place on his festive couches, were of Babylonian 
 workmanship. 
 
 Ancient Egypt, which would seem to have been the early cradle of an 
 advanced civilisation, was also renowned for this marvellous art, the inven- 
 tion of which the Greeks attributed to Minerva, and to which allusion is 
 frequently made in their mythology. Penelope's web, whereon were 
 delineated the exploits of Ulysses, has remained the most celebrated among 
 them all. It was on a similar web that Philomela, in her prison, illustrated 
 in embroidery the narrative of her misfortunes, after Tereus had cut out her 
 tongue, to prevent her telling her sister Progne the outrage she had suffered 
 at his hands. 
 
 Throughout the poems of Homer we find embroidery of this kind 
 either mentioned, or described as made with the needle or loom, and intended 
 for decorative drapery, or as garments for men and women. During the 
 siege of Troy, Helen embroidered, upon a fine tissue, the sanguinary combats 
 of the heroes who were destroying each other for her sake. The cloak of 
 Ulysses represents a dog pulling down a fawn, &c. 
 
 The custom of embroidering such scenes as combats and hunting-incidents 
 seems to have lasted during a long time. According to Herodotus, certain 
 races bordering on the Caspian Sea were accustomed to have figures of 
 animals, flowers, and landscapes delineated on their garments. This custom 
 is mentioned among the pagans by Philostratus, and among Christians by 
 Clement of Alexandria. Pliny, the naturalist, who lived in the first century 
 of our era, also alludes to it on several occasions in his works. Three 
 hundred years later, Amasius, Bishop of Amasia, deplores the folly which 
 " set a great value on this art of weaving, a vain and useless art, which by 
 
TAPESTRY. 
 
 39 
 
 the combination of the warp and woof imitates painting." "When persons 
 thus dressed appear in the street," adds the pious bishop, " the passers-by- 
 look at them as walking pictures, and the children point at them with 
 their finger. "We see lions, panthers, bears, rocks, woods, hunters ; the 
 religiously inclined have Christ, his disciples, and his miracles figured on 
 their garments. Here we see the wedding of Cana, and the pitchers of water 
 turned into wine ; there we have the paralytic carrying his bed, or the 
 sinner at the feet of Jesus, or Lazarus being raised from the dead." 
 
 We have only to look into the works of the writers of the time of 
 Augustus to learn that the halls in the houses of the wealthy were always 
 hung with tapestry ; and that the tables, or rather the beds, upon which the 
 guests were seated, were covered with carpets. 
 
 The Attalian carpets, which were thus named because they came from the 
 inheritance bequeathed to the Roman people by Attalus, King of Pergamos, 
 were indescribably magnificent. Cicero, who was a connoisseur in such 
 matters, speaks of them with enthusiasm in his works. 
 
 Under Theodosius I., that is to say, at the time of the decline of the great 
 empire which was soon to break up and be separated, and at last to merge 
 into new nationalities, a contemporaneous historian shows us " the youth of 
 Rome engaged in making tapestry- work." 
 
 In the early period of French history, this ingenious and delicate work 
 would seem to have been mainly carried on by women, and especially by those 
 of the highest rank. At any rate it is a fact that rich tapestries were in 
 common use, both in private houses and for ecclesiastical purposes, as early 
 as the sixth century ; for Gregory of Tours does not fail to tell us of the 
 embroidered hangings, and also of the tapestry, in most of the ceremonies 
 which he describes. When King Clovis renounced paganism and asked to 
 be baptised, " this intelligence was the greatest joy to the bishop ; he orders 
 the sacred fonts to be prepared ; the streets overhung with painted cloths ; 
 the churches ornamented with hangings." When the abbey-church of 
 St. Denis had to be consecrated, "its walls are covered with tapestry 
 embroidered in gold and ornamented with pearls." These tapestries were 
 for a long time preserved in the abbey-treasury. Subsequently, this same 
 treasury received, as a present from Queen Adelaide, the wife of Hugh Capet, 
 " a chasuble, a valance, as also some hangings, worked by her own hand ; " 
 and Doublet, the historian of this ancient abbey, states that Queen Bertha 
 
4 o 
 
 TAPESTRY. 
 
 (the same whom the old French, proverb makes an indefatigable worker with 
 her needle) embroidered on canvas a series of historical subjects, depicting 
 the glorious deeds of the family. 
 
 Nevertheless, there is no written authority for asserting that in France 
 the manufacture of tapestries and hangings worked on the loom can be 
 traced beyond the ninth century ; but at this period, and a little later, we 
 find some documents which are as precise as they are curious — proving 
 that this industry, the principal object of which, at that period, was the 
 ornamentation of churches, had to a certain extent obtained a footing, and 
 was nourishing in religious establishments. The ancient chronicles of 
 Auxerre relate that St. Anthelm, the bishop of that city, who died in 828, 
 caused to be made, under his own directions, numerous rich carpets for the 
 choir of his church. 
 
 One hundred years later we find a regular manufactory established at the 
 monastery of St. Florent, at Saumur. " In the time of the abbot Eobert III.," 
 says the historian of this monastery, " the vestry (fabrique) of the cloister 
 was further enriched by magnificent paintings and pieces of sculpture, 
 accompanied by legends in verse. The above-mentioned abbot, who was 
 passionately devoted to similar works, sought for and purchased a consider- 
 able quantity of magnificent ornaments, such as large dorserets * in wool, 
 curtains, canopies, hangings, bench-covers, and other ornaments, embroidered 
 with various devices. Among other objects, he caused to be made two 
 pieces of tapestry of large size and of admirable quality, representing 
 elephants ; and these two pieces were joined together with a rare kind of 
 silk, by hired workers in tapestry. He also ordered two dorserets in wool to 
 be manufactured. It happened that, during the time one of these was 
 being completed, the above-mentioned abbot went to France. The ecclesiastic 
 left in charge took advantage of his absence to forbid the artisans to work 
 the woof according to the customary method. 'Well,' said they, 'in the 
 absence of our good abbot we will not discontinue our employment ; but as 
 you thwart us we shall make quite a different kind of fabric' And this now 
 admits of proof. They made several square carpets, representing silver lions 
 upon a field of gules (red), with a white border covered with scarlet animals 
 and birds. This unique piece of workmanship was looked upon as a perfect 
 specimen of this kind of fabric, until the time of the abbot William, when 
 * Dorserets, covers to backs of chairs, beds, &c. 
 
TAPESTRY. 
 
 41 
 
 it was considered the most remarkable piece of tapestry belonging to the 
 monastery. In fact, on the occasions of great solemnities the abbot had 
 the elephant tapestry displayed, and one of the priors showed that on which 
 were the lions." 
 
 From the ninth or tenth century there was also a manufactory at 
 Poitiers; and its fabrics, on which figured kings, emperors, and saints, 
 were of European celebrity, as appears to be attested, among other docu- 
 ments, by a remarkable correspondence which took place, in 1025, between 
 an Italian bishop, named Leon, and William IV., Count of Poitou. To 
 understand rightly this correspondence, it must be borne in mind that at 
 the time Poitou was as famous for its mules as for tapestry. In one of 
 his letters, the bishop begs the count to send him a mule and a piece of 
 tapestry, both equally marvellous (mirabiles), and for which he has been 
 asking six years. He promises to pay whatever they may cost. The count, 
 who must have had a facetious disposition, replied, "I cannot, at present, 
 send you what you ask, because for a mule to merit the epithet of marvellous, 
 he would require to have horns, and three tails, or five legs — and this I 
 should not be able to find in our country. I shall therefore content myself 
 with sending you one of the best I can procure. As to the tapestry, I have 
 forgotten the dimensions you desire. Let me have these particulars again, 
 and it will then soon be sent to you." 
 
 But this costly industry was not limited to the French provinces. In 
 the " Chronique des Dues de Normandie," written by Dudon, in the eleventh 
 century, it is stated that the English were clever workers in this art ; and 
 when designating some magnificent embroidery, or rich tapestry, it was 
 described as of English work (opus Anglicanum). Moreover, the same chro- 
 nicle relates that the wife of Richard I.,* the Duchess Gonnor, assisted by 
 her embroiderers, made hangings of linen and of silk, embellished with 
 images and figures representing the Virgin Mary and the Saints, to decorate 
 the church of Notre Dame, Rouen. 
 
 The East, also, which from the earliest times had been renowned for the 
 art of producing beautiful embroidered fabrics, became still more famous 
 during the Middle Ages for those of wool and silk, embroidered with silver 
 and gold. It was from the East were brought the rich stuff's covered all 
 
 * Richard I., surnamed Sans-peur, third Duke of Normandy, was natural son of William I., 
 and grandson of Rollo. He died in 996.— [Ed.] 
 
42 
 
 TAPESTRY. 
 
 over with emblazonments, and with figures of animals, and probably also 
 embroidered in open-work : these fabrics were called etqffes sculptees, or 
 pleines cVyeux. 
 
 The librarian Anastasius, in his book the " Lives of the Popes," which 
 undoubtedly was written before the eleventh century, gives, when describing 
 church decorations, some curious and circumstantial details regarding the 
 subject we are now discussing. According to him, as early as the time of 
 Charlemagne (eighth century), Pope Leo III. "had a veil made of purple 
 worked in gold, on which was the history of the Nativity and of Simon, 
 having in the centre the Annunciation of the Virgin." This was to ornament 
 the principal altar of the Holy Mother of God, at Pome. He also ordered 
 for the altar of the church of St. Laurence, " a veil of silk worked in gold, 
 having on it the histories of the Passion of our Saviour and of the Resurrec- 
 tion." He placed on the altar of St. Peter's " a veil of purple of a remark- 
 able size, worked in gold and ornamented with precious stones ; on one side 
 was seen our Saviour giving St. Peter the power to bind and to loose, on the 
 other the Passion of St. Peter and St. Paul. In the same book, several 
 other pieces of tapestry are described in such terms that it seems difficult 
 to realise the richness and the beauty of finish of these artistically-worked 
 fabrics, which for the most part came from Asia or Egypt. It was only 
 in the twelfth century, after the return from the first crusades had enabled 
 Western nations to admire and to appropriate to themselves luxuries quite 
 new to them, that the custom of using tapestry, while becoming far more 
 general in churches, found its way also into private dwellings. If, in the 
 cloisters, the monks, in order to find employment, lavished their utmost 
 care on the weaving of wool and of silk, there was the more reason why this 
 occupation should prove pleasing to the noble chatelaines who were confined 
 to their feudal castles. It was then, when surrounded by their tire-women, 
 as in earlier times were the Roman matrons by their slaves, that these fair 
 dames, while listening to the reading of tales of chivalry which deeply 
 interested them, or inspired by a profound faith, gave themselves to the 
 task of reproducing with the needle either the pious legends of the saints 
 or the glorious exploits of warriors. The bare walls, when thus draped 
 with touching incidents or warlike memorials, assumed a peculiar eloquence 
 which doubtless inspired the mind with grand visions, and aroused noble 
 sentiments in the heart. 
 
TAPESTRY. 
 
 43 
 
 Among the finest specimens of this kind is one which, owing to its 
 really exquisite character, has escaped what would have seemed inevitable 
 destruction. We allude to the famous Bayeux tapestry called " de la Heine 
 Mathilde" (of the wife of William the Conqueror). This work represents 
 the conquest of England by the Normans. If we are to accept the ancient 
 traditions to which it owes its name, it must date from the last half of the 
 eleventh century. 
 
 In these days we may be permitted to doubt, in consequence of the many 
 discussions that have taken place among the learned, if this embroidery is as 
 ancient as was at one time supposed. And although we first find it alluded 
 to in an inventory (prepared in 1476) of the treasury of Bayeux Cathedral, 
 we may venture, with a certain degree of confidence, to believe that it was 
 made in the twelfth century by Englishwomen, who at that time were 
 particularly famous for their needlework; an opinion confirmed by more 
 than one author contemporaneous with "William and Matilda. 
 
 This tapestry, which is 19 inches in height, by nearly 212 feet in length, 
 is a piece of brown linen, on which are embroidered with the needle, in wool 
 of different colours (and these seem to have lost none of their early freshness), 
 a series of seventy- two groups or subjects, with legends in Latin interspersed 
 with Saxon, embracing the whole history of the Conquest, as related by the 
 chroniclers of the period (Figs. 27 and 28) . 
 
 At the first glance, this embroidery may seem to be but a rudely executed 
 grouping of figures and animals ; nevertheless there is character throughout, 
 and the original outline, discoverable beneath the intersections of the wool, 
 is not wanting in a certain accuracy that brings to our mind the vigorous 
 simplicity of the Byzantine style. The decoration of the double border, 
 between which is delineated a drama wherein 530 figures are introduced, is 
 the same as those of the paintings in manuscripts of the Middle Ages. And, 
 in short, failing any exact proof, if we are determined not to deprive this 
 immense work of its traditional antiquity, it might, with much probability, 
 be attributed to a female embroiderer of Queen Matilda, named Leviet, whose 
 skill has rescued her name from oblivion. It may also be well to observe 
 that at the time it is first alluded to in history, this tapestry is found 
 belonging to the very church in which Matilda desired to be buried. 
 
 We have already seen (in the chapter on Furniture) that towards the 
 twelfth and thirteenth centuries, under the influence of Eastern habits and 
 
4+ 
 
 TAPESTRY. 
 
 customs, the practice of sitting on carpets was established at the court of our 
 kings. From this date rich tapestries were frequently used for making tents 
 
 Fig. 27. — A piece of the Bayeux Tapestry, representing the construction of Boats for William (with Border). 
 
 for campaigning or for hunting. They were displayed on festive occasions ; 
 as, for instance, when princes were entering a town, the object being to hide 
 the bare walls. The dining-halls were hung with magnificent tapestries, 
 
TAPESTRY. 
 
 45 
 
 giving additional splendour to the interludes {entremets, or intermedes) per- 
 formed during the repast. The champions in the lists saw glittering around 
 them, suspended from the galleries, fabrics on which heroic deeds were 
 embroidered. Lastly, the caparison of the charger (the war-horse's garb of 
 honour) displayed its brilliant emblazonings to the eyes of admiring crowds. 
 It was moreover the custom that the tapestries made for noblemen 
 
 Fig. 28.— A portion of the Bayeux Tapestry, representing two mounted men of Duke William's army armed from 
 
 head to foot, and in the act of fighting. 
 
 should bear their respective armorial devices, the object being, no doubt, that 
 it might be known to whom they belonged when used on the occasion of the 
 entry of royal and other distinguished personages in solemn processions ; and 
 also at jousts and tournaments. 
 
 In the fourteenth century the manufactories of Flanders, which were of 
 considerable reputation even about the twelfth century, made great advance, 
 and the success of the Arras tapestries became so general that the most 
 
4 6 
 
 TAPESTRY. 
 
 handsome hangings were called Arras tapestry, although the greater part of 
 them did not come from that city. It may here be noticed that the term 
 Arrazi is, in Italy, still synonymous with valuable tapestry (Fig. 29). 
 
 These fabrics were generally worked in wool, and sometimes in flax and 
 linen : but at the same period Florence and Yenice, which had imported 
 this industry from the East, wove tapestries wherein gold and silk were 
 blended. 
 
 Fig. 29.— Marriage of Louis XII. and Anne of Brittany. Tapestry in wool and silk, with a mixture of gold and 
 silver thread. Made in Flanders the end of the Fifteenth Century. (Lent by M. Achille Jubinal.) 
 
 An inventory, dated 21st January, 1379, contained in a manuscript 
 now in the " Bibliotheque Imperiale," — in which are enumerated " all the 
 jewels in gold and silver, all the rooms with embroidery and tapestries 
 belonging to Charles V.," — gives us an idea not only of the multiplicity 
 of hangings and tapestries that appertained to the personal property of 
 royalty, especially at the Hotel Saint-Pol, but it also shows us the variety 
 
TAPESTRY. 
 
 47 
 
 of subjects therein represented. A few of these pieces of tapestry are 
 still preserved, but among some which have been destroyed or lost we 
 may mention those representing the Passion of our Saviour, the Life of 
 St. Denis, the Life of St. Theseus, and that entitled Goodness and Beauty — 
 all these were of large dimensions. Then again, the tapestry of the Seven 
 Mortal Sins, two pieces of the Nine Bold Knights, that of the ladies hunting 
 and flying (qui volent), in other words, hawking ; that of the Wild Men ; two 
 of Godfrey de Bouillon ; a white tapestry for a chapel, in the centre of which 
 was seen " a compass with a rose," emblazoned with the arms of France and 
 of Dauphiny, this was three yards square ; one large handsome piece of 
 tapestry, " the king has bought, which is worked with gold, representing the 
 Seven Sciences and St. Augustin ;" the tapestry of Judith (the queen who 
 subsequently appears on playing-cards) ; a large piece of Arras cloth, repre- 
 senting the Battles of Judas Maccabeeus and Antiochus ; another of "the 
 Battle of the Duke of Aquitaine and of Florence;" a piece of tapestry 
 " whereon are worked the twelve months of the year ;" another of " the 
 Fountain of Jouvent " (Jouvence), a large piece of tapestry " covered with 
 azure fleurs-de-lys, which said fleurs-de-lys are mingled with other small 
 yellow fleurs-de-lys, having in the centre a lion, and, at the four corners, 
 beasts holding banners, &c. — in fact, the list is endless. "We must still, 
 however, add to these figured tapestries those with armorial bearings, made 
 for the most part with " Arras thread," and bearing the arms of France 
 and Behaigne (the latter being those of the queen, daughter of the King of 
 Bohemia). There was also a piece of tapestry "worked with towers, fallow 
 bucks and does, to put over the king's boat." The tapestry called veins, 
 or velvet, which now we call moquettes, was as commonly seen as any 
 other kind. There were also to be noticed the Salles d'Angleterre, or the 
 tapestries from that country, which, as we have said, had previously acquired 
 a great celebrity in that art. Among these one was " ynde (blue), with trees 
 and wild men, with wild animals, and castles;" others were vermilion, 
 embroidered with azure, having vignette borders, and in the centre lions, 
 eagles, and leopards. 
 
 In addition to these, Charles V. possessed at his castle of Melun many 
 " silken fabrics and tapestries." At the Louvre one could but admire, among 
 other magnificent pieces of tapestry, " a very lovely green room, ornamented 
 with silk covered with leaves ; and representing in the centre a lion, which 
 
4 8 
 
 TAPESTRY. 
 
 two queens were in the act of crowning, and a fountain wherein swans were 
 disporting themselves." 
 
 Yet we must not be led away with the idea that it was only the royal 
 palaces which presented such sumptuousness ; for it would be easy to 
 enumerate many instances similar to those we have given, by looking over 
 the inventories of the personal property of nobles, or those of the treasuries 
 of certain churches and abbeys. In one place the tapestries represent 
 religious subjects taken from the Bible, the Gospels, or the legends of the 
 saints; in another the subjects are either historical or relating to chivalry, 
 more especially battles or hunting scenes (Fig. 30). 
 
 We are thus justified in asserting that the luxury of tapestry was general 
 among the higher classes. An expensive taste it was ; because not only does 
 an examination of these marvellous works show us that they could have been 
 purchased only at a very high price, but in old documents we find more than 
 one certain confirmation of this fact. For example, Amaury de Goire, a 
 worker in tapestry, received in 1348, from the Duke of Normandy and 
 Guienne, 492 livres, 3 sous, 9 deniers, for "a woollen cloth," on which were 
 represented scenes from the Old and New Testaments. In 1368, Huchon 
 Barthelmy, money-changer, received 900 golden francs for a piece of "worked 
 tapestry, representing La Quete de St. Graal (the search for the blood of 
 Christ) ; and in 1391, the tapestry exhibiting the history of Theseus, to which 
 we have already alluded, was purchased by Charles V. for 1,200 livres ; all 
 these sums, considering the period, were really exorbitant. 
 
 The sixteenth century, remarkable for the progress and the excellence 
 to which the arts of every kind had attained, gave a renewed impulse to 
 that of tapestry. A manufactory was established by Francis I., at Fontaine- 
 bleau, where the tapestry was woven in one entire piece, instead of being 
 made up, as had been the practice, of separate pieces matched and sewn 
 together. In this new fabric gold and silver threads were mixed with 
 silk and wool. 
 
 When Francis sent for the Primate from Italy, he commissioned him to 
 procure designs for several pieces of tapestry, to be made in the workshops of 
 Fontainebleau. But, while liberally rewarding the Italian or Flemish artists 
 and artisans collected in the dependencies of his chateau, the king still 
 continued to employ Parisian ta pestry- workers ; proof of which is to be 
 found in a receipt of the sieurs Miolard and Pasquier, who give an 
 
50 
 
 TAPESTRY. 
 
 acknowledgment of having been paid 410 litres toumois, "to begin the 
 purchase of materials and other requisites for a piece of silk tapestry, 
 which the said seigneur had ordered them to make for his coronation, 
 according to the patterns which the said seigneur has had prepared for this 
 purpose, and on which must be represented a Leda, with certain nymphs, 
 satyrs, &c." 
 
 Henry II. did even more than maintain the establishment at Fontaine- 
 bleau ; in addition he instituted, in compliance with the request of the 
 guardians of the Hopital de la Trinite, a manufactory of tapestry in Paris, 
 
 Fig. 31. — The Weaver. Drawn and Engraved by J. Amman. 
 
 in which the children belonging to the hospital were employed in dyeing 
 wool and silk, and in weaving them in the loom with a high and low warp. 
 
 The new manufactory, whether on account of the excellence of its 
 productions, or from influential patronage, obtained so many privileges that 
 the public peace was on several occasions seriously disturbed by the jealousy 
 of the guild of tapestry-workers ; an ancient and numerous corporation still 
 possessing great authority and influence. 
 
 The manufactory of the Hopital de la Trinite continued to flourish during 
 the reign of Henry III. ; and Sauval, in his " Histoire des Antiquit^s de 
 
.2 
 
 t 
 
 pa 
 H 
 
 Szs 
 
 D 
 
 W 
 
 H 
 H 
 
 1 £ 
 
 3 s 
 
 ft? & 
 
 5>i ^ 
 
 ne- 
 
 'e ^ 
 
 ' 5 £ 
 
 33 £ 
 
TAPESTRY. 
 
 5 1 
 
 Paris," informs us that in the following reign it reached its highest point of 
 prosperity. In 1594, Dubourg made in these workshops, from the designs 
 of Lerembert, the beautiful tapestries which, to a date very near our own, 
 decorated the Church of Saint-Merry. Henry IT., says Sauval, hearing this 
 work much spoken of, desired to see it, and was so pleased therewith that he 
 resolved to restore the manufactories in Paris, " which the disorder of 
 preceding reigns had abolished." He therefore established Laurent, a 
 celebrated tapestry-worker, in the maison professe of the Jesuits, which had 
 remained closed since the trial of Jean Chastel. He allowed one crown a 
 day, and one hundred francs a year, as wages to this skilful artist ; his 
 apprentices receiving ten sous a day, and his fellow-workmen twenty-five, 
 thirty, and even forty sous, according to their skill. At a later period 
 
 Fig. 32.— Banner of the Tapestry Workers of Lyons. 
 
 Dubourg and Laurent, who had entered into partnership, were both installed 
 in the galleries of the Louvre. Henry IV., following the example of 
 Francis I., brought from Italy skilled workers in gold and in silk. These 
 he lodged in the Hotel de la Maque, Rue de la Tisseranderie : the special 
 works they made were hangings in fine cloth of gold and silver (/rise). 
 
 Subsequently to the sixteenth century, the tapestries fabricated at the 
 manufactories of the Savonnerie, the Gobelins, and at Beauvais, &c, although 
 more perfect as regards the weaving, and therefore presenting greater 
 regularity of design and a better comprehension of colour and perspective, 
 unfortunately lost the original simplicity which characterized them in olden 
 times. Approaching the reign of Louis XIY., under the influence of the 
 
5 2 
 
 TAPESTRY. 
 
 school of Le Brun,* they affected an imitation of Greek and Roman forms, 
 which seem out of place in France. Handsome countenances are the result, 
 out accompanied by meaningless figures ; the frankness of truth gives place 
 to staid coldness, the ideal usurps the place of nature, conventionality that 
 of spontaneity. We find them ingenious, pretty, and even beautiful produc- 
 tions, but wanting character, the real soul of works of art. 
 
 * Charles le Brun, a distinguished painter of the French school, nourished during the seven- 
 teenth century. The son of a sculptor, who placed him under Simon Vouet, the young artist 
 made such progress that at the age of fifteen he painted a remarkahle picture, " Hercules Destroy- 
 ing the Horses of Diomede," which brought him at once into public notice. Le Brun's patron, 
 the Chancellor Seguier, sent him to Italy, with an introduction to Nicholas Poussin, whose pure 
 and correct taste, however, seems to have had little influence on the French artist, who, though 
 possessing an inventive and somewhat elevated genius, often showed himself a mannerist. — [Ed.] 
 
CERAMIC ART. 
 
 Pottery Workshops in the Gallo-Romano Period. — Ceramic Art disappears for several Centuries in 
 Gaul : is again found in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries.— Probable Influence of Arabian 
 Art in Spain. — Origin of Majolica. — Luca della Robbia and his Successors. — Enamelled Tiles 
 in France, dating from the Twelfth Century. — The Italian Manufactories of Faenza, Rimini, 
 Pesaro, &c. — Beauvais Pottery. — Invention and Works of Bernard Palissy ; his History ; 
 his Chefs-d'oeuvre. — The Faience of Thouars, called " Henri II." 
 
 E can assuredly say, with M. Jacquemart, that " the history 
 of the ceramic art of the Middle Ages is shrouded by 
 a veil which probably will always remain impenetrable. 
 Notwithstanding the constant investigations of local 
 societies, and the numerous documents that have been 
 brought to light, nothing has transpired to remove the 
 doubts of the archaeologist regarding the places where the manufacture of 
 pottery had its birth among us." 
 
 Nevertheless, it is certain that at the Gallo-Romano period — that is to 
 say, when the Romans, having made themselves masters of that country, 
 had introduced their customs and their industry — Gaul possessed numerous 
 and considerable pottery workshops, which produced vessels and vases of all 
 kinds. Maintaining the ancient forms and processes of manufacture, these 
 factories continued to furnish, till about the sixth century, amphorae, basins, 
 cups on stems, dishes, plates, and bottles. They were made, with the aid 
 of the potter's wheel, of grey, yellow, or brown clay. Some of the finest 
 quality were covered with a brilliant varnish, resembling red sealing-wax 
 both in colour and appearance; and these articles were often ornamented 
 with much care and delicacy. We find vases surrounded with garlands 
 of leaves, cups embellished with figures of men and animals ; these are so 
 many proofs that this was a manufacture to which the influence of art was 
 by no means unknown. 
 
 Yet it is also evident that this industry — one of a sufficiently elevated 
 kind — nearly disappeared about the period of the invasions and wars 
 amidst the tumult of which French monarchy had its birth ; and there 
 
5 + 
 
 CERAMIC ART. 
 
 remained but the simple art that provided for ordinary requirements an 
 assemblage of articles rude and devoid of character. 
 
 It must be remembered, however, that the ceramic art which had 
 flourished in the West merely migrated, instead of becoming extinct ; and 
 it found, like so many other arts, a new country in that Byzantium destined 
 to be the sanctuary of ancient magnificence. Whatever may be the reason, 
 ceramic art disappeared from the soil of France during a long period ; and 
 it is still a question what was the real origin of its revival. Did it revive 
 of itself, or was it under the influence of example ? Did it owe its 
 
 Fig- 33- — Vases of ancient shape, represented in the decorative sculpture of the Church of St. Benoit, Paris. 
 
 (Twelfth Century.) 
 
 resuscitation to any immigration of artisans, or to the importation of some 
 process of manufacture ? These questions still remain unanswered. 
 
 The ceramic art, which perhaps we somewhat wrongly style modern, is 
 characterized by the use of enamel, or overlaying articles with a glaze 
 having a metallic basis ; this the fire of the oven vitrifies ; it is a process of 
 which the ancients were entirely ignorant. 
 
 But, in searching the tombs that belonged to the ancient abbey of 
 Jumieges (in Normandy), and which date from the year 1120, there have 
 been found fragments of pottery of a fine but porous clay, covered with a 
 glazing somewhat similar to that now used. 
 
CERAMIC ART. 
 
 55 
 
 Moreover, we read in a chronicle of the ancient province of Alsace, that 
 in the year 1283 " died a potter of Schelestadt, who was the first to cover 
 earthen vessels with glass." 
 
 But we also know that at the time when these isolated attempts were 
 being carried out in France, the Persians and Armenians had long before 
 discovered the art of making magnificent enamelled ware for covering the 
 exterior of their monuments ; and that the Arabs settled in Spain produced 
 wonderful examples of painted and enamelled earthenware, with which they 
 decorated and furnished those palaces whose grand ruins are still to us like 
 the fairy visions of a dream or of enchantment. The vases of the Alhambra, 
 types of an art as original as it was singularly ingenious, claim, and doubtless 
 will always claim, the admiration of minds that can appreciate the beautiful 
 in whatever form it may present itself. 
 
 Fig. 34— Vases of ancient form, represented in the decorative sculptures of the Church of St. BenoU, Paris. 
 
 (Twelfth Century.) 
 
 And now, are we to suppose that the intercourse between nations and 
 the transactions of commerce must necessarily have made western Europe 
 acquainted with the enamelled dishes of Asia, or the chefs-d'mwre of the 
 African race in Spain ? Or, on the other hand, shall we say that it was by 
 a spontaneous effort of invention that our forefathers opened up the road to 
 a new domain of art ? In the one case we have the opinion, deservedly 
 respected, of Scaliger, who affirms the fact, apparently very significant, that 
 during the Middle Ages there existed in the Balearic Islands manufactories 
 of pottery of Arab origin ; our learned author even adds, that in accordance 
 with the most probable etymology, the name of Majolica, which was first 
 given to Italian ware (the earliest in the European revival of the ceramic 
 art), was derived from Majorca, the largest, as we know, of the Balearic 
 
56 
 
 CERAMIC ART. 
 
 Islands, in which locality the principal manufactory of these pottery wares 
 was situated. But, on the other hand, a comparative examination of Arab 
 and Italian wares excludes all idea not only of affiliation, but even of imitation 
 or reminiscence between them. 
 
 In the face of such contradictory coincidence, if we may say so, it would 
 be as difficult as it would be rash to pronounce an opinion ; we consider it 
 better, while disregarding problematical indications, to boldly face a train of 
 facts now determined by historical proof. 
 
 "At the commencement of the fifteenth century " — we cannot do better 
 than borrow from M. J acquemart a passage which he himself took from the 
 Italian work by Passeri, on Majolica (Pesaro, 1838, in 8vo.) — "Luca della 
 Pobbia, the son of Simone di Marro, apprenticed himself to a Florentine 
 goldsmith, Leonardo, the son of Giovanni ; but disliking the confinement 
 of a laboratory, he soon became a pupil of the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti, 
 who made the gates of the Baptistry at Florence. His rapid progress under 
 so able a master placed him in a position, when he could not have been more 
 than fifteen years old, to undertake the task of ornamenting a chapel for 
 Sigismond Malatesta, at Rimini. Two years later, Pietro di Medici, who 
 was having an organ erected in Santa-Maria dei Fiori, at Florence, directed 
 Luca to execute some marble sculptures in that church. The fame which 
 he gained by these works drew everybody's attention to the young sculptor. 
 Orders reached him in such numbers that he clearly saw the impossibility 
 of executing them in marble or in bronze ; added to this, he bore with 
 impatience the restraint imposed by working with such rigid materials, of 
 which the laborious handling trammelled the flights of his imagination. 
 Soft and plastic clay was a material far better suited to his readiness of 
 conception. At the same time, Luca dreamt of the future, and of glory ; 
 and thus having in view the object of executing works which, though less 
 perishable, might be rapidly executed, he devoted all his efforts to discover 
 a coating which would give to clay the polish and the hardness of marble. 
 After many trials, a varnish made of tin (Stain), which was white, opaque, 
 and of a resisting nature, furnished him with the result he hoped for. The 
 art of producing fine earthenware was discovered, which first received the 
 name of vitrified clay (terra invetriata) . 
 
 " Luca's enamel was a most perfect white ; he first used it alone for 
 figures, in semi-relief, which were raised on a blue background. At a later 
 
CERAMIC ART. 
 
 57 
 
 period he ventured to colour his figures, and Pietro di Medici was one of the 
 first who encouraged this kind of work for the decoration of palaces. The 
 fame of this novel art spread with rapidity ; all the churches were anxious 
 to possess some specimen of the master, so that Luca was soon compelled to 
 associate with himself his two brothers Ottaviano and Agostino, in order 
 
 Eig> 35— Enamelled Terra-cotta, by Luca della Robbia, 
 
 to keep pace with the requirements of the public. He endeavoured, never- 
 theless, to extend the application of his discovery by painting flowers and 
 groups of figures on a smooth surface ; but in the year 1430 death cut short 
 his remarkable career, and stayed, in the hands of the inventor, the progress 
 of enamelled pottery (Fig. 35). 
 
 " The family of Luca, however, made public the secret of his discovery. 
 
 i 
 
53 
 
 CERAMIC ART. 
 
 His two nephews, Luca and Andrea, produced some figures and designs 
 of singular merit in terra- cotta. Luca ornamented the floor of the Loggia 
 of Raphael. Girolamo, a relative of Luca, come to France, where he 
 decorated the chateau of Madrid, in the neighbourhood of Paris. Two 
 females, Lisabetta and Speranza, added to the renown of the family Delia 
 Robbia." 
 
 Such is the history of the revival, or rather of the creation, of ceramic 
 art in Italy, as briefly recorded by a man thoroughly acquainted with the 
 subject. An ancient author, and, moreover, a competent writer, instances 
 some monuments of an earlier date ; among others a tomb at Bologna, in 
 which were tiles covered with a green and yellow varnish, and vessels 
 (ecuelles) of the same kind inserted in the facades or porticoes of the churches 
 of Pesaro and the abbey of Pomposa. But to the honour of Luca della 
 Robbia it may be remarked, that these specimens of an earlier industry 
 differed essentially from his productions ; because the glazing that covered 
 them, the basis of which was lead, was so transparent, that through it could 
 be seen either the clay or the colours underneath ; whereas the enamel 
 discovered by Luca, the basis of which was tin, had, on the contrary, for its 
 essential character, an opacity which may be termed intense. Let us observe, 
 moreover, that in order to embellish his productions with paintings, Luca 
 was accustomed to apply colours to the first and general coating, which 
 became fixed by a subsequent process of baking. 
 
 It is by recognising the distinction we have just laid down between these 
 two processes, that the productions of Italian ceramic art are ordinarily 
 classified : the demi-majolica, with transparent glaze, somewhat like the 
 Spanish- Arabian pottery, and also, perhaps, like Asiatic tiles ; then the 
 majolica, by which we understand fine earthenware, where the clay is covered 
 with a coating of opaque varnish, distinguishing the invention due to 
 Luca della Robbia. 
 
 Having given priority of invention to Luca della Robbia, it is as well, 
 nevertheless, here to state, that from the eleventh and twelfth centuries 
 there existed in Prance a kind of ceramic art employed especially in the 
 manufacture of varnished pottery-tiles. Many, of baked clay, have been 
 found with drawings and designs in black or brown on a white or yellow 
 ground (Plate IV.). At a later period these tiles, of which we see such 
 brilliant specimens in the small pictures in manuscripts, especially in those 
 
PAVING TILES OF THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES. 
 
CERAMIC ART. 
 
 59 
 
 of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, were embellished with designs, 
 emblems, armorial bearings, and scrolls. As already stated, in the passage 
 from the author whom we have taken as our guide, the impulse which Luca 
 della Eobbia gave to ceramic art extended itself with rapidity in every 
 direction ; and if any other reason were wanting, beyond the intrinsic value 
 of this art, to account for its development, we should say that the circum- 
 stances in the midst of which Luca made his discovery were eminently 
 favourable to its advancement. 
 
 Luxurious display was, at that time, prominent among the classes who 
 aspired to ostentation. When writing of furniture, we saw to what a pitch of 
 splendid profusion kings, princes, and nobles carried the mania for display- 
 ing their wealth. We particularly pointed out sideboards in the dining- 
 rooms, covered with plate and all kinds of objects, which were only placed 
 there to dazzle the eyes. The custom of these displays having been intro- 
 duced, it could nevertheless be only indulged in by those in possession of 
 considerable fortunes, and therefore it will be readily understood how quickly 
 fashion affected the productions of ceramic art ; which, in addition to being- 
 recognised as works of art, were singularly well suited, both in character and 
 by their comparative cheapness, to the spirit of ostentation which had taken 
 possession of people of inferior rank. It was sufficient that some piece of 
 majolica should have found a place on the sideboard of a prince amidst the 
 gold and the silver which hitherto had alone enjoyed this privilege, for the 
 lower ranks of the bourgeoisie and the tiers-etat to adopt the fashion, in their 
 dining-rooms, of decorating them either with majolica alone, or associated 
 with plate. 
 
 And admitting this fact, that the productions of ceramic art were thus 
 allowed to find admittance, and, as it were, in some measure an equally 
 distinguished position, amidst plate and objects of precious metals, it resulted 
 that this new industry, supported by the best artists, soon became remarkable 
 for works which were at the same time most beautiful and original. 
 
 As something new in history, we find simple pieces of pottery — to give 
 them their generic name — passing as valuable offerings among the great, 
 and employed on very many occasions to denote ardent admiration in the 
 world of courtly gallantry. It is thus we have handed down to us, princi- 
 pally on cups by renowned masters, portraits of the beauties who in those 
 times adorned the ranks of the nobility : the Dianas, the Francescas, the 
 
6o 
 
 CERAMIC ART. 
 
 Lucias, the Proserpines, whom their admirers caused to be portrayed in order 
 to offer them their own likenesses. 
 
 It was at Florence, about the year 1410, that Luca della Robbia first 
 introduced his invention ; but as soon as the process became known, the 
 greater part of the towns of Italy, especially those of Tuscany, established 
 manufactories, among which a remarkable rivalry soon arose : Pesaro, 
 Gubbio, Urbino, Paenza, Eimini, Bologna, Ravenna, Ferrara, Citta Castellana, 
 Bassano, Venice, emulated each other, and almost all succeeded in giving, 
 as it were, an individual character to their productions. 
 
 Pesaro — the place were the earliest workshops of ornamental pottery in 
 Italy were seated, and the processes of which (derived from Luca della 
 Robbia) seem to have blended with the ancient Spanish, or Majorquaises — 
 presents to us a design of a rather harsh and stiff character. " The outlines 
 of figures," adds M. Jacquemart, " are drawn in manganese black, the flesh 
 is the colour of the enamel, and the drapery alone is of uniform tint." 
 
 It was at Pesaro that the celebrated Lanfranco flourished. The ceramic 
 museum of Sevres has two of his pieces : it was he who. invented the method 
 of applying gold to earthenware, at a time when the early processes of 
 ornamenting this manufacture had ceased to be employed, and had given 
 place to delicate paintings, which, although no longer executed by the most 
 renowned artists of Italy, were nevertheless the work of intelligent pupils 
 who had received the benefit of their teaching and example. 
 
 The manufactory at Gubbio had for its founder Giorgio Andreoli, who, 
 both as a sculptor and an artist in majolica, executed works as remarkable 
 in form as in effect. " The palette of mineral colours adopted by Andreoli 
 was the most perfect of the period ; and coppery yellows, ruby reds, are 
 frequently used in his works." There are still extant some works signed by 
 this master (a title officially conferred on him by a patent of nobility) ; 
 one is a slab in the Sevres collection, and another a tablet representing the 
 Holy Family. 
 
 Urbino — of which the dukes, especially Guidobaldo II., signalized 
 themselves as the most zealous patrons of ceramic art — became famous 
 through the works of Francesco Xanto, who executed historical subjects 
 on enamelled clay. Xanto had as a successor Orazio Fontana, who has 
 been named " the Raphael of Majolica," and who produced, among other 
 magnificent objects, some vases which, when subsequently seen by Christina 
 
CERAMIC ART. 
 
 61 
 
 of Sweden, so impressed her by their beauty that she offered to exchange 
 for them silver vases of equal size. 
 
 It was at the manufactory of Deruta that imaginative .subjects on majolica 
 were first introduced ; Bassano was famous for its landscapes with ruins ; 
 Venice became celebrated for delicate ware with repousse reliefs ; Faenza is 
 still proud of her Guido Salvaggio ; Florence of her Flaminio Fontana, &c. 
 
 Majolica attained to its highest point of brilliancy under the Duke of 
 TJrbino whom we have already named, Guidobaldo II., who was ever ready 
 to make any sacrifice in order that this art might be introduced into the 
 manufactories under his patronage. He even obtained from Raphael and 
 Giulio Romano some original drawings to serve as examples ; and this 
 feeling having once been inculcated, we soon find artists of renown, such as 
 Batista Franco and Raphael del Oolle, tendering their services for the orna- 
 mentation of majolica. Thus the productions of this period are distinguish- 
 able among all others for harmony of composition and accurate drawing, 
 qualities which render them specially noteworthy (Fig. 36). Then, almost 
 immediately, followed the decline of this art. While flourishing more 
 and more until the middle of the sixteenth century, the art of making 
 majolica had fallen, at the termination of that epoch, into a kind of 
 degenerate industry, swayed by the caprice of fashion, and thereby 
 reduced to mannerism. 
 
 Nearly at the commencement of the renovation of ceramic art, Italian 
 artisans had established themselves in various places, which then became so 
 many artistic centres. Eastern Europe had for its earliest instructors three 
 brothers, Giovanni, Tiseo, and Lazio, who settled at Corfu. Flanders was 
 indebted for the knowledge of these processes to Guido of Savino, who took 
 up his abode at Antwerp. And about the year 1520 we find a manufactory 
 at Nuremberg, of which the ware, though materially differing in character 
 from Italian majolica, may still very probably have been derived from Italy. 
 
 We may add that letters of the King of France mention that from 1456 
 there were certain revenues derivable from the " Beauvais Potteries ; " and 
 in the twenty-seventh chapter of the first book of " Pantagruel," published 
 in 1535, Rabelais places among the various articles composing the trophy 
 of Panurge, " a saucer, a salt-cellar of clay, and a Beauvais goblet ;" which 
 proves, as M. de Sommerard remarks, " that as early as this date, there 
 were manufactured in this city vessels of clay sufficiently good in quality 
 
62 
 
 CERAMIC ART. 
 
 to be placed on the table with silver and pewter utensils ; " but it does not 
 naturally follow that France had not long to wait for the man of genius who 
 would soon leave her nothing to covet from Italy. 
 
 About the year 1510, in a small village in Perigord, a child was born 
 who, after receiving the rudiments of education, was obliged while still quite 
 young to try to gain a livelihood by his own industry. This child's name 
 was Bernard Palissy. He first learnt the trade of a glazier, or rather of a 
 
 Fig. 36— Cup, Italian Ware. In the Collection of Baron Alph. Rothschild. Taken from MM. Carle Delange 
 
 and C. Borneman's work. 
 
 glass-fitter and painter. This trade, while it initiated him into the principles 
 of drawing, and gave him a certain insight into chemical manipulations, at 
 the same time aroused in him a taste for art and the study of natural 
 sciences. "While " painting figures in order to gain his daily bread," as 
 he himself tells us in one of the works he has left behind him, and which 
 gives us the highest opinion of his simple yet energetic nature, he applied 
 himself to the study of the true principles of art in the works of the 
 great Italian painters — the only artists then in repute. Owing to various 
 
CERAMIC ART. 
 
 63 
 
 circumstances the trade of glazier proving unprofitable, he at once began the 
 study of geometry, and soon obtained credit, in the part of the country 
 wherein he dwelt, as " a clever draughtsman of plans." Such comparatively 
 mechanical labour as this could not long suffice for the active vigour of a 
 mind thirsting after progress and discovery. Moreover, Palissy, while 
 employed on his calling as a land-surveyor, had never ceased to give close 
 observation to the structure and composition of geological strata. With the 
 purpose of dispelling the doubts in his mind, and also with the object of 
 obtaining substantial confirmation regarding the system he had already 
 originated, he began to travel. The result of his journeyings was the 
 inauguration of a theory which, after having long been contemptuously 
 
 Fig. 37. — A figured Border of an Enamelled Dish, by Bernard Palissy. 
 
 rejected by the learned, was nevertheless destined to form the foundation 
 of principles which are now considered as the basis of modern geological 
 science. 
 
 But if the certain knowledge which Palissy thought he had acquired as 
 to the early convulsions of the globe had succeeded in satisfying his own 
 mind, the glazier-surveyor (who was now a married man with a family) 
 still remained in straitened circumstances, and was obliged to find some 
 means of avoiding actual want. We must refer to what he himself 
 says more than a quarter of a century later, and when success had 
 completely crowned his efforts, to learn what were his recollections of his 
 early and hazardous experiments in a new channel. "Know," says he, 
 
6+ 
 
 CERAMIC ART. 
 
 in his expressive language, " that it is twenty-five years since an earthen 
 vessel was shown to me ; it was turned, enamelled, and of such exquisite 
 beauty, that from that very moment I began to argue with myself, while 
 remembering observations made derisively to me by some persons when I 
 was painting figures. And seeing that they were beginning to give up 
 the use of these objects in the country where I lived, and that glazing 
 also was not in great demand, I set myself to think that had I but 
 discovered the art of making enamel, I might make earthen vessels and 
 other articles of beautiful appearance ; for God had given me the capacity to 
 understand a little about ceramic painting, and from that instant, without in 
 the least regarding my utter ignorance of siliceous substances> I set myself 
 to discover enamels like a man groping in the dark." 
 
 It has been much disputed, but we may as well say at once to no purpose, 
 how to assign with certainty a particular locality whence came this object 
 which inspired Palissy ; but whatever may have been its origin, it seems to 
 us to be a question of little moment, because at the time when Palissy must 
 have seen it, the Italian manufactories, and even those which Were after- 
 wards established in Various localities, had succeeded in disseminating their 
 wares far and wide ; and, besides this, the works of Palissy, which we still 
 see, bear testimony to a style that was peculiarly his own, and in some 
 measure original. 
 
 However this may have been, here we have him seeking out and grinding 
 all kinds of substances, mixing them, and coating with them pieces of ware 
 which he first subjected to the action of an ordinary potter's oven, afterwards 
 to the more powerful heat employed by giass-makers. Then we see him 
 building an oven in his own house — taking into his service a working potter, 
 to whom, on one occasion, when he has no money for the payment of wages, 
 he is obliged to give his own clothes ; again we find him turning, single- 
 handed, a mill for grinding his materials which ordinarily required " two 
 powerful men " to work it ; then again, wounding his hands in repairing 
 the oven that the fire cracked, and the bricks and mortar of which had 
 become "liquified and vitrified;" so that he is obliged for several days 
 "to eat his soup with his fingers tied up in rags;" pushing the con- 
 scientiousness and zeal of an experimentalist so far as to fall down in a 
 state of insensibility on finding that the whole contents of an oven, on 
 which he had been relying, proved to have numerous defects. In despite 
 
CERAMIC ART. 
 
 65 
 
 of his poverty we see him destroying pieces of work that he considered were 
 not quite perfect, though a fair price was. offered him for them, merely 
 because "they might bring discredit on him and loss of reputation;" and 
 finally, we see him breaking up and putting into the fire, for want of other 
 fuel, the flooring of his house and the furniture of his humble abode. 
 
 The magnificent discovery, brought about by the single initiative of an 
 individual who had said that he would succeed, and who heroically endured 
 all kinds of misery, privations, and humiliations, in order to attain his object, 
 was the labour of not less than fifteen years. 
 
 " To console me," relates Palissy, " even those from whom I had a right 
 to expect help laughed at me " (he here alludes to his family — his wife, and 
 children — who had not the same unbounded faith as himself in the ultimate 
 success of his labours) ; " they paraded the town exclaiming that I was 
 burning the woodwork of my house ; thus was my credit injured, and I 
 was looked upon as a fool. Others said I was attempting to make base coin. 
 I went about quite humiliated, ashamed of myself. I owed money in several 
 quarters, and generally had two children out at nurse, and not able to pay 
 the cost. All ridiculed me, saying : ' He deserves to starve, because he has 
 given up his trade.' 
 
 " Struggling on in this way, at the end of ten years I became so thin that 
 my legs and arms had no roundness of shape left about them ; my legs were 
 all of a size (toutes d'une venue) ; so that as soon as I began to walk, the 
 garters with which I fastened my stockings used at once to slip down, 
 
 stockings and all, on to my heels For many years, having nothing 
 
 wherewith to cover my ovens, I was exposed all night long to the winds and 
 the rains, without receiving any help or consolation, except from the screech- 
 owls hooting on one side and the dogs howling on the other Some- 
 times I found myself, with all my garments wet through from the rain, 
 going to bed at midnight, or at dawn of day; and when proceeding in 
 this condition to bed, I went reeling along without a light, and stumbling 
 from side to side, like a man drunk with wine ; I was overcome by previous 
 sorrow, the more so because after long-continued work I saw my labour lost. 
 And on entering my chamber I found a fresh persecution awaiting me — the 
 complaints of my wife — worse than the first, and which now makes me 
 wonder how it was I did not die of grief. .... I have baen in such anguish 
 that many and many a time I fancied I was at death's door." 
 
 K 
 
66 
 
 CERAMIC ART. 
 
 At last, despite all these obstacles, disappointments, physical and mental 
 suffering, the determined experimentalist succeeded in his anticipations, and 
 gave to the world those works he called rustics, and which were so original 
 and so beautiful that they had but to be seen in order to invite attention, 
 and to gain for him all the praise, as well as the profit, he received. 
 
 We have just intimated it was at Saintes that Palissy, when in search of 
 immortal fame, underwent his rude apprenticeship. A short time after he 
 had attained these definite results, religious questions having caused some 
 disturbances in Saintonge, the Constable de Montmorency, who had been 
 sent to suppress the Huguenot rising, had an opportunity of seeing Palissy's 
 works : he requested that he should be presented to him, and at once declared 
 himself his friendly protector. And we must take this word protector in its 
 widest sense, for the potter, who had zealously embraced the doctrines of the 
 Reformation, and who subsequently preferred to be imprisoned for life rather 
 than abjure his faith (if he did not die in the Bastille, at least he was 
 imprisoned there at the time of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew), indeed 
 required protection, as much for the exercise of liberty of conscience as for 
 carrying on his artistic labours. After Montmorency had commissioned him 
 to execute some considerable works, which also gained him the patronage 
 of several important personages, he obtained for him the favour of royalty. 
 Palissy was summoned to Paris, and received the title of " inventeur des 
 rustiques figulines du roi et de la reine-mere " — Henri II. and Catherine de 
 Medicis. He was lodged in the Tuileries ; and was not long there before 
 he became renowned, not only for his ceramic productions, but also for his 
 scientific knowledge. 
 
 In the recent building operations at the Tuileries, on digging a trench 
 in the garden, the workshop of Bernard Palissy was discovered ; being 
 reeognised by fragments and various pieces of enamelled pottery with figures 
 in relievo. Among these was found a large fragment of the dish of Palissy, 
 known under the name of the Baptismal Dish, on account of the subject 
 represented thereon. In July, 1865, while excavating in the part of the 
 palace where the " Salle des Etats" has been built, the workmen discovered, 
 below the level of the surface soil, two ovens for baking pottery, in a tolerably 
 good state of preservation. One contained pieces of those muffles (gazettes) 
 Palissy is said to have invented, and which were employed in baking delicate 
 pieces of work — imprints of various kinds of ornaments, and figures in alto- 
 
CERAMIC ART. 
 
 67 
 
 relievo : two of these are described by Palissy himself in the " Devis d'une 
 grotte pour la royne, mere du roy " (" device of a grotto for the queen, the 
 king's mother"), and which he thus indicates in the following sentence : — 
 " I should wish to make certain figures from nature, following her so closely, 
 even to the small hair in the beard and eyebrows, as to make them the 
 natural size." These peculiarities are to be seen in the fragments of the 
 moulds which have been discovered. In the same page Palissy says, " Also 
 there would be another, composed completely of sea-shells of different kinds ; 
 that is to say, the two eyes of two shells, the nose, mouth, and chin, forehead 
 and cheeks, all made out of sea-shells, as well as even the remainder of the 
 
 Fig. 38.— Ornamentation on Pottery by Bernard Palissy. 
 
 body." This was found in fragments, as also a hand moulded from nature, 
 and holding a sword of ancient make (Fig. 39). Among the fragments 
 moulded from the naked and the draped form, is the one which we give 
 (Fig. 40) ; it is thus described by Palissy : — " Also for the sake of astonishing 
 mankind, I wished to make three -or four (figures) draped, and with their 
 hair dressed in quaint ways, whose dresses and head-dresses shall be of divers 
 linen, cloths, or striped materials so natural that no man would think but it 
 was the object itself which the workman had wished to imitate." * 
 
 We thus see how Palissy, called "Maitre Bernard des Thuilleries," 
 deserved the esteem of the sovereigns who desired he should be near them. 
 
 * " Historical Topography of Ancient Paris in the district of the Louvre and Tuileries." By 
 Berty and Legrand. 
 
68 
 
 CERAMIC ART. 
 
 M. Jacquemart says of Palissy ware : — " It is remarkable in more ways 
 than one — for its white paste with a shade of yellowish grey, for its hardness, 
 and its infusibility, equalling that of fine earthenware or pipe-clay. These 
 give it a special character, that distinguishes it from Italian productions, the 
 clay of which is of a dirty and dusky red. The enamel has great brilliancy ; 
 it is hard, and is not ^infrequently wavy (tresaitte). The colours vary a little, 
 but they are bright — pure yellow, yellow ochre, indigo blue, grey blue, 
 emerald green produced from copper, yellow green, violet brown, and 
 
 Figs. 39 and 40.— Fragments of Figures 01 which the moulds have been found in one of Palissy's Ovens 
 
 at the Tuileries. 
 
 manganese violet. As for the white, it is somewhat dull, and cannot be 
 compared with Luca della Robbia ware ; wherefore the most persevering 
 researches of Palissy, who invented all the processes which he employed in 
 his work, aimed at the attainment of greater brilliancy. The under part 
 of Palissy ware is never of a uniform tone of colour ; it is spotted or tinted 
 with blue, yellow, and violet brown. 
 
 " It would be exceedingly difficult, not to say impossible, to enumerate 
 the various shapes he was able to give to his enamelled ware. Combining in 
 
CERAMIC ART. 
 
 6g 
 
 himself all the artistic talent of his day, he was at the same time a skilful 
 designer and an intelligent modeller ; and thus he discovered a thousand 
 resources for the display of elegance and richness ; sometimes in the multi- 
 plicity of relievos and in the outline of his vases, sometimes in the mere 
 application of colour In many of his productions, particularly dishes 
 
 Fig. 41.— Goblet, by Bernard Palissy. (Museum of the Louvre.) 
 
 and bowls, are seen natural objects represented with astonishing truthfulness 
 as to form and colour; nearly all these are modelled from nature, and 
 grouped with perfect taste ; from the lower surface, rippled by streams of 
 water in which fish of the river Seine are swimming, coiled reptiles rise 
 
70 
 
 CERAMIC ART. 
 
 gracefully from among fossil shells (we must remember that Palissy was a 
 geologist), found in the tertiary strata of Paris; on the marli (the sloping 
 edge of the dish), amidst delicate ferns arranged in masses, lizards, crayfish, 
 and large-bodied frogs climb and jump (Fig. 42). The accuracy of their 
 movements, the truth of tones produced, by a limited variety of colours — all 
 indicate a close observer. We must not, however, form our opinion of 
 Palissy from these rustic works alone, but also from his vases, where he 
 introduced all the ornamental richness of those times, and on which he took 
 a pleasure in developing all his fertility of composition and his knowledge as 
 
 a designer On this point Palissy followed the same law to which all 
 
 artists of the sixteenth century were subject — he was a worker in precious 
 metals. By their graceful originality, their fringed (frangees) borders, their 
 figured accessories, these vases put us in mind of metal. How could it have 
 been otherwise ? "Was not Benvenuto Cellini at that time, we will not say 
 the object of all imitations, for this would be an insult to the skilful artists 
 of that period, but at all events the ideal towards which the inspirations of 
 others were directed ? As regards the human figure, Palissy's constant 
 endeavour was to approach the Italian type ; and as doubtless the school of 
 Fontainebleau furnished him with most of his models, in the greater part of 
 his figures we trace that graceful elongation of form, that elegant simplicity, 
 which, in the works of Jean Goujon, fall into mannerism (Figs. 43 and 44). 
 
 " Palissy did not limit himself to the production of small and moderate- 
 sized vases for ornamenting sideboards, buffets, tables, and brackets ; he 
 raised pottery to the most gigantic proportions in his rustiques figulines, 
 intended as ornaments for gardens, grottoes, fountains, and the halls of 
 stately mansions. The castles of Nesle and of Chaulnes, of Reux and of 
 Ecouen, and the garden of the Tuileries, contained some remarkable 
 specimens. All have perished with the devastation of the buildings in 
 which they stood ; a single fragment of a capital, preserved in the Museum 
 of Sevres, proves the truthfulness of the writers of the sixteenth century 
 regarding the monumental creations of the potter of Saintes. 
 
 " After the death of Palissy, in 1589, the art which he had created 
 insensibly declined, until soon it almost completely disappeared in France." 
 
 This latter remark has reference to the style which was peculiarly of 
 Palissy's own invention, and not to the production of ceramic works 
 generally ; though the art failed not to give evidence of a certain vitality, 
 
CERAMIC ART. 
 
 7 1 
 
 it employed as guides or models the fanciful examples of Italian ware, 
 
 the different centres of manufacture which, at that period, were deserving of 
 notoriety, we must specially name Nevers, whence came numerous examples 
 characterised by subjects taken from biblical narratives, as well as from 
 
7* 
 
 CERAMIC ART. 
 
 Roman and contemporaneous times ; Rouen, where the manufacture probably 
 was not of an earlier date than the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
 and which evidently had to provide its full supply of dishes for the table 
 when, owing to the heavy expenses of war, the courtiers, following the 
 example of Louis XIV., sent their plate to the mint, and " se mirent 
 en faience," " took to earthenware," as Saint-Simon says. Lastly we have 
 Montreuil-sur-Mer, which, if we are to credit the specimens collected in the 
 district by M. Boucher de Perthes, one of our most learned antiquarians, 
 possessed a manufactory that produced some remarkable " open-work " vases. 
 
 Fig. 43. — Four-handled Water -jug. Fig. 44. — Egg-shaped Coffee-pot. 
 
 German ware German ware 
 
 of the Sixteenth Century. of the Sixteenth Century. 
 
 Let us also mention the Dutch pottery, called Delft ware, which, in the 
 beginning of the seventeenth century, began to find a place on all sideboards 
 and dressers. According to M. Brongniart, these came from a manufactory 
 founded prior, perhaps, to the sixteenth century. "We also instance the 
 fine earthenware, in relievo, manufactured with undoubted ability in 
 Germany, especially in the town of Nuremberg. In the Louvre and in 
 the Cluny Museums may be seen magnificent specimens of enamelled slabs 
 and vases of architectural forms, ornamented with figures. Majolica was 
 
CERAMIC ART. 
 
 73 
 
 equally esteemed on the banks of the Rhine. Many specimens are found, 
 dating from the latest years of the sixteenth century, in which identity of 
 form or similarity of sigles (earths or clays) to primitive works had led 
 to their being, at first, classified among Italian majolica. However, the 
 majority of these examples, ornamented with escutcheons and arabesques, 
 combined generally with Latin or German inscriptions, bear on the reverse a 
 cipher in Gothic letters, leaving no doubt as to the artist's country. 
 
 Now a word on a question we ought not to pass in silence, though it 
 yet remains unanswered, and doubtless will never be explained. 
 
 Why is this name of faience commonly given in France, almost from the 
 revival of the ceramic art, to the productions of the new industry ? Some 
 say, "because Faenza was the first among Italian manufactories that 
 introduced, generally, painted and ornamented potteries into France, where 
 it acquired great reputation." Others discover in France itself, a small 
 town called Faience, near Frejus, in Provence, "where the manufacture of 
 enamelled clays was in full activity before there was any evidence of it 
 elsewhere ; " and thus it gave its name to the pottery called majolica by 
 the Italians : this would be nothing less than to deprive Luca della Robbia 
 of the merit, if not of the invention, at least of priority. Unfortunately 
 for this last opinion, those who state it cannot bring in support of their 
 assertion any certain details of the nature of the productions ascribed to 
 that locality, and which by their very celebrity ought to have been safe 
 from destruction. Thus it is evident there is here a point of dispute 
 regarding which it is difficult to form a decisive opinion. 
 
 Though, in a certain measure, lying out of the province to which our 
 observations have hitherto been limited, we have still to notice a small 
 group of productions which are known by connoisseurs under the title of 
 faiences fines d' Henri II; of these there are not more than forty authen- 
 ticated specimens. The locality of this manufacture, which seems, so to 
 speak, to have been isolated — for the ware is unlike any contemporaneous 
 productions — is quite unknown. "We only know," says M. Jacquemart, 
 " that most of the examples came from the south-west of France, from 
 Saumur, from Tours, and especially from Thouars. As to the date, it is 
 indelibly inscribed on the vases, some having the salamander of Francis I., 
 others the arms of France with three crescents interlaced, the emblem 
 adopted by Henri II. They consist of cups, ewers, drinking- vases, oval 
 
 L 
 
74 
 
 CERAMIC ART. 
 
 sugar-basins, salt-cellars, and candlesticks. The form is ornate and pure, 
 and is relieved by elegant mouldings. On the clay — a yellowish white, 
 and covered with a crystallized varnish, the basis of which is lead, and 
 consequently is transparent — wind bands of yellow ochre bordered with 
 dark brown, and interlaced with all the inventive richness which charac- 
 terized the period ; small designs in green, violet, black, and occasionally 
 in red, enhance this decoration." 
 
 Much search has been made, but, as yet, without any reliable result, 
 for the name of the artist to whom might be attributed the creation of these 
 works, and of the individual style they denote. 
 
 However this may be, if England claims the first application of pipe-clay 
 to fine earthenware, the French can, by showing her the faience d' Henry II., 
 prove that, two hundred years before, an unknown artist in France was 
 setting an example in that art in which England now prides herself. 
 
 Pig. 45.— Ornament of a Dish, Italian ware. (Collection of M. le Baron Alph. de Rothschild.) 
 
ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 Arms of the Time of Charlemagne. — Arms of the Normans at the Time of the Conquest of 
 England. — Progress of Armoury under the Influence of the Crusades. — The Coat of Mail. — 
 The Crosshow. — The Hauberk and the Hoqueton. — The Helmet, the Hat of Iron, the 
 Cerveliere, the Greaves, and the Gauntlet ; the Breastplate and the Cuish. — The Casque 
 •with Vizor. — Plain Armour and Eibhed Armour. — The Salade Helmet. — Costliness of 
 Armour. — Invention of Gunpowder. — Bombards. — Hand-Cannons. — The Culverin, the 
 Falconet. — The Arquebus with Metal-holder, with Match, and with "Wheel. — The Gun and 
 the Pistol. 
 
 HE most ancient and authentic document that presents 
 to us a just and almost perfect idea of the arms in 
 use towards the end of the eleventh century, is the 
 celebrated tapestry of Bayeux, of which we have 
 already spoken. 
 
 It is sufficient to examine with some atten- 
 tion that complex and illustrated narrative of 
 the conquest of England in 1066, to learn what 
 was the general aspect of war at that period. But any one who has at all 
 studied the ancient historians and the annals of our earliest career as a 
 people, will not fail to recognise, as so many constituent parts combining 
 to form the equipment of war, most of those weapons that were adopted 
 among various races, the contests and the union of which was to give birth 
 to modern nations. 
 
 If we can rely on the testimony of some miniatures in manuscripts of the 
 time of Charlemagne, Roman customs are constantly recalled in the costume 
 and arms of the warriors of the eighth and ninth centuries (Fig. 46), 
 "but with the modifications necessarily resulting from contemporaneous 
 corrupt taste," as observed by M. de Saulcy, whom, it may be remarked, we 
 follow step by step, as it were, in the labours which he has conscientiously 
 devoted to the history of warlike arms ; " for at that time the helmets, 
 the bucklers, and the swords had assumed forms very unlike the models 
 whereof they were supposed to be an imitation. One can readily imagine 
 
?6 
 
 ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 that costume had become subjected to the same sort of change as language, 
 corrupted as this was by the admixture of German manners with those 
 of the nations subjected to Rome." 
 
 In the middle of the ninth century the Normans disembarking, possessed 
 themselves of Neustria, and introduced among the French nation, with which 
 they at first contended, and at length concluded a peace, an entire series of 
 defensive arms entirely novel in form, if not in their nature. It is then, 
 according to certain learned men, that warriors are seen, in illustrated 
 manuscripts, attired in dresses furnished with small rings or iron scales, 
 
 Fig. 46.— Gallo-Romano Soldiers. Fac-simile of Miniatures in the MS. of Prudentius. (Imp. Library of Paris.) 
 
 wearing pointed helmets, and using shields cut horizontally above, and 
 terminating at the base in a point more or less sharp. 
 
 In the Bayeux tapestry we see the army of William that fought the 
 battle of Hastings composed of three different bodies of troops : the archers, 
 light infantry, armed with arrows and darts ; foot- soldiers, or heavy 
 infantry, using weightier arms, and clad in iron mail ; and cavalry, in the 
 midst of which figures the Duke William (Fig. 47). 
 
 The costume exhibits little variety ; only two sorts of accoutrements are 
 observable ; one very plain, worn by men who have no helmet, is evidently 
 that of an inferior soldier ; the other, covered with iron rings, not inter- 
 
ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 11 
 
 laced, extends from the shoulders to the knees, and belongs only to 
 warriors whose head-dress is a narrow, conical helmet, more or less sharply 
 pointed, extending behind (en couvre nuque) to cover the nape of the neck 
 (Fig. 48), and in front provided with a metal protector for the face, called 
 the nasal. 
 
 Among the horsemen thus encased in iron, are some who have boots and 
 stirrups, others are without them, and even wear no spurs. Their shields 
 are convex, secured to the arm by a leather strap, generally circular at 
 
 Fig. 47.— King William, as represented on Fig. 48.— Lancer of William's Army, 
 
 his seal preserved in England. 
 
 top, and terminating in a point below. Some, however, are polygonal and 
 convex, and in the centre show a rather long point. 
 
 Offensive arms consist of swords, axes, lances, javelins, and arrows. The 
 swords are long, of uniform width nearly to the extremity which comes 
 abruptly to a point, and have heavy, strong hilts. The axes exhibit no 
 remarkable peculiarity. The spears terminate in an iron point, probably 
 sharpened, and equal in length to one-sixth of the handle. We see also 
 clubs, maces, and, finally, pronged staves (batons fourchns), doubtless the 
 
78 
 
 ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 earliest form of the weapon ; these last were subsequently called bisague, 
 and, with maces and clubs, were ordinarily used by serfs and peasants ; the 
 sword and the spear being reserved for freemen. 
 
 The sling is not to be found in the hands of any warrior ; but it is 
 remarkable that, in the border of the Bayeux tapestry, it is used by a peasant 
 aiming at a bird ; from which it may be inferred that the sling had become 
 a mere weapon for field-sport. Moreover, this was also the case with 
 the bow among the French ; which was again held in honour after the 
 advent of the Normans, especially since the latter could ascribe to it their 
 success at the battle of Hastings, where Harold, the opponent of William, 
 was killed by an arrow. Nevertheless, the statutes of the Conqueror, who 
 himself excelled with the bow, did not include that weapon among those of 
 the nobility. 
 
 From the conquest of the Normans to the Crusades, we scarcely find any- 
 thing worth notice, except the adoption of a very murderous implement of 
 war, which acquired the name of the flail, or armed whip (fleau, or fouet 
 d'armes) ; it was formed of iron balls studded with points, and was attached 
 to the end of a strong staff by small chains. But we come to a period when 
 the events which occurred in Asia had a considerable influence on the arms 
 and the military costume of Europe. The first and principal of the importa- 
 tions due to those distant expeditions was that of the coat of mail, then in 
 common use among the Arabs, and which has since been discovered in the 
 sculptures of the period of the Sassanidae, a royal race that ruled over Persia 
 from the third to the seventh century. 
 
 It is not aflirmed that prior to the first crusade we had no knowledge of 
 iron chain- work, of which the Orientals made defensive helmets ; but we 
 imitated it only in a heavy and clumsy manner. This armour, which 
 was of ponderous weight, and, besides, was far from rendering invul- 
 nerable those who were burdened with it, had not displaced the haubergeons, 
 the jacques de fer, the brigandincs, the armnres a macles (Fig. 49), (such were 
 the names given to the cuirasses of leather and of cloth covered with metal 
 plates) ; but when such defensive armour came to be better known, with all 
 its original good qualities ; and when we had learned to make it according 
 to the Oriental method, there was no further delay in adopting that net- 
 work of iron {tricot) at once flexible, light, and, in some degree, impenetrable. 
 However, since the manufacture of ancient armour was more simple, and 
 
ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 79 
 
 consequently less costly, it was not altogether abandoned. It is only so late 
 as the time of Philip Augustus and Louis IX. (the thirteenth century) that 
 the use of coats of mail became general ; to this some knights attached mail 
 hose, to protect the thighs, legs, and feet (Fig. 50). 
 
 In the reign of Louis le Gros (twelfth century) we see the first attempt 
 at a movable vizor adapted to the conical helmet of the Normans ; and to 
 the same period must be referred the invention of the crossbow : or, it may 
 rather be said that a stock, or arlrier, was added to the bow, which afforded 
 greater facility for stretching the string, and also aided in directing the 
 
 Fig. 49.— Norman Archer. Fig. 50.— Jean Sansterre, as represented on 
 
 his Seal. Reproduced by Meyrick. 
 
 arrow. This new weapon, after being exclusively used in the chase, appeared 
 in warfare ; but, in 1139, Pope Innocent II., confirming the decisions of the 
 Council of Lateran, which had condemned it as too destructive, prohibited its 
 use. The crossbow was not restored to military equipments until the third 
 crusade, under Richard Coeur de Lion, who, having permitted his men to 
 resume the weapon, was subsequently assumed to have invented it. 
 
 During the first crusade, barons and knights wore a hauberk of links of 
 iron or steel. Every warrior had a helmet — silver-plated for royalty, of steel 
 for nobles, and of iron for the private soldiers. The crusaders used the lance, 
 the sword, a kind of dagger called misericorde, the club and the battle-axe, 
 the sling and the bow. 
 
So 
 
 ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 In the windows which Suger, minister of Louis VII., caused to be 
 painted for the church of the abbey of Saint-Denis, and which represented 
 the principal events of the second crusade, we see the chiefs of the crusaders 
 still clothed in hauberks of links, or macks (plates of iron) ; the helmet is 
 conical and without the nose-piece (nasal) ; and, lastly, the buckler, formed 
 like a scutcheon, covers the breast, generally suspended from the neck by a 
 leather thong. 
 
 Towards the middle of the twelfth century, the iron breastplate is said to 
 have been introduced ; it was placed over the chest to support the hauberk, 
 the direct pressure of which being found detrimental to health. But no 
 description of it is to be met with in the romances of chivalry, that furnish 
 the best documentary evidence regarding the armour of the twelfth and 
 thirteenth centuries. 
 
 Under Philip Augustus, who, as we know, was one of the leaders of the 
 
 Fig- 5 1 -— Helmet of Don Jaime el Conquistador (Armeria Real, Madrid.) 
 
 third crusade, the conical helmet assumed a cylindrical form ; to this was 
 occasionally added a vizor called ventail, intended to protect the face. 
 Richard L, King of England, is represented on his seal with this kind of 
 helmet ; level with the eyes and also at the height of the mouth are two 
 horizontal slits, which admit of seeing and breathing. Still the use of the 
 conical helmet without vizor or nose-piece was retained even to the thirteenth 
 century in Spain, as is proved by that worn by Jaime I., King of Aragon 
 (Fig. 51), which is preserved in the Armeria Real, Madrid. It is of polished 
 
ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 81 
 
 steel, is surmounted by a dragon's head, and portions of it are richly 
 ornamented. 
 
 Thus in the third crusade the use of the " coat-of-arms " became general, 
 — a sort of overcoat, if we may so term it, of cloth or of silk stuff, and the 
 purpose of which, at first, was only to mitigate the insupportable effect of the 
 
 Fig. 52. — Knight in his Hauberk (after Meyrick). 
 
 rays of an Eastern sun on metal armour. This new garment soon served, 
 moreover, when made of various colours, to distinguish different nations 
 marching under the standard of the Cross (Fig. 52). It became really a 
 dress of military splendour, was made of the richest stuffs, and embroidered 
 in gold or silver with excessive refinement. 
 
 The slingers, who had never been otherwise recruited than from the 
 
 M 
 
82 
 
 ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 lower orders, disappeared from the French armies after the reign of St. Louis. 
 As for the archers, those of England wore at that time, over the hauberk, 
 a leather jacket, adopted subsequently by the French archers, and called 
 jacque d'Anglois. An old author, in fact, thus mentions it : — 
 
 " C'etoit un pourpoint de chamois ; 
 Farci de bourre sus et sous ; 
 Un grand vilain jacque d'Anglois, 
 Qui lui pendoit jusqu'aux genoux." 
 
 The jacque having become the fashion in France was soon recognised in 
 every kind of material more or less costly ; it continued in use until the 
 end of the fourteenth century ; Charles VI. wore one of black velvet during 
 a journey he made in Brittany. 
 
 The casque, or helmet, from that time enclosing the head entirely, 
 
 Fig. S3.-Helmet of Hughes, Vidame of Chalons. Fig. 5 4 .-Tournament Helmet, screwed on the 
 
 (End of Thirteenth Century.) Breastplate. (End of Fifteenth Century.) \ 
 
 assumed, under St. Louis, the form of two truncated cones "reunis par leurs 
 grandes bases." In addition to the helmet there was also worn at that time 
 the chapel de fer, which at first was only a simple cap underneath the hood 
 of the hauberk ; but when, curtailing the hood, a brim was added to the cap, 
 it thus became a hat almost of the form of the felts now in use. To 
 protect the neck there was also attached to the rim of the hat a tippet of 
 mail, falling on the shoulders, and called camail* The iron cap then took 
 
 * Probably an abbreviation, or corruption, of cap-mail.— [Ep.] 
 
E5 
 
ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 «3 
 
 the name of coiffre or cerveliere, and later it became a kind of reversed pot 
 concealing the entire head, and kept in position by its weight only (Fig. 53). 
 
 Again ; there had for some time been manifested a movement which 
 gradually caused the knights to be entirely cased in iron. A king of 
 Scotland, contemporary with Philip Augustus, is represented on his seal 
 with a plate of armour intended to protect the elbow. The knee-cap followed. 
 
 Fig. 55.— Plain Armour of the Fifteenth Century, about 1460. (Museum of Artillery, Paris.) 
 
 Under Philip the Bold, successor of St. Louis, the iron grevieres (greaves), 
 or half leg-pieces, protecting the front of the legs, were adopted. In the 
 reign of Philip the Fair we have the first example of an iron gauntlet with 
 its fingers separate and jointed : previously it was merely an inflexible piece 
 covering the back of the hand. About the same time the cerveliere, either 
 flat or spherical, became pointed at the top, and took the name of bassinet ; 
 but this bassinet was unlike the casque which, in the following century, 
 
?4 
 
 ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 retained that name and was made completely closed. The exact period 
 of the transition from mailed armour to that of plain iron or steel, called 
 also plate-armour, dates from the first thirty years of the fifteenth century 
 (Fig. 55). 
 
 The annals of Florence contain a statute of 1315, requiring every 
 
 Fig. 56.— Convex Armour of the Fifteenth Century, said to be that of Maximilian. (Museum of Artillery, Paris.) 
 
 horseman serving in a campaign to have a helmet, a breastplate, gauntlets, 
 cuishes, and leg- pieces, all of iron ; but in France and England the whole 
 of these pieces were not adopted until somewhat later. In the reigns of 
 Philip V. and Charles IY. we see the ventail of the helmet with a grating, 
 
ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 85 
 
 and the vizor opening with a hinge. The bassinet, lighter than the helmet, 
 was at first worn by the knight when no hostile encounter was anticipated ; 
 but subsequently, and at an early date, the vizor was added to the bassinet, 
 as well as to the casque ; and then it became as much used as the helmet, 
 which, towards the end of the fourteenth century, was abandoned. 
 
 About the same period some portions of iron horse-armour began to 
 make their appearance. We find entered in the inventory of the 
 
 Fig- 57-— Crossbow Men protected by Shield-bearers. Fifteenth Century. After a Miniature from 
 the Chronicles of Froissart. (MS. Bibl. Imp. de Paris.) 
 
 armour of Louis X., a chanfrein (a plate of iron fastened on the horse's 
 forehead). 
 
 The crossbow, for some time prohibited by ecclesiastical authority, was the 
 weapon most in use at the period spoken of ; as having the double advantage 
 of being drawn with more power than the ordinary bow, and of throwing 
 its arrows to a longer distance with greater precision. Historians say that at 
 Crecy, in 1346, there were fifteen thousand crossbow men in the French 
 army. The Genoese were considered the most skilful in Europe ; and next, 
 
86 
 
 ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 those of Paris. A manuscript in the British Museum shows them wearing 
 iron helmets, brassieres* and leg-pieces ; and for body- covering, jackets with 
 long, hanging sleeves. While the bowmen had both hands occupied in 
 discharging their arrows, shield-bearers were employed to protect them by 
 means of large bucklers (Fig. 57). 
 
 In the year 1338 the use of firearms is for the first time noted in France. 
 But we think it right to reserve all we have to say of these modern offensive 
 weapons until our history of the ancient system of armour is finished. Con- 
 sidering the early imperfections of firearms, the old system must have long 
 continued, especially among combatants of noble degree— for they affected 
 contempt for the new warlike equipments, by means of which personal 
 valour became in a manner useless and could no longer ensure victory in 
 battle. 
 
 Under John the Good, that is, in the middle of the fourteenth century, 
 plain armour was generally adopted ; the long coat of mail, heavier and less 
 convenient, was entirely abandoned ; but chain-armour still covered certain 
 parts of the body not yet protected by iron plates. The bassinet, then very 
 pointed, was furnished with mail, covering the neck and a portion of the 
 shoulders. The upper part of the arm was protected by a half-armlet, called 
 the epaulette, but the lower part was provided with mail. 
 
 Ornaments began to be introduced in armour in the reign of Charles V. ; 
 until that time it had a simple and plain appearance. For instance ; the 
 camail of the bassinet is embroidered on the shoulders with gold and silver, 
 and the point surmounting it is decorated with an imitation of foliage—an 
 ornament which, according to the "Chronicle of Du Gueslin," had the 
 disadvantage of presenting a kind of handle to an opponent. The cuirass, to 
 which it was then deemed sufficient to impart a bright polish, or to paint in 
 ordinary colours, sometimes bright, sometimes dark, began to be engraved 
 and chased towards the end of the following reign. 
 
 In the time of Charles VI. there was introduced, for the first time, four 
 or five flexible plates, called /aides, which protected the lower part of the 
 stomach without impeding the movements of the body. A little later, 
 tassettes were added ; they were attached to the top of the thigh to guard 
 the hips and the groin. It appears that at this period the artisans of Milan, 
 
 * Or brassarts —pieces to protect the upper part of the arms.— [Ed,] 
 
ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 87 
 
 were especially renowned for the manufacture of armour ; for Froissart 
 relates that Henry IV., King of England, when Earl of Derby,* and pre- 
 paring to enter the lists with the Duke of Norfolk, requested armour from 
 Graleas, Duke of Milan, who sent it with four Milanese armourers. The 
 swords and spears made at Toulouse and at Bordeaux were also held in great 
 repute ; so also were the double-handed swords in use from the middle of the 
 thirteenth century, and manufactured at Lubeck, in Germany. The steel 
 helmets of Montauban were also much in request. 
 
 Towards the commencement of the fifteenth century, engines of war, 
 distinct from those in which powder was used, had attained a remarkable 
 degree of perfection. When John the Eearless, Duke of Burgundy, marched 
 upon Paris, in 1411, there was with his army a considerable number 
 of machines called ribaudequins, a species of gigantic crossbow drawn 
 by a horse, and which with enormous strength threw javelins to a great 
 distance. 
 
 Under Charles VII., the breastplate of the cuirass was composed of two 
 parts : one covered the breast ; the other, reaching to the hips, protected 
 the stomach, and was attached to the former by clasps and leather straps. 
 Generally the breastplate was convex. 
 
 Taught by the disastrous defeat of Agincourt, — where ten thousand men, 
 of whom eight thousand were of the nobility, had fallen, owing to the 
 precision and the celerity of the fire of the English archers, — Charles VII. 
 instituted in France the franc archer (Fig. 58), who wore the salade and 
 the jacket or brigandine, and carried the dagger, the sword, the bow, the 
 quiver or crossbow garnie. These archers were exempt from all taxes or 
 imposts ; their equipments were declared not distrainable for debts, and 
 during war they received pay at the rate of four livres a month. 
 
 The salade, a part of armour which has remained particularly celebrated, 
 and the name of which has been applied subsequently to helmets of divers 
 forms, is pre-eminently the helmet of the epoch of Charles VII. At first it 
 was a head-dress for war, composed of a simple cap {timbre), that covered 
 the top of the head, with a pendent piece of metal of greater or less length 
 at the back, which sometimes was made for protecting the neck, and 
 
 * This title is not chronologically correct. Henry of Bolinghroke had been created Duke of 
 Hereford nearly a year before his intended combat with Norfolk, at Coventry, in 1398 ; when the 
 king, Richard II., interfered, and banished both nobles from the kingdom. — [Ed.] 
 
88 
 
 ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 sometimes to guard a portion of the shoulders. Towards the end of the 
 fifteenth century there was added to the salade a small vizor, that was 
 gradually lengthened downwards to near the upper lip, and in which a 
 
 Fig. 58. — Franc Archers (Fifteenth Century), from the Painted Hangings of the Town of Rheims. 
 
 narrow opening was then made for the sight. In the reign of Louis XII. 
 the salade received a chin-piece, the lower part of which was a gorget, that 
 surrounded and protected the neck. The top of the cuirass had a cord, 
 
ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 89 
 
 to which was attached the salade ; and this helmet, so different to the 
 primitive salade, continued to bear the same name (Fig. 59). 
 
 The brigandine, recalling the early armour abandoned for the coat of 
 mail, was composed of small plates of steel or iron arranged on a strong 
 piece of leather, and stitched or fixed with wire, in the form of the 
 scales of a fish. A decree of Peter II., Duke of Brittany, issued in 1450, 
 ordered the nobles to equip themselves as archers, or in brigandine, if they 
 knew how to use arrows ; but otherwise, to be provided with guisarmes, with 
 good salades, and leg-armour ; each noble was to be attended by one coudillier, 
 
 Fig, 59.— Knights in complete Armour, with the Salade. (End of Fifteenth Century.) A Single Combat, 
 taken from " The Triumph of Maximilian," by Burgmayer, after a drawing by Albert Durer. 
 
 and to have two good horses. The guisarme was a sort of two-edged and 
 pointed javelin. The coudillier was a foot-soldier, or a horseman, whose 
 duty it was to act as a servant to the nobleman, and to carry the coustille, a 
 long, slender sword, triangular or square, apparently resembling the foil in 
 our fencing-rooms. 
 
 N 
 
qo 
 
 ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 About this period French noblemen displayed much magnificence in the 
 adornment of the chanfrein of their horses. For instance, we know that at 
 the siege of Harfleur, in 1449, the charger of the Count de Saint-Pol had on 
 its head a massive gold chanfrein, of the most delicate work, valued at not 
 
 Fig. 60.— Armour ornamented with Lions, supposed to be that of Louis XII. (Museum of A.tillery, Paris.) 
 
 less than twenty thousand crowns. In the same year, at the siege of 
 Bayonne, the Count de Foix entered the conquered city mounted on a horse 
 whose chanfrein of polished steel was enriched with gold and precious stones 
 to the value of fifteen thousand gold crowns. 
 
ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 9> 
 
 Half a century later — that is, in the reign of Charles VIII. and that of 
 Louis XII. — chargers wore, besides the chanfrein, the mane f aire, protecting 
 the neck, the poitrail, the croupiere, the flancois, which respectively covered 
 the chest, the back, and the flanks of the horse ; and to these was added 
 another piece of armour placed under the tail. 
 
 Of the date of Louis XII., we still see embossed suits of armour orna- 
 mented with fluting, sometimes blended with beautiful engraved work 
 executed in the metal by the use of aquafortis, or subjects in relievo pro- 
 duced by embossing : ornamentation of this nature elevated the equipments 
 of the warrior to real works of art (Fig. 60). 
 
 Louis XII. was the first to admit Greek mercenaries into his army. 
 These were named stracliots ; they tendered their military services equally to 
 both Turks and Christians. The armour of these troops consisted of a cuirass 
 with sleeves and gauntlets in mail, and over this a jacket ; on their head a 
 vizorless helmet was worn. The stradiots were armed with a large sword, 
 called a braquemart, much resembling the Turkish sword, but with a cross- 
 handle ; the sword and its scabbard were ornamented with Grecian devices. 
 They carried in addition several small arms at the saddle-bow, and also a 
 zagaye, a very long lance, tipped at both extremities with iron. 
 
 At this period also was introduced the pertuisane* the blade of which, 
 wider than that of the lance, formed a crescent immediately above the 
 handle. 
 
 There were at that time two kinds of cross-bows — one for discharging 
 bolts, the other for bullets. The bow was slung by means of a moulinet, a 
 kind of hand- winch. 
 
 Embossed and fluted armour was not the only kind used in France and 
 in Italy at the end of the fifteenth and the commencement of the following 
 century. The monuments in the former country of the time of Louis XII., 
 and on the other side of the Alps, show how prevalent was a peculiar 
 description of plain armour, whereof the cuirass, which was longer than 
 that of the embossed armour, had a rib or raised line in the middle. This 
 rib, which completely altered the character of the cuirass, in that it served to 
 turn aside the thrust of the lance, became increasingly distinctive as the 
 seventeenth century drew near. 
 
 In the reign of Francis I. embossed and ribbed armour were equally 
 
 * Anglice, partisan — a kind of pike or lance.— [Ed.] 
 
Q2 
 
 ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 used (Fig. 61). In the Museum of Artillery, in Paris, is preserved the 
 armour which that king wore at the battle of Pavia. The body is longer 
 
 Fig. 61.- Damaskeened Armour of the end of the Sixteenth Century. (Portrait of Francois, Due d'Ale^on, 
 from Montfaucon's " La Monarchie Francoise.") 
 
 than in the cuirass of the preceding century, the rib in the centre is more 
 
ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 95 
 
 raised, the gusset of the shoulder-piece is made of several movable plates, 
 and of large size. The casque, a generic name given since those times 
 to all descriptions of head-armour, assumed a comfortable and elegant shape, 
 which was maintained as long as the use of armour continued. 
 
 Another cuirass of the same date, still longer in the body, was made to 
 turn up towards the lower extremity, and then took an inward bend to fit 
 the hip. It was made with movable plates overlapping from below ; this 
 allowed the wearer to stoop, which it was almost impossible to do when the 
 breast-piece and the back-piece were in one. Sometimes these plates were 
 only three or four in number over the stomach, and the others over the 
 breast were only represented, not genuine plates. 
 
 The armour called d eclisse, or d ecrevisse, worn at a certain period by the 
 halberdiers, must not be passed over; it received this name because the 
 cuirass was made of horizontal plates (eclisses), three or four inches in 
 width, which, though they covered the entire body, did not in any way 
 impede its movements. 
 
 We must, however, refer to a peculiarity in this armour which prevented 
 its general adoption ; it was that as the movement or " play" of the eclisses 
 made it convenient to wear, so from this flexibility it was found that the 
 plates frequently became disconnected, and thus left a part of the body 
 defenceless. In making the eclisses to overlap from below, regard was had 
 to the usual direction of a sword-cut or dagger-thrust, which usually came 
 from below ; but there was all the more danger from blows of the martel * 
 and battle-axe, the stroke of which weapon was directed downwards. 
 
 Bronzed armour came in about the middle of the sixteenth century, and 
 was somewhat commonly worn in 1558 ; it was introduced on account of its 
 being far more easily kept clean than polished steel. For the same reason 
 black armour was tried, but the engravings and chasings, the gildings and 
 damaskeenings were more effective on the greenish ground; consequently 
 black varnish was given up in favour of bronze. At the end of the 
 sixteenth century, and during the long civil wars which desolated France, 
 armour took a variety of shapes, and as regards ornamentation at least, there 
 was generally to be seen a strange medley of the style of the previous century 
 
 * Martel- de-fer — a weapon combining a hammer and pick ; used by cavalry in the Middle 
 Ages, lo damage and destroy armour. It was geneially hung at the saddle-bow. — [Ed.] 
 
0+ 
 
 ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 with that of the period (Fig. 61). However, the decline of the use of 
 armour, which became in a measure inevitable, was at hand. 
 
 De la Noue, an eminent Huguenot officer of the time of Charles IX., 
 says, in his " Discours Militaires " — " The penetrating power of pikes and 
 arquebuses has very naturally led to the adoption of armour stronger and 
 more capable of great resistance than formerly. It is now so heavy that one 
 is laden with anvils rather than protected by armour. Our men-at-arms 
 and light cavalry in Henry II.'s time presented a much finer appearance, 
 with their helmets, their brassarts, tassets,* and the morion, f carrying the 
 lance with a flag ; their armour was not so heavy but that a strong man 
 was able to support its weight for twenty-four hours ; but those of the pre- 
 sent day are so ponderous that a young knight of thirty has his shoulders 
 quite crippled." 
 
 Thus, in endeavouring to make the resistance of armour keep pace with 
 the improvement in new warlike engines, they rendered it useless ; because 
 the weight was intolerable, especially in warm weather, during long marches, 
 or in lengthened combats. Having vainly tried to make suits of armour 
 invulnerable, men began to leave off wearing such portions as were of minor 
 importance, which by degrees were entirely discontinued. Under Louis XIII. 
 we see armour undergoing further modifications, but of fashion rather than 
 of utility : finally, there is every reason to think that the magnificent armour 
 presented by the Republic of Yenice to Louis XIV., in 1668, and which is 
 now to be seen in the Museum of Artillery in Paris, was one of the latest 
 sets made in Europe. 
 
 Let us now retrace our steps to examine a series of arms, the gradual 
 adoption of which was destined to completely change the art of warfare. 
 
 It is now the almost universal opinion that the invention of gunpowder, 
 — assumed to have been discovered in 1256, or at all events its application to 
 artillery, which first dates from 1280, — is due to Berthold Schwartz, an 
 Augustin friar, born at Fribourg. Some writers, however, make these dates 
 a century later, and affirm that powder and cannons were first known from 
 1330 to 1380. Nevertheless, the employment of artillery only became 
 general during the wars of Charles-Quint and of Francis I., that is, towards 
 1530, or two centuries after its invention. 
 
 * Tassets — parts of the cuirass. 
 
 f Morion — a kind of helmet, usually worn by foot-soldiers.— [Ed.] 
 
ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 95 
 
 But perhaps in place of giving, as we have done, the unconditional 
 acceptation to the word artillery which it now has, we ought perhaps to have 
 said artillery used with gunpowder ; for long before the invention of 
 gunpowder the word artillery was employed when speaking of all machines 
 or engines of war (Fig. 62). Thus in the middle of the thirteenth century 
 we find among the personnel of the artillery a grand master of the crossbow 
 men, masters of the engines, of the cannoniers (the word cannon was even 
 then applied to the tube forming one of the principal portions of an engine 
 
 Fig. 62.— Engine for hurling Stones ; taken from a Miniature of the Chevalier au Cygne. (Bibl. Imp. de Paris, 
 
 No. 340, S. F.) 
 
 for hurling projectiles), and in 1291 we see Philip the Fair appointing a 
 grand master of the artillery of the Louvre. 
 
 In order to follow methodically the progress of the manufacture of arms 
 such as we shall call novel, we will, in the first place, treat separately of the 
 engines of large calibre which were first employed, and then of portable 
 arms. 
 
 The earliest allusion to cannons in France is found in 1338, in an account 
 of the treasurer of war, wherein we read : — " To Henri de Vaumechon, for 
 
9 6 
 
 ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 buying powder and other necessaries for cannons," which had been used at 
 the siege of Puy-Guilhem, in Perigord. 
 
 In Froissart, we next find that, in 1340, the inhabitants of Quesnoy, when 
 repelling the attack of the French, made use of bombards and cannon which 
 hurled huge bolts at the besiegers. But the statement of Villani, that the 
 English were indebted to the employment of artillery for the victory of 
 Crecy, in 1346, must be treated as a pure invention, because it is certain that 
 the firearms which may have been in use at that time were in no way 
 suited to field warfare ; and that they were only employed with the older 
 engines in the attack and defence of fortresses. Not only did their cumbrous 
 weight and the rude construction of their carriages render them extremely 
 
 Fig. 63.— Bombards on fixed and rolling carriages, (From the MSS, 851 and 852, Bibl. Imp. de Paris.) 
 
 difficult of transport, but, intended as they were to be employed as catapults, 
 they were generally constructed for hurling heavy projectiles, by causing 
 these to describe a curved line, like modern shells ; and their shape is, in 
 fact, much more like that of our mortars than of cannon (Fig. 63). 
 
 "It would seem," says M. de Saulcy, "that, in loading them, hollow 
 cylinders {manchons), or movable chambers, were used, in which the charge 
 was previously laid ; and these fitted, by means of a wedge, into the body 
 of the piece. Sometimes these cylinders were at the side, and formed a 
 right angle with the axis of the piece, but usually they fitted into the breech, 
 of which they formed a prolongation." 
 
ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 97 
 
 The name bombards, which we have just used, and which is derived, as 
 we may conclude, from the Greek bombos (noise), was the first employed 
 for designating cannon ; but these engines were so imperfect in principle, 
 and so feeble in power, that catapults, which had played so signal a part in 
 sieges during the Middle Ages, were used in preference when very heavy 
 projectiles had to be hurled (Fig. 64). 
 
 Originally the piece rested, as it were, fixedly on a massive support ; 
 but soon the means of sighting had to be considered ; thus we see depicted 
 in early manuscripts pieces that could be moved up and down by means of 
 
 Fig. 64— Mangonneau ; an Engine of War of the Fifteenth Century. (Miniature in the MS. 7,239, Bibl. Imp. 
 
 of Paris.) 
 
 trunnions ; or which were elevated or depressed for firing by a sort of tail 
 or long projection behind the tube ; at other times the muzzle of the 
 cannon is sustained by a fork more or less buried in the ground. This 
 bombard, attached to a platform on wheels, received the denomination of 
 cerbotana ambulatoria ; this last word conveying the idea of the movability 
 of the engine. 
 
 We have seen that projectiles were of stone, but there is no doubt that 
 
 
 
98 
 
 ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 from the fourteenth century they were also made of metal ; that was nothing 
 new, for ancient engines of war, including the sling, threw leaden balls and 
 masses of red-hot iron. jSTo doubt it was with the object of giving the largest 
 size possible to projectiles of artillery by means of powder that stone was 
 used ; which, in the state of the art at that time, was much better adapted 
 than metal for large balls. 
 
 Christine of Pisa, who wrote in the time of Charles VI. the "Livre des 
 Faits d'Armes et de Chevalrie," has left us a collection of very interesting 
 details of the condition of artillery used with powder, which, as early as the 
 fifteenth century, had become much more extended than would be easily 
 believed ; moreover, in the descriptions this author gives of armaments, or 
 of narratives of battles, we almost always still see catapults, the large cross- 
 bows, &c, appearing by the side of cannon ; a certain proof that the use of 
 powder found its equivalent in more than one instance in the ancient means 
 of the propulsion of projectiles. 
 
 Fig. 65.— Earliest Models of Cannon. In the Tower of London. 
 
 Valturio, an Italian writer, whose treatise on military art was first 
 printed in 1472, has described and drawn all the engines of war then in use. 
 Cannons are not forgotten. We observe that the greater number of these 
 pieces have no longer any box forming a movable chamber ; this implies an 
 important advance in the art of making them ; but, on the other hand, these 
 cannons, bound with cords to a block of wood, or resting on platforms, must 
 have been very difficult to move. 
 
 At this period pieces of the largest calibre, which projected enormous 
 balls of stone, were more commonly called bombards ; mortars, the very short 
 cannons throwing heated projectiles ; cannons, pieces of medium calibre 
 carrying iron projectiles (Fig. 65) ; culverins, the long pieces loaded with 
 leaden balls, which, as well as the powder, were rammed in with an iron rod ; 
 
ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 99 
 
 hand-cannons, or batons a feu (Fig. 66), were in a manner portable, for if 
 they were handled by one man, it was never without his having recourse to 
 another for firing them. 
 
 This last-named term, batons a feu, like that of cannon, existed before the 
 invention of gunpowder. As swords and lances had. often been designated 
 under the generic name of batons, it followed that the name which implied 
 arms in general should also be applied to the earliest portable firearms. In 
 
 Fig. 66.— Hand Cannon (or Bd ion a feu), taken from a piece of Tapestry belonging to the Church of Notre 
 
 Dame de Nantilly, Saumur. 
 
 ancient royal ordinances we even see the term gros batons used to designate 
 large pieces of artillery. 
 
 According to M. de Saulcy, the most important improvement ever made 
 in artillery is certainly that which consisted in placing a gun with trunnions 
 on a carriage d flasques — upright beams of wood, between which the gun can 
 oscillate, and united by cross-pieces ; this carriage was mounted on wheels, 
 and admitted of the gun being inclined by the simple use of a wedge of wood 
 
100 
 
 ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 placed under the breech. But, strangely enough, it is most difficult to state 
 precisely the date of this improvement. Nevertheless, circumstances tend to 
 the belief that it was between 1476 and 1494 — that is, during the reigns of 
 Louis XL and of Charles VIII. — that they succeeded in making pieces of all 
 calibres carrying iron shot, and also in solidly fixing the trunnions, which 
 not only supported the weight, but also resisted the recoil of the cannon. 
 The carriages for these guns were mounted on wheels. From this period the 
 art of fortifying towns underwent a complete revolution, which suddenly 
 changed the whole system. 
 
 When, in 1494, Charles VIII. entered Italy to conquer the kingdom of 
 Naples, the French artillery produced universal admiration. The Italians 
 had only iron guns, drawn by bullocks in rear of the army, and more for 
 appearance than for use. After the first discharge it was some hours 
 before the gun was ready for a second. The French had lighter cannon of 
 bronze, drawn by horses, and moved with so much order that their trans- 
 port hardly delayed the march of the army ; they planted their batteries 
 with incredible promptitude, considering the period, and the rounds were 
 as quickly delivered as they were well aimed. Cotemporaneous Italian 
 writers say that the French used almost exclusively iron shot, and that 
 the guns, both of large and small calibre, were admirably balanced on their 
 carriages. 
 
 Yet no single specimen, or even a drawing, of this remarkable ar tiller y 
 has been handed down to us. The Museum of Artillery does, indeed, 
 possess one small piece, on which, between the trunnions and the breech, is 
 this inscription : — " Presented by Charles VIII. to Bartemi, Lord of Pins, 
 captain of the bands of artillery, in 1490." This cannon presents nothing 
 remarkable in its construction, for we already recognise the form, one that 
 has scarcely varied since then, and which, it seems, was definitely adopted 
 under Louis XII. and Francis I. Of this period we still have two magni- 
 ficent bronze cannons. They were found at Algiers in 1830 ; the porcupine, 
 the salamander, and the fleur-de-lys that ornament them, made their origin 
 known. 
 
 Artillery, which in the reign of Charles VIII. had become an important 
 arm, and had, besides, the prestige of success in Italy, became a subject to 
 which particular attention was given in succeeding reigns. But, we again 
 say, the true principles of manufacture and mounting were already well 
 
ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 IOI 
 
 ascertained, and only improvements in matters of detail remained to be 
 discovered. 
 
 The Armoury Real of Madrid contains a curious dragonneau,* cast at 
 Liege in 1503, which figured in the siege of Santander in 1511 (Fig. 67). 
 The carriage, consisting of a single piece of carved oak, is by its delicacy 
 and finish worthy of sustaining this masterpiece of bronze-work, which 
 presents a double interest, first as regards art, and then on account of the 
 rapid advance already made in firearms ; for this dragonneau has a double 
 barrel, and is loaded at the breech. 
 
 Fig. 67.— Double-barrelled Dragonneau. Armoury Real of Madrid. 
 
 Having arrived at this point, let us again retrace our steps, in order to 
 note, and rapidly follow from its origin, the progress of firearms. 
 
 The earliest of these used in the middle of the fourteenth century were 
 called hand-cannon, and were merely formed of an iron tube pierced with 
 a vent, without stock or lock. 
 
 A manuscript of that period represents a warrior who, standing on one 
 of those little movable towers then forming part of the siege materiel, is 
 shooting a stone with a gun of this description. The piece is resting on the 
 parapet. By the side a sling is placed with its stone — a circumstance which 
 
 * So called, it may be presumed, from its form and make.— [Ed.] 
 
102 
 
 ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 indicates the relative power of the hand- cannon, as no doubt each engine 
 was to be used alternately. In another place is a horseman holding a 
 small gun with a prolongation ; the muzzle is supported by a prong fixed 
 on the pommel of the saddle. Thus it was impossible for him to take aim, 
 and he applied the fire with his hand. 
 
 A little later, to prevent the effect of the recoil, there was added below 
 the barrel, a little short of the centre, a sort of hook, intended to serve the 
 purpose of checking the piece. When fired, it was supported on a fork or on 
 a wall ; hence the name of arquehuse d croc, which took the place of that of 
 canon d main. 
 
 Fig. 68.— Arquebusier. Drawn and Engraved by J. Amman. 
 
 The arquebuse d croc sometimes weighed from fifty to sixty pounds, 
 measured from five to six feet in length, and in principle was chiefly 
 adapted for firing from a wall ; it was lightened a little that it might be 
 used by foot-soldiers, who, however, never fired it without a fixed or a 
 movable rest. 
 
 The inconvenience of applying fire with the hand, which, moreover, 
 prevented the right direction of the missile, was soon partially superseded 
 by adapting to the barrel a stock to fire from the shoulder, and a lock for a 
 match, called a serpentin, which had only to be let down to ignite the powder 
 
ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 103 
 
 at the touch-hole. This was the matchlock arquebus still used by certain 
 Eastern nations in our time, and which secured victory to the Spaniards at 
 the battle of Pavia. 
 
 Although the matchlock arquebus, which was made lighter, and was 
 then called mousquet, continued to be the usual arm of infantry until the 
 time of Louis XIII., many serious objections to the use of the serpentin 
 continued. It compelled the soldier always to have a lighted match, or 
 some means of striking a light. Besides, for nearly each shot it was 
 necessary so to regulate the match that the end of it, which was placed in 
 the head of the serpentin (lock), should come exactly into the priming-pan ; 
 
 Fig. 69. — Arquebus with Wheel and Match. 
 
 then the priming-pan had to be opened ; these operations were, so to speak, 
 impossible for mounted men, who at the same time had to manage their 
 horses. 
 
 About 1517 the Germans invented the screw-plate called d rouet, — 
 wheel-lock (Fig. 69). 
 
 To the Spaniards is due the merit of the improvement that followed, 
 the type of which is still in a measure perpetuated in our percussion 
 guns ; which, in their turn, have just been replaced by the needle-gun. The 
 Spanish screw-plate, often called the miquekt screw-plate, had on the outside 
 a spring, which pressed, at the extremity of its movable limb, on one of 
 the catches of the hammer ; when the gun was cocked the other catch pressed 
 against a pin which projected from the inside and traversed the screw- 
 plate ; this pin could be removed, and then the spring acted on the hammer, 
 
ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 which was no longer held back ; the flint (for 
 at that time a flint was fitted to the gun) struck 
 upon a ribbed plate of steel forming part of 
 the cover of the priming-pan, the action of the 
 flint on the plate produced the fire. 
 
 Among the arms in use during the six- 
 teenth century was one called petrinal or 
 poitrinal (petronel), on account of the bent 
 stock, which rested on the chest. This short 
 and heavy arquebus, which could only throw 
 balls, but of a very large size, to a short dis- 
 tance, was usually suspended from the shoulder 
 by a strap or a broad cross-belt. 
 
 Light troops were armed with these guns, 
 and took the name of carabins ; from this the 
 weapon was next called carabine — a designation 
 which since then has received quite another 
 meaning. 
 
 Then followed the pistoles and the pistolets, 
 thus named, it is said, because they were in- 
 vented at Pistoia ; but, with other etymologists, 
 we can also believe that they owed the name to 
 the fact of their bore being of equal diameter 
 with that of the pistole, a coin of the time. 
 The earliest pistols were made with wheels 
 (d ronet), and the barrel did not measure more 
 than a foot in length. Subsequently they 
 varied in shape and in use ; some were made 
 which fired several shots in succession, and in 
 other cases they attempted to combine a pistol 
 with the dagger or the battle-axe. (Fig. 70, 
 &c.) This is a notably fine specimen. 
 
 We must not forget to note, in what may 
 be called les armes de luxe, the joint application 
 of the match-holder and the wheel to highly- 
 Fi g . 7 o.-Battie.axe and Pistol of the 16th fished arms> this combination being available. 
 
 Century. (Museum of Artillery, Paris.) 
 
ARMS AND ARMOUR. 
 
 The screw-plate a miquelet, improved by French experiments, led to the 
 mechanism called flint-lock {fusil). There were also then pistols and 
 arquebuses with flint-locks, as formerly there had been pistols and arque- 
 buses with wheels. Subsequently the explanatory became the absolute term, 
 and the entire weapon was known as fusil. 
 
 Fig. 71.— Banner of the Sword- cutlers of Angers. 
 
 I _> I ir r' ■ f v' 1 ■' 1 ■m>.l 
 
CARRIAGES AND SADDLERY. 
 
 Horsemanship among the Ancients. — The Riding-horse and the Carriage-horse.— Chariots armed 
 with Scythes. — Vehicles of the Romans, the Gauls, and the Franks: the Carruca, the 
 Petoritum, the Cisium, the Plaustrum, the Basterna, the Carpentum. — Different kinds of 
 Saddle-horses in the Days of Chivalry. — The Spur a distinctive Sign of Nobility: its Origin. 
 — The Saddle, its Origin and its Modifications.— The Tilter.— Carriages. — The Mules of 
 Magistrates. — Corporations of Saddlers and Harness-makers, Lorimers, Coachmakers, 
 Chapuiseurs, Blazonniers, and Saddle-coverers. 
 
 fierceness and rage : neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet. 
 He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off." 
 The sacred writer is here referring expressly to the fiery animal trained for 
 war, and obedient to the master who has trained him. 
 
 Xenophon, in his "Treatise on Horsemanship " and his "Instructor of 
 Cavalry," and Diodorusin his " Histories," are among the Greeks who adduce 
 the most numerous testimonies to the honour in which equestrian exercises 
 were held. Among the Latins, Yirgil, in reference to the funereal games 
 celebrated by Acestes in honour of Anchises, tells us that the Eoman youth 
 were taught equestrian art as practised by the Trojans. The horse and 
 
 HE horse has been described by Buffon as " the 
 
 noblest conquest made by man." Historians, 
 both sacred and profane, inform us that the con- 
 
 t J \ ■ Jf ft quest dates from the most remote ages. In the 
 
 \d Book of Job we have this magnificent descrip- 
 
 kfky^T ' tion : — " Then the Lord said, Hast thou given 
 
 | ^1 the horse strength ? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder ? 
 ||K=^^ Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper ? the glory 
 (% of his nostrils is terrible. He paweth in the valley, and 
 
 "r^&hA rejoiceth m his strength : he goeth on to meet the armed 
 ( *SJ| $ men - ^ e moc keth at fear, and is not affrighted ; neither 
 ^Qr-^r turneth he back from the sword. The quiver rattleth against 
 him, the glittering spear and the shield. He swalloweth the ground with 
 
io8 
 
 CARRIAGES AND SADDLERY. 
 
 chariot races, which took place at the solemn games in Greece, have always 
 been justly celebrated ; as were those which continued in Rome and in all 
 the great cities of the Roman world until the fifth or sixth century. 
 
 We are disposed to believe that the use of the saddle-horse and the 
 
 Fig-. 72. — The Carruca, or Pleasure-Carriage, drawn by a Pair of Horses, dating from the Fifth to the Tenth 
 Century. (Taken from a MS. of the Ninth Century, in the Royal Library at Brussels.) 
 
 carriage-horse was introduced about the same time. But it seems that 
 chariots were rarely mounted by any but chiefs, who fought from that 
 ambulatory elevation while squires managed the horses. 
 
 To Cyrus the Great is ascribed the first idea of arming chariots with 
 
CARRIAGES AND SADDLERY. 
 
 scythes, which cut to pieces in every direction those who opposed the pro- 
 gress of the vehicle, or who were thrown down by the violence of the shock. 
 The same war-carriages were found among the Gauls ; for a king named 
 Bituitus, having been taken prisoner by the Romans, appeared in his chariot 
 armed with scythes in the triumphal procession of the general who had 
 conquered him. 
 
 Riding on horseback was not only practised, but was carried to the 
 highest degree of perfection, among the nations of antiquity ; and the use of 
 chariots was, in former times, almost general in war and on certain state 
 
 Fig- 73- — Cart drawn by Oxen, end of the Fifteenth Century. (Taken from the " Chroniques de Hainault," 
 MS. in the Royal Library at Brussels.) 
 
 occasions. The Romans, and in imitation of them the Gauls who prided 
 themselves on being skilful carriage-builders, had several sorts of wheeled 
 vehicles. Those adopted by the Romans and the Gauls, but discountenanced 
 by the Franks, who preferred to ride on horseback, were the carruca, or 
 carruque, with two wheels and a pair of horses (Fig. 72), richly ornamented 
 with gold, silver, and ivory ; the pilentum, a four-wheel carriage with a 
 cloth canopy ; the petoritum, an open carriage suitable for rapid travelling ; 
 the cisium, a basket- carriage drawn by mules, and used for long journeys ; 
 and finally, various carts — the plaustrum, the serracum, the benne, the camuli 
 
I 10 
 
 CARRIAGES AND SADDLERY. 
 
 (trucks), &c. These last, which were chiefly employed as field-carts, con- 
 tinued in use even after pleasure-carriages had entirely disappeared. There 
 remained, however, independent of mule-litters, the bastema and carpentum, 
 state- carriages of the Merovingian period, hut only queens and ladies of high 
 rank, who were unequal to long journeys on horseback, indulged in such 
 means of locomotion, while men — even kings and high personages — would 
 have blushed to be conveyed like " holy relics," as picturesquely expressed 
 by one of Charlemagne's courtiers ; but certainly not at the period of the 
 " lazy kings," when, as Boileau has well said, — 
 
 "In Paris, four oxen, in pace soft and slow, 
 Drew the indolent monarch, when airing he'd go." 
 
 " Chivalry," wrote M. le Marquis de Varenne, " the exercises of which 
 were the image of war, rendered horsemanship a new art always indispensable 
 in the education of the nobility; and chevalier soon became synonymous 
 with a man of good birth." " The Book of Facts," by the " Bon Chevalier 
 Messire J ean le Maingre, called Baucicaut, Marshal of France," written in 
 the beginning of the fifteenth century, enumerates the exercises which a 
 youth aspiring to the title of a gentleman had to undergo : — " They endea- 
 voured to leap {miller) upon a charger, fully armed ; item, leaped, without 
 placing the foot in the stirrup, on a charger in all its armour ; item, leaped 
 from the ground a-straddle on to the shoulders of a tall man on a large horse, 
 seizing the man by the sleeve with one hand, without other assistance ; item, 
 placing one hand on the saddle-bow of a large charger, and the other near 
 the ears, taking him by the mane, and from the level ground jumping to the 
 other side {cote') of the charger." 
 
 The Chevalier Bayard, while yet page to the Duke of Savoy, and only 
 seventeen years of age, performed, as his historian relates, wonders in the 
 meadows of Ainay, at Lyons, before King Charles VIII., " in leaping on his 
 charger," and by his management of it creating a favourable impression of 
 his merits. This will suffice to show the estimation in which horsemanship 
 was held. No one was regarded as a valiant knight until he had proved his 
 prowess in jousts and tournaments (Fig. 74) in the rank of squire. Although 
 his functions were essentially those of serving, a squire, who ranked higher 
 than a page, was to the knight rather an auxiliary and a companion than a 
 servant. It was his duty to carry the arms of the knight, to take charge of 
 
CARRIAGES AND SADDLERY. 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 his table, his house, and his horses. On the field of battle he remained in 
 his rear, ready to defend him, to lift him up if he were overthrown, and 
 to provide him, when necessary, with another horse or other arms. He 
 guarded the prisoners captured by the knight, and occasionally fought for 
 him at his side. 
 
 The principal sign distinguishing knights from squires consisted in the 
 material of which their spurs were made — of gold for the former, of silver 
 for the latter. It is well known that, at the disastrous battle of Courtray, 
 
 Fig. 74. — A Knight entering the Lists. (From a Miniature in the " Tournois du Roi Rene.") 
 
 the Flemings collected after the action, from the slain, four thousand pairs of 
 gold spurs ; consequently, four thousand knights of the army of Philip the 
 Fair had fallen. 
 
 In order to win his spurs (of gold) — an expression become proverbial — it 
 was indispensable that one who aspired to the honour should perform some 
 valiant deed, proving him worthy of being " dubbed," or armed as a knight. 
 The ceremony of admission commenced by presenting the spurs ; and who- 
 
I I 2 
 
 CARRIAGES AND SADDLERY. 
 
 soever conferred the order of chivalry, were he king or prince, condescended 
 to put on and fasten the spurs for the recipient. In pursuance of the same 
 principle, when a knight, having committed a fault or any cowardly act, had 
 incurred blame or correction, it was by deprivation of, or by changing his 
 spurs, that his degradation commenced. For a slight offence a herald 
 substituted silver spurs for those of gold, which lowered a knight to the 
 grade of squire. But in a case of " forfeiture," as it was termed, an execu- 
 tioner or a cook cut off the straps of his spurs, or they were struck off on a 
 dunghill with an axe : infamy was the future portion of him who had been 
 subjected to that public disgrace. 
 
 The privilege of wearing spurs was regarded as a mark of independence 
 and authority ; so that when a noble tendered faith and homage to his 
 sovereign, he was obliged to take off his spurs in token of vassalage. In 816, 
 ere chivalry had been instituted, an assembly of lords and bishops prohibited 
 ecclesiastics from adopting the profane fashion of wearing spurs then prevail- 
 ing among the higher classes of the clergy. 
 
 The use of the spur appears to date from the most ancient times. The 
 origin of the word has been much disputed. From the time of Louis le 
 Debonnaire it was called spuors, which has become sporen in Germany, 
 sperane in Italian, spur in English, eperon in French. The Latins called it 
 calcar (which originally signified cock's spur), doubtless from the form first 
 given to the spur. That form has strangely varied during centuries. The 
 oldest known shape is that of the spur found in the tomb of Queen 
 Brunehaut, who died in 613, and which is simply like a skewer. This 
 seems to have long continued to be the form ; but, from the commencement 
 of the thirteenth to the end of the sixteenth century, the spur is seen in the 
 form of a rose, or of a star with a turning rowel, and was mostly fashioned in 
 a very rich and delicate manner. At the period when horses were clad in 
 steel or leather, the spurs were necessarily very long, in order to reach the 
 animal's flanks (Figs. 75 and 76). The spurs of Godfrey of Bouillon, which 
 have been preserved (their authenticity is more or less questionable), are in 
 that style. In the reign of Charles VII. the young nobles wore, rather for 
 show than for use, spurs the rowel of which was as large as the hand, and 
 fixed at the end of a metal stem half a foot long. 
 
 If, therefore, from time immemorial every mounted horse "felt the 
 spur," there was at least a period when every sort of spur could not be 
 
CARRIAGES AND SADDLERY. 
 
 indiscriminately applied to the flanks of each individual of the equine 
 race. " There are," says Brunetto Latini, a writer of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, in his " Treasury of all Things" — a sort of encyclopsedia of the age — 
 " there are horses of several kinds : chargers, or tall horses, for the combat, 
 whence the expression, 'mounting the high horse;' others, for gentle 
 exercise, use palfreys, which were also called amblers and hackneys ; others 
 employ pack-horses, courtants (cropped horses), to carry a load {somme)" 
 Somme here signifies a burden, and this, which we now call baggage, con- 
 
 Fig. 75. — German Spur. 
 
 Fig. 76. — Italian Spur. 
 
 sisted of spare arms and hauberk, which a knight was careful to take with 
 him when he went to the wars. Mares and bat-hovses (horses carrying the 
 bat, or load) were reserved for agriculture and other field-purposes ; and it 
 was clearly on that account that a knight was not allowed to ride them. To 
 make a knight ride upon a mare was, like the loss of his spurs, one of 
 the most degrading punishments that could be inflicted on him, and thence- 
 forth " any one who regarded his own honour would no more have touched 
 that disgraced knight than a shaven idiot (leper)." 
 
 Q 
 
ii 4 
 
 CARRIAGES AND SADDLERY. 
 
 The horses of French knights were without ears or mane ; those 
 of the Germans without tails. According to Carrion-Nisas, the armour 
 of the horse, and the style in which it was caparisoned, were the cause of 
 
 Fig- 77-— A Knight armed and mounted for War. (Museum of Artillery, Paris.) 
 
 these mutilations. We have elsewhere remarked that if the men were 
 cased in steel their horses were not less heavily cuirassed (Fig. 77). 
 The entire armour and appointments of a horse were called the harness ; 
 
CARRIAGES AND SADDLERY. 
 
 the plates of steel or leather (for leather also was often used) were called 
 hordes. We find enumerated, not only the articles of which the harness 
 consisted — chanfrein, nasal, flancois, &c. — but examples are cited to denote 
 the sumptuousness of this equipment of the horse. We need not, however, 
 dwell longer here on this subject, that refers more properly to the manu- 
 facture of arms ; but a few words must be said regarding the saddle, which 
 is, if we may use the expression, an implement of horsemanship, and not a 
 part of the armour. 
 
 The use of saddles seems to have been unknown in early times, and 
 never to have been introduced among certain nations which, by the way, 
 were most famous in the art of training the horse and making him 
 serviceable. The Thessalonians and the Numidians rode on the bare back, 
 without saddle or stirrups ; seated firmly on the horse simply by the pressure 
 of the knees and the calf of the legs ; a position which is still that of the 
 boldest riders in the East and in Africa. Hippocrates has ascribed the 
 common and severe diseases of the hips and legs which afflicted the 
 Scythians to the rider's want of support on horseback. Galen makes the 
 same remark regarding the Roman legions, who only introduced the use 
 of a saddle about the year 340 of the Christian era. The Gauls and Franks 
 used neither saddles nor stirrups; but when steel armour was adopted, it 
 would have been impossible for knights to preserve an equilibrium without 
 the aid of a saddle, or to sustain the slightest shock to which they were 
 exposed, as armour rendered them in a manner rigid, or with little flexi- 
 bility on their large horses. 
 
 They therefore had recourse to a high, or rather a deep, saddle, closely 
 adhering to the thighs and loins, with large stirrups serving as supports to 
 the feet. The several parts of the armour being splendidly ornamented, it 
 followed that the saddles, which also were exposed to view, were no more 
 neglected than other ornaments of the animal. Engraved and chased, they 
 were also gilt and painted, and thus, with the shield, helped to distinguish, 
 by the " devices " they bore, the armed warrior completely cased in his steel 
 covering (Figs. 78 to 81). 
 
 As to stirrups, of which there certainly is no trace among the Greeks or 
 the Romans, it may be said they were coeval with the invention of saddles. 
 They made their appearance in the earliest days of the Merovingian dynasty ; 
 and if we accept the German etymology which the learned have offered 
 
1 1 6 
 
 CARRIAGES AND SADDLERY. 
 
 (streben, to support one's self), the name and the object was introduced 
 by the Franks into Gaul. However that may be, they were no longer 
 dispensed with, especially in war, and when the weight of armour rendered 
 their use necessary. They were of course very large, very massive, and very 
 clumsy in the days of chivalry. When they diminished in size and weight 
 
 Figs. 78 and 79.— Tournament Saddles, ornamented with Paintings, taken from the Armoury Real, Madrid. 
 Sixteenth Century. (Communicated by M. Ach. Jubinal.) 
 
 they were wrought with more care, and became objects of art, charged with 
 ingenious ornaments, and embellished with engraving, chasing, and gilding. 
 
 In accordance with the opinion held by M. de la Yarenne, we have 
 already ascribed the disuse of private carriages to the contempt with which 
 the Franks regarded a mode of conveyance deemed by them to be effeminate. 
 But, following the same author, we must observe that a reason might also 
 
CARRIAGES AND SADDLERY. 
 
 "7 
 
 be discovered in the wretched condition into which, after the decline of the 
 Romans, those magnificent roads formed by them in all their conquered 
 provinces had fallen. In towns, moreover, the streets, narrow, crooked, and 
 with no regular direction, were very frequently so many holes and quag- 
 mires. Philip Augustus I. had some of the streets of Paris paved in that 
 luteee* which already, at the time of the Roman conquest, had deserved the 
 significant epithet of miry. The princes and the nobles who, as Moliere 
 humorously makes Mascarilla say, feared " to leave the impression of their 
 shoes in mud," and could not without difficulty drive about the towns in 
 
 Fig. 80.— The Caparison of the Horse of Isabel the Catholic. (Communicated by M. Ach. Jubinal.) 
 
 carriages, consequently had recourse to the horse or the mule. The ladies 
 made use of them also ; but very frequently, if not carried in litters, they 
 rode on a pillion behind the horseman. 
 
 In the thirteenth century chariots reappeared ; but the fashion did not 
 long prevail, for Philip the Fair discouraged them, in one of the clauses of 
 his sumptuary ordinance of 1294, by declaring that "no citizen may have 
 a chariot." 
 
 The litter continued to be held in repute for processions ; but queens 
 frequently rode on horseback. Isabel of Bavaria rode on a beautiful 
 
 * Latin, Luteus — muddy. — [Ed.] 
 
1 18 
 
 CARRIAGES AND SADDLERY. 
 
 palfrey, with her ladies and her maids also on horseback, on the occasion 
 of her entering Paris to espouse Charles VI. And when Mary of 
 England, who went to be married to Louis XII., made her entry into 
 Abbeville, she also, as Robert de la Marck relates, was mounted on a 
 palfrey, as were most of her ladies, " and the remainder in chariots ; and 
 the king, riding a large, prancing bay horse, came to receive his bride, with 
 all the gentlemen of his household and of his guard on horseback." The 
 meeting of Henry VIII. and Francis I. in the camp of the Field of the 
 
 Fig. 81. — Saddle-cloth. Sixteenth Century. 
 
 Cloth of Gold, presented the most beautiful display that had ever been 
 seen of caparisoned horses, decorated and furnished with unprecedented 
 richness (Fig. 82). 
 
 Charles V., in consequence of frequent attacks of gout, was soon com- 
 pelled to renounce riding. When he went into the country, or on a 
 journey, he was generally followed by a litter and a chair. Mules bore the 
 litter, in which he could recline, while bearers carried the chair, which was 
 
CARRIAGES AND SADDLERY. 
 
 119 
 
 provided with a movable back; its four uprights could be fitted with a 
 sort of canopy of canvas or leather. 
 
 In 1457 the ambassadors of Ladislaus V., King of Hungary, presented to 
 Marie of Anjou, Queen of France, a chariot which excited the admiration 
 of the whole court and the inhabitants of Paris, " because," as the historian 
 of the times says, " it was branlant (suspended), and very rich." 
 
 It is difficult to reconcile the inference to be drawn from the ordinance 
 of Philip the Fair with the assertion of many historians, that coaches 
 
 Fig. 82. — Henry. VIII. in the Camp of the Field of the Cloth of Gold (1520). From the Bas-reliefs of 
 the Hotel of the Bourg Herolde at Rouen. 
 
 first appeared in France only in the time of Francis I. The point 
 is still doubtful. Nevertheless, one may suppose' historians to mean 
 that coaches, instead of being the only vehicles employed in Paris in 
 the time of Francis I., were but chariots of a grander and more 
 gorgeous description than any seen before that time. But we know for 
 certain that, during the Middle Ages, the horse and the mule were generally 
 ridden by everybody, by citizens and by nobles, by women and by men. 
 The horse-blocks fixed in the streets — too narrow evidently, if not for one 
 carriage, at least for two to pass each other — and the rings fastened on 
 
120 
 
 CARRIAGES AND SADDLERY. 
 
 doors sufficiently denote that it was so. The mule was especially ridden by 
 sedate men, such as magistrates and doctors, who had to "amble" through 
 the towns. " To take care of the mule," a proverbial expression signifying 
 to wait impatiently, is derived from the custom of lawyers' servants remain- 
 ing in the court of the Palace to take charge of the riding-horses or mules 
 belonging to their masters. 
 
 According to Sauval, the two first coaches seen in Paris, and which 
 called forth the wonder of the people, belonged, one to Queen Claude, the 
 first wife of Francis I. ; and the other to Diana of Poitiers, his mistress. 
 
 Fig. 83. — Sedan-chair of Charles V. (Armoury Real, Madrid.) 
 
 The fashion was soon followed; so much so, that even where the 
 sumptuary laws were still regarded as efficient, we find parliament 
 entreating Charles IX. to prohibit the circulation of coaches (coches) through 
 the town. The magistrates continued, until the commencement of the 
 seventeenth century, to attend at the courts of justice on their mules. 
 Christopher of Thou, father of the celebrated historian, and first Pre- 
 sident of Parliament, was the first who came thither in his carriage ; but 
 only because he suffered from gout, for his wife continued to ride on horse- 
 back, seated pillion-fashion behind a servant. 
 
CARRIAGES AND SADDLERY. 
 
 121 
 
 Henry IV. had only one carriage. "I shall be unable to go and see 
 you," he one day wrote to Sully, "for my wife uses my coach (coche)." 
 These coaches were neither elegant nor convenient. For doors they were 
 provided with leathern aprons, which were drawn or opened for entrance or 
 exit, with similar curtains to protect against the rain or the sun. 
 
 Marshal Bassompierre, in the time of Louis XIII., had a glass coach made 
 for him, which was regarded as a real marvel : it originated the impulse 
 which has led to the productive era of modern coach-building. 
 
 Formerly there were in Paris, as appears from numerous documents, 
 several corporations representing the saddler's trade. First came the selliers- 
 bourreliers, and the selliers-lormiers-carrossiers. The privileges of the first 
 secured to them specially the manufacture of saddles and harness (collars and 
 other articles for draught). The second made also carriages, bridles, reins, 
 &c. Another very ancient corporation was that of the lormiers-ejjeronniers — 
 " artisans," says the Glossary of Jean de Grarlande, " whom the military 
 nobles greatly patronised, because they manufactured silvered and gilt spurs, 
 metal breastplates for their horses, and well-executed bits." There were also 
 chapuissiers, who made saddle-bows and pack-frames for the beasts of burden, 
 which were mostly manufactured of alder- wood. 
 
 The blazenniers and cuireurs then covered with leather the packs and 
 the saddles prepared by the chapuissiers ; and, finally, saddle-painters were 
 employed to ornament them, either in compliance with fashion, which has 
 always been omnipotent in France, or according to the laws of heraldry, 
 when intended for men of rank for purposes of state or war. 
 
 Fig. 84.— Banner of the Corporation of the Saddlers of Tonnerre. 
 R 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 Its Antiquity. — The Tresor de Guarrazar. — The Merovingian and Carlovingian Periods. — Eccle- 
 siastical Jewellery. — Pre-eminence of the Byzantine Goldsmiths — Progress of the Art conse- 
 quent on the Crusades. — The Gold and Enamels of Limoges. — Jewellery ceases to be 
 restricted to Purposes of Religion. — Transparent Enamels. — Jean of Pisa, Agnolo of Sienna, 
 Ghiberti. — Great Painters and Sculptors from the Goldsmiths' Workshops — Benvenuto Cellini. 
 — The Goldsmiths of Paris. 
 
 ^K^^ N the remarks upon furniture, we were compelled to trespass 
 on the domain which we now again approach ; for, having to 
 trace the history of secular and religious luxury, we cannot hut 
 frequently encounter the goldsmiths and their splendid works. 
 It will thus happen more than once that we shall have to indi- 
 cate briefly certain important facts already described, in some 
 details, in preceding chapters. 
 
 It is known that in old times, even the most remote, the 
 goldsmith's art flourished. There is scarcely any ancient narrative 
 which does not allude to jewels ; and every day the discovery of 
 precious objects, found in ruins and in tombs, still attests the 
 high state of perfection the art of gold and silver work had attained among 
 races long since extinct. 
 
 The Gauls, when under Roman dominion, applied themselves successfully 
 to the business of the gold-worker. We may again say that the triumph of 
 the Christian religion, under Constantine the Great, while encouraging the 
 interior decoration of places of worship, added a fresh impulse to the develop- 
 ment of this beautiful art. 
 
 The popes succeeding St. Sylvester (who had stimulated the liberality 
 of Constantine) continued to accumulate, in the churches at Rome, the 
 most costly and massive articles of gold-work. Symmachus (498 to 514) 
 alone, according to a calculation made by Seroux d'Agincourt, enriched 
 the treasures of the basilicas to the amount of 130 pounds weight of gold, 
 and 1,700 of silver, forming the material of objects most finely wrought. 
 
124 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 It was from the very court of the Greek emperors that the examples of 
 this magnificence were derived.; for we hear St. John Chrysostom exclaim- 
 ing, " All our admiration is at present reserved for the goldsmiths and the 
 weavers ;" and it is well known that in consequence of his bold indiscretion 
 in rebuking the extravagance of the Empress Eudoxia, this eloquent Father 
 of the Church expiated in exile and persecutions his ardent zeal and his 
 sincerity. 
 
 The brilliant specimens of the gold-work of the Visigoths, which, in 1858, 
 were exhumed in the field of Guarrazar, near Toledo, and which have been 
 obtained for the Cluny Museum, throw a new light on the monuments of that 
 period. Far from indicating any original style, they afford further proof 
 that the barbarians who came from the North became subjected, in the 
 
 Fig. 85.— Gallic Bracelet, from a Cabinet of Antiquities. (Imp. Library, Paris.) 
 
 arts, to Byzantine influence. The most remarkable, not only in its dimen- 
 sions and extreme richness, but in the peculiarity of its ornaments, is a 
 votive crown, intended to be hung, according to the custom of those 
 times, in a sacred place — that of Recesvinthe, who reigned over the Goths 
 of Spain from 653 to 672. It is composed of a large fillet, jointed, and 
 formed of a double plate of the finest gold. Thirty uncut sapphires and 
 as many pearls, regularly alternating, arranged in three rows and in 
 quincunxes,* are seen on its exterior circle. Chased ornaments occupy the 
 spaces between the stones. The votive crown of King Suintila, which we 
 here reproduce (Fig. 86), is fully as rich, and about thirty years older. 
 
 * Quincunx order is a method of arranging five objects, or pieces, in the form of a square ; one 
 being in the centre, and one at each corner. — [Ed.] 
 
GOLD CROSSES OF A KING OF THE GOTHS. 
 
 Found at Guarrazar. Seventh Century (Museum of the Kotel Cluny) 
 ( Taken lrom the work of M Ferdinand de Lasteyrie ) 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 125 
 
 It is of massive gold, ornamented with sapphires and pearls arranged in rose- 
 pattern, and set off by two borders similarly set with delicate stones. But 
 the originality of this precious gem con- 
 sists in the letters hanging as pendants 
 from its lower border. These letters, 
 open-worked, are filled with small pieces 
 of red glass set in gold ; their combination 
 presents the following inscription :- — 
 " Suintilanus Rex offeret " (offering of the 
 King Suintila). Each of them is sus- 
 pended from the fillet by a chain with 
 double links, sustaining a pendant of 
 violet sapphire, pear-shaped. Finally, 
 the crown is suspended by four chains 
 attached to a circular top of rock-crystal. 
 
 " Five of the crowns so fortunately 
 discovered at Guarrazar," says M. de 
 Lasteyrie, "have crosses. These, at- 
 tached by a chain to the same circular 
 top, were evidently intended to remain 
 suspended across the circle of the crown." 
 The cross belonging to the crown of 
 Recesvinthe is by far the richest ; eight 
 large pearls and six sapphires, all mounted 
 in open-work, adorn the front. The four 
 other crosses are of the form which in 
 heraldry is called croix patde ; but they 
 differ in size and in the ornaments with 
 which they are enriched. 
 
 We have already stated that the 
 kings and grandees of the Merovingian 
 period displayed in their plate and in 
 some of their state-furniture a richness 
 of gold-work the profuseness of which was ordinarily opposed to good taste. 
 We have seen at his work the celebrated Saint Eloi, bishop- goldsmith ; 
 and we have mentioned not only his remarkable productions, but also the 
 
 Fig-. 86. — Votive Crown of Suintila, King of the 
 Visigoths from 621 to 631. (Armoury Real, 
 Madrid.) 
 
I 26 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 enduring influence he exercised over a whole historical period of art. Finally, 
 we have observed that Charlemagne — whose object seems to have been not 
 only to imitate Constantine, but to surpass him — endowed the churches 
 magnificently with works of art, without prejudice to the numberless splen- 
 dours which his palaces contained. 
 
 Fig. 87. — The Sword ot Charlemagne. Preserved in the Imperial Treasury at Vienna. 
 
 According to a tradition, the loss of most of the beautiful objects of 
 gold- work belonging to that monarch may have been owing to the circum- 
 stance that they were disposed around him in the sepulchral chamber where 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 12' 
 
 the body was deposited after death; and the emperors of Germany, hi 
 successors, may not have scrupled to appropriate those riches, of which som< 
 rare specimens, particularly his diadem and sword, are still preserved in thi 
 Museum of Vienna (Figs. 87 and 88). 
 
 Ecclesiastical display, notably extinct during the period of trouble and 
 suffering through which the Church passed in the seventh and eighth 
 centuries, and to which the power of Charlemagne was to put an end, 
 manifested itself in an extraordinary degree from that time. For example, 
 
 Fig. 88. — Diadem of Charlemagne. Preserved in the Imperial Treasury at Vienna. 
 
 it was calculated that under Leo III., who occupied the pontifical chair 
 from 795 to 816, the weight of the plate which the Pope gave to enrich 
 the churches, amounted to not less than 1,075 pounds of gold and 24,744 
 pounds of silver ! 
 
 To that period belongs the famous gold altar of the basilica of St. Am- 
 brose of Milan, executed in 835, by order of Archbishop Angilbert, by 
 Volvinius ; and which, notwithstanding its immense intrinsic value, has 
 come down to our time. "The four sides of this monument," says M. 
 
128 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 Labarte, " are of extreme richness. The front, entirely of gold, is divided 
 into three panels by a border of enamel. The centre panel represents a 
 cross of four equal projections, formed by fillets of ornaments in enamel, 
 alternating with precious stones uncut but polished. Christ is seated in 
 the centre of the cross. The symbols of the Evangelists occupy its branches. 
 Three of the Apostles are placed in each angle. All these figures are in 
 relief. The right and left panels contain each six bas-reliefs, the subjects 
 of which are taken from the life of Christ ; they are encircled by borders 
 of enamels and precious stones alternately disposed. The two sides, in silver 
 relieved with gold, exhibit very rich crosses, treated in the same style as the 
 borders. The back, which is also of silver relieved with gold, is likewise 
 divided in three large panels ; that in the centre contains four medallions, 
 and each of the others six bas-reliefs, of which the life of St. Ambrose 
 supplied the subjects. In one of the medallions of the centre panel is 
 seen St. Ambrose receiving the gold altar from the hands of Archbishop 
 Angilbert ; in the other, St. Ambrose is giving his benediction to Volvinius, 
 the master goldsmith (magister faber), as he is designated in the inscription 
 transmitting to us the name of the author of this work, of which no 
 description can give an exact idea." 
 
 It was not Italy alone which possessed skilful goldsmiths, and encouraged 
 them. We have in particular, among other enlightened and active sup- 
 porters of ecclesiastical gold-work, a succession of the bishops of Auxerre, 
 to whom must be added Hincmar, bishop of Rheims, who caused a splendid 
 shrine to be made for the relics of the illustrious patron of his church. 
 It was cased in plates of silver, and statues of twelve bishops adorned 
 its borders. 
 
 But, notwithstanding all its artistic magnificence, the jewellery of the 
 West could only appear to be the reflex of the wonders produced at the 
 same epoch by the goldsmiths of the East, or the Byzantines, to adopt a 
 term generally sanctioned. 
 
 One of the most curious specimens of Byzantine art, preserved in Russia, 
 is a gold reliquary lined with a plate of silver, in the centre of which is 
 an embossed representation of the Crucifixion. Above the head, on a gilt 
 nimbus, is an inscription in Greek, "Jesus Christ, King of Glory." This 
 treasure, remarkable for its extreme finish, is covered with a mosaic of precious 
 stones of different colours, in partitions of gold ; the cross being quartered 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 1 29 
 
 in enamel, with silver filigree. At the back the names of the archiman- 
 drite Nicolos are engraved. It is a work of the tenth century, and was 
 found in the Iberian monastery on Mount Athos. 
 
 If rare specimens only of jewellery have come down to us of a date prior 
 to the eleventh century, this may be accounted for not merely by their 
 
 Fig. 89.— Byzantine Reliquary, in Enamel, brought from Mount Athos. Tenth Century. 
 (Collection of M. Sebastianof.) 
 
 intrinsic value having indicated them to the uncivilised as fit objects of 
 plunder during the invasions which took place after the reign of Charle- 
 magne, but also, as we have elsewhere remarked, by the re-introduction of 
 church furniture, which was in some measure a necessary result of renovated 
 architecture. It was right to adapt the style of plate to that of the edifice 
 
 s 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 it was to adorn. The forms which were then employed for various objects 
 of church-service showed the influence of the severe style derived from 
 the original Byzantine type ; the latter, moreover, explained itself by the 
 repute, especially in metallurgy, enjoyed by the city of Constantine, to 
 which the East generally had recourse when taking in hand any work of 
 importance. 
 
 The German school particularly would acquire a Byzantine character, 
 owing to the marriage of the Emperor Otho II. with the Greek princess 
 Theophania (972) — an alliance which naturally bound the two empires in 
 closer ties, and attracted a considerable number of artists and artisans to 
 
 Fig. 90.— Altar of Gold, presented to the ancient Cathedral of Basle by the Emperor Henry II., now in thi 
 
 Cluny Museum. 
 
 Germany from the East. Of the works of that period still in existence, 
 one of the most remarkable is the rich gold cover of the book of the 
 Gospels, now in the Royal Library, Munich; on which are executed, in 
 the embossed style, various bas-reliefs of great delicacy, and designed with 
 the purity at that time distinguishing the Greek school. 
 
 The Emperor Henry II. was therefore welcomed (bien-venu), and, if one 
 may say so, well served by the condition of art in Germany, when, elevated 
 to the throne in 1002, and inspired by ardent piety, he sought, by 
 princely liberality to the churches, to surpass even Constantine and 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 Charlemagne. It is to Henry that the Cathedral of Basle owes the deco- 
 rations of the altar, to which none can be compared for richness, except 
 that of Milan ; yet without recalling it by its style, which has lost every 
 trace of the antique, and is a clearly-pronounced type of the art which the 
 Middle Ages were to create as their own. It is right to mention also the 
 crown of the sainted emperor, and that of his wife, now preserved in the 
 
 Fig. 91. — Enamelled Shrine, in Limoges Work of the Twelfth Century. (Museum of Cluny.) 
 
 Treasury of the King of Bavaria ; both are in six jointed parts, making a 
 circle ; the former bears figures of winged angels ; the other, stalks with 
 four leaves designed with correctness and grace, and executed in a manner 
 which evinces the greatest dexterity. " Moreover," says M. Labarte, " the 
 taste for jewellery was then generally diffused throughout Germany ; and 
 many prelates followed the example set by the emperor. Willigis, the 
 first Archbishop of Mayence, may be cited ; he endowed his church with 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 a crucifix weighing 600 pounds, the several parts of which were adjusted 
 with such art that each could be detached at the joints ; and Bern ward, 
 Bishop of Hildesheim, who, like St. Eloi, was himself a celebrated gold- 
 smith, and to whom is ascribed a crucifix enriched with precious stones 
 and filigrees, and two magnificent candelabra, which still constitute a portion 
 of the treasures of the church whereof he was the pastor." 
 
 About the same period — that is, in the early days of the eleventh 
 century — a monk of Dreux, named Odorain, who had made himself famous 
 in France by his works in precious metals, executed a large number of 
 objects for King Robert, intended for the churches the monarch had founded. 
 
 Fig. 92. — Shrine in Copper Gilt. (End of the Twelfth Century.) 
 
 It has been remarked in the preceding chapter, that the Crusades 
 gave a great impulse to the goldsmith's art in Europe, in consequence of 
 the great demand for shrines and reliquaries intended for the reception of 
 the venerated remains of saints which the soldiers of the faith brought 
 back from their distant expeditions (Figs. 91 and 92). The offerings of 
 consecrated vessels and of altar-fronts were also multiplied. The Holy 
 Scriptures received cases and coverings which were so many splendid 
 works entrusted to the goldsmiths. To speak truly, had it not been for 
 the essentially religious direction which, at that period, certain depart- 
 ments of luxury acquired by the Crusaders in the East had taken, we 
 might perhaps have seen the arts, that only in the West recommenced a 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 i33 
 
 real existence, become extinguished, and in a manner perish in the first 
 burst of their revival. 
 
 It is chiefly to the minister of Louis le Gros, Suger, Abbot of Saint- 
 Denis, who died in 1152, that the honour of this consecration of arts is 
 due, for he distinctively proclaimed himself their protector ; he endeavoured 
 to render legitimate their position in the State, by opposing their pious 
 aims to the too exclusive censures of St. Bernard and his disciples. 
 
 Conjointly with the powerful abbot, there is deserving of special mention 
 a simple monk, Theophilus, an eminent artist who wrote in Latin a 
 description of the Industrial Arts of his time {Diversarum Artium Schedula), 
 and devoted seventy-nine chapters of his book to that of the goldsmith. 
 This valuable treatise shows us, in the most unmistakable manner, 
 that the goldsmiths of the twelfth century must have possessed a com- 
 prehensiveness of knowledge and manipulation, the mere enumeration of 
 which surprises us the more now that we see industry everywhere tending 
 to an almost infinite division of labour. At that time the goldsmith was 
 required to be at once modeller, sculptor, smelter, enameller, jewel-mounter, 
 and inlay-worker. He had to cast his own models in wax, as well as to 
 labour with his hammer or embellish with his graver : he had to make the 
 chalice, the vases, and the pyx, for the metropolitan churches, on which 
 were lavished all the resources of art; and to produce, by the ordinary 
 process of punching, the open-work or the designs of copper intended to 
 ornament the books of the poor (libri pauper um), &c. 
 
 The treasury of the Abbey of Saint-Denis still possessed, at the time of 
 the Revolution, several chef s-d' centre produced by the artists whose processes 
 are described by Theophilus ; especially the rich mounting of a cup of 
 Oriental agate, bearing the name of Suger, which it is believed he used 
 for the service of mass ; and the mounting of an ancient sardonyx vase, 
 known as the cup of the Ptolemies, which Charles the Simple had given to 
 the abbey. Having been deposited, in 1793, in the Cabinet of Medals, 
 Paris, the mounting of the cup of the Ptolemies and the chalice of Suger 
 remained there until they were stolen in 1804. 
 
 Among the examples of that period still existing, and which, con- 
 ditionally, every one is permitted to inspect, we may distinguish, with 
 M. Labarte, — in addition to " the great crown of lights " suspended under 
 the cupola in the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle, and the magnificent shrine in 
 
1 34 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 which Frederick I. collected the bones of Charlemagne,— in the Museum of 
 the Louvre, a vase of rock-crystal mounted in gold and embellished with 
 gems, presented to Louis VII. by his wife Eleanora ; in the Cluny Museum, 
 several candelabra ; in the Imperial Library in Paris, the covering of a Latin 
 manuscript, numbered 622 ; a cup of agate onyx (Fig. 93), bordered with 
 a belt of precious stones raised on a groundwork of filigree ; and the beau- 
 tiful gold chalice of St. Eemy (Fig. 94), which, after having appeared in 
 the Cabinet of Antiquities, was restored in 1861 to the treasury of the church 
 of JS"otre-Dame, Rheims. 
 
 Severe forms and an elevated style were the characteristics of the jewelled 
 works of the eleventh and twelfth centuries ; and, for the principal elements 
 
 Fig.' 93.— A Drinking Cup, called Gondole, of Agate ; from the Treasury of the Abbey of Saint-D( 
 (Cabinet of Antiquities, Imp. Library, Paris.) 
 
 of accessory embellishment, we most frequently see pearls, precious stones, 
 with enamelled divisions which, according to the minute description of 
 Theophilus, are only delicate mosaics whose various coloured segments are 
 separated by plates of gold. 
 
 In the days of St. Louis, a period of active and generous piety, there was 
 (an assertion which may appear hazardous after what we have said of the 
 zeal of preceding centuries) a remarkable accession to the number and the 
 splendour of the gifts and offerings of jewellery to the churches. For 
 instance, it was then that Bonnard, Parisian goldsmith, assisted by the 
 ablest artisans, devoted two years to the manufacture of the shrine of 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 i35 
 
 St. Genevieve, on which he expended one hundred and ninety-three marks 
 of silver and seven and a half marks of gold; the mark weighing eight 
 ounces. The shrine, consecrated in 1212, was in the form of a little 
 church, with statuettes and bas-reliefs enriched with precious stones. It 
 
 was deposited in the French mint in 1793 ; but the spoil realised only twenty- 
 three thousand eight hundred and thirty livres. Half a century earlier, the 
 most celebrated German goldsmiths were engaged during seventeen years 
 upon the famous reliquary in silver gilt, called the " Great Relics," which the 
 cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle still possesses ; it was fabricated from the gifts 
 
136 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 deposited in that space of time by the faithful in the poors'-box of the 
 porch ; an edict of the Emperor Barbarossa having appropriated all the 
 offerings to that object, " so long as it remained unfinished." 
 
 Moreover, that period, which may be regarded as denoting the zenith 
 of the goldsmith's art for sacred purposes, is also that wherein occurred 
 the important transition which was to introduce into domestic life the same 
 lavishness so long devoted only to objects applicable to ecclesiastical use. 
 But, before entering upon that new phase, we ought to mention, not 
 without much commendation, the enamelled gold- work of Limoges, which 
 was greatly celebrated for several centuries. From the Gallo-Romano 
 period Limoges had acquired a reputation for the works of its goldsmiths. 
 St. Eloi, the great goldsmith in the time of the Merovingian kings 
 (Fig. 95), was originally from that country, and he was working under 
 Alban, a goldsmith, and master of the mint at Limoges, when his reputation 
 led to his being called to the court of Clotaire II. The ancient Boman 
 colony had retained its industrial speciality, and during the Middle Ages 
 was remarkable for the production of works of a peculiar character, which 
 are supposed to have been fabricated there prior to the third century, if we 
 may judge from a passage in Philostratus, a Greek writer of that period. 
 
 This work consisted of a mixed style, inasmuch as the material forming 
 the ground of the work is copper ; and, moreover, the principal effects are 
 due not less to the skill of the enameller than to the talent of the worker 
 in metal. The process of fabrication is very simple — that is, in the way of 
 description — yet the execution must have been extremely protracted and 
 minute. 
 
 " After having prepared and polished a plate of copper," says M. Labarte, 
 whose account we transfer to our own pages, " the artist marked on it all 
 the parts which were to rise to the surface of the metal, in order to produce 
 the outlines of the drawing or of the figure he wanted to represent ; 
 then, with gravers and scrapers, he dug deeply in the copper all the space 
 which the various metals Avere to cover. In the hollows thus champleves 
 (a word sometimes used to signify the mode of producing this kind of 
 work), he placed the material to be vitrified, which was afterwards melted in 
 a furnace. When the enamelled piece was cold, he polished it by various 
 means, so as to bring to the surface of the enamel all the lines of the draw- 
 ing produced by the copper. Gilding was afterwards applied to the parts 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 *37 
 
 of the metal thus preserved. Until the twelfth century, only the outlines 
 of the drawing ordinarily rose to the surface of the enamel, and the tints of 
 
 Fig. 95. — Cross of an Altar, ascribed to St. Eloi. 
 
 the flesh, as well as the dresses, were produced by coloured enamel; in the 
 thirteenth century enamel was no longer used but to colour the ground- 
 
 T 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 work. The figures were entirely preserved on the plate of copper, and the 
 outlines of the drawing were then shown by a delicate engraving on the 
 metal." 
 
 Between the enamels partitioned (cloisonnes) and the enamels champleves 
 the difference, as we can see, is only the first arrangement of the divisions 
 to receive the several verifiable compositions. Making allowances for 
 
 Fig. 96— An Abbot's Enamelled Crozier, made Fig. 97.— A Bishop's Crozier, which appears to be 
 
 at Limoges. (Thirteenth Century.) of Italian manufacture. (Fourteenth Century. 
 
 Cathedral of Metz.) 
 
 the influence of fashion, these two styles of analogous works were held in 
 almost equal estimation. Nevertheless, it seems that the preference ought 
 to be assigned to the goldsmith's art in Limoges, which, at a time when 
 there was manifested a demand for private reliquaries and collective 
 offerings to the churches, had this advantage over the other, that it was 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 i39 
 
 much less costly, and consequently more accessible to all classes (Fig. 96). 
 In the present day there is scarcely a museum, or even a private collection, 
 that does not contain some specimen of the ancient Limousine* industry. 
 
 With the fourteenth century the splendour of the goldsmith's art ceases 
 to display, as its exclusive object, ecclesiastical decoration and embellish- 
 ment ; but it suddenly became so developed among the laity that King John 
 (of France) desiring, or pretending to desire, to restore it to the exclusive 
 line it had till then retained, prohibited by an ordinance, in 1356, the 
 goldsmiths from " working (fabricating) gold or silver plate, vases, or silver 
 jewellery, of more than one mark of gold or silver, excepting for the 
 churches." 
 
 But it is possible to issue ordinances in order to show the advantage of 
 evading them, and to benefit exclusively by the exception. This is what 
 appears to have then occurred ; for, in the inventory of the treasury of 
 Charles Y., son and successor of the king who signed the sumptuary edict 
 of 1356, the value of the various objects of the goldsmith's art is estimated 
 at not less than nineteen millions. This document, in which the greater 
 number of the articles are described to the minutest detail, would suffice in 
 itself to exhibit a truthful historical view of the art at that period ; and, 
 at all events, it affords a striking idea of the artistic progress made in that 
 direction, and of the extravagance to which the trade was subservient. 
 
 When considering the subject of furniture in domestic life, we indicated 
 the names and the uses of several articles which were displayed on the 
 tables or sideboards — plateholders, ewers, urns, goblets, &c. ; we also 
 adverted to the numerous and capricious forms they assumed — flowers, 
 animals, grotesque images ; we need not, therefore, recur to the matter ; 
 but we ought not to overlook the jewellery, of all sorts — insignia, or 
 ornaments of the head-dress, gems, clasps, chains and necklaces, antique 
 cameos (Fig. 98), which appear in the treasury of the King of France. 
 
 In treating of ecclesiastical furniture we, moreover, observed that the 
 goldsmith's art, although devoting itself to secular ornaments, nevertheless 
 
 * Limousine — a term applied to enamelling, and derived, as some writers assume, from Leonard 
 Limousin, a famous artist in this kind of work, resident at Limoges. It is, however, more pro- 
 bable it came from the province Limousin, or Limosin, of which Limoges was the capital ; and 
 that Leonard acquired the surname of Limousin from his place of birth or residence ; just as many 
 of the old painters are best known by theirs. — [Ed.] 
 
140 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 continued to work marvels in the production of objects for ecclesiastical vise ; 
 it would be mere repetition to support this assertion by other examples. 
 
 But, dismissing those two questions, let a contemporary poet raise a 
 third, which deserves a place here. Eustache Deschamps, who died in 1422, 
 equerry and usher-at-arms to Charles V. and Charles VI., enumerates the 
 
 Fig. 98.— An Ancient Cameo-setting of the time of Charles V. (Cab. of Ant., Bibl. Imp., Paris.) 
 
 jewels and gems which the female nobility of the time aspired to possess. 
 " It was indispensable,", he says — 
 
 " Aux matrones, 
 Nobles palais et riches trones ; 
 Et a celles qui se marient 
 Qui moult tot (bientot) leurs pensers varient, 
 Elles veulent tenir d'usaige . . . 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 Vestements d'or, de draps de soye, 
 
 Couronne, chapel et courroye 
 
 De fin or, espingle d' argent . . . 
 
 Puis couvrechiefs a. or batus, 
 
 A pierres et perles dessus . . . 
 
 Encor vois-je que leurs maris, 
 
 Quand ils reviennent de Paris, 
 
 De Reims, de Rouen et de Troyes, 
 
 Leur rapportent gants et courroyes . . . 
 
 Tasses d' argent ou gobelets . . . 
 
 Bourse de pierreries, 
 
 Coulteaux a imagineries, 
 
 Espingliers (etuis) tailles a emaux." 
 
 They desired, moreover, and said that they ought to have given to them — 
 
 " Pigne (peigne) et miroir d'ivoire . . . 
 Et l'estui qui soit noble et gent (riche et beau), 
 Pendu a. cbaines d' argent ; 
 
 Heures (livres de piete) me fault de Notre-Dame, 
 
 Qui soient de soutil (delicat) ouvraige, 
 
 D'or et d'azur, riches et cointes (jolies), 
 
 Bien ordonnes et bien pointes (peintes), 
 
 De fin drap d'or tres-bien couvertes, 
 
 Et quand elles seront ouvertes, 
 
 Deux fermaux (agrafes) d'or qui fermeroni." 
 
 We thus see that, according to the above programme, the jewel-box 
 of a princess, or of a lady of rank, must have been really splendid. Un- 
 fortunately for us, the specimens of these female ornaments of the fourteenth 
 and fifteenth centuries are still more rare in collections than objects of 
 massive plate ; and one is almost left to imagine their appearance and 
 their richness from the entries in inventories, that chief source of infor- 
 mation regarding the times of which the memorials have disappeared. 
 
 It is there we see the costliness of the fermaik, or clasps of cloaks and 
 copes, called also pectoraux, because they fastened the garments across 
 the breast; girdles, chaplets (head-dresses), portable reliquaries, and other 
 "little jewels (Fig. 99) pendants et d pendre" the fashion of which we 
 have restored under the name of breloques, and which represent every 
 variety of object more or less whimsical. "We see, for instance, gold clasps 
 representing a peacock, a fleur-de-lis, two hands " clasped." This one is 
 embellished with six sapphires, sixty pearls, and other large gems ; that 
 one with eighteen rubies, and four emeralds. From a girdle of Charles V., 
 
142 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 which is made "of scarlet silk adorned with eight gold mountings," are 
 suspended "a knife, scissors, and a pen-knife," ornamented in gold; the 
 trinkets (pendants) represent "a man on horseback, a cock holding a mirror 
 in the form of a trefoil," or "a stag of pearls with enamelled horns;" or, 
 again, a man mounted on a double-headed serpent, " playing on a Saracenic 
 horn " (of Saracen origin). Finally, we remark that in reliquaries a fashion 
 
 Fig- 99-— Scent-box in Chased Gold. (A French Work of the Fifteenth Century.) 
 
 long established was maintained, which consisted of forming them of a 
 statuette representing a saint (Fig. 100), or of a subject that comprised 
 his image, and to which were attached, by a small chain, relics inlaid in 
 a little tabernacle of gold or silver, preciously wrought. 
 
 But now the fifteenth century opens out, and with it a period of tumult. 
 France suddenly beheld that impulse to industry paralyzed, which, to 
 prosper, requires a condition of affairs very different from sanguinary civil 
 dissensions and foreign invasion. Not only were the workshops closed, but 
 princes and nobles were more than once constrained to appropriate the 
 gorgeous decorations of their tables and their collections of gems, to pay 
 and arm warriors under their command, or even to redeem themselves from 
 captivity. 
 
 At that time the goldsmith's art flourished in the neighbouring country 
 of Flanders, then quietly submissive to the powerful house of Burgundy, 
 which, with equal taste and liberality, encouraged the art, which had installed 
 itself in the principal cities. This was also an epoch of magnificent produc- 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 these are attributed to Corneille de Bonte, who worked at Ghent, and was 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 generally considered the most skilful goldsmith, of his time (Figs. 101 and 
 102). However that may be, the style of the goldsmith's art of the fifteenth 
 century continued, as in the two or three preceding centuries, conformable 
 to the contemporaneous style of architecture. For instance, the shrine of 
 Saint- Germain-des-Pres, which was of that period, had the form of a small 
 ogivale* church; and some specimens still existing in Berlin are of the 
 Gothic character, the prevailing style of the edifices of those times. But an 
 
 Fig. ioi. — The Ensign of the Collar of the Goldsmiths of Ghent. (Fifteenth'Century.) 
 
 influence was making itself felt that was not long in entirely modifying the 
 general aspect of the productions of the trade we are considering. That 
 transformation must have been promoted by Italy ; in the midst of which, 
 in spite of intestine troubles and serious contentions with other nations, 
 a luxury and opulence prevailed. Genoa, Venice, Florence, Rome, had 
 long been so many centres where the Fine Arts struggled for pre-eminence 
 and inspiration. Among the majority of the wealthy merchants who had 
 
 * Ogivale— & term used by French architects to denote the Gothic vault, with its ribs and 
 cross-springers, &c. It is also employed to denote the pointed arch.— Gwilt's Encyclopedia of 
 Architecture. — [Ed.] 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 '45 
 
 become patricians of those gorgeous republics were found so many Maecenases, 
 under whose patronage flourished great artists whom popes and princes 
 emulously countenanced. "From the moment," says M. Labarte, "when 
 
 Fig. 102.— Escutcheon in Silver-gilt, executed by Corneille de Bonte, in the Fifteenth Century. 
 (Museum of the Hotel de Ville, Ghent.) 
 
 the Nicolases, the Jeans of Pisa, and the Giottos, throwing off the Byzantine 
 yoke, caused Art to emerge from languor and supineness, that of the gold- 
 
 u 
 
J46 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 smith could no longer find favour in Italy but by maintaining itself on a 
 level with the progress of sculpture, whose daughter it was.* When we 
 know that the great Donatello, — Philip Brunelleschi, the bold architect of 
 the dome of Florence, — Ghiberti, the author of the marvellous doors of the 
 Baptistery, had goldsmiths for their earliest masters, we may judge what 
 artists the Italian goldsmiths of that period must have been." The first in 
 date is the celebrated Jean of Pisa, son of Mcolas, who, brought from Arezzo 
 in 1286, to sculpture the marble table of the high-altar, and a group of the 
 Virgin between St. Gregory and St. Donato, desired to pay tribute to the 
 taste of the time by ornamenting the altar with those fine chasings on 
 silver coloured with enamels to which we give the name of translucid enamels 
 in relief; and also by designing a clasp or jewel with which he decorated 
 the breast of the Virgin. Both chasings and clasp are now lost. 
 
 To Jean (Giovanni) of Pisa succeeded his pupils Agostino and Agnolo 
 of Siena. 
 
 In 1316 Andrea of Ognibene executed, for the Cathedral of Pistoia, an 
 altar-front, which has come down to us, and must have been followed by 
 more important works. Then come Pietro and Paulo of Arezzo, Ugolino of 
 Siena, and finally Master Cione, f the author of the two silver bas-reliefs 
 still to be seen on the altar of the Baptistery of Florence. Master Cione, 
 whose school was numerous, had for his principal pupils Forzane of Arezzo 
 and Leonardo of Florence, who worked on the two most noted monuments of 
 the goldsmith's art which time and depredations have respected — the altar 
 of Saint- Jacques at Pistoia, and that same altar of the Baptistery to which 
 the bas-reliefs of Cione were afterwards adapted. During more than a 
 hundred and fifty years the ornamentation of these two altars, of which no 
 description can give an idea, was, if we may so say, the arena wherein all 
 the most famous goldsmiths met. 
 
 At the end of the fourteenth century Luca della Pobbia, who, as we have 
 seen, distinguished himself in ceramic art, and afterwards Brunelleschi, no 
 less great as an architect than as a sculptor, came forth from the studio 
 
 * This is a literal rendering of the text of M. Labarte ; but the artists to whom allusion is 
 made were only two, Niccola and Giovanni, sculptors and architects of Pisa. According to Vasari, 
 Niccola, father of Giovanni (Jean or John), first worked under certain Greek sculptors who were 
 executing the figures and other sculptural ornaments of the Duomo of Pisa and the Chapel of 
 San Giovanni. — [Ed.] 
 
 f Andrea di Cione Orcagna. — [Ed.] 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 H7 
 
 of a goldsmith. At the same period shone Baccioforte and Mazzano of 
 Placentia, Arditi the Florentine, and Bartoluccio, master of the famous 
 sculptor Ghiberti, to whom we owe those doors 
 of the Baptistery, which Michael Angelo pro- 
 nounced worthy of being placed at the entrance 
 to Paradise. 
 
 It is well known that the execution of these 
 doors was, in 1400, submitted to competition ; 
 and it may be said, in honour of the goldsmith's 
 art, that Ghiberti, vying with the most celebrated 
 competitors — for among them were Donatello 
 and Brunelleschi — owed his triumph, perhaps, 
 to the simple fact that he had treated, as it 
 
 Fig. 103.— Shrine of the Fifteenth Century. (Collection of Prince Soltykoff.) 
 
 were by habit, his model with all the delicacy of the goldsmith's art. 
 And it must be added, and to the praise of the great artist, that although 
 
1+8 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 in great reputation for sculptured works of the highest importance, he 
 adhered faithfully all his life to his first profession, and considered it 
 not derogatory even to manufacture jewellery. Thus, for example, in 
 1428 he mounted as a signet for Jean de Medicis, a cornelian said to 
 have belonged to the treasury of Nero, and he set it as a winged-dragon 
 emerging from a cluster of ivy leaves; in 1429, for Pope Martin V., a 
 button of the cope, and a mitre; and in 1439, for Pope Eugene IV., a 
 golden mitre, embellished with five and a half pounds weight of precious 
 stones, — its front representing Christ surrounded by numerous cherubs, and 
 at the back the Virgin in the midst of the four Evangelists. 
 
 During the forty years employed in the execution of the doors of the 
 Baptistery, Ghiberti continued to derive assistance from several goldsmiths, 
 who, so guided, could not fail in their turn to become skilful masters. 
 
 The list would be long of goldsmiths who, by the single force of their 
 talents, or under the direction of renowned sculptors, competed during two 
 centuries in the production of the marvellous works with which the 
 churches of Italy are still crowded ; and in fact it would be only a mono- 
 tonous detail, the interest of which can scarcely be enhanced by any descrip-. 
 tion we could give of their works. Nevertheless, we may cite the most 
 illustrious of them : for instance, Andrea Verrochio, in whose studio Peru- 
 gino and Leonardo da Vinci passed their time ; Domenichino Grhirlandajo, 
 so called because when a goldsmith he had invented an ornament in the 
 form of garlands, of which the ladies of Florence were passionately fond ; 
 he afterwards relinquished the hammer and the graver for the painter's 
 pencil; Maso Finiguerra, who, reputed to be the cleverest niello- worker of 
 his time, engraved a ]jax, or paten, still preserved in the cabinet of bronzes 
 in Florence ; it is acknowledged to be the plate of the first engraving 
 printed, — the Imperial Library of Paris possesses the only early proof of it. 
 
 In 1500 was born Benvenuto Cellini, who was to be the embodiment of 
 the genius of the goldsmith's art, and who raised it to the zenith of its 
 power. " Cellini, a Florentine citizen, now a sculptor," as his contemporary 
 Vasari relates, " had no equal in the goldsmith's art when devoting himself 
 to it in his youth, and was perhaps for many years without a rival, as well 
 as in the execution of small figures in full relief and in bas-relief, and all 
 works of that nature. He mounted precious stones so skilfully, and decked 
 them in such marvellous settings, with small figures so perfect, and some- 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 149 
 
 times so original and with such fanciful taste, that one could not imagine 
 anything better ; nor can we adequately praise the medals which, when he 
 was young, he engraved with incredible care in gold and silver. At Rome 
 he executed, for Pope Clement VII., a fastening for the cope, in which he 
 represented with admirable workmanship the Eternal Father. He also 
 mounted with rare talent a diamond, cut to a point, and surrounded by several 
 young children carved in gold. Clement VII. having ordered a gold chalice 
 with its cup supported by the theological attributes, Benvenuto executed the 
 work in a surprising manner. Of all the artists who, in his own time, tried 
 their hands at engraving medals of the Pope, no one succeeded better, as those 
 well know who possess them or have seen them. Also to him was entrusted 
 the execution of the coins of Pome ; and finer pieces were never struck. 
 After the death of Clement VII., Benvenuto returned to Florence, where he 
 engraved the head of Duke Alexander on the coins, which are so beautiful 
 that to this day several specimens are preserved as precious antique medals ; 
 and rightly so, for in them Benvenuto surpassed himself. At length " he 
 devoted himself to sculpture and to the art of casting statues. He executed 
 in France, where he was in the service of Francis I., many works in bronze, 
 silver, and in gold. Returning to his native country, he was employed by 
 the Duke Cosmo de Medicis, who at once required of him several works in 
 jewellery, and afterwards some sculptures." 
 
 Thus, Benvenuto is at the same time goldsmith (Fig. 104), engraver in 
 medals, and sculptor, and he excels in these three branches of the art, as 
 the productions which have survived him attest. Nevertheless, unfortu- 
 nately, the greater part of his works in the goldsmith's art have been 
 destroyed, or are now confounded with those of his contemporaries, upon 
 whom Italian taste, combined with his original genius, had exercised a 
 powerful influence. In France there remains of his works only a magnifi- 
 cent salt-cellar, which he executed for Francis I. ; in Florence is preserved 
 the mounting of a cup in lapis-lazuli, representing three anchors in gold 
 enamelled, heightened by diamonds ; also the cover, in gold enamelled, of 
 another cup of rock-crystal. But, besides the bronze bust of Cosmo L, we 
 may still admire, with the group of Perseus and Medusa, which ranks among 
 grand sculptures, the reduced form, or rather the model of that group, which 
 in size approaches goldsmith's work ; and the bronze pedestal, decorated 
 with statuettes, on which Perseus is placed ; works that enable us to see of 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 what Cellini was capable as a goldsmith. And, let us repeat, the influence 
 which he exercised over his contemporaries was immense, as well in Florence 
 as in Rome, as well in France as in Germany ; and, had his work been 
 thought utterly worthless, he would remain not less justly celebrated for 
 giving an impulse to his time by imprinting on the art which he pro- 
 fessed a movement as fertile as it was bold. 
 
 Fig. 104.— A Pendant, after a design by Benvenuto Cellini. Sixteenth Century. 
 (Cabinet of Antiquities, Bibl. Imp., Paris.) 
 
 Moreover, in imitation of the monk Theophilus, his predecessor of the 
 twelfth century, Benvenuto Cellini, after having given practical example, 
 desired that the theories he had found prevailing, and those which were 
 due to his faculty for originating, should be preserved for posterity. A 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 treatise ("Trattato intoruo alle otto principali Arti dell' Orificeria"), in which 
 he describes and teaches all the best processes of working in gold, remains 
 one of the most valuable works on the subject ; and even in our days 
 goldsmiths who wish to refer back to the true sources of their art do not 
 neglect to consult it. 
 
 The artistic style of the celebrated Florentine goldsmith is that of a 
 period when, by an earnest return to antiquity, the mythological element was 
 introduced everywhere, even in the Christian sanctuaries. The character, 
 which we may call autochthone,* of the pious and severe Middle Ages, ceased 
 to influence the production of plastic works, when the models were taken 
 from the glorious remains of idolatrous Greece and Rome. The art which 
 the religion of Christ had awakened and upbeld suddenly became again 
 Pagan, and Cellini proved himself one of the enthusiasts of the ancient 
 temples raised in honour of the gods and goddesses of Paganism ; that is to 
 say, under the impulse given by him, and in imitation of him, the phalanx 
 of artists, of which he is in a manner the chief, could not fail to go far on 
 the new road by which he had travelled among the first. 
 
 When Cellini came to France he found, as he himself says in his book, 
 that the work consisted "more than elsewhere in grosscrie" (the grosser ie 
 comprised the church plate, vessels, and silver images), "and that the works 
 there executed with the hammer had attained a degree of perfection nowhere 
 else to be met with." 
 
 The inventory of the plate and jewels of Henry II., among which 
 were many by Benvenuto Cellini — the inventory prepared at Fontaine- 
 bleau in 1560 — shows us that, after the departure of the Florentine 
 artist, the French goldsmiths continued to deserve that eulogium ; and to 
 comprehend of what they were capable in the time of Charles IX., it is 
 sufficient to recall the description, preserved in the archives of Paris, of a 
 piece of plate which the city had caused to be made to offer as a present to 
 the king on the occasion of his entry into his capital in 1571. 
 
 " It was," says that document, "a large pedestal, supported on four 
 dolphins, and having seated on it Cybele, mother of the gods, representing 
 the mother of the king, accompanied by the gods Neptune and Pluto, and the 
 goddess Juno, as Messeigneurs the brothers, and Madame the sister, of the 
 
 * Autochthone— relating to ihe aboriginal inhabitants of a country : the use of the word here is 
 not very intelligible. — [Ed.] 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 king. This Cybele was contemplating Jupiter, who represented our king, 
 and was raised on two columns, the one of gold, the other of silver, having 
 his device inscribed — ' Pietate et Justitia.' Upon this was a large imperial 
 crown, on one side held in the beak of an eagle perched on the croup of a 
 horse on which Jupiter was mounted ; and on the other side supported by the 
 sceptre he held — thus being, as it were, deified. At the four corners of the 
 pedestal were the figures of four kings, his predecessors, all of the same name 
 —that is, Charles the Great, Charles V., Charles VII., and Charles VIII., 
 who in their time fulfilled their missions, and their reigns were happy, as we 
 hope will be that of our king. In the frieze of that pedestal were the battles 
 and the victories, of all kinds, in which he was engaged ; the whole made 
 
 Fig. 105. — Cup of Lapis-lazuli, mounted in Gold Fig. 106. — Vase of Rock-crystal, mounted 
 
 enriched with Rubies, and a Figure in Gold in Silver-gilt and enamelled. (Italian 
 
 enamelled. (Italian Work of the 16th Century.) Work of the 16th Century.) 
 
 of fine silver, gilt with ducat gold, chased, engraved, and in workmanship so 
 executed that the style surpassed the material." 
 
 That rare piece was the work of Jean Regnard, a Parisian goldsmith ; 
 and the period when such works were produced was precisely that 
 during which religious wars were about to cause the annihilation of a great 
 number of the c/i eft- cl' centre, ancient and modern, of the goldsmith's art. 
 The new iconoclasts, the Huguenots, shattered and melted down, wherever 
 they triumphed, the sacred vessels, the shrines, the reliquaries. Then were 
 lost the most precious gold-wrought memorials of the times of St Eloi, of 
 Charlemagne, of Suger, and of St. Louis. 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 i53 
 
 At the same period Germany, where the influence of the Italian school 
 had made itself felt less directly, but which could not escape from its impulse, 
 possessed also, especially at Nuremburg and Augsburg, goldsmiths' work- 
 shops of high character ; these furnished the empire, and even foreign 
 countries, with remarkable works. A new career opened to the German 
 goldsmiths when the cabinet-makers of their country had invented those 
 cabinets, whereof we have already said something (vide Furniture), and 
 in the intricate decoration of which appear statuettes, silver bas-reliefs, and 
 inlay- work of gold and precious stones. 
 
 The treasuries and the museums of Germany have succeeded in preserving 
 many rich objects of that period ; but one of the most rare collections of 
 the kind is that in Berlin, where, in substitution for the originals in silver 
 which have been melted down, are gathered a great number of beautiful 
 bas-reliefs in lead, and several vases in tin, — copies of pieces of plate 
 supposed to be of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. And on this 
 point it may be remarked that the high price of the material, together with 
 the sumptuary laws, not always admitting of the possession of gold or silver 
 vases by the citizens, it sometimes happened that the goldsmiths manu- 
 factured a table-service of tin, on which they bestowed so much pains that 
 these articles were transferred from the sideboards of citizens to those of 
 princes. The inventory of the Count d'Angouleme, father of Francis L, 
 alludes to a considerable table- service of tin. Indeed, several goldsmiths 
 devoted themselves exclusively to this description of work ; and, to this day, 
 the tins of Francois Briot, who flourished in the time of Henry II., are 
 regarded as the most perfect specimens of plate of the sixteenth century. 
 
 However that may be, after Cellini, and until the reign of Louis XIV., 
 the goldsmith's art did but follow faithfully in the footsteps of the Italian 
 master. Elevated by the impulse of the Renaissance, the art succeeded 
 in maintaining itself in that high position without, however, any striking 
 individuality discovering itself, until, in a century not less illustrious 
 than the sixteenth, new masters appeared and imparted to it additional 
 lustre and magnificence. These are named Ballin, Delaunay, Julien 
 Defontaine, Labarre, Vincent Petit, Roussel, goldsmiths and jewellers of 
 Louis XIV., who retained them in his pay, and lodged them in the 
 Louvre. It was for that prince they produced an imposing collection of 
 admirable works, for which Le Brun often furnished the designs, and 
 
154- 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 under an inspiration altogether French, abandoned the graceful, though 
 rather fluette forms of the Eenaissance, and gave to them a character more 
 diffuse and grand. Then, for a short time, every article of royal furniture 
 proceeded from the hands of the goldsmith. But, alas! once more the 
 majority of these marvels must disappear, as happened to so many others. 
 Even the monarch who had ordered them despatched his acquisitions to the 
 crucibles of the mint, when, the war having exhausted the public treasury, 
 he found himself compelled, at least for example's sake, to sacrifice his silver 
 plate and to deck his table with earthenware. 
 
 Having finished this sketch of the goldsmith's art in general, it may 
 not be inappropriate to add a brief notice of the more special history of the 
 French goldsmiths, of which the wealthy corporation may be considered 
 not only as the most ancient, but as the model of all those that were 
 formed among us in the Middle Ages. But first, since we have already 
 referred to the exceptional part taken by the goldsmiths of Limoges in 
 the industrial movement of that period, we cannot proceed further without 
 noting another description of works, which, although derived from the 
 oldest examples, nevertheless gave, and with justice, a kind of new lustre to 
 the ancient city where the first goldsmiths of France had distinguished 
 themselves. 
 
 " Towards the end of the fourteenth century," says M. Labarte, " the taste 
 for gold and silver articles having led to the disuse of plate of enamelled 
 copper, the Limousine enamellers endeavoured to discover a new mode of 
 applying enamel to the reproduction of graphic subjects. Their researches 
 led them to dispense with the chaser for delineating the outlines of designs ; 
 the metal was entirely concealed under the enamel, which, spread by the 
 brush, formed altogether both the drawing and the colouring. The first 
 attempts at this novel painting on copper were necessarily very imperfect ; 
 but the processes gradually improved, until at length, in 1540, they attained 
 perfection. Prior to that period, the enamels of Limoges were almost 
 exclusively devoted to the reproduction of sacred subjects, of which the 
 German school furnished the designs. But the arrival of Italian artists at 
 the court of Francis I., and the publication of engravings of the works 
 of Raphael and other great masters of Italy, gave a new direction to the 
 school of Limoges, which adopted the style of that of Italy. II Rosso 
 and Primaticcio painted cartoons for the Limousine enamellers ; and then 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 i5S 
 
 they who had previously worked only on plates intended to be set in 
 diptychs, on caskets, created a new species of goldsmith's art. Basins, 
 ewers, cups, salt-cellars, vases, and utensils of all sorts, manufactured with 
 thin sheet-copper in the most elegant forms were decorated with their rich 
 and brilliant paintings." 
 
 In the highest rank of artists who have rendered this attractive work 
 illustrious we must place Leonard (Limousin), painter to Francis I., who 
 was the first director of the royal manufacture of enamels founded by 
 that king at Limoges. Then followed Pierre Raymond (Figs. 107 to 110), 
 whose works date from 1534 to 1578, the Penicauds, Courteys, Martial 
 Raymond, Mercier, and Jean Limousin, enameller to Anne of Austria. 
 
 Figs. 107 and 108.— Faces of an Hexagonal Enamelled Salt-cellar, representing the Labours of Hercules. 
 Executed at Limoges, for Francis I., by Pierre Raymond. 
 
 With the remark that, at the end of the sixteenth century, Venice, 
 doubtless imitating Limoges, also manufactured pieces of plate in enamelled 
 copper, we return to our national goldsmiths. 
 
 This celebrated corporation could, without much trouble, be traced back 
 in Gaul to the epoch of the Roman occupation ; but it is unnecessary to 
 search for its origin beyond St. Eloi, who is still its patron, after having 
 been its founder and protector. Eloi, become prime-minister to Dagobert I. 
 — thanks in some measure to his merits as a goldsmith, which distinguished 
 him above all, and gained him the honour of royal friendship — continued 
 to work no less at his forge as a simple artisan. " He made for the king," 
 
156 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 says the chronicle, " a great number of gold vases enriched with precious 
 stones, and he worked incessantly, seated with his servant Thillon, a Saxon 
 by birth, at his side, who followed the lessons of his master." 
 
 This extract seems to indicate that already the goldsmith's art was 
 organised as a corporation, and that it comprised three ranks of artisans — 
 the masters, the journeymen, and the apprentices. Besides, it is clear that 
 St. Eloi founded two distinct corporations of goldsmiths — one for secular, the 
 other for religious works, in order that the objects sacred to worship should 
 
 Fig. iog. — Interior base of a Salt-cellar, executed at Limoges ; with a Portrait of Francis I. 
 
 not be manufactured by the same hands that executed those designed for 
 profane uses or worldly state. The seat of the former in Paris was first the 
 Cite, near the very abode of St. Eloi long known as the maison aufevre, and 
 surrounding the monastery of St. Martial. Within the jurisdiction of that 
 monastery was the space comprised between the streets of La Barillerie, of 
 La Calandre, Aux Feves, and of La Vieille Draperie, under the denomination 
 of "St. Eloi's Enclosure." A raging fire destroyed the entire quarter 
 inhabited by the goldsmiths, excepting the monastery ; and the lay gold- 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 J S7 
 
 smiths went forth and established themselves as a colony, still under the 
 auspices of their patron saint, in the shadow of the Church of St. Paul des 
 Champs, which he had caused to be constructed on the right bank of the 
 Seine. The assemblage of forges and shops of these artisans soon formed 
 a sort of suburb, which was called Cloture, or Culture St. Eloi. Subse- 
 quently some of the goldsmiths returned to the Cite ; but they remained 
 on the Grand-Pont, and returned no more to the streets, where the cobblers 
 had established themselves. Moreover, the monastery of St. Martial had 
 become, under the administration of its first abbess, St. Anne, a branch of 
 the goldsmith's school which the " Seigneur Eloi " had established in 631 in 
 the Abbey of Solignac, in the environs of Limoges. That abbey, whose 
 
 Fig-, no. — Ewer in Enamel, of Limoges, by Pierre Raymond. 
 
 first abbot, Thillon or Theau — a pupil, or, as the chronicle expresses it, 
 a servant of St. Eloi — was also a skilful goldsmith, preserved during several 
 centuries the traditions of its founder, and furnished not only models, but 
 also skilful workmen, to all the monastic ateliers of Christendom which 
 exclusively manufactured for the churches jewelled and enamelled plate. 
 
 However, the goldsmiths of Paris engaged in secular works continued to 
 maintain themselves as a corporation ; and their privileges, which they 
 ascribed to the special regard of Dagobert for St. Eloi, were recognised, it is 
 said, in 768 by a royal charter, and confirmed in 846 in a capitulary of 
 Charles the Bald. These goldsmiths worked in gold and silver only for 
 kings and nobles, whom the strictness of the sumptuary laws did not reach. 
 
158 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 The Dictionary of Jean de Garlande informs us that, in the eleventh century, 
 there were in Paris four classes of workmen in the goldsmith's trade — those 
 who coined money (nummularii), the clasp-makers (firmacularii) , the manu- 
 facturers of drinking-goblets (cipharii), and the goldsmiths, properly so 
 called (aurifabri). The ateliers and the shop- windows of these last were on 
 the Pont- au- Change (Fig. HI), in competition with the money-changers, 
 who for the most part were Lombards or Italians. From that epoch a 
 
 Fig. in.— Interior of the Atelier of Etienne Delaulne, a celebrated goldsmith of Paris, in the Sixteenth 
 Century. Designed and engraved by himself. 
 
 rivalry commenced between these two trade guilds, which only ceased on the 
 complete downfall of the money-changers. 
 
 When Etienne Boileau, Provost of Paris in the reign of Louis IX., wrote 
 in obedience to the legislative designs of the king, his famous " Livre 
 des Metiers," to establish the existence of guilds on permanent foundations, 
 he had scarcely more to do than to transcribe the statutes of the goldsmiths 
 almost the same as those instituted by St. Eloi, with the modifications con - 
 sequent on the new order of things. By the terms of the ordinances drawn 
 up by Louis, the goldsmiths of Paris were exempt from the watch, and from 
 all other feudal services ; they elected, every three years, two or three anciens 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 i59 
 
 (seniors) " for the protection of the trade," and these anciens exercised per- 
 manent vigilance over the works of their colleagues, and over the quality of 
 the gold and silver material used by them. An apprentice was not admitted 
 as a master until after ten years' apprenticeship ; and no master could have 
 more than one apprentice, in addition to those belonging to his own family. 
 The corporation, so far as concerned the fraternity with respect to works for 
 charitable and devotional purposes, had a seal (Fig. 116) which placed it 
 under the patronage of St. Eloi ; but, with regard to its industrial asso- 
 ciation, it imprinted on manufactured articles a seing, or stamp, which 
 guaranteed the value of the metal. The corporation soon obtained, from 
 Philip of Valois, a coat-of-arms, which conferred on it a sort of professional 
 nobility ; and acquired, owing to the distinguished protection extended to 
 
 Fig. 114. — Stamp of Melun. Fig. 116. — Ancient Corporate Seal of the Fig. 115. — Stamp of Orleans. 
 
 Goldsmiths of Paris, 
 
 it by that king, a position which nevertheless it did not succeed in pre- 
 serving in the united constitution of the six mercantile bodies ; for, although 
 it laid claim to the first rank on account of its antiquity, it was forced, 
 notwithstanding the undeniable superiority of its works, to be contented 
 with the second, and even to descend to the third rank. 
 
 The goldsmiths, at the time of the compilation of the code of professions 
 by Etienne Boileau, were already separated, voluntarily or otherwise, from 
 several trades which had long appeared in their train ; the cristalliers, or 
 lapidaries ; the gold and silver beaters ; the embroiderers in orfroi (gold- 
 fringe) ; the patenotriers (bead-stringers) in precious stones lived under their 
 own regulations ; the monetaires (bullion -dealers) remained under the control 
 of the king and his mint ; the hanapiers (drinking-cup makers), ihefermailkurs 
 
i6o 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 (makers of clasps), the pewterers, boxmakers, inferior artisans and others 
 who worked in common metals, had no longer any connection with the 
 goldsmiths of Paris. But in the provinces, in towns where the masters 
 of a trade were insufficient to constitute a community or fraternity having 
 its chiefs and its own administration, it was indispensable to reunite under 
 the same banner the trades between which there was the most agreement, 
 or rather the least contrariety. Thus, in certain localities in France and 
 the Low Countries, the goldsmiths, proud as they might be of the nobility 
 of their origin, sometimes found themselves united as equals with the 
 
 Fig. 117. — Arms of the Corporation of Goldsmiths of Paris, with this device : 
 "Vases Sacres et Couronnes, voila. notre CEuvre." 
 
 pewterers, the mercers, the braziers, and even the grocers ; and thus it came 
 to pass that they combined on their banners of fleurs-de-lis the proper arms 
 of each of these several trades. Thus, for instance, we see the banner 
 of the goldsmiths of Castellane (Fig. 118) united with the retail mercers 
 and tailors — it shows a pair of scissors, scales, and an ell measure ; at 
 Chauny (Fig. 119), a ladder, a hammer, and a vase, indicate that the gold- 
 smiths had for compeers the pewterers and the slaters; at Guise (Fig. 120), 
 the association of farriers, coppersmiths, and locksmiths, is allied with the 
 goldsmiths by a horse-shoe, a mallet, and a key ; the brewers of Harfleur 
 
 < 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 161 
 
 (Fig. 121) quartered in their arms four barrels between the bars of the 
 cross gules charged with a goblet of gold, which was the emblem of their 
 associates the goldsmiths ; at Maringues (Fig. 122), the gold cup on a field 
 gules surmounts the grocer's candles. 
 
 These banners were displayed only on great public ceremonies, in solemn 
 processions, receptions, marriages, the obsequies of kings, queens, princes, 
 and princesses. Exempted from military service, the goldsmiths, unlike 
 other trade corporations, had not the opportunity of distinguishing them- 
 selves in the militia of the communes. They, nevertheless, occupied the first 
 place in the state processions of trades, and frequently filled posts of honour. 
 
 Fig. 121. Fig. 122. 
 
 Thus in Paris they had the custody of the gold and silver plate when the 
 good city entertained some illustrious guest at a banquet ; they carried 
 the canopy above the head of the king on his joyful accession ; or, crowned 
 with roses, walked bearing on their shoulders the venerated shrine of 
 St. Genevieve (Fig. 123). 
 
 In the wealthy cities of Belgium, where the corporations were queens 
 (reines), the goldsmiths, by virtue of their privileges, dictated the law and 
 swayed the people. No doubt in France they were far from enjoying the 
 same political influence ; nevertheless, one of them was that provost of 
 merchants, Etienne Marcel, who, from 1356 to 1358, played so bold a part 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 during the regency of the Dauphin Charles. But it was especially in periods 
 of peace and prosperity that the goldsmith's art in Paris shone in all its 
 splendour ; then its banners incessantly waved in the breeze for the festivals 
 and processions of its numerous and wealthy brotherhoods to the churches of 
 Notre-Dame, St. Martial, St. Paul, and St. Denis of Montmartre. 
 
 In 1337 the number of the wardens of the goldsmith's guild in Paris had 
 increased from three to six. They had their names engraved and their 
 
 Fig. 123. — The Corporation of the Goldsmiths of Paris carrying the Shrine of St. Genevieve. 
 (From an engraving of the Seventeenth Century.) 
 
 marks stamped on tablets of copper, which were preserved as archives in the 
 town-hall. Every French goldsmith, admitted a master after the production 
 of his principal work, left the impression of his sign manual, or private 
 mark, on similar tablets of copper deposited in the office of the guild ; while 
 the stamp of the community itself was required to be engraved at the 
 mint to authorise its being used, Every corporation thus had its mark, 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 •63 
 
 which the wardens set on the articles after having assayed and weighed the 
 metal. These marks, at least in the later centuries, represented in general 
 the special arms or emblems of the cities ; for Lyons, it is a lion ; for Melun, 
 an eel ; for Chartres, a partridge ; for Orleans, the head of Joan of Arc, &c. 
 (Figs. 112 to 115). 
 
 The goldsmiths of France manifested, and with reason, a jealousy of their 
 privileges, it being more indispensable for them than, for any other artisans 
 to inspire that confidence without which the trade would have been lost ; 
 for their works were required to bear as authentic and legal a value as 
 that of money. Therefore, it may be understood that they exercised keen 
 vigilance over all gold or silver objects which were in any way under their 
 
 Fig. 124.— Gold Cross, chased. (A French Work of the Seventeenth Century.) 
 
 warranty : hence the frequent visits of the sworn masters to the ateliers 
 and shops of the goldsmiths; hence the perpetual lawsuits against all 
 instances of negligence or fraud; hence those quarrels with other trades 
 which arrogated to themselves the right of working in precious metals 
 without having qualified for it. Confiscation of goods, the whip, the pillory, 
 were penalties inflicted on goldsmiths in contraband trade who altered the 
 standard, concealed copper beneath the gold, or substituted false for precious 
 stones. 
 
 It, indeed, seems remarkable that while for the most part other trades 
 were subject to the control of the goldsmiths, the latter were responsible only 
 to themselves for the aggressions which they constantly committed within 
 
164 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 the domain of rival industries. Whenever the object to be manufactured 
 was of gold, it belonged to the goldsmith's trade. The goldsmith made, by- 
 turns, spurs as the spur-maker ; armour and arms, as the armourer ; girdles 
 and clasps, as the belt-maker and the clasp-maker. However, there is reason 
 to believe that in the fabrication of these various objects, the goldsmith had 
 recourse to the assistance of special artisans, who could scarcely fail to 
 derive all possible advantage from such fortuitous association. Thus, when 
 the gold-wrought sword which Dunois carried when Charles VII. entered 
 Lyons in 1449, mounted in diamonds and rubies, and valued at more than 
 fifteen thousand crowns, was to be made, the work of the goldsmiths 
 probably consisted only of the fashioning and chasing the hilt, while the 
 
 Fig. 125. — Pendant, adorned with Diamonds and Precious Stones. (Seventeenth Century.) 
 
 sword-cutler had to forge and temper the blade. In the same manner, when 
 it was required to work a jewelled robe, such as Marie de Medicis wore at 
 the baptism of her son in 1606, the robe being covered with thirty-two 
 thousand precious stones and three thousand diamonds, the goldsmith had 
 only to mount the stones and furnish the design for fixing them on the 
 gold or silk tissue. 
 
 Long before Benvenuto and other skilful Italian goldsmiths were 
 summoned by Francis I. to his court, the French goldsmiths had proved 
 that they needed only a little encouragement to range themselves on a level 
 with foreign artists. But that patronage having failed them, they left the 
 country and established themselves elsewhere ; thus at the court of Flanders, 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 165 
 
 Antoine of Bordeaux, Margerie of Avignon, and Jean of Rouen, distin- 
 guished themselves. It is true that in the reign of Louis XII., whose 
 exchequer had been exhausted in the Italian expeditions, gold and silver had 
 become so scarce in France, that the king was obliged to prohibit the manu- 
 facture of all sorts of large plate (grosserie). But the discovery of America 
 having brought with it an abundance of the precious metals, Louis XII. 
 
 Figs. 126 to 131. — Chains. 
 
 recalled his ordinance in 1510 ; and thenceforth the corporations of gold- 
 smiths were seen to increase and prosper, as luxuriousness, diffused by the 
 example of the great, descended to the lower ranks of society. Silver plate 
 soon displaced that of tin ; and before long personal display had attained 
 such a height, " that the wife of a merchant wore on her person more jewels 
 than were seen on the image of the Virgin." The number of the goldsmiths 
 
 Figs. 132 to 136. — Rings. 
 
 then became so great that in the city of Rouen alone there were in 1563 two 
 hundred and sixty-five masters having the right of stamp ! 
 
 To sum up this chapter. Until the middle of the fourteenth century it 
 is the religious art which prevails ; the goldsmiths are engaged only in 
 executing shrines, reliquaries, and church ornaments. At the end of that 
 century, and during the one following, they manufactured gold and silver 
 
i66 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 plate, enriching with their works the treasuries of kings and nobles, and 
 imparting brilliant display to the adornment of dress. In the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries the goldsmiths applied themselves more to chasing, 
 enamelling, and inlay- work. Everywhere are to be seen marvellous trinkets 
 — necklaces, rings, buckles, chains, seals (Figs. 124 to 142). The weight of 
 metal is no longer the principal merit ; the skill of the workman is especially 
 appreciated, and the goldsmith executes in gold, in silver, and in precious 
 stones, the beautiful productions of painters and engravers. Nevertheless, 
 the demand for delicate objects had the disadvantage of requiring much 
 solder and alloy, which deteriorated the standard of metal. Then a desperate 
 struggle commenced between the goldsmiths and the mint — a struggle which 
 was prosecuted through a maze of legal proceedings, petitions, and ordi- 
 nances, until the middle of the reign of Louis XV. At the same time 
 the Italian and German goldsmiths making an irruption into France and 
 
 Figs. 137 to 141. — Seals. 
 
 introducing materials of a low standard, the old professional integrity 
 became suspected and was soon disregarded. At the end of the sixteenth 
 century very little plate was ornamented : there is a return to massive plate, 
 the weight and standard of which could be easily verified. Gold is scarcely 
 any longer employed, except for jewels ; and silver in a thousand forms 
 creeps into the manufacture of furniture. After cabinets, covered and 
 ornamented with carving in silver, came the articles of silver furniture 
 invented by Claude Ballin. But the mass of precious metal withdrawn from 
 circulation was soon returned to it, and the fashion passed away. The 
 goldsmiths found themselves reduced to manufacture only objects of small 
 size ; and for the most part they limited themselves to works of jewellery, 
 which subjected them to less annoyance from the mint. Besides, the art of 
 the lapidary had almost changed its character, as well as the trade in 
 precious stones. Pierre de Montars}^, jeweller to the king, effected a kind 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 167 
 
 of revolution in his art, which the travels of Chardin, of Bernier, and of 
 Tavernier, in the East had, so to say, enlarged. The cutting and mounting 
 of precious stones has not since been excelled. It may be said that Montarsy 
 was the first jeweller, as Ballin was the last goldsmith. 
 
 Fig. 142.— Chased and Enamelled Brooch, embellished with Pearls and Diamonds. (Seventeenth Century.) 
 
HOEOLOGY. 
 
 Modes of measuring Time among the Ancients. — The Gnomon. — The Water-Clock. — The Hour- 
 Glass. — The Water-Clock, improved by the Persians and by the Italians. — Gerbert invents 
 the Escapement and the moving Weights. — The Striking-bell. — Maistre Jehan des Orloges. — 
 Jacquemart of Dijon. — The first Clock in Paris. — Earliest portable Timepiece. — Invention of 
 the spiral Spring. — First appearance of Watches. — The Watches, or " Eggs," of Nuremberg. 
 — Invention of the Fusee. — Corporation of Clockmakers. — Noted Clocks at Jena, Strasburg, 
 Lyons, &c. — Charles- Quint and Jannellus. — The Pendulum. 
 
 )MONGr the ancients there were three instruments 
 for measuring time — the gnomon, or sun-dial, which 
 is only, as we know, a table whereon lines are so 
 arranged as successively to meet the shadow cast 
 by a gnomon,* thus indicating the hour of the day 
 according to the height or inclination of the sun ; the 
 water-clock (clepsydra), which had for its principle the measured percolation 
 of a certain quantity of water ; and the hour-glass, wherein the liquid is 
 exchanged for sand. It would be difficult to determine which of these three 
 chronometric modes can lay claim to priority. There is this to be said that, 
 according to the Bible, in the eighth century before Christ, Ahaz, King 
 of Judah, caused a sun-dial to be constructed at Jerusalem ; again, Hero- 
 dotus says Anaximander introduced the sun-dial into Greece, whence it 
 passed on to the other parts of the then civilised world ; and that, in the 
 year 293 before our era, the celebrated Papirius Cursor, to the astonishment 
 of his fellow-citizens, had a sun-dial traced near the temple of Jupiter 
 Quirinus. 
 
 According to the description given by Athena (Athenseus ?), the water- 
 clock was formed of an earthenware or metal vessel filled with water, 
 and then suspended over a reservoir whereon lines were marked indicating 
 
 * Gnomon — literally the upright piece of wood or metal which projects the shadow on the plane 
 of the dial.— [Ed.] 
 
 Z 
 
170 
 
 HOROLOGY. 
 
 the hours, as the water which escaped drop by drop from the upper vessel 
 came to the level. We find this instrument employed by most ancient 
 nations, and in many countries it remained in use until the tenth century 
 of the Christian era. 
 
 In one of his dialogues Plato declares that the philosophers are far more 
 fortunate than the orators — "these being the slaves of a miserable water- 
 clock ; whereas the others are at liberty to make their discourse as long as 
 they please." To explain this passage, we must remember that it was the 
 practice in the Athenian courts of j ustice, as subsequently in those of Rome, 
 
 Fig. 143. — The Clockmaker. Designed and Engraved by J. Amman. 
 
 to measure the time allowed to the advocates for pleading by means of a 
 water-clock. Three equal portions of water were put into it — one for the 
 prosecutor, one for the defendant, and the third for the judge. A man was 
 charged with the special duty of giving timely notice to each of the three 
 speakers that his portion was nearly run out. If, on some unusual occasion, 
 the time for one or other of the parties was doubled, it was called " adding 
 water-clock to water-clock ; " and when witnesses were giving evidence, or the 
 text of some law was being read out, the percolation of the water was 
 stopped: this was called aquam sustinere (to retain the water). 
 
HOROLOGY. 
 
 171 
 
 The hour-glass, which is still in use to a considerable extent for measuring 
 short intervals of time, had great analogy with the water-clock, but was 
 never susceptible of such regularity. In fact, at different periods important 
 improvements were applied to the water-clock. Vitruvius tells us that, 
 about one hundred years before our era, Ctesibius, a mechanician of 
 Alexandria, added several cogged- wheels to the water- clock, one of which 
 moved a hand, showing the hour on a dial. This must have been, so far as 
 historical documents admit of proof, the first step towards purely mecha- 
 nical horology. 
 
 In order, then, to find an authentic date in the history of horology, we 
 must go to the eighth century, when water-clocks, still further improved, 
 were either made or imported into France ; among others, one which Pope 
 Paul I. sent to Pepin le Bref. We must, however, believe that these 
 instruments can have attracted but little attention, or that they were speedily 
 forgotten ; for, one hundred years later, there appeared a water-clock at the 
 court of Charlemagne, a present from the famous caliph Aroun-al-Raschid, 
 regarded, indeed almost celebrated, as a notable event. Of this Eginhard 
 has left us an elaborate description. It was, he says, in brass, damaskeened 
 with gold, and marked the hours on a dial. At the end of each hour an equal 
 number of small iron balls fell on a bell, and made it sound as many times 
 as the hour indicated by the needle. Twelve windows immediately opened, 
 out of which were seen to proceed the same number of horsemen armed cap- 
 a-pie, who, after performing divers evolutions, withdrew into the interior 
 of the mechanism, and then the windows closed. 
 
 Shortly afterwards Pacificus, Archbishop of Yerona, constructed one far 
 superior to all that had preceded it ; for, besides giving the hours, it 
 indicated the date of the month, the days of the week, the phases of the 
 moon, &c. But still it was only an improved water-clock. Before 
 horology could really assume an historical date, it was necessary that for 
 motive power weights should be substituted for water, and that the escape- 
 ment should be invented ; yet it was only in the beginning of the tenth 
 century that these important discoveries were made. 
 
 " In the reign of Hugh Capet," says M. Dubois, " there lived in France 
 a man of great talent and reputation named Gerbert. He was born in the 
 mountains of Auvergne, and had passed his childhood in tending flocks near 
 Aurillac. One day some monks of the order of St. Benedict met him in the 
 
172 
 
 HOROLOGY. 
 
 fields: they conversed with him, and finding him precociously intelligent, 
 took him into their convent of St. Gerauld. There Gerbert soon acquired 
 a taste for monastic life. Eager for knowledge, and devoting all his spare 
 moments to study, he became the most learned of the community. After 
 he had taken vows, a desire to add to his scientific attainments led 
 him to set out for Spain. During several years he assiduously frequented 
 the universities of the Iberian peninsula. He soon found himself too learned 
 for Spain ; for, in spite of his truly sincere piety, ignorant fanatics accused 
 him of sorcery. As that accusation might have involved him in deplorable 
 consequences, he preferred not to await the result ; and hastily quitting the 
 town of Salamanca, which was his ordinary residence, he came to Paris, 
 where he very soon made himself powerful friends and protectors. At length, 
 after having successively been monk, superior of the convent of Bobbio, in 
 Italy, Archbishop of Eheims, tutor to Robert L, King of France, and to 
 Otho III., Emperor of Germany, who appointed him to the see of Ravenna, 
 Gerbert rose to the pontifical throne under the name of Sylvester II. : he 
 died in 1003. This great man did honour to his country and to his age. 
 He was acquainted with nearly all the dead and living languages ; he was 
 a mechanician, astronomer, physician, geometrician, algebraist, &c. He 
 introduced the Arab numerals into France. In the seclusion of his monastic 
 cell, as in his archiepiscopal palace, his favourite relaxation was the study 
 of mechanics. He was skilled in making sun-dials, water-clocks, hour- 
 glasses, and hydraulic organs. It was he who first applied weight as a 
 motive power to horology ; and, in all probability, he is the inventor of 
 that admirable mechanism called escapement — the most beautiful, as well 
 as the most essential, 'of all the inventions which have been made in 
 horology." 
 
 This is not the place to give a description of these two mechanisms, 
 which can hardly be explained except with the assistance of purely technical 
 drawings, but it may be remarked that weights are still the sole motive 
 power of large clocks, and the escapement alluded to has been alone 
 employed throughout the world until the end of the seventeenth century. 
 Notwithstanding the importance of these two inventions, little use was made 
 of them during the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. The water- 
 clock and hour-glass (Fig. 144) continued exclusively in use. Some were 
 ornamented and engraved with much taste; and they contributed to the 
 
HOROLOGY. 
 
 '73 
 
 decoration of apartments, as at present do our bronzes and clocks more or 
 less costly. 
 
 History does not inform us who was the inventor of the striking 
 machinery ; but it is at least averred that it existed at the commencement 
 
 Fig. 144. — An Hour-glass of the Sixteenth Century,— French Work. 
 
 of the twelfth century. The first mention of it is found in the "Usages de 
 l'Ordre de Citeaux," compiled about 1120. It is there prescribed to the 
 sacristan so to regulate the clock, that it " sounds and awakens him before 
 matins ; " in another chapter the monk is ordered to prolong the lecture 
 until " the clock strikes." At first, in the monasteries, the monks took it in 
 turn to watch, and warn the community of the hours for prayer ; and, in the 
 
»74 
 
 HOROLOGY. 
 
 towns, there were night watchmen, who, moreover, were maintained in many- 
 places to announce in the streets the hour denoted by the clocks, the water- 
 clocks, or the hour-glasses. 
 
 The machinery for striking once invented, we do not find that horology 
 had attained to any perfection before the end of the thirteenth century ; but, 
 in the commencement of the following it received its impulse, and the art 
 from that time continued to progress. 
 
 To give an idea of what was effected at that time, we will borrow a 
 passage from the earliest writings in which horology is mentioned ; that is, 
 from an unpublished book by Philip de Maizieres, entitled " Le Songe du 
 Yieil Pelerin : " — " It is known that in Italy there is at present (about 1350) 
 a man generally celebrated in philosophy, in medicine, and in astronomy ; 
 in his station, by common report, singular and grave, excelling in the 
 above three sciences, and of the city of Padua. His surname is lost, and he 
 is called ' Maistre Jehan des Orloges,' residing at present with the Comte de 
 Vertus ; and, for the treble sciences, he has for yearly wages and perquisites 
 two thousand florins, or thereabouts. This Maistre Jean des Orloges has 
 made an instrument, by some called a sphere or clock, of the movement of 
 the heavens, in which instrument are all the motions of the signs (zodiacal), 
 and of the planets, with their circles and epicycles, and multiplied differences, 
 wheels (roes) without number, with all their parts, and each planet in 
 the said sphere, distinctly. On any given night, we see clearly in what 
 sign and degree are the planets and the stars of the heavens ; and this 
 sphere is so cunningly made, that notwithstanding the multitude of wheels, 
 which cannot well be numbered without taking the machinery to pieces, 
 their entire mechanism is governed by one single counterpoise, so mar- 
 vellous that the grave astronomers from distant regions come with great 
 reverence to visit the said Maistre Jean and the work of his hands ; and all 
 the great clerks of astronomy, of philosophy, and of medicine, declare that 
 there is no recollection of a man, either in written document or otherwise, 
 who in this world has made so ingenious or so important an instrument of 
 
 the heavenly movements as the said clock Maistre Jean made the 
 
 said clock with his own hands, all of brass and of copper, without the 
 assistance of any other person, and did nothing else during sixteen entire 
 years, if the writer of the book, who had a great friendship for the said 
 Maistre Jean, has been rightly informed." 
 
HOROLOGY. 
 
 It is known, on the other hand, that the famous clockmaker, whose real 
 name Maizieres assumes to be lost, was called Jaques de Dondis ; and that, 
 in spite of the assertion of the writer, he had only to arrange the clock, the 
 parts of which had been executed by an excellent workman named Antoine. 
 However this may be, placed at the top of one of the towers of the palace of 
 Padua, the clock of Jaques de Dondis, or of " Maistre Jean des Orloges," 
 excited general admiration, and several princes of Europe being desirous to 
 have similar clocks, many workmen tried to imitate it. In fact, churches 
 or monasteries were soon able to pride themselves on possessing similar 
 chefs-d'oeuvre. 
 
 Among the most remarkable clocks of that period, we must refer to that 
 of which Froissart speaks, and which was carried away from the town of 
 Courtray by Philip the Bold after the battle of Rosbecque in 1382. " The 
 Duke of Burgundy," says our author, "caused to be carried away from the 
 market-place a clock that struck the hours, one of the finest which could 
 be found on either side the sea ; and he conveyed it piece by piece in carts, 
 and the bell also. Which clock was brought and carted into the town of 
 Dijon, in Burgundy, was there deposited and put up, and there strikes the 
 twenty-four hours between day and night." 
 
 It is the celebrated clock of Dijon which then as now was surmounted 
 by two automata of iron, a man and a woman, striking the hours on 
 the bell. The origin of the name of Jacquemart given to these figures 
 has been much disputed. Menage believes that the word is derived from 
 the Latin jaccomarchiardus (coat of mail — attire of war) ; and he reminds 
 us that, in the Middle Ages, it was the custom to station, on the summit 
 of the towers, men (soldiers wearing the jacque) to give warning of the 
 approach of the enemy, of fires, &c. Menage adds that, when more efficient 
 watchers occasioned the discontinuance of these nocturnal sentinels, it was 
 probably considered desirable to preserve the remembrance of them by 
 putting in the place they had occupied iron figures which struck the hours. 
 Other writers trace the name even to the inventor of this description of 
 clocks, who, according to them, lived in the fourteenth century, and was 
 called Jacques Marck. Finally, Gabriel Peignot, who has written a dis- 
 sertation on the jacquemart of Dijon, asserts that in 1422 a person named 
 Jacquemart, clockmaker and locksmith, residing in the town of Lille, 
 received twenty-two livres from the Duke of Burgundy, for repairing 
 
HOROLOGY. 
 
 the clock of Dijon ; and from that he concludes, seeing how short the 
 distance is from Lille to Courtray, whence the clock of Dijon had been 
 taken, that this Jacquemart might well he the son or the grandson of the 
 clockmaker who had constructed it about 1360 ; consequently the name 
 
 Fig. 145.— Jacquemart of Notre-Dame at Dijon, made at Courtray in the Fourteenth Century. 
 
 of the jacquemart of Dijon is derived from that of its maker, old Jacque- 
 mart, the clockmaker of Lille (Fig. 145). 
 
 Giving to each of these opinions its due weight, we confine ourselves 
 to stating that, from the end of the fourteenth century to the beginning of 
 
HOROLOGY. 
 
 >77 
 
 the fifteenth, numerous churches in Germany, Italy, and France already 
 had jacquemarts. 
 
 The first clock possessed by Paris was that in the turret of the Palais 
 de Justice. Charles V. had it constructed in 1370 by a German artisan, 
 Henri de Yic. It contained a weight for moving power, an oscillating 
 piece for regulator, and an escapement. It was adorned with carvings by 
 Germain Pilon, and was destroyed in the eighteenth century. 
 
 In 1389, the clockmaker Jean Jouvence made one for the Castle of 
 Montargis. Those of Sens and of Auxerre, as well as that of Lund 
 
 Fig. 146.— Clock with Wheels and Weights. Fifteenth Century. 
 (Cabinet of Antiquities, Bibl. Imp., Paris.) 
 
 in Sweden, date from the same period. In the last, every hour two 
 cavaliers met and gave each other as many blows as the hours to be 
 struck : then a door opened, and the Virgin Mary appeared sitting on a 
 throne, with the Infant Jesus in her arms, receiving the visit of the Magi 
 followed by their retinue ; the Magi prostrating themselves and tendering 
 their presents. During the ceremony two trumpets sounded : then all 
 vanished, to re-appear the following hour. 
 
 Until the end of the thirteenth century, clocks were destined exclusively 
 
« 7 8 
 
 HOROLOGY. 
 
 to public buildings ; or they at least affected, if we may say so, a monumental 
 character which precluded their admission into private houses. The first 
 clocks with weights and the flywheel made for private use appeared in 
 
 Fig. 147. — A portable Clock of the time of the ValoisT 
 
 France, in Italy, and in Germany, about the commencement of the four- 
 teenth century ; but naturally they were at first so costly that only nobles 
 
HOROLOGY. 
 
 and wealthy persons could obtain them. But an impulse was* given which 
 led to the manufacture of these objects more economically. In fact, it was 
 not long before portable clocks were seen in the most unpretentious abodes. 
 This of course did not prevent the production of expensive examples, either 
 as regards ornamentation or carving, or in placing the clock on costly 
 pedestals or cases, within which were suspended the weights (Fig. 146), 
 
 The fifteenth century has distinctly left its mark on the progress of 
 horology. In 1401 the Cathedral of Seville was enriched with a magnifi- 
 cent clock which struck the hours. In 1404, Lazare, a Servian by birth, 
 constructed a similar one for Moscow. That of Lubeck, which was embel- 
 lished with the figures of the twelve Apostles, dates from 1405. It is 
 proper to notice also the famous clock which Jean-Galeas Yisconti had 
 made for Pavia ; and more especially that of St. Marc of Yenice, which was 
 not executed until 1495. 
 
 The spiral spring was invented in the time of Charles VII. : a band 
 of very fine steel, rolled up into a small drum or barrel, produced, in 
 unrolling, the effect of the weights on the primitive movements. To the 
 possibility of enclosing that moving power in a confined space is due the 
 facility of manufacturing very small clocks. In fact, one finds in certain 
 collections, clocks of the time of Louis XI., remarkable not only for the 
 artistic richness of their decoration, but still more so for the small space 
 they occupy, although they are generally of very complicated mechanism ; 
 some marking the date of the month, striking the hour, and serving also as 
 alarm-clocks. 
 
 It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine the exact date of the 
 invention of watches. But, in truth, we ought perhaps to regard the 
 watch, especially after the invention of the spiral spring, as only the last 
 step taken towards a portable form of clock. It is however true, according 
 to the statements found in Pancirole and Du Verdier by the authors of 
 the " Encyclopaedia of Sciences," that at the end of the fifteenth century 
 watches were made no larger than an almond. Even the names Myrmecides 
 and Carovagius are cited as those of two celebrated artisans in such work. 
 It was said that the latter made an alarm-watch which not only sounded 
 the hour required, but even struck a light to ignite a candle. Besides, we 
 know for certain that, in the time of Louis XL, there were watches very 
 small yet perfectly manufactured; and it is proved that, in 1500, at Nurem- 
 
i8o 
 
 HOROLOGY. 
 
 berg, Peter Hele made them of the form of an egg, and consequently the 
 watches of that country were long known as Nuremberg eggs. 
 
 We learn, moreover, from history that in 1542, a watch which struck 
 the hours, set in a ring, was offered to Guidobaldo of Rovere ; and that in 
 1 575, Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, bequeathed to his brother Eichard 
 a cane of Indian wood having a watch placed in its head ; and, finally, that 
 Henry VIII. of England wore a very small watch requiring to be wound up 
 only every eighth day. 
 
 It is not inappropriate here to remark that the time kept by these little 
 machines was not regular until an ingenious workman, whose name has 
 not come down to us, invented the fusee, a kind of truncated cone ; to the 
 base of this was attached a small piece of catgut which, spirally rolling 
 itself up to the top, became fastened to the barrel that enclosed the spring. 
 The advantage of this arrangement is, that owing to the conical form of 
 the fusee, the traction of the spring acting as it relaxes on a greater radius 
 of the cone, it results in establishing equilibrium of power between the 
 first and the last movements of the spring. Subsequently a clockmaker 
 named Gruet substituted jointed (articuUes) chains for catgut; the latter 
 having the great disadvantage of being hygrometric and varying in tension 
 with the state of the atmosphere. 
 
 The use of watches spread rapidly in France. In the reigns of the 
 Valois, a large number were made of very diminutive size, to which the 
 clockmakers gave all sorts of forms, especially those of an acorn, an almond, 
 a Latin cross, a shell (Figs. 148 to 150). They were engraved, chased, 
 enamelled ; the hand which marked the hour was very frequently of 
 delicate workmanship, and sometimes ornamented with precious stones. 
 Some of these watches set in motion symbolic figures, as well as Time, 
 Apollo, Diana, the Virgin, the Apostles, and the saints. 
 
 It may be conceived that all these complicated works required numerous 
 craftsmen. It was therefore considered proper to unite these artisans in a 
 community. The statutes which they had received from Louis XI. in 
 1483 were confirmed by Francis I. They contained a succession of laws, 
 intended to protect at the same time the interests of members of the cor- 
 poration and the dignity of their profession. 
 
 No one was admitted as master but on proof of having served eight 
 years of apprenticeship, and after having produced a chef-d'oeuvre in the 
 
HOROLOGY. 
 
 house, or under the supervision, of one of the inspectors of the corporation. 
 The visiting inspectors, elected by all the members, as well as by the 
 trustees and the syndics, were authorised when introducing themselves into 
 the workshops, to look after the proper construction of watches and clocks ; 
 and if it happened that they found such as did not appear to be made 
 according to the rules of art, they could not only seize and destroy them, 
 
 Figs. 148 to 150. — Watches of the Valois Epoch. (Sixteenth Century.) 
 
 but also impose a fine on the maker for the benefit of the corporation. 
 The statutes also gave exclusive right to the accredited masters to trade, 
 directly or otherwise, with all the stock, new or second-hand, finished or 
 unfinished. 
 
 "Under the influence of these wise institutions/' M. Dubois remarks, 
 " the master- clockmakers had no fear of the competition of persons not 
 
182 
 
 HOROLOGY. 
 
 belonging to the corporation. If they were affected by the artistic 
 superiority of some of their colleagues, it was with the laudable desire to 
 contend with them for the first places. The work of one day, superior to 
 that of the preceding, was surpassed by that of the day following. It was 
 by this incessant competition of intelligence and knowledge, by this legiti- 
 mate and invigorating rivalry of all the members of the same industrious 
 community, that science itself attained by degrees the zenith of the excel- 
 lent and the sublime of the beautiful. The ambition of workmen was to 
 rise to the mastership, and they attained that only by force of labour 
 and assiduous efforts. The ambition of the masters was to acquire the 
 honours of the syndicate — that consular magistracy the most honourable 
 of all, for it was the result of election, and the recompense of services 
 rendered to art and to the community." 
 
 Having thus reached the middle of the sixteenth century, and not wish- 
 ing to exceed the compass assigned to this sketch, we may limit ourselves to 
 the mention of some of the remarkable works produced during a century 
 by an art that had already manifested itself with a power never to be 
 diminished. 
 
 The clock which Henry II. had constructed for the chateau of Anet has 
 long been regarded as very curious. Every time the hand denotes the hour, 
 a stag appears from the inside of the clock, and darts away followed by a 
 pack of hounds; but soon the pack and the stag stop, and the latter, by 
 means of very ingenious mechanism, strikes the hours with one of his feet. 
 
 The clock of Jena (Fig. 151), which is still in existence, is not less 
 famous. Above the dial is a bronze head presumed to represent a buffoon 
 of Ernest, Elector of Saxony, who died in 1486. When the hour is 
 about to strike, the head — so remarkably ugly as to have given the clock 
 the name of the monstrous head — opens its very large mouth. A figure 
 representing an old pilgrim offers it a golden apple on the end of a stick ; 
 but just when poor Hans (so was the fool called) is about to close his 
 mouth to masticate and swallow the apple, the pilgrim suddenly withdraws 
 it. On the left of the head is an angel singing (the arms of the city of 
 Jena), holding in one hand a book, which he raises towards his eyes when- 
 ever the hours strike, and with the other he rings a hand- bell. 
 
 The town of Niort, in Poitou, possessed also an extraordinary clock, 
 ornamented with a great number of allegorical figures — the work of Bouhain, 
 
HOROLOGY. 183 
 
 in 1570. A much more famous clock was that of Strasburg (Fig. 152), 
 constructed in 1573, and which was long considered to be the greatest of 
 all wonders. It was entirely restored in 1842 by M. Schwilgue. Angelo 
 Rocca, in his " Commentarium de Campanis," gives a description of it. Its 
 most important feature was a moving sphere, whereon were represented 
 the planets and the constellations, and which completed its rotation in 
 
 Fig. 151.— Clock of Jena, in Germany. (Fifteenth Century.) 
 
 three hundred and sixty-five days. On two sides of the dial and below it 
 the principal festivals of the year and the solemnities of the Church were 
 represented by allegorical figures. Other dials, distributed symmetrically 
 on the facade of the tower in which the clock is situated, marked the days 
 of the week, the date of the month, the signs of the zodiac, the phases of 
 the moon, the rising and setting of the sun, &c. Every hour two angels 
 
Fig. 152. — Astronomical Clock of the Cathedral at Strasburg, constructed in 1573. 
 
HOROLOGY. 
 
 sounded the trumpet. When the concert was finished, the bell tolled ; 
 then immediately a cock, perched on the summit, spread his wings noisily, 
 and made his crowing to be heard. The striking machinery, by means of 
 movable trap-doors, cylinders, and springs concealed in the interior of the 
 clock, set in motion a considerable number of automata, executed with 
 much skill. Angelo Rocca adds that the completion of this chef-d'oeuvre 
 was attributed to Nicolas Copernicus ; and that when this able mechanician 
 had finished his work, the sheriffs and consuls of the city had his eyes put 
 out in order to render it impossible for him to execute a similar clock for any 
 other city. This last statement is the more deserving to rank among mere 
 legends from the fact that, independent of existing proof of the clock being' 
 made by Conrad Dasypodius, it would be very difficult to prove that 
 Copernicus ever visited Alsace, or had his eyes put out. 
 
 A similar tradition is attached to the history of another clock still in 
 existence, and which was not less celebrated than that of Strasburg. We 
 refer to that of the Church of St. John at Lyons, made in 1598 by 
 Nicholas Lippius, a clockmaker of Basle; repaired and enlarged subse- 
 quently by Nourisson, an artisan of Lyons. Only the horary mechanism 
 now acts; but the clock is not on that account neglected by visitors, to 
 whom the worthy attendants still repeat, in perfect faith, that Lippius was 
 put to death as soon as he had finished his chef-d'oeuvre. To show the 
 improbability of this pretended penalty it is sufficient to remark, with 
 M. Dubois, that even in the sixteenth century persons were not killed for 
 the crime of making chefs-d'oeuvre ; and there is, besides, proof that Lippius 
 died in peace, and honoured, in his native country. 
 
 To these famous clocks must be added those of St. Lambert at Liege, of 
 Nuremberg, of Augsburg, and of Basle ; that of Medina del Campo, in Spain, 
 and those which, in the reign of Charles L, or during the Protectorship of 
 Cromwell, were manufactured and placed in England, at St. Dunstan's in 
 London,* and in the Cathedral of Canterbury, in Edinburgh, and in Glas- 
 gow, &c. 
 
 Before concluding, and to do justice to a century to which we have 
 assigned a period of decline, we are bound to acknowledge that some years 
 before the death of Cardinal Richelieu — that is to say, from 1630 to 1640 
 
 * This clock, as many readers doubtless know, was removed some years ago, when St. Dunstan's 
 Church, in Fleet Street, was rebuilt. — [Ed.] 
 
 B B 
 
HOROLOGY. 
 
 — artists of ability made praiseworthy efforts to create a new era in 
 horology. But the improvements they had in view were directed much 
 more to the processes of the construction of the several parts composing the 
 clockwork of watches and clocks than to the beauty and ingenuity of the 
 workmanship. This was progress of a purely professional character, in 
 order to create a more ready and inexpensive supply ; a progress which we 
 may regard as services rendered by art to trade. The period of great 
 constructions and delicate marvels was past. Ornamental Jacquemarts were 
 no longer placed in belfries. Mechanical chefs-d'oeuvre were no longer set 
 in frail gems. The time was still far off when, laying down the sceptre 
 of that empire on which " the sun never sets," the conqueror of Francis I., 
 retiring to a cloister, employed himself in the construction of the most 
 complicated clockwork. Charles V. had as assistant, if not as teacher, in 
 his work the learned mathematician, Jannellus Turianus, whom he had 
 induced to join him in his retreat. It is said that he enjoyed nothing so 
 much as seeing the monks of Saint- Just standing amazed before his alarum 
 watches and automaton clocks ; but it is also stated that he manifested the 
 greatest despair when obliged to admit it was as impossible to establish 
 perfect concord among clocks as among men. 
 
 In truth, Galileo had not yet arrived to observe and formulate the laws 
 of the pendulum, which Huygens was happily to apply to the movements 
 of horology. 
 
 Fig. 1 53-— -Top of an Hour-Glass, engraved and gilt. (A French Work of the Sixteenth Century.) 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 Music in the Middle Ages. — Musical Instruments from the Fourth to the Thirteenth Century. — 
 Wind Instruments : the Single and Double Flute, the Pandean Pipes, the Reed-pipe, the 
 Hautboy, the Flageolet, Trumpets, Horns, Olifants, the Hydraulic Organ, the Bellows- 
 Organ. — Instruments of Percussion: the Bell, the Hand-bell, Cymbals, the Timbrel, the 
 Triangle, the Bombulum, Drums.— Stringed Instruments : the Lyre, the Cithern, the Harp, 
 the Psalterj', the Nable, the Chorus, the Organistrum, the Lute and the Guitar, the Grout, the 
 Bote, the Viola, the Gigue, the Monochord. 
 
 f HE history of Music in the Middle Ages would com- 
 mence about the fourth century of our era. In the 
 sixth century, Isidore of Seville, in his " Sentiments 
 sur la Musique," writes as follows: — "Music is a modu- 
 lation of the voice, and also an accordance of several 
 sounds and their simultaneous union." 
 
 About 384, St. Ambrose, who built the Cathedral 
 of Milan, regulated the mode in which psalms, hymns, 
 and anthems should be performed, by selecting from Greek chants those 
 melodies he considered best adapted to the Latin Church. 
 
 In 590, Gregory the Great, in order to remedy the disorder which had 
 crept into ecclesiastical singing, collected all that remained of the ancient 
 Greek melodies, with those of St. Ambrose and others, and formed the 
 antiphonary which is called the Centonien, because it is composed of chants 
 of his selection. Henceforward, ecclesiastical chanting obtained the name 
 of Gregorian; it was adopted into the whole of the Western Church, 
 and maintained its position almost unaltered down to the middle of the 
 eleventh century. 
 
 It is thought that originally the music of the antiphonary was noted 
 in accordance with Greek and Roman usage — a notation known as the 
 Boethian, from the name of Boethius the philosopher, by whom we are 
 informed that in his time (that is, about the end of the fifth century) the 
 notation was composed of the first fifteen letters of the alphabet. 
 
j 88 
 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 The sounds of the octave were represented — the major by capital letters, 
 the minor by small letters, as follows : — 
 
 Major mode 
 Minor mode 
 
 A B C D E F Gr 
 a b c d e f g 
 
 Some fragments of music of the eleventh century are still preserved, in 
 which the notation is represented by letters having above them the signs 
 of another kind of notation called neumes (Fig. 154). 
 
 A 
 
 SOLIS O JL t V 
 
 V fclixetcdoccxA 
 
 f 
 
 TVcnct TOmccm 
 
 £ re-coze- mcL^tf _ 1 u c zvi-p xva j%t nr i% v ■ 
 
 \ • rifrmnccr fen cf 
 
 .7? 
 
 1 * 
 
 O I02 icfjpv incip Q f 
 H etc Ictnq-rcox h \f 
 
 * • 
 
 ** eu me- *dclmFf>ls«\gof 
 
 Fig. 154. — Lament composed shortly after the Death of Charlemagne, probably about 814 or 815, and attributed 
 to Colomban, Abbot of Saint-Tron. (MS. de la Bibl. Imp., No. 1,134.) 
 
 Musical Notation expressed in Modern Signs, the Text and Translation of the 
 
 Lament on Charlemagne. 
 
 A so lis or tu us que ad oc ci du a Lit to ra 
 
 ma ns planctuspul sat pec to ra Ul tra ma rt na ag mi mi tris 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 ti ti a Te ti git in gens cum er ro re ni mi o 
 
 Ke- 
 
 rne do lens plan gc! 
 
 
 =3=] 
 
 1 
 
 , 
 
 
 
 
 -J- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 # — — i 
 
 Fran ci Ro ma ni at que cun cti ere du li, Luc tu pun 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 gun t 
 
 — J — 
 
 
 
 ur 
 
 m 
 
 et mag m 
 
 mo 
 
 les ti a in fan te 
 
 s, se nes 
 
 lo ri o si prin ci pes Nam clan git or bis de trimentum Ka ro li 
 
 ^^^^ 
 
 Heu mi hi mi se rol 
 
 A solis ortu usque ad occidua 
 Littora maris, planctus pulsat pectora ; 
 Ultra marina agmina tristitia 
 Tetigit ingens cum errore nimio. 
 Heu ! me dolens, plango. 
 
 Franci, Eomani, atque cuncti creduli, 
 Luctu punguntur et magna molestia, 
 Infantes, senes, gloriosi principes ; 
 
 Nam clangit orbis detrimentum Karoli. 
 Heu ! mihi misero ! 
 
 From the East to the Western shores, 
 sorrow agitates every heart ; and inland, 
 this vast grief saddens armies. 
 
 Alas ! in my grief, I, too, weep. 
 
 French, Romans, and all believers are 
 plunged into mourning and profound 
 grief: children, old men, and illustrious 
 princes ; for the whole world deplores the 
 loss of Charlemagne. 
 
 Alas ! miserable me ! 
 
 About the fourth century the neumes were in use in the Greek Church ; 
 they are spoken of by St. Gregory of Nazianzus. Certain modifications in 
 them were introduced by the Lombards and Saxons. 
 
 "They were specially in use from the eighth to the twelfth century," 
 says M. Coussemaker, in his learned work, " Histoire de l'Harmonie au Moyen 
 Age," " and consisted of two sorts of signs : some formed like commas, dots, 
 or small inclined or horizontal strokes, which represented isolated sounds ; 
 others in the shape of hooks, and strokes variously twisted and joined, 
 expressing groups of sound composed of various intervals. 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 " These commas, dots, and inclined or horizontal strokes were the origin 
 of the long notes, the breve and the semibreve, and afterwards of the square 
 notation still in use in the plain-chant of the Church. The hook-shaped 
 signs and the variously twisted and joined strokes gave rise to the ligatures 
 and connections of notes. 
 
 " From the eighth to the end of the twelfth century — that is, during one 
 of the brightest periods of musical liturgy — the neumes were the notation 
 exclusively adopted over the whole of Europe, both in ecclesiastical singing 
 and also in secular music. From the end of the eleventh century, this 
 system of notation was established in France, Italy, Germany, England, 
 and Spain." 
 
 The chief modification to which the notation of music was subject at the 
 end of the eleventh century is due to the monk Guido, of Arezzo. In 
 order to facilitate the reading of the neumes, he invented placing them on 
 lines, and these lines he distinguished by colours. The second, that of the 
 fa, was red ; the fourth, that of the ut, was green ; the first and the third 
 are only traced on the vellum with a pen. In order that the seven notes 
 should be better impressed upon the memory, he gave as an example the 
 three first lines of the Hymn of St. John the Baptist, in which the syllables 
 ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, corresponded to the signs of the gamut : — 
 
 " Ut queant laxis itesonare fibris 
 Miva, gestorum i^muli tuorum, 
 Solve polluti Zabii reatum, 
 Sancte Joannes." 
 
 The choristers, in singing this hymn, slightly raised the intonation of 
 each of the italicised syllables, which were soon adopted for indicating six 
 of the notes of the gamut. To supply the seventh, which was not named 
 in this system, the barbarous theory of muances (divisions) was introduced, 
 and it was not until the seventeenth century the term si was applied in 
 France. 
 
 But after the commencement of the tenth century many individuals, 
 and especially poets, had invented rhythmical songs, which were entirely 
 different from those of the Church. " Harmony formed by successions of 
 various intervals," as we are told by the author whom we have before 
 quoted, "obtained in the eleventh century the name of discantus, in old 
 French dechant. Francon de Cologne is the most ancient author who 
 
MUSIC A L INS TR UMENTS. 
 
 makes use of this word. During the whole course of the eleventh century 
 the composition of melody was independent of harmony, and henceforth the 
 composition of music was divided into two very distinct parts. The people, 
 and poets and persons in high life, constructed the melody and the 
 words ; but being ignorant of the science of music, they resorted to a pro- 
 fessional musician to have their inspirations written down. The first were 
 very justly called trouveres (trobadori), the others the dechanteurs, or har- 
 monisers. Harmony was then only adapted for two voices — a combination 
 of fifths, and of movements in unison. 
 
 " In the twelfth century, the construction of melody continued to be in 
 the hands of poets. The dechanteurs or harmonisers were the professional 
 musicians. Popular songs became very numerous. Troubadours mul- 
 tiplied all over Europe, and the greatest lords deemed it an honour to 
 cultivate both poetry and music. Germany had her ' master- singers,' who 
 were in request at every court. In France, the Chatelain de Coucy, the 
 King of Navarre, the Comte de Bethune, the Comte d'Anjou, and a 
 hundred others acquired a brilliant reputation by songs, of which they 
 composed both the words and the melody. The most celebrated of these 
 trouveres was Adam de la Halle, who flourished in 1260." 
 
 In the fourteenth century, the name of counterpoint was substituted for 
 that of dechant ; and in 1364, at the coronation of Charles V. at Rheims, a 
 mass was sung which was written in four parts, composed by Guillaume de 
 Machault, poet and musician. 
 
 Among the ancients the number of musical instruments was consider- 
 able, but their names were even still more numerous, because derived 
 from the shape, the material, the nature and character of the instruments, 
 all of which varied infinitely, according to the whim of the maker or 
 the musician. Added to this, every country had its national instruments ; 
 and as each in its own language designated them by descriptive names, 
 the same instrument appeared under ten different denominations, and a 
 similar name was applied to ten instruments. However, having nothing 
 but monumental representation to guide us, and in the absence of the 
 instruments themselves, an almost inextricable confusion arises. 
 
 The Romans carried back to their own country, as the results of con- 
 quest, specimens of most of the musical instruments they found in use 
 in the countries subdued by them. Thus Greece supplied Rome with 
 
i g 2 
 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 nearly all the soft instruments of the class of lyres and flutes. Germany 
 and the northern provinces, being inhabited by warlike races, gave to their 
 conquerors the taste for loud-sounding instruments, such as trumpets and 
 drums. Asia, and Judaea especially, which had multiplied various kinds of 
 metal-instruments for use in their religious ceremonies, were the means of 
 naturalising in Roman music deep-toned instruments of the class of bells 
 and tom-toms (a kind of drum). Egypt introduced into Italy the timbrel 
 along with the worship of Isis. Byzantium had no sooner invented the first 
 pneumatic organs than the new religion of Christ took possession of them 
 for exclusive consecration to its service, both in the East and in the West. 
 
 All the musical instruments of the known world had therefore taken 
 refuge, as it were, in the capital of the Roman empire ; but their fate was 
 only to disappear and sink into oblivion after they had played their part in 
 the last pomps of that falling empire, and in the final festivals of the 
 ancient mythology. In a letter in which he specially treats of "various 
 kinds of musical instruments," St. Jerome, who lived from 331 to 420, speaks 
 of those which were in use in his time for the requirements of religion, 
 war, ceremonial, and art. He mentions, in the first place, the organ, and 
 describes it as composed of fifteen brazen pipes, two air-reservoirs of 
 elephant's skin, and twelve large sets of bellows, " to imitate the voice of 
 thunder." He next specifies, under the generic name of tuba, several kinds 
 of trumpets : that which called the people together, that which directed the 
 march of troops, that which proclaimed the victory, that which sounded the 
 charge against the enemy, that which announced the closing of the gates, 
 &c. One of these trumpets, the shape of which is rather difficult to gather 
 from his description, had three brazen bells, and roared through four air- 
 conduits. Another instrument, the homlulum, which must have made a 
 frightful uproar, was, as far as we can conjecture from the text of the pious 
 writer, a kind of peal of bells attached to a hollow metallic column which, by 
 the assistance of twelve pipes, reverberated the sounds of twenty-four bells 
 that were set in motion by one another. Next come the cithara of the 
 Hebrews, in the shape of a triangle, furnished with twenty-four strings ; the 
 sackbut, of Chaldsean origin, a trumpet formed of several movable tubes of 
 wood, fitting one into the other ; the psaltery, a small harp provided with 
 ten strings ; and lastly, the tympanum, also called the chorus, a hand-drum 
 to which were fixed two metal flute-tubes. 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 *93 
 
 A nomenclature of a similar kind, applying to the ninth century, exists 
 in a history of Charlemagne, in Latin verse, by Aymeric de Peyrac. This 
 shows as that, during the lapse of four centuries, the number of instruments 
 had been nearly doubled, and that the musical influence of Charlemagne's 
 
 Fig. 155.— Concert ; a Bas-relief, taken from a Capital in Saint-Georges de Boscherville, Normandy. 
 (A Work of the Eleventh Century.) 
 
 reign had made itself felt in the revival and improvement of several instru- 
 ments which had been formerly abandoned. This curious metrical compo- 
 sition enumerates all the stringed, wind, and pulsatile instruments which 
 celebrated the praise of the great emperor, the protector and restorer of 
 
 c c 
 
1 94 
 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 music. The number of instruments specified are twenty-four in number, 
 among which we find nearly all those mentioned by St. Jerome. 
 
 The names, therefore, of musical instruments had passed through seven 
 or eight centuries without undergoing any kind of change than that 
 naturally resulting from variations in the language. But the instruments 
 themselves, during this long interval of time, had been often modified to 
 such extent that the primitive denomination not unfrequently appeared 
 to contradict the musical characteristics of the instrument to which it still 
 continued to be attached. Thus, the chorus, which had been a four- stringed 
 harp, and from its name seems to indicate a collection of instruments, had 
 
 Fig. 156.— Concert and Musical Instruments. From a Miniature in a Manuscript of the Thirteenth Century 
 
 become a wind-instrument.* So also the psaltery, which was originally 
 touched by a plectrum (stick) or with the fingers, now only gave forth its 
 notes under the influence of a bow; an instrument that had had twenty 
 strings now only retained eight; another, the name of which seemed to 
 refer to a square shape, was rounded ; those primitively made of wood 
 were now constructed of metal. There is reason to believe that, gene- 
 rally speaking, these changes were made not so much with the view of any 
 musical improvement, properly so called, as with an idea of gratifying the 
 
 * The reader will notice a discrepancy between this description of the chorus and that given in 
 a preceding paragraph. We have retained both, mainly because it is now impossible to determine 
 what the instrument really was: no mention of it appears in any book we have consulted. — [Ed.] 
 
MUSIC A L INSTR UMENTS. 
 
 '95 
 
 fancy of the eye (Figs. 155 to 157). Scarcely any fixed rules for the 
 construction of musical instruments existed before the sixteenth century, 
 when learned musicians applied mathematical principles to the theory of 
 manufacture. Down to 1589 musical instruments were made in Paris 
 
 Fig- 157— The Tree of Jesse. The ancestors of Jesus Christ are represented with Musical Instruments, and as 
 forming a Celestial Concert. (Fac-simile from a Miniature in a Manuscript Breviary of the Fifteenth 
 Century. Royal Library, Brussels.) 
 
 by workmen who were organ-makers, lute-makers, or even coppersmiths, 
 under the inspection and guarantee of the community of musicians ; but at 
 this epoch the makers of musical instruments were united in a trade 
 
ig6 
 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 corporation, and obtained, through the goodwill of Henry III., certain 
 privileges and special statutes. 
 
 As musical instruments have always been divided into three particular 
 classes, — stringed, pulsatile, and wind instruments, — we shall adopt this 
 natural division in passing under review the various kinds in use during 
 the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. We shall not, however, pretend to 
 be always able to point out the precise musical value of these instruments, 
 for in several instances we have no knowledge of them, except from repre- 
 sentations more or less truthful. 
 
 The class of wind instruments comprised flutes, trumpets, and organs ; 
 each of these was, however, subdivided into several very distinct kinds. In 
 the division of flutes alone, for instance, we find the straight flute, the 
 double flute, the side-mouthed or German flute, the Pandean pipes, the 
 chorus, the calamus, the bagpipes {muse or mousette), the doucine or hautboy, 
 the flaws or flageolet, &c. 
 
 The flute is the most ancient of musical instruments; even in the 
 Middle Ages no orchestra was considered complete which did not contain 
 an entire order of flutes, differing both in shape and tone. In prin- 
 ciple, the simple flute, or flute d bee, consisted of a straight pipe of hard 
 and sounding wood, made in one piece, and pierced with four or six holes. 
 But the number of holes being successively increased to eleven, and the 
 pipe being enlarged to a length of seven or eight feet, the result was that 
 the fingers were unable to act simultaneously upon, all the openings ; thus, 
 in order to close the two holes farthest from the mouthpiece, keys were 
 attached to the body of the flute which the instrumentalist acted on with 
 his foot. 
 
 The simple flute, of greater or less length, is seen on the figured monu- 
 ments of every epoch. The double flute, which was equally in use, had, as 
 its name indicates, two pipes, generally of unequal lengths ; the left-hand 
 tube, which was the shortest and therefore called the feminine, produced 
 shrill sounds, while the right-hand, or masculine, gave the low notes. 
 Whether these two tubes were united or were separate, this flute had 
 always two distinct mouths, — although they were often very close together 
 —on which the musician played alternately. The double flute (Fig. 158) 
 was the instrument employed in the eleventh century by the jongleurs or 
 jugglers as an accompaniment. 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 197 
 
 The side-mouthed flute, which was at first very little used, owed its 
 celebrity in the sixteenth century to the improvements it received from the 
 Germans, hence it acquired the name of the German flute (Fig. 160). 
 
 The syrinx was nothing but the ancient Pandean pipes, composed 
 generally of seven tubes of wood or metal, gradually decreasing in length ; 
 they were closed at the bottom, and at the top took the form of a horizontal 
 plane, which was touched by the lip of the musician as it passed along 
 (Fig. 159). In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the syrinx, which must 
 have produced very shrill and discordant music, was generally made in the 
 shape of a semicircle, and contained nine tubes in a metallic case pierced 
 with the same number of holes. 
 
 Fig. 158— Double Flute, Fourteenth Century. Fig. 159.— Seven-tubed Syrinx, Ninth or Tenth 
 
 (From Willemin's "French Monuments.") Century. (Angers MS.) 
 
 The chorus, which in the time of St. Jerome was composed of a skin and 
 two tubes, one forming the mouth, the other the bell-end (Fig. 161), must 
 have presented a very great similarity to the modern bagpipes. In the 
 ninth century its shape had changed but little, except that we sometimes 
 find two bell-ends, and the membranous air-reservoir is in some examples 
 replaced by a kind of case made of metal or resonant wood (bois sonore). 
 Subsequently this instrument was transformed into a simple dulcimer. 
 
 The calamus, called the chalemelle or chalemie, which derived its origin 
 from the calamus or reed-pipe of the ancients, became in the sixteenth century 
 a treble to the hautboy, the bombarde being its counter-bass and tenor, and 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 the bass being executed on the cromorne. There was, however, quite a 
 group of hautboys. The dougaine or doucine, a soft flute, the great hautboy 
 of Poitou played the parts of tenor or of fifth. The length of the hautboy 
 having been found inconvenient, it was divided into pieces united in a movable 
 cluster (faisceau) known by the name of fagot. This instrument was after- 
 wards called courtaut in France, and sourdeline or sampogne in Italy, where it 
 had become a kind of bagpipe, like the muse or estive. The muse de Ue was a 
 
 Fig. 160.— German Musicians playing on the Flute and Goat's Horn. 
 (Drawn and Engraved by J. Amman.) 
 
 simple reed-pipe, but the muse d'Aussay (or d'Ausgois, district of Auch) was 
 certainly a hautboy. With regard to the bagpipes, properly so called, they 
 generally bore the name of chevrette, chevrie, or ehievre, on account of the 
 skin of which the bag was made. They were also designated by the names 
 oipythaule and cornemuse, drone-pipe (Fig. 162). 
 
 The fldios de saus, or reed-flutes, were nothing but mere whistles, such 
 as village children are still in the habit of making in the spring ; but there 
 were, says an ancient author, more than twenty kinds, "as many loud as 
 soft," which were coupled by pairs in an orchestra. The fistule, the souffle, 
 the pipe, and the fretiau or galoubet, were all small flageolets played on by 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 199 
 
 the left hand while the right marked the time on a tambourine or with 
 the cymbals. The pandorium, which has been classed among the flutes 
 without its shape and character of tone being rightly determined, must 
 have presented, at least at its origin, some similarity of sound to the 
 stringed instrument called pandore [pandora). 
 
 Trumpets formed a much more numerous class than the flutes. In Latin 
 they were called tuba, lituus, buccina, taurea, cornu, claro, salpinx, &c. ; in 
 French, trompe, come, olifant, cornet, buisine, sambute, &c. In most cases, 
 
 Fig. 161. — Chorus with single Bell-end with Holes. Fig. 162. — Bagpiper, Thirteenth Century. 
 
 (Ninth Century, MS. of Saint-Blaise.) (Sculpture on the Musicians' Hall at Rheims.) 
 
 however, they derived their name either from their shape, the sound which 
 they produced, the material whereof they were made, or the use for which 
 they were specially intended. Thus, among military trumpets of copper 
 or brass, the names of some (claro, clarasius) indicating the piercing sound 
 which they produced ; the names of others seem rather to refer to the 
 appearance of their bell-ends (Fig. 164), which imitated the head of a bird, 
 a horn, a serpent, &c. Some of these trumpets were so long and heavy that 
 a foot or stand was required to support them, while the performer took the 
 end in his mouth and blew through it with full power of breath (Fig. 163.) 
 
200 
 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 The shepherds' horns, made of wood rimmed with brass, were a heavy 
 and powerful kind of speaking-trumpet, which in the eighth century the 
 Welsh herdsmen and those of the landes of Cornouaille always carried 
 with them (Fig. 165.) When the barons or knights desired to convey any 
 signals rendered necessary either in war or hunting, they were in the habit 
 of using horns of a much more portable character, which were suspended at 
 their girdles; they used them, also, as drinking vessels when occasion 
 required. At first these instruments were generally made of nothing but 
 buffalo's or goat's horns ; but when the fashion arose of working delicately 
 
 Fig. 163. — Straight Trumpet with Stand. 
 (Eleventh Century. Cotton MS., British Museum.) 
 
 Fig. 164. — Curved Trumpet. 
 (Eleventh Century. Cotton MS., British Museum.) 
 
 in ivory, they took the name of olifant, an appellation destined to become 
 famous in the old romances of chivalry, in which the olifant played a very 
 important part (Fig. 166). To cite only one example among a thousand, 
 Roland, when overwhelmed by numbers in the valley of Eonceveaux, 
 sounded the olifant in order to call Charlemagne's army to his aid. 
 
 In the fourteenth century, according to a passage in a manuscript in the 
 Library of Berne, quoted by M. Jubinal, there were in bodies of troops 
 comeurs, trompeurs, and buisineurs, who played under certain special cir- 
 cumstances. The trompes sounded for the movements of the knights, or 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 201 
 
 men-at-arms ; the comes for the movements of the banners or the foot- 
 soldiers, and the buisines, or clarions, when the entire camp (ost) was to 
 march. The heralds-at-arms, whose duty it was to make the announcements 
 or proclamations in the public ways, were in the habit of using either long 
 trumpets, called d potence, on account of the forked stick whereon'they were 
 supported, or trumpets d tortittes (serpentine), the name of which sufficiently 
 indicates their shape. Added to this, the sound of the trumpet or horn 
 accompanied or signalised the principal acts of the citizens both in public 
 and private life. During the meals of great men, the water, the wine, and 
 the bread, were heralded by sound of trumpet. In towns this instrument 
 
 Fig-. 165— Shepherd's Horn. Eighth Century. 
 (MS., British Museum.) 
 
 Fig. 166.— Horn, or Olifant, Fourteenth Century. 
 (From Willemin's " French Monuments.") 
 
 announced the opening and closing of tbe gates, the opening and closing 
 of the markets, and the time of curfew, till the time when the horn and 
 the copper trumpet were superseded in this function by the bells m 
 church-towers. 
 
 Polybius and Ammianus Marcellinus tell us that the ancient Gauls and 
 Germans had a great passion for large, hoarse-sounding trumpets. At the 
 time of Charlemagne, and still more in the days of the Crusades, the inter- 
 course that took place between the men of the West and the African and 
 Asiatic races introduced among the former the use of musical instruments of 
 a harsh and piercing tone. Then it was that the Saracen-horns, made of 
 
 D D 
 
202 
 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 copper, replaced the wooden or horn trumpets. At the same period sackbuts, 
 or sambutes (Fig. 167), made their appearance in Italy : in those of the 
 ninth century, we find the principle of the modern trombone. About the 
 same epoch the Germans introduced great improvements into the trumpet 
 
 Fig. 167.— Sambute, or Sackbut, of the Ninth Century. (Boulogne MS.) 
 
 by adapting to it the system of holes, which up to that time had been the 
 characteristic of flutes (Fig. 168). 
 
 But among all the wind instruments of the Middle Ages, the 
 organ was the one most imposing in its nature, and destined to the most 
 
 Fig. 168.— German Musician sounding the Military Trumpet. Drawn and Engraved by J. Amman. 
 
 glorious career. The only instrument of this kind known by the ancients 
 was the water- organ, in which a key-board of twenty- six keys corresponded 
 to the same number of pipes ; and the air, acted upon by the pressure of 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 203 
 
 water, produced most varied sounds. Nero, it is said, spent a whole day- 
 examining and admiring the mechanism of an instrument of this kind. 
 
 The water-organ, although described and commended by Yitruvius, was 
 not much in use in the Middle Ages. Eginhard speaks of one constructed, 
 in 826, by a Venetian priest ; and the last of which mention is made existed 
 at Malmesbury in the twelfth century. But this latter might be regarded 
 more in the light of a steam-organ ; for, like the warning whistles of our 
 locomotives, it was worked by the effects of the steam of boiling water 
 rushing into brass pipes. 
 
 The water-organ was, in very early times, superseded by the pneumatic 
 or wind-organ (Fig. 169), the description of which given by St. Jerome 
 agrees with the representations on the obelisk erected at Constantinople 
 in the time of Theodosius the Great. We must, however, fix a date as 
 late as the eighth century for the introduction of this instrument into the 
 
 Fig. 169.— Pneumatic Organ of the Fourth Century. (Sculpture of that date at Constantinople.) 
 
 West, or at least into France. In 757, Constantine Copronymus, Emperor 
 of the East, sent to King Pepin a number of presents, among which was 
 an organ that excited the admiration of the court. Charlemagne, who 
 received a similar present from the same monarch, had several organs made 
 from this model. These were provided, according to the statement of the 
 monk of Saint-Gall, with " brazen pipes which were acted on by bellows 
 made of bull's hide, and imitated the roaring of thunder, the accents of the 
 lyre, and the clang of cymbals." These primitive organs, notwithstanding 
 the power and richness of their musical resources, were of dimensions which 
 rendered them quite portable. It was, in fact, only in consequence of 
 its almost exclusive application to the solemnities of Catholic worship that 
 the organ became developed on an almost gigantic scale. In 951, there 
 existed in Winchester Cathedral an organ which was divided into two parts, 
 each provided with its apparatus of bellows, its key-board, and its organist. 
 
204 
 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 Twelve bellows above, and fourteen below, were worked by seventy strong- 
 men, and the air was distributed by means of forty valves into four hundred 
 pipes, arranged in groups or choirs of ten, each group corresponding with 
 one of the twenty-four keys of each key-board (Fig. 170). 
 
 In the ninth century, the German organ-makers acquired great renown. 
 The monk Gerbert, who, as we have already remarked, became pope under 
 the name of Sylvester II., and co-operated so efficiently in the progress of 
 the horological art, established in the monastery of which he was abbot a 
 workshop for the manufacture of organs. We must add, that all the musical 
 treatises written from the ninth to the twelfth century entered into very 
 
 Fig. 170.— Great Organ, with Bellows and double Key-board, of the Twelfth Century. (MS. at Cambridge.) 
 
 considerable details concerning the arrangement and working of this instru- 
 ment. Nevertheless, the admission of the organ into churches did not fail 
 to meet with earnest opponents among the bishops and priests of the day. 
 But while some complained of the thunder and rumbling of the organs, others 
 appealed to the examples of king David and the prophet Elisha. Finally, 
 in the thirteenth century, the right of placing organs in all churches was 
 no longer disputed, and the only question was, who could build the most 
 powerful and most magnificent instruments. At Milan was an organ the 
 pipes of which were of silver ; at Venice some were made of pure gold. The 
 number of these pipes was varied and multiplied to an infinite extent, 
 according to the effects the instrument was required to produce. The 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 205 
 
 mechanism was, generally speaking, rather complicated, and the working of 
 the bellows very laborious. In large organs the key-board was made up 
 of key-plates five or six inches wide, which the organist, his hands defended 
 by thickly padded gloves, had to strike with his clenched fist in order to 
 bring out the notes (Fig. 171). 
 
 Fig. 171. — Organ with single Key-board of the Fourteenth Century. 
 (Miniature from a Latin Psalter, No. 175, Bibl. Imp., Paris.) 
 
 The organ, which, as we have seen, was at first of a portable nature, 
 in some cases resumed its original dimensions (Fig. 172). It was then 
 sometimes called simply portatif (hand-organ), and sometimes regale or jjositif 
 
 Fig. 172.— Portable Organ of the Fifteenth Century. 
 (Miniature in Vincent de Beauvais' " Miroir Historial," MS. in the Bibl. Imp., Paris.) 
 
 (choir-organ). Raphael, in one of his famous pictures, represents St. Cecilia 
 singing sacred hymns, and accompanying herself on a choir-organ. 
 
206 
 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 The class of pulsatile instruments was formed of hells, cymhals, and 
 drums. 
 
 There can he no doubt that the ancients were acquainted with large hells, 
 hand-hells, and strung-bells (grelots). But we must ascribe to the require- 
 ments of Christian worship the first introduction of the bell, properly so 
 called, formed of cast-metal (campana or nola, the first having been made, it 
 is said, at Nola), which was employed from the first in summoning the 
 faithful to the public services. In the first instance the bell was merely held 
 in the hand and shaken by some monk or ecclesiastic who stood in front of 
 the church-door, or mounted a raised platform for the purpose. This tintin- 
 
 Fig. 173. — Tiniinnabuhtm or Hand- 
 Bell of the Ninth Century. 
 (Boulogne MS.) 
 
 Fig. 174.— The Saujang of St. Ce- 
 cilia's at Cologne. 
 (Sixth Century.) 
 
 Fig. 175. — Bell in a Tower of 
 Siena. 
 (Twelfth Century.) 
 
 nabulum (Fig. 173), or portable bell, subsequently passed into the hands 
 of the public criers, the societies of ringers, and those who rang knells 
 for the dead, at a time when most of the churches were provided with cam- 
 paniles or bell-towers, wherein were hung the parish bells, which daily 
 assumed dimensions of increasing importance. These great bells, of which 
 the Saufang of Cologne (sixth century) is an example (Fig. 174), were at 
 first made of wrought-iron plates laid one over the other, and riveted 
 together. But in the eighth century they began to cast bells of copper and 
 even of silver. One of the most ancient still existing is that in the 
 tower of Bisdomini at Siena (Fig. 175). It bears the date of 1159, and is 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 207 
 
 formed in the shape of a cask, being rather more than a yard high : the 
 sound it produces is very sharp. The combination of several bells of various 
 sizes naturally produced the peal or chime ; this at first consisted of an 
 arch of wood or iron whereon were suspended the bells, which the player 
 struck with a small hammer (Fig. 176). The number and classification of 
 the bells becoming subsequently rather more complicated, the hand of the 
 chimer was superseded by a mechanical arrangement. This was the origin 
 of those peals of bells for "which there was such a demand in the Middle 
 Ages, and of which certain towns are still so proud. 
 
 The designations of cymbalum and fiagellum were, in the first instance, 
 applied to small hand-chimes ; but there were also regular cymbals (cymbala 
 or acetabula), spherical or hollowed plates of silver, brass, or copper. 
 Some of these were shaken at the ends of the fingers, or fastened to the knees 
 or feet, so as to be put in motion by the movement of the body. These small 
 cymbals, or crotales, were a kind of rattle (grelots), causing the dancers to 
 make a noise in their performance, as do the Spanish castanets, which in 
 the sixteenth century were called in France maronnettes, and were the same 
 as the etiquettes, or snappers, used by lepers in former days. Small strung- 
 bells became so much the fashion at a certain epoch that not only was 
 the harness of horses adorned with them, but they were suspended to the 
 clothes both of men and women, who at the slightest movement made a 
 ringing, tinkling noise, sounding like so many perambulating chimes. 
 
 The use of pulsatile instruments producing a metallic sound increased 
 greatly in Europe, especially after the return from the Crusades. But 
 even before this date the Egyptian timbrel was used in religious and festival 
 music ; this instrument was composed of a circle whereon rings were hung, 
 which tinkled as they struck together when the timbrel was shaken. The 
 Oriental triangle was also used on these occasions ; this was almost the same 
 then as it is at the present day. 
 
 The drum has always been a hollow case covered with a stretched skin, 
 but the shape and size of this instrument have caused great variations in 
 its name, and also in the way in which it was used. In the Middle Ages 
 it was called taborellus, tabornum, and tympanum. It generally made its 
 appearance in festal music, and especially in processions ; but it was not 
 until the fourteenth century that it began to take a place in military bands, 
 at least in France ; the Arabians, however, have used it from the earliest 
 
208 
 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 ages. In the thirteenth century the taburel was a kind of tambourine, 
 played on with only a drum-stick ; in the tabomum we may recognise the 
 military drum of the present day ; and the tympanum was equivalent to 
 our tambourine. Sometimes, as seen in a sculpture in the Musicians' Hall 
 at Kheims, this instrument was attached to the right shoulder of the 
 performer, who played upon it by striking it with his head, while at the 
 
 Fig. 176.— Chime of Bells of the Ninth Century. Fig-. 177.— Tympanum of the Thirteenth Century. 
 
 (MS. de Saint-Blaise.) (Sculpture on the Musicians' Hall, Rheims.) 
 
 same time he blew through two metal flutes communicating with the inside 
 of the drum (Fig. 177). 
 
 We have now to speak of stringed instruments, the whole of which may 
 be divided into three principal classes: those played on by the fingers, 
 those that are struck, and those which are rubbed (frottees) by means of 
 some appliance. 
 
 As a matter of fact, there are some stringed instruments which may 
 be said to belong to all three of these classes, as all three modes of playing 
 upon them has been adopted either simultaneously or in succession. 
 
 The most ancient are doubtless those that are played on by the fingers, 
 first among which, in right of its antiquity, we must name the lyre; from 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 209 
 
 this have sprung the cithern, the harp, the psaltery, the nabulon, &c. 
 In the Middle Ages, however, considerable confusion arose from the fact 
 that these original names were at the time often diverted from their real 
 acceptation. 
 
 The lyre, the stringed instrument par excellence of the Greeks and 
 Romans, preserved its primitive form as late as the tenth century. The 
 strings were generally of twisted gut, hut sometimes also of brass wire, 
 and varied in number from three to eight. The sounding-box, which was 
 always placed at the lower part of the instrument, was more often made of 
 wood than of either metal or tortoise-shell (Fig. 178). 
 
 The lyre was held upon the knees, and the performer touched or rubbed 
 
 Fig. 178.— Ancient Lyre. (Angers MS.) Fig. 179-— Lyre of the North. (Ninth Century.) 
 
 the strings with one hand, either with the fingers or by means of a plectrum. 
 The lyre specified as " Northern " (Fig. 179), was certainly the origin of 
 the violin, to the shape of which it even then bore some resemblance ; it was 
 fastened at the top, and had a cordier at the end of the sounding-board, as 
 well as a bridge in the centre of the face of the instrument. 
 
 The lyre was superseded by the psaltery and the cithern. The psaltery, 
 which never was furnished with fewer than ten, or more than twenty, 
 strings, differed essentially from the lyre and the cithern by the sounding- 
 board being placed at the top of the instrument. Psalteries were made of 
 a round, square, oblong, or buckler-shaped form (Fig. 181) ; and sometimes 
 the sounding-box was lengthened so as to rest upon the shoulder of the 
 
 E E 
 
210 
 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 musician (Fig. 180). The psaltery disappeared in the tenth century and 
 gave place to the cithern (cithara), a name which had heen at first applied to 
 all kinds of stringed instruments. The shape of the cithern, which in the 
 days of St. Jerome resembled a Greek delta (A), varied in different countries, 
 as is proved by the epithets — barbarka, Teutonica, Anglica, which we find at 
 different times coupled with its generic name. In other places, in con- 
 
 Fig. 180. — Psaltery to produce a prolonged sound. Ninth Century. 
 (MS. in the Bibl. Imp., Paris.) 
 
 sequence of these local transformations, it became the nabulum, the chorus, 
 and the salterion or psalterion (which latter must not be confounded with the 
 psaltery, a primary derivative of the lyre). 
 
 The nabulum * (Fig. 182) was made either in the shape of a triangle with 
 truncated corners, or of a semicircle joined at the two extremities ; its 
 
 * Nabulum — a name evidently derived from the Hebrew word nebel, generally translated in the 
 Scriptures as a psaltery. — [En.] 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 211 
 
 sounding-board occupied the whole of the rounded part, and left but a 
 very limited space for the twelve strings. The chorus or choron, the 
 imperfect representation of which in the manuscripts of the ninth and tenth 
 
 Fig. 181.— Buckler-shaped Psaltery with many Strings. Fig. \%z.—Nabidum. Ninth Century. 
 
 (Ninth Century. Boulogne MS.) (MS. d' Angers.) 
 
 centuries calls to mind the appearance of a long semicircular window or 
 
 of a Gothic capital ffi, generally had one of its sides prolonged, on which 
 
 Fig. 183. — Choron. Ninth Century. Fig. 184. — Psalterion. Twelfth Century. 
 
 (Boulogne MS.) 
 
 the performer leaned so as to hold the instrument in the same way as a 
 harp (Fig. 183). 
 
 The psalterion, which was in use all over Europe after the twelfth century, 
 and is thought to have originated in the East, where it was found by the 
 Crusaders, was at first composed of a flat box of sounding wood, with two 
 
2 I 2 
 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 oblique sides ; it assumed the shape of a triangle truncated at its top, with 
 twelve or sixteen metallic strings either of gold or silver, which were played 
 upon by means of a small bow of wood, ivory, or horn (Fig. 184) ; subse- 
 quently the strings were made more slender, the number being increased to 
 as many as twenty-two ; the three angles of the sounding-box were cut off, 
 and holes were made, sometimes one only in the middle, sometimes one at 
 each angle, and sometimes as many as five, symmetrically arranged. The 
 performer placed the instrument against his chest, and held it so as to touch 
 
 Fig. 1 85 . — Performer on the Psalterion. Fourteenth Century. (MS. No. 703 in the Bibl. Imp. of Paris.) 
 
 the strings either with the fingers of the two hands, or with a pen or 
 plectrum (Fig. 185). This instrument, which in the representations of poets 
 and painters never failed to figure in celestial concerts, produced tones of 
 incomparable softness. The old romances of chivalry exhausted all the 
 phrases of admiration in describing the psalterion. But the highest eulogium 
 which can be passed on this instrument is that it formed the starting-point 
 of the harpsichord, or of the stringed instruments struck or played on by 
 means of mechanism. 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 * l 3 
 
 It is, in fact, thought that a kind of harpsichord with four octaves, which 
 in the fourteenth century was called dulcimer or dulcemelos, and is but 
 imperfectly described, was nothing else than a psalterion, with a sound- 
 ing apparatus that assumed the proportions of a large box, to which 
 also a key-board had been adapted. This instrument, when it had but 
 three octaves, was called clavicord or manicordion, and in the sixteenth 
 century produced forty-two to fifty tones or semi-tones : one string 
 expressed several notes, and this was effected by means of plates of metal 
 which, serving as a movable bridge to each string, either increased or 
 diminished the intensity of its vibration. The grand-pianos of the present 
 day unquestionably have their key-boards placed in the same position as 
 they were in the dulcimer and clavicorde. The earliest improvements in 
 metallic stringed instruments constructed with a key-board are due to the 
 
 Fig. 186.— Organistrum. Ninth Century. (MS. de Saint-Blaise.) 
 
 Italians ; these improvements soon had the effect of throwing the psalterion 
 into oblivion. 
 
 In the ninth century a stringed instrument was in use the mechanism 
 of which, although not very perfect, evidently tended to an imitation of 
 the key-board applied to organs : this was the organistrum (Fig. 186), an 
 enormous guitar pierced with two sound holes, and provided with three 
 strings set in vibration by a small winch ; eight movable screws, rising or 
 falling at will along the finger-board, formed so many keys which served to 
 vary the tones. In the first instance two persons performed on the orga- 
 nistrum — one turning the winch while the other touched the keys. When 
 its size was decreased it became the vielle (hurdy-gurdy) properly so called, 
 which could be managed by one musician. It was at first called rubelle, 
 rebel, and symphonie ; subsequently this last name was corrupted into chifonie 
 and si/onie, and we may remark that even now in certain districts of central 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 France the vielle still bears the popular name of chinforgne. The chifonie 
 never found a place in musical concerts, and fell almost immediately into the 
 hands of the mendicants, who solicited alms accompanied by the doleful and 
 somewhat discordant notes of this instrument, and thence obtaining the name 
 
 of chifoniens. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the efforts which were made to substitute wheels and 
 key-boards for the action of the fingers on the strings of instruments, still 
 those that were played on by the hand only, such as harps and lutes, did not 
 fail to maintain the preference among skilful musicians. 
 
 The harp was certainly Saxon in its origin, although some have imagined 
 they could discover traces of it in Greek, Roman, and even Egyptian 
 antiquities. This instrument was at first nothing but a triangular cithern 
 
 Fig-. 187. — Triangular Saxon Harp of the Ninth Fig. 188. — Fifteen-stringed Harp of the Twelfth 
 
 Century. (Bible of Charles le Chauve.) Century. (MS. in the Bibl. Imp., Paris.) 
 
 (Fig. 187), in which the sounding-board occupied the whole of one side 
 from top to bottom, instead of being limited to the lower angle, as in the 
 primitive cithara, or confined to the upper part as in the psaltery. The 
 English harp (cithara Anglica) of the ninth century differed but little from 
 the modern instrument ; the simplicity and good judgment shown in its 
 shape bear witness to the perfection it had already attained (Fig. 188). The 
 number of strings and the shape of this instrument varied constantly 
 from time to time. The sounding-box was sometimes made square, some- 
 times elongated, and sometimes round. The arms were sometimes straight 
 and sometimes curved ; the upper side was often lengthened so as to 
 represent an animal's head (Fig. 189) and the lower angle, on which the 
 instrument rested on the ground, terminated in a griffin's claw. According 
 to the miniatures in manuscripts, the harp was of a size that the top of it 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 215 
 
 did not extend higher than the head of the performer, who played upon it 
 in a sitting posture (Fig. 190). There were, however, harps of a lighter 
 character, which the musician bore suspended from his neck by a strap, and 
 played upon while standing up. This portable harp was the one that may 
 par excellence be called noble, and was the instrument on which the trouveres 
 accompanied their voices when reciting ballads and metrical tales (Fig. 191). 
 
 Fig. 189. — Harpers of the Twelfth Century, from Fig. 190. — Harp-player of the Fifteenth Century. 
 
 a Miniature in a Bible. From an Enamelled Dish found near Soissons, and 
 
 (MS. in the Bibl. Imp., Paris.) preserved in the Bibl. Imp., Paris. 
 
 In the romances of chivalry harpers are constantly introduced, and their 
 harps are ever tuned to some lay of love or war ; we find this taking place 
 as well in the north as in the south. " The harp," says Guillaume de 
 Machaut — 
 
 " tous instruments passe, 
 Quand sagement bien en joue et compasse." 
 
 In the sixteenth century, however, it began to fall into disfavour ; 
 it was supplanted by the lute (Fig. 192), an instrument much used in the 
 thirteenth century, and by the guitar, which was brought into fashion 
 in France from Spain and Italy, and formed the delight both of the court 
 
2 I 6 
 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 and private circles. At that time every great lord, imitating kings and 
 princesses, wished to have his lute or guitar player, and the poet Bonaventure 
 des Periers, valet de chambre of Marguerite de Navarre, composed for her 
 " La Maniere de bien et justement entoucher les Lues et Gruiternes." The 
 lute and the guitar, which for about two centuries were in high favour in 
 what was called "chamber music," have since the above-named epoch scarcely 
 been altered in shape. With certain modifications, however, they gave rise 
 to the theorbo and the mandolin, which never attained more than a transient 
 or local favour. 
 
 Stringed instruments that were played on by means of bows were not 
 known before the fifth century, and belonged to the northern races; they 
 
 Fig. 191.— Minstrel's Harp, of the Fifteenth Century. Fig. 192.— Five-stringed Lute. Thirteenth Century. 
 (MS. in the Miroir Hisiorial of Vincent de Beauvais.) (MS. in the Bibl. Imp., Paris.) 
 
 did not become prevalent in Europe generally until after the Norman 
 invasion. At first they were but roughly made and rendered indifferent 
 service to musical art ; but from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, 
 these instruments were subject to many changes both in form and name, 
 and were brought to perfection according as the execution of musicians 
 also improved. The most ancient of these instruments is the crout (Fig. 193), 
 which must have produced the rote, so dear to the minstrels and the trouveres 
 of the thirteenth century. The crout, which is the instrument placed by 
 tradition in the hands of the Armorican, Breton, and Scotch bards,* was 
 
 * The Welsh or Scotch Cried.— [Tr.] 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 217 
 
 composed of an oblong sounding-box, more or less hollowed out at the two 
 sides, with a handle fixed in the body of the instrument, in which were 
 made two openings that allowed the performer to hold it by the left 
 hand and at the same time to touch the strings; these, as a matter of 
 principle, were only three in number. Subsequently it had four strings, 
 and then six — two of which were played open (d vide). The musician 
 
 Fig. 193.— Three-stringed Croui of the Ninth Century. From a Miniature. 
 
 played on it with a straight or convex bow, provided with a single thread 
 either of iron wire or of twisted hair. Except in England, where the cront 
 was national, it did not last beyond the eleventh century. It was replaced 
 by the rote, which was not, as its name (apparently derived from rota, a 
 wheel) would seem to intimate, a mile or sympJwnie. It would be useless 
 to seek for the derivation of the name of rota, except in the word crotta, the 
 Latin form of the term crout. 
 
 F F 
 
2l8 
 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 In the earliest rotes (Fig. 194), those made in the thirteenth century, 
 there is an evident intention of combining the two modes of playing on the 
 strings — rubbing with a bow and touching with the fingers. The box, 
 which was not hollowed out and rounded at the two ends, was much deeper 
 at the lower end, where the strings commenced, than higher up, near the 
 pegs, where these strings are sounded open under the action of the finger, 
 which reaches them through an aperture ; the bow acting on them near the 
 
 Fig. 194. — King David playing on a Rote. From a Painted Window of the Thirteenth Century. 
 (Chapel of the Virgin, Cathedral of Troyes.) 
 
 string-bridge in front of the sounding-holes. It must have been difficult to 
 touch with the bow one string alone, but it should be remarked that the 
 harmonic ideal of this instrument consisted in forming accords by con- 
 sonances of thirds, fifths, and eighths. The rote was soon developed into 
 a new instrument, assuming the form that our violoncellos have almost 
 exactly retained. The box was increased in size, the handle was lengthened 
 beyond the body .of the instrument, the number of strings was reduced to 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 219 
 
 three or four, stretched over a bridge, and the sounding-holes were made in 
 the shape of a crescent. From this time the rote acquired a special cha- 
 racter it had not lost even in the sixteenth century, when it became the 
 bass-viol. This was its true destination. The size of the instrument 
 dictated the manner in which it was held, either on the knees or on the 
 ground between the legs (Fig. 195). 
 
 The vielle or viole, which had no affinity except in shape with the vielle 
 (hurdy-gurdy) of the present day, was at first a small rote held by the 
 
 Fig. 195— German Musicians playing on the Violin and Bass-Viol. 
 Drawn and Engraved by J. Amman. 
 
 performer against his chin or his breast, in much the same way as the 
 violin is now used (Fig. 196). The box, which was at first conical and 
 convex, became gradually oval in shape, and the handle remained short 
 and wide. It was, perhaps, this handle which terminated in a kind of 
 ornamental scroll in the shape of a violet (viola), that originated the 
 name of the instrument. The viole, just as the rote, formed the accompani- 
 ment obligato of certain songs ; and among the jugglers who played upon 
 it good porformers were rare (Figs. 197, 198). Improvements in the vielle 
 came for the most part from Italy, where the co-operation of a number of 
 
220 
 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 skilful lute-players was the means of gradually forming the violin. Even 
 before the famous Dnifloprugar, born in the Italian Tyrol, had hit upon the 
 model of his admirable violins, the handle of the viette had been lengthened, 
 
 Fig. 196. — Oval Vielle with Three Strings, of the 
 Thirteenth Century. 
 (Sculpture on the Cathedral of Amiens.) 
 
 Fig. 197. — Juggler playing on a Vielle, hollowed 
 
 out at the Sides. Fifteenth Century. 
 (" Heures du Roi Rene," MS. No. 159 in the Bibl. 
 Imp. of the Arsenal, Paris. 
 
 its sides hollowed out, and its strings had received a more extended field of 
 action by removing the stringer (cordier) from the centre of the sounding- 
 
 Fig. 198. — Player on the Vielle. Thirteenth Century. 
 (Taken from an Enamelled Dish at Soissons.) 
 
 Fig. 199.— Angel Playing on a Three-stringed 
 Fiddle. Thirteenth Century. 
 (Sculpture in the Cathedral of Amiens.) 
 
 board. Henceforth the play of the board became more free and easy, the 
 performer was able to touch every string singly, and was in a position to 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 221 
 
 substitute effects more characteristic instead of the former monotonous 
 consonances. 
 
 England was the birthplace of the crout ; France invented the rote, and 
 Italy the viole ; Germany originated the gigue* the name of which may 
 perhaps be derived from the similarity presented by the shape of the instru- 
 ment to the thigh of a kid. The gigue was provided with three strings 
 (Fig. 199), and its special distinction from the viole was, that instead of the 
 handle being as it were independent of the body of the instrument, it was 
 
 Fig. 200— Rebec, of the Sixteenth Century. Fig. 201— Long Monochord played on with a Bow. 
 
 From Willemin. Fifteenth Century. 
 
 (MS. of Froissart, in the Bibl. Imp., Paris.) 
 
 a kind of prolongation of the sounding-board. The gigue, which bore a 
 considerable resemblance to the modern mandolin, was an instrument on 
 which the Germans were accustomed to work wonders in the way of per- 
 formance ; according, at least, to the statement of Adenes, the trouvere, who 
 speaks with admiration of the " gigueours of Germany." The gigue, how- 
 ever, entirely disappeared, at least in France, in the fifteenth century ; but 
 its name still remained as the designation of a joyous dance, which for a 
 considerable period was enlivened by the sound of this instrument. 
 
 * In German Geige, " fiddle."— [Tr.] 
 
222 
 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 Among the musical instruments of this class in the Middle Ages, we 
 have still to mention the rebec (Fig. 200), which was so often quoted by 
 the authors of the day, and yet is so little known, although it figured in the 
 court concerts in the time of Kabelais, who specifies it by the term antique, 
 in contrast to the rustic comemuse (bagpipes) . 
 
 We must, in conclusion, speak of the monochord (ynonocordium) , which 
 is always mentioned by the authors of the Middle Ages with feelings of 
 pleasure, although it appears to. have been nothing more than* the most 
 simple and primitive expression of all the other stringed instruments 
 (Fig. 201). It was composed of a narrow oblong box, on each end of 
 the front-board were fixed two immovable bridges supporting a metallic 
 string stretched from one to the other, and corresponding to a scale of notes 
 traced out on the instrument. A movable bridge, which was shifted up and 
 down between the string and the scale, produced whatever notes the per- 
 former wished to bring out. In the eighth century there was a kind of 
 violin or mandolin furnished with a single metallic string played on with a 
 metallic bow. Later still, we find a kind of harp formed of a long sounding- 
 box traversed by a single string, over which the musician moved a small bow 
 handled with a sudden and rapid movement. 
 
 The instruments we have named do not, however, embrace all those in 
 use in the Middle Ages and the Eenaissance. There certainly were others 
 which, in spite of the most intelligent investigations, and the most judicious 
 deductions, are now known to us only by name. As regards, for instance, 
 the nature and appearance of the eles or celes, the echaqueil or echequier, 
 the enmorache, and the micamon, we are left to the vaguest conjectures. 
 
 Fig. 202.— Triangle of the Ninth Century. (MS. of Saint-Emmeran. ) 
 
PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 Supposed Date of their Invention. — Existed in India in the Twelfth Century. — Their connection 
 with the Game of Chess. — Brought into Europe after the Crusades. — First Mention of a Game 
 with Cards in 1379. — Cards well known in the Fifteenth Century in Spain, Germany, and 
 France, under the name of Tarots. — Cards called Charles the Sixth's must have heen Tarots. — 
 Ancient Cards, French, Italian, and German. — Cards contributing to the Invention of Wood- 
 Engraving and Printing. 
 
 HE origin of playing-cards has for many years 
 past formed a special subject of investigation 
 among scholars and antiquarians. For, however 
 trifling the matter may appear in itself, this 
 curious point is connected with two of the most 
 important inventions of modem times — engraving 
 and printing. 
 
 We must not, however, take upon ourselves to 
 assert too positively that all the profound researches, persevering study, and 
 ingenious deductions which have been applied to the subject have entirely 
 succeeded in elucidating the question. Nevertheless, a certain degree of 
 light has been thrown upon it, by which we shall endeavour to profit. 
 
 The question is, at what date are we to fix the invention of playing- 
 cards, and to whom are we to attribute it ? In order to solve these queries, 
 they must be divided ; for, although the introduction of playing-cards into 
 Europe may not date back beyond the fourteenth century, and the invention 
 of our game of piquet may not have been prior to the reign of Charles VII., 
 it is at least asserted — (1st), that playing-cards existed in India in the 
 twelfth century ; (2nd), that the ancients played at games in which certain 
 figures and numbers were represented on dice or tablets; (3rd), that m 
 comparatively recent times the game of chess and the game of cards pre- 
 sented striking affinities, proving the common origin of these two games 
 — one connected with painting, the other with sculpture. 
 
 If we are to believe Herodotus, the Lydians, in order to beguile the 
 
224 
 
 PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 sufferings of hunger during a long and cruel famine, invented nearly every 
 game, especially that of dice. Later authors ascribe the honour of these 
 inventions to the Greeks, when irritated at the tedious delays of the siege 
 of Troy. Cicero even mentions by name Pyrrhus and Palamedes as the 
 originators of the "games in use in camps" (ludos castrenses). What were 
 these games ? Some say, chess ; others, dice or knuckle-bones. 
 
 Certain very ancient specimens prove unquestionably that the Indian 
 cards were nothing but a transformation of the game of chess ; for the 
 principal pieces in this game are reproduced on the cards, but in such a way 
 that eight players instead of two could take part in it. In the game of chess 
 there were only two armies of pawns, each having at its head a king, a vizier 
 (who was afterwards turned into a " queen "), a knight, an elephant (which 
 became a "bishop"), and a dromedary (afterwards a "castle"). There can 
 be no doubt that the course and arrangement of these games were very 
 different ; but in both may be found an original affinity in the fact that they 
 recalled to mind the terrible game of war, in which each adversary had to 
 attack by means of stratagems, combinations, and vigilance. 
 
 We have now learned from certain authority (Abel de Remusat, 
 Journal Asiatique, September, 1822) that playing-cards, proceeding from 
 India and China, were, like the game of chess (Fig. 203), in the hands of 
 the Arabians and the Saracens at the commencement of the twelfth century. 
 It is therefore almost certain they must have been brought into Europe 
 after the Crusades, with the arts, traditions, and customs which the men of 
 the West then derived from their Oriental antagonists. There is, however, 
 every reason to believe that the use of cards spread but slowly ; for at an 
 epoch when the civil and ecclesiastical authorities were constantly issuing 
 ordinances against games of chance, we do not find that cards were ever the 
 subject of legal proceedings, like dice and chess. 
 
 The first formal mention made of playing-cards is found in a manuscript 
 chronicle of Nicolas de Covelluzzo, preserved in the archives of Viterbo. 
 "In the year 1379," says the chronicler, "there was introduced at Viterbo 
 the game of cards, which comes from the country of the Saracens, and is 
 called by the latter naib." There is, in fact, a German book, the " Jeu 
 d'Or," printed at Augsbourg in 1472, which testifies to the fact that 
 cards existed in Germany in the year 1300. But, in the first place, 
 this evidence is not contemporary with the fact alleged ; and, besides, 
 
PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 225 
 
 we may well suppose that the vanity of the Germans, which had attri- 
 buted to themselves the discovery of printing, desired, with about as 
 much reason, to appropriate also the invention of cards — that is, of wood- 
 engraving. We shall, therefore, act judiciously in paying but little attention 
 to this doubtful assertion, and hold to the account given by the chronicler 
 of Yiterbo. But the latter, unfortunately, furnishes us with no details as 
 to the nature of these cards. Was the game similar to that which is still 
 
 Fig. 203.— Chess-Players. Fac-simile of a Miniature of the Thirteenth Century. (MS. 7,266, Bibl. Imp., Paris. 
 
 extant in India ? Or was it one peculiar to the Arabs ? These are ques- 
 tions which must remain unsolved. The only facts presented to our notice 
 are, that in 1379 cards made their appearance in Europe, brought from 
 A rabia, or the country of the Saracens, and that their original name is given. 
 The Italians for a long time gave to cards the name of ndibi. In Spain they 
 are still called naypes. If it be understood that the word naib in Arabic 
 signifies "captain," we shall see that the game in question was one of a 
 
 G G 
 
226 
 
 PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 military character, like that of chess, and we shall be led to recognise in 
 these primitive cards the tarots which were for a long time current in the 
 south of Europe. 
 
 In 1387, John I., King of Castile, issued an ordinance prohibiting to 
 play with dice, naypes, or at chess. 
 
 In the archives of the Audit Office, in Paris, there formerly existed an 
 account of the treasurer, Poupart, who states that, in 1392, he had "paid to 
 Jacquemin Gringonneur, painter, for three packs of cards in gold and various 
 colours, ornamented with numerous devices, to lay before the lord the king 
 (Charles VI.) for his amusement, 50 sols of Paris." This game, which 
 seemed at first intended only for the amusement of the king in his mental 
 derangement, subsequently spread so much among the people, that the 
 provost of Paris, in an ordinance of January 22, 1397, issued a prohibition 
 "to persons engaged in trade from playing at tennis, bowls, dice, cards, 
 and skittles, except on feast-days." We must remark that, twenty-eight 
 years previously, Charles V., in a celebrated ordinance which enumerates 
 all the games of chance, did not mention cards. 
 
 The " Red Book " of the town of Ulm, a manuscript register preserved 
 in the archives of that town, contains an ordinance dated in 1397, in which 
 is conveyed a prohibition of games with cards. 
 
 These facts are the only authenticated evidence which can be brought 
 forward with a view of fixing the approximate period of the introduction of 
 cards into Europe. Some authors have certainly imagined they were in a 
 position to determine an earlier epoch, but they have gone upon data the 
 value of which has since been destroyed by more thorough investigation. 
 
 In the fifteenth century there are evident traces both of the existence 
 and popularity of cards in Italy, Spain, Germany, and France. Their names, 
 colours, and emblems, their number and forms, were indeed constantly 
 changing, according to the country in which they were used and the fancy 
 of the players. But whether called tarots or " French cards," they were 
 in fact nothing but modifications of the primitive Oriental cards, and an 
 imitation more or less faithful of the ancient game of chess. 
 
 Reckoning from the fifteenth century, we meet with cards in every 
 enumeration of games of chance ; we find them also proscribed and 
 condemned in ecclesiastical and royal ordinances. The clergy, too, raised 
 their voices against them ; but these measures did not prevent the trade in 
 
PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 227 
 
 them from increasing, nor great attention to their improved manufacture. 
 Poets and romance-writers vied with each other in speaking of them ; they 
 
 Figs. 204 and 205. — Jean Dunois, King Alexander, Julius Csesar, King Arthur, Charles the Great, and Godefroi 
 de Bouillon. From ancient coloured Wood-Engravings ; prints analogous to the first Playing-Cards of the 
 Fifteenth Century. (Bibl. Imp., Paris, Department of Manuscripts.) 
 
 appeared in the miniatures in manuscripts, and also in the first attempts at 
 engraving on wood and copper (Figs. 204 and 205). And, notwithstanding 
 
228 
 
 PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 the fragile nature of the cards themselves, some have been preserved which 
 belong to the earliest years of the fifteenth century. 
 
 As we have already seen, cards had, in principle, been classed among 
 the number of childish games ; but it may be safely asserted that this 
 could not have long been the case, else how could we explain the legal 
 strictures and the ecclesiastical anathemas of which they were the subject ? 
 
 St. Bernard, for example, speaking on the 5th of March, 1423, to 
 the crowd assembled in front of a church at Siena, inveighed with so 
 much energy, and fulminated with so much persuasion, against games of 
 chance, that all who heard ran at once and fetched their dice, chess, 
 and cards, and burnt them on the very spot. But, adds the chronicle, 
 there was a card-maker who, being ruined by the sermon of the saint, 
 went to seek him, and with a flood of tears said to him : " Father, I am a 
 maker of cards, and I have no other trade by which to live. By pre- 
 venting me from following my trade, you condemn me to die of hunger." 
 " If painting is all you are capable of," replied the preacher, " paint this 
 picture." And he showed him an image of a radiating sun, in the centre 
 of which shone the monogram of Christ — I. H. S. The artisan followed 
 his advice, and soon made his fortune by painting this representation, which 
 was adopted by St. Bernard as his device. 
 
 Although in every direction similar censures were directed against cards, 
 they nevertheless did not fail to come much into fashion, especially in Italy ; 
 and to have a considerable sale. Thus, in 1441, we find the master card- 
 makers at Venice " who formed a rather numerous association," claiming 
 and obtaining from the senate a kind of prohibitory order against " the 
 large quantity of painted and printed cards which were made out of Venice 
 and were introduced into the town, to the great detriment of their art." 
 It is important to notice that mention is made here of printed as well as 
 of painted cards. The fact is, that at this date, not only did all the cities 
 in Italy make their own cards, but, in consequence of the invention of 
 wood-engraving, Germany and Holland exported a large quantity of them. 
 We must also point out that documents of the same date appear to establish 
 a distinction between the primitive na'ibi and cards properly so called, with- 
 out, however, affording any detailed characteristics of either. It is, how- 
 ever, known that prior to the year 1419, one Francois Fibbia, a noble of 
 Pisa who died in exile at Bologna, obtained from the " reformers " of this 
 
PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 229 
 
 city, on the score of his heing the inventor of the game of tarrochino, the 
 right of placing his escutcheon of arms on the " queen de baton" and that 
 of his wife's arms on the " queen de denier." Batons, deniers, with coupes and 
 epees, were then the suits of the Italian cards, as carreau (diamond), trefle 
 (club), cceur (heart), diadi pique (spade), were those of the French cards. 
 
 'No original specimen has been preserved of the tarots (tarrochi, tarro- 
 chini) or Italian cards of this epoch ; but we possess a pack engraved about 
 1460, which is known to be an exact copy of them. Added to this, Raphael 
 Maffei, who lived at the end of the fifteenth century, has left in his 
 " Commentaries " a description of tarots, which were, he says, " a new 
 invention," — in comparison, doubtless, with the origin of playing-cards. 
 From these two documents — though they present some differences — we 
 may gather that the pack of tarots was then composed of four or five series 
 or suits, each of ten cards, bearing consecutive numbers, and presenting so 
 many deniers, batons, coupes, and epees, equal in number to that of the 
 card. To these series we must add a whole assortment of figures, repre- 
 senting the King, the Queen, the Knight, the Foot-traveller, the World, 
 Justice, an Angel, the Sun, the Devil, a Castle, Death, a Gibbet, the Pope, 
 Love, a Buffoon (Fig. 206), &c. 
 
 It is evident that tarots were current in France long before the invention 
 of the game of piquet, which is unquestionably of French origin ; and 
 among these tarots we must class the cards that are called those of 
 Charles VI. (Figs. 207 and 208), and are now preserved in the Print-Room 
 of the Bibliotheque Imperiale in Paris ; these may be considered as the 
 oldest to be found in any collection, either public or private. The 
 Abbe de Longuerue states that he saw the pack with all its cards com- 
 plete ; but only seventeen have been preserved to our day. These cards 
 are painted with delicacy, like the miniatures in manuscripts, on a gilt 
 ground, filled with dots forming a perforated ornamentation ; they are also 
 surrounded by a silvered border in which a similar dotting depicts a spirally 
 twisted ribbon. This dotting is doubtless the tare, a kind of goffering 
 produced by small holes pricked out and arranged in compartments, to 
 which the tarots owe their names, and of which our present cards still 
 retain a kind of reminiscence, in their backs being covered with arabesques 
 or dotted over in black or various colours. These cards were about seven 
 inches long and three and a half inches wide, and were painted in distemper 
 
230 
 
 PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 on cardboard *039 inch thick. The composition of them is ingenious and 
 to some extent skilful, the drawing correct and full of character, and the 
 colouring or illumination brilliant. 
 
 Among the subjects they represent are some which deserve all the 
 more attention, because they can hardly fail to recall to mind a con- 
 ception somewhat similar to that of the " Dance of Death," that terrible 
 
 Fig. 206. — The Buffoon, a Card from a Pack of Tarois. Fifteenth Century. 
 
 " morality " which, dating from this epoch, was destined to increase 
 more and more in popularity. Thus, for instance, by the side of the 
 Emperor, who is covered with silver armour and holds the globe and the 
 sceptre, a Hermit makes his appearance as an old man muffled in a cowl 
 and holding up an hour-glass, an emblem of the rapidity of time. Then 
 we have the Pope, who, with the tiara on his head, sits between two 
 cardinals ; but Death is also there, mounted on a grey horse with a rough 
 
PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 and shaggy coat, and sweeping down with his scythe kings, popes, bishops, 
 and other great men of the earth. If we see Love, represented by three 
 couples of lovers who embrace as they converse, while two cupids dart 
 at them their arrows from a cloud above ; we also see a Gibbet, 
 on which hangs a gambler suspended by one foot, and still holding in 
 his hand a bag of money. An Esquire, clothed in gold and scarlet, 
 
 Fig. 207.— The Moon. Fig. 208.— Justice. 
 
 (Cards taken from the Pack, said to be of Charles VI., preserved in the Bibl. Imp., Paris.) 
 
 rides gallantly along, proudly waving his sword ; a Chariot bears in 
 triumph an officer in full armour ; a Fool places his cap and bells under 
 his arm that he may count upon his fingers. Finally, the last trumpets 
 are waking up the dead, who come out of their graves to appear at the 
 Last Judgment. 
 
 Most of these allegorical subjects have been retained in the tarots, which 
 include, independent of the sixteen figures of our piquet-pack, twenty-two 
 
232 
 
 PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 cards, representing the Emperor, the Lover, the Chariot, the Hermit, the 
 Gibbet, Death, the House of God, the 0/ World, &c. 
 
 We should scarcely be justified in imagining that these tarots, presenting 
 as they did a picture of life so gloomily philosophical, regarded from a 
 Christian point of view, could have enjoyed any great favour in the centre of 
 a frivolous and corrupt court, devoted to little else but fetes, masquerades, 
 and singing ; this, too, at a time when the State, a prey to every kind of 
 intrigue, was falling into ruin, and the voice of insurrection was surging up 
 among a people burdened by taxes, and decimated by pestilence and famine. 
 On the other hand these tarots might well please the imagination of certain 
 good people who, having been deprived of their property in some of the 
 disturbances incidental to these times, could not fail to accept as a consola- 
 tion such emblematical representations of life and death. Artists of every 
 kind tried their best to reproduce them in all forms ; and as these designs 
 found a place even in the ornaments of the female sex, it was scarcely 
 probable that playing-cards would form an exception. 
 
 We are in possession of the remains of two ancient packs of cards, 
 produced by means of engraved plates ; they were discovered, like most 
 cards of this date which have come to light, in the bindings of books of the 
 fifteenth century. These cards, which belong to the reign of Charles VII., 
 are essentially French in their character. We find in them the king, the 
 queen, and the knave of each suit, as in our present pack of piquet cards. 
 In one of these ancient packs we notice, however, traces of the Saracenic 
 origin of the na'ibi ; the Mussulman " crescent" being substituted for the 
 " diamond," while the " club" is depicted in the Arabian or Moorish fashion ; 
 that is, with four similar branches. There is also another peculiarity ; the 
 " king of hearts " is represented by a kind of savage, or hairy ape, leaning 
 upon a knotty stick. The " queen " of the same suit is likewise covered with 
 hair, and holds a torch in her hand. The " knave of clubs," who is well 
 fitted to serve as an escort to the " king " and " queen of hearts," is also 
 covered with hair, and carries a knotty stick on his shoulder. We may, 
 besides, notice the legs of a fourth hairy personage among those which 
 have been separated from their bodies by the knife of the bookbinder. But, 
 with the exception of these, all the other personages are clothed according 
 to the fashion or the etiquette which prevailed at the court of Charles VII. 
 The " queen of crescents " is represented in a costume similar to that of 
 
PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 233 
 
 Mary of Anjou, the wife of the king ; or in that of Gerarde Gassinel, his 
 mistress. The representations of the kings, the hairy one excepted, are 
 
 Fig. 209. — Charles VI. on his Throne, from a Miniature in the MS. of the Kings of France. (Bibl. Imp., Paris.) 
 
 identical with those we have of Charles VII. himself, or the nobles of his 
 suite. Their costume was a velvet hat surmounted by the crown ornamented 
 with fleurs-de-lis ; a robe open in front and lined with ermine or menu voir, 
 
 H H 
 
PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 a tight doublet, and close stockings. The "knaves" are copied from the 
 pages and sergeants- at -arms of the period ; one wears the plumed flat cap 
 and long cloak ; another, on the contrary, is clad in a short dress, and stands 
 erect in his close-fitting doublet and tightly drawn breeches. The latter 
 displays, written on a streamer which he is unrolling, the name of the card- 
 maker, " F. Clerc." These are certainly cards of French invention, or, at 
 any rate, of French manufacture ; but what explanation are we to give of 
 the presence of the savage "king" and "queen," and the "hairy knave," 
 among the kings, queens, and knaves all dressed according to the fashion 
 of the time of Charles VII. ? We may, perhaps, find a satisfactory reply by 
 referring to the chronicles of the preceding reign. 
 
 On the 29th of January, 1392, there was a grand fete at the mansion of 
 Queen Blanche in honour of the marriage of a Chevalier de Vermandois with 
 one of the queen's ladies. The king, Charles VI., had only just recovered 
 from his mental malady. One of his favourites, Hugonin de Janzay, projected 
 an entertainment in which the king and five lords were to take a part. 
 "It was," says Juvenal des Ursins, "a masquerade of wild men chained 
 together, and all shaggy ; their dress was made to fit close to their body, and 
 was rendered rough by flax and tow fastened on by resinous pitch, greased 
 so as to shine the better." Froissart, who was an eye-witness of this fete, 
 says that the six actors in the ballet entered the hall yelling and shaking 
 their chains. As it was not known who these maskers were, the Duke of 
 Orleans, brother of the king, wishing to find out, took a lighted torch from 
 the hands of his servant, and held it so close to one of these strange 
 personages that "the heat of the fire caught the flax." The king was 
 fortunately separated from his companions, who were all burned, with the 
 exception of one only, who threw himself into a tub full of water. Although 
 Charles VI. escaped from this peril, he was deeply affected by the thought 
 of the danger to which he had been exposed, and the result was a relapse 
 into his former insanity. 
 
 This fearful ballet des ar dents left such an impression on the minds of 
 people generally, that seventy years afterwards a German engraver made 
 it the subject of a print. Should we, then, be venturing on an inadmissible 
 hypothesis if we attribute to a cardmaker of this epoch the idea of intro- 
 ducing the same subject in a pack of cards ? which, as is abundantly proved, 
 was modified according to the whim of the artist. In order to justify the 
 
PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 23S 
 
 costume of a female savage and the torch which are given to the " queen of 
 hearts," we must not forget that Isabel of Bavaria, consort of Charles VI., 
 is accused of having assisted in devising this fatal masquerade, which was 
 intended to get rid of the king ; and of having taken as her accomplice the 
 Duke of Orleans, her brother-in-law, who is said to have purposely set fire 
 to the clothing of these pretended wild men, among whom was the king. 
 
 The second pack, or fragment of a pack, which is dated back to this 
 epoch, presents a similarity to our present cards of a yet more striking 
 nature, at least in the characters and costumes of the figures ; although 
 the names and devices of the personages still are suggestive of their 
 Saracenic origin. We must remark, under this head, that for several 
 centuries the names coupled with the different personages were incessantly 
 varying. In this pack we find " kings," " queens," and " knaves " of 
 clubs, hearts, spades, and diamonds ; the Saracenic crescent has disappeared. 
 The "kings" are all holding sceptres, and the "queens" carry flowers. 
 Everything in the representations is not only in harmony with the fashions 
 of the period, but in addition to this, there are no violations either of the 
 laws of heraldry or of the usages of chivalry. 
 
 According to tradition, this pack, the true piquet-pack, which super- 
 seded the Italian tarots and the cards of Charles VI., and soon became 
 generally used in France, was the invention of Etienne Vignoles, called 
 La Hire, one of the bravest and most active soldiers of that period. The 
 tradition has a right to our respect, for the mere examination of this 
 piquet-pack proves that it must have been the work of some accomplished 
 chevalier, or at least of a mind profoundly imbued with the manners and 
 customs of chivalry. But, without any wish to exclude La Hire, who, 
 as the historians say, " always had his helmet on his head and his lance 
 in his hand, ready to attack the English, and never rested until he 
 died of his wounds," we are led rather to ascribe the honour of this 
 ingenious invention to one of his contemporaries, Etienne Chevalier, secre- 
 tary and treasurer to the king, who was distinguished by his skill in 
 designing. Jacques Coeur, whose commercial relations with the East 
 brought upon him the accusation of having " sent arms to the Saracens," 
 might well have become the importer of Asiatic cards into France, and 
 Chevalier might then have amused himself by applying devices to them 
 or, as was then said, by moralising or symbolising them. In India it 
 
PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 had been the game of the vizier and of war ; the royal treasurer turned 
 it into a pack having reference to the knight and chivalry. In the 
 first place he placed on it his own armorial bearings, the unicorn, which 
 figures in several ancient packs of cards. He did not forget the allusive 
 arms of Jacques Cceur, and substituted "hearts" for the coupes. He made 
 the "clubs" imitate the heraldic flower of Agnes Sorel; and also changed the 
 deniers into diamonds, or arrow-heads (Fig. 210), and the epecs into spades, 
 
 Fig. 210.— Ancient French Card of the Fifteenth Fig. 211— Specimen of a Pack of Cards of the 
 
 Century. (Bibl. Imp., Paris.) Sixteenth Century. (Bibl. Imp., Paris.) 
 
 to do honour to the two brothers Jean and Gaspard Bureau, grand-masters 
 of artillery in France. 
 
 Etienne Chevalier, as the most skilful designer of emblems of the period, 
 was eminently capable of substituting, in playing-cards, ladies or queens 
 for the Oriental " viziers " or Italian " knights " which, on the tarots, figured 
 alone among the "kings" and "knaves." We must, however, repeat 
 that we have no intention of depriving La Hire of the honour of the inven- 
 
PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 237 
 
 tion, and only hazard a supposition in addition to the opinion generally 
 received. 
 
 These cards, which bear all the characteristics of the reign of Charles VII., 
 must be looked upon as the first attempts at wood-engraving, and at printing 
 by means of engraved blocks. They were probably executed between 1420 
 and 1440, that is to say, prior to most of the known xylographic produc- 
 tions. Playing-cards, therefore, served as a kind of introduction or prelude 
 to printing from engraved blocks, an invention which considerably preceded 
 the printing from movable characters. 
 
 When, however, we observe that so early as the middle of the fifteenth 
 century playing-cards were spread all over Europe, it is but natural to 
 imagine that some economical plan of manufacture had been discovered and 
 employed. Thus, as we have already mentioned, Jacquemin Gringonneur, in 
 1392, was paid fifty-six sols of Paris, that is about £7 Is. 8d. of our present 
 money, for three packs of tarots, painted for the King of France. One 
 single pack of tarots, admirably painted, about the year 1415, by Marziano, 
 secretary to the Duke of Milan, cost one thousand five hundred golden 
 crowns (about £625) ; but in 1454, a pack of cards intended for the Dauphin 
 of France cost no more than five sous of Tours (about eleven or twelve 
 shillings). In the interval between 1392 and 1454 means had been dis- 
 covered of making playing-cards at a cheap rate, and of converting them 
 into an object of trade ; mercers were accustomed to sell them together with 
 the "pins," which then took the place of copper and silver counters; hence 
 the French proverb, "Tirer son epingle du jeu" (to get out of a scrape). 
 
 Although the use of playing-cards continued to extend more and more, 
 we must not imagine that they had ceased to be the subject of prohibitory 
 and condemnatory ordinances on the part of the civil and ecclesiastical 
 authorities. On the contrary, a long list might be made of the decrees 
 launched against cards themselves and those that used them. Princes 
 and lords, as a matter of right, felt themselves above these prohibitions ; 
 the lower orders and the dissolute did not fail to infringe them. It was 
 nevertheless the case, that in the face of these constantly-renewed prohibi- 
 tions, the manufacture of playing-cards could only be developed, or rather 
 perhaps be carried on, in some indirect mode. Thus, we find the business 
 at first was concealed, as it were, under that of a stationer or illuminator. 
 Not until December, 1581 — that is, in the reign of Henry III. — do we find 
 
2 3 8 
 
 PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 the first regulation fixing the statutes of the "master-cardmakers." These 
 statutes, confirmed by letters patent in 1584 and 1613, remained in force 
 down to the (French) Revolution. In the confirmation of corporate 
 privileges granted at the latter date, it is laid down as a rule that 
 henceforth master-cardmakers should be bound to place their names, sur- 
 names, signs, and devices on the "knave of clubs" (Figs. 212, 213) of 
 every pack of cards. This prescription appears to have done nothing more 
 than legalise an old custom — a fact which may be proved by an examination 
 
 Figs. 212 and 213. — The " Knave of Clubs " in the Packs of Cards of R. Passerel and R. Le Cornu. 
 (Sixteenth Century. Bibl. Imp., Paris.) 
 
 of the curious collection of ancient cards in the Print-Room of the 
 Bibliotheque Imperiale. We have already stated that for a period of many 
 years the names given to the various personages in the pack varied con- 
 stantly, according to the fancy of the cardmaker ; a mere glance at the 
 collection just mentioned will confirm this assertion. 
 
 The cards that might be styled those of Charles VII., which appear to 
 us to convey some reminiscence of the ballet des ardents, have no inscription 
 but the name of the cardmaker. But in the other pack of the same date 
 
PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 239 
 
 the " knave of clubs" bears as a legend the word Rolan; the " king of clubs," 
 Sans Souci; the "queen of clubs/' Tromperie; the "king of diamonds," 
 Corsube; the "queen of diamonds," En toi te fie; the "king of spades," 
 Apollin, &c. This collection of names reveals to us the threefold influence 
 of the Saracenic origin of playing-cards, the ideas conveyed at that period 
 to the mind by the reading of the old romances of chivalry, and the effect of 
 contemporary events. In fact, in the ancient epics, Apollin (or Apollo) is a 
 deity by whom the Saracens were accustomed to swear ; Corsube is a knight 
 of Cordova (Corsuba). Sans Souci is evidently one of those sobriquets which 
 squires acquired the habit of adopting at the time they were proving them- 
 selves worthy of the title of knight. Roland, the. mighty Paladin who 
 died at Roncevaux fighting against the Saracens, seems to have been placed 
 upon the cards in order to oppose the memory of his glory to that of the 
 infidel kings. The queen " En toi te fie " might well allude to Joan of 
 Arc. The queen " Tromperie " recalls to mind Isabel of Bavaria, who was 
 an unfaithful wife and a cruel mother ; and, moreover, had betrayed France 
 to England. All these ideas are doubtless mere suppositions, but such as 
 a critical examination of a more minute and extended character would 
 perhaps succeed in changing into unquestionable certainties. 
 
 Next after the cards of the time of Charles YII. follow, as the most 
 ancient in point of date, two packs which certainly belong to the reign of 
 Louis XII. One of these packs does not bear any kind of legend ; in the 
 other the "king of hearts" is called Charles; the "king of diamonds," 
 Ccesar ; the "king of clubs/' Arthur; the "king of spades," David; the 
 "queen of hearts," Uileine ; the "queen of diamonds," Judith; the "queen 
 of clubs," Rachel; the "queen of spades," Persabee (doubtless for Bathsheba). 
 
 In a pack of cards belonging to the reign of Francis I., the " king of 
 clubs " becomes Alexander, and the name of Judith is transferred to the 
 " queen of hearts ;" and for the first time (at least in the specimens which 
 have been preserved) some of the " knaves " bear special names — the 
 "knave of hearts" is La Hire, and the "knave of diamonds'' Hector of 
 Trois (sic). 
 
 A few years later, about the time of the battle of Pavia and of the 
 king's captivity, the influence of Spanish and Italian fashions begins 
 to affect the legends on packs of cards. It is remarked that the " knave 
 of spades," which presents nothing in the way of a legend but the name of 
 
240 
 
 PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 the cardmaker, is made to resemble Charles-Quint (Fig. 211). The three 
 other knaves bear the singular denominations of Prien Roman, Capita MM, 
 and Capitane Valiant. The kings are: "hearts," Julius Ccesar; "diamonds," 
 Charles; "clubs," Hector; "spades," David. The queens are: "hearts," 
 Heleine; "diamonds," Lucresse; "clubs," Pentaxlee (Penthesilea) ; "spades," 
 Beciabee (Bathsheba). 
 
 In the reign of Henry II., the names given to the personages come 
 much nearer to the arrangement observed in our present cards. Ccesar is 
 the "king of diamonds;" David, the "king of spades;" Alexander, the 
 "king of clubs." Rachel is the " queen of diamonds;" Argine, of " clubs ; " 
 Dallas, of " spades." Hogier, Hector of Troy, and La Hire, are the 
 "knaves" of "spades," "diamonds," and "hearts," respectively. 
 
 At the time of Henry III., who devoted himself much more to regulat- 
 ing the fashions than to governing his kingdom, and was the first to grant 
 statutes to the association of cardmakers, the pack of cards became the 
 mirror of the extravagant fashions of this effeminate reign, The "kings" 
 have the pointed beard, the starched collar, the plumed hat, the breeches 
 puffing out round the loins, the slashed doublet, and the tight-fitting hose. 
 The " queens " have their hair drawn back and crisped, the dress close 
 round the body, and made d vertugarde (in the form of a hoop-petticoat). 
 We see a Dido, an Elizabeth, and a Clotilcle, make their appearance in the 
 respective characters of "queens" of " diamonds," "hearts," and "spades." 
 Among the kings figure Constantine, Clovis, Augustus, and Solomon. 
 
 The valiant Bearnais* mounts the throne, and the cards still reflect the 
 aspect of his court. But soon Astrea and a whole cortege of tender and 
 gallant heroes begin to assume an influence over refined minds, and we then 
 find Cyrus and Semiramis as "king and queen" of diamonds; Roxana is the 
 "queen of hearts " (Fig. 214), Ninus the "king of spades," &c. 
 
 In the regency of Marie de Medicis, in the reign of Louis XIII., or 
 rather of Richelieu, in the time of Anne of Austria and Louis XIV., 
 playing-cards continued to assume the character of the period, follow- 
 ing the whim of the court, or the fancy of the cardmaker. At a certain 
 time they began to take an Italian character. The "king of diamonds" 
 was called Caret; his queen, Lucresi; the "queen of spades," Barbera; the 
 "queen of clubs," Penthamee; the "knave of diamonds," capit. Melu. 
 
 * Henry IV., born at Pau, in the Beam. — [Ed.] 
 
PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 241 
 
 A vast field of investigation would lie before us if, in tracing out the 
 detailed history of these numerous variations, we were to endeavour to 
 distinguish and settle the different causes which gave rise to them. One 
 fact must certainly strike any one devoting himself to such inquiry ; he 
 would see that, in contradistinction to the changes which have affected 
 the personages on the cards and their names, a continuous state of stability 
 has been the characteristic of the four suits in the French cards or the 
 piquet-pack, which were adopted from the very commencement, and that no 
 attempt has ever been made against their arrangement and nature. Cosur 
 (hearts), carreau (diamonds), trefle (clubs), and pique (spades) — these were 
 the divisions established by La Hire or Chevalier, and they are still faith- 
 fully maintained in the present day, although at various times endeavours 
 have been made to define their symbolical signification. 
 
 For a long time the opinion of Father Menestrier was the prevalent 
 one ; that " hearts " were an emblem of the clergy or the choir (chceur) ; 
 " diamonds," of the citizens, who had their rooms paved with square 
 tiles ; " clubs," of labourers ; and " spades," of military men. But 
 Menestrier was in egregious error. A much clearer view of the matter 
 was taken by Father Daniel, who, like all sensible interpreters, recognising 
 in cards a game of an essentially military character, asserted that " hearts " 
 denoted the courage of the commanders and soldiers; "clubs" (trefle — 
 "trefoil") the stores of forage ; "spades" and "diamonds," the magazines 
 of arms. This was a view which, as we think, comes much closer to the 
 real interpretation of the suits ; and Bullet was still nearer the mark when 
 he recognised offensive arms in " clubs " and " spades," and defensive arms 
 in "hearts" and "diamonds." The first were the sword and the lance; 
 the second, the target and the shield. 
 
 But in order to do full honour to French cards, we must not exclude 
 from our attention the tarots, which preceded our game of piquet, and 
 continued to be simultaneously used even in France. 
 
 The Spanish and Italian cardmakers, who had been nearly always 
 established in France, made a large quantity of tarots (Fig. 215) ; but they 
 made a certain concession to French politeness by substituting " queens " 
 for the " cavaliers " of their national game. We must remark here, that even 
 at the epoch of the conquests of Charles YIII. and Louis XII., French 
 cards with the four "queens " replacing the "cavaliers" never succeeded in 
 
 1 1 
 
242 
 
 PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 nationalising themselves in Italy, and still less in Spain ; on the contrary, 
 the fact was that as regards this point of fashion, the vanquished people 
 obtained the advantage over their conquerors, and the tarots came into full 
 favour among the victorious soldiery. 
 
 The Spaniards must certainly have received the Oriental na'ib from the 
 Moors and Saracens a long time prior to the introduction of this game 
 into Europe at Viterbo ; but we have no written proofs which certify to 
 the existence of cards among the Saracens of Spain. The first document 
 
 Fig. 214. — Roxana, Queen of Hearts. 
 (Specimen of the Cards of the time 
 of Henry IV.) 
 
 Fig. 215.— Card of Italian Tarots, from the Pack of the 
 minchiate . 
 
 (Collection of Playing-Cards, Bibl. Imp., Paris.) 
 
 in which they are mentioned is the edict of John I, of the date of 1387, to 
 which reference has been made. Certain savants have endeavoured to ascertain 
 the signification of the four suits of the Spanish naypes, and have fancied 
 that they could distinguish in them a special symbolism. In their view, 
 the dineros, copas, bastos, and spadas, denoted the four estates which 
 composed the population : the merchants, who have the money ; the priests, 
 who hold the chalice or cup; the peasantry, who handle the staff; and the 
 
PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 2 43 
 
 nobles, who wear the sword. This explanation, although ingenious, does 
 not appear to us to be based on any very solid foundation. The signs or 
 suits of the numeral cards were fixed upon in the East, and Spain as well 
 as Italy merely adopted them without taking much trouble to penetrate 
 into their allegorical meaning. The Spaniards became so addicted to this 
 game that they soon preferred it to any other recreation; and we know 
 that when the companions of Christopher Columbus, who had just discovered 
 
 Figs. 216 and 217.— The "Three" and "Eight" of "Bells." German Cards of the Sixteenth Century. 
 (Bibl. Imp. of Paris. Print-Room.) 
 
 America, formed their first settlement at St. Domingo, they almost instantly 
 set to work to make playing-cards out of the leaves of trees- 
 There can be no doubt that playing-cards very soon made their way 
 from Italy into Germany; but as they advanced towards the North they 
 almost immediately lost their Oriental characteristics and Saracenic name. 
 There is, in fact, no longer any etymological trace to be found in the old 
 German language of the words na'ib, naibi, or nappes. Cards were called 
 
2 44 
 
 PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 Briefe, that is, letters ; the game itself Spielbriefe, game of letters ; the 
 earliest cardmakers were Briefmaler, painters of letters. The four suits of 
 the Briefe were neither Italian nor French in character ; they bore the name 
 of Schetten, "bells" (Figs. 216, 217, 218), or roth (red), grun (green), and 
 Eicheln (acorns) (Fig. 219). The Germans, in their love of symbolism, 
 had comprehended the real original signification of the game of cards, and 
 although they introduced many marked changes, they made it their study, 
 
 Figs. 218 and 219.— The "Two of Bells " and the "King of Acorns," taken from a Pack of Cards of the 
 Sixteenth Century, designed and engraved by a German Master. 
 (Bibl. Imp. of Paris. Print-Room.) 
 
 at least in principle, to preserve its military characteristics. Their suits 
 depicted, it is said, the triumphs or the honours of war — the crowns 
 of oak-leaves or ivy, the bells were the bright insignia of the German 
 nobility, and the purple was the recompense of their valiant warriors. 
 The Germans were careful not to admit ladies into the thoroughly 
 warlike company of kings, captains (ober), and officers (unter). The ace 
 was always the flag, the warlike emblem par excellence ; in addition to 
 
PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 245 
 
 this, the oldest game was the Landsknecht, or lansquenet (Fig. 220), the 
 distinctive term of the soldier. 
 
 We are speaking here only of the earliest German cards, for, after a 
 certain date, the essential form and emblematical rules of the pack depended 
 on nothing but the fancy and whim of the maker or the engraver. The 
 figures were but seldom designated by a proper name, but often bore devices 
 in German or Latin. Among the collections of ancient cards we find one 
 pack half German and half French, with the names of the Pagan gods. 
 
 Fig. 220— The "Two " of a Pack of German Lans- Fig. 221.— Card from a Game of " Logic," invented 
 
 quenet Cards. by Th. Murner, and copied from his "Charti- 
 
 (Bibl. Imp. of Paris.) ludium Logices." (Cracow, 1507.) 
 
 There are also several sets of cards with five suits (of fourteen cards each), 
 among others those of "roses" and "pomegranates." 
 
 The Germans were the first who entertained the idea of applying cards 
 to the instruction of youth ; and, as it were, of moralising a game of chance 
 by making it express all the categories of scholastic science. Thomas 
 Murner, a Franciscan monk, and professor of philosophy, made in 1507 an 
 
2+6 
 
 PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 attempt of this kind (Fig. 221.) He designed a pack of fifty-two cards, 
 divided into sixteen suits, corresponding to the same number of scholastic 
 treatises ; each card is covered with so many symbols that a description 
 would resemble the setting forth of some obscure riddle {tenebreux logogriphe) . 
 The German universities, which were far from being dismayed at a little 
 mysticism, were only the more eager to study the arcana of grammar and 
 logic while playing at cards. Imitations of Murner's cards were multiplied 
 ad infinitum. 
 
 A game and pack of cards attributed to the celebrated Martin Schoen- 
 gauer, or to one of his pupils, must also be dated in the fifteenth 
 century. The cards are distinguished by their form, number, and design ; 
 they are round in shape, and much resemble Persian cards, are painted 
 on ivory and covered with arabesques, flowers, and birds. This pack, only 
 a few pieces of which now exist in some of the German collections, was 
 composed of fifty-two cards divided into four numeral series of nine cards 
 each, and with four figures in each series — the king, the queen, the 
 squire, and the knave. The suits or marks are the "Hare," the "Parrot," 
 the "Carnation," and the "Columbine." Each of the aces represents the 
 type of the suit, and they bear philosophical devices in Latin. The four 
 figures of the "Parrot" suit are of African character; those of the 
 " Hare " are Asiatic or Turkish ; those of the " Carnation " and the 
 "Columbine" belong to Europe. The "kings" and "queens" are on 
 horseback ; the " squires " and " knaves " are so similar that it is difficult 
 to distinguish them, with the exception of the knaves of "Columbine" 
 and "Carnation" (Figs. 222 to 227). 
 
 The English also were in possession of playing-cards at an early date, 
 obtaining them through the medium of the trade which they carried on 
 with the Hanseatic towns and Holland ; but they did not manufacture 
 cards before the end of the sixteenth century; for we know that in the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth the Government retained in its own hands the 
 monopoly of playing-cards, "which were imported from abroad." The 
 English, while adopting indiscriminately cards of a German, French, 
 Italian, or Spanish character, gave to the valet the characteristic appellation 
 of "knave."* 
 
 * The English " knave " is only our old equivalent for the German knabe, and had originally 
 the same meaning of servant ; it is also nearly similar in sense to the French valet.— [Tr.] 
 
Figs. 222 to 227.— German Round-shaped Cards, with the Monogram T. W. 
 King of Parrots." 2. " Queen of Carnations." 3. " Knave of Columbine." 4. " Knave of Hares. 
 5. "Three of Parrots." 6. " Ace of Carnations." 
 (Bibl. Imp. of Paris.) 
 
248 
 
 PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 Wood-engraving, which was invented at the commencement of the 
 fifteenth century, and perhaps even before, must have been applied at 
 the very first and almost simultaneously to the reproduction of sacred 
 pictures and the manufacture of playing-cards. Holland and Germany 
 
 Fig. 228. — La Damoiselle, from a Pack of Cards engraved by " The Master of 1466." 
 (Bibl. Imp. of Paris. Print-Room.) 
 
 have contended for the honour of having been the cradle of this invention. 
 Taking advantage of this, they have also even thought themselves war- 
 ranted in laying claim to the credit of the original manufacture of cards ; 
 
PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 249 
 
 whereas the fact is that all they can claim is to have been the first to 
 produce them by some more expeditious method of making. According 
 to the opinion of several savants, Laurent Goster of Haerlem was only an 
 engraver of wood-blocks for cards and pictures, before he became a printer 
 
 Fig. 229. — The Knight, from a Pack of Cards engraved by " The Master of 1466." 
 (Bibl. Imp. of Paris ) 
 
 of books. It certainly is a fact that wood-engraving, which was for a long 
 time limited to a few studios in Holland and Upper Germany, owed a large 
 share of its progress to the trade in playing-cards — one which was carried 
 on with such activity that, as we read in an old chronicle of the city of Ulm, 
 
 K K 
 
25° 
 
 PLAYING-CARDS. 
 
 about the year 1397, " they were in the habit of sending playing-cards in 
 bales to Italy, Sicily, and other southern countries, to exchange for groceries 
 and various merchandise." 
 
 A few years later, engraving on metal or copper-plate was employed in 
 producing playing-cards of a really artistic character, among which we 
 may mention those of " The Master of 1466 " (Figs. 228 and 229), and by 
 his anonymous rivals. The pack of cards of this engraver exists only in a 
 small number of print- collections, and it is in every case incomplete. As far 
 as we can judge, it must have been composed of sixty cards, consisting of 
 forty numeral cards divided into five series, and twenty picture-cards, being 
 four to each series. The figures are the king, queen, knight, and knave. 
 The suits, or marks, present rather a strange selection of wild men, ferocious 
 quadrupeds, deer, birds of prey, and various flowers. These objects are 
 numerically grouped and tolerably well arranged, so as to allow the numbers 
 indicated to be distinguished at first sight. 
 
 Thus, as we have seen, playing-cards made their way through Arabia 
 from India to Europe, where they first arrived about the year 1370. Within 
 a few years they spread from the south to the north of the latter country ; 
 but those who, under the influence of a passion for play, had so eagerly 
 welcomed them, were far indeed from suspecting that this new game 
 contained within itself the germ of two of the most beautiful inventions 
 ever devised by the human mind — those of engraving and printing. There 
 can be no doubt that playing-cards were in use for many a long year, ere the 
 public voice had proclaimed the almost simultaneous discovery of the arts of 
 engraving on wood and metal, and of printing. 
 
GLASS-PAINTING. 
 
 Painting on Glass mentioned by Historians in the Third Century of our Era.-— Glazed Windows 
 at Brioude in the Sixth Century. — Coloured Glass at St. John Lateran and St. Peter's in 
 Rome. — Church- Windows of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries in France : Saint-Denis, 
 Sens, Poitiers, Chartres, Rheims, &c. — In the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries the Art was 
 at its Zenith. — Jean Cousin. — The Celestins of Paris; Saint-Gervais. Robert Pinaigrier 
 and his Sons. — Bernard Palissy decorates the Chapel of the Castle of Ecouen. — Foreign Art ; 
 Albert Diirer. 
 
 E have already established the fact that the art of 
 manufacturing and colouring glass was known to 
 the most ancient nations ; and, says Champollion- 
 Figeac, " if we study the various fragments of this 
 fragile substance that have been handed down to 
 our time, if we take into consideration the varied 
 ornamentation with which they are covered, even 
 the human figures which some of them represent, it would 
 be difficult to assert that antiquity was unacquainted with 
 the means of combining glass with painting. If antiquity 
 did not produce what are now called painted- windows, the real cause 
 $ doubtless was because the custom of employing glass in windows did 
 not then exist." Some few specimens of it have, however, been found 
 in the windows of the houses exhumed at Pompeii ; but this must have been 
 an exception, for the third century of our era is the earliest date in which 
 traces are found in history of window- glass being used in buildings ; and we 
 must bring down our researches as late as the times of St. John Chrysostom 
 and St. Jerome (the fourth century) in order to find any reliable affirmation 
 as to its adoption. 
 
 In the sixth century Gregory of Tours relates that a soldier broke the 
 glass-window of a church at Brioude in order to enter it secretly and 
 commit robbery ; and we know that when this prelate caused the restoration 
 
252 
 
 GLASS-PAINTING. 
 
 of the Church of St. Martin of Tours, he took care to fill its windows 
 with glass " of varied colours." About the same time Fortunatus, the 
 poet-bishop of Poitiers, highly extols the splendour of the glass-window 
 of a church in Paris, the name of which he does not mention ; but the 
 learned investigations of Foncemagne with reference to the first kings of 
 France inform us that the church built at Paris by Childebert I. in honour 
 of the Holy Cross and St. Vincent, as well as the churches of Lyons and 
 Bourges, were closed in with glass- windows. Du Cange, in his " Constanti- 
 nople Chretienne," describes the glass-windows of the basilica of St. Sophia, 
 rebuilt by Justinian ; and Paul, the Silentiary,* dwells with enthusiasm on 
 the marvellous effect produced by the rays of the sun upon this assemblage 
 of various coloured glasses. 
 
 In the eighth century, the epoch at which the use of glass-windows 
 was becoming general, the basilica of St. John Lateran and the Church 
 of St. Peter at Rome possessed coloured glass-windows ; and Charlemagne, 
 who had caused mosaics of coloured glass to be made in a large number 
 of churches, did not fail to avail himself of this kind of ornament in the 
 cathedral erected by him at Aix-la-Chapelle. 
 
 Up to this time the only method of making glass was in small pieces, 
 generally round, and designated by the name of cives, a number of which 
 by means of a network of plaster, wooden frames, or strips of lead, were 
 used to fill up the windows. This material being, however, very costly, it 
 could only be introduced into edifices of great importance. Added to this, 
 it can scarcely be a source of wonder if, at a time when all branches of 
 art had relapsed into a sort of barbarism, and glass was only exceptionally 
 employed in ordinary purposes, no one thought of decorating it with painted 
 figures and ornaments. 
 
 With regard to mosaic, either in marble or coloured glass, Martial, 
 Lucretius, and other writers of antiquity, mention it in their works. Egypt 
 had a knowledge of it even before Greece ; the Romans were accustomed to 
 employ it in ornamenting the roofs and pavement of their temples, and 
 even their columns and streets. Some magnificent specimens of these 
 
 * Paul, the Silentiary, is so named from holding in the court of Justinian the office of chief of 
 the Silentiarii, persons who had the care of the palace. He wrote a poem on the rebuilding- of 
 St. Sophia, at Constantinople, which was translated from Greek into Latin, and published with 
 notes, by Du Cange, of Paris, in 1670. It is this to which M. Lecroix refers in the text.— [Ed.] 
 
GLA SS-PA INTING. 
 
 253 
 
 decorations have remained to our time, and they are considered as insepa- 
 rable from the architecture of the emperors. 
 
 Some have desired to attribute the custom of employing coloured glass in 
 mosaics to the rarity of coloured marbles. Would it not be a more probable 
 hypothesis that the simultaneous use of marble and glass for this purpose 
 was the result of improvements in the art of making mosaics ? for glass 
 that, by metallic mixtures, may be brought to a variety of colours, is much 
 more easily adapted to pictorial combinations than marble, the tints of which 
 are the result of the caprices of nature. Seneca, alluding to the use of 
 coloured glasses in mosaic, complains of people not being able " to walk 
 except on precious stones ;" this shows how prevalent the use of rich mosaics 
 had become in Rome. But this art must have singularly fallen into decay, 
 for the few examples of the kind we now possess, which date from the 
 first centuries of Christianity, are marked with a character of simplicity 
 that fully harmonises with the rudeness of the artists of those times. 
 Among these specimens must be mentioned a pavement discovered at 
 Rheims, upon which are represented the twelve signs of the zodiac, the 
 seasons of the year, and Abraham's Sacrifice ; another on which are depicted 
 Theseus and the labyrinth of Crete, in juxtaposition with David and Goliath. 
 It is, moreover, known that there existed in the Forum of Naples a portrait 
 in mosaic of Theodoric, king of the Goths, who had caused a representa- 
 tion of the Baptism of Christ to be executed, in the church of Ravenna, by 
 the same process. Sidonius Apollinaris, describing the excessive luxury 
 of Consentius at Narbonne, speaks of arches and pavements ornamented 
 with mosaics. The churches of St. John Lateran, St. Clement, and St. George 
 in Velabro, at Rome, still display mosaics of this period. Lastly, Charle- 
 magne caused the greater part of the churches constructed by him to be 
 ornamented with mosaics. 
 
 To return to glass-work, we find that in the time of Charles the Bald, 
 in 863, mention is made of two artisans, Ragenat and Balderic, who became 
 as it were the heads of the race of French glass-makers. We also learn 
 from the chronicle of St. Benignus of Dijon, that in 1052 there existed in 
 that church a " very ancient painted window," representing St. Paschasie, 
 which was said to have been taken from the earlier church. We have 
 therefore a right to conclude that at this period the custom of painting on 
 glass had long been common. 
 
254- 
 
 GLA SS- PAINTING. 
 
 In the tenth, century glass-makers must have acquired some degree of 
 importance, for the reigning Dukes of Normandy of that era established 
 certain privileges in their favour ; but, says Champollion-Figeac, " as all 
 privilege was the prerogative of the order of nobility, they contrived to 
 give them to noble families whose fortunes were precarious. Four Norman 
 families obtained this distinction. But although it was understood that in 
 devoting themselves to the trade these titled individuals incurred no 
 degradation, it was never said, as is commonly believed, that the profession 
 of this art conferred nobility ; on the contrary, a proverb arose which 
 long continued in use, namely, that ' in order to make a gentleman glass- 
 maker, you must first take a gentleman.' " 
 
 Although painting on glass was from that time carried on with consider- 
 able activity, in many cases it was still very far from being accomplished by 
 the processes which were destined to make it one of the most remarkable 
 productions of art. The application of the brush to vitrifiable colours 
 was not generally adopted. In the examples of this period that remain 
 to our days, we indeed find large cives cast in white glass, upon which 
 characters were painted by the artist ; but, as the colour was not designed 
 to be incorporated with the glass by the action of fire, with a view to ensure 
 the preservation of the painting, another transparent but thick cive was 
 placed over the first and closely soldered to it. 
 
 "While glass-painting was thus seeking to perfect its processes, mosaic 
 work gradually declined. Only a very small number of mosaics of the tenth 
 and eleventh centuries exist at the present day, and these, moreover, are 
 very incorrect in design, and entirely wanting in taste and colour. 
 
 In the twelfth century all the arts began to revive. The fear of the end 
 of the world, which had thrown mankind into a strange state of perturbation, 
 was dissipated. The Christian faith everywhere stirred up the zeal of its 
 disciples. Magnificent cathedrals with imposing arches sprang up in various 
 places, and the art of the glass-maker came to the aid of architecture in 
 order to diffuse over the interiors consecrated to worship the light, both 
 prismatic and harmonious, which affords the calm necessary for holy medi- 
 tation. But though, in the painted windows of this period, we are forced 
 to admire the ingenious combinatian of colours for the rose- work (rose- 
 windows), the case is very different as regards the drawing and colouring 
 of the designs. The figures are generally traced in rough, stiff lines on 
 
GLA SS-PAINTING. 
 
 255 
 
 glass of a dull tint, which absorbs all the expression of the heads ; the 
 entire drapery of the costume is heavy ; the figure is spoilt by the folds of 
 
 Fig. 231.-st. Timothy the Martyr, Coloured Glass of the end of the Eleventh Century, found in the 
 Church of Neuwiller (Bas-Rhin) hy M. Bceswillwald. 
 (From the " History of Glass-Painting," by M. Lasteyrie.) 
 
 its vestments as if it were enclosed in a long sheath. This is the general 
 character of the examples of that period as they are known to us (Fig. 231), 
 
256 
 
 GLA SS-PAINTING. 
 
 The painted windows which Suger made to adorn the abbey-church of 
 St. Denis, some of which exist in our days, date from the twelfth century. 
 The abbot made inquiries in every country, and gathered together at a great 
 expense the best artists he could find, in order to assist in this decoration. 
 The Adoration of the Magi, the Annunciation, the History of Moses, and 
 various allegories, are there represented in the chapel of the Virgin and 
 those of St. Osman and St. Hilary. Among the principal pictures may be 
 also observed a portrait of Suger himself at the feet of the Virgin. The 
 borders surrounding the subjects may be considered as models of harmony 
 and good arrangement of effect ; but still the taste shown in the selection and 
 combination of colours is carried to the highest point in the subjects them- 
 selves, the designs of which are very excellent. 
 
 In the Church of St. Maurice, at Angers, we find examples of a rather 
 earlier date — perhaps the most ancient specimens of painted windows in 
 France ; these are the history of St. Catherine and that of the Virgin, which, 
 in truth, are not equal in merit, as regards execution and taste, to the 
 ancient windows of the Church of St. Denis. 
 
 We still have to mention some fragments contained in the Church of 
 St. Serge, and the chapel of the Hospital, in the town of Angers ; also a 
 glass-window in the Abbey of Fontevrault; another in the Church of 
 St. Peter, at Dreux, in which is represented Queen Anne of Brittany. We 
 will, in conclusion, mention one of the windows of the choir in the Church 
 of the Trinity, at Vendome ; it represents the Glorification of the Virgin, 
 who bears on her forehead an aureola, the shape of which, called amandaire* 
 has furnished archaeologists with a subject for long discussions ; some being 
 desirous of proving that this aureola, which does not appear to be depicted 
 in the same way on any other painted window, tends to show that the 
 works of the Poitevine glass-makers, to whom it is attributed, had been 
 subject to the influence of the Byzantine school; others assert that the 
 almond-shaped crown is a symbol exclusively reserved for the Virgin. 
 Before we proceed to the examples handed down to us from the twelfth 
 century, we must mention some remains of glass to be seen at Chartres, 
 Mans, Sens, and Bourges (Fig. 232), &c. We may also add, as an incident 
 
 * Amandaire— almond-shaped. Strictly speaking, the aureola is the nimbus of the whole 
 body, as the nimbus is the aureola of the head. In Fairholt's "Dictionary of Terms in Art" is 
 an engraving showing a saint standing in the centre of an almond-shaped aureola —[Ed.] 
 
GLA SS-PAINTING. 
 
 2 57 
 
 not without interest; that a chapter of the order of the Cistercians, consider- 
 ing the great expense to which the acquisition of painted windows led, 
 prohibited the use of them in churches under the rule of St. Bernard. 
 
 Fig. 232. — Fragment of a Church-window, representing the " Prodigal Son." Thirteenth Centurj'. 
 (Presented to the Cathedral of Bourges by the Guild of Tanners.) 
 
 " The architecture of the thirteenth century," according to the judicious 
 remarks of Champollion-Figeac, " by its style of moulding, which is more 
 slender and graceful than the massive forms of Roman art, opened a wider 
 
 L I, 
 
GLA SS-PA INTING. 
 
 and more favourable field for artists in glass. The small pillars then pro- 
 jected, and extended themselves with a novel elegance, and the tapering and 
 delicate spires of the steeples lost themselves in the clouds. The windows 
 occupied more space, and likewise had the appearance of springing lightly 
 and gracefully upwards. They were adorned with symbolical ornaments, 
 griffins, and other fantastic animals ; leaves and boughs cross and intertwine 
 with one another, producing that varied rose- work which is the admiration 
 of modern glass-makers. The colours are more skilfully combined and better 
 blended than in the windows of the preceding century ; and although some 
 of the figures are still wanting in expression, and have not thrown off all 
 the stiffness which characterised them, the draperies, at least, are lighter 
 and better drawn." Examples of the thirteenth century which have re- 
 mained to our time are very numerous. There is at Poitiers some painted 
 glass composed of small roses, and chiefly placed in one of the windows in 
 the centre of the church and in the " Calvary " of the apse ; at Sens, the 
 legend of St. Thomas of Canterbury is represented in a number of small 
 medallions, called verrieres legendaires ; at Mans is glass representing the 
 corporations of trades ; at Chartres, the painted glass in the cathedral, a 
 work both magnificent and extensive, contains no fewer than one thousand 
 three hundred and fifty subjects, distributed throughout one hundred 
 and forty-three windows. At Rheims, the painted glass is perhaps less 
 important, but it is remarkable both for the brilliancy of its colours and 
 also for its characteristic fitness to the style of the edifice. Bourges, Tours, 
 Angers, and Notre-Dame in Paris, present very beautiful specimens. The 
 Cathedral of Rouen possesses, to this day, a window which bears the name 
 of Clement of Chartres, master glazier, the first artist of this kind who has 
 left behind him any work bearing his signature. "We must, in conclusion, 
 mention the Sainte-Chapelle, Paris, which is unquestionably the highest 
 representation of what the art is capable of producing. The designs of the 
 windows in this last edifice are legendary, and although some few inaccuracies 
 may be noticed in the figures, the fault is redeemed by the studied 
 elegance of the ornamentation and the harmony of colours, which combine 
 to render them one of the most consistent and perfect works of painting 
 on glass. 
 
 In the thirteenth century " grisaille " first made its appearance ; it was 
 quite a new style, and has been often since employod in the borders and 
 
GLA SS-PAINTING. 
 
 259 
 
 ornaments of painted windows. " Grisaille"* the name of which is to some 
 extent sufficient to describe its aspect, was used simultaneously with the 
 mosaics of variegated glass, as we see in the Church of St. Thomas, 
 Strasbourg, in the Cathedral of Freybourg in Brisgau, and in many churches 
 of Bourges. 
 
 The large number of paintings on glass belonging to the thirteenth 
 century, which may still be studied in various churches, has given rise to 
 the idea of classifying all these monuments, and arranging them under 
 certain schools, which have been designated by the names of Franco-Norman, 
 Germanic, &c. Some have even gone further, and desired to recognise in 
 the style peculiar to the artists of ancient France a Norman style, a Poitevin 
 style (the latter recognisable, it is said, by the want of harmony in the 
 colours), &c. We can hardly admit these last distinctions, and are the less 
 inclined to do so, as those who propound them seem to base their theories 
 rather on the defects than the good qualities of the artists. Besides, at a 
 period in which a nobleman sometimes possessed several provinces very 
 distant from each other — as, for example, Anjou and Provence — it might so 
 happen that the artists he took with him to his different residences could 
 scarcely fail, by the union of their various works, to cause any provincial 
 influences to disappear, and would finally reduce the distinction between 
 what is called the Poitevin style, the Norman style, &c, to a question of a 
 more or less skilful manufacture, or of a more or less advanced improvement. 
 
 In the fourteenth century the artist in glass became separated from the 
 architect ; although naturally subordinate to the designer of the edifice, in 
 which the windows were to be only an accessory ornament, he wished to 
 give effect to his own inspiration. The whole of the building was subjected 
 by him to the effect of his more learned and correct drawing, and his purer 
 and more striking colouring. It mattered little to him should some part of 
 the church have too much light, or not light enough, if a flood of radiance 
 deluged the apse or the choir, instead of being gradually diffused every- 
 where, as in earlier buildings. He desired his labour to recommend him, 
 and his work to do him honour. 
 
 The court-poets, Guillaume de Machaut and Eustache Deschamps, cele- 
 brate in their poems several works in painted glass of their time, and even 
 eive some details in verse on the mode of fabricating them. 
 
 * Grisaille— white and black.— [Ed.] 
 
260 
 
 GLASS-PAINTING. 
 
 In 1347 a royal ordinance was proclaimed in favour of the workmen of 
 
 Fifl- 233. — Legend of the Jew of the Rue des Billettes Paris, piercing the Holy Wafer with his Knife. 
 From a Window of the Church of St. Alpin, at Chalons -sur-Marne. Fourteenth Century.) 
 
 Lyons. The custom existed at that time of adorning with painted windows 
 
GLA SS-PAINTING. 
 
 261 
 
 royal and lordly habitations. The artists produced their own designs, 
 adapting them to the use that was made, in private 
 life, of the halls for which they were intended. 
 Some of these windows representing familiar 
 legends adorned even the churches (Fig. 233). 
 
 Among the most important works of the four- 
 teenth century, we must mention in the first place 
 the windows of the cathedrals of Mans, Beauvais, 
 Evreux (Fig. 234), and the rose- windows of St. 
 Thomas at Strasbourg. Next come the windows 
 of the Church of St. Nazaire at Carcassonne and 
 of the Cathedral of Narbonne. There are, besides, 
 in the Church of St. John at Lyons, in Notre- 
 Dame of Semur, in Aix in Provence, at Bourges, 
 and at Metz, church-windows in every respect 
 worthy of attention. 
 
 The fifteenth century only continues the tra- 
 ditions of the preceding one. The principal works 
 dating from this epoch begin, according to the order 
 
 of merit, with the window of the Cathedral of Mans, 
 
 which represents Yolande* of Aragon, and Louis II., 
 
 King of Naples and Sicily, ancestors of the good 
 
 King Rene ; after them we shall place the windows 
 
 of the Sainte-Chapelle, Riom ; St. Vincent, Rouen ; 
 
 the Cathedral of Tours ; and that of Bourges, 
 
 representing a memorial of Jacques Coeur, &c. 
 
 The sixteenth century, although bringing with 
 
 it, owing to religious troubles, many ravages of 
 
 new iconoclasts, has handed down to us a variety 
 
 of numerous and remarkable church- windows. We 
 
 are, of course, unable to mention them all ; but it 
 
 seems expedient — adopting the rule of most arch- 
 aeologists — to divide them into three branches or 
 
 schools, which are actually formed by the different 
 
 styles of the artists of that epoch ; the French 
 
 Fig. 234. — Fragment of a Window pre- 
 sented to the Cathedral of Evreux by 
 the Bishop Guillaume de Cantiers. 
 Fourteenth Century. 
 
 Probably Alfonso is thus designate!. — [Ed.] 
 
262 
 
 GLA SS-PAINTING. 
 
 school, the German school, and the Lorraine school (Fig. 235), which 
 partakes of the characteristics of the two preceding. 
 
 Fig. 235. — Allegorical Window, representing the " Citadel of Pallas." 
 (Lorraine work of the Sixteenth Century, preserved in the Library at Strasbourg.) 
 
 At the head of the French school figures the celebrated Jean Cousin, who 
 decorated the chapel of Vincennes ; he also made for the Celestins monastery, 
 
GLASS-PAINTING. 
 
 263 
 
 Paris, a representation of Calvary ; for St. Gervais, in 1587, the windows 
 representing the " Martyrdom of St. Lawrence," the " Samaritan conversing 
 with Christ," and the " Paralytic." In these works, which belong to a high 
 style of painting, the best method of arrangement, vigorous drawing, and 
 powerful colouring, seem to reflect the work of Raphael. Windows in 
 "grisaille" made from the cartoons of Jean Cousin, also decorated the 
 Castle of Anet. 
 
 Another artist, named Robert Pinaigrier, who, although inferior to 
 Cousin, was much more fertile in production, assisted by his sons Jean, 
 Nicholas, and Louis, and several of his pupils, executed a number of win- 
 dows for the churches of Paris, of which the greater part have disappeared : 
 Saint-Jacques la Boucherie, the Madeleine, Sainte-Croix en la Cite, Saint 
 Barthelemy, &c. Magnificent specimens of his work still remain at Saint- 
 Merry, Saint-Gervais, Saint-Etienne du Mont, and in the Cathedral of 
 Chartres. Pinaigrier's works in the decorations of chateaux and the 
 mansions of the nobility are perhaps equally numerous. 
 
 At this period several windows were made from the drawings of Raphael, 
 Leonardo da Vinci, and Parmigiano ; it may also be remarked that two 
 patterns of the latter' s work were used by Bernard Palissy, who was a glass- 
 maker before he became an enameller, in forming windows in "grisaille" 
 for the chapel of the Chateau of Ecouen. For the same place, following the 
 style of Raphael, and from the drawings of Rosso, called Maitre Roux, 
 Bernard Palissy executed thirty pictures on glass, representing the history 
 of Psyche, which are justly considered as ranking among the most beautiful 
 compositions of the epoch ; but it is not now known what has become of 
 these valuable windows, which at the Revolution were transported to the 
 Museum of French Monuments. 
 
 They were, it is said, executed under the direction of Leonard of 
 Limoges, who, like all the masters of that school (Fig. 236), applied to 
 painting on glass the processes of enamelling, and vice versa. In the collec- 
 tions of the Louvre and of several amateurs, there are still examples of his 
 composition, on which he employed the best glass-painters of his time ; for 
 he could not himself work on all the objects that proceeded from his studios, 
 and which were almost exclusively destined for the king's palace. 
 
 The French art of glass-working became cosmopolitan. It was intro- 
 duced into Spain and also into the Low Countries under the protection of 
 
GLA SS-PAINTING. 
 
 Charles V. and the Duke of Alba. It even appears to have crossed the 
 Alps ; for we know that in 1512 a glass-painter of the name of Claude 
 adorned with his works the large windows of the Vatican ; and Julius II. 
 summoned Guillaume of Marseilles to the Eternal City, the pontiff when, 
 
 Fig. 236.— St. Paul, an Enamel of Limoges, by Etienne Mercier. 
 
 occupying the sees of Carpentras and Avignon having appreciated his talent. 
 We must not omit to mention, among the Flemish artists who escaped this 
 foreign influence, the name of Dirk of Haarlem (Fig. 237), the most 
 celebrated master in this art at the close of the fifteenth century. 
 
 While French art was thus spreading over the continent, foreign art 
 
GLASS-PAINTING. 
 
 265 
 
 was being introduced into France. Albert Diirer employed bis pencil in 
 painting twenty windows in the church of the Old Temple, in Paris, and 
 produced a collection of pictures characterised by vigorous drawing, and 
 
 Fig. 237.— Flemish Window (Fifteenth Century), halt life-size. Painted in Monochrome, relieved with yellow, 
 by Dirk of Haarlem. (Collection of M. Benoni-Verhelst, Ghent.) 
 
 warm and intense colouring. The celebrated German did not work alone — 
 other artists assisted him ; and, notwithstanding the devastations which took 
 place during the Revolution, in many a church and mansion traces of these 
 
 M M 
 
266 
 
 GLA SS-PAINTING. 
 
 skilful masters may still be found ; their compositions, which are generally 
 as well arranged as they are executed, are marked with a tinge of German 
 simplicity very suitable to the pious nature of the subjects they represent. 
 
 In 1600, Nicholas Pinaigrier placed in the windows of the Castle of 
 La BrifFe seven pictures in "grisaille," copied from the designs of Francis 
 Floris, a Flemish master, who was born in 1520. At this same period Van 
 Haeck, Herreyn, John Dox, and Pelgrin Rosen, all belonging to the school 
 of Antwerp, and other artists who had decorated the windows of most of 
 the churches in Belgium, especially St. Gudule in Brussels, influenced 
 either directly or indirectly the glass-painters of the east and north of 
 France. Another group of artists, the Provencals, imitators of the Italian 
 style, or rather perhaps inspired by the same luminary, the sun of Michael 
 Angelo, trod a similar path to that which Jean Cousin, Pinaigrier, and 
 Palissy had followed with so much renown. The chiefs of this school were 
 Claude, and Guillaume of Marseilles, who, as we have just mentioned, carried 
 their talent and their works into Italy, where they succeeded in educating 
 some clever pupils. 
 
 With regard to the school of Messin or Lorraine, it is principally repre- 
 sented by a disciple of Michael Angelo, Valentin Bousch, the Alsatian, who 
 died in 1541 at Metz, where he had executed, since 1521, an immense 
 number of works. The windows of the churches of St. Barbe, St. Nicolas du 
 Port, Autrey, and Flavigny-sur-Moselle, are due to the same school, in which 
 Israel Henriet was also brought up ; he became the chief of a school 
 exclusively belonging to Lorraine, at the time when Charles III. had 
 invited the arts to unite under the patronage of the ducal throne. Thierry 
 Alix, in a "Description inedite de la Lorraine," written in 1590, and 
 mentioned by M. Begin, speaks of "large plates of glass of all colours," 
 made in his time in the mountains of Vosges, where " all the herbs and 
 other things necessary to painting" were found. M. Begin, after having 
 quoted this curious statement, adds that the windows which at that era 
 were produced in the studios of Vosges, and subsequently carried to all 
 parts of Europe, constituted a very active branch of commerce. 
 
 "Nevertheless," says Champollion-Figeac, "art was declining. Christian 
 art especially was disappearing, and had almost come to an end, when 
 Protestantism stepped in and gave it the last blow ; this is proved by the 
 window in the cathedral church of Berne, in which the artist, Frederic 
 
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 Portion of a Stained Glass Window in the Church of St. Gudule at Brussels. 
 
GLA SS-PA INTING. 
 
 267 
 
 "Walter, dared to launch his satire against doctrine itself, and to ridicule 
 transubstantiation by representing a pope shovelling four evangelists into 
 a mill, from which come forth a number of wafers; these a bishop is 
 receiving into a cup in order to distribute them to the wondering people. 
 Any edification of the masses by the powerful effect of transparent images 
 placed, so to speak, between the earth and heaven, soon ceased to be possible, 
 and glass-painting, henceforth alienated from the special aim of its origin, 
 was destined also to disappear." 
 
 Fig. 238. — Temptation of St. Mars, a Hermit of Auvergne, by the Devil disguised as a Woman. Fragment of a 
 Window of the Sainte-Chapelle of Riom. Fifteenth Century. 
 (From " Histoire de la Peinture sur Verre," by M. F. de Lasteyrie.) 
 
FEESCO-PATNTING. 
 
 The Nature of Fresco.— Employed by the Ancients.— Paintings at Pompeii.— Greek and Roman 
 Schools. — Mural Paintings destroyed by the Iconoclasts and Barbarians. — Revival of Fresco, 
 in the Ninth Century, in Italy. — Fresco-Painters since Guido of Siena.— Principal Works of 
 these Painters.— Successors of Raphael and Michael Angelo.— Fresco in Sgraffito. — Mural 
 Paintings in France from the Twelfth Century.— Gothic Frescoes of Spain.— Mural Paintings 
 in the Low Countries, Germany, and Switzerland. 
 
 00 frequently in conversational language and even 
 in the writings of grave authors," says M. Ernest 
 Breton, " the word fresco is made synonymous with 
 mural painting in general. This confusion of terms 
 has sometimes caused the most fatal errors. The 
 etymology of the word is the best definition of the 
 subject. The Italians give the name of paintings 
 in fresco or a fresco, that is to say, d frais, or sur le 
 frais, to those works executed upon damp stucco into 
 which the colour penetrates to a certain depth. The ancient 
 French authors, preserving the difference existing between the 
 Italian fresco and the French frais, wrote the word fraisque. At the 
 present day Italian orthography has prevailed, and with us this word has 
 now more relation to its etymology than its real signification." 
 
 Whatever may be the common acceptation of the word, we must, in 
 order to keep within the limits of our subject, here only take into consi- 
 deration real frescoes, or in other words, works of art executed upon a bare 
 wall, properly prepared for the purpose, with which they are as it were 
 incorporated; for in the roll of art all are excluded from the catalogue of 
 mural paintings, rightly so called, which, although applied to walls either 
 directly or by the aid of panels or fixed canvas, are produced otherwise 
 than with water-colours, and used in such a manner as to penetrate the 
 special kind of plaster with which the wall had been previously covered. 
 
270 
 
 FRESCO- PAINTING. 
 
 We will mention as a striking example of this the famous " Lord's 
 Supper " of Leonardo da Vinci, which has many times been called a fresco 
 (it is well known to have been painted upon the wall of the refectory of 
 Santa Maria della Gratia, at Milan), but is nothing but a painting in 
 distemper* on a dry partition — a circumstance, by-the-bye, which has not 
 a little contributed to the deterioration of this magnificent work. 
 
 Fresco has long been considered the most ancient style of painting. 
 Vasari, who wrote in the middle of the sixteenth century, says in apt terms 
 that " the ancients generally practised painting in fresco, and the first 
 painters of the modern schools have only followed the antique methods ; " 
 and, in our own day, Millin, in his " Dictionnaire des Beaux-Arts," asserts 
 that the great paintings in the " Poecile " of Athens and the " Lesche " of 
 Delphi, by Pansenus and Polygnotus, spoken of by Pausanias, were executed 
 by this process ; the same author also ranks among frescoes the numerous 
 paintings left by the Egyptians in their temples and catacombs. " It was," 
 he remarks, "what the Romans called in ado pariete ping ere (to paint on a 
 damp wall ) ; they say in cretula pingere (to paint on chalk) to designate 
 water-colour painting on a dry ground." 
 
 Some persons have considered the paintings found at Herculaneum and 
 Pompeii to be frescoes ; nevertheless Winckelmann, who is an authority in 
 these matters, said, a hundred years ago, in speaking of those works, " It 
 is to be remarked that the greater part of these pictures were not painted 
 on damp lime, but upon a dry ground, which is rendered very evident by 
 several of the figures having scaled off in such a way as to show distinctly 
 the ground upon which they rest." 
 
 The whole mistake has arisen from taking the expression " in udo 
 pariete" found in Pliny, in too literal a sense ; the error, which might at all 
 events have been dissipated by an attentive examination of the examples 
 themselves, would not have lasted long if the passage from Pliny had 
 
 * This is obviously a misconception. Lanzi, alluding to the picture, says, " Had Leonardo 
 desired to follow the practice of his age in painting in distemper, the art at this time would have 
 been in possession of this treasure. But being always fond of attempting new methods, he 
 painted this masterpiece upon a peculiar ground, formed of distilled oils, which was the reason 
 that it gradually detached itself from the wall," &c. And a later authority, Kugler, thus writes : 
 " The determination of Leonardo to execute the work in oil-colours instead of fresco, in order to 
 have the power of finishing the minutest details in so great an undertaking, appears to have been 
 unfortunate." Distemper differs from fresco in that it is painted on a dry, and not a damp, wall ; 
 but in both the vehicle used is of an aqueous, and not an oily, nature.— [Ed.] 
 
FRESCO-PAINTING. 
 
 been compared with a statement of Vitruvius, which informs us that they 
 applied to fresh walls uniform tints of black, blue, yellow, or red, which 
 were destined to form the grounds of paintings, or even allowed them to 
 remain plain, like our present coloured walls. The employment of this 
 process may also be easily recognised in the paintings of Pompeii, where 
 this uniform colouring has sometimes penetrated nearly an inch into the 
 stucco of the wall. On this ground, when it was perfectly dry, ornamental 
 subjects were painted either in distemper or encaustic. 
 
 Thus, therefore, it is shown that the process of painting in fresco was 
 unknown to the ancients, and was invented by artists of succeeding times ; 
 but it would be difficult to assign any precise date to this invention ; for 
 however far we go back, we do not find any authors who fix the epoch at 
 which the new method was for the first time followed. We are, therefore, 
 compelled to notice the age of some particular example which shows that 
 the discovery had then taken place, without being able to determine the 
 exact date of its commencement. 
 
 Painting, which with the Greeks attained its greatest height in the reign 
 of Alexander, fell, says M. Breton, " with the power of Greece. In losing 
 its liberty, the country of the Fine Arts lost, too, the perception of the 
 beautiful." At Rome, painting never reached the same degree of perfec- 
 tion as it did in Greece ; for a long time it was only practised by men of 
 the lowest rank and by slaves. A few patricians, such as Amulius, Fabius 
 Pictor (painter), and Cornelius Pinus, were, at the best, able to bring about 
 only some slight revival. After the twelve Caesars, painting followed the 
 movement of decadence which carried away with it all the arts ; like 
 them, it received its death-blow in the fourth century, on the day when 
 Constantine, quitting Rome in order to establish the seat of empire at 
 Byzantium, took with him into his new capital not only the best artists, but 
 also a prodigious number of their productions, and of those of the artists 
 who preceded them. Several other causes may also be mentioned as having 
 led to the decline of art, or to the destruction of examples which would 
 now bear witness to its power in remote ages. In the first place, there was 
 the birth of Christian Art, which rose on the ruins of Paganism ; then, the 
 invasion of barbarians which took place in the fifth century ; lastly, in the 
 eighth and ninth centuries, the fury of the Iconoclasts, or Image-breakers, 
 a sect at the head of which figured several emperors of the East, from Leo 
 
272 
 
 FRESC O-PA INTING. 
 
 the Isaurian, who reigned in 717, down to Michael the Stammerer and 
 Theophilus, who respectively ascended the imperial throne in 820 and 829. 
 
 Even among the ignorant masses, to whom we owe the loss of so many 
 chefs- d'ceuvre, were some individuals who formed honourable exceptions, 
 not only by opposing the devastations, but also by manifesting a laudable 
 conservative instinct. Cassiodorus tells us that Theodoric, king of the 
 Goths, re-established the office of centurio nitentium rerum (guardian of 
 beautiful objects), instituted by the emperor Constantius ; and we know that 
 the Lombard kings who succeeded this prince and reigned in Italy for 218 
 years, although less zealous in the culture of the arts, did not fail to honour 
 and protect them. In Paul the Deacon * we read that, in the sixth century, 
 queen Teudelinde, wife of Autharis and afterwards of Agilulphus, caused 
 the valorous deeds of the first Lombard kings to be painted on the basilica 
 that she had consecrated at Monza under the name of St. John. Other 
 paintings of the same epoch may still be seen at Pavia. The Church of 
 St. Nazaire at Verona possesses in its crypt paintings spoken of by Maffei, 
 which have been engraved by Ciampini and Frisi : these must date back to 
 the sixth and seventh centuries. Lastly, they have recently found in the 
 subterranean chapel of the basilica of St. Clement, in Rome, some admirable 
 mural paintings, which archaeologists refer to the same epoch. 
 
 The Eastern artists, driven away by the persecutions of the Iconoclasts, 
 sought an asylum in Italy, where the Latin Church, obedient to the 
 prescriptions of the Council of Nice, seemed determined to multiply sacred 
 images as much as possible. The arrival of the Grecian artists in the West 
 was also singularly promoted by the commercial relations which from that 
 time were established between all points of the Mediterranean shore and the 
 maritime or mercantile towns of Italy — Pisa, Genoa, and Venice. Thus 
 was brought about the movement which, although taking place on Italian 
 soil, drew from an entirely Eastern source the inspiration of the revival of 
 the Fine Arts ; thus was continued the so-called Byzantine school, destined 
 to be the foundation of all modern art. 
 
 In 817 some Greek artists, by order of Pope Pascal I., executed under 
 the portico of the Church of St. Cecilia in Rome a series of frescoes, the 
 subjects of which were taken from the life of the saint. To the same school 
 
 * Deacon of the Church at Aquila, and afterwards attached to the court of Charlemagne. 
 Paul, who died about the year 799, was distinguished as a poet and historian.— [Ed.] 
 
FRESC O- PA IN TING. 
 
 2 73 
 
 we are indebted for the sitting figures of Christ and His mother (Fig. 239), 
 in the old Church of Santa-Maria Trans- Tiberia, in Rome ; the large 
 Madonna painted on the walls of Santa-Maria della Scala, Milan, which, at 
 the time when this church was destroyed and replaced by the theatre of 
 La Scala, was taken away and carried to the Church of Santa-Fidelia, where 
 it still remains ; a series of portraits of the Popes after St. Leo, a collection 
 of which a large portion perished in the fire of St. Paul-extra-Muros, Rome 
 
 Fig. 239. — Christ and His Mother. Fresco- Painting of the Ninth Century, in the Apse of Santa-Maria 
 
 Trans-Tiberia, Rome. 
 
 (Fig. 240) ; and lastly, the paintings in the vaults of the Cathedral of 
 Aquila. 
 
 " The works of these earliest painters," observes M. Breton, " seem to 
 mark the transition from painting to sculpture : they are long figures as 
 stiff as columns, single or arranged symmetrically, forming neither groups 
 nor compositions, without perspective or effects of light and shade, and 
 having nothing to express their meaning than a sort of legend proceeding 
 out of the mouths of the characters. These frescoes, which are so weak 
 
 N N 
 
z 7 4 
 
 FRESCO-PA INTING. 
 
 when looked at in an artistic point of view, are remarkable for their material 
 execution, being extremely solid in their workmanship. It is astonishing 
 to see the wonderful preservation of some pictures of saints that adorn 
 the pilasters of St. Nicholas in Treviso and the walls of the church in 
 Fiesole, whereon are preserved the frescoes of Fra Angelico." 
 
 Among the paintings remaining to our time, the first in which the 
 authors departed from the uniform style of the Byzantine masters are 
 those which adorn the interior of the ancient temple of Bacchus, now the 
 
 Fig. 240. — Portrait of the Pope Sylvester I. Fresco-Painting in Mosaic, on a gold ground, in the Basilica 
 
 of St. Paul-extra-Muros, Rome. 
 
 Church of St. Urban in the Campagna of Rome : there is nothing Grecian 
 either in the figures or draperies, and it is impossible not to recognise 
 in them an Italian pencil; the date, however, is 1011. Pesaro, Aquila, 
 Orvieto, and Fiesole, possess examples of the same epoch. 
 
 At last, in the thirteenth century, notwithstanding its fierce intestine 
 struggles, Italy, and especially Tuscany, witnessed the dawn of the sun of 
 the Fine Arts, which, after a long period of darkness, was to shine with so 
 much brilliancy over the whole world. Pisa and Siena, earliest in the 
 
FRESCO-PAINTING. 
 
 2 75 
 
 revival, gave birth respectively to Giunta and Guide- (Palmerucci), each 
 of whom in his time acquired great renown ; but the only works of these 
 
 Fig. 241. — The Apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane. Fresco by Berna, at San-Geminiano. 
 (Fourteenth Century.) 
 
 artists which remain now, in the Cathedral of Assisi, seem but to indicate 
 a desire of progress without manifesting any real advancement in art. 
 
 To Guido of Siena succeeds, but not immediately, the friend of Petrarch, 
 
276 
 
 FRESCO-PAINTING. 
 
 Simon Memmi, whose frescoes in the Campo Santo of Pisa testify to his 
 powerful genius, and denote the first remarkable stage of art. 
 
 In the collegiate church of San-Geminiano* may be still seen a fresco 
 by Berna (Fig. 241), an eminent master in the school of Siena, who died 
 in 1370. 
 
 Passing, but not without mention, Margaritone and Bonaventura 
 Berlinghieri, who were only the timid harbingers of a great individuality, 
 the Florentine school places in the first rank of its celebrities Cimabue 
 (1240 — 1300), justly regarded by the artistic world as the true restorer of 
 painting. Cimabue pointed out the path ; Giotto, his pupil, trod it. He 
 took nature for his guide, and has been surnamed " nature's pupil." Real 
 imitation was the object of his endeavour, and as he found this system 
 marvellously applied in the beautiful antique marbles which had already 
 inspired, in the preceding century, the sculptors John and Nicolas of Pisa, 
 he made an earnest study of these ancient chefs-d'oeuvre. The impulse was 
 given, and the Campo Santo of Pisa shows us its first results in "The 
 Dream of Life." • 
 
 For two centuries there was a slow but always progressive improvement, 
 owing to the industry of Buffamalco, Taddeo Gaddi, Orcagna, Spinello of 
 Lucca, and Masolino of Panicale. With the fifteenth century appeared 
 Fra Angelico of Fiesole (Figs. 242 and 246), and Benozzo Gozzoli ; then 
 Masaccio, Pisanello, Mantegna, Zingaro, Pinturicchio, and lastly Perugino, 
 the Master of the divine Raphael. In the sixteenth century art attained its 
 culminating point. At this epoch Raphael and his pupils painted the 
 "Farnesina" and the "Stanze" and "Loggie " of the Vatican (it is known 
 that the two first pictures of the "Loggie" (Fig. 243) were painted solely 
 by the hand of Raphael) ; Michael Angelo alone executed the immense 
 expanse of the "Last Judgment," and Paul Veronese painted the ceilings 
 of the palace of the Doges at Venice. Then Giulio Romano covered with his 
 works the walls of the Te palace at Mantua ; Andrea del Sarto, those of 
 the "Annunziata" and " Dello Scalzo" at Florence. Daniel of Volterra 
 painted his famous " Descent from the Cross " for the Trinite du Mont, 
 Rome ; at Parma, the Pencil of Correggio worked marvels on the circle of 
 the dome of the cathedral. Leonardo da Vinci, besides the picture of the 
 " Lord's Supper," which we before mentioned only to exclude it from the 
 
 * Or San-Gemignano, a small town between Florence and Siena.— [En.] 
 
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 277 
 
 number of frescoes, endowed the monastery of St Onofrio at Rome with 
 a magnificent Madonna, and the palace of Caravaggio, near Bergamo, with 
 
 Fig. 242— Group of Saints, taken from the large Fresco of "The Passion " in the Convent of St. Mark. 
 Painted by Fra Angelico of Fiesole. 
 
 a colossal Virgin. It was, in short, the age of splendid productions in 
 
278 
 
 FRESCO-PAINTING. 
 
 mural painting, that in which the great Buonarotti exclaimed when engaged 
 in enthusiastic labour on one of his sublime conceptions — "Fresco is the 
 only painting; painting in oils is only the art of women and idle and 
 unenergetic men." And yet, at least as regards improvements in the 
 process of execution, fresco had hardly reached its climax. 
 
 In the seventeenth century the school of Bologna, after having for a 
 long time maintained a merely imitative style of art, shone forth with 
 independent light under the influence of the Carracci, who, summoned to 
 Rome, covered the walls of the Farnesian gallery with frescoes, to which 
 none others could be compared for brilliancy and powerful effect. As 
 
 ''g- 243.— First Picture of the Loggie of Raphael—" God creating the Heaven and the Earth." 
 
 much must be said of the works of their pupils: the "Martyrdom of 
 St. Sebastian," in the Church of St. Mary of the Angels; the "Miracles 
 of St. Ml," at Grotta-Ferrata, near Rome ; the " Death of St. Cecilia," at 
 Saint-Louis-des-Francais, by Domenichino ; "Aurora," by Guercino, at the 
 Villa Ludovici ; the " Chariot of the Sun," by Guido, in the Rospigliosi 
 Palace, &c. 
 
 Luca Giordano, a Neapolitan painter, founder of the gallery of the 
 Ricciardi Palace at Florence, and author of the frescoes in numerous 
 churches in Italy and Spain, must not be forgotten ; and with him must 
 
FRESCO-PAINTING. 
 
 279 
 
 be mentioned Pietro da Cortona, of the Roman school, who especially- 
 distinguished himself in the ceilings of the Barberini Palace, at Rome. 
 
 We still have to mention the fertile painters of the Genoese and 
 Parmesan schools — Lanfranc, Carloni, and Francavilla ; but the hour of 
 decadence had come when these artists appeared ; they had more boldness 
 than talent, they aimed at the majestic, but only succeeded in attaining to 
 the gigantic ; their pencils were skilful, but their soul lacked fervour and 
 conviction ; in spite of their efforts, fresco-painting declined under their 
 hands, and since that time has only decayed and gradually sunk into 
 oblivion. 
 
 We must not quit the classical ground of the Fine Arts without men- 
 tioning a process of painting which is closely allied to fresco, and bears the 
 characteristic name of sgraffito (literally, a scratch). This style of painting, 
 or rather of drawing (for the works had the appearance of a large drawing 
 in black crayon), was more generally used for the exterior of buildings, and 
 was produced by covering the wall first with black stucco, then with a 
 second layer of white, and afterwards by removing with an iron instrument 
 the second layer so as to lay bare, in places, the black ground. The most 
 important work executed in this style is the ornamentation of the monastic 
 house of the knights of St. Stephen, at Pisa ; this work is by Vasari, to 
 whom also has been attributed — but wrongfully — the invention of sgraffito, 
 which was used long before his time. 
 
 Hitherto we have chiefly confined our remarks to Italy and Italian 
 artists ; however, in the consideration of them we have nearly summed up 
 our brief history of fresco. If we would look to France for any remark- 
 able works of this kind, we must refer to the epochs in which Italy sent 
 Simon Memmi to decorate the palace of the popes at Avignon, and Rosso 
 and Primaticcio to adorn that of the kings at Fontainebleau. Prior to this, 
 all we meet with are, at the most, a few primitive, not to say barbarous, 
 subjects, painted here and there, in distemper, by unknown artists, on the 
 walls of churches or monasteries. Among these conventional examples it 
 is, however, only just to distinguish some pictures of powerful effect, if not 
 in execution, at least for the ideas they are intended to convey ; we would 
 speak of the " Dance of Death," or " Dance of the Dead," like that which 
 existed at Paris in the Cemetery of the Innocents, and another still to 
 be seen in the Abbey of Chaise-Dieu, in Auvergne; legends more than 
 
FRESCO- PAINTING. 
 
 pictures, and philosophical compositions rather than manifestations of art. 
 Spain, too, has no reason to be proud of her national productions ; for, 
 
 Fig. 244. — " Fraternity of the Cross-bowmen." 
 
 (Fresco-Painting of the Fifteenth Century, in the ancient Chapel of St. John and St. Paul, Ghent.) 
 
 with the exception of the Gothic frescoes still existing in the Cathedral 
 of Toledo, representing the combats between the Moors and the Toledans 
 
FRESCO-PAINTING. 
 
 (pictures specially worthy of the attention of archaeologists), the only frescoes 
 of Spanish origin we can mention are the paintings of a few ceilings in the 
 Escurial and in a chapter-room in the Cathedral of Toledo ; all the other 
 frescoes must be attributed to Italian artists. 
 
 Whenever the northern artists, usually so cold and methodical in their 
 mode of operation, devoted themselves to mural painting, it seems to have 
 been necessary that they should enliven their temperament in the sunny 
 
 Fig. 245. — "Death and the Jew." 
 An episode from the " Dance of Death." Painted in 1441, in the Cemetery of the Dominicans, Basle. 
 (Facsimile from the Engraving of M. Merian.) 
 
 rays of a southern sky ; for while in Holland and Belgium we notice but 
 few walls covered with decorative painting, we find a large number of Italian 
 churches and palaces which contain frescoes bearing the signature of 
 Flemish masters. 
 
 There was considerable excitement manifested a few years ago at the 
 discovery of the mural paintings in the ancient Chapel of St. John and 
 St, Paul, in Ghent (Fig. 244). These works are of the fifteenth century, 
 
 o o 
 
282 
 
 FRESCO- PAINTING. 
 
 and although, satisfactory enough as regards the design, they derive more 
 importance from the subjects which they represent than from any merit of 
 execution. 
 
 In speaking of Germany, we should not omit to mention the ancient 
 " Dance of Death " (Fig. 245), at Basle, in the cemetery of the Dominicans, 
 painted in the middle of the fifteenth century; also another "Dance of 
 Death " much more famous, and the facades of several houses, painted at 
 Basle by Holbein. We must also indicate the paintings with which (in 
 1466) Israel de Meckenheim covered the walls of a chapel of St. Mary of 
 the Capitol, at Cologne ; and the frescoes of St. Etienne and St. Augustine, 
 at Vienna. But it does not follow, from this limited enumeration of works, 
 that Germany either created or followed any special school. 
 
 Fig. 246.—^ 
 
 •Fra Angelico, of Fiesole. 
 
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 The Rise of Christian Painting.— The Byzantine School.— First Revival in Italy.— Cimahue, 
 Giotto, Fra Angelico.— Florentine School : Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo.— Roman 
 School: Perugino, Raphael.— Venetian School: Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese.— Lombard 
 School : Correggio, Parmigianino.— Spanish School.— German and Flemish Schools : Stephan 
 of Cologne, John of Bruges, Lucas van Leyden, Albert Diirer, Lucas van Cranach, Holbein. — 
 Painting in France during the Middle Ages.— Italian Masters in France.— Jean Cousin. 
 
 FTER its first weak manifestations in the dark 
 shadows of the Catacombs — the place of refuge to 
 which the earliest believers had to resort to celebrate 
 their holy mysteries — Christian painting made its 
 first attempt to display itself in open day at the time 
 when the new faith found in Constantine the 
 high protection of a crowned disciple. But this 
 art felt an instinctive repugnance to draw its inspirations from 
 works which had been created under the empire of decayed 
 and contemned creeds. In the completely spiritual worship 
 of the true God, it seemed but natural to seek for other types 
 than those which had been consecrated by the fancies of materialistic 
 mythologies. 
 
 The school of idea, which was substituted for the school of form, desired 
 to owe nothing to its frivolous predecessor. It would have considered it a 
 reproach to give even the semblance of permanence to reprobated tradi- 
 tions, and it set itself to work to create an art completely new in all its 
 features. The rule it laid down, therefore, was to regard as non-existent 
 the chefs-d'oeuvre which recalled to mind the days of moral error ; rejecting 
 the inspiration to be derived from the magnificent relics of the past, it 
 resolved to commence an era of its own, and to exist on its own ideas. 
 Hence that principle of energetic simplicity which, although it may have 
 hindered art from elevating itself to the perfection we call classical, had at 
 least this advantage, that it sought by gradual development to imprint on 
 
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 Christian art a stamp of individuality from which it was to derive both its 
 power and its glory. 
 
 Thus, by the enthusiasm of faith, was called into existence that really 
 primitive School of Painting which has received the name of Byzantine ; 
 because at the very time when it obtained the liberty of displaying itself, 
 Constantine, transferring the seat of empire to Byzantium, necessarily took 
 with him the body of artists of whom he was the protector ; because, too, 
 as we have before observed, Byzantium henceforth became for many centu- 
 ries the sole focus whence light radiated towards the West, which was now 
 plunged in barbarism. We must, therefore, go back to the Byzantine 
 school, if we wish to trace to their origin all the forms of European painting. 
 
 " Allegory," says M. Michiels, " was the first language of Christian 
 painting ; not only did it express typically the Evangelical teachings, but 
 the Divine personages themselves were metamorphosed into symbols. Some- 
 times, for instance, Christ appeared in the form of a young shepherd, bear- 
 ing on his shoulders and carrying back to the fold a wandering sheep ; 
 sometimes He was represented as the Orpheus of the new faith, charming 
 and taming ferocious animals by the sound of His lute. . . . He also was 
 made to assume the form of the lamb without spot, or of a phoenix spreading 
 its wings, the conqueror of death and the spirits of darkness. Thus was 
 the transition softened down ; thus did they escape the raillery of Pagans 
 who would have turned into ridicule the heroic sufferings and the glorious 
 humiliations of the Son of man. But this timidity could not long continue. 
 
 . . The council held at Constantinople in 692 commanded that allegory 
 should be repudiated, and that the objects of their veneration should be 
 displayed to the faithful without the veil hitherto employed. Now was 
 exhibited to view a spectacle new indeed to men ; a Deity crowned with 
 thorns, enduring the outrages of a vile populace, or stretched upon a cross 
 and pierced with a lance, turning His sad glance to heaven and wrestling 
 with His agony. The Greeks and Latins were but slow in adopting this 
 mode of representation, and did so with regret. ... But the perception of 
 moral dignity was destined to eclipse the vain pomp of Pagan grandeur. 
 The generous sufferings of sacrifice were to become the greatest of all 
 glories." 
 
 " Christian painting, when once established as an art on the banks of the 
 Bosphorus, assumed a certain immobility of character. Forms, attitudes, 
 
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 groups, and vestments — all were regulated by ecclesiastical prescription. 
 There was, as it were, an inflexible text-book, to which artists were bound 
 to submit. Delicacy of colouring and nobility of attitude were the only 
 things to recall the beauty of ancient art. Even in our days the Greek 
 and Eussian painters follow a similar plan, drawing and arranging their 
 figures in the same manner as their ancestors of the time of Honorius and 
 the Paleeologi." 
 
 Even in the "West the case was nearly the same, so long as the practice 
 of painting remained almost exclusively confined to artists coming from 
 Constantinople. Thus, in some celebrated manuscripts of the eighth and 
 ninth centuries we find compositions that give a very exact representa- 
 tation of the state of the art in these remote times, though the paintings 
 themselves have been destroyed by the Iconoclasts. In fact, during 
 ten centuries it seemed that the Western races resisted any expression 
 of artistic individuality or invention. Throughout this long period we 
 find Greek painters the supreme arbiters of taste and knowledge in the 
 countries of Western Europe, forcing upon them their own barren style, and 
 teaching them their contracted perceptions. Art among them seemed always 
 to be but a mere instinct. Constant immigrations took place which were 
 continually leading them to every point in Western Europe, but none of 
 them ever brought anything novel in art beyond what their predecessors had 
 already introduced. If they took root in a new country, the son repeated 
 the works of his father. The pupil took no means to enlarge his thoughts ; 
 he adopted as his model and his ideal nothing but the work of his master, 
 and the poor form of tradition was continued without enthusiasm and without 
 progress (Fig. 247). Genius is altogether wanting, or if its sacred spark 
 sprung forth from heaven, it was soon extinguished when it reached the 
 earth for want of a soul which could receive it, and be kindled by its fire. 
 The Greek masters doubtless affected some pride in the grandeur of their 
 native name, but they were none the less living proofs that the sources 
 from which flowed the inspiration of a Zeuxis, a Protogenes, or an Apelles, 
 had since those far -distant days been long dried up. The East had for ever 
 terminated its ancient character of artistic creation, and the most it seemed 
 destined to achieve during the Middle Ages was to preserve the germ which 
 the West was to bring again into active life. 
 
 Italy, and more particularly Tuscany, may lay claim to the honour of 
 
286 
 
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 having witnessed, about the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the 
 fourteenth century, the dawn of the great revival of artistic light. The 
 
 Fig". 247.—" Baptism of King Clovis." 
 (Fragment of a Painting on Canvas at Rheims. Fifteenth Century.) 
 
 names of Giunta of Pisa, Guido of Siena, and Duccio, had, however, already 
 
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 287 
 
 commenced the glorious list of Italian artists, who were the first to endeavour 
 to modify the immutable Greek manner. Their attempts, no doubt, seem 
 but insignificant, looking at the immense progress subsequently accom- 
 plished ; but, however slight it may appear to be, the first step made beyond 
 the beaten path which has been trodden for centuries is often evidence of 
 the most courageous daring. 
 
 The year 1240 witnessed the birth of Cimabue : as a young man, he 
 became enamoured of art by watching the labours of the Greek painters who 
 had been summoned to Florence to decorate the chapel of the Gondi. It was 
 purposed to make him a savant and a lawyer ; but he succeeded in abandoning 
 the pen in favour of the pencil, and, from the lessons of the timid Byzantines, 
 he soon became a master whose every thought was henceforth devoted to the 
 emancipation of an art that he found condemned to a kind of immobility. 
 Thanks to him, the expression of faces, which up to that time had been 
 entirely conventional in character, was animated by a truer sentiment ; the 
 lines of drawing, which had been hard and stiff, were broken up into well- 
 ordered grace; the colouring, hitherto dull and gloomy, assumed soft 
 brilliancy and harmonious relief. It is said that Cimabue's chef-d'oeuvre, 
 the " Madonna " which is still to be seen in the Church of Santa-Maria- 
 JNovella, was carried in procession by the crowd to the place which it now 
 occupies ; the painter was received with shouts, and, it is added, the joy of 
 the people at the sight of the picture was so great that the part of the city 
 wherein Cimabue's studio was situated received, after this event, the name 
 of Borgo Allegro (the Joyous Town). One day when Cimabue was in the 
 country, he noticed a young shepherd-boy who was amusing himself by 
 sketching on a rock the sheep he tended. The painter took charge of the 
 boy ; he became his favourite pupil, and was the celebrated Giotto, who 
 happily persevered in the reform commenced by Cimabue. Giotto, the first 
 among the artists of his time, ventured to paint portraits, and succeeded 
 well in them. To him we owe our acquaintance with the real features of 
 his friend Dante ; and we still admire, at least as manifestations of an 
 adventurous genius, the paintings he left in the Church of Santa Clara 
 at Naples, in the Cathedral of Assisi, and especially in the Campo Santo 
 at Pisa, where he painted in fresco the history of Job. 
 
 Giotto died in 1336, but he left behind him to continue his work, Taddeo 
 Gaddi, Giottino, Stefano, Andrea Orcagna, and Simon Memmi, who were 
 
288 
 
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 each destined to open out some new path in art. In the Campo Santo 
 at Pisa we may see how great was the power of the genius of these masters, 
 especially of Andrea Orcagna (1329 — 1389), who has there represented, 
 with an equal measure of beauty and of sombre and terrible energy, 
 the " Dream of Life," facing the " Triumph of Death." Taddeo Gaddi 
 remained a fervent disciple of his master, and continued his delicate 
 accuracy of design, and the living freshness of his colouring. Stefano suc- 
 ceeded him in the boldness of his compositions, in his studious knowledge 
 of the nude, and of perspective effect which had been hitherto neglected. 
 Giottino inherited his serious inspirations. Memmi endeavoured to recall 
 his mystical and graceful sentiment. Orcagna, who was at once painter, 
 sculptor, architect, and poet, seemed to possess in turn all the qualities 
 which his fellow-disciples had shared among them, and could represent 
 with equal success the terrors of the infernal regions and the visions of 
 heaven. 
 
 The progress of which these painters had constituted themselves the 
 apostles was not carried out without exciting some opposition. In addition 
 to the Greek masters, who naturally felt compelled to contend with the 
 innovators, certain individuals were found among the Italian artists who 
 energetically embraced the party of the past. We will only mention one, 
 Margaritone of Arezzo, who wore out his long life in a useless devotion to 
 a cause which was already lost ; even his name we should not have 
 particularised, if it had not been that the art owed him some gratitude 
 for the service he rendered it, by substituting the use of canvas prepared 
 for painting instead of panels of wood, which had hitherto been exclusively 
 employed. 
 
 The Florentine school (for thus we call the group of artists who trod in 
 the footsteps of Cimabue and Giotto) had for its representative, at the 
 beginning of the fifteenth century, Giovanni of Fiesole, surnamed Fra 
 Angelico, the personification of enthusiasm in artistic sublimity ; whose 
 works, too, resemble so many hymns of adoration. Born in the year 1387, 
 and inheriting great wealth, he was endowed with a contemplative mind, 
 and, ignorant of the talent which inspired him, he sought oblivion from the 
 world in the garb of a Dominican, little suspecting that glory awaited him 
 in the very depth of his humility. At first, as a kind of pious recreation, 
 he covered with miniatures several pages of manuscripts ; next, his com- 
 
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 289 
 
 panions in the cloister requested him to paint a picture. He obeyed, feeling 
 convinced that the inspiration which stirred within him was a manifestation 
 of the Divine spirit, and it was with the most artless simplicity that he 
 referred to this celestial origin the chef-d'oeuvre which proceeded from his 
 hands. His reputation spread far and wide. At the invitation of the head 
 of the Christian Church, he repaired to Rome in order to paint one of the 
 chapels of the Yatican. And when the pontiff, full of enthusiasm at his 
 talent, wished to confer upon him as a reward the dignity of archbishop, 
 Angelico retired modestly to his cell in order to devote himself without 
 interruption to that art which was to him a continual prayer, and a per- 
 petual soaring up to that heavenly country on which he unceasingly 
 meditated with all the unutterable feelings of the elect. 
 
 About the same era as the " seraphic monk," who died full of years in 
 1455, appeared Tomaso Guidi, for whom a kind of unconsciousness of every- 
 day life had obtained the ironical sobriquet of Masaccio (the Stupid) ; who, 
 however, astonished the world by his works to such extent that it was 
 said concerning them, " those of his predecessors were painted, but his were 
 living." Masaccio was one of the first (and this fact shows how slowly art 
 may progress even in bold hands) to place in his pictures firmly on the 
 soles of their feet figures presenting a full front, instead of making them 
 stand upon their great-toes, as his predecessors had done from a want of 
 knowledge of the requisite foreshortening. Masaccio died in 1443. 
 
 Philippo Lippi, who devoted himself more specially to the study of 
 nature, both in the human physiognomy and also in the accessory details of 
 his works, marks as it were the last stage of the art, when it approached the 
 state of full vigour in which it was to manifest the whole extent of its power. 
 We are now at the end of the fifteenth century, and the masters of the great 
 masters are in existence. It was Andrea Verrochio who, at the sight of an 
 angel which Leonardo da Vinci, his pupil, had painted in one of his works, 
 for ever abandoned his pencil. It was Domenico Ghirlandajo who, jealous 
 of the superior qualities which he recognised in his pupil, the youthful 
 Buonarotti, not only endeavoured, but succeeded in diverting his talents, at 
 least for a time, to sculpture. It was Era Bartolommeo (1469 — 1517) who 
 was affected with such profound grief at the death of his friend Savonarola, 
 that he embraced a monastic life. Baccio della Porta (such was the name 
 of the Brother) was a very great painter (Fig. 248) ; the vigour and 
 
 p p 
 
Fig. 248.—" The Patriarch Job." A Painting on Panel, by Fra Bartolommeo. Fifteenth Century 
 (In the Gallery at Florence.) 
 
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 harmony of colouring which he showed, especially in his last produc- 
 tions, has sometimes caused them to be attributed to Raphael, with whom 
 he was for some time united in the bonds of friendship. But we must 
 not confine ourselves to characterising the works of one single group of 
 artists ; for, although the revival took its rise on the banks of the Arno, it 
 spread far and wide beyond those limits. Added to this, Giotto, when 
 visiting Verona, Padua, and Rome, left in each place the still resplendent 
 traces of his presence. When Fra Angelico went to adorn the Vatican, 
 his genius spread around it a fruitful irradiation which everywhere dimmed 
 the ancient renown of the Byzantine painters who had hitherto prevailed 
 in the Italian cities. 
 
 At Rome we find flourishing in succession Pietro Cavallini, whom Giotto 
 had instructed during the sojourn of the latter in the Eternal City ; Gentile 
 da Fabriano, who drew his inspiration from Fra Angelico ; and Pietro della 
 Francesca, who has been regarded as the originator of perspective. We 
 next meet with Pietro Vannucci, called Perugino, who was born in 1446 ; 
 it was owing to nothing but the force of his genius and his character that he 
 became one of the most celebrated masters of his time. At the close of his 
 career, Perugino had the honour of initiating into the practice of his art 
 Raphael Sanzio of Urbino, who was in his own day, as he still is, the prince 
 of painting. 
 
 At Venice a body of pioneers, still more numerous and compact, pre- 
 pared the way for the new era, destined to be made illustrious by Titian, 
 Tintoretto, and Paul Veronese. We will mention also Gentile and Jacopo 
 Bellini ; the former was incessantly absorbed in investigating the theories of 
 an art which he nevertheless exercised with all the abandon of an inspired 
 genius ; the latter constantly devoted himself to the combination of power 
 and grace ; and, at the age of seventy-five years, seemed to regain a second 
 youth in following with happy boldness the example of his pupil Giorgione.* 
 This painter, who was born in 1477, and died in 1511, introduced all kinds 
 of innovations in respect to design and colouring, and was the master of 
 Giovanni da TJdine, Sebastian del Piombo, Jacques Palma, and Pordenone, 
 
 * Giorgione studied under Giovanni Bellini, younger brother of Gentile, and son of Jacopo. 
 M. Lacroix does not even mention Giovanni Bellini, though he is generally esteemed before his 
 father and brother, besides being the master of two of the greatest painters of the Venetian 
 school, Titian and Giorgione ; who, however, soon cast aside the antiquated style of their early 
 instructor. — [En.] 
 
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 fellow-pupils and sometimes rivals of the three great artists by whose works 
 the Venetian school was to mark its individuality. 
 
 At Parma a local school was represented by Antonio Allegri, called 
 Correggio, born in 1494 ; and by Francesco Mazzuoli, called Parmigianino, 
 born in 1503. 
 
 In other places, too, talents of a vigorous or of a graceful character were 
 developed, but we can only cast a comprehensive glance on this memorable 
 
 Fig. 249.— Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, from a Venetian Engraving of the Sixteenth Century. 
 
 artistic epoch, and are unable to offer a detailed review of the artists 
 and their works. And what further luminaries of art could we wish to 
 embrace in our summary after having displayed in it, shining, so to speak, 
 at one and the same epoch, Leonardo da Yinci (Fig. 249), Michael Angelo, 
 Raphael, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Correggio, and Parmigianino ? 
 
 Four principal schools compete with one another — the Florentine school, 
 
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 293 
 
 the characteristics of which are truth of design, energy of colouring, and 
 grandeur of conception ; the Roman school, which seeks its ideal in the 
 skilful and sober judgment of its lines, the dignity of its compositions, 
 propriety of expression and beauty of form ; the Yenetian school, which 
 occasionally neglected correctness of drawing, and devoted itself more to 
 the brilliancy and magical effect of colour; lastly, the school of Parma, 
 which is distinguished especially by its softness of touch and by its know- 
 ledge of light and shade. All such estimations of the different qualities 
 of these various groups must not, however, be looked upon as in any way 
 absolute. 
 
 As chiefs of the first school we have two men, each of whom presents 
 to us one of the richest organisations and the most widely extending genius 
 which human nature has, perhaps, ever produced ; these were Leonardo da 
 Yinci and Michael Angelo, both of whom were sculptors as well as 
 painters ; and also architects, musicians, and poets. We will first speak 
 of Leonardo da Yinci, whose style presents two very distinct epochs; 
 the first tending to vigour in the shadows, to a mistiness in reflected 
 lights, to a general effect produced by a certain oddness, or rather by a 
 strange representation of truth ; a combination of qualities which, as 
 M. Michiels says, makes Leonardo the " most northerly of the Italian 
 painters" (Fig. 250). His second style, "clear, serene, and precise,'' 
 transports us into a " completely southern sphere." But some secret 
 influence drew the artist so forcibly towards his earlier manner, that he 
 returned to it at an advanced age in painting the famous portrait of Mona 
 Lisa, which adorns the gallery of the Louvre. We must not forget the 
 fact that we have to attribute to Pope Leo X. the great revival of the arts, 
 and especially of painting, in Italy at the commencement of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 " In Michael Angelo," still to quote the words of M. Michiels, " science, 
 power, grandeur, and all the more severe qualities are combined. No vulgar 
 artifice and no affectation. The painter was imbued with a sublime ideal 
 of majestic types from which nothing was able to divert him. He felt 
 as if there were existing in himself a whole population of heroes, whom, by 
 the aid of painting and sculpture, he endeavoured to withdraw from their 
 mental concealment, and to embody in incarnate forms. His personages 
 scarcely seem to belong to our race ; they appear to be creatures worthy 
 
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 of some more spacious world, to the proportions of which their physical 
 vigour and their moral energy would well respond. The very women do not 
 possess the grace of their sex ; we might fancy them valiant Amazons well 
 capable of mastering a horse or of crushing an enemy. This great man's 
 object was neither to charm nor to please ; his delight rather was to astonish 
 and to strike with admiration or terror ; but it is this very excess of power 
 which enabled him to win the approbation of all." 
 
 Fig. 250.— The Holy Family, by Leonardo da Vinci, from the Picture in the Museum at St. Petersburg-. 
 
 Next we have Raphael, il divino Sanzio, as he was called by his numerous 
 admirers, whose genius was constantly attaining to grandeur by means of 
 simplicity, and to power by means of reserve. Michael Angelo always 
 seems as if he were only able to represent a limited portion of his 
 gigantic conceptions on the Avail he covered with his designs; but it was 
 
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 2 95 
 
 sufficient for Raphael to place some tranquil figure on a narrow square of 
 canvas, and we have before us the bright image of the most perfect and 
 delicious inspiration. He created for himself a heaven which he peopled 
 with the purest and most venerated types of the human race ; and 
 a light, as from on high, beams with regal splendour on these graceful 
 visions. In Raphael, even more than in Leonardo da Vinci, it seemed 
 as if two artists of equal sublimity succeeded one another. At first 
 we have the charming dreamer who, in the fresh enthusiasm of his early 
 youth, creates Madonnas, artless daughters of the earth in whose look and 
 countenance a sacred light shines in all its ineffable purity ; next he is the 
 master full of the deepest science, for whom the real beauties of creation 
 have no concealment ; who, in representing nature, succeeded in trans- 
 forming to her the magnificent ideal of which his own soul appears to have 
 received the impression from association with the divine regions. 
 
 " The principal characteristic of Raphael," still following the very just 
 remarks of M. Michiels, " is the universality of his fame. It becomes almost 
 painful to hear the vulgar crowd constantly repeating a magic name, the 
 true signification of which they do not understand." As the spoiled child 
 of fortune, the creator of Virgins and " The Transfiguration," he is 
 almost without detractors from his fame ; and it is impossible to reckon 
 the number of his admirers. " One circumstance in bis life affords us an 
 emblem of his destiny. Having sent to Palermo the famous canvas of the 
 ' Spasimo,' * a tempest overwhelmed the ship which carried it ; but the 
 waves seemed to respect the chef-d'oeuvre. After having drifted more than 
 fifty leagues through the sea, the box which enclosed the precious produc- 
 tion floated gently on shore at the port of Genoa. The picture was in no 
 way injured. The Sicilian monks, for whom it was intended, did not fail 
 to claim it ; and since that time, thanks to the mercy of the waves, it 
 attracts to the foot of Etna numerous pilgrims to the shrine of genius." 
 
 At Venice, we first have Titian, the painter of Charles V. and Francis I. 
 " The genius of Titian," says Alexander Lenoir, " is always great and 
 noble. No painter has ever produced flesh-colours so beautiful and life-like. 
 In Titian there is no apparent tone ; the colouring of his flesh is so well 
 
 * The famous picture, an altar-piece, representing " Christ bearing his Cross," known by the 
 name of Zo Spasimo di Sicilia, from its having been painted for the convent of Santa Maria della 
 Spasimo at Palermo, in Sicily. It is now in the Museum of Madrid.— [Ed.] 
 
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 blended, that it seems as difficult to imitate as the model itself. Add to his 
 pictures their truth and expression of action, and the elegance and richness 
 of the drapery, and we shall have some idea of the great works which he 
 left behind him." 
 
 Next Jacques Robusti presents himself, who, from the profession of his 
 father was surnamed Tintoretto (the Dyer). He was at first a pupil of 
 Titian, who, it is said, from motives of jealousy, dismissed him from his 
 studio ; but the fervour of uninterrupted labour was all that Tintoretto 
 required in order to mature the most productive talent. " The drawing of 
 Michael Angelo, and the colouring of Titian " — such was the ambitious 
 motto he wrote over the door of his humble atelier, and we are almost 
 justified in stating that he was enabled, by force of study and labour, to 
 fulfil his aspirations, if we look only at some of his pieces executed before a 
 certain fever of exuberant production had seized upon and necessarily 
 weakened his vigorous talents. To form some estimate of the extent to 
 which Tintoretto was impelled by this impulse of creation, we may recollect 
 that even Paul Veronese reproached him with being unable to restrain 
 himself — Veronese, the most indefatigable of producers ! 
 
 With regard to the latter, his works are characterised not only by 
 the number of figures in them, but also by the striking brilliancy of the 
 mise en scene. Although he multiplies his actors, they are grouped in 
 perfect order ; although he paints a multitude, he knows how to avoid a 
 crowd. Notice how a feeling of life profusely pervades the whole of his 
 vast pictures of important events ; an idea of space is everywhere given ; 
 everywhere light plays a powerful part, and imagination has full scope. He 
 is the painter par excellence of feasts and ceremonies : at once pompous and 
 natural, his copiousness is only equalled by his dazzling facility ; and we are 
 compelled to forgive the errors with which he mingles on the same canvas 
 the religious ideas of sacred subjects and the profane splendour of modern 
 times. 
 
 "What shall we say about Correggio ? There is no methodical scale by 
 which to measure grace ; and there is no formula laid down of delicious soft- 
 ness. But if, at the Louvre, we examine his " Antiope asleep," we shall 
 not soon forget the fascinating power of the old Allegri (Correggio). 
 
 From Correggio to Parmigianino the distance is of the kind that admi- 
 ration can easily fill up. It was said of the latter that he had more the 
 
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 297 
 
 appearance of an angel than of a man ; and the Romans of his own day used 
 to add that the spirit of Raphael had passed into his body. In more than 
 one instance his genius was kindled by the sun of Correggio, and ripened in 
 the studios of Michael Angelo and Raphael ; but in addition to this, his 
 flexible and varied talent enabled him to find a place by himself between 
 these two masters. " St. Francis receiving the Stigmata," and " The 
 Marriage of St. Catherine," which he painted before he had attained his 
 eighteenth year, are still regarded as equal to the chefs-d'oeuvre signed by 
 Allegri. It is Well known that a "St. Margaret," executed by Parmigianino 
 fifteen years later for a church at Bologna, was placed by Guido in the same 
 rank as the " St. Cecilia" of Raphael. 
 
 By the side of, or after, these famous men, in whom the glory of Italian 
 painting seems to have brilliantly culminated, how many noble names still 
 ,remain to be cited ; how many remarkable names are there still to mention, 
 even among those who, in following the glorious path opened out for 
 them by the great masters, began to show glimpses of the earliest symptoms 
 of decay, exhaustion, and lassitude ! It does not form a part of our plan to 
 dwell upon the various phases of this decadence ; but before we glance at 
 the last sparks of light which were shed forth, we must not forget the fact 
 that the Italian pleiades were not exclusively privileged to illumine the 
 artistic horizon. 
 
 It is certainly the case that all over Europe the Byzantine tradition had 
 been the sole possessor of the throne of art since the earliest centuries of the 
 Middle Ages. In Germany as in Italy, in France as in the countries 
 < bounding it on the north, we find nothing but the same school displaying 
 the dead level of its inflexibility. At various epochs, however, certain feeble 
 attempts at independence were here and there manifested ; but these aspira- 
 tions were at first generally isolated, and therefore transient in their 
 character. Finally, however, as if the hour of revival had been simul- 
 taneously agreed upon at all points of the intellectual world, these desires for 
 emancipation manifested themselves in a corresponding effort to reject the 
 former too absolute form, and to substitute the element of life for the 
 principle of conventionality. 
 
 In Spain a strange combat was waging on the soil itself, for the 
 possession of which two hostile races, two irreconcilable faiths, were in 
 fierce contention. The Mahometan built the Alhambra, the halls of 
 
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 which were destined to be subsequently adorned by a Christian pencil. In 
 the paintings that enliven the arches of this marvellous edifice an art is 
 manifested which is both simple and grand in its character ; but in this one 
 undertaking it appears to have exhausted the share of vitality time had 
 awarded to it ; for immediately afterwards it seems to have died away. If, 
 however, any fresh masters of the art of painting appeared on the Iberian 
 soil, they had sought in Italy the flame of inspiration, or some mighty art- 
 pilgrim visited their country. We must come down to a later epoch, from 
 the consideration of which we are now precluded, in order to meet with an 
 Herrera, a Ribera, a Yelasquez, or a Murillo, the glory of whom, although 
 comparatively late, may perhaps hold its own by the side of the great Italian 
 schools, but cannot pi'etend to eclipse them. Among the predecessors of 
 these real and distinct individualities, we will, however, mention the 
 following : — Alonzo Berruguete, born in 1480, at once painter, architect, 
 and sculptor ; he was a pupil of Michael Angelo, in whose works he often 
 took a share ; Pedro Campagna, born in 1503, who studied under the same 
 master — his chef-d'ceuvre is still admired in the Cathedral of Seville ; Luis 
 de Yargas, born in 1502, who was able in many points to appropriate the 
 secrets of Sanzio, from whom he appeared to have received lessons ; Morales, 
 whose paintings are still admired for the harmony of their lines and the 
 delicacy of their touch ; Yicente Juanes, whose purity of design and sober 
 vigour of colouring obtained for him the title (certainly by some exaggera- 
 tion of praise) of the "Raphael of Valencia;" lastly, Fernandez Navarette, 
 born in 1526, who, perhaps less hyperbolically, was surnamed the " Spanish 
 Titian;" and Sanchez Coello, born about 1500, who, excelling in portraits, 
 has handed down the likenesses of some celebrated personages of his time. 
 
 In Germany and the Low Countries we find similar traces of the feeling 
 of regeneration actuating the minds of artists at a much earlier period. The 
 first name which presents itself to us beyond the Rhine is that mentioned 
 in the Chronicle of Limburg, of the date of 1380. " There was then at 
 Cologne," says the chronicler, " a painter named Wilhelm. According to 
 the masters, he was the best in all the countries of Germany ; he has painted 
 men of every description as if they were alive." "We have nothing left of 
 the works of this artist except some panels without signature, which, in 
 consideration of the date they bear, are attributed to him ; an exami- 
 nation shows that, considering the epoch at which he lived, Wilhelm 
 
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 299 
 
 might justly be looked upon as a creative genius. He was succeeded by 
 bis most talented pupil, Maitre Stephan. A triptych of his work may be 
 seen at the Cathedral of Cologne, representing " The Adoration of the Magi," 
 " St. Gereon," " St. Ursula," and " The Annunciation." This work, which 
 exhibits charming finish as well as harmonious simplicity, is sufficient 
 evidence that its author was possessed of much natural ability as well as a 
 certain extent of knowledge ; and if we make it our study to seek out the 
 relics of the artistic movement of the period, we can in no way feel surprise 
 at seeing that the influence of this early master made itself felt in a very 
 extended radius. 
 
 But at this epoch, that is, at the commencement of the fifteenth century, 
 in a city of Flanders, a new luminary made its appearance, which was 
 destined to eclipse the brilliancy of the somewhat weak German innovation. 
 Two brothers, Hubert and John van Eyck, together with their sister 
 Margaret, established themselves in the "triumphant city of Bruges," 
 as it is called by an historian ; and very soon all the Flemish and Rhenish 
 regions resounded with the name of Van Eyck, their works being the only 
 representations which were admired and followed ; and even in those early 
 days it was a title of glory to form a part of their brilliant school. 
 
 John, the younger of the two brothers, was the one to whom renown 
 more particularly attached (Fig. 251). He is reputed to have been the 
 inventor of oil-painting; but all he did was to improve the methods 
 employed. Nevertheless, tradition tells us that an Italian master, Antonello 
 of Messina, made a journey to Flanders, with the object of finding out the 
 secret of John Bruges (by which name Van Eyck is often called) ; and 
 that he subsequently circulated it throughout the Italian schools. Be 
 this as it may, John of Bruges, apart from any similarity in manner (for 
 it was by the force of his colouring, as much as by his new theories of 
 composition, that he succeeded in revolutionising the old school of painting), 
 may be considered as the Giotto of the North ; but we must add that the 
 effects of his attempts were much more rapidly decisive. At one leap, so 
 to speak, the somewhat cold painting of the Gothic school decked itself 
 with a splendour which left but little for the future Venetian school to 
 achieve beyond it ; with one flight of genius, stiff and methodical concep- 
 tions became imbued with suppleness and vital action. Finally, we have 
 the first notable sign of the true feeling of an art combining science and 
 
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 grace — a knowledge of anatomy is shown in the life-like flesh and under 
 the brilliant draperies. There is, however, a considerable distance, which 
 cannot fail to be remarked, separating the two reformers of art whose names 
 we have just brought together. One, Giotto, desired to grasp the real in 
 Order to make it conduce to the triumph of the ideal; while Van Eyck 
 only accepted the ideal because he had as yet been unable to apprehend 
 the deepest secrets of the real. All the other masters are but as the 
 fruit yielded by the school of the great Florentine, and by those which the 
 
 Fig. 25 [.— " The Holy Virgin, St. George, and St. Donat." By John van Eyck. (Museum ot Antwerp. 
 
 descendants of the Flemish masters were destined to produce. At Ghent, 
 we still have as an object of admiration, an altar-piece, a chef-d' ceuvre of 
 Van Eyck; it is an immense composition, some portions of which have 
 been removed ; but at first it did not contain less than three hundred 
 figures, representing the " Adoration of the Paschal Lamb by the Virgins 
 _of the Apocalypse." . • - - 
 
 John van Eyck resided for some time at the court of Portugal, whither 
 he had been sent by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, to delineate 
 
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 301 
 
 the features of his fiancee, the Princess Elizabeth. (1428). The influence 
 exercised by his labours is thought to have brought about that tendency to 
 brilliancy and realism which, after its first manifestation in the earliest 
 Spanish manner, gave way before the encroachments of Italian, genius, only 
 to reappear in all its power in the great national school. 
 
 Among the best pupils that Van Eyck left behind him at Bruges, we 
 must not omit the name of Hugo van der Goes, whose works are rare. 
 
 Roger van der Weyden, of whose paintings but few are now extant, 
 was the favourite pupil of John of Bruges, and the master of Hemlmg, 
 whose reputation was destined to equal, if not to surpass, that of the chief 
 of his school. " Hemling," says M. Michiels, so eminent a judge on this 
 subject, " whose most ancient picture bears the date 1450, possesses more 
 sweetness and grace than the Van Eycks. His figures charm by an ideal 
 elegance ; his expression never exceeds the limits of tranquil feeling and 
 agreeable emotion. Quite contrary to John van Eyck, he prefers the 
 slender and rich character of the Gothic (Fig. 252) to the heaviness and 
 scanty detail of Roman architecture. His colouring, although less vigorous, 
 is softer ; the water, the woods, the sites, the grass, and the distances of 
 his pictures cause a dream-like feeling." 
 
 A kind of instinctive reaction was manifested in the pupil, but the 
 master was not altogether forgotten. We shall, however, find elsewhere 
 the effects of his direct influence ; but in order not to have to return to the 
 school of Bruges, we will first mention Jerome Bosch, who, contrary to 
 his countryman Hemling, sought after opposition of effects and singularities 
 of invention ; and next Erasmus, the great thinker and writer, who was 
 also a painter in his day ; * lastly, Cornelius Engelbrechtsen, the master of 
 Lucas van Leyden, born in 1494. The latter was as famous with the pencil 
 as with the graving tool, and introduced into all his works a powerful and 
 sometimes strange originality which caused him to be looked upon as the 
 first painter of "genres Lucas ven Leyden must close our list of the 
 artists who opened out the paths which were destined to be followed, 
 though with many a diversity of method and of style, by Breughel, 
 Teniers, Van Ostade, Porbus, and Schellincks. At the head of these 
 masters was subsequently to rise the magnificent Rubens, and the energetic 
 Rembrandt, the king of the palette, the great chief of the school, who 
 * We can find no authority to support this statement. — [Ed.] 
 
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 3°3 
 
 towers loftily over all his pupils, Gerard Dow, Ferdinand Bol, Van Eckhout, 
 Govaert Flinck, &c, as well as over his imitators and contemporaries — ■ 
 Abraham Bloemaert, Gerard Honthorst, Adrian Brauwer, Seghers, &c. 
 
 When the Van Eycks made their appearance, German art — which, 
 under the impulse of Stephan of Cologne, had appeared as if destined to 
 direct the movement — allowed itself to be led away and influenced by the 
 Flemish school, without, however, entirely divesting itself of the individual 
 characteristics which are, to some extent, inherent in the region wherein it 
 flourished. In Alsatia, we see the style peculiar to the school of Bruges 
 showing itself in Martin Schon (1460) ; in Suabia, it had as its interpreter 
 Frederick Herlen (1467) ; at Augsburg, it was old Holbein ; at Nurem- 
 berg, it was first Michael "Wohlgemuth, and after him Albert Diirer (1471), 
 whose vigorous individuality did not fail to reflect the temperament of the 
 Yan Eycks. 
 
 " The works of Albert Diirer present a singular combination of the 
 fantastic and the real (Fig. 253). The principal tendencies peculiar to the 
 character of the northern mind are always to be found in them. The 
 thoughts of the artist are always transporting him into a world of abstrac- 
 tion and chimeras ; but the ever-present consciousness of the difficulties of 
 life under the cold northern sky always draws him back to the details of 
 existence. On the one hand, therefore, he seems to love philosophical, and 
 even supernatural subjects ; but, on the other, the minute details of his 
 execution bind him down to earth. His models, his action, his positions, 
 the muscular development of his nude subjects, the innumerable folds of 
 his draperies, the expression which he gives to joy, grief, and hatred, 
 all seem to bear a manifest character of exaggeration. Added to this, 
 he is deficient in grace ; a rudeness entirely northern in its character 
 closes the path to any of the softer qualities of art. The panels of Albert 
 Diirer all seem to have a touch of the antique barbarism of the Germanic 
 hordes. He himself was in the habit of wearing his hair long, like the 
 ancient German kings. Upon the whole, however, his beautiful colouring, 
 the skilful firmness of his drawing, his grand characteristics, his depth of 
 thought, the poetry, often terrible, of his composition, place him in the 
 first rank of masters" (Michiels). 
 
 While Albert Diirer was endeavouring to combine in his works every 
 type of the strangest character, Lucas van Cranach made it his study 
 
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 3°5 
 
 to represent with no less success pleasant legends or the most charming 
 realities. He is the painter of artless youths, aerially veiled, and of sportive 
 and enchanting virgins; and if some antique scene is created by his 
 delicate and original pencil, it seem, to be metamorphosed by a happy 
 
 Fig. 254.—" Princess Sibylla of Saxony," by Lucas va% Cranacb. (Suermondt Collection.) 
 
 facility into something that appears to have the character of a German 
 reminiscence (Fig. 254). 
 
 Between these two masters, so equally endowed with power in their 
 
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 respective lines of art, the great Holbein takes his place, as if embodying 
 the rather abrupt vigour of the one, and the sentimental delicacy of the 
 other. This painter's artistic career was carried out almost entirely in 
 England, but the character of his genius belongs unquestionably to the 
 country where he left behind him his u Dance of Death," a piece of tragic 
 raillery justly held to be the most wonderful among all the creations of fancy. 
 
 Albert Diirer, who died in 1528, and Lucas van Cranach, and Holbein, 
 who died in 1553,* were destined to create a race of painters, and a host of 
 successors were soon at work. But the movement, which was impeded 
 by troubles of a religious character, died away in the terrible convulsions of 
 the Thirty Years' War, and was never again renewed. 
 
 The era in which German art seemed all at once to decline was that 
 wherein the Italian school nourished in full splendour, and exercised an 
 unrivalled influence over every European country occupied by the Latin 
 races. France yielded all the more readily to this foreign influence, 
 because the Papal court at Avignon had already given an asylum to 
 Giotto in the first place, and afterwards to Simon Memmi ; both of whom, 
 and especially the last, have left master-like traces of their presence on 
 French soil. 
 
 As a matter of fact, although French painting, regarded in the light of 
 a national art, cannot boast of having spontaneously produced, as a thing of 
 home-growth, any of those essays of complete independence of which 
 Germany and Italy are so proud ; the memorials of French art at least bear 
 witness that, during the long reign of Byzantine tradition, it never ceased 
 to struggle with some force under the yoke ; at a time, indeed, when Italy 
 and Germany themselves seemed, on the contrary, to bear the burden with 
 the most submissive servitude. 
 
 The tenth century, in becoming subject to the influence of a foolish but 
 heartfelt terror (the fear of the end of the world), marked a period of fatal 
 obstruction to every kind of effort, and progress died away ; but if we 
 look beyond this we shall perceive that, from the earliest days of the 
 monarchy, painting was held in honour, and painters themselves afforded 
 proofs of power, if not of genius. We shall, for instance, find that the 
 basilica of St. Germain-des-Pres, built by Childebert I„ had its walls 
 decorated with " elegant paintings." We shall find Gondebaud, the son of 
 * Holbein died of the plague which prevailed in London in 1554.— [Ed.] 
 
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 3°7 
 
 Clotaire, himself handling the pencil and " painting, the walls and roofs of 
 oratories." In the reign of Charlemagne, we discover the texts which the 
 bishops and priests were compelled to paint on "the whole interior surface " 
 of their churches, in order that the charm of the colouring and of the 
 compositions might aid the fervour of faith in the congregations. But 
 all this is but evidence recorded in the pages of the ancient chronicles. 
 We have other testimony derived from works still existing, on which 
 a judgment may be practically passed. Some frescoes discovered at 
 St. Savin, in the department of Vienne, and at Nohant-Vicq, in the depart- 
 ment of Indre, which must be attributed to the eleventh and twelfth 
 centuries, attest, in all their rude simplicity, the efforts of a thoughtful 
 art, and specially bear the stamp of a true spirit of independence. 
 
 The Sainte-Chapelle, in Paris, by its painted windows and the mural 
 paintings of its crypt, asserts the real vitality of an artistic feeling, which 
 only waited for the signal of a bolder spirit to rise to loftier things. 
 Moreover, if other examples are wanting, there are manuscripts, on the 
 ornamentation of which the most skilful painters have concentrated their 
 powers, that would suffice to point out the tendencies and artistic standard 
 of every succeeding age. (See the article on Miniature-Painting.) 
 However little we may consult history, we scarcely ever fail to discover 
 traces of certain groups of artists whose names or works have survived. 
 Thus, a series of paintings preserved in the Cathedral of Amiens, as well 
 as the "Sacre de Louis XII." and the " Vierge au Froment," in the 
 museum at Cluny, prove to us the existence, at the end of the fifteenth 
 century, of the school of Picardy, which possessed skill in composition, 
 combined with a feeling for colour and a certain knowledge of handling. 
 Thus, too, the researches of the learned have traced out the laborious 
 career of the Clouet family, sung by Ronsard and others, but whose 
 works are almost entirely lost ; thus, also, we find the names of Bourdichon, 
 Perreal, Foucquet, who worked for Louis XI. and Charles VIII., and that 
 of the peaceful King Rene of Provence, who thought it not beneath his 
 dignity to make himself the practical chief of a school whose nameless 
 productions are still scattered over the south of France. 
 
 With the sixteenth century commenced the age of the great Italian 
 painters. In 1515, Francis I. persuaded Leonardo da Vinci to come to 
 France, and to afford the example of his wonderful genius. But the illus- 
 
3 o8 
 
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 trious creator of " La Gioconda " (the famous portrait of Mona Lisa), 
 burthened with years and worn out with work, visited France as if only to 
 draw his last breath (1519). Andrea del Sarto, the graceful pupil of the 
 severe Michael Angelo, came to France in 1517 ; but, after having painted 
 for his royal protector a few pictures, among which was the magnificent 
 " Charity " in the Louvre, he again repaired to the Italian soil, to which 
 his unhappy marriage recalled him to his doom. 
 
 In 1520 Eaphael died, at the age of only thirty- seven years. Giulio Pippi 
 (called Giulio Romano), Francis Penni (called il Fattore), and Perino del 
 Yaga, whom he named as his heirs and charged with the completion of his 
 unfinished works, did their best to replace the illustrious dead. For a short 
 time it might have been thought that the inspiration of the master still 
 remained with his pupils ; but soon a separation of this group of artists, who 
 had found their principal power in unity of thought, took place; and, 
 fifteen or twenty years after the tomb had closed on Eaphael, the tradition 
 of his school was nothing more than a glorious ruin. 
 
 Michael Angelo, who died in 1563, was destined to have a longer career ; 
 but it was only to become a witness of the rapid decadence of the great 
 movement he had helped to call forth. After Daniele di Yolterra, the painter 
 of the " Descent from the Cross," which is classed among the three most 
 beautiful works that Eome possesses ; after Yasari, who possessed a double 
 title to celebrity as a skilful painter and the historian of the Italian schools ; 
 after Bosso, whose renown subsequently suffered at the court of France ; 
 and Bronzino, who sought success in taste and delicacy ; the school of the 
 great Buonarotti produced nothing but works which seemed to wander from 
 exaggeration to bad taste. The dwarfs who attempted to walk in the footsteps 
 of the giant were soon exhausted, and only succeeded in rendering themselves 
 ridiculous. 
 
 The Yenetian school, the great masters of which did not become extinct 
 before the end of the sixteenth century, had its period of decadence at a later 
 epoch ; this will not come under our consideration. The Lombard school, 
 which, by the deaths of Correggio and Parmigianino, had been left without 
 its chiefs before the middle o£ this century (1534 and 1540), seemed for a 
 moment as if it would disappear as it had risen. B ut in Michael Angelo 
 Caravaggio (Fig. 255) it met with a powerful master, who was able for 
 some time to arrest the progress of its decadence. 
 
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 We have as yet done little more than hint at the presence of Rosso, or 
 Maitre Roux, at the court of France. He came in 1530, at the invitation of 
 Francis I., to decorate the Palace of Fontainebleau. " His engraved work," 
 says M. Michiels, " shows him to be a feeble and pretentious man, devoid both 
 of taste and inspiration, who exhibited laboured refinement in the place of 
 vigour, mistaking want of proportion for grandeur, and absence of truth for 
 originality. Being nominated by the king as Canon of the Sainte-Chapelle, 
 he had as his assistants Leonard, a Fleming, the Frenchmen Michel Samson 
 and Louis Dubreuil, and the Italians Lucca Penni, Bartolommeo Miniati, &c. 
 But in 1531, Primaticcio arrived from Mantua, and a contest arose hence- 
 forth between them Le Rosso having ended his days by suicide, 
 
 Primaticcio remained master of the field. His most talented pupil decorated 
 under his direction the magnificent ball-room. Primaticcio painted with 
 less exaggeration and more delicacy and elegance than Rosso ; but still he 
 formed one of that troop of awkward and affected copyists who exag- 
 gerated the errors of Caravaggio His empire of forty years' duration, 
 
 in the midst of a foreign population, was, however, an undisturbed, one. 
 Henry II., Francis II., Charles IX., and Catherine de Medicis, showed 
 him no less favour than Francis I. He died in 1570, loaded with honours 
 and riches. 
 
 " The number of French artists who allowed themselves to be influenced 
 by the Italian method was considerable. At last a man of more vigorous 
 character arose who would not permit false taste to rule him, and adopted 
 all the improvements of modern art, without following in the footsteps of 
 court favourites. His talents inaugurated a new period in the history 
 of French painting. We are speaking of Jean Cousin, who was born at 
 Soucy, about 1530 ; he adorned with his compositions both glass and canvas, 
 and was, in addition, a skilful sculptor. His famous picture of the " Last 
 Judgment," in the Louvre, suggests a high opinion of him. The colouring 
 is harsh and monotonous, but the drawing of the figures and the arrange- 
 ment of the piece prove that he had the habit of thought and also of 
 reckoning on his own powers and of seeking out novel dispositions, pro- 
 ducing effects hitherto unknown." 
 
 The beautiful composition we introduce here (Fig. 256) is taken from 
 M. A. Firmin Didot's "Notice sur Jean Cousin," in which a large 
 number of other subjects are reproduced ; some of them may have been 
 
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 engraved by the painter himself. Like Albert Diirer and Holbein, Jean 
 
 Fig. 256. — Composition by Jean Cousin. First Sketch of his "Last Judgment," from a "Wood-Engraving 
 in the Romance of " Gerard d'Euphrate." Paris, 1549. (Cabinet of M. A. F. Didot.) 
 
 Cousin did not disdain to apply his talents to the ornamentation of books. 
 
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 Jean Cousin is generally looked upon as the real chief of the French 
 school. After him, and by his side, we must place the Janets,* who 
 although of Flemish origin, are actually French in their style and the 
 character of their pictures. The most celebrated of them, Francois Clouet, 
 portrayed, with a realism full of elegance and distinction, the nobles and 
 beautiful ladies of the court of Yalois. 
 
 We should here close our remarks, were it not that we might be accused 
 of an important omission in this review of the principal schools, For 
 nothing has been said of the Bolognese school, whose origin, though not its 
 
 Fig. 257. — Sketch of the Virgin of Alba. Chalk-drawing by Raphael. 
 
 maturity, belongs to the epoch we have made our study. But the material 
 circumstances we now mention must be our justification : although the school 
 of Bologna gave signs of its existence in the thirteenth century, and under 
 the impulse of Guido, Ventura, and Ursone, showed itself to be industrious, 
 active, and numerous ; and also in the fourteenth century, under that of 
 Jacopo d'Avanzo and Lippodi Dalmasio ; yet it died away, reviving only at 
 the commencement of the sixteenth century, again to become extinct after 
 the death of the poetic Kaibolini, called Francia, without having produced 
 
 * This name is generally written Jeannet, and, according to Wornum's " Epochs of Painting," 
 seems to have been applied indiscriminately almost to the two painters, Jehannet or Jehan 
 Clouet, father and son. M. Lacroix appears also to include Francois under the same general 
 cognomen; which, indeed, appears to have been a species of surname. — [Ed.] 
 
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 any of those great individualities to whose glory alone we are compelled 
 to devote our attention. 
 
 We must, however, confess that this school, which suddenly retrieved 
 its position at a time when all other schools were in a state of complete 
 decadence, found three illustrious chiefs instead of one, and acquired the 
 singular glory of resuscitating, by a kind of potent eclecticism, the ensemble 
 of the noblest traditions. But it was not till the latter part of the 
 sixteenth century that Bologna witnessed the opening by the Carracci of 
 that studio whence were destined to proceed Guido, Albano, Domenichino, 
 Guercino, Caravaggio, Pietro of Cortona and Luca Giordano — a magnificent 
 phalanx of men who, by their own works and the force of their example, 
 were to become the honour of an age into which it does not form a portion 
 of our task to follow them. 
 
ENGRAVING. 
 
 Origin of Wood-Engraving.— The St. Christopher of 1423.— " The Virgin and Child Jesus."— The 
 earliest Masters of Wood-Engraving. — Bernard Milnet.— Engraving in Cama'ieu.— Origin of 
 Engraving on Metal. — The " Pax " of Maso Finiguerra.— The earliest Eng ravers on Metal. 
 —Niello Work.— Le Maitre of 1466.— Le Maitre of I486.— Martin Schongauer, Israel van 
 Mecken, Wenceslaus of Olmutz, Albert Diirer, Marc Antonio, Lucas van Leyden.— Jean Duret 
 and the French School.— The Dutch School.— The Masters of Engraving. 
 
 LMOST all authors who have devoted themselves 
 to investigate this subject have asserted, but 
 doubtless very erroneously, that engraving on 
 metal was naturally derived from engraving on 
 wood. Nevertheless, any one who gives but a 
 slight consideration to the difference existing be- 
 tween the two processes must be led to the belief 
 that the two arts must result from two distinct 
 inventions. In wood-engraving, the impression 
 is, in fact, formed by the portions of the block which are in relief; while 
 in engraving on metal, the incised strokes give the lines of the print. 
 Now, no one who has any knowledge of professional matters can for a 
 moment doubt that, in spite of the similar appearance of the productions, 
 there is a radical difference in the starting-points and modes of execution 
 of these two methods. 
 
 We certainly must consider it probable that the appearance of prints 
 produced by wood-engraving may have suggested the idea of seeking to 
 obtain a similar or better result by some other process ; but that a process 
 should be assimilated, as if by affiliation, to another diametrically opposed 
 to it is a view we do not feel called upon to accept without reservation. 
 
 Be this as it may, certain authors look upon wood-engraving as having 
 been invented in Germany at the commencement of the fifteenth century. 
 Others have derived it from China, where it was in use in the year 1000 of 
 our era. Others, again, propound the opinion that the art of printing stuffs 
 
3i6 
 
 ENGRA VING. 
 
 by means of engraved blocks was employed in different parts of Asia, to 
 wbich it bad been imported from ancient Egypt, at a period long before it 
 was first tbougbt of in Europe. Tbese bypotbeses being admitted, tbe 
 wbole question reduces itself into an inquiry as to tbe way in wbicb tbe art 
 
 Fig. 258. — " The Virgin and Infant Jesus." Fac-simile of a Wood-Engraving of the Fifteenth Century. 
 
 (Bibl. Imp., Paris.) 
 
 made its entrance into "Western Europe in tbe first half of tbe fifteenth 
 century ; tbis being tbe earliest date at wbicb we find engravings made in 
 Germany, France, and tbe Low Countries. 
 
ENGRA VING. 
 
 3*7 
 
 The most ancient dated impression known of a cut engraved on wood is a 
 St. Christopher, without either mark or name of its author, hearing a Latin 
 inscription and the date of 1423. This specimen is so roughly engraved, and 
 in drawing is so faulty, that it is only natural to assume it must be one of 
 the earliest attempts at wood-engraving. There is, however, 'an engraving 
 in the Imperial Library, Paris, representing the Virgin holding the Child 
 Jesus seated in her arms (Fig. 258), which may perhaps be considered 
 an earlier specimen than the St. Christopher. The back of the niche is a 
 kind of mosaic, formed of diamond- shaped quadrilaterals ; the aureolm and 
 ornaments of the niche are coloured a yellowish brown. There is, how- 
 ever, one singularity in this engraving which testifies to its great antiquity ; 
 it is printed on paper made of cotton, and is unsized, and the impression 
 sinks so deeply into it that it may be seen nearly as well on the back of the 
 print as on the front, We must not omit to mention another engraving, 
 preserved in the Royal Library, Brussels ; this is also a " Virgin with the 
 Child Jesus," surrounded by four saints (Fig. 259). It is a composition 
 of a somewhat grand style, and does not agree very well with the date, 
 mccccxviii., which is seen at the foot of the print. 
 
 We must, doubtless, attribute to nearly the same time some specimens of 
 playing-cards, — these we have already mentioned when dealing specially with 
 this subject ; and also a series of figures of the Twelve Apostles with Latin 
 legends, underneath which are the same number of phrases in French, or 
 rather in the ancient dialect of Picardy, reproducing the whole text of the 
 Decalogue ; one of these xylographic plates may be seen in the chapter on 
 " Printing." In these engravings each figure is standing up, clothed in 
 a long tunic, and covered with a wide mantle; the ink, so to speak, is 
 bistre, and the mantles are coloured, red and green alternately. The 
 Apostles all bear the symbolical sign which distinguishes them, and are 
 surrounded with a long fillet, whereon is traced in Latin the sentence of the 
 Creed attributed to each, and one of the ten Commandments. St. Peter, for 
 instance, has for his motto this French sentence, "Gardeis Dieu le roy 
 moult sain;" St. Andrew, " Ne jurets point son nome en vain;" St. John, 
 "Pere et Mere tosjours honoras;" St. James the Greater, " Les- fiestes et 
 dymeng. garderas," &c. 
 
 There are other engravings belonging to the middle of the fifteenth 
 century which make known the fact that the art of engraving was prac- 
 
3*8 ENGRAVING. 
 
 tised by several artists in France ; and that without doing any injustice 
 
 Fig. 259.— "The Virgin and Child." A "Wood-Engraving of the Fifteenth- Century (?). 
 (Bibl. Roy., Brussels.) 
 
 to Germany we can attribute several anonymous works to French masters. 
 
ENGRA VING. 
 
 3'9 
 
 But we must in any case claim the very characteristic works of an engraver 
 named Bernard Milnet. In the engravings of this master there are neither 
 lines nor cross-hatching ; the ground of the print is black ; the lights are 
 
 Fig. 260. — " St. Catherine on her Knees." Fac-simile of an Engraving on Wood, by Bernard Milnet, 
 called the " Master with the dotted backgrounds." (Bibl. Imp., Paris.) 
 
 formed by an infinite number of white dots varying in size according to the 
 requirement and taste of the artist. This engraver does not appear to have 
 had any imitators ; and, to tell the truth, his mode of operation must have 
 
320 
 
 ENGRA VING. 
 
 presented many difficulties in execution. There are only six known 
 specimens of his work — a " Virgin with the Child Jesus," " St. Catherine 
 Kneeling" (Fig. 260), the "Scourging of Christ," a group of "St. John, 
 St. Paul, and St. Veronica," a " St. George," and a " St. Bernard." 
 
 Although engravings of this time are now extremely rare, it does 
 not necessarily follow that they were equally scarce at the dates when 
 they were executed. M. Michiels, in his " Histoire de la Peinture en 
 Flandre," says that, " according to ancient custom, on feast-days the 
 Lazarists, and others belonging to religious orders who were accustomed to 
 nurse the sick, carried in the streets a large wax candle ornamented with 
 mouldings and glass-trinkets, and distributed to the children wood- 
 engravings illuminated with brilliant colours, and representing sacred 
 subjects. There must, therefore, have been a considerable number of these 
 engravings." 
 
 In the sixteenth century wood-engraving, improved by the pupils of 
 Albert Diirer, and especially by John Burgkmair (Fig. 261), was very 
 extensively developed ; and the art was then practised with a superiority 
 of style which left far behind the timid attempts of the preceding century. 
 
 The works of most of the wood-engravers of this period are anonymous ; 
 nevertheless, the names of a few of these artists have survived. But it is 
 only by an error that, in the nomenclature of the latter, certain painters and 
 designers, such as Albert Diirer, Lucas van Leyden, and Lucas van Cranach 5 
 have long been made to figure. There are wood-engravings which do 
 actually bear the signatures or monograms of these masters ; but the fact is, 
 that the latter were often in the habit of drawing their designs on the wood, 
 as is frequently the practice with artists in our own day ; and the engraver 
 (or rather the formschneider, form-cutter, to employ the usual expression), 
 in reproducing the composition drawn with a pencil or pen, has copied also 
 the signature which the designer of the subject added. An error often 
 committed by writers may be thus easily set right. 
 
 We must not quit the subject of wood-engraving without mentioning 
 engraving in camdieu ' a process of Italian origin, in which three or 
 four blocks, applying in succession to the print uniform tints of more or less 
 intense tones, ultimately produced engravings of a very remarkable effect, 
 imitating drawings with the stump or the pencil. At the commencement 
 of the sixteenth century several artists distinguished themselves in this 
 
FNGRA VING. 
 
 321 
 
 T T 
 
322 
 
 RNGRA VING. 
 
 mode of engraving, especially Ugo di Carpi, who worked at Modena about the 
 year 1518 ; Antonio Fantuzzi, a pupil of Francis Parmigianino, who accom- 
 panied and assisted Primaticcio at Fontainebleau ; Gualtier, and Andrew 
 Andreani ; and lastly, Bartholomew Coriolano, of Bologna, who would have 
 been the last engraver in this style, were it not for Antonio M. Zanetti, a 
 celebrated Yenetian amateur, who was still nearer to us in point of date. 
 Two or three Germans, John Ulrich in the sixteenth, and Louis Buring* 
 m the seventeenth, century, also made some engravings in camdieu, but 
 only with two blocks : one giving the design of the subject with the outline 
 and cross-hatching, the other introducing a colour, usually bistre, on which 
 all the lights were taken out, so as to leave the ground of the paper white. 
 These specimens imitated a pen-and ink drawing on coloured paper, and 
 finished with the brush or pencil. 
 
 We must now go back to the year 1452, which is generally fixed upon 
 as the date of the invention of engraving on metal (Fig. 262). f When 
 discussing the subject of " Goldsmith's Work," we mentioned, among the 
 pupils of the illustrious Ghiberti, Maso Finiguerra, and stated that this 
 artist had engraved on silver a "Pax" intended for the treasury of the 
 Church of St. John. Certain writers having recognised in a print now 
 in the Imperial Library of Paris, and also in another print in the Library 
 of the Arsenal, an exact impression of this engraving, were led to attribute 
 to the celebrated Florentine goldsmith the honour of an invention in which 
 he might perhaps have had no share at all. Possibly this process of printing 
 off an impression, which was a very natural thing to do, had been actually 
 practised by goldsmiths long before Finiguerra ; they wished, doubtless, to 
 preserve a pattern of their niello-work, or to see how it progressed in its 
 various stages. The proofs, thus taken off by hand, having been lost, 
 Finiguerra may have been considered the originator of a method which he 
 only applied as a matter of course to his goldsmith's work. The two cir- 
 cumstances — that the plate is made of silver and not of any common metal, 
 and that it may be classed among the numerous nielli, engraved plates of 
 decorative goldsmith's work, which have been handed down to us and are 
 of even earlier dates — will alone suffice, in our opinion, to dispose of the 
 
 * Businch is the name by which this old wood-engraver is generally known. — [Ed.] 
 f The legend which accompanies this engraving is in old Italian ; it relates to the famous 
 prophecy of Isaiah as to the birth of Christ (Isaiah vii. 14). 
 
ENGRA VING. 
 
 3 2 3 
 
 EPO PAT0R1PA VEPsGlNE 
 ELNOME DEL ftGLVOL 21CHIAAE&A 
 EWWVELCHEDETTO lNT£RP&Ti*ANDO 
 I0D16-CHON6Z2O N01 EAAGEPA 
 MTVRO e/nfLEACClO CHEP4PR0NDO 
 2APPI PVCGIRE ELMAL CHEE VI0O2Q 
 EHEGGERfc ELLEN CHEVfRTVOfcO 
 
 Fig. 262. — The Prophet Isaiah, holding in his hand the saw which was the instrument of his martyrdom. 
 (Fac-simile from an Engraving on Copper by an unknown Italian Master of the Fifteenth Century.) 
 
3H 
 
 ENGRA VING. 
 
 idea that this work was expressly executed in order to furnish impressions 
 on paper. It was nothing but chance that in this case introduced the 
 name of Finiguerra, which would not have become known in this connec- 
 tion, if it had not been for the preservation of two ancient impressions 
 of his niello-work ; while those taken from other and perhaps older 
 plates had been destroyed. Thus the date, or the asserted date, of the 
 invention of engraving on metal was fixed by the ascertained date of 
 the piece of goldsmith's work. 
 
 Be this as it may, the print of the " Pax," or rather of the " Assump- 
 tion," engraved by Finiguerra, does not fail, in the opinion of all writers and 
 amateurs, to bear the title of the earliest print from metal ; a title to which 
 it has a perfect right, and in thus regarding it we are induced to give a 
 brief description of the subject represented in the engraving. Jesus Christ, 
 seated on a lofty throne and wearing a cap similar to that of the Doges, 
 places, with both his hands, a crown on the head of the Virgin, who, with her 
 hands crossed upon her breast, is seated upon the same throne ; St. Augustine 
 and St. Ambrose are kneeling ; in the centre, below, and on the right, several 
 saints are standing, among whom we can distinguish St. Catherine and 
 St. Agnes; on the left, in the rear of St. Augustine, we see St. John the 
 Baptist and other saints ; lastly, on both sides of the throne a number of 
 angels are blowing trumpets ; and, above, are others holding a streamer, 
 on which we read : " Assvmpta . est . Maria . in . celvm . ave . exercitvs . 
 angelorvm ; " " Mary is taken up into Heaven. Hail, army of angels ! " 
 
 The first of the impressions of this niello found its way into the Royal 
 Library with the Marolles Collection, bought by Louis XIV. in 1667 : the 
 other was discovered only in 1841, by M. Robert Dumesnil, who, in the 
 Library of the Arsenal, was turning over the leaves of a volume containing 
 engravings by Callot and Sebastian Le Clerc. This latter impression, 
 though taken on inferior paper, is nevertheless in a much better state of 
 preservation than the other ; but the ink is of a greyer hue, and one might 
 readily fancy that, as M. Duchesne, the learned writer, asserts, it was printed 
 before the final completion of the plate. 
 
 In support of the opinion which we before indirectly expressed, that the 
 practice of taking impressions from engraved plates of metal might well 
 be a kind of fortuitous result of a mere professional tradition incidental to 
 the goldsmith's art, Ave may remark that most of the engravings which have 
 
ENGRA VING. 
 
 been handed down to us as belonging to the era fixed upon for the in- 
 vention of engraving, are the work of Italian goldsmith-engravers. More 
 than four hundred specimens of this date have been preserved ; among the 
 artists we must mention Amerighi, Michael Angelo Bandinelli, and Philippo 
 Brunelleschi, of Florence ; Forzoni Spinelli, of Arezzo ; Furnio, Gesso, Rossi, 
 and Raibolini, of Bologna ; Teucreo, of Siena ; Caradosso and Arcioni, of 
 Milan ; Nicholas Rosex, of Modena, of whose work we have three nielli and 
 more than sixty engravings ; Antonio Pollajuolo, who engraved a print called 
 
 Fig. 263.— Fac-simile of a Niello executed on Ivory, from the original design of Stradan, representing 
 Columbus on board his Ship, during his first Voyage to the West. 
 
 the " Fight with Cutlasses," representing ten naked men fighting ; lastly, 
 the most skilful of the metal-chasing goldsmiths after Finiguerra, Peregrino 
 of Cesena, who has left his name and his mark on sixty-six nielli. 
 
 More special mention must be made of Bartholomew Baldini, better 
 known under the name of Baccio, to whom we owe, in addition to some 
 large engravings both of a sacred and of a mythological character, twenty 
 vignettes designed for the folio edition (1481) of Dante's " Inferno ; " of 
 Andrea Mantegna, a renowned painter, who himself engraved many 01 
 his own compositions ; and of John van der Straet, called Stradan (Fig. 263), 
 who executed at Florence many remarkable plates. 
 
326 
 
 ENGRA VING. 
 
 We find in Germany an engraver who dates several of his works in the 
 year 1466, but on none of them has he left more than his initials, E. S. 
 This has not failed to tax the ingenuity of those who would establish his 
 individuality in some authentic way. Some have agreed to call him Edward 
 Schon or Stern, on account of the stars he frequently introduces into the 
 borders of the vestments of his figures ; one asserts that he was born in 
 Bavaria, because in a specimen of his works is the figure of a woman holding 
 a shield emblazoned with the arms of that country ; another believes him to 
 have been a Swiss, because he twice engraved the " Pilgrimage of St. Mary 
 of Einsiedeln," the most celebrated in the country. But those amateurs 
 who, upon the whole, think more of the work than the workman, are content 
 to designate him as the Master of 1466. 
 
 This engraver has left behind him three hundred examples, most of them 
 of small dimensions, among which, independently of sundry very curious 
 compositions, we must notice two important series, namely, an Alphabet 
 composed of grotesque figures (Fig. 264), and a pack of Numeral Cards, the 
 greater part of which are in the Imperial Library. 
 
 At almost the same epoch Holland also presents us with an anonymous 
 engraver, who might be called the Master of 1486, from the date on one 
 only of his engravings. The works of this artist, whose manner exhibits 
 a powerful and original style, are very rare in any collections not belong- 
 ing to the country in which he worked. The Cabinet of Engravings at 
 Amsterdam possesses seventy-six of them, while that of Vienna has but 
 two, that of Berlin one only, and that of Paris six, among which we may 
 remark "Samson sleeping on the knees of Delilah," and "St. George," on 
 foot, piercing with his sword the throat of the dragon which menaced the 
 life of the Queen of Lydia. 
 
 We have still three comparatively celebrated engravers to mention before 
 reaching the epoch at which Marc Antonio Eaimondi in Italy, Albert 
 D iirer in Germany, and Lucas van Leyden in Holland, all simultaneously 
 flourished. 
 
 Martin Schongauer, for some time designated by the name of Martin 
 Schon, who died at Colmar in 1488, was a good painter as well as a skilful 
 engraver. More than one hundred and twenty specimens of his work are 
 known, the most important of which are — " Christ bearing his Cross," 
 " The Battle of the Christians " (waged against the infidels by the apostle 
 
ENGRA VING. 
 
 3 2 7 
 
 St. James), both very rare compositions of large size ; the " Passion of Jesus 
 Christ," the " Death of the Virgin," and " St. Anthony tormented by 
 Demons," one proof of which, it is said, was coloured by Michael Angelo. 
 We must add (and this circumstance shows again the kind of direct 
 
 Fig. 264.— Fac -simile of the letter N from the " Grotesque Alphabet," engraved by the " Master of 1466." 
 
 relation which we have already noted as existing between engraving and 
 goldsmith's work), that Martin Schongauer also engraved a pastoral staff 
 and a censer, both of very beautiful workmanship. 
 
 Israel van Mecken (or Meckenem), supposed to be a pupil of Francis 
 
5 28 
 
 ENGRA VING. 
 
 van Bocholt, as lie worked at Bocholt previous to the year 1 500, is, of all 
 German engravers of this epoch, the one whose works are most extensively 
 known. The Cabinet of Engravings in the Imperial Library, Paris, 
 possesses three volumes of his engravings, containing two hundred and 
 twenty-eight superb examples ; among these we must especially notice a 
 composition engraved on two plates of the same height ; " St. Gregory 
 perceiving the Man of Sorrows at the Moment of the Mass." We must 
 confine ourselves to the mention, in addition, of his " St. Luke painting 
 the Portrait of the Virgin ; " "St. Odile releasing from Purgatory, by his 
 prayers, the Soul of his Father, Duke Etichon ; " " Herodias " (Fig. 265) ; 
 and "Lucretia killing herself in the presence of Collatinus and others," 
 which last is the only subject this artist has taken from profane history. 
 
 We mention Wenceslaus of Olmutz, who was engaged in engraving 
 from the year 1481 to 1497, with the especial object of describing an 
 allegorical print due to his burin ; it may serve to give a notion of the 
 fantastic tendency impressed on the ideas of the day by the religious dis- 
 sensions which arose at this epoch between several princes of Germany and 
 the court of Rome. This print, or rather this graphic satire, most of the 
 allusions in which are now lost to us, represents the monstrous figure of 
 a woman entirely naked, seen in profile and turning to the left, her body 
 covered with scales, with the head and mane of an ass ; her right leg 
 terminates in a cloven foot, and the left in a bird's claw ; her right arm is 
 terminated by the paw of a lion, and the left by a woman's hand. The back 
 of this fantastic being is covered with a hairy mask, and in the place of a 
 tail she has the neck of a chimera, with a deformed head from which darts 
 a serpent's tongue. Above the engraving is written, " Roma Caput Mundi" 
 ("Rome the head of the world"). On the left hand is a three-storied 
 tower, upon which a flag adorned with the keys of St. Peter is floating. On 
 the chateau is written, " Castelagno " (Castle of St. Angelo) ; in the fore- 
 ground is a river, upon whose waves is traced the word " Tevere " (the 
 Tiber) ; lower still is the word " Ianvarii " (January), below the date 1496 : 
 on the right, in the background, is a square tower, upon which is written, 
 " Tore Di Nona " (Tower of the Nones) ; on the same side, in front, is a vase 
 with two handles, and in the centre of the lower part the letter W, the 
 monogrammatic signature of the engraver. Our interest in this plate 
 is increased by the date it bears ; for, being engraved by means of 
 
u u 
 
33« 
 
 ENGRA VING. 
 
 aquafortis, it proves that Albert Diirer is wrongfully regarded as the 
 inventor of this mode of engraving, more expeditious than with the burin, 
 as the oldest aquafortis work of Albert Diirer is dated 1515, that is to say, 
 nineteen years later than that of Wenceslaus of Olmutz. 
 
 We now come to three great artists who, at a period in which the 
 art of engraving had made the most remarkable progress, availed them- 
 selves of it for producing works which eminently characterise each master 
 respectively. 
 
 Albert Diirer, born at Nuremberg in 1471, was a vigorous painter, and 
 was not less remarkable for the productions of his burin and etching- 
 needle. We do not intend to describe all his works, though all are 
 worthy of notice, but must content ourselves with mentioning " Adam and 
 Eve standing by the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil," a small plate 
 of delicate workmanship and admirable perfectness of design ; the " Passion 
 of Jesus Christ," in a series of sixteen plates ; " Christ praying in the 
 Garden of Gethsemane," the first work executed by this master by means 
 of aquafortis, then a new method, which, being less soft than the burin, gave 
 rise to an idea not dispelled for some time, that this print and several 
 others were engraved on iron or tin ; several figures of the " Yirgin with 
 the Infant Jesus," which are all remarkable for expression and simplicity, 
 and have received odd sobriquets on account of some accessory object which 
 accompanies them (for instance, the " Virgin with the pear, butterfly, 
 ape," &c.) ; the " Prodigal Son keeping Swine," a composition in which 
 the painter himself is represented ; " St. Hubert praying before the Cross 
 borne by a Stag " (Fig. 266), a very rare and beautiful plate ; the 
 " Chevalier and his Lady ; " lastly, the " Chevalier of Death," a chef- 
 cVoeuvre, dated 1515, and representing Francis of Sickingen, who was 
 destined to be the firmest supporter of Luther's Reformation.* 
 
 Marc Antonio Raimondi, born at Bologna about the year 1475, was first a 
 pupil of Francis Raibolini, and afterwards of Raphael, f whose style he often 
 
 * We presume this plate to be tbat commonly known among collectors of prints as "Death's 
 Horse ; " it represents a knight on horseback followed by Death. The best impressions of this 
 plate are prior to the date 1513. It is also called "The Christian Knight," and "The Knight, 
 Death, and the Devil."— [Ed.] 
 
 t That Marc Antonio studied painting under Raphael, as is here implied, is more than 
 doubtful, though he engraved a very large number of his various compositions, and was highly 
 esteemed by the great master. — [Ed.] 
 
332 
 
 ENGRA VING. 
 
 followed, and in his compositions did his utmost to imitate his pure and 
 noble manner. Everything in his designs is ideally true, and all is harmo- 
 nious in the ensemble of his works. Most of his engravings still existing are 
 very much sought after, and as any description we could give would only 
 convey but an imperfect idea of the excellence of these works, the strongest 
 testimony in favour of their merit will be to mention the high prices given 
 for certain prints by this master at the public sale which took place in 1844. 
 For example : — " Adam and Eve," a print after Raphael, 1,010 francs 
 (£40) ; " God commanding Noah to build the Ark," from the same master, 
 700 francs (£28) ; the " Massacre of the Innocents," 1,200 francs (£48) ; 
 " St. Paul preaching at Athens," 2,500 francs (£100) ; the " Lord's 
 Supper," 2,900 francs (£116) ; the " Judgment of Paris," which is 
 regarded as the chef-d'oeuvre of Marc Antonio, 8,350 francs (£134) ; three 
 pendentives of the " Farnesina," 1,620 francs (£64 10s.), &c. Subsequently, 
 these enormous prices have been even exceeded. 
 
 Lucas van Leyden, born in 1494, and, like Albert Diirer, a clever painter 
 as well as skilful engraver, has left about eighty plates, the most remarkable 
 of which are " David playing the Harp before Saul ;" the " Adoration of the 
 Magi ; " a large " Ecce Homo," engraved by the artist at the age of sixteen ; 
 a " Peasant and Peasant-woman with a Cow ; " the " Monk Sergius killed bv 
 Mahomet ; " the " Seven Virtues ; " a plate called the " Little Milkmaid," 
 very rare ; lastly, a " Poor Family travelling," of which only five proofs are 
 known ; they were bought for sixteen louis d'or by the Abbot of Marolles, 
 when he formed his cabinet of prints, which became one of the richest 
 additions to the Imperial Library. 
 
 In a befitting rank below these famous artists we may class a French 
 engraver, Jean Duret, born at Langres in 1488, who was goldsmith to 
 Henri II., and executed several beautiful allegorical plates on the intrigues 
 of the king and Diana of Poitiers, as well as twenty-four compositions taken 
 from the Apocalypse ; also Pierre Woeiriot (or Yoeiriot), an engraver and 
 goldsmith of Lorraine, born in 1531, who produced numerous fine works 
 down to the end of the century ; the most famous of them, designated by 
 the name of the " Bull of Phalaris " (Fig. 267), represents the tyrant of 
 Agrigentum shutting up human victims destined to be burnt alive in a 
 brazen bull. 
 
 There were at work in Italy at the same epoch Augustine of Musi 
 
Fig. 267. — " Phalaris, Tyrant of Agrigentum, causing Victims destined to be burnt alive to be shut up in a Brazen Bull.' 
 Engraved by P. Woeiriot. (French School 01 the Sixteenth Century.) 
 
33+ 
 
 ENGRA VING. 
 
 (Agustino de Musis, called the Venetian), Giacomo Caraglio, the Ghisis,* 
 Eneas Yico ; in Germany, Altdorfer (Fig. 268), George Pencz,t Aldegrever, 
 
 Jacque Binck, Bartel and Hans Sebald 
 Beham (Fig. 269), who are designated 
 under the collective name of the " Little 
 Masters;" in Holland, Thierry (Dirk) van 
 Star en. 
 
 In the course of the sixteenth century 
 engraving reached its culminating point, 
 and at that time Italy and Germany no 
 longer took the lead in this branch of 
 art, for the most skilful and renowned 
 masters then belonged to Holland and 
 France. 
 
 Those of Holland were Henry Golt- 
 zius (or Goltz), born in 1558, and his 
 pupils Math am and the Mullers, whose 
 vigorous gravers might remind one of 
 brilliant effects of colour without any loss 
 of purity of design ; the two brothers, 
 Boetius and Saheltius Bolswaert, so called 
 from their native town Bolswaert, born 
 in 1580 and 1586 respectively ; Paul 
 Pontius and Lucas Vorsterman, both born in 1590, whose engravings so 
 well represent the chiaroscuro and colour of Van Dyck and Jordaens. 
 
 In France was Jacques Callot, born in 1594, whose works were both 
 numerous and original, and enjoyed a somewhat popular celebrity ; among 
 them the most worthy of remark are the " Temptation of St. Anthony," 
 the " Fair of the Madonna d'Imprunette," " The Garden" and the "Parterre," 
 both scenes in Nancy ; as well as several series, such as the " Miseries of 
 War," &c. There were also Michael Lasne, born in 1596, who engraved a 
 number of historical portraits ; and Etienne (Stephen) Baudet, who repro- 
 duced eight large landscapes after Poussin. 
 
 Fig. 268. — " Repose of the Holy Family." 
 Engraved by A. Altdorfer. 
 
 * Giovanni B. B. Ghisi ; Giorgio and Adams, his two sons ; and Diana, his daughter. — [Ed.] 
 t This engraver, generally known by the single name of George, usually signed his plates 
 ■wiih the surname Feins or Pentz. — [Ed.] 
 
Fig. 269.—" Ferdinand I., Brother of Charles V." Engraved by Bart. Beham in 1531. 
 
33 6 
 
 ENGRA VING. 
 
 A separate notice is reserved for Jonas Suyderoef, born at Leyden in 
 1600, who, by combining the graver, the etching-needle, and aquafortis, 
 gave an exceptional character to his works. Among the two hundred 
 engravings by this master the most admired are the " Treaty of Munster," 
 after Terburg ; and the " Burgomasters of Amsterdam receiving the News 
 of the Arrival of Queen Mary of Medicis," after De Keyser. 
 
 We are now touching closely upon, even if we have not already exceeded, 
 the limits to which we are prescribed by the scope of our notices ; but 
 as the history of engraving does not present, like that of so many other 
 arts, the spectacle of a grievous decadence after a period of brilliancy, we 
 cannot without regret come to a conclusion, when mention might still be 
 made of many distinguished names among the engravers of every country. 
 
 We should also scarcely be able to pass on to another subject without 
 having alluded to those men whose works belong, indeed, to the following 
 epoch, but the date of whose birth connects them with that we are 
 considering. We could not, in fact, assume to have treated of engraving 
 had we passed over in silence Van Dyck, Claude Lorraine, and Rembrandt 
 (Fig. 270), those greatest of masters who were equally celebrated for 
 painting and engraving. In truth, perhaps, we could not say anything 
 of them which would not be superfluous. 
 
 Who is not acquainted with at least some few works by Van Dyck ? 
 This celebrated pupil of Rubens has left in painting as many masterpieces 
 as canvases ; and in engraving he knew "how to give to his etching-needle 
 so much verve and spirit, that his prints are perfect models to follow, and 
 have never been surpassed. Who is there that does not admire the land- 
 scapes of Claude Lorraine, which are equally remarkable for the light diffused 
 over them, and the misty atmosphere that tempers its brilliancy ? We 
 all know this master produced, as if for recreation, certain engravings 
 which for truth and melancholy (melancolie) are hardly surpassed by his 
 marvellous paintings. And how can we speak of Rembrandt without 
 seeming to be commonplace ? For his fertile and varied talent no difficulty 
 ever seemed to exist ; a theme, the most simple and common in appearance, 
 becomes in his hands the basis of a masterly conception ; nature, to which 
 he seemed to lend a new life, while seizing upon its most striking realities, 
 was for him an inexhaustible source of powerful compositions. 
 
 The mention of these artists on the threshold of an epoch into which we 
 
ENGRA VING. 
 
 337 
 
 are precluded from following them, must suffice to convey some idea of the 
 height that art had attained during this century. We will, however, 
 enumerate after them a few names among foreign engravers. The Flemish 
 artists, Nicolas Berghem and Paul Potter, both great animal-painters, have 
 
 Fig-. 270. — " Portrait of John Lutma,' Goldsmith of Groningen." Designed and Engraved in aquafortis 
 
 by Rembrandt. 
 
 left some prints in aquafortis for the possession of which amateurs contend ; 
 Wenceslaus Hollar, the Englishman,* engraved " The Queen of Sheba," 
 after Veronese ; to Cornelius Visscher, a Dutchman, we owe the famous 
 
 * He was born at Prague, although most of his works were executed in England. — [Tr.] 
 
 X X 
 
33« 
 
 ENGRA VING. 
 
 "Seller of Eatsbane ;" and to Stefano della Bella, of Florence, the " View 
 from the Pont-Neuf, Paris." Rupert, the Prince-Palatine (nephew of 
 Charles I. of England), was the inventor of the mezzo- tinto, or black style 
 of engraving ; and William Faithorne, an Englishman, engraved several 
 portraits after Van Dyck. France also presents to our notice some justly 
 celebrated names. The views of towns by Israel Silvestre, of Nancy, are 
 very beautiful ; Francois de Poilly, of Abbeville, reproduced several pictures 
 by Raphael; Jean Pesne, of Rouen, himself a painter, engraved especially 
 after Poussin ; Antoine Masson, of Orleans, has left a print of the " Pilgrims 
 of Emmaus," after the picture by Titian, which is regarded as a chef-d'ceuvre. 
 Lastly, Robert JSTanteuil, of Rheims, the famous portrait-painter, engraved 
 Perefixe, Archbishop of Paris, four times; the Archbishop of Rheims 
 five times; Colbert six times; Michel Le Tellier, Chancellor of France, 
 ten times ; Louis XIV. eleven times, and Cardinal Mazarin fourteen times. 
 
 Fig. 271.—" The Holy Virgin." Engraved by Aldegrever in 1527. 
 
SCULPTUEE. 
 
 Origin of Christian Sculpture.— Statues in Gold and Silver.— Traditions of Antique Art.— Sculp- 
 ture in Ivory.— Iconoclasts. — Diptychs.— The highest Style of Sculpture follows the Phases 
 of Architecture.— Cathedrals and Monasteries from the Year 1000.— Schools of Burgundy, 
 Champagne, Normandy, Lorraine, &c. — German, English, Spanish, and Italian Schools. — 
 Nicholas of Pisa and his Successors.— Position of French Sculpture in the Thirteenth 
 Century. — Florentine Sculpture and Ghiberti.— French Sculptors from the Fifteenth to the 
 Sixteenth Century. 
 
 T is an indisputable fact that the epoch in which the Emperor 
 Constantine, by receiving baptism, effected the triumph of Chris- 
 tianity, developed a kind of revival in the movement of the 
 decorative arts, the ideas of which were then exclusively directed 
 to the exaltation of the new faith. To construct numerous 
 basilicas, to adorn them magnificently, and by means of the 
 chisel to embody in a material form the spiritualism of the 
 Gospel, were the objects of this pious monarch. Gold and 
 silver were the less spared, as marble was considered too common a 
 substance in which to represent the sacred personages of the divine 
 hierarchy. At Constantinople, in the basilica constructed by Constantine, 
 there was represented, on one side of the apse, a seated figure of our 
 Saviour surrounded by His twelve disciples; on the other side, Christ 
 was represented also sitting on a throne and accompanied by four 
 angels, who had precious stones of Alabanda, inlaid, to represent their 
 eyes. All these figures were life-size, and made of silver repousse; each 
 one weighing from ninety to a hundred and ten pounds. In the same 
 church, a canopy representing the Apostles and cherubim in relief, of 
 polished silver, weighed more than two thousand pounds. But these 
 splendours were even eclipsed by those of the font of porphyry in which 
 Constantine received baptism from the hands of Bishop Sylvester. The 
 part whence the water flowed away was adorned with massive silver over 
 an extent of five feet, and for the purpose three thousand pounds of this 
 
340 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 precious metal were employed. In the centre, columns of gold supported a 
 lamp of the same metal weighing fifty-two pounds, in which, during the 
 feast of Easter, two hundred pounds of perfumed oil were burnt. The water 
 was poured into the font through the image of a lamb of solid gold, weighing 
 thirty pounds. On the right was a life-size representation of our Saviour, 
 weighing a hundred and seventy pounds; on the left was a statue of 
 J ohn the Baptist of the same size ; while seven hinds of silver placed around 
 the font, and pouring water into the basin, harmonised in their dimensions 
 and materials with the other figures. 
 
 We would not assert that these works, pompously enumerated by 
 Anastasius, the Librarian, corresponded in purity and elevation of style 
 
 Fig. 272.— Altar of Castor (a Gallo-Roman Sculpture), discovered in 1711 under the Choir 1 
 of Notre-Dame, Paris. 
 
 with the richness of the materials employed ; for we know, on the contrary, 
 that in order to comply with the wishes of the powerful emperor, artists were 
 found who, by simple substitution of heads, attributes, or inscriptions, 
 converted without any scruple a Jupiter into God the Father, or a Venus 
 into a Yirgin. The large cities were not as yet depopulated of the 
 innumerable crowd of statues which adorned them ; and it was only in 
 provinces far from the metropolis that the images of the false gods were 
 buried under the fragments of their overthrown temples (Figs. 272 and 273). 
 
 In fact, before the art had adopted, or rather created, the system of 
 Christian symbolism, it was absolutely necessary to borrow the elements 
 of its existence from the glorious materials of the past, and even to 
 imitate the works of Pagan art. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 3+' 
 
 In Greece more than elsewhere — and by Greece we include Constanti- 
 nople — statuary preserved, under Constantine and his earliest successors, a 
 certain degree of power which we might call original. The design still 
 adhered to beautiful forms, and, in the arrangement of subjects, the principles 
 of the ancients were for a long time applied, as if instinctively. Although 
 artists no longer studied nature, they were, at all events, surrounded by 
 excellent models, which guided them with somewhat imperious rule. 
 
 We have already seen that, among the barbaric chiefs who invaded 
 the empire of the Caesars and seated themselves on the Imperial throne of 
 Home, were some who, at a certain period, professed to be, if not the 
 protectors of the Fine Arts, which had then sunk into torpor, at least 
 
 Fig. 273. — Altar of Jupiter Ceraunus (Gallo-Roman Sculpture), discovered in 1711, 
 under the Choir of Notre-Dame, Paris. 
 
 the preservers of the Greek and Roman monuments belonging to the 
 noblest epoch of Art. The statues were no longer broken down ; the 
 inscriptions and bas-reliefs ceased to be mutilated ; the triumphal arches 
 (Fig. 274), the palaces, and the theatres, were respected, or, rather, were 
 left standing. But a kind of deadness had come over the artistic world, 
 and a few sympathetic manifestations of this kind were not sufficient to 
 reanimate its enervated spirit ; it was necessary that the period of repose 
 should be fully accomplished — a period which, in the views of Providence, 
 was perhaps a phase of profound contemplation or preparatory development. 
 
 Nevertheless, although the art which gives life to marble and bronze — 
 a high style of sculpture — was in a stationary or retrograde state, the lower 
 kind, which we may call domestic, preserved some degree of activity. 
 
34 2 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 For instance, it was then the custom for great personages to send as presents 
 diptychs of ivory, on the outer face of which were carved bas-reliefs 
 recalling some memorable event. Monarchs, on their accession, were in the 
 habit of conferring diptychs of this kind on the governors of provinces 
 and bishops ; and the latter, in order to testify to the good understanding- 
 existing between the civil and religious authorities, placed the diptych on 
 the altar. A marriage, a baptism, or any success, gave occasion for the 
 
 rnsam 
 
 
 
 
 lllllll 
 
 
 
 
 
 Fig. 274. — Restoration of a Roman Triumphal Arch, with its Bas-reliefs. 
 
 presentation of diptychs. For two centuries artists lived on nothing but 
 this kind of work. It needed events of some very extraordinary character 
 to cause the production of any monument of real sculpture. 
 
 In the sixth century the cathedrals of Rome, Treves, Metz, Lyons, 
 Rhodez, Aries, Bourges, and the abbeys of St. Medard at Soissons, St. Ouen 
 at Rouen, and St. Martin at Tours, are mentioned as remarkable ; and yet 
 the walls of these edifices were nothing but bare stone, without either orna- 
 ment or sculpture. " To become living stones," says M. J. Duseigneur, 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 343 
 
 " ttey had to wait for another age. The whole of the ornamentation was 
 exclusively applied to the altar and the baptismal font. The tombs even of 
 great personages present the most primitive simplicity." (Fig. 275.) 
 
 Ancient Gaul, in spite of its disasters, still retained, in certain parts of its 
 territory, men, or rather groups of men, in whose hearts the cultivation of 
 Art still remained a living principle. This was the case in Provence, round 
 the archbishops of Aries ; in Austrasia (Metz), near the throne of Brunehaut ; 
 in Burgundy, at the court of King Gontran. Most of the works and even 
 the names of these artists are now lost ; but history has recorded the move- 
 ment, which was, as it were, a happy link destined to abbreviate the solution 
 of continuity in artistic tradition. 
 
 At the time when Greek art, in its degenerate state, had sunk down into 
 a department of mere goldsmith's work, casting over Europe only a pale 
 and feeble light ; when artists, in representing sacred or profane subjects, 
 
 Fig-. 275. — A Stone Tomb, of one of the first Abbots of St. Germain-des-Pres, Paris. 
 
 contented themselves with simple medallions of bronze, gold, or silver, 
 which were generally inserted in a shrine, or suspended on the walls ; across 
 the seas Byzantine art was springing into life ; an art which blended 
 Hellenic reminiscences with Christian sentiment. 
 
 In the eighth century, the epoch of the uprising of the Iconoclasts against 
 images of all kinds, Byzantine sculpture had acquired certain well-marked 
 characteristics : rigidness of outline, meagreness of form, elongation of the 
 proportions, combined with great prof useness of costume ; all was the expres- 
 sion of saddened resignation and costly grandeur. The monumental statuary 
 of this age has, however, almost entirely disappeared, and we should be nearly 
 destitute of any accurate record as to the state of Art for a period of several 
 centuries, were it not for numerous diptychs which, to some extent, supply 
 this want. Many of these sacred diptychs were exquisitely wrought. 
 
344 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 Gori, in his " Tresor des Diptyques," written in Latin and published at 
 Florence in 1759, divides these monuments into four classes: diptychs 
 intended to receive the names of the newly baptised ; those wherein were 
 written the names of the benefactors of the church, sovereigns, and popes ; 
 and those destined to preserve the memory of the faithful who had died in 
 the bosom of the church (Fig. 276). Their outward surface generally 
 represented some scene taken from the Evangelists, in which Christ was 
 especially depicted as young and beardless, his head glorified with a nimbus 
 without a cross. The more these representations were condemned, the more 
 they who paid respect to them endeavoured to perpetuate their use. The 
 Greek artists, being unable to find a livelihood in their own country, made 
 their way into Italy in such numbers that the popes Paul I., Adrian I., 
 and Pascal I., erected monasteries to receive them. Owing to the influence 
 of this immigration, Art, which in the West was germinating in an 
 undecided state between a weak style of originality and an awkward mode 
 of imitation, was compelled to assume a character of its own, and this 
 necessarily was the Byzantine character ; that is, a manner which was firm, 
 clear, and, in general, impressed with a certain imposing nobility of style. 
 This style attained all the more success by its being illustrated by very 
 eminent artists, whom Charlemagne patronised as fully adequate to the 
 magnificence of his ideas ; and also because the richness of ornament which 
 this style combined with its work was likely to render it pleasing to the 
 populace. 
 
 The royal palaces of Aix-la-Chapelle, Goddinga, Attiniacum, and 
 Theodonis Villa, and the monasteries of St. Arnulph, Treves, St. Gall, 
 Salzbourg, and Priim felt the salutary influence which Charlemagne 
 exercised on all kinds of Art. Prior to 1793, in these various localities 
 precious remains were still to be seen, reaching back to the eighth century ; 
 they testified to the fact that, apart from Byzantine influence, and bearing 
 the impress of a simple Christian sentiment, sculpture still clung, owing to 
 Lombard ascendancy, to some of the grand traditions of antiquity. 
 
 This union of principles gave rise to a number of works bearing 
 a remarkable character. The foundation of the abbeys of St. Mihiel 
 (Lorraine), Isle-Barbe (near Lyons), of Ambernay and Romans ; the erec- 
 tion of several of the great monasteries in Alsace, Soissonnais, Brittany, 
 Normandy, Provence, Languedoc, and Aquitaine; the construction of the 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 345 
 
 Fig. 276.— Diptychs in Carved Ivory of the Eleventh Century. (M. Rigollot's Collection, Amiens.) 
 3 first compartment represents St. Remy, Bishop of Rheims, healing a paralytic ; the second, St. Remy 
 healing a sick man by the invocation of the sacrament on the altar ; the third, St. Remy, assisted by a holy 
 bishop, baptising King Clovis in the^presence of Queen Clotilda, and receiving from the Holy Spirit the 
 sacred ampulla. 
 
 Y Y 
 
346 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 important churches of Metz, Toul, Yerdun, Rheims, Autun, &c. ; the 
 restorations which took place at the abbeys of Beze, St. Gall, St. Benignus 
 of Dijon, Eemiremont, St. Arnulphe-les-Metz, and Luxeuil, were of suffi- 
 cient importance to occupy an immense number of artists, architects, and 
 sculptors, who, like the monk Gundelandus, abbot of Lauresheim, handled 
 the compasses and the mallet with as much authority as the crucifix. 
 Nothing could equal the splendour of some of the monasteries, which were 
 perfect centres of genius and skill, in which all the Fine Arts united were a 
 mutual assistance to one another ; directed, perhaps, by a master who was 
 himself inspired by a feeling for elevated production (Fig. 277). 
 
 Nevertheless, the smaller examples of sculpture and carving con- 
 stituted the principal work of the artists of the eighth century. In the 
 execution of any larger objects they were deterred by a dread of the 
 Iconoclasts, who still continued their course of destruction, neither was it 
 much less after the death of Charlemagne, owing to the civil wars and 
 invasions which, in every direction, put a stop to or ruined architectural 
 works. A shrine or an altar might perhaps be saved, but a church- 
 front or doorway could not be protected ; and the hereditary hatred with 
 which princes pursued one another did not fail to be wreaked on their 
 effigies. At that time there were neither artists nor monks; every one 
 became a soldier, and the common peril gave some energy to our alarmed 
 ancestors. 
 
 When these invasions had almost come to an end in Europe, the very 
 disasters they had caused assisted to some extent the progress both of 
 architecture and sculpture. In the first place there sprang up a complete 
 order of new buildings, originated by the need that arose for fresh 
 edifices for the purpose of public worship ; the Church, having a thousand 
 disasters to repair, built or restored a number of monasteries which assumed 
 a decided character of individuality. The cathedrals of Auxerre, Clermont, 
 Toul, the Church of St. Paul at Verdun, the abbeys of Montier-en-Der and 
 of Gorze, of Munster, Cluny, Celles-sur-Cher, &c, were specially adorned 
 with the sculptural characteristics of this epoch. Crucifixes in high relief 
 were multiplied, the introduction of which into monumental sculpture did 
 not take place before the pontificate of Leo III. In the arched recesses 
 over doorways representations of the good and the bad were placed 
 opposite to one another; the worship of the Virgin was celebrated in all 
 
I 
 
 SCULPTURE. 347 
 
 kinds of artistic productions ; and, in short, sculpture was displayed every- 
 where with an extraordinary amount of richness. Nothing escaped, so 
 to speak, its luxurious growth : ambons* seats, arches, baptismal fonts, 
 columns, cornices, bell-turrets, and gargoyles — everything, in short, testified 
 that sculpture and stone were now in full harmony. Almost all the 
 
 Fig. 277. — Bas-relief in the Abbey-Church of St. Denis ; a reproduction*of the ancient Statue of 
 Dagobert I., destroyed in the Ninth Century. 
 
 figures were then represented as clothed in the Roman style, with a 
 short tunic, and the chlamys clasped upon the shoulder ; this still con- 
 tinued to be the court- costume, and consequently the only one suitable 
 to the representation of the exalted followers of Christianity. 
 
 * Ambons — a kind of pulpit in the early Christian churches. — [Ed.] 
 
3+8 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that the monuments of this age are generally 
 wanting both in dates and the name of the sculptor. Not more than five 
 or six of the principal artists or directors of artistic works of the period are 
 mentioned by name in any historical records. Among them, however, are 
 Tutilon, a monk of Saint- Gall, who at once poet, sculptor, and painter, 
 ornamented with his works the churches of Mayence and Metz ; Hugues, 
 Abbot of Montier-en-Der ; Austee, Abbot of St. Arnulph, in the diocese of 
 Metz ; Morard, who, with the co-operation of King Robert, rebuilt, towards 
 the end of the tenth century, the old church of St. Germain-des-Pres, at 
 Paris ; lastly, Guillaume, Abbot of St. Benignus, at Dijon, who took under 
 his direction forty monasteries, and became chief of a school of Art, as well 
 as their head on religious matters. The doorways of the churches of 
 Avallon, Nantua, and Vermanton, executed at this epoch, bear witness to 
 the rigour of an improved taste ; and it may be well said that this abbot 
 Guillaume, who for a long series of years directed a number of artists, who 
 also in their turn became chiefs of schools, exercised as powerful an influence 
 on French art as Nicholas of Pisa on Tuscan art in the following century. 
 
 But although it embraced within its influence a very extended sphere, 
 the school of Burgundy did not fail to find on the ancient Gallic soil 
 very skilful and industrious rivals. The districts of Messin, Lorraine, 
 Alsace, Champagne, Normandy, and the Ile-de-France, in short all the 
 various centres of the South, possessed numerous artists, each of whom 
 impressed on their works their own special character of individuality. 
 
 While all this activity was prevailing in France, Italy had as yet taken 
 so insignificant a part in the revival of Art, that in 976 Peter Orseolo, Doge 
 of Venice, having formed the idea of rebuilding the basilica of St. Mark, 
 was compelled to summon from Constantinople both architects and artists. 
 
 A period of check to any progress took place in France, however, just 
 as in all the rest of Europe, when, at the approach of the year 1000, the 
 whole population became subject to an ideal dread that the end of the world 
 was at hand ; but when this date was once passed, every school of art set 
 vigorously to work, and the most remarkable monuments of Romanesque 
 architecture sprang up throughout Europe in every direction. 
 
 Then it was that the artists of Burgundy built and ornamented, among 
 other churches and monasteries, the Abbey of Cluny, the apse of which con- 
 sisted of a bold cupola, supported by six columns thirty-six feet in height, of 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 349 
 
 Fig. 278. — Tomb of Dagobert, executed by order of St. Louis, in the Abbey-Church of St. Denis. It represents 
 the King carried away by Demons, after his death, towards the Infernal Bark, from which he is rescued by 
 Angels and the Fathers of the Church. (Thirteenth Century.) 
 
350 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 Cipolin and Pentelican marble, with captials, cornices, and friezes, carved 
 painted, and decorated with bronze. In Lorraine they worked at the cathe- 
 drals of Toul and Yerdun, and the abbey of St. Yiton. In the diocese of Metz 
 Gontran and Adelard, celebrated abbots of St. Trudon, covered Hasbaye 
 with new buildings. "Adelard," says a chronicler, "superintended the 
 construction of fourteen churches, and his outlay was so great that the 
 imperial treasury would scarcely have sufficed for it." In Alsace, the 
 cathedral at Strasbourg and the two churches of Colmar and Schelestadt 
 simultaneously arose, and in Switzerland the Cathedral of Basle. These 
 magnificent edifices are still standing to show the vigour and majestic 
 simplicity with which the art of sculpture was then able to embody its ideas ; 
 and, by lending its aid to architecture, to manifest, so to speak, the faith 
 which actuated it. It was in this century that Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres, 
 who was doubtless a sculptor also, superintended the restoration of his 
 church, the splendour of which is still open to the admiration of all. 
 Art, too, did not less distinguish herself in the decoration of certain additions 
 made at that time to edifices already existing. The doorways of the 
 churches of Laon, Chateaudun, and St. Ayoult of Provins, grand works of 
 the earliest years of the twelfth century, yield the palm only to the splendid 
 external ornamentation of the Abbey of St. Denis, executed between the 
 years 1137 and 1180. The Abbot Suger, who was himself an eminent 
 artist, does not name any of the sculptors to whose care this important 
 task was committed. We are equally ignorant as to the sculptors of the 
 statues of Dagobert and of Queen JSTanthilde, his wife; and also as to the 
 artists of a large golden crucifix, the foot of which was enriched with 
 bas-reliefs, and the figure of Christ, that presented, says Suger, "an expres- 
 sion really divine." The names of the sculptors of the cathedral church of 
 Paris are likewise concealed from our admiration. One might suppose 
 that a body of artists fired with the same inspiration, and with a common 
 sentiment both in thought and action, had there assembled to design 
 their works; some sculpturing in marble the sarcophagus of Philip of 
 France; some peopling the rood-loft and the apse with tall figures and a 
 long gallery of Biblical subjects ; others decorating the facade and exterior 
 with statues, all of every diversified character, but yet all appearing to 
 unite in the expression of the same feelings and the same faith (Fig. 279). 
 In the twelfth century, the Burgundian artists continued their marvellous 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 35i 
 
 work. The tomb of Hugues, Abbot of Cluny ; the doorway of the monastery 
 
 Fig-. 279. — External Bas-relief of Norte-Dame, in Paris, representing Citizens relieving Poor Scholars. 
 (The work of Jean de Chelles. Date 1257.) 
 
 of St. Jean, that of the Church of St. Lazare at Autun ; the nave and the 
 west front of Semur-en-Auxois, are all of this school, and of this epoch. 
 
352 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 The school of Champagne raised to the memory of Count Henry I., in 
 the Church of St. Etienne, at Troyes, a tomh surrounded with forty- four 
 columns of gilded bronze, surmounted by a slab of silver on which were 
 placed, in a recumbent position, the statues of the Count and of one of his 
 sons ; bas-reliefs, in bronze and silver, representing the Holy Family, the 
 celestial court, angels, and prophets, surrounded this monument. The tomb 
 of Count Henry was a triumph of sculpture in metal; and, at that time, 
 surpassed all other tombs in France, just as the Cathedral of Rheims was 
 destined, ere long, to excel all others. 
 
 In Normandy we find the same enthusiasm, the same zeal, the same 
 skill in Art ; and there, at least, we learn the names of some of the 
 artists : Otho, the builder of the Cathedral of Seez ; Gamier, of Fecamp ; 
 Anquetil, of Petit- Yille, &c. The masons and sculptors, too, formed at this 
 epoch a numerous and powerful corporation. 
 
 In the South, Asquilinus, Abbot of Moissac, near Cahors, ornamented 
 with fine statues the cloister and front of his church, and affixed to the 
 sides of the apse a Crucifixion so skilfully carved, that it was believed 
 to have emanated from some divine hand (" ut non humano, sed divino 
 artificio facta"). In Auvergne, Provence, and Languedoc, many other 
 important works of sculpture were executed. But the chief masterpiece 
 of all, which combines the different styles of the southern schools, is the 
 famous Church of St. Trophimus of Aries, the front of which, where the 
 breadth and grace of the Greek style is allied with the purest Christian 
 simplicity, carries back the imagination to the brightest epochs of the art. 
 
 Towards the end of the eleventh and the commencement of the twelfth 
 century, the sculptors' studios of the districts of Messin and Lorraine were 
 in full activity. Several magnificent churches having been destroyed by 
 fire, particularly that of Yerdun, the whole population assisted, either with 
 money or labour, in the restoration of these edifices. It was a perfect 
 artistic crusade, in which several bishops and abbots, who were clever artists 
 as well as spiritual chiefs, took the lead in the movement. 
 
 In Alsace, art asserted its position in the magnificent Cathedral of 
 Strasbourg,* a kind of challenge thrown out to the artists on the other side of 
 the Rhine, who were unable, even at Cologne, to carry an edifice to such an 
 
 * Strasbourg spire is 468 feet in height, the highest in the world. Amiens, the next, a mere 
 fieche, is 422 feet— [Tk.] 
 
CLOVIS I. AND CI.OTILDE HIS WIFE 
 
 Statues formerly at the Entrance of the Church of Notre Dame at Corbcfl. Twelfth Century. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 353 
 
 enormous height, or to adorn it with such a diversified multitude of statues. 
 Although belonging more especially to the thirteenth century, it may be 
 taken as the starting-point of the prodigious works executed by an associa- 
 tion of freemasons, who have marked with their hieroglyphic signatures 
 the stones of this edifice, as of all others executed 
 by them in the valley of the Rhine, from Dussel- 
 dorf to the Alps. 
 
 We are, however, led to believe that Germany 
 also did not fail to be subject to the influence of 
 this artistic school, for among contemporary monu- 
 ments are several in a style which manifestly 
 testifies to the effects of the neighbouring country 
 of Alsace. 
 
 Flemish art of that time is exemplified by the 
 Church of St. Gudule at Brussels, the style of 
 which is especially rich with decorations borrowed 
 from churches on the banks of the Rhine, the 
 Moselle, the Sarre, and the Upper Meuse. 
 
 If we include in one comprehensive glance 
 French, German, and Flemish sculptural works, we 
 shall recognise in all, notwithstanding the pre- 
 dominance of any particular school, one original 
 and special type. The characteristics of this are 
 elongated faces with a calm, contemplative, and 
 penitent expression ; stiffness of attitude, and a kind 
 of ecstatic immobility, rather than any glow of ani- 
 mation ; draperies with small narrow folds and close- 
 fitting, as if wetted ; pearled fringes or ribbons, 
 set off with gems (Fig. 280). We see statues of 
 lofty proportions reared up ; representations of 
 various personages are multiplied on the tombs ; 
 Greek art is disappearing and its learned theories 
 are giving way before Christian sentiment ; thought 
 is obtaining the mastery over mere form ; symbolism makes its appearance 
 and becomes a science. 
 
 But let us turn our eyes towards Italy. Venice had scarcely raised 
 
 Fig. 280. — Statue said to be of 
 Clovis I., formerly in the 
 porch of St. Germain -des- 
 Pres, Paris. 
 
 (Twelfth Century.) 
 
354 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 her lofty dome ere Pisa aspired to have one also. Many a Tuscan ship, 
 launched upon the sea for conquests of a new kind, brought from Greece 
 an infinity of monuments, statues, bas-reliefs, capitals, friezes, and various 
 fragments ; and the Tuscan people, the best organised race in Europe for 
 fully appreciating all the beauty of form, were called upon to draw their 
 inspiration from the relics of ancient works of Art. The enthusiasm became 
 general. In 1016, Buschetto, regarded as the first architect of his time, 
 undertook the building of the Cathedral of Pisa, where ancient fragments 
 are still conspicuous amid the works of more modern creation : a kind of 
 holographic testament the benefit of which the followers of the art of Phidias 
 have thus handed down to posterity. The pupils of Buschetto, accepting 
 the impulse of his masterly hand and reproducing his ideas, soon spread 
 all over the peninsula, and the cathedrals of Amalfi, Pistoia, Siena, and 
 Lucca arose, the Byzantine character of which differed from the Lombard 
 style presented by the Cathedral of Milan. One might almost have fancied 
 that the \)osom of the earth brought forth statues which, as if by enchant- 
 ment, peopled every pedestal; and that from heaven descended the ray 
 which animated them with their sublime expression. The art of casting in 
 bronze, hitherto almost unknown in Italy, became naturalised there as 
 much as the art of carving in stone. 
 
 While in the West the Arts were making such a spring, in the East 
 they had relapsed into the lowest stage of debasement, at the period when 
 Byzantium was simultaneously threatened by the Bulgarians and the 
 Crusaders ; although for a time they had appeared to revive, owing to the 
 zeal of Basil the Macedonian, Constantine VIII., and some of their suc- 
 cessors. Eastern sculpture disappeared when the Latins sacked the ancient 
 capital of the first Christian emperor (1204). 
 
 At the approach of the thirteenth century, which was destined to be 
 the great age of Christian architecture and sculpture, artists no longer 
 looked, as they had hitherto done, towards Byzantium, they depended 
 on themselves ; and although some hesitation might still be felt, they 
 found all round them models they could imitate, traditions they could 
 follow, and masters to whom they could listen. Christian art had now an 
 independent existence, and the various schools asserted their styles in a way 
 which became every day more clear, more powerful, and more original. 
 
 "The style of the head of Christ at Amiens" (Fig. 281), says M. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 355 
 
 sculptors. This carving is treated in the same way as the Greek heads 
 
35 6 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 called Eginetic. There is the same simplicity of model, the same purity 
 of outline, the same style of execution, at once broad and delicate. It well 
 represents the features of Christ as a man : a blending of sweetness with 
 firmness, a gravity devoid of sadness." 
 
 This is not the place to assert any minute comparisons between 
 different manners and styles ; even the bare enumeration of the many 
 monuments to which this fervent age gave birth might prove wearisome. 
 We call it a "fervent age," and fully are we justified, for, at a time 
 when a whole world of artist-sculptors of ornaments and figures were 
 devoting themselves to the most delicate and marvellous works of sculpture 
 (Fig. 282), none seemed desirous of displaying his own personal distinc- 
 tion. We find, for instance, numerous sculptors setting aside all claim 
 to individual merit, and carrying this self-denial so far that, instead of 
 their own names, they inscribed that of the Virgin Mary on the carvings 
 of the churches which they had enriched with their finest works : " Hoc 
 panthema pia caelaverat ipsa Maria." 
 
 In Germany, Christian art became specially enthroned in Saxony ; and 
 Dresden, which has been justly styled the German Athens, can date back 
 her architecto- sculptural adornments to the tenth century. On the banks 
 of the Rhine, at Cologne, Coblentz, and Mayence, we find again the school 
 of Saint- Gall, which, having been planted in 971, under the auspices of 
 Notker, Bishop of Laodicea, left its stamp, during a period of two centuries, 
 in a series of remarkable works. 
 
 England, as early as the seventh century, had called to her aid some of 
 the French " masters in stone " and best workmen, and she subsequently 
 continued to do so for the building and ornamentation of her finest religious 
 edifices. William of Sens, a very skilful artist (artifex subtilissimus) , pro- 
 ceeded, in 1176, to rebuild Canterbury Cathedral. Norman and French 
 artists also restored the abbeys of Croyland and Wearmouth, and York 
 Cathedral, already enriched with Byzantine and French sculpture. 
 
 Spain and Portugal, the soil of which had long been the theatre of an 
 inveterate conflict between two races embracing two irreconcilable religions, 
 were destined to inherit from these very struggles the creation of a sin- 
 gularly characteristic style of art. In adopting the Byzantine style, the 
 Moors had deprived it of its character of simple earnestness, and made it 
 to harmonise with the tendencies of their refined sensualism. Even when 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 357 
 
 Christian art was able to exercise an undivided rule, it could not fail to be 
 influenced by the buildings erected by the Moors ; and the fact that this 
 
 Fig. 282.— Statues in the South Porch of Bourges Cathedral. (Twelfth Century.) 
 
 alliance of architectural and sculptural styles succeeded in producing 
 masterpieces is well attested by the cathedrals of Cuenca, Yittoria, and 
 some portions of those of Seville, Barcelona, and Lugo in Galicia. 
 
358 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 Sicily and the kingdom of Naples followed the movement made in 
 other countries of Europe ; but here, again, was felt the influence of various 
 foreign importations. Some of them were of Greek origin, coming from 
 Byzantium; some northern, from Normandy, and perhaps also from Ger- 
 many ; most, however, from Spain, and especially from the important school 
 of Aragon. 
 
 " Nicolas of Pisa," says Emeric David, " was born towards the end of the 
 twelfth century, in a town then peopled with Greek masters and the pupils 
 of those masters, and full of Greek monuments of every age ; a town which 
 might be called altogether Greek. He had the good sense to disdain the 
 productions of his own time and to devote himself to the more elevated 
 contemplation of the chefs-d'oeuvre of ancient Greece. This proof of undoubted 
 discernment, and a high degree of taste on his part, could not but lead to 
 very marked progress. But a premature study of the antique is not so sure 
 a guide to the desired end as the contemplation of nature, to which Guido 
 of Siena, his contemporary, and a little later Cimabue and Giotto, taught 
 perhaps by his errors, assiduously applied themselves." There can, however, 
 be no doubt that the first development of Christian sculpture in Italy must 
 unquestionably be referred to Nicolas of Pisa. He had, nevertheless, some 
 rivals who were weU worthy of competing with him. Among these were 
 Fuccio, sculptor of the magnificent tomb of the Queen of Cyprus, in the 
 Church of San Francesco at Florence ; and also Marchione of Arezzo, who in 
 1216 carved his name over the doorway of the church of that town. Giovanni 
 of Pisa, son of Nicolas, who sculptured many beautiful works at Arezzo, 
 Pistoia, and Florence, and even surpassed himself in the Campo Santo at 
 Pisa, perhaps the most remarkable monument in Christian Europe, has 
 been placed by some far below his father in rank as a sculptor, on 
 account of an accusation made against him of having abandoned the Greek 
 style. But this renunciation was, in fact, a real trait of genius, and actually 
 constitutes his glory ; for, by neglecting form to some extent, he was enabled 
 to carry religious idealism and power of expression to its very highest 
 limits. We must, therefore, consider Giovanni and Margaritone, pupils of 
 Nicolas; Andrea "Ugolino, pupil of Giovanni; Agnolo and Agostino of 
 Siena; and the celebrated Giotto, who was at once architect, sculptor, and 
 painter, as real regenerators of the art. Indeed, we might call these great 
 artists the creators of Christian sculpture in Italy — that art in which simul- 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 359 
 
 taneously shone forth seriousness of composition, grace and ease of attitude, 
 simplicity of imitation, elevation of sentiment ; in short, all the great har- 
 monies of a style which seemed to breathe forth a hymn of love and faith. 
 
 Thanks to the studios of Agnolo and Agostino, Siena, a small town 
 which calls to mind the ancient Sicyone, so weak in a political point of view 
 and yet so learned and polished, was for some time the rival of Pisa, up to 
 the period when Florence absorbed the artistic splendour of the two cities. 
 Florence, as the home of the Arts, became the centre of radiation, whence 
 artists took their flight over the whole of Italy, and from Italy spread among 
 all the nations of Europe. 
 
 Towards the end of the thirteenth century, the churches of Florence, on 
 which the fraternities combined their efforts, and some of the civil buildings 
 of this rich and flourishing city, were filled with statues. The foundation of 
 the municipal palace in 1282, and that of the cathedral in 1298, made these 
 two wonderful edifices real museums of sculpture, in which, among the 
 works of Eastern artists, those of Giovanni of Arezzo and Giotto are 
 distinguished. Agostino and Agnolo of Pisa executed at that time some 
 magnificent examples at Santa Maria in Orvieto, San Francisco in Bologna, 
 and in the subterranean Church of Assisi, &c. Lastly, Andrea of Pisa, a 
 contemporary of Giotto, as he died- only in 1345, extracted from antiquity 
 all that Christian sculpture could borrow from it; that is, he combined 
 sublimity both of form and expression. At Pisa, the chancel of Santa Maria 
 a Ponte; at Florence, the campanile and the high-altar of Santa Maria 
 de' Fiori, and a door of San Giovanni ; in the Cathedral of Pistoia, the tomb 
 of Cino, are all of them so many masterpieces ; above which, however, the 
 old Pisan master proudly classed the works of his son Nino. This young 
 artist, who carved the monument of the Scaligers at Yerona, became, in 
 fact, the worthy follower of the school which recognised Andrea as its chief. 
 Jacopo della Quercia and Niccolo Aretino enriched also with magnificent 
 works the towns of Siena, Lucca, Bologna, Arezzo, and Milan, as well as 
 Florence. But when, in 1424, the tomb closed over Jacopo della Quercia, 
 the lofty destinies of the art seemed to come to a termination, and soon 
 rapidly declined. In Venice, at the death of Filippo Calendario, which 
 occurred in 1355, Italian sculpture had already lost much of its nobility 
 and vigour of style. 
 
 Italian sculpture (Fig. 283), as remarked by Emeric David, raised itself 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 to the height of the sublime by merely striving after a simple and exact 
 imitation of nature. It was by the same course of action that French 
 sculpture always emulated its Transalpine rival ; but, in order to attain the 
 same end, the imitation followed a different path. In Italy, Art raised itself 
 to the ideal by an attentive study of Greek forms ; while on this side of 
 the Alps, when sentiment required it, form was, if not sacrificed, at least 
 neglected. French art showed more respect for the orthodoxy of Christian 
 
 Fig. 283.— Bas-relief on one of the Bronze Gates of St. Peter's at Rome, representing the Coronation of the 
 Emperor Sigismund by Pope Eugene IV., in 1433. (Sculpture of the Fifteenth Century.) 
 
 thought ; she did not introduce into the sanctuary of the Holy of Holies 
 any of those profane and material ideas that might have been inspired 
 by the marbles of Greece. In spite of the pointed architecture which 
 everywhere prevailed, French sculpture, replete with a certain eloquent 
 unction, preserved for a considerable period the Byzantine style in the 
 appearance of the head and in the delicacy of draperies ; without, how- 
 ever, altogether renouncing its individuality of character, and without 
 ceasing to seek for models peculiar to its own soil. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 361 
 
 Unfortunately for the personal glory of the French sculptors, the histo- 
 rians of the time have scarcely taken the trouble to record their names. In 
 order to discover but a few of them, learned men of modern days have been 
 compelled to undertake laborious researches ; while many, and those the most 
 remarkable — worthy, no doubt, to be compared with the greatest Italian 
 artists — are and must remain ever unknown (Fig. 284). The Italians were 
 more fortunate ; to them Yasari, their rival and contemporary, has raised a 
 lasting monument. In French art, the list of the sculptors of so many 
 
 Fig. 284. — Statuette of St. Avit, in the Church of Notre-Dame de Corbeil, demolished in 1820. 
 (Eleventh Century.) 
 
 masterpieces must come to a close when we have mentioned Enguerrand, 
 who, from 1201 to 1212, commenced the Cathedral and the Church du Buc, 
 at Rouen, and had for his successor Gautier de Meulan ; Robert de Coucy, 
 chief of the body of artists who, in 1211, caused the Cathedral of Rheims 
 to rise loftily from the earth ; Hugues Libergier, who rebuilt the ancient 
 basilica of St. Jovin ; Robert de Luzarches, the founder, in 1220, of the 
 Cathedral of Amiens, continued after his death by Thomas de Cormont and 
 his son Regnault ; Jean, Abbot of St. Germain-des-Pres, who in 1212 under- 
 
 3 A 
 
362 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 took the Church of St. Cosme, Paris; that of St. Julien le Pauvre being 
 restored and adorned with sculpture at the same date, from the designs of 
 the abbot and the " brethren " of Longpont (Fig. 285) ; Jean des Champs, 
 who in 1248 worked at the ancient Cathedral of Clermont ; lastly, the two 
 Jeans de Montereau, who at one time as military architects, at another as 
 sculptors of sacred subjects, were at the command of St. Louis, and produced 
 some extraordinary works both of construction and sculpture. 
 
 Alsace manifested no less enthusiasm than France for the new archi- 
 tectural system, and sculpture was also subject to a similar development. 
 From Basle to Mayence, the slopes of the Vosges and the long valley of 
 
 Fig. 283. — Bas-relief formerly over the Doorway of St. Julien le Pauvre, Paris, representing St. Julien and 
 St. Basilissa, his wife, conveying in their boat Jesus Christ under the figure of a Leper. 
 (Thirteenth Century.) 
 
 the Rhine, became full of edifices enriched with sculpture and peopled with 
 statues. Erwin of Steinbach (who died in 1318), assisted by Sabina, his 
 daughter, and William of Marbourg, were the most renowned masters in 
 these parts. 
 
 The extraordinary advance that French sculpture made in this age 
 was assisted — if not as regards the higher style of work, which could do 
 without this help, at least in respect to the minor details of the art — 
 by the institution of the fraternities of the Conception Not, re- Dame. In 
 many towns the sculptors of images and the painters, the moulders, the 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 3 6 3 
 
 bahutiers, or carvers in wood, horn, and ivory (Fig. 286), were all united 
 under the same banner. In Germany and Belgium also existed frames, 
 or guilds, which were in direct communication with those of Alsace, and 
 who accepted as guides French artists of known ability ; as, for instance, 
 Volbert and Gerard, architect- sculptors, who were simultaneously engaged 
 in the construction of the Church of the Holy Apostles, Cologne. 
 
 With respect to the works commenced or finished in the fourteenth 
 
 Fig. 286— Fragment of a small Reredos, in carved Bone (Fourteenth Century). 
 Presented by Jean, Due de Berry, Brother of Charles V., to the church of the ancient Abbey of Poissy. 
 
 (Museum of the Louvre.) 
 
 century, the only difficulty is to make a choice among these wonderful 
 monuments of Art ; which, however, must be looked upon as the last mani- 
 festations of Christian art, properly so-called. We must, however, point out 
 the polychrome sculptures of Chartres, of St. Eemy, Eheims ; St. Martin, 
 Laon ; St. Yved, Braisne ; St. Jean des Vignes, Soissons ; of the Chartreux> 
 Dijon. In this ducal city we find, in 1357, Guy le Macon, a celebrated 
 
3 6 4- 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 sculptor ; at Bourges, about the same date, Aguillon, of Droues ; at Mont- 
 pellier, between 1331 and 1360, the two Alamans, John and Henry ; at 
 Troyes, Denisot and Drouin of Mantes, &c. Beyond France, Matthias of 
 Arras, in 1343, laid the foundations of the Cathedral of Prague, which was 
 to be continued and finished by another French artist, Pierre of Boulogne. 
 
 Fig. 287. — "Le Bon Dieu," in the old Chapel of the Cbarnier des Innocents, Paris. 
 (Fifteenth Century.) 
 
 Arrested as our attention must be by the statues and bas-reliefs which were 
 multiplied under the porches, in the niches (Fig. 287), and on all the tombs, 
 we can cast but a very cursory glance on the immense number of wood- 
 carvings, figures in ivory, and movable pieces of sculpture, executed by 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 3 6 5 
 
 artists who may be divided into two very distinct classes, the Norman and 
 the Rhenish ; all of other schools appear to have been nothing but imitators 
 of these. 
 
 In 1400 the Maltre Pierre Perat, architect of three cathedrals, who was 
 at once both civil engineer and sculptor, and one of the greatest masters of 
 whom France can boast, died at Metz, where he was interred with all the 
 honours due to his wonderful talents. Just at the same time a memorable 
 competition was opened at Florence. The object in view was to finish the 
 doors of the Baptistery of St. John. The formal announcement of the com- 
 petition, which was made all over Italy, did not fail to call forth the most 
 skilful artists. Seven of these were selected, on account of their renown, to 
 furnish designs : they consisted of three Florentines — Filippo Brunelleschi, 
 Donatello, and the goldsmith, Lorenzo Ghiberti ; Jacopo della Quercia of 
 Siena ; Nicolo Lamberti d'Arezzo ; Francesco da Valdambrina ; and Simone 
 da Colle, called de' Bronzi. To each of these competitors the republic 
 granted one year's salary, on condition that, at the end of the period, each 
 of them should furnish a panel of wrought bronze of the same size as those 
 of which the doors of St. John were to be composed. On the day fixed for 
 the examination of the works, the most celebrated artists of Italy were 
 summoned. Thirty-four judges were selected, and before this tribunal the 
 seven models were exhibited, in the presence of the magistracy and the 
 public. After the judges had audibly discussed the respective merits of the 
 works, those of Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, and Donatello were preferred. But 
 to whom of the three was the palm to be awarded ? They hesitated. Then 
 Brunelleschi and Donatello retired apart and exchanged a few words ; after 
 which one of them, commencing to address the assembly, said : — " Magis- 
 trates and citizens, we declare to you that in our own judgment Ghiberti 
 has surpassed us. Award him the preference, for our country will thus 
 acquire the greater glory. It is less discredit to us to make known our 
 opinion than to keep silence." 
 
 These doors, at which Ghiberti worked for forty years, with the assistance 
 of his father, his sons, and his pupils, are perhaps the finest work we have 
 in sculptured metal. 
 
 At the date when Lorenzo Ghiberti, Donatello, Brunelleschi, and their 
 pupils were the representatives of Florentine sculpture, the French school 
 also produced its masters and its works of Art. Nicholas Flamel, the famous 
 
3 66 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 writer (ecrivain) of the parish of St. Jacques la Boucherie, ornamented the 
 churches and mortuary chapels of Paris with mystical and alchemical 
 (alchimiques) sculptures, of which he was the designer if not the actual 
 artist. Thury executed the tombs of Charles VI. and Isabelle of Bavaria ; 
 Claux Sluter, author of the " Ruits de Mo'ise," at Dijon, assisted by James 
 
 Fig. 288.—" St. Eloi, Patron of Goldsmiths and Farriers." A Sculpture of the Fifteenth Century, 
 in the Church of Notre-Dame d'Arman^on, at Semur, Burgundy. 
 
 de la Barre, multiplied the works of monumental sculpture in Burgundy 
 (Fig. 288). In Alsace, under the impulse of King Rene, himself an 
 artist, the sculptor's art produced examples bearing the impress of a remark- 
 able individuality. In the district of Messin, Henry de Ranconval, his 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 367 
 
 son Jehan, and Clausse, were distinguished. In Touraine, Michael Columb 
 executed the tomb of Francis II., Duke of Brittany ; Jehan Juste, that 
 of the children of Charles VIII. , as introductory to the mausoleum of 
 Louis XII., which he executed between 1518 and 1530, for the basilica 
 of St. Denis ; a German, Conrad of Cologne, assisted by Laurent "Wrine, 
 master of the ordnance to the king, cast in metal the effigy for the tomb 
 of Louis XL In Champagne appeared Jean de Vitry, sculptor of the stalls 
 of the Church of St. Claude (Jura) ; in Berry, Jacquet Gendre, master- 
 mason and figure-maker for the Hotel de Ville, Bourges, &c. 
 
 At the end of the same century, Peter Brucy, of Brussels, exercised his 
 art at Toulouse ; the inspiration of the Alsacian artists was developed in 
 the magnificent sculpture of Thann, Kaisersberg, and Dusenbach ; while 
 Germany, achieving but a late independence, sheltered the faults of her 
 early genius under the illustrious names of Lucas Moser, Peter Vischer, 
 Schiihlein, Michel Wohlgemuth, Albert Diirer (Fig. 289), &c. 
 
 In sculptural works, as in every other branch of art, historical sentiment 
 and faith seemed to die out with the fifteenth century. Mediaeval art was 
 subjected to protest ; the desire seemed to be to re-create beauty of form 
 by going back to the antique ; but the emphatically Christian individuality 
 was no longer reached, and this pretended renaissance, in which even earnest 
 minds were induced to gratify themselves, only served to exhibit the feeble 
 efforts of an epoch that sought to reproduce the glories of a vanished age. 
 In the time of Charles VIII. and Louis XII., Lombar do- Venetian art, 
 the affected and ingenious imitation of the Greek style, was introduced into 
 France ; it suited the common people, and pleased mediocre intellect. The 
 sculptors who came at that period to seek their fortunes at the court of the 
 French kings worked exclusively for the aristocracy, and vied with one 
 another in adorning, with an ardent infatuation for Italian art, the royal 
 and aristocratic palaces which were being built or restored in every direc- 
 tion, such as the Chateaux of Amboise and Gaillon. But they failed to do 
 any injury to French artists, who still remained charged with the works 
 of sacred sculptures ; and their style became but slightly, if at all, influenced 
 by this foreign immigration. Even Benvenuto Cellini himself failed to 
 exercise much effect on the vigorous schools of Tours, Troyes, Metz, Dijon, 
 and Angers ; his reputation and his works never passed, so to speak, 
 beyond the limits of the court of France, and the brilliant traces they 
 
3 68 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 left behind them were confined to the school of Fontainebleau. Ere long, 
 some zealous artists from all the principal centres of the French schools 
 left their country and betook themselves to Italy ; among these were 
 
 Fig. 289.—" St. John the Baptist preaching in the Desert." Bas-relief in Carved Wood by Albert Diirer. 
 
 (Brunswick Gallery.) 
 
 Bachelier of Languedoc, Simon and Ligier Hichier of Lorraine, Valentine 
 Bousch of Alsace, and Jacques of Angouleme, who had the honour of a 
 victory over his master, Michael Angelo, in a competition of statuary (many 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 3 6 9 
 
 of the former artist's works now exist in the Vatican) ; Jean de Boulogne, 
 and several others. Some of them, after they had become celebrated on the 
 other side of the Alps, returned to their native country, bringing back to 
 it their own native genius matured by the lessons of the Italians. There was, 
 therefore, always a French school that preserved its individual character- 
 istics, its generic good qualities and defects, which are so well represented 
 in the sculptures of the Hotel du Bourgtheroulde, Rouen (Fig. 290). 
 
 Michael Angelo was born on the 6th of March, 1475, and died on the 
 17th of February, 1564, without having shown any signs of decadence ; 
 greater, possibly, by his genius than by his works, he is the personifica- 
 
 Fig. 2QO.-Bas-relief of the Hotel du Bourgtheroulde, Rouen, representing a Scene in the Interview between 
 Francis I. and Henry VIII., on the Field of the Cloth of Gold. 
 
 tion of the Renaissance. It would be, perhaps, irreverent to say that 
 this age was an age of decay; we might fear of desecrating the tomb 
 of Buonarotti if we laid to his charge that his grand boldness led 
 ordinary talents astray; and it is not a pleasant subject of thought that, 
 influenced by two currents of ideas— one coming from Italy, the other 
 from Germany— the art of the century operated to its own suicide. When 
 the very soil itself seemed to be shaken, and the Christian pedestal which 
 had formed both its grandeur and power overturned, what could be done 
 
 3 B 
 
37° 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 in the way of opposition to the downfall of Art by Jean Goujon, Jean 
 Cousin (Fig. 291), Germain Pilon, Francois Marchand, Pierre Bontemps, 
 those stars of French sculpture in the sixteenth century ? 
 
 A final manifestation of the old religious feeling was, however, appa- 
 rent in the tombs of the Church of Brou, designed by Jean Perreal, the 
 great painter of Lyons, executed by Conrad Meyt, and carved by Gourat and 
 Michael Columb ; also in the mausoleum of Francis II., carved by Columb 
 and his family; in the sepulchre of St. Mihiel (Fig. 292) by Richier ; 
 of the Saints de Soksme, in the tombs of Langey du Bellay, and of 
 the Chancellor De Birague, by Germain Pilon, &c. But fashion and 
 
 Fig. 291.— Statue in Alabaster of Philip Chabot, Admiral of France, by Jean Cousin. Formerly in the 
 Church of the Celestins, Paris, now in the Museum of the Louvre. 
 
 the prevailing taste now required from artists nothing but profane and 
 voluptuous compositions, and they adopted this line of Art all the more 
 readily, seeing, as they did every day, most beautiful works of Christian 
 sculpture mutilated by a new tribe of Iconoclasts, the Huguenots, who 
 seldom showed mercy to the figured monuments in Catholic churches. 
 The stalls of the Cathedral of Amiens, by Jean Rupin, the rood-loft by 
 Jean Boudin, and a number of other works of the same kind, testify to the 
 irruption of the Greek style, its implantation in religious art, and its hybrid 
 association with pointed architecture. It is, however, only due to our 
 sculptors of the sixteenth century to say, that when they sacrificed them- 
 
Cellini, Primaticcio, or any of the other Italian artists who were settled in 
 France; that they combined in the best possible way the mythological 
 
37 2 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 expression of the ancients with our modern ideas, and that, thanks to 
 them, France is enabled to point with pride to a natural art, original and 
 independent, which has been handed down to our days in direct succession 
 by Sarrazain, Puget, Girardon, and Coysevox. 
 
 Figs. 293, 294.— Gargoyles on' the Palace of Justice, Rouen. (Fifteenth Century.) 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 The Basilica the first Christian Church. — Modification of Ancient Architecture. — Byzantine Style. 
 — Formation of the Norman Style. — Principal Norman Churches. — Age of the Transition 
 from Norman to Gothic. — Origin and Importance of the Ogive. — Principal Edifices in the pure 
 Gothic Style. — The Gothic Church, an Emhlem of the Religious Spirit in the Middle Ages. — 
 Florid Gothic. — Flamboyant Gothic. — Decadency. — Civil and Military Architecture : Castles, 
 Fortified Enclosures, Private Houses, Town Halls. — Italian Eenaissance : Pisa, Florence, 
 Rome. — French Renaissance : Mansions and Palaces. 
 
 ^^S^"HEN the Christian family, humble and per- 
 Jf^t secuted, was beginning to form itself , into congre- 
 gations ; when it was forbidden to consecrate any 
 special edifice to the performance of the services of its 
 religion — a religion which opposed to the gorgeous 
 ceremonies of polytheism the most austere simplicity 
 — any refuge might have seemed good enough which 
 offered to the faithful the means of assembling themselves to- 
 gether in security; any retreat must have appeared sufficiently 
 ornamented which would recall to the disciples of the crucified 
 Saviour the mournful events preceding the glorification of that Divine 
 sacrifice. But when the religion proscribed one day found itself on the 
 next the religion of the State, things changed. 
 
 Constantine, in the mighty ardour of his zeal, wished to see the worship 
 of the true God efface in pomp and in magnificence all the solemnities of 
 the heathen world. In expelling the idols from their temples, the idea 
 could not have suggested itself of using these buildings for the new religion, 
 because they were generally of excessively limited dimensions, and the 
 plan on which they were built would have but indifferently answered the 
 requirements of the Christian ceremonial. What was necessary for these 
 services was principally a spacious nave, in which a large congregation 
 could assemble to hear the same word, to join in the same prayer, and 
 to intone the same chants. The Christians sought, therefore, among the 
 
374 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 edifices then in existence (Fig. 295), for such as would best answer 
 these purposes. The basilicas presented themselves ; these buildings served 
 at once as law-courts and places of assembly for tradesmen and money- 
 changers, and were generally composed of one immense hall, with lateral 
 galleries and tribunes adjoining it. The name of basilica, derived from the 
 Greek word basileus (a king), was given them, according to some writers, 
 from the fact that formerly the kings themselves used to administer justice 
 within their walls ; according to others, because the basilica of Athens 
 served as a tribunal of the second archon, who bore the title of king; 
 
 Fig. 295. — Basilica of Constantine, at Treves, transformed into a Fortress in the Middle Ages. 
 
 whence the edifice was called stoa basilike (royal porch), a designation of 
 which the Romans preserved only the adjective, the substantive being 
 understood. 
 
 " The Christian basilica," says M. Vaudoyer, in his learned treatise on 
 architecture in France, "was most certainly an imitation of the heathen 
 basilica ; but it is of importance to observe that from one cause or 
 another the Christians, in the construction of their basilicas, very soon 
 substituted for the Grecian architecture of the ancient basilicas a system of 
 arches reposing directly on isolated columns, which served as their supports ; 
 a perfectly new contrivance, of which there existed no previous example. 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 375 
 
 This new mode of construction, which has generally been attributed to the 
 want of skill in the builders of this period, or to the nature of the materials 
 they had at their disposal, was, however, to become the fundamental prin- 
 ciple of Christian art ; a principle characterised by the breaking up of 
 the range of arches, and by the abandonment of the system of rectilinear 
 construction of the Greeks and Romans. 
 
 "Indeed, the arcade, which had become the dominant element of Roman 
 architecture, had nevertheless remained subject to the proportions of the 
 Greek orders, of which the entablature served as an indispensable accom- 
 paniment ; and from this medley of elements so diverse was produced the 
 mixed style which characterises the Greco-Roman architecture. But the 
 Christians, in separating or breaking up the arcade, in abandoning the 
 use of the ancient orders, and in making the column the real support of 
 the arch, laid the foundations of a new style, which led to the exclusive 
 employment of arches and vaults in Christian edifices. The Church of 
 St. Sophia at Constantinople, built by Justinian in the middle of the sixth 
 century, affords the most ancient example of this system of construction 
 by arches and vaults in a Christian church of large dimensions." 
 
 Transported to the East, the Latin style there assumed a new character, 
 owing especially to the adoption and generalisation of the cupola, of which 
 there were some examples in Roman architecture, but only as an accessory ; 
 whereas, in what is called Byzantine architecture, this form became dominant, 
 and, as it were, fundamental ; thus, at all periods and at each time that the 
 architectural influence of the East made itself felt in the West, we see the 
 cupola introduced into buildings. The Church of St. Vital at Ravenna 
 affords, in its plan (Fig. 296) and in its general appearance, an example of 
 this influence, which is quite Byzantine. 
 
 Edifices of Latin architecture, properly so called, are rare, we might 
 almost say that they have all disappeared (Figs. 297 and 298) ; but if some 
 churches in Rome, whose foundation dates back to the fifth and sixth 
 centuries, can be considered as specimens of this first period of Christian 
 art, it is in the arrangement of the plan much more than in the details of 
 execution, which for a long subsequent time since have been united with 
 the work of later periods. 
 
 In the days when Christianity was so triumphantly established as to have 
 no fear nor scruple to utilise, in the construction of its churches, the ruins 
 
37 6 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 of the ancient temples, it generally happened that the architect, conforming 
 himself to new requirements, endeavoured, by a prudent return towards the 
 traditions of the past, to avoid those striking incongruities which would have 
 deprived of all their value the magnificent materials he had at his disposal. 
 Hence arose a style still undecided ; hence mixed creations, which it will 
 suffice merely to mention. Then we must not forget — to say nothing of the 
 
 Fig. 296. — Church of St. Vital, at Ravenna. Byzantine style. (Sixth Century.) 
 
 ease in which, as in the old Roman city, Christian basilicas might be built 
 with the marble of heathen sanctuaries — the monuments of this same Rome 
 were still the only models that presented themselves for imitation. Finally, 
 for this architecture which the Christian religion was to create as its own, it 
 was obvious there would be an infancy, an age of groping in the dark and 
 of uncertainty; and at length that there should be a separation from the 
 past, and a gradually experienced feeling of individual strength. (Fig. 299.) 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 377 
 
 This infancy lasted about five or six centuries ; for it was only about 
 the year 1000 that the new style — which we see at first made up of "recol- 
 lections" and weak innovations — assumed an almost determinate form. 
 This is the period called Norman,* which, according to M. Vaudoyer, has 
 left us some monuments that are "the noblest, the simplest, and the 
 severest expression of the Christian temple." 
 
 Fig. 297.— The Church of St. Agnes, at Rome, Latin Fig. 298.— The Church of St. Martin, at Tours 
 
 style (Fifth Century). Restored and debased in (Sixth Century). Rebuilt or restored in the 
 
 the Seventeenth Century. Eleventh Century. 
 
 " Three years after the year 1000, which was supposed was to be the 
 last year of the world," says the monk Raoul Glaber, "churches were 
 renewed in nearly every part of the universe, especially in Italy and in Gaul, 
 although the greater number were still in a condition good enough to require 
 
 * M. Lacroix uses the word Eomane throughout, with reference to this style of architecture : 
 we have adopted Norman as that most commonly associated with it, and because it is a generic 
 term comprehending Eomanesque, Lombardic, and even Byzantine. — [Ed.] 
 
 3 c 
 
378 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 no repairs." " It was to this period, that is to say, the eleventh century," 
 adds M. Yaudoyer, "must be assigned the greater number of the ancient 
 churches of France, grander and more magnificent than all those of preceding 
 centuries ; it was then, also, the first associations of builders were formed, 
 whereof the abbots and the prelates themselves formed a portion, and which 
 were essentially composed of men bound by a religious vow ; the Arts were 
 cultivated in the convents, the churches were built under the direction of 
 bishops ; the monks co-operated in works of all kinds. . . . The plan of the 
 
 Fig. 299.— Remains of the Church of Mouen, in Normandy. Architecture of the Fifth or Sixth Century. 
 
 Western churches preserved the primitive arrangement of the Latin basilica 
 — that is, the elongated form and the lateral galleries ; the most important 
 modifications were the lengthening of the choir and of the galleries, or of 
 the cross, a free passage established round the apse (Fig. 300) ; and, lastly, 
 the combination of chapels, which grouped themselves around the sanctuary. 
 In the construction the isolated columns of the nave are sometimes replaced 
 by pillars, the spaces between which are filled up with semicircular arches, 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 379 
 
 and a general system of vaulted roofs is substituted for the ceilings and 
 timber roofs of the ancient Latin basilicas The use of bells, which 
 
 Fig- 300. — Notre-Dame, Rouen, ogival style. (Thirteenth Century.) 
 
 was but sparingly adopted in the East, contributed to give to the churches 
 
3 8o 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 of the West a character and an appearance quite their own, and which they 
 owe particularly to those lofty towers that had become the essential part of 
 their facade." 
 
 The facade itself is generally of great simplicity. We enter the edifice 
 by one of three doors, above which runs, in most cases, a little gallery 
 formed of very small columns close to each other, supporting a range of 
 arcades ; and these arcades are often ornamented with statues, as we find 
 in the church of Notre-Dame at Poitiers, which — together with the churches 
 of Notre-Dame des Doms, at Avignon ; of St. Paul, at Issoire ; of St. Sernin, 
 at Toulouse ; of Notre-Dame du Port, at Clermont, &c. — may be considered 
 as one of the most complete specimens of Norman architecture. 
 
 In churches of this style, as for instance those of St. Front, at Perigueux ; 
 of Notre-Dame, at Puy en Velay ; of St. Etienne, at Nevers, are seen also 
 some cupolas ; but we must not forget that the Byzantine architects, whose 
 migrations towards the West were constantly taking place at this period, 
 could not fail to leave traces of their wanderings, and we must acknowledge 
 that, especially in our own country (France), where Oriental influence was 
 never more than partial, the union of the two architectonic principles 
 produced the happiest results. The Cathedral of Angouleme, for example, is 
 justly regarded as one of the edifices in which Oriental taste harmonises the 
 best with the Norman style. 
 
 At the beginning of this period, the bell-towers were of very little 
 importance ; but gradually we find them rising higher and higher, and 
 attaining to great elevations. Some cathedrals on the borders of the Rhine, 
 and the Church of St. Etienne at Caen, are examples of the extraordinary 
 height to which these towers were built. In principle, we may add, there 
 was only one bell-tower (Fig. 301) ; but it generally happened that two 
 were given to churches built or restored after the year 1000 : St. Germain - 
 des-Pr^s had three bell- towers — one over the portal, and one at each side 
 of the transept ; certain churches had four and even five bell-towers. 
 
 Norman bell-towers are generally square, exhibiting, in stories, two 
 or three ranges of round-arched arcades, and terminating in a pyramidal 
 roof resting on an octagonal base. The Abbey of St. Germain d'Auxerre 
 possesses one of the most remarkable bell-towers of the Norman style ; 
 then come, although built subsequently to the principal edifice, those of 
 the Abbaye aux Hommes, at Caen. 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 The sun's rays penetrated into the Norman church first through the 
 ocuhis* a vast round opening intended to admit light into the nave, and 
 
 Fig. 301. — Ancient Church of St. Paul-des-Champs, at Paris, founded, in the Seventh Century, by St. Eloi. 
 Restored and in part rebuilt in the Thirteenth Century. 
 
 situated above the facade, which generally rose in the form of a gable 
 
 * Oculus (eye). — This word is not known in the vocabulary of English architects ; but it is 
 evidently intended to signify a circular window. — [Ed.] 
 
3 8z 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 above one or several rows of small columns on the exterior. A series of 
 lateral windows opened on the side-aisles of the edifice; another was 
 pierced on a level with the galleries; and a third between the vaulted 
 arches of the nave. 
 
 The crypt, a sort of subterranean sanctuary, which generally contained 
 the tomb of some beatified saint, or of some martyr to whom the edifice was 
 dedicated, formed very often an integral part of the Norman church. The 
 architecture of the crypt, which had for its ideal object to recall to the mind 
 the period when the offices of the Christian religion were performed in 
 caverns and in catacombs, was generally of a massive and imposing severity, 
 well suited to express the sentiment which must have presided over the 
 earliest Christian buildings. 
 
 The Norman style, that is to say, the primitive idea of Christian 
 architecture, freed from its remaining servility to the antique, seems to 
 have caught a glimpse of the definitive formula of Christian art. Many a 
 majestic monument already attested the austere power of this style; and 
 perhaps a final and masterly inspiration would have sufficed, perfection 
 being attained, to cause the researches of the maitres d'ceuvre* made 
 as they felt their way forward, to cease of themselves Already, too, as 
 a sign of maturity, Norman edifices, instead of remaining in the somewhat 
 too unadorned simplicity of the first period, became gradually ornamented, 
 till in time they resembled, from their base to the summit, a delicate work 
 of embroidery. It is to this florid Norman style, which in France reigns 
 especially to the south of the Loire, that the charming facade of the Church 
 of Notre-Dame de Poitiers (Fig. 302) belongs, which we have already cited 
 as a perfect type of the Norman style itself ; the facade of St. Trophimus, at 
 Aries (Figs. 303 and 304), an example in the general arrangement of which 
 the same character of original unity does not prevail ; and that of the Church 
 of St. Gilles, which M. Merimee cites as the most elegant expression of the 
 florid Norman. 
 
 In short, let us repeat it, the Norman style, grandiose in its austerity, 
 still quiet and compact even in its richest phantasy, was on the eve of 
 individualising for ever, perhaps, Christian architecture ; its rounded arches, 
 uniting their full soft curves to the simple profiles of columns, robust even 
 in their lightness, seemed to characterise at one and the same time the 
 
 * Officers who had jurisdiction over, ,and were inspectors of, works of masonry and carpentry. 
 
Fig. 302. — Notre-Dame la Grande of Poitiers (Twelfth Century). 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 elevated calm of hope and the humble gravity of faith. But lo ! the ogive 
 sprang up ; not, indeed, as certain authors have thought they were right in 
 affirming, from an outburst of spontaneous invention, for we find the prin- 
 ciple and the application of it not only in many edifices of the Norman 
 period, but even in the architectural contrivances of the most remote times. 
 And it happened that this simple breaking up of the round arch, this 
 " sharpness " of the arch, if we may use the expression, which the Norman 
 builders had skilfully utilised, giving more of slenderness or graceful 
 strength to vaults of great extent, became the fundamental element of a 
 style which, in less than a century, was to shut the future to a tradition 
 
 Fig. 303— Tympanum of the Portal of St. Trophimus, at Aries (Twelfth Century). 
 
 dating from six or eight centuries, and which could with justice pride itself 
 on the most beautiful architectural conceptions. (Fig. 305.) 
 
 From the twelfth to the thirteenth century the transition took place. 
 The Norman style, which is distinguished by its round arch, maintained the 
 struggle with the Gothic style, of which the ogive is the original mark. In 
 the churches of this period we find also, with regard to the ground-plan 
 of edifices, the choir assuming larger dimensions, necessitated no doubt 
 by increased ceremonials in the services. The Latin cross, which was the 
 ground-plan whereon up to this time the greater number of sanctuaries 
 were built, ceased to indicate as precisely as heretofore its outlines; the 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 385 
 
 nave was raised considerably in height, the lateral chapels were multiplied, 
 and often broke the perspective of the side-aisles ; bell-towers assumed 
 greater importance, and the placing of immense organs above the principal 
 
 Fig. 304.— Details of the Portal of St. Trophimus, at Aries. (Twelfth Century.) 
 
 entrance gave rise to a new system of elevated galleries in this part of the 
 building. 
 
 The churches of St. Eemy, Rheims ; of the Abbey of St. Denis; of 
 
 3 D 
 
386 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 St. Nicholas, Blois; the Abbey of Jumieges; and the Cathedral of Chalons- 
 sur-Marne, are the principal examples of the architecture of the mixed style. 
 
 It should be remarked that for a long while, in the north of France, 
 the pointed arch had prevailed almost entirely over the round arch, at the 
 time when, in the south, Norman tradition, blended with the Byzantine, 
 
 Fig- 3°5— Cloister of the Abbey of Moissac, Guyenne. (Twelfth Century.) 
 
 still continued to inspire the builders. Nevertheless, the demarcation 
 cannot be rigorously established, for, at the time when edifices of the purest 
 Norman style showed themselves in our (French) northern counties (as, 
 for example, the Church of St. Germain-des-Pres, and the apse of 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 387 
 
 St. Martin-des-Champs, Paris), we find, at Toulouse, at Carcassonne, at 
 Montpellier, the most remarkable specimens of the Gothic style. At last 
 Gothic architecture gained the day. " Its principle," says M. Vitet, " is 
 in emancipation, in liberty, in the spirit of association and commerce, in 
 sentiments quite indigenous and quite national : it is homely, and more than 
 that, it is French, English, Teutonic, &c. Norman architecture, on the 
 contrary, is sacerdotal." 
 
 And M. Yaudoyer adds : " The rounded arch is the determinate and 
 invariable form ; the pointed arch is the free and indefinite form which lends 
 itself to unlimited modifications. If, then, the Pointed style has no longer 
 the austerity of the Norman, it is because it belongs to that second phase 
 of all civilisation, in which elegance and richness replace the strength and 
 the severity of primordial types." 
 
 It was, moreover, at this period that architecture, like all the other arts, 
 left the monasteries to pass into the hands of lay architects organised into 
 confraternities, who travelled from place to place, and thus transmitted the 
 traditional types ; the result of this was that, buildings raised at very great 
 distances from each other presented a striking analogy, and often even a 
 complete similitude to each other. 
 
 There has been much discussion not only on the origin of the pointed 
 arch, but also as to the beauty and excellence of its form. According to some 
 it was suggested by the sight of many arches interlaced, and only constituted 
 one of those fantastical forms which an art in quest of novelty adopts ; others, 
 among whom is M. Yaudoyer, attribute to it the most remote origin, by 
 making it result quite naturally in the first attempts at building in stone, — 
 " from a succession of courses of stone so arranged that each overhung the 
 other ; " or else in wooden constructions, "from the greater facility there was 
 in forming with beams a pointed rather than a perfectly rounded arch ; " 
 others consider the adoption of the Pointed style, as we said above, as 
 nothing but a proof of the religious independence succeeding the rigid faith 
 of earlier days. A third opinion, again, is that of M. Michiels, who looks 
 on the Pointed style as in some sort an inevitable result of the boldness of 
 the Norman, and who considers the Gothic, of which it is the charac- 
 teristic, as " expressing the spirit of a period when religious feeling had 
 attained its most perfect maturity, and Catholic civilisation produced its 
 sweetest and most agreeable fruits." 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 389 
 
 Whatever may be the merits of these different opinions, into the dis- 
 cussion of which we need not enter, it is now generally assumed that the 
 Pointed style, properly so called, sprang up first within the limits of the 
 ancient Ile-de-France, whence it propagated itself by degrees towards the 
 southern and eastern provinces. 
 
 M. Michiels, agreeing on this point with the celebrated architect Lassus, 
 points out that it would be as difficult to attribute the creation of this style 
 to Germany as to Spain. It was in the thirteenth century that the finest 
 Gothic buildings appeared in France ; while in Germany, except the churches 
 built, as it were, on the French frontier, we find nothing at that period but 
 Norman churches (Fig. 306) ; and it is reasonable to suppose that, if we 
 owed the general adoption of the pointed arch to Spain, the introduction of 
 it would have been gradually made through that part of the country situated 
 beyond the Loire, where, however, the Norman style continued to be in great 
 favour when it was almost entirely abandoned in the north of France. 
 
 A century sufficed to bring the Pointed style to its highest perfection. 
 Notre-Dame (Fig. 307) and the Sainte-Chapelle, in Paris ; Notre-Dame, 
 Chartres; the cathedrals of Amiens (Fig. 308), Sens, Bourges, Coutances, 
 in France; those of Strasbourg, Fribourg, Altenberg, and Cologne, in 
 Germany, the dates of whose construction succeed each other at intervals 
 from the first half of the twelfth to the middle of the thirteenth century, 
 are so many admirable specimens or types of this art, which we may here 
 
 call relatively new. 
 
 To know to what marvellous variety of combinations and effects, by 
 merely modifying it in height and breadth from its original type, this 
 pointed arch, which, taken by itself, might appear the simplest of forms, 
 can attain, one must have passed some time in dividing into the different 
 parts of which it is composed, by an accurate examination of its tout 
 ensemble, such an edifice as Notre-Dame, Paris, or as the Cathedral of 
 Strasbourg ; the first of which attracts attention by the sustained boldness 
 of its lines, strong as they are graceful ; the second, by its perfectly bold 
 independence, seeming, as it does, to taper away as by enchantment, in 
 order to bear to a surprising height the evidence of its incomprehensible 
 temerity. 
 
 We must rise in thought above the edifice to grasp the plan of its 
 first conception; we must, from below, study it on all sides to perceive 
 
390 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Fig- 3°7— Notre- Dame, Paris (Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries). 
 View of the principal Facade before the restoration executed by Messrs. Lassus and Viollet-le-Duc. 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 -39* 
 
 Fig. 308. — Interior of Amiens Cathedral. (Thirteenth Century.)'' 
 
392 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 with what art its various parts are arranged, grouped, placed at certain 
 intervals from each other; we must seek to discover the contrivance by- 
 virtue of which the immense evidage (sloping) of numerous buttresses, the 
 height of the towers, the retiring of the laterals, and the curve of the apse 
 are harmonised ; we must enter the church and stand in its nave, with its 
 interminable delicate ribs — how many clusters of small columns extend 
 above the slender pillars ! — we must contemplate the beautiful fancies of the 
 rose-windows, which by their many-coloured glass sober down the glare 
 of the light passing through them; we must gain the summit of those 
 towers, those spires, and from them command the dizzy extent of aerial 
 
 Fig. 309. — Capital of a Column in the Abbey of 
 St. Genevieve (destroyed), Paris. 
 (Eleventh Century.) 
 
 Fig-. 310.— Capital of a Column in the Church of 
 St. Julien the Poor (destroyed), Paris. 
 (Twelfth Century.) 
 
 space, and the landscape stretching out around them below ; we must follow 
 attentively with our eye the strikingly bold outlines which the turrets, 
 the ornamented gables, the guivres, the tops of the bell-towers trace upon 
 the sky. This done, we should yet have paid but a brief tribute of 
 attention to these prodigious edifices. "What, then, if we wished to devote 
 sufficient time to the ornamentation of the details (Figs. 309 to 312) ? if 
 we desired to obtain a tolerably exact idea of the people from the statues 
 which swarm from the porch to the pinnacle, and of the flora and fauna, 
 real or ideal, that give movement to every projection or animate every 
 wall ? if one counted on success in finding out the key to all the crossings 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 393 
 
 and intersections of the lines, of the well-adjusted conceptions which, while 
 they deceive the eye, contribute to the majesty or the solidity of the 
 whole ? if, finally, we were most careful not to lose any one of the multi- 
 farious thoughts that have been fixed in the stones of the gigantic edifice ? 
 The mind becomes confused ; and certainly the effect produced by so much 
 imagination and so much enterprise, by so much skill and taste, wonderfully 
 elevates the soul, which searches with more love after the Creator when it 
 sees such a work proceeding from the hands of the creature. 
 
 Fig. 311.— Vestige of the Architecture of the Goths Fig. 312.— Capital in the Church of the Celestins 
 
 at Toledo. (Seventh Century.) (destroyed), Paris. (Fourteenth Century.) 
 
 When you approach the Gothic church, when you stand beneath its 
 lofty roof, it is as if a new country were receiving you, possesssing you, 
 casting around you an atmosphere of subduing reverie in which you feel 
 your wretched servitude to worldly interests vanishing away, and you 
 become conscious of more solid, more important ties, springing up in 
 you. The Deity whom our finite nature can figure to ourselves seems in 
 fact to inhabit this immense building, to be willing to put himself in 
 direct communion with the humble Christian who approaches to bow down 
 before Him. There is nothing in it of the human dwelling-place — all 
 
 3 E 
 
394 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 relating to our poor and miserable existence is here forgotten ; He for 
 whom this residence was constructed is the Strong, the Great, the Magnifi- 
 cent, and it is from a paternal condescension that He receives us into His 
 holy habitation, as weak, little, miserable. It is the ideal of the faith 
 which is realised ; all the articles of the belief in which we have been 
 brought up are here embodied before our eyes ; it is, lastly, the chosen 
 spot where the meeting of mortal nothingness and Divine Majesty is 
 quietly accomplished. 
 
 The Christianity of the Middle Ages had then been able to find in the 
 Gothic style a tongue as tractable as it was energetic, as simple as it was 
 ingenious, which, for the pious excitement of souls, was to declare to the 
 senses all its ineffable poetry. But as the unbounded faith, of which it was 
 the faithful organ, was on the next dawn of its most ardent aspirations 
 about to decline, so this splendid style was almost as soon to lose its vigour, 
 and to exhaust itself in the unrestrained manifestation of its power. 
 
 Springing into existence with the warm enthusiasm of the first 
 Crusades, the Pointed style seems to follow in its different phases the 
 decline of faith in the time of these adventurous enterprises. It began by 
 a sincere outburst, and was produced by a bold, unshackled genius ; then 
 a factitious or reflected ardour gave birth to elaborateness and mannerism ; 
 then the fervent zeal and the artistic sentiment dwindled away : this is the 
 decadency. 
 
 Gothic art raised itself in less than a century to its culminating point ; 
 within two centuries more it was to reach the fatal point where it would 
 begin to decline. The thirteenth century saw it in all its glory, with the 
 edifices we have mentioned ; in the fourteenth it had become the Florid or 
 Rayonnant Gothic, which produced the churches of St. Ouen at Rouen, and 
 of St. Etienne at Metz. "Then," says M. A. Lefevre, one of the latest 
 historians of architecture, "no more walls; everywhere open screen- work 
 supported by slender arcades ; no more capitals, rows of foliage imitated 
 directly from nature; no more columns, lofty pillars ornamented with 
 round or bevelled mouldings. As yet, however, there was nothing weakly 
 in its extreme elegance ; slim and delicate without being gaunt, the Florid 
 style did not in the least disfigure the churches of the thirteenth century, 
 which it bounded and decorated. 
 
 " But after the Rayonnant Gothic came the Flamboyant, which, always 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 395 
 
 tinder the pretext of lightness and grace, denaturalises the ornaments, the 
 forms, and even the proportions of the architectural members. It effaces 
 the horizontal lines which used to give two stories to the windows of the 
 nave, fills up the nave with irregular compartments, cceurs, soufflets, and 
 flammes ; suppresses the angles of the pillars and sharpens the mouldings ; 
 leaves even to the most massive supports nothing but an undulating, 
 vanishing, impalpable form, where shadow cannot fix itself ; changes the 
 lancet-arches into braces, or into flat-arched vaults more or less depressed, 
 and the florid ornamentation of the pinnacles into whimsical scrolls. It 
 reserved all its riches for accessory or exterior decorations, stalls, pulpits, 
 hanging key-stones, running friezes, rood-screens, and bell-towers. Visible 
 decadency of the whole corresponds with great progress in details." 
 (Fig. 313.) 
 
 The churches of St. Wulfran, Abbeville; of Notre-Dame, Clery-sur- 
 Loire ; of St. Biquier ; of Corbeil ; and the cathedrals of Orleans and of 
 Nantes, may be cited as the principal specimens of the Flamboyant style, and 
 as the last notable manifestations of an art which thenceforward diverged 
 more and more from its original inspiration. The middle of the fifteenth 
 century is generally fixed as the limit beyond which the handsome Gothic 
 buildings that still rose were no longer, in any degree, the normal produc- 
 tions of their period, but were felicitous copies or imitations of works already 
 consecrated by the history of the art. 
 
 A remark may here be made showing to what extent religious feeling 
 predominated in the Middle Ages ; it is that at the very moment when 
 the Norman and Gothic architects were designing and producing so 
 many marvellous habitations for the Deity, they seemed to bestow scarcely 
 any attention on the construction of comfortable or luxurious dwellings for 
 man, even those destined for the most exalted personages of the State. 
 In proportion as this sentiment of original faith lost its intensity, Art 
 occupied itself more and more with princely and lordly habitations. 
 The middle class was the last favoured by this progress, and the feeling 
 of their position as citizens had taken the place of a zeal exclusively pious ; 
 so we find the " town-halls " absorbing the splendour and elegance of which 
 private houses remained destitute ; these being generally built of wood and 
 plaster, and in the heart of the towns, so close together that they seemed to 
 be disputing for light and air. 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 397 
 
 Everywhere, during the Middle Ages, rose the church — the home of 
 peace ; but everywhere also towered up at the same time the castle, that 
 characterised the permanent state of war in which feudal society lived, 
 delighted, and gloried. 
 
 " The castles of the richest and most powerful nobles," says M. Yaudoyer, 
 " consisted of irregular, uncomfortable buildings, pierced with a few narrow 
 windows, standing within one or two fortified enclosures, and surrounded 
 by moats. The donjon, a large high tower, generally occupied the centre, 
 
 {Fig. 314.— Ancient Castle of Marcoussis, near Rambouillet. (Thirteenth Century.) 
 
 and other towers, more or less numerous, flanked the walls, and served 
 for the defence of the place." (Fig. 314). "These castles," adds M. Merimee, 
 " generally present the same characteristics as the ancient castellum ; but 
 a certain ruggedness, a striking quaintness in plan and execution, bear 
 witness to a personal will, and that tendency to isolation which is the 
 instinctive sentiment of the feudal system." 
 
 In most of the buildings destined for the privileged classes, it seems as 
 if it were deemed unnecessary that care should be taken to secure harmony 
 
398 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 of form. The decorative style of the period showed itself chiefly in the 
 interior of some of the principal apartments, the habitable quarters of 
 the lord of the castle and of his family. There were vast fireplaces with 
 enormous chimney-corners surmounted by projecting mantelpieces ; the 
 vaulted roof was ornamented with pendents of various devices, and with 
 painted or carved escutcheons. Narrow closets, contrived in the walls, 
 served as sleeping places. The embrasures of the windows pierced in the 
 excessively thick walls formed so many little chambers, raised a few steps 
 above the floor of the room to which they admitted light. Stone seats ran 
 along each side of these embrasures. Here the inmates of the tower 
 
 Fig. 315.- Staircase of a Tower. Fig. 316.— Pointed Window with Stone Seats. 
 
 (Thirteenth Century.) 
 
 generally sat when the cold did not oblige them to draw near to the 
 fireplaces. (Figs. 315 and 316.) 
 
 With the exception of these slight sacrifices made to the comforts of 
 life, everything in the castle was arranged, contrived, and disposed with a 
 view to strength and resistance ; and yet it cannot be denied that, unin- 
 tentionally, the builders of these silent (taciturnes) edifices have many a 
 time — aided often, it is true, by the picturesque sites which encircle their 
 works — attained to a majesty of height and a grandeur of form truly 
 extraordinary. 
 
 If the Norman church expresses with gentle severity, and the Gothic 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 399 
 
 church with sumptuous fancy, the important and sublime doctrines of the 
 Gospel, we must equally allow that the castle, in some sort, loudly proclaims 
 the stern and uncivilised notions of the feudal authority of which it was at 
 once the instrument and the symbol. 
 
 Placed, in most cases, on natural or artificial eminences, it is not without 
 
 Fig. 317. — The Castle of Coucy in its ancient state. 
 (From a Miniature taken from a Manuscript of the Thirteenth Century.) 
 
 a sort of eloquent boldness that the towers and the donjons shoot into the 
 air, succeed each other at intervals, command and support each other. It 
 is frequently not without a sort of fantastic grace that the walls scale the 
 rising ground, making an infinity of the strangest bends, or coiling them- 
 selves about with the supple ease of a serpent. 
 
 pjg_ 318.— The Castle of Vincennes, as it was in the Seventeenth Century. 
 
 Evidently, if the castle raises its gloomy head high into the air, it has no 
 other object in doing so than to secure to itself the advantages of distance 
 and height ; but not the less on that account does it stand out on the sky 
 a grand object. The masses of its walls unsymmetrically pierced with 
 sombre loop-holes present an abrupt and naked appearance ; but the mono- 
 
400 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 tony of their lines is picturesquely broken by the projection of overhanging 
 turrets, by the corbels of the machicolated arches, and by the embrasures of 
 the battlements. 
 
 A vast amount of civilisation still exists for him who recalls the past in 
 the multitude of ruins which were the witnesses of bloody feudal divisions ; 
 and we must add to the system of isolated castles that often commanded 
 
 Fig. 319.— Tour de Nesle, which occupied the site of the Exchange on the banks of the Seine, Paris. 
 (From an Engraving of the Seventeenth Century.) 
 
 the most deserted valleys, the apparatus of strength and defence of cities 
 and towns — gates, ramparts, towers, citadels, &c, immense works which, 
 although inspired solely by the genius of strife and dissension, did not fail 
 nevertheless, in many instances, to combine harmony and variety of detail 
 with the general grandeur of the whole. 
 
 We may cite, as examples of architecture purely feudal, the castles of 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 401 
 
 Coucy (Fig. 317), Vincennes (Fig. 318), Pierrefonds, the old Louvre, 
 the Bastille, the Tour de Nesle (Fig. 319), the Palais de Justice, Plessis- 
 les-Tours, &c. ; and as specimens of the fortified town in the Middle Ages, 
 Avignon and the city of Carcassonne. Let us add that Aigues-Mortes, in 
 Provence; Narbonne, Thann (Haut-Rhin), Vendome, Yilleneuve-le-Roi, 
 Moulins, Moret (Fig. 320), Provins (Fig. 321), afford yet again the most 
 characteristic remains of analogous fortifications. 
 
 While the nobles, jealous and suspicious, sheltered themselves in the 
 
 Fig. 320. — Gate of Moret. (Twelfth Century.) 
 
 shadow of their donjons built with many strategical contrivances and of 
 substantial materials; while the large and small towns were surrounded 
 with deep moats, high walls, impregnable towers, the most primitive sim- 
 plicity presided over the construction of private dwellings. Stone hardly 
 ever, and brick but seldom, figured among the number of the materials 
 employed. Sawed or squared timbers serving as ribs, mud or clay filling 
 up the interstices, were all that was at first required for the erection 
 of houses as small as they were comfortless, and following each other in 
 
 3 F 
 
402 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 irregular lines along the narrow streets. The beams of the corbels, it is true, 
 began to be adorned with carvings and paintings, the facades with panes 
 (glass) of different colours ; but we must reach the last half of the fifteenth 
 century before we see the resources of architecture applied to the erection 
 and ornamentation of private houses. Moreover, faith was already growing 
 weak; and no longer was it possible to direct all the resources of an 
 entire province to the honour of the Deity by the erection of a church ; 
 the use of gunpowder, by revolutionising the art of war, came to 
 lessen, if it did not annihilate, the vast strength of walls ; the decline of 
 
 Fig. 321.— Gate of St. John, with Drawbridge, Provins. (Fourteenth Century.) 
 
 feudalism itself had commenced ; and, lastly, the enfranchisement of cor- 
 porations gave rise to a perfectly new order of individuals who took their 
 place in history. We must refer to this period the house of Jacques Cceur, 
 Bourges; the Hotel de Sens, Paris (Fig. 322); the Palais de Justice, 
 Eouen ; and those town-halls in which the belfry was then considered as a 
 sort of palladium, in whose shade the sacred rights of the community 
 sheltered themselves. It is in our (French) northern towns— St. Quentin, 
 Arras, Noyon ; and in the ancient cities of Belgium— Brussels (Fig. 323), 
 Louvain, Ypres, that these edifices assume the most sumptuous character. 
 In Germany, where for a time it reigned almost exclusively, Gothic art 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 403 
 
 established the cathedrals of Erfurt, of Cologne, Fribourg, and of Vienna ; 
 then it died away in the growth of the Flamboyant style. In England, 
 after having left some magnificent examples of pure inspiration, it found 
 its decline in the attenuated meagreness and the complicated ornamentation 
 of the style called Perpendicular ogivaL If it penetrated also into Spain, it 
 was to contend with difficulty against the mighty Moorish school, which had 
 too many imposing chefs-d' 'ceuvre in the past to surrender without resistance 
 the country of its former triumphs (Fig. 324). In Italy it clashed not 
 only with the Latin and Byzantine schools, but also with a style that, just 
 beginning to form itself, was soon to dispute with it the empire of taste, 
 
 Fig. 322. — Doorways of the Hotel de Sens, at Paris ; the last remaining portion of the Hotel Royal de 
 Saint-Pol, built in the reign of Charles V. (Fourteenth Century.) 
 
 and to dethrone it in that very land which had been its cradle. The 
 cathedrals of Assisi, of Siena, of Milan, are the splendid works in which 
 its influence triumphed over local traditions and over the Renaissance that 
 was preparing to follow ; yet we must not think that it succeeded even 
 there in rendering itself absolutely the master, as it had done on the 
 Rhenish or British territories. Sacrifices were made in its favour; but 
 these sacrifices did not amount to an entire immolation. 
 
 When we use the word Renaissance, we seem to be speaking of a return 
 to an age already gone by, of the resurrection of a period that had passed 
 
4<H 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 away. It is not strictly in this sense that the word must be understood 
 in the present instance. 
 
 Inheriting from of old the artistic temperament of Greece, rather than 
 
 Fig. 323.— Belfry of Brussels (Fifteenth Century), from an engraving of the Seventeenth Century. 
 
 spontaneously creating of herself any style, Italy, among all the nations of 
 Europe, was the country which had most successfully resisted the profound 
 
406 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 darkness of barbarism, and the first on which the light of modern civilisation 
 shone. 
 
 At the period of this new dawn of genius, Italy had only to ransack the 
 ruins its first magnificence had bequeathed it to find among them examples 
 it might follow ; moreover, it was the time when the active rivalry of its 
 republics caused all the treasures of ancient Greece to flow into it. But 
 while it derived inspiration from these abundant manifestations of another 
 age, it never entertained the idea of abandoning itself exclusively to a 
 
 servile imitation ; it had — and in this consists its chief title to glory 
 
 while giving a peculiar direction to the revivals of the antique, the good 
 sense to remain under the poetic influence of that simple and congenial art 
 which had consoled the world during the whole continuance of that pro- 
 tracted infancy of a civilisation which was at last advancing with rapid 
 strides towards perfect manhood. 
 
 From the twelfth century, Pisa gave an impetus to the art by building 
 its Duomo, its Baptistery, its Leaning Tower, and the cloisters of its famous 
 Campo Santo; so many admirable works forming an era in the history 
 of modern art, and in a brilliant manner opening the career on which so 
 many distinguished men were to enter, rivalling each other in invention, 
 in science, and in genius. In these monuments the union of Oriental 
 taste with the traditions of ages gone by created an originality as grand as 
 it was graceful. " It is," as M. A. Lefevre points out, " the Antique without 
 its nudity, the Byzantine without its heaviness, the fervour of the Western 
 Gothic without its ghastliness " (pffroi). 
 
 In 1294 the magistrates of Florence passed the following decree, charg- 
 ing the architect, Arnolfo di Cambio, to convert into a cathedral the church, 
 till then of little importance, of Santa Maria de' Fiori : — " Forasmuch," they 
 said, " as it is in the highest degree prudent for a people of illustrious origin 
 to proceed in their affairs in such manner that their public works may 
 cause their grandeur and wisdom to be acknowledged, the order is given to 
 Arnolfo, master-architect of our town, to make plans for repairing the 
 Church of Santa Maria with the greatest and most lavish magnificence, so 
 that the skill and prudence of men may never invent, nor ever be able to 
 undertake, anything more important or more beautiful." 
 
 Arnolfo applied himself to his task, and conceived a plan which the 
 shortness of human life did not allow him to carry out ; but Giotto succeeded 
 
408 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 him, and to Giotto succeeded Orcagna, and to Orcagna, Brunelleschi, who 
 designed and almost completed that Duomo, of which Michael Angelo said 
 it would he difficult to equal, and impossible to surpass, it. 
 
 Arnolfo, Giotto, Orcagna, Brunelleschi — does it not suffice to cite these 
 great names for us to form an idea of the movement going on at this 
 period ? and which was soon to produce Alberti, Bramante, Michael Angelo, 
 Jacques della Porta, Baldassare Peruzzi, Antonio and Juliano de Sangallo, 
 Giocondo, Yignola, Serlio, and even Raphael, who, when he liked, was as 
 mighty an architect as he was a marvellous painter. It was in Borne that 
 these princes of the art congregated together, as the splendours of St. Peter's 
 (Fig. 325), to mention only one of their grand creations, still attest ; so, it is 
 from this city that henceforward light and example are to come. 
 
 In the style which this masterly phalanx created, the Latin rounded 
 arch regained all its ancient favour, and united itself to the ancient orders, 
 which became intermingled, or, at any rate, superposed. The ogive was 
 abandoned, but the columns to decorate their capitals, and the entablatures 
 to give more grace to their projections, borrowed a certain fantastical style 
 which yielded in nothing to the ogival ; the Grecian pediment reappeared, 
 changing sometimes the upper lines of its triangle into a depressed semi- 
 circle ; lastly the cupola, that striking object which was the characteristic 
 feature of the Byzantine style, became the dome, whose ample curve defied, 
 in the daring heights whereto it rose, the wonders of the Perpendicular 
 Gothic. 
 
 The Italian Renaissance was now accomplished, the Gothic age at an end. 
 Home and Florence sent in every direction their architects, who, as they 
 travelled far from these metropolises of the new style, were once more 
 subjected to certain territorial influences, but who knew how to make the 
 tradition of which they were the apostles triumphant. It was then that 
 France inaugurated in its turn a Renaissance peculiar to herself ; it was then 
 that, under the reign of Charles VIII., after his expedition into Italy, began, 
 with the Chateau de Gaillon, a long succession of edifices, which in many 
 cases yielded neither in richness nor in majesty to the works of the pre- 
 ceding period. Under Louis XII. rose the Chateau de Blois, and the 
 Hotel de la Cour des Comptes, Paris, a splendid building destroyed by fire 
 in the eighteenth century. Under Francis L, Chambord (Fig. 326), Fon- 
 tainebleau, Madrid (near Paris), magnificent royal " humours," contended in 
 
4io 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 tuous, lordly mansions ; the old Louvre, the palace of kings, the cradle of 
 monarchy, was regenerated under the care of Peter Lescot ; the Hotel de 
 Ville, Paris, still bears witness to the varied talent of Dominique Cortona, 
 who, as M. Vaudoyer said of him, "justly understood that, in building for 
 France, he should act in a perfectly different manner to that in which he 
 would have acted in Italy." Under Henry II. and Charles IX. this activity 
 continued, and the architects who sought their inspirations in Grecian and 
 Roman antiquity, as much as in the souvenirs of the Italian Renaissance, 
 delighted in loading all the elegant and graceful buildings with ornaments, 
 with bas-reliefs, and with statues, which they seemed to carve in the 
 stone, as delicately wrought as a piece of goldsmith's work. Philibert 
 
 Fig. 327. — Porte de Hal, Brussels. (Fourteenth Century.) 
 
 Delorme built for Diana of Poitiers the Chateau d'Anet, that architectural 
 jewel whose portico, transported piece by piece at the time of the revo- 
 lutionary disorders, now decorates the court of the Ecole des Beaux- Arts ; 
 Jean Bullant built Ecouen for the Constable Anne de Montmorency; and 
 the architect d'Anet undertook, by order of Catherine de Medicis, the 
 construction of the Palace of the Tuileries, which, by a sort of exigency 
 resulting from its particular destination, seemed typically to characterise 
 the style of the French Renaissance. 
 
 We must not burden with details this summary of one of the most 
 important branches of art. The history of architecture is among those vast 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 411 
 
 domains which demand either a short epitome or a thoroughly deep investi- 
 gation. The epitome being alone consistent with the plan of our work, we 
 must confine ourselves to its limits ; but we may, perhaps, be allowed to 
 think that the few rapid pages thus devoted to the subject have inspired the 
 reader with the desire of penetrating farther into a study which is capable 
 of offering him so many agreeable surprises, so many rational delights. 
 
PARCHMENT AND PAPER. 
 
 Parchment in Ancient Times. — Papyrus. — Preparation of Parchment and Vellum in the Middle 
 Ages. — Sale of Parchment at the Fair of Lendit. — Privilege of the University of Paris on 
 the Sale and Purchase of Parchment. — Different Applications of Parchment. — Cotton Paper 
 imported from China. — Order of the Emperor Frederick II. concerning Paper. — The 
 Employment of Linen Paper dating from the Twelfth Century. — Ancient Water-Marks on 
 Paper. — Paper Manufactories in France and other parts of Europe. 
 
 LTHOUGH most authors who speak of parch- 
 ment attribute the invention of it, on the testi- 
 mony of Pliny, to Eumenius, king of Pergamus 
 (doubtlessly from the etymology of the word by 
 which it was designated, viz., Pergamena), it seems 
 to be proved, according to Peignot, that the use 
 of it is much more ancient, and that its origin 
 is utterly lost. Certainly, in many passages of 
 the Old Testament we find a Hebrew "Word, in 
 Latin volumen, which can only be understood to mean a roll 
 formed of prepared skin or of the leaves of papyrus, and it is 
 consequently evident that the Jews, from the time of Moses, 
 wrote the tables of the Law on rolls of parchment. 
 Herodotus says that the Ionians called books diphthera (hi(f)6epa, a pre- 
 pared hide), because, at a time when the biblos (j3/|3Ao9, the inner bark of the 
 papyrus) was scarce, they wrote on skins of goats or of sheep. Diodorus 
 Siculus affirms that the ancient Persians wrote their annals on skins, and 
 we must suppose that Pliny's assertion refers only to some improvements 
 the King of Pergamus had made in the art of preparing a material that 
 could supply the place of papyrus, which Ptolemy Epiphanius would no 
 longer allow to leave Egypt. The absolute deficiency of papyrus raised 
 into activity the fabrication of parchment, and soon so large a quantity was 
 seen to flow into Pergamus that this town was considered as the cradle of 
 the new trade, already so flourishing. There were then books of two kinds, 
 
414 
 
 PARCHMENT AND PAPER. 
 
 the one in rolls composed of many leaves sewed together, on one side of 
 which only was there writing ; the others, square-shaped, were written upon 
 both sides. The grammarian Crates, ambassador of Eumenius at Rome, 
 passed as the inventor of vellum. 
 
 Ordinary parchment is the skin of a goat, sheep, or lamb, prepared in 
 lime, dressed, scraped, and rendered smooth by pumice-stone. Its principal 
 qualities are whiteness, thinness, and stiffness ; but the work of the currier 
 must have been formerly very imperfect, for Hildebert, Archbishop of 
 Tours in the eleventh century, tells us that the writer, before beginning 
 his occupation, " was in the habit of clearing away from the parchment, 
 with the aid of a razor, the remains of fat and other gross impurities, and 
 then with pumice-stone to make the hair and tendons disappear:" this 
 almost amounts to affirming that the scribes bought the hide undressed, and, 
 by an elaborate preparation, made them fit for proper use. Virgin parch- 
 ment, which in its grain and colour resembles vellum, was made of the 
 skins of those lambs and goats which had been clipped. Vellum, more 
 polished, whiter, more transparent, is made, as its name indicates, of the 
 hide of the calf.* 
 
 It is probable that with the Romans, papyrus, considering the facility 
 they had of procuring it for themselves, was more frequently used than 
 parchment, which, at first, was rare and costly. But parchment, more 
 durable and of greater resistance than papyrus, was reserved for the tran- 
 scription of the most important works. Cicero, who had many books on 
 parchment in his magnificent library, said that he had seen the " Iliad " 
 copied on a scroll of pergamena which went into a nut-shell. Many of 
 Martial's epigrams prove to us that in the time of this poet books 
 of such kind were still more numerous. Unfortunately, there remains to 
 us no writing on parchment dating from this distant period. The Virgil in 
 the Vatican, and the Terence at Florence, are of the fourth and fifth century 
 of our era. Admitting that time destroys all, and also that the work of the 
 rude tribes on many occasions assisted this natural cause of destruction, we 
 must not forget that at certain periods, to supply the place of new parch- 
 ment when it was scarce, a plan had been devised of making the 
 parchment rolls which had already been used for manuscripts serve again 
 
 * The word is derived from vellus, which merely signifies the skin of any beast, not of a calf 
 only. — [Ed.] 
 
416 
 
 PARCHMENT AND PAPER. 
 
 for a similar purpose, either by scraping and rubbing them with pumice- 
 stone, or by boiling them in water or soaking in lime. There is no doubt 
 but the scarceness and the dearness of parchment was the cause of the loss 
 of very many excellent works. Muratori cites, for example, a manuscript of 
 the Ambrosian Library, of which the writing, dating from eight or nine 
 centuries back, had been substituted for another of more than a thousand 
 years old; and Maffei informs us that the employment of ancient parch- 
 ment scraped and washed became so general, in the fourteenth and fifteenth 
 
 Fig. 329.— View of the Ancient Abbey of St. Denis and its Dependencies. 
 
 centuries, throughout Germany, that the Emperors put a stop to this 
 dangerous abuse by issuing an order to the notaries to use nothing but 
 parchment " quite new." 
 
 Generally, the quality of parchment serves to determine the date of 
 its manufacture. The vellum of manuscripts till the middle of the 
 eleventh century is very white and thin ; the parchment of the twelfth 
 century is thick, rough, and brownish, which often shows it has been 
 scraped or washed. The greater number of fine manuscripts are on 
 
PARCHMENT AND PAPER. 
 
 4i7 
 
 virgin parchment, which from its nature was suited to the delicacies of 
 calligraphy and illumination. Moreover, we see from a statute of the 
 University of Paris, dated 1291, that the parchment trade had attained 
 at that period to considerable development ; so, as a protection against the 
 frauds and deceptions which might result from the great competition of 
 traders in it, and to insure a good article being furnished to students 
 and artists, a special privilege was granted to the university, which, in 
 
 the person of its rector, had not only the right of inspection, but also 
 the refusal of all parchment bought in Paris, no matter whence it had 
 come. Besides which, at the fair of Lendit, which was held every 
 year at Saint-Denis, on the domains of the abbey (Fig. 329), and at the 
 fair of Saint-Lazare, the rector likewise caused the parchment brought 
 to them to be examined, and the merchants of Paris could not purchase 
 any till the king's agents, those of the Bishop of Paris, and the masters 
 and scholars of the university, had provided themselves with what they 
 required (Fig. 330). Let us add that the rector was paid a duty on all 
 
 3 H 
 
4i 8 
 
 PARCHMENT AND PAPER. 
 
 parchment sold, and the result of this tax was the only source of income 
 attached to the rectorship in the seventeenth century. 
 
 Although white parchment seems to be the best suited for writing, the 
 Middle Ages, following the example of antiquity, gave to the material 
 various tints, especially purple and yellow. The purple was chiefly intended 
 to receive characters of gold or silver. The Emperor Maximinius, the 
 younger, inherited from his mother the works of Homer inscribed in gold 
 on purple vellum ; and parchment tinted in this way was, during the first 
 centuries, one of the prerogatives reserved for princes and the great 
 dignitaries of the Church. It is remarkable that the barbarism of the 
 seventh and eighth centuries did not diminish the favour in which these 
 luxurious manuscripts were held. Little by little, however, the custom 
 (of writing the entire work in gold or colours) dwindled away. Scribes 
 began by colouring a few pages only in each volume, then some margins 
 or frontispieces ; and lastly this decoration was restricted to the heads of 
 chapters, or to words to which great prominence was to be given, or to 
 capital letters. The rubricatores (literally, writers in red), workmen who 
 performed this operation, came in time to be mere painters of letters or 
 rubrics (so called because they were originally painted red), of whose 
 assistance, however, the first printers availed themselves to rubric or colour 
 the initials of missals, Bibles, and law books. 
 
 The dimensions or sizes of our books at the present day have their origin 
 in the sizes of the parchment in olden times. The entire skin of the animal, 
 cut square and folded in two, represented the "in-folio," which, moreover, 
 varied in length and breadth ; and we have every reason to suppose that 
 paper, from the day it was invented, followed the ordinary sizes of the 
 folded parchment. 
 
 As to the dimensions of the parchment employed for diplomas, they 
 varied according to the time, the brevity of the matter, or the nature of its 
 employment. Among the ancients, who wrote only on one side of the 
 parchment, the skins were cut in bands joined together so as to form volumes 
 or rolls, which were unrolled as their contents were read. This custom was 
 preserved for public and judicial acts for a long time after the invention of 
 the square book [codex) had caused the opisthographic writing to be adopted, 
 by which is to be understood writing on both sides of the page. In 
 principle, only the final formulae, or the signatures, were written on the back 
 
PARCHMENT AND PAPER. 
 
 419 
 
 of the document. By degrees people adopted the practice of writing on 
 the back as well as the front of the page ; but it was not till the sixteenth 
 century that this custom became general. 
 
 Judicial acts, composed sometimes of many skins sewed together, came 
 in time to form rolls of twenty feet in length ; to such extreme pro- 
 portions did they reach, though at first they were so small in size that 
 their limited dimensions are truly incredible ; for in 1233 and 1252 we find 
 contracts of sales of two inches long by five inches wide, and in 1258 a 
 
 Fig- 331— Seal of the King of La Basoche. (This title was suppressed, with all its prerogatives, by Henry III.) 
 
 will written on a piece of parchment of two inches by three and a half. 
 It was by way of compensating for the great cost of parchment that opistho- 
 graphic writing was adopted and rolls were put aside ; and the name alone 
 remains as applied to the rolls of procedure. The size that leaves should 
 assume was also fixed, according to the different uses for which they were 
 intended. For instance, the leaves of parliamentary documents were nine 
 inches and a half long by seven and a half wide ; those of the council, 
 ten by eight ; those of finance and of private contracts, twelve and a half 
 
420 
 
 PARCHMENT AND PAPER. 
 
 by nine and a half ; letters of pardon, under the king's hand, were to be 
 on entire skins squared, two feet two inches by one foot eight inches in 
 diameter. 
 
 But while the use of parchment was still strictly employed in the 
 chancellor's offices and the tribunals, where the basoche (a brotherhood of 
 lawyers of all grades) considered it as one of their most lucrative privileges 
 (Fig. 331), it had for a long while ceased to be used anywhere else. Paper, 
 after having during many centuries competed with parchment, at last 
 almost entirely replaced it (Fig. 332) ; for if less durable, it had the great 
 
 Fig. 332. — The Papei -Maker, drawn and engraved in the Sixteenth Century by J. Amman. 
 
 advantage of costing much less. Formerly nothing but the ancient papyrus 
 of Egypt was known, and it was made use of concurrently with parchment 
 till there was brought into Europe, towards the tenth century, cotton paper, 
 which is generally believed to be a Chinese invention, and which was at first 
 called Grecian parchment, because the Venetians, who introduced it into the 
 West, had found it in use in Greece. 
 
 Actually, this paper was at first of a very inferior quality, coarse, 
 spongy, dull, and subject to the attacks of damp and worms ; so much so 
 that the Emperor Frederick II. issued, in 1221, an order declaring null and 
 
PARCHMENT AND PAPER. 
 
 42 1 
 
 void all documents written on it, and fixing the term at two years by which 
 all were to he transcribed on parchment. 
 
 The use and the knowledge of the process of manufacturing paper 
 from cotton soon led to the fabrication of paper from linen or rags. It 
 is, however, impossible to say when and where it was accomplished — the 
 
 Fig- 333— Water -Marks on Paper, from the Fourteenth to the Fifteenth Century. 
 
 assertions and the testimonies on this point are so contradictory. Some 
 think that the paper was brought from the East by the Spanish Saracens ; 
 others say it came from China; these affirm it has been employed since 
 the tenth century; those, that we can only find specimens of it as far 
 back as the reign of St. Louis. 
 
422 
 
 PARCHMENT AND PAPER. 
 
 At any rate, the most ancient writing on paper made of rags known at 
 the present day is a letter from Joinville to Louis X., dated 1315 ; we 
 may, moreover, mention with certainty, as written on linen paper, an 
 inventory of goods belonging to a certain Prior Henry, who died in 1340, 
 which is preserved at Canterbury, and many authentic writings, dating back 
 as far as 1335, preserved in the British Museum, London. The first 
 paper-manufactory established in England was, it is said, at Hertford, 
 which dates only from 1588; but important paper-manufactories existed 
 in France from the reign of Philippe de Yalois, that is, from the middle 
 of the fourteenth century; particularly at Essonne and at Troyes. The 
 paper which came from these manufactories bore generally, in the paper 
 itself, different marks (Fig. 333) called water-marks, such as a bull's head, 
 a cross, a serpent, a star, a crown, &c, according to the quality or desti- 
 nation of the paper. Many other countries in Europe had also flourishing 
 paper-manufactories in the fourteenth century. From this period we find, 
 indeed, a large number of documents written on paper made of rags, the 
 use of which thus preceded by about a century the invention of printing. 
 
 334 — Banner of the Paper-Makers of Paris. 
 
MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 Manuscripts in Olden Times.— Their Form.— Materials of which they were composed.— Their 
 Destruction by the Goths.— Eare at the Beginning of the Middle Ages.— The Catholic 
 Church preserved and multiplied them.— Copyists.— Transcription of Diplomas.— Corpora- 
 tion of Scribes and Booksellers.— Palaeography.— Greek Writings.— Uncial and Cursive 
 Manuscripts.— Sclavonic Writings.— Latin Writers. — Tironian Shorthand.— Lombardic 
 Characters.— Diplomatic— Capetian.— Ludovicinian.— Gothic— Runic— Visigothic— Anglo- 
 Saxon. — Irish. 
 
 ET the reader refer to the chapters on 
 Parchment and Binding, and he will 
 find a few remarks on the purely material 
 part of manuscripts ; we may, then, here 
 treat this question very summarily ; and 
 for that purpose we shall avail ourselves 
 of the remarkable work of J. J. Cham- 
 pollion-Figeac. 
 
 When writing was once invented, and 
 had passed into general use in civilised 
 society, the choice of substances suited 
 for its reception, and to fix it in a durable manner, was very diversified, 
 although depending on the nature of the text to be written. 
 
 People wrote on stone, on metals, on the bark and leaves of many 
 kinds of trees, on dried or baked clay, on wood, on ivory, wax, linen, the 
 hides of quadrupeds, on parchment, the best of these preparations ; on 
 papyrus, which is the inner bark of a reed growing in the Nile ; then on 
 paper made of cotton ; and lastly, on paper made from hemp and flax, called 
 rag paper. The Eoman world had adopted the use of papyrus, which was 
 a very important branch of commerce at Alexandria. We find proof of 
 this in the writers of antiquity : St. Jerome bears witness to it as far as 
 regards the fifth century of our era. The Latin and Greek emperors 
 gave their diplomas on papyrus. Popes traced their most ancient bulls 
 
4H 
 
 MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 upon it. The charters of the kings of France of the first race were also 
 issued on papyrus. From the eighth century parchment contended with 
 papyrus; a little later cotton paper also became its competitor, and the 
 eleventh century is generally fixed on as the period when papyrus was 
 entirely superseded by the new materials appropriated to the preservation 
 of writing. 
 
 For writing on papyrus the brush or reed was employed, with inks of 
 different colours; black ink was, however, most generally used. There 
 grew on the banks of the Nile, at the time when the reed furnished 
 papyrus, another sort of reed, stiffer and also more flexible, and admirably 
 suited for the manufacture of the calamus, an instrument supplying the 
 place of the pen, which was not adopted before the eighth century. 
 
 The size of manuscripts was in no way subject to fixed rules, there 
 were volumes of all dimensions ; the most ancient on parchment are, in 
 general, longer than they are broad, or else are square ; the writing rests on 
 a line traced with the dry point of the calamus, and afterwards with black- 
 lead; the parts making up a volume are composed of an indeterminate 
 number of leaves ; a word or a figure, placed at the bottom of the last 
 page of each part and at the end of the volume, serves as a catchword from 
 one fasciculus to another. 
 
 The emperors of Constantinople used to sign in red ink the acts of 
 their sovereignty ; their first secretary was the guardian of the vase con- 
 taining the cinnabar (vermilion), which the emperor alone might use. 
 Some diplomas of the kings of France of the second race are signed 
 in the same manner. In valuable manuscripts, great use was made of 
 golden ink, especially when the parchment was dyed purple ; but red ink 
 was almost always employed for capital letters or for the titles of books, 
 and for a long time after the invention of printing the volumes still had 
 the rubrics (ruber, red) painted or beautifully executed with the pen. 
 
 The greater number of rich manuscripts, even when they contained 
 the text of some ancient secular author, were destined to be presented to 
 the treasuries of churches and abbeys, and these offerings were not made 
 without great display : the book, whatever its contents might be, was 
 placed on the altar, and a solemn mass was celebrated on the occasion • 
 moreover, an inscription at the end of the work mentioned the homage 
 which had been paid for it to God and to the saints in paradise. 
 
MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 4*5 
 
 We must not forget that in this time of almost universal ignorance, 
 the Church was the only depository of literature and science ; she sought 
 after those heathen authors who could instruct her in eloquence that might 
 be employed in advancing the faith, almost as much as she sought for sacred 
 books ; it was not rare even to see Christian zeal exalting itself so far as 
 to find prophets of the Messiah in writers very anterior to the doctrines 
 of Christ. Thus the best Greek and Latin manuscripts of profane authors 
 are the work of monks, as were the Bibles and the writings of the Fathers 
 of the Church. The rules of the most ancient brotherhoods recommended 
 the monks who could write and who wished to please God to re-copy the 
 manuscripts, and those who were illiterate to learn to bind them. "The 
 work of the copyist," said the learned Alcuin to his contemporaries, " is 
 a meritorious work, which is profitable to the soul, while the work of the 
 ploughman is profitable only to the belly." 
 
 At all periods of history we find mention made of certain celebrated 
 manuscripts. We will not go so far back as the Greek traditions relating 
 to the works of Homer, of which some copies were ornamented with a 
 richness that has, probably, never been surpassed. In the fifth century 
 St. Jerome possessed twenty-five parts of the works of Origen, which 
 Pamphilus the Martyr had copied with his own hand. St. Ambrose, 
 St. Fulgentius, Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, men as learned as they 
 were pious, applied themselves to reproducing with their own hands the 
 best ancient texts. A copyist by profession was called scriba, scriptor ; 
 the place in which they generally worked was called scriptorium. The 
 capitularies against bad copyists were frequently renewed. " We ordain 
 that no scribe write incorrectly," we find in the collection of Baluze. We 
 read in the same collection, in 789, "There shall be good Catholic texts 
 in all monasteries, so that prayers shall not be made to God in faulty 
 language." In 805, "If the Gospels, the Psalter, or the Missal are to 
 be copied, only careful middle-aged men are to be employed ; verbal errors 
 may otherwise be introduced into the faith." There were, moreover, 
 correctors who rectified the work of the copyists, and attested the work, 
 on the volumes, by the words contuli, emendavi (" I have collated, I have 
 revised "). A copy of Origen's works has been mentioned, corrected by the 
 hand of Charlemagne himself, to whom is also attributed the introduction 
 of full stops and commas. 
 
 3 i 
 
426 
 
 MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 The same care presided over the preparation of royal charters and 
 diplomas ; the referendaries or chancellors drew them up and superintended 
 their despatch ; the principal officers of the crown intervened, as guarantors 
 or witnesses to them, and these acts were read publicly before they were 
 signed and sealed. Notaries and witnesses guaranteed the authenticity of 
 private charters. 
 
 As long as printing did not exist in France, the corporation of scribes, 
 copyists of charters, and copyists of manuscripts, which counted among 
 them booksellers, was very numerous and very influential, since it was 
 composed of graduates of the university that patronised them and placed 
 them among the number of its indispensable agents. He who desired to 
 become a bookseller had to give proof of his instruction and of his ability ; 
 he was obliged to take an oath "not to commit any deception, fraud, or evil 
 thing which might damage or prejudice the university, its scholars and 
 frequenters, nor to rob nor speak ill of them." Besides which he was 
 compelled to deposit a sum of fifty francs (livres parisis) as caution-money. 
 
 The rules imposed on scribes and on booksellers were always very strict, 
 and this severity was only too justly occasioned by the abuses that existed, 
 and by the scandalous disorder of the people who exercised these professions 
 In the year 1324 the university published this order : — " There will be 
 admitted only people of good conduct and morals, sufficiently acquainted 
 with the book trade, and previously approved by the university. The book- 
 seller may not take a clerk into his service till that clerk has sworn, before 
 the university, to exercise his profession according to the ordinances. The 
 bookseller must give to the university a list of the works which he sells ; 
 he must not refuse to let a manuscript to whomsoever may wish to make a 
 copy of it, on payment of the indemnity fixed by the university. He is 
 forbidden to let out books that have not been corrected, and those students 
 who find an incorrect copy are requested to denounce it publicly to the 
 rector, so that the bookseller who has let it out may be punished, and that 
 the copy may be corrected by scholares (learned men or scholars). There 
 shall be every year four commissioners chosen to fix the price of books. 
 One bookseller shall not sell a work to another bookseller before he has 
 exposed the work for sale during four days. In any case the seller is 
 obliged to register the name of the purchaser, to describe him, and to state 
 the price for which the book was sold." 
 
MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 From century to century this legislation underwent variations, according 
 to the ideas of the times : and when the printing-press came, in the middle 
 of the fifteenth century, to change the face of the world, the corporation of 
 scribes rose at first against the new art which was to ruin them. " But at 
 last," says Champollion-Figeac, "they submitted, and temporary measures 
 were recommended to the public authorities for the defence of an ancient 
 order of things which could not long resist the new." 
 
 Now let us go back to the first centuries of the Middle Ages, to resume 
 the question from a palseographic point of view. 
 
 The languages and literature of modern Europe are all Greek or Latin' 
 Sclavonic or Gothic ; these four great families of peoples and of languages 
 have existed in spite of the vicissitudes of politics. Such is the basis 
 whereon must be found all the researches by which we are to establish the 
 origin and nature of the writing peculiar to each literature. 
 
 The Greeks of Constantinople taught writing to the Sclavonic race, and 
 with it the Christian faith. The most ancient Greek writing (we speak of 
 the Christian era only) was the capital writing, regular and well-propor- 
 tioned ; as it became general it was simplified more and more. After this 
 sort of writing, examples of which are found only on stone or bronze, we 
 come to the writing called, although we do not know why, uncial* which 
 was the first step towards the Greek cursive (flowing). 
 
 Uncial writing was employed, in Greek manuscripts, up to the ninth 
 century ; we may observe the transition from the uncial to the half-uncial, 
 and from the half -uncial to the minuscule.^ In the tenth century manuscripts 
 in minuscule became very abundant — the tachygraphers (tc^s, quick, and 
 ypd<jju), I write), or the partisans of quick writing, gained the day ; the 
 caligraphers (k<xAos, beautiful, and ypa<£w I write) desired to follow their 
 example. These employed a great deal of time in painting the initials of 
 running letters : the new method, which produced more in the same space 
 of time, easily got into favour ; the caligraphers abandoned the uncial and 
 adopted the minuscule characters connected together, which combined good 
 
 * The word is derived from the Latin uncialis, and is applied to letters of a round or hook- 
 shaped form : such were used hy the ancients as numerals, or for words in abbreviated inscrip- 
 tions. — [Ed.] 
 
 t Minuscule. — Less or little. The term is evidently here intended to distinguish small letters 
 from capitals. — [Ed.] 
 
428 
 
 MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 forms with greater facility of execution. Thenceforward, the uncial was no 
 longer employed except for the titles or headings of books. 
 
 Among the fine specimens of this epoch which have been preserved, 
 we may mention, in the Imperial Library of Paris, a Book of the Gospels, 
 called Cardinal Mazarin's, and the Commentaries of Gregory Nazianzus ; at 
 the Laurentinean Library, Florence, are a Plutarch and a Book of the 
 Gospels, written with gold in kin large and massive minuscule cursive 
 characters ; and lastly, a book of ecclesiastical offices, belonging also to the 
 Imperial Library in Paris, and which bears this superscription in Greek :— 
 ." Pray for Euthymus, a poor monk, priest of the monastery of St. Lazare. 
 This volume was finished in the month of May, Convocation S, in the year 
 6515," a date which, according to the computation of the Greek Church, 
 corresponds to the month of May of the year 1007 of the Christian era. 
 
 To the twelfth century is assigned the beautiful Greek manuscript which 
 was afterwards given to Louis XIV. by Chrysanthes Noras, Patriarch of 
 J erusalem ; to the thirteenth century belongs another manuscript, in very 
 small cursive letters, ornamented with portraits, presented by the Emperor 
 Palseologos to St. Louis. It was only in the fourteenth century that 
 manuscripts half Latin and half Greek, appeared. Lastly came Ange 
 Vegece, of Corfu, who, towards the middle of the fifteenth century, made 
 for himself, as a Greek caligrapher, such a reputation that he gave, it is 
 said, rise to the proverb, " Ecrire comme un ange." 
 
 The Greek alphabet, when it penetrated into the countries of the 
 north with the Christian religion and civilisation, underwent important 
 modifications. On the right bank of the Danube, in ancient Moesia, 
 Ulphilas, the descendant of a Cappadocian family formerly taken prisoner 
 by the Goths, invented, in the fourth century, the alphabet bearing, on 
 that account, the name of Mceso-Gothic, and which is of Greek origin, with 
 a mixture of Latin characters and other peculiar signs. This writing is 
 heavy, without being elegant ; differing, as if by an instinct of nationality, 
 from the types which it imitates. The Mceso-Gothic manuscripts are, 
 however, very rare ; only two or three being known. 
 
 The Sclavonic writing, which is also a daughter of Greece, has a history 
 nearly similar to that of the Mceso-Gothic. When the people of this 
 family were converted to Christianity, they were brought over to it by 
 Greek Christians, and the Patriarch Cyril, in the ninth century, became 
 
MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 their teacher ; he taught them how to write (which they never knew till 
 then), and it was the Greek alphahet they adopted, adding to it, however, 
 a few new signs, so that they might be able to express the sounds peculiar 
 to their language. Sclavonic manuscripts are positively numerous in public 
 libraries. We find them in Paris, Bologna, and Rome, but above all in 
 Germany, and in the country under the dominion of the Muscovite. One 
 of the most celebrated is that belonging to the town of Eheims, and which 
 is known by the name of " Texte du Sacre," because a tradition (an 
 erroneous one, however) asserts that the kings of France, at the time of 
 their coronation at Rheims, took the oaths on this book, which was said 
 to be written by the hand of St. Procopius. The Sclavonic manuscripts 
 in general recommend themselves less by the elegance of their execution 
 than by the richness of their bindings. 
 
 The actual Russian alphabet is but an abridgment of the alphabet 
 called the Cyrilian, reduced to forty-two signs by the Emperor Peter I. ; 
 so that the Sclavonic nations knew two Cyrilian alphabets, the ancient 
 Sclavonic for the liturgical writings, and the modern Sclavonic, or Russian, 
 in general use. Of the first no manuscripts exist earlier than the eleventh 
 century of our era. 
 
 The manuscripts of the Latins are, without doubt, more numerous and 
 more varied, because the Latin Church is more extensive, and because 
 Roman civilisation spread itself over a larger number of European provinces. 
 At the head of the manuscripts of the Latin writing is placed a fragment 
 of papyrus, found in Egypt, on which is inscribed an imperial edict 
 for the annulment of a sale of property, agreed upon in consequence of 
 some violence committed by a certain man named Isidore ; the date of this 
 document has been fixed as the third century. For the fourth century 
 we have the " Virgil," with miniatures, which we mention elsewhere 
 (Miniatures of Manuscripts), and a " Terence," both belonging to the 
 Vatican Library, and both written in capital letters ; in the latter, however, 
 they are irregular, and called, on that account, rustic capitals. 
 
 To the same period we must refer the " Treatise on the Republic," by 
 Cicero, which has but lately been found in a volume from which the 
 previous writing had been effaced, as was often the case (see Parchment 
 and Paper), in order to make room for the new writing. For the fifth 
 century we have a second "Virgil," with miniatures, which passed from 
 
43° 
 
 MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 the library of the Abbey of St. Denis into that of the Vatican. The 
 " Prudence," which the Imperial Library of Paris still possesses, is a very 
 fine manuscript of the sixth century, written in rustic capitals, quaint but 
 elegant. 
 
 Two other kinds of writing were, at the same period, in use among 
 the Latins ; this same rustic capital, ceasing to be rectangular, and rounded 
 in its principal strokes, became the uncial ; and for that very reason being 
 much more expeditious, was reserved especially for the copying of works ; 
 while the cursive, although sometimes employed for manuscripts, was used 
 chiefly in letter-writing. Of the first of these two writings, the uncial, 
 we have two fine specimens of the sixth century in the " Sermons " of 
 St. Augustine, on papyrus (Fig. 336), and in a Psalter of St. Germain- 
 des-Pres, written in letters of silver on purple vellum, both of which now 
 belong to the Imperial Library, Paris. 
 
 In the same century, we find a kind of writing called half-uncial, which 
 became more and more expeditious by the change made in certain of its 
 forms. There was then also a Gallican uncial, the form of which we can 
 see in the manuscript said to be by St. Prosper (Imperial Library, Paris) ; 
 and an uncial of Italy, among which figure the Bible of Mont-Amiati, at 
 Florence ; the palimpsest* Homilies of the Vatican, and the admirable Book 
 of the Gospels at Notre-Dame, Paris (Fig. 337). 
 
 The most ancient style of cursive writing, employed in charts and 
 diplomas, is to be seen in the deeds known by the name of charters of 
 Ravenna, from the name of the town in which they were first discovered. 
 We may consider as analogous to these the writing of the Acts of our early 
 kings, very difficult to read on account of the exaggerated manner in which 
 the thin strokes join the letters together, and by the indefinite forms of the 
 up and down strokes. We give a fragment (Fig. 338) taken from an 
 original chart, on parchment, of Childebert III. We see what the same 
 writing had become in 784 by Fig. 339, copied from an original capitulary 
 of Charlemagne. 
 
 To the same period belongs the employment, in ordinary use among 
 chancellors and notaries, of a writing completely tachygraphic ; it is com- 
 posed of ciphers, one of which took the place of a syllable or a word. This 
 writing was called Tironian, because the invention of it is attributed to 
 
 * Palimpsest— a, kind of parchment from which anything written could easily be erased. — [Ed.] 
 
MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 43 1 
 
 Tiro, Cicero's freed-man, who made use of it in tachy graphing, or, as we 
 should now say, stenographing (short-hand), the speeches of the illustrious 
 orator. Fig. 340 is taken from a psalter of the eighth century, of which 
 the text is transcribed with the tachy graphic characters of that period. 
 
 The name of Visigothic is given to the writing of manuscripts executed 
 in the south of France and in Spain during the rule of the Goths and the 
 Visigoths ; this writing, still rather Eoman, is generally round and embel- 
 lished with fanciful strokes, which render it agreeable to the eye. 
 
 We also find in Italy the Lombardic, in use for diplomas till the twelfth 
 century. 
 
 The beautiful manuscripts on purple vellum are of the time of Charle- 
 magne, when luxury in the arts showed itself in all forms. There is in 
 the Imperial Library, Paris, a magnificent volume, which came from the 
 ancient domain of Soubise, that contains the Epistles and Gospels for all the 
 festivals of the year : the execution of this work is perfect ; the gigantic 
 capital letters, of Anglo-Saxon form, are coloured, and rendered still richer 
 by being dotted with gold. 
 
 A valuable manuscript of the " Tractus Temporum " of the Venerable 
 Bede, a manuscript posterior by more than two hundred years to the author, 
 who lived in the beginning of the eighth century, affords a specimen of one 
 of the varieties of minuscule writings, which in France was called the 
 Lombardic writing of boohs, because it was in use during the reign of the 
 Lombard kings beyond the Alps ; it is more difficult to read than the 
 Roman, though similar in form, because the words are not separated. A 
 beautiful manuscript of "Horace" (Imperial Library, Paris), which presents 
 a mixture of the different kinds of Roman writing of the period, is 
 attributed to the same century. We have in Fig. 341 an elegant orna- 
 mental capital, taken from a manuscript, " Commentaries of St. Jerome," 
 also in the Imperial Library. We find specimens of writing of Anglo- 
 Saxon origin, capital letters, and running text, in many books of the Gospel. 
 
 The diplomatic writing of the tenth century is here represented by a 
 charter of the king, Hugh Capet, from which we borrow Fig. 342 ; it 
 must have been issued between 988 and 996. In this fragment, the first 
 line only is composed of characters very elongated, close together, mixed 
 with some capital letters and some singular forms. It bears witness to the 
 fact that the fine Merovingian writing had then singularly degenerated. 
 
 1 
 
432 
 
 MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 In the eleventh century the minuscule of manuscripts was characterised 
 by its angular forms, which caused it to receive the name of Capetian. Then 
 the Capetian, exaggerated in its tendency towards its strokes and angles, 
 became the Ludovician, which announces the thirteenth century, and charac- 
 terises the reign of St. Louis. 
 
 However, manuscripts of the thirteenth century abound, and the history 
 of the writing of the period of St. Louis and of the three centuries suc- 
 ceeding it, may be summed up in these words :— " The Capetian writing 
 called Ludovician, when it had come to differ still more from the beautiful 
 forms of the writings of Charlemagne's time or the renovated Roman, 
 
 Fig. 335.— Scribe or Copyist, in his Work-room, surrounded by Open Manuscripts, and Writing at a Desk. 
 (From a Miniature of the Fifteenth Century.) 
 
 was more and more deformed, and these successive degradations became 
 so complicated that the writing, in the seventeenth century, resulted in 
 being perfectly illegible. Thus can be generalised all the precepts relative 
 to the state of writing, in the manuscripts and the charters in France, for 
 this period of three hundred years " (Fig. 343). 
 
 It was, however, the era of the richest manuscripts, that in which 
 was brought to perfection the art of ornamenting them, when the pencil 
 of the miniature-painter and the pen of the caligrapher, conjointly, 
 produced some masterpieces (Fig. 344). This was also the time when the 
 corporation of writers became numerous and powerful (Fig. 335). One of 
 
MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 *33 
 
 the most distinguished members of this society was that Nicholas Flamel, 
 about whom so many fabulous legends have been invented. We give, as a 
 specimen of his magnificent cursive writing (Fig. 345), the fac-simile of one 
 of the ex libris inscriptions he placed at the beginning of all the books 
 belonging to Duke Jean de Berry, whose secretary and bookseller he was.* 
 
 In other countries than France, in Germany especially, Gothic writing 
 was easily diffused. German manuscripts differ little from those of France. 
 We observe only that German writing continued to be very fine till the 
 middle of the thirteenth century, at which period it became irregular, 
 angular, and bristling with sharp points. 
 
 That which has just been said of Germany in particular is naturally 
 applicable to East and West Flanders, and to the Low Countries. 
 During the fifteenth century, under the impulse given by the Dukes of 
 Burgundy, whose influence we have already mentioned, the most important 
 chronicles, the best histories then extant, were magnificently transcribed in 
 that beautiful Gothic minuscule, thick, massive and angular, which was called 
 lettre de forme ; and we find it again in some ancient editions of the end 
 of the fifteenth century (Fig. 346), and of the beginning of the sixteenth. 
 
 In more northern countries the Runic alphabet was made use of, to 
 which for a long while a marvellous origin was attributed, but which the 
 Benedictines justly regarded as an imitation, or rather as a corruption, of 
 the Latin alphabet. There exist in the Runic language inscriptions on stone 
 and on wood, some manuscripts on vellum, and Irish books on parchment 
 and on paper. 
 
 In the south, the writing seems constantly to have reflected the lively 
 and frank spirit of its inhabitants, among whom was perpetuated the 
 profound impress of the old. Eoman civilisation. The minuscule continued 
 as high as it was long, thin, and distinct ; even when it was altered by the 
 influence of the Gothic, it was still beautiful, and, above all, legible, as we 
 may be convinced of by examining a fine manuscript entitled " Specchio 
 della Croce" ("Mirror of the Cross"), of the thirteenth century; and a 
 precious manuscript of Dante, of the fourteenth century, both belonging 
 to the Imperial Library, Paris. 
 
 We may adopt for Spain the same opinions as for Italy. There was 
 
 * Librarian probably ; though libraire means only a bookseller, bibliothecaire being the French 
 for a librarian. — [Tr.] 
 
 3 K 
 
MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 in that country also writing of great merit, handed down from the 
 Romans, which received, as we have already said, the name of Visigothic. 
 The Visigothic writing of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, of the 
 eleventh especially, is a minuscule of the most graceful kind. But 
 Gothicism, by the Capetian and the Ludovician coming in as intermediate 
 agents, at last corrupted this elegant and delicate writing, as we see in the 
 collection of Spanish troubadours, formed by order of John II., King of 
 Castile and Leon, about 1440 ; a celebrated manuscript in the Imperial 
 Library, Paris. 
 
 Into England, where the Anglo-Saxon type reigned supreme, the 
 Norman conquest introduced the French writing in charters and manu- 
 scripts. And lastly, among the writings called national, we must again 
 mention that of Ireland, of which there are fine examples remaining ; but 
 upon examination they prove to be nothing but a variety of the Anglo- 
 Saxon. It is said to have been in use since the sixth century ; and 
 we find that in spite of divers conquests it continued to be employed till 
 the fifteenth century. It was even known and employed in France, although 
 it by no means recommends itself by its elegance, as is attested, among 
 other manuscripts, by that of the " Homilies of St. Augustine," in the 
 Imperial Library, Paris, which is supposed to belong to the eighth century. 
 
 Here our summary review of palseographic examples at different periods 
 of the Middle Ages comes to an end. We might follow up our investiga- 
 tions on this point, even after the time when the printing-press was invented, 
 since manuscripts are found of the reign of Louis XIY. ; but they were 
 nothing but fanciful inutilities ; each century, in order to show itself in its 
 true light, should follow the instincts and the inspirations which belong- 
 to it. 
 
FAC-SIMILE OF MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 Fig. 336.— Writing of the Sixth Century, with Capital Letters, from a Manuscript, on Papyrus, of the " Sermons of St. Augustine. 1 
 
 (Imperial Library, Paris.) 
 
 Nlo tsi It) eisn on ecrvp oTie- j<iequefe 
 muiyooesT: "^equ.eiMe^.-p.eLiciT^ 
 
 Text. — Spes nostra e[st] non de isto tempore, neque de mundo est, neque in en 
 felicita[te. . . . 
 
 Teansl a.tion . — Our hope is not of this time, nor is it of the world, nor in that 
 felicity. 
 
 337- — Title and Capital Letters of the Seventh Century, from a Book of the Gospels of Notre-Dame, Paris. (Imperial Library, Paris. ) 
 
 Text. — Jncipit pratfatio. 
 
 Translation. — Here begins the Preface. 
 
Fig. 3o8.-Writing of the end of the Seventh Century, after a Diploma of Childebert III., for the Gift of a Villa to the 
 Abbey of St. Denis. (This Fac-simile gives only the half of the length of the lines. 
 
 Text. — Childeberthus rex 
 
 Se oportune bene/icia ad loca sanctorum quod pro juvamen servorum. . . 
 Et hoc nobis ad etema retributione pertenire confidemus. Ideoque. . . . 
 
 Fig. 339.— Writing of the Eighth Century, from a Capitulary of Charlemagne, addressed to Pope Adrian I. in 784. 
 
 (Imperial Library, Paris.) 
 
 Text.— Primo Capitulo. Salutant vos donunus noster, filius vester, Carolus rex \et filia vestra 
 domna nostra Fastrada, filii et\ filia domini nostri simul, et omnis domus sua. 
 
 II. Salutant vos cuncii sacerdotes, episcojri et abbates, atque omnis congregatio illorum [in Dei 
 servicio constituta etiam, et universus] populus Francorum. 
 
 Tbanslation. I. Our lord, your son, King Charles [and your daughter our Lady Fastrada, 
 salute thee, also the sons and] daughters of our Lord, and all his house. 
 
 H. All the priests, bishops, and abbots salute thee, as also the whole congregation [of those 
 who are established in the service of God, and the whole] of the French people. 
 
Fig. 340.— Tironian Writing of the Eighth Century, from a Latin Psalter. (Imperial Library, Paris.) 
 
 quel vnAt^i^A-pri^ er <i":rav^*j??£-i* yoytAiryxx ct\~ CovncUbxrrC' 
 
 Text. — Exsurge, Domine, in ira tua et exaltare in finibus inwiicorum meorum, et 
 exsurge, Domine Dens mens, in precepto quod mandasti ; et sinagoga populorum circom* 
 dabit, te, et propter hanc in altum regredere. 
 
 Translation. — Arise, Lord, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage 
 of mine enemies : and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded. 
 
 So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about : for their sakes 
 therefore return thou on high. — (Psalm vii. 6, 7.) 
 
 Fig. 341 —Writing of the Tenth Century, after a Manuscript of the " Commentaries of St. Jerome." 
 
 (Imperial Library, Paris.) 
 
 Text. — Qui nolunt inter epistolas Pauli earn recipere quce ad Filemonem scribitur 
 aiunt non semper apostolum nec omnia Christo in se loquente dixisse. Quia neque . . . 
 
 Translation. — Those who are unwilling to receive among the epistles of St. Paul 
 that which is written to Philemon, deny that the Apostles spoke everything and at 
 all times under the inspiration of Christ. Because neither . . . 
 
Fig. 342.— Diplomatic Writing of the Tenth Century, from a Charter of Hugh Capet. (Archives of the Empire.) 
 This Fac-simile gives only half the length of the lines. 
 
 Text (completely restored.) — In nomine sanctcc et individual Trinitatis, Hugo gratia Dei 
 F, 'ancorum rex. [Mos et consuetudo regum prmdecessorum nostrorum semper exstitit vt ecclesias 
 Dei sublimarent et justis petitioni\bus servorum Dei clementer faverent, et oppression [em eorum. 
 benigne sublevarent, ut Deum propitium] haberent, cujus amore id fecissent. Hujus rei grati[a, 
 auditis clamoribus venerabilis Abbonis abbatis] monasterii S. Maria, S. Petri et S. Benedicti 
 Flori [acensis et monachorum sub eo degentium, nostram] presentiam adeuntium, pro malis con- 
 suetudi[nibus et assiduis rapinis . . . 
 
 Translation. — In the name of the holy and indivisible Trinity, Hugh, by the grace of God, 
 King of the Francs. 
 
 The custom and habit of the kings our predecessors has always been to honour the churches 
 of God, and to show themselves mercifully favourable to the just petitions of the servants of God, 
 and to deliver them kindly from oppression, so that God might be propitious to them, for the 
 love of whom they thus acted. For this cause, having heard the complaints of the venerable 
 Abbon, Abbot of the Monastery of Our Lady, St. Peter and St. Benedict, of Fleury-sur-Loire, 
 and those of the monks living under his direction, and who came into our presence, on account 
 of the bad customs and continual rapines . . . 
 
Fig. 343 ._Cursive Writing of the Fifteenth Century, after an Original Letter, taken from " Recueil des Lettres de Rois." 
 
 (Imperial Library, Paris.) 
 
 ^JV^/ ^ *J\£2 l^^p J^LJ 1 ' <*s~(l^ 
 
 Text. — Messeigneurs et freres, si tres humblement que /aire puis a voz bonnes graces me 
 recommande. Messeigneurs, fay receu voz lettres par le present porteur: ensemble la request e et 
 arrest de la court par icelle ensuivy. J'ay le tout communique a messeigneurs les generaulx de 
 Langue doil et Normandie, et nous avoirs souuant este ensemble. Ilz trouuent Men estrange, aussi 
 font daultres, qui zelent le bien et honneur de la chambre ausquelz pareillement . . . 
 
 Translation.— My lords and brothers, I commend myself as humbly as possible to your 
 good graces. My lords, I received your letters by the bearer of this, together with the petition 
 and the decree of the court accompanying them. I communicated the whole to my lords the 
 generals of La Langue d'Oil and of Normandy, and we have often conferred together on the 
 matter. They think it very strange, as do others also, who are zealous for the good and the 
 honour of the chamber, to which equally . . . 
 
Fig. 344.— Writing of the Fourteenth Century, after a Manuscript of " L'Histoire Romaine ;" being a 
 paraphrase of the text of Valerius Maximus. (Imperial Library, Paris.) 
 
 xi cftS(T ancmrqnc on Xemyg qne 
 tes gals auoietif yxxCc wine, e£ 
 afltele mpitokv$ i ^Tncil eft Mi 
 Tmmtxly moit txtvm U cxpi 
 tolclui teuue Ixntic ifaiunf mm 
 $Mv& fakirs c\xrte(toit tela li£ 
 lueteffTfrbfeus. <&t xxnw euxoirXti 
 cmqtwiCCimcc tc &CtcJ{(p\xi eft 
 (rffaucxv- enxCCx que \\ y ot afte& 
 <yx& Itxxxmc inXns ime ate qtt{ 
 cftott ajpclec gaftima . X a qttdt 
 ate (ixm^ mcmXt tt mamueut 
 ens ie ren*>v a rome <j*ttrtcl con 
 umanfc qn£ it ferment afcnfcs 
 te tmne* 
 
 Text. — Eadem, Sc. — Glose. Ceste histoire touche Titus Liuius ou quint Hare. 
 Fourquoy il est assauoir que ou temps que les Gals auoient prise Romme et assis le 
 Oajritole, si comme il est dit deuant, il y auoit dedens le Capitole un jeune liomme qui 
 auoit non Gayus Fabius qui estoit de la lignie des Fabiens. Et pour auoir la 
 congnoissance de ceste lignie est assauoir aussi que il y ot asses pres de Eomrne jadis une 
 cite qui estoit appelee Gabinia: laquele cite apres moult de inconueniens se rendi a 
 Romme par tel conuenant que il seroient citoiens de Ronme. 
 
 Tkanslation. — Eadem, &c. — Glose. Livy, in his fifth book, touches on this 
 history. We must know that at the time when the Gauls had taken Eome and 
 besieged the Capitol, as was said above, there was in the Capitol a young man 
 named Caius Fabius, and who was of the Fabian race ; and to know this race we 
 must also know that there was formerly near Rome a town called Gabinia ; which 
 town, after many vicissitudes, surrendered to Rome, on the condition that all its 
 inhabitants should be considered as citizens of Rome. 
 
Fig. 345 .-Fac-simile of the Inscription Ex libris, &c, in the beginning of a Manuscript executed by John Flamel, 
 Scribe and Librarian to the Duke de Berry, at the end of the Fourteenth Century. 
 (Imperial Library, Paris.) 
 
 Text. — Ceste Bible est a Monseigneur le Due de Berry. 
 
 Flamel. 
 
 Translation— This Bible belongs to Monseigneur the Duke de Berry. 
 
 Flamel. 
 
 Note.— The Duke de Berry, John, brother of King Charles V., and uncle to King Charles VI., 
 was a great amateur of fine books. He spent very large sums in having manuscripts copied and 
 illuminated. The Imperial Library, Paris, preserves a large number of the most valuable of them 
 
 3 L 
 
'ig. 346.-Writing of the Fifteenth Century, after the First Page of a Breviary. (Royal Library, Brussels.) 
 
 Text. — Sabbato in aduentu Domini, ad vesperas, super psalmos antiphona, Bene- 
 dicts, psalmus, ipsum cum ceteris antiphonis et psalmis. Infra capitulum. 
 "Ecce dies veniunt, dicit Dominus, et suscitabo Dauid germen. 
 
 Tbanslation.— On Saturday in Advent, at vespers, before the psalms chanted 
 alternately, (comes) the hymn Benedictus, with the other antiphons and psalms. 
 After the lesson . . . 
 
 " Behold the days are coming, saith the Lord, and I will restore the seed of 
 David." 
 
MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 Miniatures at the Beginning of the Middle Ages.— The two " Vatican " Virgils.— Painting of 
 Manuscripts under Charlemagne and Louis le Debonnaire.— Tradition of Greek Art in 
 Europe.— Decline of the Miniature in the Tenth Century.— Origin of Gothic Art.— Fine 
 Manuscript of the time of St. Louis.— Clerical and Lay Miniature-Painters.— Caricature 
 and the Grotesque— Miniatures in Monochrome and in Grisaille.— Illuminators at the Court 
 of France and to the Dukes of Burgundy.— School of John Fouquet— Italian Miniature- 
 Painters. — Giulo Clovio. — French School under Louis XII. 
 
 ONTEMPORANEOUS, almost, 
 with the idea which first caused 
 oral traditions, chronicles, 
 speeches, and poetry to be col- 
 lected together under the form 
 and name of book, is the art of 
 ornamenting manuscripts with 
 miniatures. Our intention is 
 not to go back to the sources 
 — as obscure as they are dis- 
 tant— of that art, but only to 
 point out its principal phases 
 of improvement or of decay 
 during the Middle Ages. 
 The most ancient known miniatures date from the very 
 commencement of that period which is generally called the 
 Middle Ages ; that is to say, from the third and fourth centuries. 
 These paintings, of which there exist but two or three speci- 
 mens in the libraries of Europe, nevertheless offer, in their 
 correctness and masterly beauty, the great characteristics of 
 ancient Art. The most celebrated are those of the "Virgil," 
 preserved in the Vatican Library (Fig. 348), a manuscript long 
 celebrated among learned men for the authenticity of its text. 
 
444 
 
 MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 Another " Virgil," of the date of about a century later, and which, before 
 its presentation to the Pope, was one of the most beautiful ornaments 
 of the ancient library of the Abbey of St. Denis, in France, contains 
 paintings not less remarkable in respect of colour, but very inferior as far 
 as drawing and the style of the compositions are concerned. These two 
 
 F'gr- 34§- — Miniature taken from the " Virgil " in the Library of the Vatican, Rome. 
 (Third or Fourth Century.) 
 
 incomparable examples are sufficient in themselves to show the state of 
 the painting of manuscripts at the beginning of the Middle Ages. 
 
 The sixth and seventh centuries have left us no books with miniatures ; 
 the utmost we find at that period are some capital letters embellished by 
 caligraphy. In the eighth century, on the contrary, the ornaments were 
 
MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 445 
 
 multiplied, and some rather elegant paintings can be pointed out ; the fact 
 is, under the reign of Charlemagne a movement of renovation took place in 
 the Arts as in literature : the Latin writing, which had become illegible, 
 
 was reformed, and the style of painting manuscripts assumed something of 
 the form of the fine antique examples still extant at that period. (Fig. 350.) 
 
MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 If we would have an idea of the heaviness and the 
 ungraceful character of the writing and of the ornaments 
 which accompanied it before the period of Charlemagne, 
 it will suffice to examine Fig. 349. " It was then quite 
 time," says M. Aime Champollion-Figeac, "that the 
 salutary influence exercised by the illustrious monarch 
 made itself felt in the Arts as well as in letters." The 
 first manuscripts which seem to bear witness to this 
 progress are first a sacramentary, said to be that of 
 Gellonius, the allegorical paintings of which are of 
 great interest in the history of Christian symbolism; 
 and a Book of the Gospels, now in the Louvre : the 
 latter is said to have belonged to the great emperor 
 himself, and we reproduce one of the paintings from it 
 (Fig. 351). We may mention, as of the ninth century, 
 many Books of the Gospels, in one of which, given by 
 Louis le Debonnaire to the Abbey St. Medard de Sois- 
 sons, the purest Byzantine style shows itself ; then the 
 Bible called the " Metz " Bible, in which are paintings 
 of large dimensions, remarkable for the felicitous group- 
 ings of the figures and for the beauty of the dra- 
 peries. One of these miniatures excites an interest quite 
 peculiar, inasmuch as King David, who is represented 
 in it, is but a copy of an ancient Apollo, round 
 whom the artist has personified Courage, Justice, 
 Prudence, &c. 
 
 Let us mention still further two Bibles and a book 
 of prayers, the last containing a very fine portrait of 
 the king, Charles the Bald, to whom it belonged ; and 
 lastly, two books really worth attention, on account of 
 the delicacy and freedom of the outline drawings, for the 
 attitudes of the characters represented, and for the 
 draperies, which resemble those of ancient statues. 
 These books are a " Terence," preserved in the Imperial 
 Library, Paris, number 7,899 in the catalogue; and a 
 " Lectionary of the Cathedal of Metz," from which the 
 
MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 447 
 
 border (Fig. 352) is taken. While in France the art of painting manuscripts 
 had progressed so much as to produce some perfect models of delicacy and 
 
 Fig. 351. — Miniature from the Book of the Gospels of Charlemagne. 
 (Manuscript in the Library of the Louvre.) 
 
 taste, Germany had never got beyond the simplest compositions, as we see 
 
MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 in the " Paraphrase on the Gospels," in Theotisc (the 
 old Teutonic language), belonging to the Library of 
 Vienna, 
 
 The artistic traditions of the ancients in the ninth 
 century are attested by the manuscripts of Christian 
 Greece, whereof the Imperial Library, Paris, possesses 
 many magnificent specimens, at the head of which we 
 must place the " Commentaries of Gregory Nazianzus," 
 ornamented with an infinite number of paintings, in 
 which all the resources of ancient art are applied to 
 the representation of Christian subjects (Fig. 353). 
 The heads of the characters portrayed are admirably 
 expressive, and of the finest style ; the colouring of the 
 miniatures is warm and soft ; the costumes, the repre- 
 sentations of buildings and of the accessories, offer, 
 moreover, very interesting subjects of study. Unfor- 
 tunately, these paintings were executed on a very 
 crumbling surface, which has in many places peeled 
 off: it is sad to see one of the most precious monu- 
 ments of Greek and Christian Art in a deplorable state 
 of dilapidation. 
 
 The masterpiece of the tenth century, which again 
 is due to the artists of Greece, is a " Psalter, with 
 Commentaries," belonging also to the Imperial Library 
 (number 139 among the Greek manuscripts), a work 
 in which the miniature-painter seems not to have been 
 able to disengage himself from the Pagan creeds in 
 illustrating Biblical episodes. Two celebrated manu- 
 scripts of the same time, but executed in France, and 
 preserved in the same collection, show, by the stiffness 
 and incorrectness of the drawing, that the impetus 
 given by the genius of Charlemagne had abated : these 
 are the "Bible de Noailles," and the "Bible de 
 St. Martial," of Limoges (Fig. 355). 
 
 To speak truly, if in France there was a decadency, 
 the Anglo-Saxon and Yisigothic artists of this period 
 
45° 
 
 MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 were also very inferior, to judge from a Latin 
 Book of the Gospels of the tenth century painted 
 in England (Fig. 356) ; it, however, proves 
 that the art of ornamenting books had degene- 
 rated less than that of drawing the human 
 
 Fl &- 354- — Fac-smile of a Miniature drawn with the pen, taken from a 
 Bible of the Eleventh Century. (Imperial Library, Paris.) 
 
 figure. Another manuscript with paintings, 
 called Visigothic, containing the Apocalypse of 
 St. John, gives, in its fantastic ornaments and 
 animals, an example of the strange style adopted 
 by a certain school of miniature-painters. 
 
MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 45i 
 
 Germany now began to 
 improve in the art of paint- 
 ing miniatures. It owed 
 this happy result to the 
 emigration of Greek artists, 
 who came to the German 
 court to take refuge from 
 the troubles of the East. 
 The progress accomplished 
 in this part of Europe shows 
 itself in the drawing of the 
 figures of a German Book 
 of the Gospels of the begin- 
 ning of the eleventh cen- 
 tury, a work very superior 
 to that of the Teutonic 
 Book of the Gospels just 
 referred to. The border of 
 which we give a fac- simile 
 in Fig. 357 shows also a 
 certain degree of improve- 
 ment ; it is taken from a 
 Book of the Gospels of the 
 same period, preserved in 
 the Royal Library, Munich. 
 
 But in France, to foreign 
 invasions and to misfortunes 
 of all kinds, which, since 
 the death of Charlemagne, 
 had afflicted the country, 
 was added the terror caused 
 by the general expectation 
 that the world was coming 
 to an end at the expiration 
 of the first millennial. 
 People were, therefore, 
 
4-52 
 
 MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 otherwise employed than in ornamenting books. Accordingly, this epoch 
 is one of the most barren in religious or other paintings. Fig. 358 
 represents the last degree of abasement in this art. Nothing in the world 
 could be more barbarous, nor farther removed from all sentiment of the 
 beautiful, and even from the instinctive idea of drawing. Ornamentation, 
 however, remained sufficiently good, although under very heavy forms, as 
 
 Fig. 358.— Miniature taken from a Missal of the Beginning of the Eleventh Century. 
 (Imperial Library, Paris, No. 821.) 
 
 the Sacramentary of ^thelgar, which is preserved in the Library of Rouen, 
 shows (Fig. 359). The decadency, however, seems to have come to a stop 
 in France towards the end of the eleventh century, if we judge of the art 
 from paintings, executed in 1060, and contained in a Latin manuscript, 
 bearing the number 818, in the Imperial Library. 
 
MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 453 
 
 In the manuscripts of the twelfth 
 century, the influence of the Crusades 
 made itself already felt. At this period, 
 the East regenerated in some sort the 
 West in all that concerned arts, sciences, 
 and literature. Many examples witness 
 that the painting of manuscripts was not 
 the last to undergo this singular trans- 
 formation. Everything the imagination 
 could invent of the most fantastic was 
 particularly brought into play to give to 
 the Latin letters a peculiar character 
 — imitated, moreover, from the orna- 
 ments of Saracenic architecture. This 
 practice was even applied to public acts 
 and documents, as Fig. 360 proves; it 
 represents some of the initial letters in 
 the " Rouleau Mortuaire " of St. Vital. 
 Callot, in his " Temptation of St. An- 
 thony," has, we think, imagined nothing 
 stranger than the figure we give ; a demon 
 standing on the back of Cerberus forms 
 the vertical line in the letter T ; while 
 two other demons, whose feet are in the 
 mouth of the first, form the two lateral 
 branches of the letter. 
 
 In the thirteenth century, Saracenic 
 or Gothic art universally prevailed. 
 Everywhere figures assumed gaunt, elon- 
 gated forms; coats-of-arms invaded the 
 miniatures ; but the colouring was of 
 marvellous purity and brightness ; bur- 
 nished gold, applied with the greatest 
 skill, stood out from blue or purple back- 
 grounds which even in our own day have 
 lost nothing of their original freshness. 
 
454 
 
 MINIA TURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 Among the most remarkable manuscripts of this century we must 
 mention a Psalter in five colours, containing the French, Hebrew, and 
 Roman versions, with some commentaries (Imperial Library, No. 1,132 bis). 
 One should analyse the greater number of subjects depicted in this manu- 
 script to understand all their importance ; we will mention only that among 
 
 Letters extracted from the " Rouleau Mortuaire " of St. Vital, Twelfth Century. 
 (Imperial Archives of France.) 
 
 them are sieges of towns, Gothic fortresses, interiors of Italian banking- 
 houses, various musical instruments, &c. There is, perhaps, no other manu- 
 script which equals this in the richness, the beauty, and multiplicity of its 
 paintings : it contains ninety-nine large miniatures, independently of ninety- 
 
45 6 
 
 MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 six medallions representing divers episodes sug- 
 gested by the text of the Psalms (Fig. 361) . After 
 this psalter we must place the Breviary of St. 
 Louis, or rather of Queen Blanche, formerly pre- 
 served in the Arsenal Library, Paris, and now in 
 the Musee des Souverains ; a celebrated manuscript 
 which has, on folio 191, this inscription : " C'est 
 le Psautier monseigneur St. Loys, lequel fu a 
 sa mere."* But the volume is not rich in 
 large miniatures. We observe in it, however, 
 a calendar ornamented with small subjects very 
 delicately executed, representing the labours ap- 
 propriate to each month, according to the seasons 
 of the year. The character of the paintings 
 exhibits a style anterior to the reign of Louis IX. ; 
 and it is supposed, indeed, that this book first 
 belonged to the mother of that king. 
 
 We must now mention another Psalter, which 
 was actually used by St. Louis; as is proved 
 not only by an inscription at the beginning of 
 the volume, but still further by the fleurs-de-lis 
 of the king, the arms of Blanche of Castile, his 
 mother, and perhaps also les pals de gueules 
 of Margaret of Provence, his wife. Nothing can 
 equal the beautiful preservation of the miniatures 
 in this volume, which contains seventy-eight 
 subjects, with as many explanatory texts in 
 French. The heads of the characters, though 
 almost microscopic, have nevertheless, generally, 
 a fine expression. 
 
 The "Livre de Clergie," which bears the 
 date of 1260, merits far less attention : so does 
 the " Roman du Roi Artus," No. 6,963, in the 
 Imperial Library, Paris, executed in 1276. But 
 
 * Translation : " This is Monseigneur St. Louis' Psalter, 
 which belonged to his mother." 
 
MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 457 
 
 we must point out two of the most beautiful examples of this 
 period, a Book of the Gospels in Latin, No. 665 in the Supplement, 
 Imperial Library, from which we have borrowed an elegant border 
 (Fig. 362), and the " Eoman du Saint-Graal," No. 6,769, also in the 
 Imperial Library. 
 
 Italy was then at the head of civilisation in everything ; it had 
 particularly inherited the grand traditions of painting which had gone 
 to sleep for ever in Greece only to wake up again in Europe. 
 
 Here we must introduce a remark, the result of a general examination 
 of the manuscripts bequeathed to us by the thirteenth century ; namely, 
 that the miniatures in sacred books are much more beautifully and care- 
 
 Fig. 363. — Facsimile of a Miniature of the Thirteenth Century, representing a scene of an old Romance : the 
 beautiful Josiane, disguised as a female juggler, playing a Welsh air on the Rote (Fiddle), to make herself 
 known to her friend Bewis. (Imperial Library, Paris.) 
 
 fully executed than those of the romances of chivalry and the chronicles 
 of the same period (Figs. 363 and 364). Must we attribute this superiority 
 to the power of religious inspiration ? Must we suppose that in the 
 monasteries alone clever artists met with sufficient remuneration ? Before 
 answering these questions, or rather as an answer to them, let us remember 
 that in those days religious institutions absorbed nearly all the social intel- 
 lectual movement, as well as the effective possession of material riches, if 
 not of territorial property. Solely occupied with distant wars or intestine 
 quarrels which impoverished them, the nobles were altogether unable to 
 become protectors of literature and Art. In the abbeys and convents were 
 lay-brethren who sometimes had taken no vow, but whose fervent spirits, 
 
 3 N 
 
MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 burning with poetical imagination, sought in the monastic retreat redemp- 
 tion from their past sins : these men of faith were happy to consecrate their 
 whole existence to the ornamentation of a single sacred book destined for 
 the community which gave them in exchange all the necessaries of life. 
 
 This explains the absence of the names of the miniature-painters 
 in ancient manuscripts, particularly in those which are written in Latin. 
 However, when romances and chronicles in the vulgar tongue began to 
 come into fashion, artists of great talent eagerly presented themselves to be 
 
 Fig 364.— The Four Sons of Aymon on their good Steed, Bayart. From a Miniature in the Romance of the 
 " Four Sons of Aymon," a Manuscript of the Thirteenth Century. (Imperial Library, Paris.) 
 
 engaged by princes and nobles who wished to have this sort of books 
 ornamented ; but the anonymous which these lay artists generally preserved 
 is explained by the circumstance that in most cases they were considered 
 only as artistic assistants in the lordly houses where they were employed, 
 and in which they fulfilled some other domestic duty ; for instance, Colard 
 de Laon, the favourite painter of Louis of Orleans, was also valet-de- 
 chambre to this prince ; Pietro Andrea, another artist, doubtless an Italian, 
 to judge from his Christian name, was gentleman-usher; and we see this 
 
460 
 
 MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 same painter "sent from Blois to Tours, to procure certain matters for 
 the accouchment of Madame the Duchess ;" or again, " from Blois to 
 Romorantin, to inquire after Madame d'Angoulesme, who was reported 
 to be very unwell." 
 
 Certain artists, however, who then took the modest name of illuminators, 
 lived entirely by their profession ; working at tableaux benoits (blessed 
 pictures), or popular paintings, which were sold at the church-doors. 
 Others, again, were paid assistants of the recognised painters to princes or 
 nobles ; and the anonymous was quite naturally imposed upon them by their 
 subordinate position, if not by the simple modesty which was for a long time 
 the accompaniment of talent. In the fourteenth century the study of minia- 
 tures is peculiarly interesting, on account of the scenes of public and private 
 life, of manners and customs, we find reproduced in them. Portraits after 
 life, d'apres le vif, as they were called in those days, made their appearance ; 
 and caricature, at all times so powerful in France, already began to show 
 itself with a daring which, occupying itself with the clergy, women, and 
 chivalry, stopped only before the prestige of royalty. 
 
 The miniatures of a French manuscript, dated 1313 (Imperial Library, 
 Paris, No. 8,504, F. L.), deserve to be mentioned, especially on account of 
 the various subjects they represent ; for, besides the ceremony of the 
 reception of the King of Navarre into the order of chivalry, we see 
 in it philosophers discussing, judges administering the law, various scenes 
 of conjugal life, singers accompanying themselves on divers instruments 
 of music, villagers engaged in the labours of country life, &c. We must 
 mention also a manuscript of the " Roman de Fauvel," in which is especially 
 prominent the very original scene of a popular concert of rough music, by 
 masked performers, given, according to an old custom, to a widow who 
 had married a second time (Fig. 365). 
 
 The period during which Charles Y. occupied the throne of France is 
 one of those that produced the finest specimens of manuscript-painting. 
 This monarch, the founder of the Royal Library, was an admirer of 
 illustrated books, and had accumulated, at great cost, a large collection 
 in the great tower of the Louvre. A royal prince, whom we have already 
 mentioned as being excessively devoted to artistic luxuries, was the rival of 
 Charles Y. in this respect : this was his brother, the Duke Jean de Berry, 
 who devoted enormous sums to the purchase and production of manuscripts. 
 
MINI A TURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 461 
 
 Even under Charles VI. this impulse 
 did not abate, and the art of painting 
 manuscripts was never in a more flourishing 
 condition. The border taken from the 
 " Livre d'Heures," or prayer-book, of the 
 Duke d'Anjou, uncle of the king (Fig. 366), 
 is an example of this. We might mention, 
 as specimens of illustrated works of this 
 period, the book of the "Demandes et 
 
 Fig. 367. — Miniature taken from " Les Femmes Illustres," 
 translated from Boccacio. (Imperial Library, Paris.) 
 
 Reponses," by Peter Salmon, a manuscript 
 executed for tbe king, and ornamented with 
 exquisite miniatures, in which all the 
 clharacters are true historical portraits, beau- 
 tifully finished. Nevertheless, the master- 
 pieces of tbe French school at this period 
 slhow themselves in the miniatures of two 
 translations of Boccacio's "De Claris Muli- 
 eribus" ("Beautiful Women") (Fig. 367). 
 
Fig-. 368. — Miniature of the Psalter of John, Duke of Berry, representing the Man of Sorrow, or Christ, showing 
 the Sign of the Cross. (Imperial Library, Paris.) 
 
MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 463 
 
 '00 
 
 At that time two new 
 styles appeared in the paint- 
 in g of manuscripts : minia- 
 tures en cama'ieu (in one 
 colour only), and miniatures 
 en grisaille (in two colours, 
 viz., a light colour shaded, generally with 
 brown). Of the first kind, we may instance 
 " Les Petites Heures " of John, Duke de 
 Berry (Fig. 368), and "Les Miracles de 
 Notre-Dame." 
 
 Germany did not in this respect rise 
 to the height of France ; but miniature- 
 painting in Italy progressed more and more 
 towards perfection. A remarkable specimen 
 of Italian art of this period is the Bible 
 called Clement YII.'s (Fig. 369), which is 
 preserved in the Imperial Library, Paris. 
 But there exists one more admirable still 
 in the same establishment, so rich in curio- 
 sities, of the manuscript of " The Institution 
 of the Order of the Holy Ghost," an order of 
 chivalry founded at Naples in 1352, by Louis 
 de Tarento, King of Naples, during a feast 
 on the day of Pentecost ; it is in this superb 
 manuscript, executed by Italian or French 
 artists, may, perhaps, be found the most 
 exquisite miniatures of that day (Fig. 370) ; 
 especially remarkable are the beautiful por- 
 traits in cama'ieu of King Louis and his wife, 
 Jane I., Queen of Naples. A valuable copy 
 of the romance of " Lancelot du Lac," of the 
 same date, recommends itself to the attention 
 of connoisseurs by a rare peculiarity : one 
 can follow in it the successive operations of 
 the painter in miniature ; thus are presented 
 
MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 to us consecutively the outline- drawing, then the first tints, generally 
 uniform, executed by the illuminator ; next the surface on which the gold 
 is to be applied ; then the real work of the miniature-painter in the heads, 
 costumes, &c. 
 
 France, in spite of the great troubles which agitated her, and the wars 
 she had to maintain with foreign powers during the fifteenth century, saw, 
 nevertheless, the art of the painter improve very considerably. The fine copy 
 
 Fig. 370— Miniature from a Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century, representing Louis de Tarento, second 
 Husband of Queen Jane of Naples, instituting the Order of the Holy Ghost. 
 (Imperial Library, Paris.) 
 
 of Froissart in the Imperial Library, Paris (Fig. 371), might alone suffice 
 to prove the truth of this assertion. The name of John Foucquet, painter to 
 King Louis XL, deserves to be mentioned with eulogy, as that of one of the 
 artists who contributed most to the progress of painting on manuscripts. 
 Everything thenceforward announced the Renaissance which was to take 
 place in the sixteenth century ; and if we wish to follow the onward 
 progress of art from the beginning of the fifteenth century till the time 
 
CORONATION OF CHARLES V., KING OF FRANCE. 
 
 Miniature from Roissart's Chronicles in the National library. Paris. 
 
MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 465 
 
 of Raphael, it is in the 
 miniatures of manu- 
 scripts we shall find 
 the best evidences of 
 it. Let us observe, 
 by the way, that the 
 Flemish school of the 
 Dukes of Burgundy 
 exercised great influ- 
 ence over this mar- 
 vellous art for a period 
 of more than a cen- 
 tury. Spain was also 
 progressing; but it is 
 to the Italian artists 
 we must, from that 
 time forward, look for 
 the most remarkable 
 works. The Imperial 
 Library of Paris pos- 
 sesses many manu- 
 scripts which bear 
 witness to the marked 
 improvement in minia- 
 ture-painting at this 
 period ; among others 
 an "Ovid" of the 
 fifteenth century (Fig. 
 372) ; but in order to 
 see the highest ex- 
 pression of the art, we 
 must examine an in- 
 comparable copy of 
 Dante's works, pre- 
 served in the Vatican, 
 a manuscript proceed - 
 
 3 o 
 
466 MINI A TURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 ing from the hands of Giulio Clovio (Fig. 373), an illustrious painter, pupil 
 and imitator of Raphael : his miniatures are remarkable for beauty. 
 
 Fig- 373 — Miniature, painted by Giulio Clovio, of the Sixteenth Century, taken from Dante's " Paradise," 
 representing the Poet and Beatrice transported to the Moon, the abode of Women devoted to 
 Chastity. (Manuscript in the Vatican Library, Rome.) 
 
 Lastly, in the reign of Louis XII. , the complete regeneration of the Arts 
 
MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 467 
 
 was effected. We should, however, 
 mention that at this period there were 
 two very distinct schools : one whose 
 style still showed the influence of 
 ancient Gothic traditions, the other 
 entirely dependent on Italian taste. 
 The Missal of Pope Paul V. emanated 
 from this last school (Fig. 374). 
 This immense progress, which showed itself 
 simultaneously in France and in Italy by the 
 production of many original works, seems to 
 have attained its climax in the execution of 
 a justly celebrated manuscript, known by the 
 name of "Heures d'Anne de Bretagne" (Fig. 
 375). Among the numerous pictures which, 
 decorate this book of prayers, many would not 
 be unworthy of Raphael's pencil: the expres- 
 sion in the face of the Virgin Mary is, with 
 many others, remarkable for its sweetness ; the 
 heads of the angels have something divine in 
 them ; and the ornaments which occupy the 
 margin of each page are composed of flowers, 
 fruits, and insects, represented with all the fresh- 
 ness and brilliancy of nature. This inimitable 
 masterpiece was, like a sort of sublime testa- 
 ment, to mark the glorious boundary-line of an 
 art which must necessarily degenerate now that 
 the printing-press was causing the numerous 
 class of scribes and illuminators of the Middle 
 Ages to disappear. It has never revived since, 
 but at intervals; and then more to meet the 
 requirements of fancy than to be of any real use. 
 
 A few manuscripts adorned with miniatures 
 of the end of the sixteenth century may still be 
 mentioned, especially two " Livres d'Heures " 
 (prayer-books) painted in grisaille, which be- 
 
468 
 
 MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 Fig. 375. — Miniature from the Prayer-book of Anne de Bretagne, representing the Archangel St. Michael. 
 
 (Musee des Souverains.) 
 
MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 469 
 
 longed to Henry II., King of France (now in the Musee des Souverains), 
 and the "Livre d'Heures," executed for the Margrave of Baden by a painter 
 of Lorraine or of Metz named Brentel (Fig. 376), who, however, did nothing 
 
 Fig. 376.— Miniature in the " Livre d'Heures " belonging to the Margrave of Baden, representing the Portrait 
 of the blessed Bernard of Baden, who died in the odour of Sanctity, on July 15, 1458. 
 (Imperial Library, Paris.) 
 
 but put together designs copied from the great masters of Italy and Flanders. 
 There were, nevertheless, good miniature-painters in France up to the seven- 
 teenth century, to illustrate the manuscripts executed with so much taste 
 
470 
 
 MINIATURES IN MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 by the famous Jarry and the caligraphers of his school. The last mani- 
 festation of the art shines forth, for example, in the magnificent "Livre 
 d'Heures " presented to Louis XI Y. by the pensioners of the Hotel des 
 Invalides, a remarkable work, but yet unworthy to appear by the side of 
 the " Livre d'Heures d'Anne de Bretagne," which the painter seems to 
 have adopted as his model. 
 
 pjg_ 377 — Escutcheon of France, taken from some Ornaments in the Manuscript of the " Institution of the 
 Order of the Holy Ghost." (Fourteenth Century.) 
 
BOOKBINDING. 
 
 Primitive Binding of Books. — Bookbinding among the Romans. — Bookbinding with Goldsmith's 
 Work from the Fifth Century. — Chained Books. — Corporation of Lieurs, or Bookbinders. — 
 Books bound in Wood, with Metal Corners and Clasps. — First Bindings in Leather, honey- 
 combed (waffled?) and gilt. — Description of some celebrated Bindings of the Fourteenth and 
 Fifteenth Centuries. — Sources of Modern Bookbinding. — John Grollier. — President De Thou. 
 — Kings and Queens of France Bibliomaniacs.— Superiority of Bookbinding in France. 
 
 S soon as the ancients had made square books, 
 more convenient to read than the rolls, 
 binding — that is to say, the art of reuniting 
 the leaves stitched or stuck (ligati) into a 
 movable back, between two square pieces of 
 wood, ivory, metal, or leather — bookbinding 
 was invented. This primitive binding, which 
 had no other object than that of preserving 
 the books, no other merit than than of solidity, 
 was not long ere it became associated with 
 ornament, and thus put itself in relation with 
 the luxury of Greek and Roman civilisation. 
 Not contented with placing on each side of 
 the volume a little tablet of cedar-wood or 
 of oak, on which was written the title of the book (for books were then laid 
 flat on the shelves of the library), a piece of leather was stretched over the 
 edge to preserve it from dust, if the book was valuable, and the volume was 
 tied up with a strap passed round it many times, and which was subsequently 
 replaced by clasps. In certain instances the volume was enveloped in 
 thick cloth, and even enclosed in a case of wood or leather. Such was the 
 state of bookbinding in ancient times. 
 
 There were then, as now, good and bad bookbinders. Cicero, in his 
 letters to Atticus, asks for two of his slaves who were very clever 
 
472 
 
 BOOKBINDING. 
 
 Ugatores librorum (bookbinders). Bookbinding, however, was not an art 
 very generally known, for square books, notwithstanding the convenience of 
 their shape, had not yet superseded rolls ; but we see, in the Notices of the 
 Dignities of the Eastern Empire ("Notitia Dignitatum Imperii), written 
 towards 450, that this accessory art had already made immense progress ; 
 since certain officers of the empire used to carry, in the public ceremonies, 
 large square books containing the administrative instructions of the 
 emperor : these books were bound, covered with green, red, blue, or yellow 
 leather, closed by means of leathern straps or by hooks, and ornamented with 
 little golden rods disposed horizontally, or lozengewise, with the portrait of 
 the sovereign painted or gilt on their sides. From the fifth century gold- 
 smiths and lapidaries ornamented binding with great richness. And so we 
 hear St. J erome exclaiming : — " Your books are covered with precious stones, 
 and Christ died naked before the gate of his temple ! " " The Book of the 
 Gospels," in Greek, given to the basilica of Monza by Theodelinda, queen 
 of the Lombards, about 600, has still one of these costly bindings. 
 
 A specimen of Byzantine art, preserved in the Louvre, is a sort of small 
 plate, which is supposed to be one of the sides of the cover of a book ; on 
 it we find executed in bas-relief the "Visit of the Holy Women to the 
 Tomb," and several other scenes from the Gospels. In this example the 
 beauty of the figures, the taste which dictated the arrangement of the 
 draperies, and the finish in the execution, furnish us with evidence that, 
 in the industrial arts, the Greeks had maintained till the twelfth century 
 their pre-eminence over all the people of Europe. 
 
 In those days the binding of ordinary books was executed without any 
 ornamentation, this being reserved for sacred books. If, in the treasures of 
 churches, abbeys, and palaces, a few manuscripts covered with gold, silver, 
 and precious stones were kept as relics, books in common use were simply 
 covered in boards or leather ; but not without much attention being given 
 to the binding, which was merely intended to preserve the volumes. Many 
 documents bear witness to the great care and precision with which, in 
 certain monasteries, books were bound and preserved. All sorts of skins 
 were employed in covering them when they had been once pressed and 
 joined together between boards of hard wood that would not readily decay : 
 in the North, even the skins of seals and of sharks were employed, but 
 pig-skin seems to have been used in preference to all others. 
 
PANEL OF A HOOK COVER.. 
 
 Bas-relief m Gold Itepousse. Mnlh Century, (in the Louvre 
 
BOOKBINDING. 
 
 473 
 
 It must be admitted that we, perhaps, owe to their rich bindings, which 
 were well calculated to tempt thieves, the destruction of a number of 
 valuable manuscripts when towns or monasteries were sacked ; but, on 
 the other hand, the sumptuous bindings with which kings and nobles 
 covered Bibles, the Gospels, antiphonaries,* and missals, have certainly 
 preserved to us very many curious examples that, without them, would 
 by degrees have deteriorated, or would not have escaped all the chances 
 of destruction to which they were exposed. It is thus, for instance, that 
 the famous manuscript of Sens has descended to us, which contains 
 " La Messe des Fous," set to music in the twelfth century ; it is bound 
 between two pieces of ivory, with bas-relief carvings of the fourth century, 
 representing the festivals of Bacchus. All great public collections show 
 with pride some of these rare and venerable bindings, decorated with 
 gold, silver, or copper, engraved, chased, or inlaid with precious stones 
 or coloured glass, with cameos or antique ivories (Fig. 378). The 
 greater number of rich books of the Gospels mentioned in history date 
 back as far as the period of Charlemagne, and among these we must 
 mention, above all, one given by the emperor himself to the Abbey of 
 St. Riquier, "covered with plates of silver, and ornamented with gold 
 and gems ; " that of St. Maximinius of Treves, which came from Ada, 
 daughter of Pepin, sister of Charlemagne, and was ornamented with an 
 engraved agate representing Ada, the emperor, and his sons ; and lastly, 
 one that was to be seen as late as 1727 in the convent of Hautvillers, near 
 Epernay, and which was bound in carved ivory. 
 
 Sometimes these sumptuous volumes were enclosed in an envelope 
 made of rich stuff; or, in pursuance of an ancient custom, a casket not 
 less gorgeously decorated than the binding, contained it. The Prayer- 
 book of Charlemagne, now preserved in the Library of the Louvre, is 
 known to have been originally enclosed in a small casket of silver gilt, 
 on which were represented in relief the " Mysteries of the Passion." 
 
 These books, however, bound with goldsmith's work, were not those 
 that were chained in churches and in certain libraries (Fig. 379), as some 
 volumes still in existence show, with the rings through which passed the 
 chain that fastened them to the desk. These catenati (chained books) 
 were generally Bibles and missals, bound in wood and heavily ornamented 
 * Antiphonaries — books containing the responses, &c.,used in Catholic church-services. — [Ed.] 
 
 3 p 
 
+74 
 
 BOOKBINDING. 
 
 with metallic corners ; which, while placed at the disposition of the faithful 
 and of the public in general, their owners wished to guarantee against 
 being stolen. 
 
 We must not forget to mention, among the most beautiful bindings 
 
 Fig- 378. — Binding in Gold, adorned with precious Stones which covered a "Book of the Gospels" of the 
 Eleventh Century, representing Jesus Crucified, with the Virgin and St. John at the Foot of the Cross. 
 
 (Musee du Louvre). 
 
 of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the coverings of books in enamelled 
 copper (Fig. 380). The Museum of Cluny possesses two plates of incrusted 
 enamel of Limoges, which must have belonged to one of these bindings : 
 the first has for its subject the "Adoration of the Magi;" the other 
 
BOOKBINDING. 
 
 475 
 
 represents the monk Etienne de Muret, founder of the order of Grandmont 
 (in the twelfth century), conversing with St. Nicholas. The Cathedral of 
 Milan contains in its treasury the covering of a book still more ancient 
 and much richer, about fourteea inches long by twelve inches wide, and 
 profusely covered with incrusted enamel, mounted and ornamented with 
 polished, but uncut, precious stones of various colours. 
 
 But all these were only the work of enamellers, goldsmiths, illuminators, 
 and clasp-makers. The binders, or bookbinders properly so called, fastened 
 together the leaves of books, and placed them between two boards, which 
 
 Fig- 379.— Library of the University of Leyden, in which all the Books were chained, even in the 
 
 Seventeenth Century. 
 
 they then covered with leather, skin, stuff, or parchment ; they added to 
 these coverings sometimes leathern straps, sometimes metal clasps, sometimes 
 hooks, to keep the volume firmly closed, and almost always nails, whose 
 round and projecting heads preserved the flat surface of the binding from 
 being rubbed. 
 
 In the year 1299, when the tax was imposed upon the inhabitants of 
 Paris for the exigencies of the king, it was ascertained that the number 
 of bookbinders then actually in the town amounted only to seventeen, who, 
 as well as the scribes and booksellers, were directly dependent on the 
 
BOOKBINDING. 
 
 477 
 
 University, the authorities of which placed them under the surveillance of 
 four sworn bookbinders, who were considered the agents of the University. 
 We must except, however, from this jurisdiction the acknowledged book- 
 binder to the " Chambre des Comptes," who, before he could be appointed 
 to this office, had to make an affirmation that he could neither read nor write. 
 
 In the musters, or processions, of the University of Paris, the bookbinders 
 came after the booksellers. To explain the relatively small number of pro- 
 fessed bookbinders, we must remember that at this period the majority 
 of scholars bound their own books, as divers passages of ancient authors 
 prove; while the monasteries, which were the principal centres of book- 
 makers, had one or many members of their community whose special 
 function it was to bind the works written within their walls. Tritheimius, 
 Abbot of Spanheim at the end of the fifteenth century, does not forget 
 the bookbinders in the enumeration he makes of the different employ- 
 ments of. his monks: — "Let that one," says he, "fasten the leaves 
 together, and bind the book with boards. You, prepare those boards ; you, 
 dress the leather ; you, the metal plates, which are to adorn the binding." 
 These bindings are represented on the seal of the University of Oxford 
 (Fig. 381), and on the banners of some French corporation of printers and 
 booksellers (Figs. 382 and 386). 
 
 The metal plates, the corners, the nails, the clasps with which these 
 volumes were then laden rendered them so heavy that, in order to enable 
 the reader to turn over the leaves with facility, they were placed on one of 
 those revolving desks having space for many open folios at the same time, 
 and which were capable of accommodating many readers simultaneously. 
 It is said that Petrarch had caused a volume containing the " Epistles of 
 Cicero," transcribed by himself, to be bound so massively, that as he was 
 continually reading it, he often let it fall and injured his leg; so badly 
 once that he was threatened with amputation. This manuscript in Petrarch's 
 handwriting is still to be seen in the Lauren tian Library at Florence ; it is 
 bound in wood, with edges and clasps of copper. 
 
 The Crusades, which introduced into Europe many luxurious customs, 
 must have had great influence on bookbinding, since the Arabs had for 
 a long while known the art of preparing, dyeing, stamping, and gilding 
 the skins they employed to make covers for books : these covers took 
 the name of alee (wings), no doubt from the resemblance between them and 
 
4/8 
 
 BOOKBINDING. 
 
 the wings of a bird of rich plumage. The Crusaders having brought back 
 from their expeditions specimens of Oriental binding, our European work- 
 men did not fail to turn their brilliant models to account. 
 
 An entire revolution, moreover, which had taken place in the forma- 
 tion of royal and princely libraries, was to produce a revolution in binding 
 also. Bibles, missals/reproductions of ancient authors, treatises on theology, 
 were no longer the only books in common use. The new language had 
 given rise to histories, romances, and poems, which were the delight of a 
 
 Fig. 381.— Seal of the University of Oxford, in which is a Rook bound with Corners and Clasps. 
 
 society becoming more and more polished every day. For the pleasure 
 of readers, the gallant of one sex and the fair of the other, books were 
 required more agreeable to the eye, and less rough to the touch, than those 
 used for the edification of monks or the instruction of scholars. And 
 first of all were substituted, for the purpose of manuscripts, sizes more 
 portable than the grave folio. Then fine and smooth vellum was used for 
 writing, and books were covered in velvet, silk, or woollen stuffs. More- 
 over, paper, a recent invention, opened up a new era for libraries; but 
 
BOOKBINDING. 
 
 479 
 
 two centuries were to elapse before pasteboard had entirely taken the place 
 of wooden covers. 
 
 It is in the inventories, in the accounts, and in the archives of kings 
 and princes, we must look for the history of bookbinding in the fourteenth 
 and fifteenth centuries (Fig. 383). We shall limit ourselves to giving 
 a description of some costly bindings, taken from the inventories of the 
 magnificent libraries of the Dukes of Burgundy and of Orleans, now partly 
 destroyed, and partly scattered about among the great public collections 
 of France and other countries. 
 
 Belonging to the Dukes of Burgundy, Philip the Bold, Jean sans 
 Peur, and Philip the Good, we see a small Book of the Gospels and of 
 the " Heures de la Croix " (a kind of prayer-book), with " a binding 
 
 Fig. 382.— Banner of the Corporation of Printers-Booksellers of Angers. 
 
 embellished with gold and fifty-eight large pearls, in a case made of 
 camlet, with one large pearl and a cluster of small pearls;" the romance 
 of the " Moralite des Hommes sur le Ju (jeu) des Eschiers " (the game 
 of chess), "covered in silk, with white and red flowers, and silver-gilt 
 nails, on a green ground;" a Book of Orisons, "covered in red leather, 
 with silver-gilt nails;'' a Psalter, "having two silver-gilt clasps, bound 
 in blue, with a golden eagle with two heads and red talons, to which is 
 attached a little silver-gilt instrument for turning over the leaves, with 
 three escutcheons of the same arms, covered with a red velvet chemise." * 
 
 * " Garni de deux fermaulx d'argent, dorez, armoiez d'azur a. une aigle d'or a deux testes, 
 ongle de gueulles, auquel a ung tuyau d'argent dore pour tourner les feuilles, a trois escuseons 
 desdites armes, couvert d'une chemise de veluyau vermeil." 
 
480 
 
 BOOKBINDING. 
 
 F "g- 383— Fragment of an engraved and stamped Binding in an unknown Material (Fifteenth Century), 
 representing the mystical Chase of the Unicorn, which is taking refuge in the lap of the Virgin. 
 (Public Library, Rouen. 
 
BOOKBINDING. 
 
 The chemise was a sort of pocket in which certain valuable books were 
 enveloped. The " Heures de St. Louis " (St. Louis's Prayer-book), now 
 in the Musee des Souverains, is still in its chemise of red sandal-wood. 
 
 Belonging to the Duke of Orleans, brother of Charles VI. , we find 
 Vegece's book, " On Chivalry," " covered in red leather inlaid, which has 
 two little brass clasps ; " the book of " Meliadus," " covered in green 
 velvet, with two silver-gilt clasps, enamelled with the arms of his Royal 
 Highness ; " the book of Boece, " On Consolation," " covered in figured 
 silk ; " " The Golden Legend," " covered in black velvet, without clasps ; " 
 the " Heures de Notre-Dame," " covered in white leather." 
 
 The same inventories give an account of the prices paid for some 
 bindings and their accessories. Thus, in 1386, Martin Lhuillier, a book- 
 seller at Paris, received from the Duke of Burgundy 16 francs (equivalent 
 to about 114 francs French money of the present time), " for binding eight 
 books, of which six were covered in grained leather ; " on Sept. 19, 1894, 
 the Duke of Orleans paid to Peter Blondel, goldsmith, 12 livres 15 sols, 
 " for having wrought, besides the duke's silver seal, two clasps " for the book 
 of Boece; and on Jan. 15, 1398, to Emelot de Rubert, an embroideress 
 at Paris, 50 sols tournois, " for having cut out and worked in gold and 
 silk two covers of green Dampmas cloth, one for the Breviary, the other for 
 the Book of Hours of the aforesaid nobleman, and for having made fifteen 
 markers (sinets) and four pair of silk and gold straps for the said books." 
 
 The old style of thick, heavy, in some sort armour-plated, binding, could 
 not exist long after the invention of printing, which, while multiplying 
 books, diminished their weight, reduced their size, and, moreover, gave 
 them a less intrinsic value. Wooden boards were replaced by compressed 
 cardboard, nails and clasps were gradually laid aside, and stuffs of different 
 kinds no longer used ; only skin, leather, and parchment were employed. 
 This was the beginning of modern binding ; but bookbinders were as yet 
 but mechanics working for the booksellers, who, when they had on their 
 premises a bookbinding-room (Fig. 384), assumed, in their editions, the 
 double title of libraire-relieur (bookseller-bookbinder) (Fig. 385). In 1578, 
 Nicholas Eve still placed on his books and his sign-board, " Bookseller to 
 the University of Paris and Bookbinder to the King." No volume was sold 
 unbound. 
 
 From the end of the fifteenth century, although bookbinding was always 
 
 3 Q 
 
482 
 
 BOOKBINDING. 
 
 considered as an adjunct to the bookseller's shop, certain amateurs who had 
 a taste for art required richer and more recherche exteriors for their books. 
 Italy set us the example of beautiful bindings in morocco, stamped and gilt ; 
 imitated, however, from those of the Koran and other Arabian manu- 
 scripts, which Venetian navigators frequently brought back with them 
 from the East. The expedition of Charles VIII. and the wars of Louis XII. 
 introduced into France not only Italian bindings, but Italian binders 
 also. Without renouncing, however, at least for the livres d'heures, the 
 bindings ornamented with goldsmith's work and gems, France had very soon 
 
 Fig. 384.— Bookbinders' Work-room, drawn and engraved in the Sixteenth Century, by J. Amman. 
 
 binders of her own, surpassing those who had been to them as initiators 
 or masters. Jean Grrollier, of Lyons, loved books too much not to wish to 
 give them an exterior ornamentation worthy of the wealth of knowledge 
 they contained. Treasurer of War, and Intendant of the Milanese before 
 the battle of Pavia, he had begun to create a library, which he subse- 
 quently transported into France, and did not cease to enlarge and to enrich 
 till his death, which happened in 1565. His books were bound in morocco 
 from the Levant, with such care and taste that, under the supervision of this 
 exacting amateur, bookbinding seemed to have already attained perfection. 
 
BOOKBINDING. 
 
 4*3 
 
 Princes and ladies of the court prided themselves on their love of books 
 and the desire to acquire them ; they founded libraries, and encouraged the 
 works and inventions of good bookbinders who produced masterpieces of 
 patience and ability in decorating the covers of books, either with enamelled 
 paintings, or with mosaics made of different pieces inlaid, or with plain 
 gildings stamped on the surface with small irons. It would be impossible 
 to enumerate the splendid bindings in all styles that the French bookbinders 
 of the sixteenth century have left us, and which have never been surpassed 
 since. The painter, the engraver, and even the goldsmith, co-operated with 
 the bookbinder in his art, by furnishing him with designs for ornaments. 
 
 F'g- 385. — Mark of William Eustace (1512), Bookseller and Binder, Paris. 
 
 We now see reappearing some plates obtained from hot or cold dies, 
 representing various subjects, and the designs from which they were 
 taken, reproduced from those that had been in fashion towards the 
 beginning of the sixteenth century, were often drawn by distinguished 
 artists, such as Jean Cousin, Stephen de Laulne, &c. 
 
 Nearly all the French kings, especially the Yalois, were passionately 
 fond of splending bindings. Catherine de Medicis was such a connoisseur 
 of finely-bound books, that authors and booksellers, who eagerly presented 
 her with copies of their works, tried to distinguish themselves in the 
 
4 8 4 
 
 BOOKBINDING. 
 
 choice and beauty of the bindings which, they had made expressly for her. 
 Henry III., who appreciated handsomely-bound books no less than his 
 mother, invented a very singular binding, when he' had instituted the 
 Order of " Penitents ; " this consisted of death's heads and cross bones, 
 tears, crosses, and other instruments of the Passion, gilt or stamped on 
 black morocco leather, and having the following device, " Spes mea Deus " 
 (" God is my hope "), with or without the arms of France. 
 
 It is impossible to associate these superb bindings with the usual 
 and common work executed at the booksellers' shops, and under their 
 superintendence. Some booksellers of Paris and of Lyons, the houses 
 of Gryphe and Tournes, of Estienne and Vascosan, paid a little more 
 attention, however, than others of the fraternity, to the binding of books 
 which they sold to the reading public ; they adopted patterns of dun- 
 coloured calf, in compartments ; or white vellum, with fillets and arabesques 
 in gold, fine specimens of which are now very rare. 
 
 At this period Italian bookbinding had reached the most complete state 
 of decadency, while in Germany and other parts of Europe the old massive 
 bindings, — bindings in wood, leather, and parchment, with fastenings of 
 iron or brass, — still held their ground. In France, however, the binders, 
 whom the booksellers kept in a state of obscurity and servitude, had not 
 even be able to form themselves into a guild or fraternity. They might 
 produce masterpieces of their art, but were not allowed to append their 
 names to their works ; and we must come down as far as the famous Gascon 
 (1641) before we can introduce the name of any illustrious bookbinder. 
 
 Fig. 386. — Banner of the Corporation of Printers-Booksellers of Autun. 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 Who was the Inventor of Printing ? — Movable Letters in Ancient Times. — Block Printing. — 
 Laurent Coster. — Bonati and Specula. — Gutenberg's Process. — Partnership of Gutenberg 
 and Faust.— Schoeffer.— The Mayence Bible.— The Psalter of 1457.— The " Rationale " of 
 1459. — Gutenburg prints by himself. — The " Catholicon " of 1460. — Printing at Cologne, 
 Strasbourg, Venice, and Paris. — Louis XI. and Nicholas Jenson. — German Printers at 
 Rome. — Incunabula.— Colarfc Mansion. — Caxton. — Improvement of Typographical Processes 
 up to the Sixteenth Century. 
 
 on 
 
 IFTEEN towns have laid claim to the honour 
 of being the birthplace of printing, and writers 
 who have applied themselves to search out the 
 gin of this admirable invention, far from coming to 
 any agreement on the point in their endeavours to clear 
 the question, have only confused it. Now, however, 
 after many centuries of learned and earnest contro- 
 versy, there only remain three antagonistic propositions, with 
 three names of towns, four names of inventors, and three dif- 
 ferent dates. The three places are Haarlem, Strasbourg, and 
 Mayence; the four inventors, Laurent Coster, Gutenberg, Faust, 
 and Schoeffer; the three dates which are assigned to the in- 
 vention of printing are 1420, 1440, 1450. In our opinion these 
 three propositions, which some try to combat and destroy by opposing each 
 to the other, ought, on the contrary, to be blended into one, and combined 
 chronologically in such a manner as to represent the three principal periods 
 of the discovery of printing. 
 
 There is no doubt that printing existed in the germ in ancient times ; 
 that it was known and made use of by the ancients. There were stamps 
 and seals bearing legends traced the wrong way, from which positive 
 impressions were obtained on papyrus or parchment, in wax, ink, or colour. 
 We are shown, in museums, plates of copper or of cedar-wood, covered 
 with characters carved or cut out in them, which seem to have been 
 
4 86 
 
 PRINTING. 
 
 intended for the purpose of printing, and which resemble the block plates 
 of the fifteenth century. 
 
 Something very much like the process of printing in movable type is 
 described by Cicero in a passage in which he refutes the doctrine of Epicurus 
 on the creation of the world by atoms : " "Why not believe, also, that by 
 
 Fig. 387. — Ancient Wood-block Print, cut in Flanders before 1440, representing Jesus Christ after his 
 Flagellation. (Delbecq's Collection, Ghent.) 
 
 throwing together, indiscriminately, innumerable forms of letters of the 
 alphabet, either in gold or in any other substance, one can print with these 
 letters, on the ground, the Annals of Ennius ? " The movable letters pos- 
 sessed by the ancients were carved in box-wood or ivory ; but they were 
 only employed for teaching children to read, as Quinctilian testifies in his 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 487 
 
 " Oratorical Institutions," and St. Jerome in his " Epistles." There was 
 then only wanting a fortunate chance to cause this carved alphabet to create 
 the typographic art fifteen centuries earlier than its actual birth. 
 
 " The art of taking impressions once discovered," says M. Leon de 
 Laborde, " and applied to engraving in relief, gave rise to printing, 
 
 Fig. 388. — Fac-simile ot an Engraving on Wood, by an ancient Flemish Engraver (about 1438) ; which 
 was inserted, after the manner of a Miniature, in a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, containing 
 Prayers for the use of the People. (Delbecq's Collection, Ghent.) 
 
 which was only the perfection to which a natural and rapid progression 
 of attempts and efforts would naturally lead." "But it was only," adds 
 M. Ambroise-Firmin Didot, " when the art of making paper — that art 
 familiar to the Chinese from the beginning of our era — spread in Europe 
 and became generally known, that the reproduction, by pressing, of texts, 
 
488 
 
 PRINTING. 
 
 figures, playing-cards, &c, first by the tabular process, called xylography 
 (block-printing), then with movable types, became easy, and was conse- 
 quently to appear simultaneously in different places." 
 
 But, at the end of the fourteenth century, at Haarlem, in Holland, 
 
 wood- engraving had been discovered, 
 and consequently tabular impression, 
 with which the Chinese, it is said, 
 were already acquainted three or 
 four hundred years before the modern 
 era. Perhaps it was some Chinese 
 book or pack of cards brought to 
 Haarlem by a merchant or a navi- 
 gator, that revealed to the cardmakers 
 and printsellers of the industrious 
 Netherlands a process of impressing 
 more expeditious and more econo- 
 mical. Xylography began on the day 
 when a legend was engraved on a 
 wood-block ; this legend, limited at 
 first to a few lines, very soon occu- 
 pied a whole page ; then this page 
 was not long in becoming a volume 
 (Fig 387 to 389). 
 
 Here is an extract from the ac- 
 count given by Adrian Junius, in his 
 Latin work entitled " Batavia," of 
 the discovery of printing at Haarlem, 
 written in 1572 : — " More than "one 
 hundred and thirty-two years ago 
 there lived at Haarlem, close to the 
 
 Fig. 389. — Wood-block, cut in France, about 1440 , •, tit 1 
 
 representing an Image of St. James the Great, ™yal pakce, One John Laurent, SUr- 
 with one of the Commandments as a Text. name ^ Coster (or gOVemer), for this 
 (Imperial Library, Paris, Collection of Prints.) 
 
 honourable post came to him by in- 
 heritance, being handed down in his family from father to son. One day, 
 about 1420, as he was walking after dinner in a wood near the town, he 
 set to work and cut the bark of beech-trees into the shape of letters,. 
 
 'orlacoiyjuflioi . 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 489 
 
 with which he traced, on paper, by pressing one after the other upon it, 
 a model composed of many lines for the instruction of his children. 
 Encouraged by this success, his genius took a higher flight, and then, 
 in concert with his son-in-law, Thomas Pierre, he invented a species of ink 
 more glutinous and tenacious than that employed in writing, and he 
 thus printed figures (images) to which he added his wooden letters. I have 
 myself seen many copies of this first attempt at printing. The text 
 is on one side only of the paper. The book printed was written in the 
 vulgar tongue, by an anonymous author, having as its title ' Speculum 
 nostras Salutis' ('The Mirror of our Salvation').- Later, Laurent Coster 
 changed his wooden types into leaden, then these into pewter. Laurent's 
 new invention, encouraged by studious men, attracted from all parts 
 an immense concourse of purchasers. The love of the art increased, the 
 labours of his workshop increased also, and Laurent was obliged to 
 add hired workmen to the members of his family, to assist in his 
 operations. Among these workmen there was a certain John, whom I 
 suspect of being none other than Faust, who was treacherous and fatal 
 to his master. Initiated, under the seal of an oath, into all the secrets of 
 printing, and having become very expert in casting type, in setting it 
 up, and in the other processes of his trade, this John took advantage of a 
 Christmas evening, while every one was in church, to rifle his master's 
 workshop and to carry off his typographical implements. He fled with 
 his booty to Amsterdam, thence to Cologne, and afterwards to Mayence, 
 where he established himself; and calculating upon safety here, set up a 
 printing-office. In that very same year, 1422, he printed with the type 
 which Laurent had employed at Haarlem, a grammar then in use, called 
 ' Alexandri Gralli Doctrinale,' and a < Treatise of Peter the Spaniard ' 
 ('Petri Hispani Tractatus ' )." 
 
 This account, which came, indeed, rather late, although the author 
 referred to the most respectable authorities in support of it, met at first 
 with nothing but incredulity and contempt. At this period the right of 
 Mayence to be considered the birthplace of printing could only be seriously 
 counterbalanced by the right Strasbourg had to be so considered. The three 
 names of Gutenberg, of Faust, and of Schceffer were already consecrated by 
 universal gratitude. Everywhere, then, except in Holland, this new testi- 
 mony was rejected ; everywhere the new inventor, whose claim had just been 
 
 3 R 
 
490 
 
 PRINTING. 
 
 made for a share of the honour, was rejected as an apocryphal or legendary 
 heing. But very soon, however, criticism, raising itself above the influences 
 of nationality, took up the question, discussed the account given by Junius, 
 examined that famous " Speculum " which no one had yet pointed out, 
 proved the existence of xylographic impressions, sought for those which could 
 be attributed to Coster, and opposed to the Abbe Tritheim (or Trithemius), 
 who had written on the origin of printing from information furnished by 
 Peter Schoeffer himself, the more disinterested testimony of the anonymous 
 chronicler of Cologne in 1465, who had learned from TJlric Zell, one of 
 Gutenberg's workmen, and the first printer of Cologne in 1465, this 
 important peculiarity : — " Although the typographic art was invented at 
 Mayence," says he, "nevertheless the first rough sketch of this art was 
 invented in Holland, and it is in imitation of the ' Donatus ' (the Latin 
 syntax by Coelius Donatus, a grammarian of the fourth century, a book 
 then in use in the schools of Europe), which long before that time was 
 printed there ; it is in imitation of this, and on account of it, that the 
 said art began under the auspices of Gutenberg." 
 
 If Gutenberg imitated the " Donatus," which was printed in Holland 
 before the time he himself printed at Mayence, Gutenberg was not the 
 inventor of printing. It was in 1450 that Gutenberg began to print 
 at Mayence (Fig. 390) ; but from as early a date as 1436 he had tried to 
 print at Strasbourg ; and, before his first attempts, there had been printed 
 in Holland, — at Haarlem, and Dordrecht, — "Specula" and "Donati" on 
 wooden boards ; a process known by the name of xylography (engraving on 
 wood), while the attempts at typography (printing with movable type) made 
 by Gutenberg entirely differed from the other ; since the letters, engraved at 
 first on steel points (poingons), and afterwards forced into a copper matrix 
 reproduced by means of casting in a metal more fusible than copper the 
 impress of the point on shanks (tiges) made of pewter or lead, hardened by 
 an alloy (Fig. 391). 
 
 Now, a rather singular circumstance comes to corroborate what was said 
 by Adrian Junius. A Latin edition of the " Speculum," an in-folio of sixty- 
 three leaves, with wood engravings in two compartments at the head of 
 each leaf, consists of a mixture of twenty xylographic leaves, and of forty- 
 one leaves printed with movable type, but very imperfect, and cast in 
 moulds which were probably made of baked earth : an edition of a Dutch 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 491 
 
 " Speculum," in folio, has also two pages in a type smaller and closer than 
 the rest of the text. How are we to explain these anomalies ? On the one 
 hand, a mixture of xylography and typography ; on the other, a combination 
 of two different kinds of movable type. My hypothesis is, if indeed the 
 details given by Junius, open to suspicion as they are, be correct, that the 
 dishonest workman who, according to his own account, stole the implements 
 
 u ™ tionte qtttppofttftdtjs ,jar 
 
 Mwnm atficafus: ur an. ajmti . ante, 
 aoiterr«m.ct$,rira.atf«.cto»fatra. 
 cr^a.^a.ittttratttra.mfra^ia.a^ 
 
 pent e.^ua Dmmu0 nu^tijjatmti 
 ajnifc ufcante t Df&etmetfunrtmmi 
 
 Fig. 390. — Fac-simile of a Page of the most ancient Xylographic " Donatus" (Chapter on Prepositions), 
 printed at Mayence, by Fust and Gutenberg, about 1450. 
 
 employed in the workshop of Laurent Coster, and who must have acted with 
 a certain amount of precipitation, contented himself with carrying off some 
 forms of the "Speculum" just ready for the press. The type employed 
 for twenty or twenty-two pages was sufficient to serve as models for a 
 counterfeit edition, and also for a book of small extent, such as the 
 " Alexandri Galli Doctrinale," and the "Petri Hispani Tractatus." It is 
 
492 
 
 PRINTING. 
 
 probable that the Latin and Dutch editions of the " Speculum " were both 
 entirely composed, set up, and prepared for the text to be struck off, when 
 the thief took at hazard the twenty -two forms, which he determined to turn 
 to account, at any rate as a model for the counterfeit edition he intended to 
 publish. In cast-iron type, these forms could not have weighed more than 
 sixty pounds ; in wooden type, not half as much ; if we add to these the 
 composing-sticks, the pincers, the galleys, and other indispensable elements 
 of the trade, we shall find that the booty was not beyond the strength of a 
 man to carry easily on his shoulders. As for the press, about that there 
 
 Fig. 391.— Portrait of Gutenberg, from an Engraving of the Sixteenth Century. 
 (Imperial Library of Paris, Print Room.) 
 
 could be no question, since the impressions produced at Haarlem were made 
 with a pad and by hand, as is still the case with playing-cards and prints. 
 
 It remains now to discover who was this John who appropriated the 
 secret of printing, and took it from Haarlem to Mayence. Was it John Fust 
 or Faust, as Adrian Junius suspected ? Was it John Gutenberg, as many 
 Dutch writers have alleged? or was it not rather John Gensfleisch the elder, 
 a relation of Gutenberg, as, from a very explicit passage of the learned 
 Joseph Wimpfeling, his contemporary, the latest defenders of the Haarlem 
 tradition think ? The question is still undecided. 
 
 The " Speculum," however, is not the only book of the kind which 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 Fig. 392. — Fac-simile of the Twenty-eighth Xylographic Page of the " Biblia Pauperum ; " representing, 
 with Texts taken from the Old Testament, David slaying Goliath, and Christ causing the Souls of the 
 Patriarchs and Prophets to come out of Purgatory. 
 
494 
 
 PRINTING. 
 
 had appeared in the Low Countries before the period assigned to the dis- 
 covery of printing in Holland. Some of these were evidently xylographic, 
 others show signs of having been printed with movable type of wood, not 
 of metal. All have engravings of the same character as those of the 
 "Speculum," especially the " Biblia Pauperum " ("Poor Men's Bible") 
 (Fig. 392), the "Ars Moriendi" ("The Art of Dying") (Fig. 393) the 
 " Ars Memorandi " (" The Art of Remembering "), which had a very wide 
 circulation. 
 
 However this may be, Laurent Coster, notwithstanding the progress 
 he had made with his invention, was certainly ignorant of its importance. 
 In those days the only libraries were those belonging to convents and to a 
 few nobles of literary acquirements; private individuals, with the excep- 
 tion of some learned men who were richer than their fellows, possessed 
 no books at all. The copyists and illuminators by profession were employed 
 exclusively in reproducing " Livres d'Heures" (prayer-books), and school 
 books : the first were sumptuous volumes, objects of an industry quite 
 exceptional ; the second, destined for children, were always simply executed, 
 and composed of a few leaves of strong paper or parchment. The pupils 
 limited themselves to writing passages of their lessons from the dictation of 
 their teachers ; to the monks was assigned the task of transcribing, at full 
 length, the sacred and profane authors. Coster could not even have 
 thought of reproducing these works, the sale of which would have seemed 
 to him impossible, and he at first fell back upon the " Specula," religious 
 books which addressed themselves to all the faithful, even to those who 
 could not read, by means of the stories or illustrations {images) of which 
 these books were composed ; then he occupied himself with the " Donati," 
 which he reprinted many times from xylographic plates, if not with 
 movable type, and for which he must have found a considerable demand. 
 It was one of these " Donati " that, falling under the eyes of Gutenberg, 
 revealed to him, according to the " Chronique de Cologne," the secret of 
 printing. 
 
 This secret was kept faithfully for fifteen or twenty years by the work- 
 men employed in his printing-house, who were not initiated into the 
 mysteries of the new art till they had served a certain time of probation and 
 apprenticeship : a terrible oath bound together those whom the master had 
 considered worthy of entering into partnership with him ; for on the pre- 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 495 
 
 servation of the secret depended the prosperity or the ruin of the inventor 
 and his coadjutors, since all printed hooks were then sold as manuscripts. 
 
 Fig- 393- — Fac-simile of the fifth Page of the first Xylographic Edition of the " Ars Moriendi," representing 
 the Sinner on his Death-bed surrounded by his Family. Two Demons are whispering into his ear, 
 " Think of thy treasure," and " Distribute it to thy friends." 
 
 But while the secret was so scrupulously maintained by the first Dutch 
 
496 
 
 PRINTING. 
 
 printer and his partners, a lawsuit was brought before the superior court of 
 Strasbourg which, though the motives for it were apparently but of private 
 interest, was nevertheless to give the public the key to the mysterious 
 trade of the typographer. This lawsuit, — the curious documents relating 
 to which were found only in 1760, in an old tower at Strasbourg, — was 
 brought against John Gensfleisch, called Gutenberg (who was born at 
 Mayence, but was exiled from his native town during the political troubles, 
 and had settled at Strasbourg since 1420), by George and Nicholas 
 Dritzehen, who, as heirs of the deceased Andrew Dritzehen, their brother, 
 and formerly Gutenberg's partner, desired to be admitted as his repre- 
 sentatives into an association of whose object they were ignorant, but from 
 which they no doubt knew their brother expected to derive some beneficial 
 results. It was, in short, printing itself which was on its trial at Strasbourg 
 towards the end of the year 1439 ; that is, more than fourteen years before 
 the period at which printing is known to have been first employed in 
 Mayence. 
 
 Here is a summary, as we find them in the documents relating to this 
 lawsuit, of the facts stated before the judge. Gutenberg, an ingenious but a 
 poor man, possessed divers secrets for becoming rich. Andrew Dritzehen came 
 to him with a request that he would teach him many arts. Gutenberg there- 
 upon initiated him into the art of polishing stones, and Andrew "derived 
 great profit from this secret." Subsequently, with the object of carrying 
 out another art during the pilgrimage of Aix-la-Chapelle,* Gutenberg agreed 
 with Hans Riffen, mayor of Lichtenau, to form a company, which Andrew 
 Dritzehen and a man named Andrew Heilman desired to join. Gutenberg 
 consented to this on condition that they would together purchase of him 
 the right to a third of the profits, for a sum of 160 florins, payable on 
 the day of the contract, and 80 florins payable at a later date. The 
 agreement being made, he taught them the art which they were to exercise 
 at the proper period in Aix-la-Chapelle ; but the pilgrimage was postponed 
 to the following year, and the partners required of Gutenberg that he 
 should not conceal from them any of the arts and inventions of which he 
 was cognisant. New stipulations were entered upon whereby the partners 
 pledged themselves to pay an additional sum, and in which it was stated that 
 
 * Probably this "pilgrimage" refers to some one of the great European Councils or Diets 
 held in the city during the Middle Ages, as were Congresses in later times. — [-Ed.] 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 497 
 
 the art should be carried on for the benefit of the four partners during the 
 space of five years ; and that, in the event of one of them dying, all the 
 implements of the art, and all the works already produced, should belong to 
 the surviving partners ; the heirs of the deceased being entitled to receive 
 no more than an indemnity of 100 florins at the expiration of the said five 
 years. 
 
 Gutenberg accordingly offered to pay the heirs of his late partner the 
 stipulated sum ; but they demanded of him an account of the capital invested 
 by Andrew Dritzehen, which, as they alleged, had been absorbed in the 
 speculation. They mentioned especially a certain account for lead, for which 
 their brother had made himself responsible. Without denying this account, 
 Gutenberg refused to satisfy their demands. 
 
 Numerous witnesses gave evidence, and their depositions for and against 
 the object of the association show us a faithful picture of what must have 
 been the inner life of four partners exhausting themselves and their 
 money in efforts to realise a scheme the nature of which they were very 
 careful to conceal, but from which they expected to derive the most 
 splendid results. 
 
 We find them working by night ; we hear them answering those who 
 questioned them on the object of their work, that they were "mirror- 
 makers " (spiegel-macher) ; we find them borrowing money, because they had 
 in hand "something in which they could not invest too much money." 
 Andrew Dritzehen, in whose care the press was left, being dead, Gutenberg's 
 first object was to send to the deceased's house a man he could trust, 
 who was commissioned to unscrew the press, so that the pieces (or 
 forms), which were fixed closely together by it, might become detached 
 from each other, and then to place these forms in or on the press "in such 
 a manner that no one might be able to understand what they were." 
 Gutenberg regrets that his servant did not bring him back all the forms, 
 many of which " were not to be found." Lastly, we find figuring among 
 the witnesses a turner, a timber-merchant, and a goldsmith who declared 
 that he had worked during three years for Gutenberg, and that he had 
 gained more than 100 florins by preparing for him " the things belonging 
 to printing" (das zu dem Trucken gehoret). 
 
 Trucken — printing ! Thus the grand word was pronounced in the 
 course of the lawsuit, but certainly without producing the least effect on 
 
 3 s 
 
49 8 
 
 PRINTING. 
 
 the audience, who wondered what was this occult art which Gutenberg and 
 his partners had carried on with so much trouble, and at such great 
 expense. However, it is quite certain that, with the exception of the 
 indiscretion, really very insignificant, of the goldsmith, Gutenberg's 
 secret remained undiscovered, for it was supposed it had to do with the 
 polishing of stones and the manufacture of mirrors. The judge, being 
 informed as to the good faith of Gutenberg, pronounced the offers he made 
 to the plaintiffs satisfactory, decided against the heirs of Andrew Dritzehen, 
 and the three other partners remained sole proprietors of their process, and 
 continued to carry it out. 
 
 If we study with some attention the documents relating to this singular 
 trial at Strasbourg, and if we also notice, that our word mirror is the 
 translation of the German word spiegel and of the Latin word speculum, it 
 is impossible not to recognise all the processes, all the implements made 
 use of in printing, with the names they have not ceased to bear, and 
 which were given to them as soon as they were invented ; the forms, the 
 screw (which is not the printing-press, for they printed in those days with 
 the frotton, or rubber, but the frame in which the types were pressed), the 
 lead, the work, the art, &c. We see Gutenberg accompanied by a turner 
 who made the screw for the press, the timber merchant who had supplied 
 the planks of box or of pear wood, the goldsmith who had engraved or cast 
 the type. Then we ascertain that these "mirrors," in the preparation 
 of which the partners were occupied, and which were to be sold at the 
 pilgrimage of Aix-la-Chapelle, were no other than the future copies of 
 the " Speculum Humanae Salvationis," an imitation more or less perfect of 
 the famous book of illustrations of which Holland had already published 
 three or four editions, in Latin and in Dutch. 
 
 We know, on the other hand, that these "Mirrors" or "Specula" were, 
 in the earliest days of printing, so much in request, that in every place 
 the first printers rivalled each other in executing and publishing different 
 editions of the book with illustrations. Here, there was the reprint of the 
 "Speculum," abridged by L. Coster; there, the "Speculum" of Gutenberg, 
 taken entirely from manuscripts ; now it was the " Speculum Vitae 
 Humanae," by Roderick, Bishop of Zamora ; then the " Speculum Con- 
 soienciae," of Arnold Gheyloven ; then the " Speculum Sacerdotum," or 
 again, the voluminous "Speculum" of Vincent de Beauvais, &c. 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 499 
 
 It cannot now any longer be assumed that Gutenberg really made 
 mirrors or looking-glasses at Strasbourg, and that tbose pieces "laid in a 
 press," those " forms which came to pieces," that lead sold or wrought 
 by a goldsmith, were, as they wished it to be supposed, only intended to be 
 used " for printing ornaments on the frames of looking-glasses ! " 
 
 Would it not have been surprising that the pilgrims who were to 
 visit Aix-la-Chapelle on the occasion of the grand jubilee of 1440, should 
 be so anxious to buy ornamented mirrors ? As to the art " of polishing 
 stones," which Gutenberg had taught at first to Andrew Dritzehen, who 
 
 Fig. 394. — Interior of a Printing-office in the Sixteenth Century, by J. Amman.. 
 
 derived from it " so much profit" having anything to do with printing was, 
 no doubt, also questionable ; but we have not been able to solve the enigma, 
 and wait to clear up the difficulty till a new incunable {incunabula, "a 
 cradle," the word is applied to the first editions ever printed) is discovered, 
 the work of some Peter (nerpos " a stone ") or other ; as, for example, the 
 Latin sermons of Hermann de Petra on the Lord's Prayer ; for Gutenberg, 
 when speaking of polishing stones, might have enigmatically designated a 
 book he was printing ; just as his partner, in answer to the judge, 
 after having raised his hand on high and sworn to give true evidence, 
 
500 
 
 PRINTING. 
 
 could call himself a maker of mirrors, without telling a falsehood, without 
 committing perjury. The secret of printing was to he religiously kept hy 
 those who knew it. 
 
 In short, it results from all this that Gutenberg, "an ingenious man 
 and a man of invention," having seen a xylographic "Donatus," had 
 endeavoured to imitate it, and had succeeded in doing so, the secret being 
 confided to Andrew Dritzehen ; that the other arts, which Gutenberg at first 
 kept to himself, but which he subsequently communicated to his partners, 
 consisted in the idea of substituting movable type for tabular printing ; a 
 substitution that could only be effected after numerous experiments had 
 been made, and which were just about to be crowned with success when 
 Andrew Dritzehen died. We may then consider it as nearly certain that 
 printing was in some sort discovered twice successively — the first time by 
 Laurent Coster, whose small printed books, or books in letterpress (en 
 moule), attracted the attention of Gutenberg; and the second time by 
 Gutenberg, who raised the art to a degree of perfection such as had never 
 been attained by his predecessor. 
 
 It was after the Strasbourg lawsuit between the years 1440 or 1442, as 
 stated by many historians, that Gutenberg went to Holland, and there 
 became a workman in the establishment of Coster ; this is asserted in order 
 that they might be able to accuse him of the theft which Junius has laid to 
 the account of a certain man whose name was John. Only — and the coinci- 
 dence is not, in this case, unworthy of remark — two unedited chronicles of 
 Strasbourg and the Alsatian "Wimpfeling relate, almost at the same time, a 
 robbery of type and implements used in printing, but mentioning Strasbourg 
 instead of Haarlem, Gutenberg instead of Laurent Coster, and naming the 
 thief John Gensfleisch. But, according to the Strasbourg tradition, this 
 John Gensfleisch the elder, related to and employed by Gutenberg, robbed 
 him of his secret and his tools, after having been his rival in the dis- 
 covery of printing, and established himself at Mayence, where, by a just 
 visitation of Providence, he was soon struck blind. It was then, adds the 
 tradition, that in his repentance he sent for his former master to come to 
 Mayence, and gave up to him the business he had founded. But this 
 last part of the tradition seems to savour too much of the moral 
 deductions of a story; and as it is very improbable, moreover, that two 
 thefts of the same kind were committed at the same period, and under the 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 same circumstances, we are inclined to believe that the John mentioned 
 by Junius was, in fact, Gutenberg's relative, who went to Haarlem to 
 perfect himself in the art of printing, and robbed Coster ; for there 
 really existed at Mayence, at the time mentioned, a John Gensfleisch, 
 who might have printed, before Gutenberg went to join him there, the 
 two school books, " Doctrinale Alexandri Galli," and " Petri Hispani 
 Tractatus." This is rendered still more probable from the fact that, after 
 search had been long made for these books, which were absolutely 
 unknown when Junius mentioned them, three fragments of the "Doc- 
 trinale," printed on vellum with the type of the Dutch "Speculum," were 
 at length found. 
 
 However, Gutenberg had not succeeded with his printing at Strasbourg. 
 When he quitted the town, where he left such pupils as John Mentell and 
 Henry Eggestein, he removed to Mayence, and established himself in the 
 house of Zum Jungen. There he again printed, but he exhausted his 
 means in experiments, alternately taking up and laying aside the 
 various processes he had employed — xylography, movable types of wood, 
 lead, and cast iron. He used, for printing, a hand-press which he had 
 made on the same principle as a wine-press ; he invented new tools ; he 
 began ten works and could finish none. At last, his resources all gone, 
 and himself in a state of despair, he was just going to give up the art 
 altogether, when chance sent him a partner, John Fust or Faust, a rich 
 goldsmith of Mayence. 
 
 This partnership took place in 1450. Fust, by a deed properly drawn 
 up by a notary, promised Gutenberg to advance him 800 gold florins for 
 the manufacture of implements and tools, and 300 for other expenses — 
 servants' wages, rent, firing, parchment, paper, ink, &c. Besides the 
 " Specula" and " Donati" already in circulation, which Gutenberg probably 
 continued to print, the object of the partnership was the printing of a 
 Bible in folio of two columns, in large type, with initial letters engraved 
 on wood ; an important work requiring a great outlay. 
 
 A caligrapher was attached to Gutenberg's printing establishment, 
 either to trace on wood the characters to be engraved, or to rubricate 
 the printed pages ; in other words, to write in red ink, to paint with a 
 brush or to illuminate (au frotton) the initials, the capital letters, and the 
 headings of chapters. This caligrapher was probably Peter Sehoeffer or 
 
502 
 
 PRINTING. 
 
 Schoiffer, of Gernsheim, a small town in the diocese of Darmstadt, a clerk of 
 the diocese of Mayence, as he styles himself, and perhaps a German student 
 in the University of Paris ; since a manuscript copied by him, and preserved 
 at Strasbourg, is terminated by an inscription in which he testifies that he 
 himself wrote it in the year 1449, in "the very glorious University of 
 Paris." SchoefFer was not only a literary man, but was also a man of 
 ingenuity and prudence (ingeniosus et prudens). Having entered Guten- 
 berg's establishment, on whom Fust had forced him, in 1452, to take part 
 in the new association they were then forming, Schceffer invented an 
 improved mould with which he could cast separately all the letters of the 
 alphabet in metal, whereas up to this time they had been obliged to engrave 
 the type with a burin. He concealed his discovery from Gutenberg, who 
 would naturally have availed himself of it ; but he confided the secret to 
 Fust, who, being very experienced in casting metals, carried out his idea. 
 It was evidently with this cast type, which resisted the action of the press, 
 that Schceffer composed and executed a " Donatus," of which four leaves, in 
 parchment, were found at Treves in 1803, in the interior of an old book- 
 cover, and were deposited in the Imperial Library of Paris. An inscription 
 in this edition, printed in red, announces formally that Peter Schceffer alone 
 had executed it, with its type and its initial letters, according to the " new 
 art of the printer, without the help of the pen." 
 
 That was certainly the first public disclosure of the existence of printing, 
 which up to this time had passed off its productions as the work of 
 caligraphers. It seems that Schceffer thus desired to mark the date 
 and to appropriate to himself the invention of Gutenberg. It is certain 
 that Fust, allured by the results Schceffer had obtained, secretly entered 
 into partnership with him, and, in order to get rid of Gutenberg, 
 profited by the power which his bond gave him over that unfortunate 
 individual. Gutenberg, summoned to dissolve the partnership and to return 
 the sums he had received, which he was quite incapable of paying, was 
 obliged, in order to satisfy the demands of his pitiless creditor, to give up 
 to him his printing establishment with all the materials it contained ; among 
 them was included this same Bible, the last leaves of which were, perhaps, 
 in the press at the moment when they robbed him of the fruits of his 
 long-protracted labours. 
 
 Gutenberg evicted, Peter Schceffer, and Fust, who had given Schceffer 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 503 
 
 his daughter in marriage, completed the great Bible, which was ready for 
 sale in the early months of 1456. This Bible, being passed off as a manu- 
 script, must have commanded a very high price. This accounts for the 
 non-appearance on it of any inscription to show by what means this immense 
 work had been executed ; let us add that in any case we may well suppose 
 Schoeffer and Fust were not willing to give to Gutenberg a share of the 
 glory which they dared not yet appropriate to themselves. 
 
 The Latin Bible, without date, which all bibliographers agree in con- 
 
 e . Fftf * 
 
 |fj»ocut^ I autefaul atr yonatljan. 
 JUt filwmfiumMtai) otncsf-uos 
 ^ubs:utocttiE«ctBuio.^ijrtxi pona< 
 ttf as fUWaullJiltjje&at Dauitrtjalte. 
 £ titiouatutponattes Oauto fctcm 
 jDuerirfaulpr ttteus otnaccic.fi)ua- 
 proptobfuatt qfo mantomanetue 
 rlamttaufrctoas Jfgo autugceiucs 
 ftabo iu*ra patre tmu t a 1 cd ubicucp 
 fu mv tt tgo 10 p ar tt ati a»tcc m 
 ^qMojuiotro nuaabotibUocut? 
 fftrrjro ronatfyasttoairiii bona:a& 
 faulpatrem ruttm.iDi*Wtfatt eu. jRe 
 
 Fig. 395. — Fac-simile of the Bible of 1456 (1 Samuel xix. 1 — 5), printed at Mayence by Gutenberg. 
 
 sidering as that of Gutenberg, is a large in-folio of six hundred and 
 forty-one leaves, divided into two, or three, or even four volumes. It 
 is printed in double columns, of forty-two lines each in the full pages, 
 with the exception of the first ten, which consisted of only forty or 
 forty-one lines (Fig. 395). The characters are Gothic ; the leaves are 
 all numbered, and have neither signatures nor catchivords. Some copies 
 of it are on vellum, others on paper. The number of copies which were 
 
504 
 
 PRINTING. 
 
 printed of this Bible may be estimated at one hundred and fifty — a 
 considerable number for that period. The simultaneous publication of 
 so many Bibles, exactly alike, did not contribute less than the lawsuit 
 of Gutenberg and Fust to make known the discovery of printing. 
 Besides which, Fust and his new partner, although they had mutually 
 agreed to keep the secret as long as possible, were the first to reveal it, in 
 order to get all the credit of the invention for themselves, when public 
 rumour allowed them no longer to conceal it within their printing-office. 
 
 It was then they printed the "Psalmorum Codex" (Collection of 
 Psalms), the earliest book bearing their names, and which fixed, in 
 a manner, for the first time, a date for the new art they had so much 
 improved. The colophon, or inscription at the end of the "Psalmorum 
 Codex," announces that the book was executed " without the help of the 
 pen, by an ingenious process, in the year of our Lord, 1457." 
 
 This magnificent Psalter, which went through three editions without 
 any considerable alterations being made in it in the space of thirty -three 
 years, is a large in-folio volume of one hundred and seventy-five leaves, 
 printed in red and black characters, imitated from those used in the 
 liturgical manuscripts of the fifteenth century. There exists, however, of 
 the rarest edition of this book but six or seven copies on vellum (Fig. 396). 
 
 From this period printing, instead of concealing itself, endeavoured, on 
 the contrary, to make itself generally known. But it does not as yet seem 
 to have occurred to any one that it could be applied to the reproduction 
 of other books than Bibles, psalters, and missals, because these were the 
 only books that commanded a quick and extensive sale. Fust and SchoefFer 
 then undertook the printing of a voluminous work, which served as a 
 liturgical manual to the whole of Christendom, the celebrated " Rationale 
 Divinorum Officiorum" ("Manual of Divine Offices"), by "William Durand, 
 Bishop of Mende, in the thirteenth century. It suffices to glance 
 over this " Rationale," and to compare it with the coarse " Specula " 
 printed in Holland, to be convinced that in the year 1459 printing had 
 reached the highest degree of perfection. This edition, dated from 
 Mayence (Moguntice) , was no longer intended for a small number of buyers ; 
 it was addressed to the entire Catholic world, and copies of it on vellum 
 and on paper were disseminated so rapidly over the whole of Europe as 
 to cause the belief, thenceforward, that printing was invented at Mayence. 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 505 
 
 witt tgulteinns tomiuo, 
 tttnetttu ^ngmo Jlortuf- 
 
 Xultatf iu= 
 fttmOnorrr 
 
 ofttcmtti 
 faltrrto Derf 
 
 antatmranmnouu: 
 frmcor Qgiarertu eutm 
 uifttEQtligit mtftfiiani 
 Dmpimaffttra.TTfrijo 
 
 ftfpmtaoiieriuBomis 
 
 396. — Fac-simile of a page of the Psalter of 1459, second edition, or the second copy that was 
 struck off. Printed at Mayence, by J. Fust and P. Schceffer. 
 
 3 T 
 
506 
 
 PRINTING. 
 
 The fourth work printed by Fust and Schceffer, and dated 1460, is the 
 collection of the Constitutions of Pope Clement V., known by the name of 
 "Clementines" — a large in-folio in double columns, having superb initial 
 letters painted in gold and colours in the small number of copies still extant. 
 
 But Gutenberg, though deprived of his typographic apparatus, had not 
 renounced the art of which he considered himself, and with reason, the prin- 
 cipal inventor. He was, above all, anxious to prove himself as capable as 
 his former partners of producing books " without the help of the pen." He 
 formed a new association, and fitted up a printing-office which, we know by 
 tradition, was actively at work till 1460, the year wherein appeared the 
 " Catholicon" (a kind of encyclopaedia of the thirteenth century), by John 
 
 UKtris oiccombus potif 
 trma urjfama filing Jn $r£ 
 tfs uo Dconibus pb.ut or 
 pbeus pfoeron. tooc tamen 
 frire tebcmus.'P ta™ 
 focis Ub)\Q ^nudauoa eft f 
 quo pb.atq? B lb1u tutereft: 
 (Tcut aictt priftianu* in prt 
 ibro majors* 
 aba be quali F4$a?a fa.$m quo© a come&re* 
 vntk fabanus a u quoD fit tx? fabiTul' quofcper 
 tine*- a© fabas.et 15 fabariu$.t, cantor Diccban 
 tur apttb gentiles cantotss fabarij.oa illo le#u 
 
 wine waxtme urcban? m cibo.eft? component 
 
 Fig - . 397. — Fac-simile of the " Catholicon " ot 1460, printed at Mayence by Gutenberg. 
 
 Balbi, of Genoa, the only important work the printing of which can be 
 attributed to Gutenberg (Fig. 397), and which can bear comparison with the 
 editions of Fust and Schceffer. Gutenberg, who had imitated the Dutch 
 " Donati " and " Specula," doubtless felt a repugnance at appropriating to 
 himself the credit of an invention he had only improved ; accordingly, in the 
 long and explicit anonymous inscription placed at the end of the volume, 
 he attributed to God alone the glory of this divine invention, declaring that 
 the " Catholicon " had been printed without the assistance of reed, stylus, or 
 pen, but by a marvellous combination of points, matrices, and letters. 
 
 This undertaking brought to a happy termination, Gutenberg, no doubt 
 weary of the annoyances incident to business, transferred his printing- 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 507 
 
 office to his workmen, Henry and Nicholas Bechtermuncze, Weigand 
 Spyes, and Ulric Zell. Then, having retired near to Adolplms II., 
 elector and archbishop of Mayence, where he occupied the post of gentle- 
 man of the ecclesiastical court of that prince, he contented himself with 
 the modest stipend attached to that office, and died at a date not authen- 
 tically determined, but which cannot be later than February 24, 1468. His 
 friend, Adam Gelth, erected in the Church of the Recollets at Mayence, 
 a monument to his memory, with an epitaph styling him formally " the 
 inventor of the typographic art." 
 
 Fust and Schoeffer did not the less continue to print books with inde- 
 fatigable ardour. In 1462 they completed a new edition of the Bible, much 
 more perfect than that of 1456, and of which copies were probably sold, 
 as were those of the first edition, as manuscripts, especially in countries 
 where, as in France, printing did not already exist. It seems that the 
 appearance in Paris of this Bible, (called the Mayence Bible), greatly 
 excited the community of scribes and booksellers, who saw in the new 
 method of producing books, without the aid of the pen, "the destruction of 
 their trade." They charged, it is said, the sellers of these books with 
 magic ; but it is more probable the latter were proceeded against, and con- 
 demned to fine and imprisonment, for having omitted to procure from the 
 University authority for the sale of their Bible ; such permission being then 
 indispensable for the sale of every kind of book. 
 
 In the meantime the town of Mayence had been taken by assault and 
 given up to pillage (October 27, 1462). This event, in consequence of 
 which the printing-office of Fust and Schoeffer remained shut up for two 
 years, resulted in the dissemination over the whole of Europe of printers 
 and the art of printing. Cologne, Hamburg, and Strasbourg appear to have 
 been the first towns in which the emigrants established themselves. 
 
 When these printers left Mayence, and carried their art elsewhere, it 
 had never produced any book of classic literature ; but it had proved by 
 important publications, such as the Bible and the " Catholicon," that it 
 could create entire libraries, and thus propagate, ad infinitum, the master- 
 pieces of human genius. It was reserved for the printing-office of Fust 
 and Schoeffer to set the example in that direction, and of printing the 
 first classical work. In 1465, Cicero's treatise " De Officiis," issued from 
 the press of these two faithful associates, and marked, as we may say, the 
 
5 o8 
 
 PRINTING. 
 
 commencement of the printing of books for libraries, and with so great 
 success that in the following year a new edition of the treatise was 
 published, in quarto. 
 
 At this period, Fust himself came to Paris, where he established a depot 
 of printed books, but left the management of the concern to one of his own 
 fellow-countrymen. This person dying soon afterwards, the books found 
 in his house, being the property of a foreigner, were sold by right of 
 forfeiture, for the king's benefit. But upon the petition of Peter Schoeffer, 
 backed up by the Elector of Mayence, the King, Louis XI., granted 
 to the petitioners a sum of 2,425 golden dollars, " in consideration of the 
 trouble and labour which the said petitioners had taken for the said 
 art and trade of printing, and of the benefit and utility which resulted 
 and may result from this art to the whole world, as well by increasing 
 knowledge as in other ways." This memorable decree of the King of 
 France bears date April 21, 1475. 
 
 "We must mention, however, that about the year 1462, Louis XL, inqui- 
 sitive and uneasy at what he had heard of the invention of Gutenberg, 
 sent to Mayence Nicholas Jenson, a clever engraver, attached to the mint 
 at Tours, "to obtain secret information of the cutting of the points and 
 type, by means of which the rarest manuscripts could be multiplied, and 
 to carry off surreptitiously the invention and introduce it into France." 
 Nicholas Jenson, after having succeeded in his mission, did not return 
 to France (it was never known why), but went to Venice and established 
 himself there as a printer. It would seem, however, that Louis XL, 
 not discouraged at the ill success of his attempt, despatched, it is said, 
 another envoy, less enterprising but more conscientious than the first, 
 to discover the secrets of printing. In 1469, three German printers, Ulric 
 Gering, Martin Crantz, and Michael Friburger, began to print in Paris, 
 in a room of the Sorbonne, of which their fellow-countryman, John Heylin, 
 named De la Pierre, was then the prior ; in the following year they 
 dedicated to the king, " their protector," one of their editions, revised by 
 the learned William Fichet ; and in the space of four years they published 
 about fifteen works, quartos and folios, the majority being printed for 
 the first time. Then, when they were forced to leave the Sorbonne, because 
 John de la Pierre, who had returned to Germany, had no longer authority 
 over the institution, they set up in the Rue Saint- Jacques a new printing 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 509 
 
 establishment, whose sign-board was the " Soleil d'Or," from which, during 
 the next five years, were issued twelve other important works. 
 
 The Sorbonne then, like the University, was the cradle and the foster- 
 mother in Paris of the art of printing, which soon attained to a flourish- 
 ing condition, and produced, during the last twenty years of the fourteenth* 
 century, numerous fine books of history, poetry, literature, and devotion, 
 under the direction of the able and learned Pierre Oaron, Pasquier Bon- 
 homme, Anthony Verard, Simon Vostre (Fig. 398), &c. 
 
 After the capture of Mayence, two workmen, who had been dismissed 
 from the establishment of Fust and Schoeffer, Conrad Sweynheim and 
 Arnold Pannartz, carried beyond the Alps the secret that had been confided 
 to them under the guarantee of an oath. They remained for a time in the 
 Convent of Subiaco, near Rome, in which were some German monks, and 
 there they organised a printing apparatus, and printed many fine editions 
 of Lactantius, Cicero, St. Augustine, &c. They were soon invited to 
 Rome, and met with an asylum in the house of the illustrious family of 
 Massimi ; but they found an opponent in the city in one of their own work- 
 men from the convent, who had come to Rome and engaged himself as 
 printer to the cardinal John of Torquemada. Henceforward sprang up 
 between the two printing establishments a rivalry which showed itself in 
 unparalleled zeal and activity on both sides. In ten years the greater 
 number of the writings of the ancient Latin authors, which had been 
 preserved in manuscripts more or less rare, passed through the press. 
 In 1476 there were in Rome more than twenty printers, who employed 
 about a hundred presses, and whose great object was to surpass each 
 other in the rapidity with which they produced their publications; so 
 that the day soon arrived when the most precious manuscripts retained 
 any value only because they contained what had not been already made 
 public by printing. Those of which printed editions already existed were 
 so universally disregarded, that we must refer to this period the destruc- 
 tion of a large number. They were used, when written on parchment, for 
 binding the new books ; and to this circumstance may be attributed the loss 
 of certain celebrated works which printing in nowise tended to preserve 
 from the knife of the binder. 
 
 While printing was displaying such prodigious activity in Rome, it was 
 
 * Sic ; but it should evidently be the fifteenth century. — [En.] 
 
Fig. 39?. — Fac-simile of a page of a " Livre d'Heures " printed in Paris, in 1512, 
 by Simon Vostre. 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 5" 
 
 not less active in Venice, where it seems to have been imported by that 
 Nicholas Jenson whom Louis XI. had sent to Gutenberg, and whom for a 
 long time even the Venetians looked on as the inventor of the art with 
 which he had clandestinely become acquainted at Mayence. From the 
 
 Fig- 399— The Mark of Gerard Lecu, Printer at Fig. 400.— The Mark of Fust and Schoeffer, 
 
 Gouwe (1482). Printers. (Fifteenth Century.) 
 
 year 1469, however, Jenson had no longer the monopoly of printing in 
 Venice, where John de Spire had arrived, bringing also from Mayence 
 all the improvements Gutenberg and Schoeffer had obtained. This 
 art having ceased to be a secret in the city of the Doges, great 
 
 Fig. 401. — Mark of Arnold de Keyser, Printer at Ghent. 
 (1480.) 
 
 competition arose among printers, who flocked to Venice, where they 
 found a market for their volumes which a thousand ships carried to all 
 parts of the world. At this period important and admirable publications 
 issued from the numerous rival printing establishments in Venice. 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 Christopher Waltdorfer, of Ratisbon, published in 1471 the first edition 
 of the " Decameron " of Boccacio, of which a copy was sold for £2,080 
 at the Roxburgh sale ; John of Cologne published, in the same year, 
 the first dated edition of "Terence;" Adam of Amberg reprinted, 
 from the Roman editions, " Lactantius " and "Virgil," &c. Finally, 
 Venice already possessed more than two hundred printers, when in 
 1494 the great Aldo Manuzio made his appearance, the precursor of 
 the Estiennes,* who were the glory of French printing. From every 
 part of Europe printing spread itself and flourished (Figs. 399 to 41 1) ; the 
 printers, however, often neglected, perhaps intentionally, to date their 
 
 Fig. 402.— Mark of Colard Fig. 403— Mark of Trechsel, 
 
 Mansion, Printer at Bruges. Printer at Lyons. 
 
 (H77-) (1489.) 
 
 productions. In the course of 1469 there were only two towns, Venice 
 and Milan, that revealed, by their dated editions, the time at which 
 printing was first established within their walls; in 1470, five towns — 
 Nuremberg, Paris, Foligno, Treviso, and Verona ; in 1471, eight towns — 
 Strasbourg, Spires, Treviso, Bologna, Ferrara, Naples, Pavia, and Florence ; 
 in 1472, eight others — Cremona, Felizzano, Padua, Mantua, Montreuil, 
 Jesi, Munster, and Parma; in 1473, ten — Brescia, Messina, Ulm, Bude, 
 
 * Anglice, Stephens, by which name this illustrious family of scholars and printers is most 
 popularly known in England. They were ten in number, who flourished between 1512 and about 
 1660. Anthony, the last distinguished representative of the family, died in poverty at the Hotel 
 Dieu, Paris, in 1674, at the age of eighty-two. — [Ed.] 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 5*3 
 
 Lauingen, Mersebourg, Alost, Utrecht, Lyons, and St. Ursio, near Vicenza ; 
 in 1474, thirteen towns, among which are Yalentia (in Spain) and London ; 
 in 1475, twelve towns, &c. Each year we find the art gaining ground, and 
 each year an increase in the number of books newly edited, rendering science 
 and literature popular by considerably diminishing the price of books. Thus, 
 for example, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, the illustrious 
 Poggio sold his fine manuscript of "Livy," to raise money enough to 
 buy himself a villa near Florence ; Anthony of Palermo mortgaged his 
 
 Fig-. 404. — Mark of Simon Vostre, Printer at Paris, Fig. 405. — Mark of Galliot du Pre, Bookseller at 
 
 in 1531, living in the Rue Neuve Nostre-Dame, Paris. (1531.) 
 
 at the Sign of St. John the Evangelist. 
 
 estate in order to be able to purchase a manuscript of the same historical 
 writer, valued at a hundred and twenty-five dollars ; yet a few years later 
 the " Livy," printed at Rome by Sweynheim and Pannartz, in one folio 
 volume on vellum, was worth only five golden dollars. 
 
 The largest number of the early editions resembled each other, for 
 they were generally printed in Gothic characters, or lettres de somme — letters 
 which bristled with points and angular appendices. These characters, when 
 printing was only just invented, had preserved in Holland and in Germany 
 
 3 u 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 their original form ; and the celebrated printer of Bruges, Colard Mansion, 
 only improved on them in his valuable publications, which were almost con- 
 temporaneous with Gutenberg's " Catholicon ;" but they had already under- 
 gone in France a semi metamorphosis in getting rid of their angularities and 
 their most extravagant features. These lettres de somme were then adopted 
 under the name of bdtarde (bastard) or ronde (round), in the first books 
 printed in France, and when Nicholas Jenson established himself in Venice 
 he used the Roman, which were only an elegant variety of the lettres de 
 
 Fig. 406. — Mark of Philippe le Noir, Printer, Book- 
 seller, and Bookbinder, at Paris, 1536, living in 
 the Rue St. Jacques, at the sign of the " Rose 
 Couronnee." 
 
 Fig. 407. — Mark of Temporal, Printer at Lyons, 1550 
 — 1559, with two devices ; one in Latin, " And 
 in the meanwhile time flieth, flieth irreparably ;" 
 the other in Greek, " Mark, or know, Time." 
 (Observe the play upon the words tempus, Koipds 
 and Temporal,) 
 
 somme of France (Gothic characters). Aldo Manuzio, with the sole object of 
 insuring that Venice should not owe its national type to a Frenchman, 
 adopted the Italic character, renewed from the writing called cursive or de 
 chancellerie (of the chancellor's office), which was never generally used in 
 printing, notwithstanding the fine editions of Aldo. Hereafter the Ciceronean 
 character was to come into use, so called because it had been employed at 
 Rome in the first edition of the " Epistolae Familiares " (Familiar Letters) of 
 Cicero, in 1467. The character called " St. Augustinian," which appeared 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 5*5 
 
 later, likewise owes its name to the large edition of the works of St. Augus- 
 tine, published at Basle in 1506. Moreover, during this first period in 
 which each printer engraved, or caused to be engraved under his own direc- 
 
 Fig. 408. — Mark of Robert Estienne, 
 
 Printer at Paris, 1536. 
 : Do not aspire to know high things." 
 
 W 
 
 > 
 w 
 
 > 
 E5 
 
 O 
 
 H 
 
 W 
 
 o 
 
 < 
 
 > 
 
 Fig. 409. — Mark of Gryphe, Printer 
 at Lyons, 1529. 
 'Virtue my Leader, Fortune my Companion." 
 
 tions, the characters he made use of, there was an infinite number of different 
 types. The register, a table indicative of the quires which composed the 
 book, was necessary to point out in what order these were to be arranged 
 
 Fig. 410. — Mark of Plantin, Printer, 
 at Antwerp, 1557. 
 " Christ the true Vine." 
 
 Fig. 411.— Mark of J. Le Noble, Printer 
 at Troyes. (1595.) 
 
 and bound together. After the register came the catchwords, which, at the 
 end of each quire or of each leaf, were destined to serve an analogous pur- 
 pose ; and the signatures, indicating the place of quires or of' leaves by letters 
 or figures ; but signatures and catchwords existed already in the manuscripts, 
 
Si6 
 
 PRINTING. 
 
 and typographers had only to reproduce 
 them in their editions. There was at first 
 a perfect identity between the manuscripts 
 and the books printed from them. The 
 typographic art seems to have considered 
 it imperative to respect the abbreviations 
 with which the manuscripts were so en- 
 cumbered as often to become unintelligible ; 
 but, as it was not easy to transfer them 
 precisely from the manuscripts, they were 
 soon expressed in such a way, and in so 
 complicated a manner, that in 1483 a special 
 explanatory treatise had to be published to 
 render them intelligible. The punctuation 
 was generally very capriciously presented : 
 here, it was nearly nil; there, it admitted 
 only of the full stop in various positions ; 
 the rests were often indicated by oblique 
 strokes ; sometimes the full stop was round, 
 sometimes square, and we find also the star 
 or asterisk employed as a sign of punctua- 
 tion. The new paragraphs, or breaks, are 
 placed indifferently in the same line with 
 the rest of the text, projecting beyond it or 
 not reaching' to it. 
 
 Fig. 412.— Border from the " Livre d'Heures" of Anthony Verard (1488), representing- the Assumption of the 
 Virgin in the presence of the Apostles and Holy Women, and at the bottom of the page two Mystical Figures . 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 S'7 
 
 rr 
 
 The book, on leaving the press, went, 
 like its predecessor the manuscript, first into 
 the hands of the corrector, who revised the 
 text, rectifying wrong letters, and restoring 
 those the press had left in blank ; then 
 into the hands of the rubricator, who printed 
 in red, blue, or other colours, the initial 
 letters, the capitals, and the new para- 
 graphs. The leaves, before the adoption of 
 signatures, were numbered by hand. 
 
 At first, nearly all books were printed 
 in folio and quarto sizes, the result of fold- 
 ing the sheet of paper in two or in four 
 respectively ; but the length and breadth of 
 these sizes varied according to the require- 
 ments of typography and the dimensions 
 of the press. At the end of the fifteenth 
 century, however, the advantages of the 
 octavo were already appreciated, which soon 
 became in France the sex-decimo, and in 
 Italy the duo-decimo. 
 
 Paper and ink employed by the earliest 
 printer seem to have required no improve- 
 ment as the art of printing progressed. 
 
 Fig. 413. — Border taken from the " Livre d'Heures" of Geoffroi Tory (1525) 
 
5i8 
 
 PRINTING. 
 
 SI 
 
 The ink was black, bright, indelible, un- 
 alterable, penetrating deeply into the paper, 
 and composed, as already were the colours, 
 of oil-paint. The paper, which was cer- 
 tainly rather grey or yellow, and often 
 coarse and rough, had the advantage of 
 being strong, durable, and was almost fit, 
 in virtue of these qualities, to replace parch- 
 ment and vellum, both of which materials 
 were scarce and too expensive. Editors 
 contented themselves with having struck off 
 on membrane (a thin and white vellum) a 
 small number of copies of each edition; 
 never exceeding three hundred. These 
 sumptuous copies, rubricated, illuminated, 
 bound with care, resembling in every respect 
 the finest manuscripts, were generally pre- 
 sented to kings, princes, and great per- 
 sonages, whose patronage or assistance the 
 printer sought. Nor was any expense 
 spared to add to typography all the orna- 
 ments which wood- engravings could confer 
 upon it ; and from the year 1475, numerous 
 
 Fig. 414.—" Livre d'Heures," by Guillaume Roville (1551), a composition in the style of the school of Lyons, 
 with Caryatides representing female Saints semi-veiled. 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 5i9 
 
 illustrated editions, of which an example was 
 found in the first "Specula," especially those 
 printed in Germany, were enriched with 
 figures, portraits, heraldic escutcheons, and 
 a multitude of ornamented margins (Figs. 
 412 to 415). For more than a century 
 the painters and engravers worked hand in 
 hand with the printers and booksellers. 
 
 The taste for books spread over the 
 whole of Europe ; the number of buyers 
 and of amateurs was every day increas- 
 ing. In the libraries of princes, scholars, 
 or monks, printed books were collected as 
 formerly were manuscripts. Henceforth 
 printing found everywhere the same protec- 
 tion, the same encouragement, the same 
 rivalry. Typographers sometimes travelled 
 with their apparatus, opened a printing-office 
 in a small town, and then went on elsewhere 
 after they had sold one edition. Finally, 
 such was the incredible activity of typo- 
 graphy, from its origin till 1500, that the 
 
 Fig-. 415. — Border employed by John of Tournes, in 1557, ornamented with Antique Masks and Allegorical 
 Personages bearing Baskets containing Laurel Branches. 
 
 3 x 
 
5 2 o 
 
 PRINTING. 
 
 number of editions published in Europe in the space of half a century 
 amounted to sixteen thousand. But the most remarkable result of printing 
 was the important part it played in the movement of the sixteenth century, 
 from which resulted the transformation of the arts, of literature, and science ; 
 the discoveries of Laurent Coster and of Gutenberg had cast a new light 
 over the world, and the press made its appearance to modify profoundly 
 the conditions of the intellectual life of peoples. 
 
 Fig. 416. — Mark of Bonaventure and Abraham Elsevier, Printers at Leyden, 1620. 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 Music in the Time of the Emperors.— Christian Music in the Fourth Century. — St. Ambrose's 
 Flain Chant. — The Music of Northern Peoples. — The Gregorian Musical Eeform. — Eeligious 
 and National Music under the Kings of the Franks. — Divisions (Neumm) and old Notations. — 
 The Scale invented by Guy d'Arezzo. — Diaphony and Descant. — Minstrels and Trouveres. — 
 The Confraternity of Minstrels at Paris. — Dramatic Music. — Hrosvitha and Adam de la Hale. 
 — Musicians in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. — Kene d'Anjou and other princely 
 Musicians. — Printers of Music. — Music at the Court of the Valois. — Protestant Music. — 
 Ballet Music. 
 
 ETTERS of naturalisation were soon obtained for Greek 
 music in ancient Rome, which had no national music, and 
 which readily adapted this foreign music, in the time of the 
 emperors, to all the usages of public and private as of 
 civil and religious life. Art remained Grecian, and 
 most of the singers and composers came from Greece 
 to take service under the wealthy patricians. The 
 various forms of Latin prosody were but thinly 
 disguised beneath a veil of Ionic, Doric, and 
 Lydian melodies, even when the Christians 
 waged a relentless war upon profane music, not 
 only as an accompaniment of the rites of the 
 pagan religion, but as played in the circus and 
 other popular resorts to excite the brutal passions of the multitude, or at the 
 nocturnal orgies of the aristocracy. The decadence and the disappearance 
 of Greek music in Italy and the "West date from the reign of Theodosius ; and 
 when the games of the capitol were put down, about the year 384, the Greek 
 musicians either returned to the East or abandoned their art. Church 
 music, which alone survived, and which is, in fact, a sort of chant derived 
 from the solemn and monotonous declamation of the sacred hymns of paganism, 
 became the invariable accessory of the public celebration of the Christian 
 religion ; but there can be no doubt that it was practised in a very rude form ; 
 the clergy and congregations alike were ignorant of the first elements of the 
 
522 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 art. Pope Sylvester I. (a.d. 330) was so struck by the insufficiency of the 
 new musical system adopted by the primitive Church that he founded 
 singing-schools at Rome, and in several towns where the Catholic religion 
 had implanted itself. The clerks were thus taught to sing before being 
 ordained priests. These schools increased in number, and soon became a part 
 of every cathedral. St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, who had just built his 
 cathedral, and was anxious to associate it with all the pomp of which 
 Christianity could boast, himself arranged the pitch of ecclesiastical singing 
 and the mode of execution for hymns, psalms, and anthems. He simplified 
 musical teaching in the choristers' schools by suppressing the three systems 
 of grave, medium, and acute, and by substituting for all the scales gamuts 
 of the four principal tones which represented the ancient scales of Greek 
 music — Dorian, Phrygian, Eolian, and Mixolydian. 
 
 At this distant period church singing was only known— and that in a 
 very primitive form — in a few dioceses. Pope Damasus (a.d. 371) was the 
 first to introduce into the Church of Rome the custom of chanting the 
 
 l' e espece de quinle. 2 e idem. 3 C idem. 4« idem. 
 
 psalms, which had before been recited aloud by the congregation. There is 
 reason to believe that these first attempts at plain chant were improved upon 
 and multiplied, though slowly and not without difficulty, for the barbarian 
 invasions succeeded each other at rapid intervals in "Western Europe, and 
 interfered with the solemn celebrations of the Catholic religion. Chanting, 
 however, never ceased being the principal feature in these celebrations ; and 
 Gregory of Tours relates that the baptism of Clovis, at Rheims, was accom- 
 panied by music, which produced such an impression upon the royal convert 
 that when he afterwards signed a treaty of peace with Theodoric, King of 
 the Ostrogoths, he insisted upon that prince sending him from Italy a good 
 band of music and an accomplished lute-player. 
 
 The Franks, no doubt, like other invading and conquering peoples, especially 
 those who came from the north, such as Celts, Welsh, Danes, &c, had a 
 common sort of national music, differing altogether from Church music. This 
 common music, dating from the most remote antiquity, was merely rhythmical 
 music, which served for the popular songs, regulated by a sort of savage 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 5*3 
 
 harmony to the accompaniment- of stringed instruments, such as the harp 
 or crawth (chrotta), which the Celtic bards played with marvellous skill 
 (see Figs. 418 and 419). This music generally accompanied national songs 
 tinged with melancholy. The time was always slow and uniform, and their 
 musical scale seems to have been made for the minor mode ; the quick time 
 and major mode were reserved for war, table, and dancing songs. This music, 
 imported by the Northern tribes into the lands which they conquered and 
 settled in, remained popular for a long time without making any progress 
 
 Fig-. 417. — Pneumatic Organ, Fourth Century. After a sculpture of the Gallo-Roman epoch, preserved in the 
 
 Aries Museum. 
 
 from an artistic point of view, and without becoming subject to fixed and 
 intelligible rules. Religious music, on the contrary, was in the way of once 
 more becoming a fixed science, like Greek music, when Pope Gregory I. 
 inaugurated his musical reform by collecting the fragments of the melodies 
 of the primitive Church in order to form a book of anthems, and by modify- 
 ing the four tonal scales of St. Ambrose. These four scales he divided into 
 eight, so that the general scale of the sounds contained in the eight notes 
 extended from the la grave to the sol of the second octave. He made use of 
 the old Latin notation to represent the tones, and he employed the first seven 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 letters of the Roman alphabet, in capitals and small print, as the signs of the 
 two octaves. This notation was as follows : — 
 
 La, Sc, lit, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Se, Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol. 
 A, B, C, D, E, F, (Jr, A, B, 0, D, E, F, G. 
 
 A li C D E K G a b 
 
 a I) c 
 a b c 
 
 Ecclesiastical music, executed in the churches by the clergy with the 
 congregation joining in at intervals, was always accompanied by wind, percus- 
 sion, and stringed instruments ; that is to say, by trumpets, organs, and harps ; 
 
 Fig. 418. — Eleven-stringed Harp, Tenth Century. Fig. 419. — Thirteen-stringed Harp, Tenth Cen- 
 
 Saxon Psalter. (MS. in British Museum.) tury. (MS. at Cambridge University.) 
 
 but the powerful harmony of this music resulted from the time and rhythm 
 of the rhymed verses which were used as hymns. Thus Chilperic I., who 
 prided himself upon being a poet and musician, added four letters to the 
 alphabet in order to facilitate the rhyme and soften the singing. He cared 
 more for music and poetry than for State affairs, and all the Merovingian 
 princes were, like him, passionately fond of vocal and instrumental music. 
 At the baptism of Clotaire IL, son of Chilperic, his uncle Gontran, King of 
 Burgundy and Orleans, convoked in the latter city a number of bishops, who 
 arrived with an escort of choristers and musicians, in order to add to the 
 splendour of the ceremony. There was still a lack of theoretical knowledge 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 525 
 
 about Church music, the only form of music which enjoyed any popularity ; 
 but it had already produced many remarkable songs, which the most illus- 
 trious princes and prelates were proud to have composed. 
 
 Dagobert I., who founded monasteries and built churches, was a warm patron 
 of sacred music, and he was particularly fond of chanting. While at vespers 
 one afternoon in the Abbey of Rumilly, he was struck by the beautiful voice 
 of a nun, and, after ascertaining who she was, he fell so much in love with 
 her that he put away his queen, Gomatrude, and married her. The kings of 
 the Carlovingian dynasty were also very generous protectors of Church 
 music, and it is almost certain that Pepin was the first French king who had 
 a full choir attached to his chapel and placed under the authority of a master, 
 or minister, who was afterwards called menestreux in the language of the 
 eleventh century. The St. Ambrose scale, altered no doubt by barbarian 
 superfluities, had held its own in the Church of the Gauls ; and Charlemagne, 
 who set up to be his own chapel-master, at first declared in favour of the old 
 Ambrosian chant, as it had been transformed by the usage of four centuries, 
 against the Pope's own chapel-master. He soon abandoned it, however, 
 after he had heard mass chanted in the Gregorian mode ; and when he left 
 Rome he took with him a certain number of Italian choristers, whom he 
 specially attached to Tours Cathedral, where they formed a school of plain 
 chant, in which the method of St. Gregory was taught. It was thus, as the 
 Chronicle of the Monks of Angouleme (Duchesne's " History of France," 
 vol. ii. p. 73) says, that the Romans taught the French choristers the art of 
 organizing (in arte organandi) — that is to say, of commingling sympathetically 
 the sounds of voices and instruments ; for what was termed organum was 
 nothing more than a song composed of symphonies, and intended to imitate 
 the different stops of an organ. Music was also taught in the school of 
 Charlemagne's palace, but it was taught in a scholastic manner, as one of the 
 branches of arithmetic, and it was only in the school attached to Tours 
 Cathedral that it was taught practically. It may be said that barred music 
 existed at that time, for the monk Scotus Erigena, who was one of the masters 
 at the Palatine School in the reign of Charles the Bald, says, in his treatise 
 upon the Divine Nature, " An organic chant is composed of qualities and 
 quantities which seem incoherent and impossible of association when they 
 are considered separately, but which can nevertheless be adapted to one 
 another, and put together according to the rules of musical art, so as to 
 
526 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 produce a certain natural charm upon the ear." This passsge, which different 
 savants have interpreted in different ways, seems to us to apply more espe- 
 cially to the vulgar music, of which the time and rhythm were the principal 
 elements. This vulgar or profane music, which was the true national music 
 of barbarian people, was more the antagonist than the rival of Church music, 
 which eventually won the day by the aid of the secular authority, which 
 forbade the ancient songs devoted to love, dancing, and festivity. Even the 
 warlike tongs, commemorating military achievements and historical events, 
 were with difficulty saved. Charlemagne formed a collection of the songs, 
 which is not, unfortunately, extant ; and all that have been discovered are 
 somewhat posterior to his reign, but similar no doubt to those which he sought 
 to hand down to us. The only historical song of an earlier period which has 
 been preserved is one which was composed in rhymed prose and cadence to 
 celebrate the victory won by the Saxons (622). Hildegaire, Bishop of 
 Meaux, in his " Life of St. Faro," says, " A popular song was composed after 
 the victory, and this song, on account of its simplicity, went from mouth to 
 mouth : the women sang it while dancing, and keeping time with their 
 hands." 
 
 Historical songs were composed sometimes in Latin, sometimes in the 
 vulgar tongue, and sometimes in a mixture of both. Thus we have the song 
 in the Teutonic tongue, which was composed in honour of Louis the German 
 after his victory over the Normans in 881 ; but the music of this song, which 
 must first have been written in Latin, as it was sung not only on the banks 
 of the Rhine, but in the French provinces menaced by the German invasion, 
 has not been preserved to us. It is supposed, with much show of reason, 
 that the music of the national songs was often adapted to fresh words, either 
 moral or religious, so that the people, who knew it by heart, might be able 
 to go on singing it without disobeying the civil and ecclesiastical laws. This 
 common music, the tonality of which was wholly different from that of sacred 
 music, was much more powerful and extensive in its mode of execution. 
 Hucbald, a monk of St. Amand, in Flanders, at the end of the ninth 
 century, speaks as follows of the common music of that day : — " The players 
 of the lute, the flute, and other instruments, as well as the profane men- 
 singers and women-singers, do all they can to sing and play well, in order to 
 charm the ears of their audiences." There can be no doubt that the ancient 
 hymns of the Church were songs composed by the Christian poets to compete 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 527 
 
 with the secular songs, and that they adopted as much as possible popular 
 melodies to these hymns, which were originally intended to be sung at pious 
 gatherings apart from the ceremonies of the Church. Among the historical 
 songs which have been discovered, with their original music, in the manu- 
 scripts of the ninth century, may be mentioned one relating the battle of 
 Fontanet, or Fontenailles, in 841, composed by a Frank named Angelbert 
 (see Fig. 420) ; the song upon the death of Eric of Frioul in 799, attri- 
 buted to Paulinus, Patriarch of Aquileia, who died at the end of the ninth 
 
 V IBS ^ZBfliXQvrfx-: 
 
 r 
 
 s 
 
 s 
 
 c 
 
 -7* 
 
 atwn no m 
 
 xtW 
 
 {vlk i\v(fio 1 turn 
 
 e freezer n cl T upr <x yevt e 
 
 Fig-. 420. — First stanza of the popular song on the Battle of Fontanet, in Burgundy. (MS. in National Library, 
 
 Paris, No. 1154.) 
 
 century ; the lament on the death of Charlemagne, which may be attributed 
 to a contemporary monk named Columban (see Fig. 421) ; and some other 
 songs and ballads of the same epoch. In these melodies, according to 
 Coussemaker, the tonality is very similar to that of modern music, " which," 
 he says, " has only one tone, properly speaking, for the major tone differs 
 only from the minor by the tierce, which is major in the one, minor in the 
 other. It further happens that, by a sort of law of attraction inherent in the 
 disposition of the sounds of this scale, the ear demands a pause in the tune at 
 certain notes." Such was the character of common music in the ninth and 
 
 3 v 
 
528 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 tenth centuries. We also possess some airs of common music belonging to 
 this, if not perhaps to an even earlier epoch, composed for the Odes of Horace, 
 which were still sung in the tenth century, as they had been in the time of 
 the Roman emperors, and in these airs the melody nearly always brings out 
 the long and short notes of Latin poetry. 
 
 Musical notation, invented by St. Gregory, for Church singing did not 
 
 I NCI P 21 thAS[<,rL§ 
 k 2c o i. i f 
 
 A 
 
 710c tic i v Oman i 
 
 5 Oil$ O 1 r v x * * * , (V 
 
 * 'J ' • V : 
 
 • • • , a 
 
 * 7 
 
 Figf. 421. — Lament composed shortly after the death of Charlemagne, probably about 814 or 815, and attributed to 
 Columban, Abbot of St. Tron. (MS. in National Library, Paris, No. 1154.) 
 
 consist solely of the seven letters of the alphabet in two characters, for to 
 St. Gregory is also ascribed the invention of the NeumaG- (divisions), which 
 were employed throughout Europe up to the end of the twelfth century, 
 notwithstanding the simultaneous use of the seven capitals for musical 
 notation, and which have continued to be a sort of musical hieroglyphics, in 
 despite of several ingenious attempts at interpretation made by distinguished 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 529 
 
 savants — last of all by Fetis, who has summed up and perfected the labours 
 of his predecessors in his two treatises, the "Biography of Musicians " and the 
 " General History of Music." If the Neumse were not employed before 
 the middle of the seventh century, they would, therefore, be subsequent to 
 the death of St. Gregory, which took place in 604. The musical signs 
 have unquestionably been imitated from the graphic signs which formed 
 a sort of abbreviated writing among the Romans, known by the name of 
 Nota Momma, or Tironian notes, because to a certain Tiro, freedman and 
 secretary of Cicero, was attributed the improvement effected in this mysterious 
 
 & auM cnwCauoUaxd be (SCrar- 
 
 Zj± a * & 
 
 nof qiitcmarcjculiaiu tpcciali ^texa^ufe 
 
 c * 
 
 ^ *L. ^ 
 
 liidoCtzragatrcctordJilcc liguu .ilulci digpu 
 
 c * 
 
 ^1 * A 
 
 crcdun mcloclia^ 
 
 Fig. 422. — Beginning of the prose sung at the Festival of the Holy Cross. (MS. of the Twelfth Century.) 
 
 writing. The principal difficulty in the way of a regular and complete 
 explanation of the JNeumac is their infinite variety, for in the space of five 
 centuries they have been subjected to the most startling metamorphoses, 
 according to the period, the country, and the system of the musicians. 
 Coussemaker is of opinion that the signs formed like commas, dots, and 
 horizontal or straight lines represented the sounds, and the signs formed like 
 hooks, or twisted and continued lines, the groups of sounds composed of 
 various intervals. There is a difference of opinion even as to the etymology 
 of the word. Many savants say that it is derived from the Greek word 
 Twevfia, breath or sound, though it is probable that the Latin nomen 
 
530 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 is its right derivation, for Neuma named or designated the note (see 
 Fig. 422). 
 
 The notation by means of Neuma) was not perhaps so defective as it was 
 for a long time believed to be ; and it had this advantage over the system of 
 notation by letters, that it represented the degree of intonation by the eleva- 
 tion or lowering of the sign, which enabled the eye to see what the voice had 
 to execute. Errors, however, frequently occurred, owing to the negligence or 
 unskilfulness of the copyist. The Neumas, like the Tironian tachygraphy, 
 had for their basis the comma and the full-stop, which represented the accents 
 of sounds as well as of words, for the accent is neither more nor less than a 
 modification of the voice in regard to tone and duration of notes. The 
 simple Neumce were, unfortunately, so complicated by the various signs 
 employed that this system of notation became quite incomprehensible, and 
 John Cotton, a musical writer of the twelfth century, referring to the 
 obscurity of the Neumae, said, " If one rarely finds three persons agreed as 
 to the same song, still more rare is it to find a hundred in agreement as to 
 the value of the Neumas." 
 
 The shape of the Neumae in course of time became more distinct, and this 
 was the origin of the square note, which took the place of these distorted 
 and running passages. Guido or Guy d'Arezzo, in the beginning of the 
 eleventh century, was the first inventor of the system of placing the Neumas 
 in straight lines, so that each sign might have its appointed place. It was 
 he, too, who instead of a single line of notation placed two, one red and the 
 other yellow or green, upon the top of one another, the latter reserved for 
 the ut note, and the former for the fa note. He next added two other lines 
 traced with the etching-point upon vellum, the first between the two 
 coloured lines, and the second below the yellow or green line. The tonality 
 was henceforward regulated by letters, which answered the purpose of keys, 
 and the regular Neuinse took the place of the ancient ones, which had become 
 so irregular as to be unintelligible. It was from this time that the treatises 
 of music and the books of liturgy were compiled with the large square notes, 
 extending over four or five lines, for the number of lines which went to make 
 up the stave was not yet definitely fixed (see Fig. 423). It was not, however, 
 for a century after the time of Guy d'Arezzo that the system which has been 
 erroneously attributed to him made its appearance. This system may be 
 represented by the shape of the left hand, the articulations being made to 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 53 1 
 
 characterize the notes of the scale by means of a very complicated mechanism, 
 which necessitated the absence of the note si in this incomplete scale. 
 
 The invention of the six-note scale was attributed to Guy d'Arezzo, 
 because he had given as a copy of the tonal order of these six notes the first 
 six verses of an old hymn of St. John the Baptist, in which the syllables ul, 
 re, mi, fa, sol, la, corresponded with this group of notes : — ■ 
 
 VI queant laxis 
 iiesonare fibris 
 Mira gestorum 
 -Famuli tuorum, 
 Solve polluti 
 Zabii reatum, 
 Sancte Johannes. 
 
 Urtima 
 
 f f -f r* -Tu ps 
 omties nn$t It t twlottftur 
 
 utu omufs mttu 
 
 US P tttsof 
 
 Fig. 423. — Specimen of Notation upon four lines, after a Lombardc- German Gradual of the Fourteenth Csntury. 
 
 The choristers, when they sang this hymn at the mass of St. John the 
 Baptist, increased by one degree the intonation of the first syllable of each 
 verse, and these six syllables were soon adopted to designate the notes of the 
 scale. With regard to the note si, which was not admitted into the scale 
 until the seventeenth century, it was replaced by lights and shades of expres- 
 sion which were not nearly so barbarous as the names which were given 
 them. As early as the ninth century there were musicographists who wrote 
 obscure and learned treatises upon the theory of music, which was a field for 
 the most diffuse dissertation. One of these general definitions of music ran, 
 
53* 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 according to an old Latin MS. quoted by Du Cange, as follows : — " Music is 
 the art of modulating sounds ; it consists of song, and comprises three parts : 
 harmony, which distinguishes the grave and acute sound ; rhythm, which is 
 good or bad according as the words come out ; and metre, which measures the 
 time according to the different kinds of verse." Isidore of Seville, in his 
 treatise on music, written in the twelfth century, says, " Harmonious music 
 is a modulation of the voice ; it is also a concordance of several sounds and 
 their simultaneous union. Symphony is the consonance of grave and acute 
 notes either in vocal or instrumental music. The reverse of the symphony is 
 diaphony, which consists of discordant and dissonant notes ; and his defini- 
 tion of harmony does not give a very favourable idea of what it was in those 
 early times. 
 
 Nevertheless, although the regular diaphonies, which were formed at that 
 time by the means of harmonic differences of pitch, must have produced very 
 hard and grating sounds, the sequences of fifths, fourths, and octaves must 
 have had a strange and not altogether displeasing effect upon the ear. 
 Hucbald described diaphony as the harmonious singing of dissimilar notes 
 heard at the same time ; and he gives several specimens of diaphony in which 
 the unison, the second, the tierce minor, the fourth, and the fifth are used 
 together, and in which one finds the three times — direct, oblique, and counter 
 — which constitute one of the principal elements of modern music. More- 
 over, the diaphony, also called organum, because it continued all at once the 
 various accents of the human organ, was only made use of in plain chant : 
 it needed at least two singers to execute it, so that while one was singing the 
 principal melody, the other circulated round it, if such an expression may be 
 used, the two voices meeting at each pause, and joining at the unison or the 
 octave. In addition to the diaphony, there existed, towards the close of the 
 eleventh century, another harmony named the discantus, from the Latin words 
 dis (two), and cantus (song), which had a great influence upon the former. 
 It was a sort of harmony improvised by those who were able chanters from 
 the book, and it was consequently full of skips from one note to another, 
 which was very much in opposition to the general system of Church music. 
 This will explain how it was that the discantus, which long survived diaphony, 
 was soon introduced into secular music, when the Church choristers had 
 formed the bad habit of embellishing the chant and the double chant so 
 extravagantly, each one improvising his own part at the lectern, and trying 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 533 
 
 to outdo his fellow. The abuse was such that several popes published bulls 
 to repress it and maintain the integrity of ecclesiastical chanting. Pope 
 John XXII., nevertheless, in 1322, intimated that the choristers were 
 occasionally to be allowed, especially at high festivals, to employ consonances 
 and concords as accompaniments of the Gregorian chant, in order to give it 
 more colour and brilliancy. It was thus that simultaneous sound music 
 went on from diaphony to diseantus to the fourteenth century, when the 
 counterpoint was founded upon the principles of diatonic harmony. 
 
 Music was still taught in the schools after the traditions of Boethius and 
 Scotus Erigena, and formed part of the scholastic course, ranking second 
 among the liberal arts, immediately after astronomy, and before geometry. 
 As may be supposed, this mode of teaching did not contribute to the pro- 
 gress of the art. All the learned men who have written about music, except 
 Guy d'Arezzo, had but a theoretical knowledge of it. The celebrated 
 Francis of Cologne, John Cotton, Jean de Muris, Aurelian of Reome, Remy 
 of Auxerre, and a host of others, were more of dialecticians than musicians, 
 and they left some very valuable treatises upon the musical science of their 
 day. It may be noted, though, that Abelard was the composer of the melodies 
 of his Latin songs, which he sang himself with great talent ; and when Heloise 
 became Abbess of Paraclete she wrote to him, "You had two gifts more 
 particularly which would have at once won you the heart of any woman : 
 that of speech and that of song. No other philosopher ever possessed them 
 to such an extent. It is by means of these talents that, as a relaxation from 
 your philosophical studies, you have composed these love songs, which, 
 repeated everywhere by reason of their charms both of poetry and music, 
 have caused your name to be in every mouth ; so much so that the softness of 
 the melody caused even unlearned people to remember you. The result is 
 that women were all sighing with love for you ! " 
 
 Common music, which had certainly been the most powerful vehicle of 
 vulgar speech, was in the greatest favour with women, and the popular song 
 was its first and most vivid expression. The heroic songs found no listeners 
 unless they were toned down to the expression of softer and more tender senti- 
 ments. Robert Wace, in the "Roman du Rou," relates that the minstrel Taille- 
 fer had sung the songs of Charlemagne, Roland, and Olivier in the presence 
 of the Norman army before the battle of Hastings (1066). But the minstrels, 
 trouveres, and jongleurs (itinerant musicians) had invented a new art, as it 
 
534 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 was designated in the twelfth century, by the composition of simple and 
 graceful melodies as accompaniments for their songs about love, gallantry, 
 and adventure. These song composers, known as troveors in the Worth and 
 as trovadors in the South, were not, as a rule, capable of noting the music 
 which they composed, so they had recourse to harmonizers, who undertook, 
 for a given sum agreed to beforehand, to write and organize the music which 
 was sung or played to them. The harmony was only for two, and consisted 
 merely of a combination of quints with time in unison. 
 
 These harmonizers were professional musicians, who were learned in 
 musical science, and who were able to put its rules into application ; but the 
 minstrels and trouveres were real composers, who combined poetical talent 
 with musical genius, and who excelled in lighting upon poetical and 
 
 Figs. 424.426— Minstrels and Kings as itinerant musicians, playing various instruments. After MS. in National 
 
 Library, Paris. 
 
 melodious inspirations. It has been argued, with much show of probability, 
 that the Crusades contributed in no small degree to the development of 
 common music, and that this music had borrowed from that of Eastern 
 peoples the shakes and the florid embellishments which made the fortune 
 of the trouveres. These poet-musicians multiplied throughout Europe, but 
 they were less numerous and successful in Italy than in France. Kings, 
 princes, and nobles took part in this sort of musical crusade (Figs. 454 
 —426). 
 
 Among the court trouveres who were poets and musicians in the 
 thirteenth century were the Lord of Coucy, the King of Navarre, the 
 Comte de Bethune, the Comte d'Anjou, the Comte de Soissons, and the Due 
 de Brabant. Others, not less famous for their poetry and music, were of 
 more plebeian birth, such as Adam de la Hale, Perrin d'Angecourt, Gautier 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 535 
 
 d'Argies, Audefroy le Batard, Blondeau de Nesle, Colart le Bouteillier, Gace 
 Buce, Richard de Fournival, &c. The appearance of the troubadours in 
 Provence and the southern provinces preceded the great epoch of the 
 trouveres ; and the former, who belonged to a musical school which was more 
 Italian than French, were as much in favour as the poets of the tongue of Oil. 
 Their music was more languishing and lackadaisical than the brighter and 
 crisper compositions of the trouveres. 
 
 These various kinds of compositions were always accompanied by a stringed 
 instrument, generally the harp, the psaltery (see Fig. 434), the violin, and the 
 lute. Some of the names given to them were the love-song, the servente, 
 the rostruenges, the pastorals, the partures, the lay and virelay, the ballad, 
 and the ballad song. This last named resembled the virelay with regard to 
 the laws of literary composition, and the ballad from the musical point of 
 view, being thus characterized by Guillaume Machault in the fourteenth 
 century : — 
 
 " Puisqu'il vous plaist, lors sans delay, 
 Encommencerai ce virelay, 
 Qu'on clame chanson balladee ; 
 Enfin doit-elle estre nommee." 
 
 The plain ballad was generally written in several parts, like the roundels 
 and the motets. The lay consisted of several couplets which were sung to 
 different tunes, whereas in the songs properly so called the same tune was 
 repeated in each stanza. 
 
 The great favour shown to the first trouveres in the courts of kings and 
 the houses of the nobility brought about what may be described as an 
 incursion of minstrels, singers, jongleurs (joculatores) , and instrument players, 
 who travelled in troops through the country. Going from town to town and 
 chateau to chateau, exercising their calling at weddings, feudal festivals, 
 and village feasts, they were welcome everywhere, treated to the best the 
 house contained, and well paid, so that the accusations of drunkenness and 
 debauchery which have been brought against them may not have been 
 groundless. 
 
 It was for the purpose, no doubt, of disproving these charges that two 
 jugglers, named Jacques Grue and Hugues or Huet of .Lorraine, founded a 
 church and hospital at Paris in 1321. They bought from the Abbess of 
 Montmartre a piece of ground, upon which they built in the Hue St. Martin 
 
 3 z 
 
556 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 a chapel dedicated to St. Julian and St. Genest, the patron saints of 
 comedians and minstrels. The chapel and hospital were built in the space 
 of fifteen years with the money which the founders had collected from the 
 inhabitants of Paris, and these founders placed themselves at the head of an 
 association of minstrels and itinerant musicians, male and female, the statutes 
 of their confraternity receiving the sanction of the provost of Paris. The 
 members of this corporation enjoyed the exclusive right of executing music 
 at the festivals and weddings celebrated in the city; and minstrels not 
 belonging to the association were liable to fine and banishment from Paris 
 for a year and a day if they ventured to compete with the confraternity, 
 which was under the authority of a king of the minstrels and a provost of 
 St. Julian. The foreign minstrels and jongleurs who came to Paris, and 
 who were not authorised to follow their profession in the city, were received 
 as guests at the hospital of the confraternity. Violent quarrels occasionally 
 occurred between the associates and the free minstrels, but the corporation 
 insisted upon the observance of its statutes, which remained in force as long 
 as it existed. 
 
 To the trouveres attaches the honour of having composed and brought out 
 the first opera ever given in France. This opera, or opera comique, which 
 dates from 1285, was the work of Adam de la Hale, who composed the words 
 and the music. It was called Le Jeu de Robin et Marion, and was partitioned 
 into scenes, with an intermixture of songs. The plot is a very simple one. 
 The shepherdess Marion is in love with the shepherd Robin, and though a 
 chevalier appears on the stage and attempts to win her away from him, she 
 remains true to him. It was in this pastoral that Adam de la Hale 
 introduced the famous air of the "Homme Arme," which was so often 
 reproduced and imitated by the musicians of the Middle Ages that it is held, 
 rightly or wrongly, by the most learned musicographers, to be the war song 
 which the Crusaders sang in chorus when they entered Jerusalem. Adam 
 de la Hale, in adapting common music to the dramatic art, did the same as 
 the pious authors of the liturgical drama, which had been utilised for 
 religious purposes during the two previous centuries. The original object 
 of the liturgical drama was to draw away the faithful from the corrupt 
 amusements of the. profane stage. This musical drama had been so im- 
 planted in the liturgy that it came to be an essential part of religious cere- 
 monies, and at the festivals of the Nativity, of the Adoration, of the Passion, 
 
MUSIC. 537 
 
 and of the Resurrection, deacons and choristers represented, not inside the 
 church, but under the porch or in one of the chapter-rooms, the episodes in 
 the life of Christ almost as they were related in the Church service (see 
 Chapter on the Theatre). Five or six of these liturgical dramas have been 
 found, among others the oldest of all — The Wise and the Foolish Virgins. 
 The archangel Gabriel announces the coming of Christ ; the foolish virgins 
 confess their sins, and entreat the wise virgins to help them ; the latter 
 refuse, and the merchants decline to sell the foolish virgins the oil to light 
 their lamps. All the Latin stanzas, ending with a ritournette in the vulgar 
 tongue, are sung to a different tune by each personage (see Fig. 427). 
 Coussemaker, speaking of these liturgical dramas, says, " We find in them 
 
 • ■ 
 
 * * * *i * 
 
 : f • c l • • • • 
 ■ * • • • ■ • • 
 
 ■ • 
 
 ftmcJi wiuf<=> dchxofoorare oftrpref«cu}>m)iifo uto^utluToqkiC xxof c^=^ => 
 
 . .r* ■ * 
 
 Fig. 427. — Song of the Foolish Virgins, taken from the Mystery of the Wise and the Foolish Virgins, religious 
 drama, noted in Neums. (MS. 1139 in the National Library, Paris, Tenth Century.) 
 
 neither passions, nor intrigues, nor the scenic movements which occupy the 
 principal place in profane drama ; on the contrary, the prevailing points 
 are the calm and simplicity of the recital, the elevation and nobility of the 
 thoughts expressed, and the purity of the moral principles. The music 
 required to interpret sentiments such as these, and to give them a more 
 powerful expression, could not be of the rhythmical kind, which is suitable to 
 excite worldly passions, but one arranged according to the rules of the plain 
 chant, having regard, of course, to certain laws of rhythm and accentua- 
 tion." 
 
 Other musical dramas on devotional subjects were also played in the 
 cloisters as a pastime by the monks and nuns. The pieces by Hrosvitha, a 
 nun at Gandersheim, in Saxony, are very good types of this drama ; but the 
 
538 
 
 MUSIC 
 
 music, which is mixed up in a dialogue interlarded with prayers and Church 
 songs, is of such a character that we can only conjecture that it was con- 
 ducted and supported hy the organ. This kind of drama, which was more 
 religious than liturgical, differed from the profane music of the drama not 
 only in regard to the nature of the subject and the aim of the representation : 
 in the one case the music was grave and solemn, like chanting ; in the other 
 it flowed in light and melodious cadences, which harmonized with the sounds 
 of violins and harps. 
 
 This was the music of the troubadours and trouveres, who composed songs 
 for three or four voices ; and these pieces, many of which have been rescued 
 from the oblivion into which they had fallen, are as remarkable for the 
 graceful forms of the melody as for the embellishments of the singing and 
 for their harmonious contexture. Belgium and Germany had, like France 
 and Italy, their schools of master-singers, their musical academies and 
 associations. We even know the names of the minstrels and minnesingers 
 who were the most in vogue, and whose compositions deserved the fame 
 which they enjoyed. Among them are several who became leaders of a 
 school, and who have left special treatises upon their art, such as Guillaume 
 Dufay, ^gide Binchois, De Busnois, Firmin Caron, Vincent Faugues, l^loy, 
 and Brassart, in the fourteenth century. The first named, who became 
 chapel-master to the Pope in 1380, invented the pauses which occur at 
 intervals in the partition, and in one of his masses he first tried the fugue 
 called canon, which was so notable a feature in the music of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 There were a great many poet-musicians in France during the fourteenth 
 century, from Adam de la Hale, whose motets and songs were so generally 
 admired that the music of them was transposed into the Church songs and 
 chants (see Fig. 428). It was no uncommon thing at that time to find an 
 entire mass written after the reminiscence of some profane air, which was 
 transferred, song and words, into a Sanctus or Benedicamus. It was in this way 
 that Robert of Anjou, King of Naples and Sicily, one of the best musicians 
 of his day, composed in honour of St. Louis, Bishop of Toulouse, a mass which 
 was celebrated in the churches down to the time of the Council of Trent, 
 while the profane music which had been employed as the theme for the 
 various parts of the mass was still being played by the minstrels. The poet 
 Michael de Machault also composed a mass for four voices at the consecra- 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 539 
 
 tion of Charles V. ; but though he composed a quantity of music for his love 
 songs, we do not learn that he imitated any of them in his coronation mass, 
 in which the melody and harmony were entirely his work. Harmony 
 continued to make as much progress in sacred as in secular music; but 
 these two kinds of music gradually assimilated; the plain chant became 
 disorderly, owing to the excesses of the descant, and gradually trans- 
 formed itself into a sort of musical enigma, in which the chapel-master 
 
 Adieu commant amou-re-lcs, Car je men vois Dolans pour les dou-che-tes Fors 
 
 dou dons pa - is d'Arlois Qui est si mus et destrois, Pour che que h 
 
 bourgois Ont es-te si four-me-nes Qu'il n'i queurt drois ne lois Gros tournois 
 
 ont a-nu - les contes et rois, Jus-liches et prelas tant de fois Que mainle 
 be-le compaingne dont Ar-ras mehaingne Laissent a-mis et maisons et harnois, 
 Et fui-ent chi deus, cha trois, Sou -spirant en terre es-train-gne. 
 
 Fig. 4 28.-Original Notation of a Motet by Adam de la Hale, after the MS. (No. 2736) in- the National Library, 
 
 Paris (Fourteenth Century). 
 
 had accumulated the most eccentric combinations and the most fanciful 
 conceptions. 
 
 A few composers of sacred music remained true, nevertheless, to the 
 severest principles of art ; as, for instance, ^loy, who wrote masses in which 
 he observed the rules of pure harmony. But, for all that, French and Italian 
 songs were always superior to Church music. A manuscript collection of 
 these songs, composed in the first years of the fifteenth century, gives us the 
 names of the musicians of this period, among whom were Jacopo da Bologna, 
 
S+o MUSIC. 
 
 Francesco degli Organi, Don Donato da Cascia, Maestro Giovanni da Firenze, 
 the Abbot Vicenzio da Imola, &c. From 1420 to 1450 the most renowned 
 French musicians were Domart, Barbingant, Praylois, Le Rouge, De Courbet, 
 and De Humbert. Belgium supplied several of the sovereigns of Europe 
 with chapel-masters, Jean Ockeghem, who formed the principal musicians of 
 the time, having held that post under Charles VII. ; while another Belgian, 
 Jean Tinctor, or Tinctoris, who was reputed to be the first theorist of the 
 age, founded a school of music at Naples, and became the chapel-master of 
 King Ferdinand of Aragon and of Isabella of Castile. Rome, Milan, and 
 other Italian cities also recruited from the Low Countries various leaders of 
 schools, who exaggerated the novelties of their art under pretence of perfect- 
 ing its scientific principles. Ockeghem more especially, who had a very 
 great influence upon Italian music, developed much imitative harmony, and 
 obtained very happy effects from the canon with three or four parts. 
 
 Kings and princes were always the warmest patrons of music, and most 
 of them could boast of being themselves musicians. Rene of Anjou, Count 
 of Provence and titular King of Naples, was also, like all the princes of the 
 house of Anjou, very fond of music, and himself a distinguished composer. 
 He wrote masses for his chapel, military marches for his tournaments, and 
 melodies for his chamber music, which he sang with much taste, playing his 
 own accompaniment upon different instruments. He is represented, in the 
 first miniature of the excellent psalter which he had prepared for his own 
 use, as himself directing one of these concerts, in which he took part in the 
 vocal and instrumental execution, which was intrusted to real artists of both 
 sexes. His contemporary, James I. of Scotland, was also a skilled musician, 
 for he could play all the instruments known in his day (see Fig. 429). 
 Louis XL had no pretensions to the talent of his father-in-law, James I. ; 
 and it may even be supposed that he cared little for music, as he was very 
 averse to his wife, Margaret of Scotland, composing or listening to the 
 ballads and roundelays of which she was so fond. But the King, who pre- 
 ferred " good stories " to these love ballads, was very particular that his 
 chapel music, on which large sums were spent, should not be inferior to that 
 of any other court in Europe. Charles VIII. brought back from his expedi- 
 tion to Italy as many musicians as he did painters and architects ; but he 
 cared most for military music, although, with its overwhelming clatter of 
 big Swiss drums, it was the least melodious of all. 
 
S42 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 Francois L was too fond of poetry not to like music ; and his predecessor, 
 Louis XII., had left him a choir which had no equal in the world, and which 
 was under the direction of Guillaume Guinand, formerly chapel-master to 
 Ludovic Sforza, the last Duke of Milan. This was the choir which 
 Francois I. took with him to Milan in 1515, and which had the honour of 
 singing before Leo X., when that pope celebrated mass in the Bologna 
 Cathedral during his stay in that city to meet the King of France and sign 
 the concordat. The principal musicians of that time were a Frenchman 
 named Jean de Lotin ; two Belgians, Guillaume Gamier and Bernard Hycart ; 
 and Godendach, a German resident in Italy. The Germans deservedly had 
 the reputation of being the best organists and instrument makers (see 
 Fig. 430). Chamber music was much in favour at the court of Francois I., 
 for there was an endless succession of balls, masquerades, and receptions 
 when the King was residing in one of his royal chateaux. But Francois I. 
 did not neglect the teaching of higher music ; for when he founded the Royal 
 College in 1530, the third chair was one of music, and the two professors 
 appointed to fill it were Oronce Fine and Jean Martin, both of them excellent 
 mathematicians. 
 
 Rabelais, in a remarkable passage of " Pantagruel " (Prologue of Book IV., 
 published in 1552), arranged in two distinct groups the names of fifty-eight 
 French, Belgian, and Italian musicians, who were held in great esteem as 
 composers and performers at two different epochs in the reign of Francois I., 
 first in 1515, and then in 1551. Rabelais was himself a dialectician and 
 theorist in music, for he was conversant with all the sciences taught in the 
 schools of the Paris University, and he doubtless recalled with pleasure 
 having been present at the house of the brothers Du Bellay, who were his 
 fellow- students, to hear a vocal and instrumental concert by the following 
 artists : — Josquin des Pres, Ockeghem, Hobrecht, Agricola, Brumel, Camelin, 
 Vigoris, De la Fage, Bruyer, Prioris, Seguin, Delarue, Midy, Moulu, Mouton, 
 Gascogne, Loysel, Compere, Pevet, Fevin, Rouzee, Richafford, Consilion, 
 Costantio Festi, and Jacquet Bercan. Most of these musicians were pupils of 
 the old Belgian master, Jean Ockeghem, who died at Tours about 1510, and 
 of his learned rival, Josquin des Pres, who was the true leader of the French 
 school. This latter not only composed some magnificent Church songs, but 
 he also was the author of songs for several voices which were lively, and even 
 comic to a degree previously unknown. Thirty-five years later Rabelais 
 
54+ 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 ing to the Franco-Italian school, the leader of whom was Adrian Villaert, a 
 pupil of Josquin des Pres, and chapel-master at St. Mark's, Venice. This 
 
 Fig. 431. — Personification of Music, with the auxiliaries, the Poets and the Musicians. Fac-simile of a Wood 
 Engraving of the "Margarita philosophica nova " (Strasburg edition, J. Griininger, 1508, in quarto). 
 
 great Belgian master of counterpoint had at his side the Frenchman Claude 
 Goudirael, who was the master of the illustrious Palestrina. 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 545 
 
 Music at that time was familiar to every one in Europe, and there was 
 scarcely any one but what could play or sing. Printing had done much to 
 propagate this love of music (see Fig. 431) ; and in some of the first books 
 printed at Mayence, Schoiffer and Fust engraved upon wooden plates the 
 notation of the plain chant for their edition of the Psalter and of the Missals. 
 It was the Roman, Octavio Petrucci, who discovered at Yenice, in 1503, the 
 secret of printing music in movable type. This valuable discovery enabled 
 him to multiply the impressions, and the cost was much reduced in conse- 
 quence. Music printing-presses were established throughout Europe, and an 
 immense quantity of compilations, containing masses, motets, songs, and 
 instrumental compositions, published in separate parts so as to facilitate the 
 execution, were produced during the next two centuries. Robert Ballard, 
 the " sole printer of Church music for the King's chamber," obtained from 
 Henri II. the exclusive privilege of printing music in Paris, and this 
 privilege, confirmed by the kings, Charles IX. and Henri III., lasted till 
 the end of the seventeenth century. 
 
 The Kings of Prance remained true to the royal tradition which, from 
 the earliest days of the monarchy, had inspired them with a taste, and even 
 it may be said a passion, for music. Francois I. and Henri II. not only 
 wrote pious songs and love songs, but set them to music and sang them to 
 their own accompaniment of the lute or guitar. Charles IX. and his brothers 
 were even fonder of music and poetry ; and Brantome tells us how King 
 Charles would rise from his seat during mass, and like his father, the late 
 King Henri, go over to the choristers' place and join in the chanting. 
 Brantome adds, " The King (Henri III.), like his brother, also sang very 
 well, but they differed very much in regard to their favourite tunes." The 
 court of the Valois was filled with poets and musicians, but most of the 
 latter hailed from Italy and Belgium. One of the poets of the Pleiad, Antoine 
 de Baif, who was as much musician as he was poet, founded at his own house 
 in the Faubourg St. Marcel an academy of music, where all foreign 
 musicians of repute arriving in Paris were received and hospitably enter- 
 tained. This academy of music gave every week a grand instrumental 
 and vocal concert, at which Charles IX. was almost always present. 
 Like the poet Baif, Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre, also de- 
 termined to have her academy of music, and she presided in person 
 at concerts given at her house near Issy, these concerts being held in 
 
5+^ 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 the gardens to the accompaniment of the bubbling waters of a fountain, 
 which, the poets of the day named Castaline, after that which flowed at the 
 foot of Parnassus, and which the Greeks had consecrated to the Muses (see 
 Fig. 432). 
 
 Sacred and profane music lived, so to speak, in a state of ingenuous 
 
 Fig. 432.— Castaline Fountain, in marble and coloured lead, purchased by M. Leopold Double at the demolition 
 of the Chateau d'Issy ; now erected at his house in the Rue Louis-le-Grand, Paris.'. 
 
 promiscuity ; and it did not strike people as incongruous to hear in a church 
 the same tunes which they had listened to a few hours before at a ball or a 
 festival. But the austere reformers, who were desirous of preserving religious 
 music in the Lutheran or Calvinistic creed, protested against what they 
 regarded as scandalous, and composed for their own use special melodies, which 
 
MUSIC. 547 
 
 were reserved exclusively for the Psalms and Canticles. " Of everything 
 which is calculated to give recreation and delight to man," says Jean Calvin, 
 in his epistle to all Christians and lovers of God's Word, which is printed 
 as a preface to the translation of the Psalms of David by Clement Marot, 
 " music is the first, or one of the first, and we must suppose that it is a gift 
 bestowed by God for this purpose. . . . Care should be taken that singing is 
 neither light nor flighty, but that it possesses gravity and majesty, as 
 St. Augustine says, so that there may be a decided difference between the 
 music which is played to enliven people when at table and in their houses, 
 and that of Psalms sung in church in the presence of God and of the 
 angels." Charles IX. was so fond of religious music that he readily granted, 
 in 1563, to Antoine Yincent, a bookseller at Lyons, a monopoly of ten years' 
 duration for printing all the Psalms of the prophet David, " translated 
 according to the Hebrew truth, and put into French rhyme and good 
 music." 
 
 In Italy Palestrina had effected a reform of Church music, in accordance 
 with the desires of the Catholic priesthood, which since the fifteenth century 
 had been fulminating against the impious and absurd medley of profane 
 songs and anthems. The Council of Trent was upon the point of excluding 
 from the Church all music which was not plain chant, when Palestrina com- 
 posed his first mass, called the "Mass of Pope Marcel." This caused a com- 
 plete revolution in sacred music, and Palestrina and his imitators nearly 
 always used as subjects of their religious composition the ancient hymns of 
 the Catholic Church, to which they gave a grave and solemn tone, in keeping 
 with the majesty of religious worship. 
 
 At the end of the sixteenta century every country in Europe possessed 
 skilful and ingenious musicians, who instructed many students, and whose 
 works, reproduced by the printing-press, passed from hand to hand in the 
 musical world. Schools of music became universal, and masters were 
 appointed to them from all parts of Europe. The celebrated Claude Gou- 
 dimel, who opened the first school of music at Rome, Protestant though he 
 was, came back to Paris, and was one of the victims of the St. Bartholomew ; 
 the Belgian Archadelt was leader of the choristers in the pontifical chapel ; 
 and his compatriot, Orland de Lassus, a native of Mons, was chapel-master to 
 Duke Albert at Munich. Yet there was no lack of native musicians in Italy 
 — Animuccia, Constant Festa, and Zarlino ; in Spain, Yittoria ; in Ki. gland, 
 
54-8 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 William Bird, Tallis, and Morley ; in Germany, Senfl, Walther, and Hassler; 
 in Belgium and Holland, Philippe de Mons, Andre Pevernage, and Jacquet 
 de Wert. All of these were composers of erudition and excellent instru- 
 mentalists. Yet France did not lag behind, for Claude de Sermisy, chapel- 
 master to Francois L, and Clement Jannequin were succeeded by Du Cauroy, 
 music-master of Henri III., and Claude Lejeune, author of so many charm- 
 ing and original works. Music and poetry seemed to create a pleasing 
 
 Fig- 433-— A Court Concert. Fac-simile of a Copper Engraving from the Ballet de la Royne, by Balthazar de 
 Beaujoyeulx. (Paris, Mamert Patisson, 1582, in quarto.) 
 
 diversion amid the incessant troubles of civil and religious warfare ; the 
 people danced and sang upon the eve or morrow of a public disaster ; the 
 nobility, upon their return from the army, after having left several of their 
 number on the battle-field, also found relief in concerts ; the great lords and 
 princes, when their council-meetings were over, assisted at a Fa-Burden 
 mass or took part in a court ballet (see Fig. 433) ; the Louvre resounded 
 night and day with the harmonious sound of voices and instruments of 
 music. It remained for the League, in its savage fanaticism and amid its 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 54-9 
 
 sinister plotting, to silence these musical proclivities at a time when Italy, 
 which had entered upon a period of peace and prosperity, inaugurated the 
 musical and spectacular drama, transformed the tonality by a new arrange- 
 ment of the scale, increased the instrumental power, and modified at once the 
 systems of Church, chamber, and theatrical music. 
 
 Fig. 434.— Psaltery. Fifteenth Century. (MS. from the " Miroir historial " of Vincent de Beauvais.) 
 
 PRINTED By VlttTUK AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD, LONDON. 
 
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