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 ,ESSONS 
 
 IN 
 
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 Plate IX.— FACSIMILE PAGE OF A BOOK OF HOURS, 15TH Century.
 
 VERB FOSTER'S WATER-COLOR SERIES. ^ 
 
 LONDON: BLACKIE & SON; Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dublin. ■
 
 The CuLuked Ii.li-stuations ake Printed by W. G. BLACKIE & CO., Glasgow, 
 FROM Drawings by J. A. BURT. 
 
 The Ontainciilal Bordo- and Initial of the Title- fa«e are interesting examples of ftiiliaii nvrk 
 of the fifteenth century. They are from the Harleian Collection, British li/nsenm ijiog ami 4go2) 
 different 'd'orhs, bnt ei'idently executed by the same hand. The Colors are represented in the engraving 
 bv means of lines {as explained on page i8), so that by the aid of these directions the student can 
 reproduce them in the colors employed in the original A'SS.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Title-page — Border and Initial, Italian ■\\'ork of fifteenth century. 
 
 General Sketch of the Art of Illuminating, vii 
 
 E.\ample of Illumination by Giulio Clovio, .......... xi 
 
 Sixteenth-century Writing, from "Albert Durer's Prayer-Book," xiv 
 
 Practical Instructions as to Materials and Modes of Working, xv 
 
 Illuminated Plate I. — Initials by English Illuminators of the twelfth and thirteentli centuries, 3 
 
 Description of Plate I., ............. . i 
 
 French Initials, from an Alphabet of the fifteenth century, ........ 4 
 
 Illuminated Plate II. — Twelve Initial Letters from French Manuscript of the fifteenth century, 7 
 
 Description of Plate II., 5 
 
 Large Initial Letter of the twelfth century, from Harleian MSS. 3045, British Museum, . . 8 
 
 Illuminated Plate III. — Examples of thirteenth-century work from two Manuscripts in the 
 
 British Museum, 11 
 
 Description of Plate III., .............. 9 
 
 Outline Drawings of two pages of a Book of Hours of the fourteenth century, . . . . 12 
 
 Illuminated Plate IV. — Facsimile page of a Manuscript in Lambeth Palace Librarj- — 
 
 fifteenth century, . 15 
 
 Description of Plate IV., .............. 13 
 
 Outline Drawings of two pages of a Book of Hours of the fourteenth century, . . . . 16 
 
 Illuminated Plate V. — Ornaments and large Initial from Manuscripts of the fifteenth and 
 
 sixteenth centuries in the British Museum and South Kensington Museum, . . . . 19 
 
 Description of Plate V., ..............17 
 
 Outline Drawings of Bands and Border Ornaments of the fourteenth century, .... 20 
 
 Illuminated Plate VI. — A full page and separate Initials from a Book of Hours (Low . 
 
 Countries, fifteenth century), and Border from Manuscript in British Museum, ... 23 
 
 Description of Plate VI., 21 
 
 French Initial Letters and Border Ornaments of the fourteenth century, ..... 24
 
 VI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Illuminated Plate VII. — Borders of Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, — and Heraldic 
 
 Designs, from Manuscripts in British Museum and Heralds' College, .... 27 
 
 Description of Plate VH., 25 
 
 Outline Drawing of Border and Text, with Adoration of the Three Kings, sixteenth century, . 28 
 
 Illuminated Plate VHI. — Examples from the Book of Kells (ninth century), in Library of 
 
 Trinity College, Dublin, 31 
 
 Description of Plate VIII., 29 
 
 Outline Drawings of Early Irish Initial Letters, 32 
 
 Illuminated Plate IX. — Facsimile page of a Book of Hours in Lambeth Palace Library 
 
 — early in fifteenth century, ........... Frontispiece. 
 
 Description of Plate IX . . . -^-^ 
 
 *,* The oit/liiicJ in.thih on pp. x~', g, /j, 21, SJ, 2g, and JJ arc tal;en from a manuscript of the fifteenth eentinj, 
 presei-ved at Nuremberg. The originals are very highly but delicately colored, the ground being gold: the body of the letter, black j 
 a?td the scroll work and foliage pint;, blue, green, and yellow. The book, which is dated 1489, is a treatise entitled the 
 ^'' Preservation of Body, .Soul, Honour, and Goods." The tailpieces throughout represent heraldic animals, from the Rorti's Kolt 
 and other authentic sources. 
 
 Her.aldic Boar.
 
 THE ART OF ILLUMINATING. 
 
 T-Q 
 
 
 GENERAL SKETCH. 
 
 ERHAPS the art of Illumination, although it is closely 
 connected with that of Writing, may be entitled to 
 a separate history. Men could write long before it 
 occurred to them to ornament their writings : and 
 
 the modern student will find that what he looks upon 
 as genuine illumination is not to be traced back many centuries. 
 True one or two Roman manuscripts are in existence which may be 
 dated soon after a.d. 200, and which are illustrated rather than 
 illuminated with pictures. But the medieval art, and especially 
 that branch of it which flourished in our own country, has a different 
 origin, and sprang from the system, not of illustration, but of pure 
 ornamentation, which prevailed in Ireland before the eighth century, 
 but which reached its highest development among the Oriental 
 Moslems. The works of the Irish school were for long and are 
 sometimes still called "Ancrlo-Saxon," and there can be no doubt 
 that the Irish missionaries brought with them to lona and to Lindis- 
 farne the traditions and practice of the art, which they taught, with 
 Christianity, to the heathens of England. I will therefore refer the 
 reader who desires to know more of paleeography in general, and of 
 the principal foreign schools of the art of writing, to the great works 
 of M. Sylvestre, of Messieurs Wyatt and Tymms, of Henry Shaw, 
 and Miss Stokes, and to various isolated papers in the Transactions 
 of the Antiquarian Societies; and I will begin with the earliest 
 practice of the art in our own country and by our own ancestors. 
 
 During the eighth century rivalry to Irish art sprung up in the 
 south; and the immediate followers of St. Augustine 
 of Canterbury founded a scriptorium which produced 
 ~3 many fine specimens. In less than two centuries a 
 very high standard had been reached, and man)- of my 
 readers will remember the Utrecht Psalter, as it is called,
 
 viii ART OF ILLUMINATING. 
 
 which, though it is one of the oldest Anglo-Saxon MSS. now preserved, is full of 
 spirited drawings of figures and of illuminated capital letters. The volume 
 formerly belonged to England, but was lost, and subsequently turned up in Hol- 
 land. By the tenth century the art had reached such a pitch of perfection that 
 we find a charter of King Edgar wholly written in letters of gold. The Duke of 
 Devonshire possesses a volume written and illuminated for Ethelwold, bishop of 
 Winchester from 963 to 984, by a "scriptor" named Godemann, afterwards Abbot 
 of Thorney, the first English artist with whose name we are acquainted, if we 
 except his more famous contemporary, Archbishop Dunstan, whose skill in metal 
 work is better remembered than his powers as an illuminator. The wonderful 
 Irish MSS. the Book of Kells, which is in the library of Trinity College, 
 Dublin, the Book of Durham, and others more curious than beautiful, belong- 
 to a slightly earlier period, perhaps to the ninth century, as Miss Stokes has 
 suo-gested. 
 
 Many schools of writing throughout England were destroyed in the Danish 
 wars, and the princes of the Norman race did little to encourage literary art. 
 Though one or two interesting MSS. of this period survive, it is not until the 
 accession of the Angevins that English writing makes another distinct advance. 
 By the beginning of the thirteenth century the art had risen to the highest pitch 
 it has ever reached. The scriptorium of St. Albans was the most celebrated. 
 The works of Matthew Paris written there are still extant, and testify, by the 
 character of the pictures and colored letters, to a purity of style and to the 
 e.xistence of a living and growing art which has never been surpassed in this 
 country. It is believed that the numerous little Bibles of this period were chiefly 
 written at Canterbury, and certainly, as examples of what could be done before 
 printing, are most marvellous. One of these MSS. is before me as I write. The 
 written part of the page measures 2| inches in width and 3f inches in height, 
 and the book is scarcely more than an inch thick, yet it contains, on pages of fine 
 vellum in a minute almost microscopic hand, the whole Bible and Apocrypha. 
 The beginning of each book has a miniature representing a Scripture scene, and 
 a larger miniature, representing the genealogy of the Saviour, is at the beginning 
 of Genesis. Although this is the smallest complete Bible I have met with, others 
 very little larger are in the British Museum, and with them one, of folio size, 
 exquisitely ornamented in the same style, which bears the name of the artist, 
 " Wills. Devoniensis," William of Devonshire. Besides Chronicles and Bibles 
 the thirteenth century produced Psalters, the form and character of which
 
 GENERAL SKETCH. ix 
 
 were eventually enlarged and grew into the well-known " Horse," or books of 
 devotional " Hours," which were illuminated in the fifteenth and sixteenth 
 centuries. 
 
 Placing side by side a number of Psalters and Hours, and tracing by com- 
 parison the prevalence of single sets of designs — all, however, originating in the 
 wonderful vitality of the thirteenth century — is a very interesting study, though 
 seldom possible. It was possible to make such a comparison, however, in 1S74, 
 when a large number of magnificently illuminated books were exhibited together 
 at the rooms of the Burlington Club in London. It was then seen that when 
 the form and subject of a decoration were once invented they remained fixed 
 for all generations. A Psalter of the thirteenth century, probably of Flemish 
 execution, which was in the collection of Mr. Bragge, was ornamented with 
 borders containing grotesque figures, and had a calendar at the beginning, every 
 page of which represented a scene appropriate to the month, with the proper 
 sign of the zodiac. Thus, under January there was a great hooded fire-place, 
 and a little figure of a man seated and warming himself. The chimney formed 
 a kind of border to the page, and at the top was a stork on her nest feeding 
 her brood. This MS. was so early that some good judges did not hesitate 
 to assign it to the end of the twelfth century. Close to it was a Book of 
 Hours, written in the fifteenth if not early in the sixteenth century, and under 
 January we have the self-same scene, though the grotesqueness, and indeed 
 much of the quaint beauty of the design has disappeared. It is the same 
 with scriptural and ritual scenes. The Bibles always had the same set of 
 pictures; the Psalter and Hours the same subjects; and the same arrangement 
 of colors was handed down as suitable for the representation of certain scenes, 
 and was unvaried. 
 
 It may enable the reader to form a clearer idea of what these highly 
 ornamented volumes were like if I extract the full description of one which 
 was lately in the catalogue of an eminent London bookseller: — It was a Book 
 of Hours, written in France at the beginning of the sixteenth century, or, say 
 during the reign of our Henry the Seventh, 1485 to 1509. It consisted of seventy- 
 seven leaves of vellum, which measured about seven inches by five, with an 
 illuminated border to every page. There were twenty miniatures, some the 
 size of the full page and some smaller. The borders were composed of flowers 
 and fruit, interspersed with grotesque animals, birds, and human figures, most 
 eccentrically conceived. Both the capital letters and the borders were heightened
 
 X ART OF ILLUMINATING. 
 
 with gold, sometimes flat, and sometimes brilliantly burnished.^ This is, of 
 course, an unusually rich example. About the same period great pains were 
 taken to ornament the calendar with which these books usually commenced. 
 Some of these Calendars consist simply of a picture in a gold frame, the 
 composition so arranged that it does not sufter by a large blank space being 
 left in the middle. In this space the calendar was written; and the rest of the 
 page was occupied with an agricultural scene, emblematic of the season. In 
 the sky above, painted in gold shell on the blue, was the sign of the zodiac 
 appropriate to each month. In some the border was in compartments. One 
 compartment contained the name of the month in gold letters or a monogram. 
 Another contained an agricultural scene, another the zodiacal sign, another a 
 flower, and the rest the figures of the principal saints of the month. 
 
 The student turns with relief from this comparative monotony to Chronicles 
 in which historical scenes are given. One of the oldest is among the Harleian 
 JNIanuscripts in the British Museum, and relates to the deposition of Richard II. 
 It has been engraved in ArcJurologia, vol. xx., so that it is accessible wherever 
 there is a good library. A little later French romances were similarly decorated, 
 and we have innumerable pictures to illustrate the manners and costumes of the 
 knights and ladies of whom we read in the stirring pages of Froissart. 
 
 Illumination did not decline at once with the invention of printing. On 
 the contrary some exquisite borders and initials are found in books printed on 
 vellum, one very well known example being a New Testament in the Lambeth 
 Library, which was long mistaken for a manuscript, though it is, in reality, 
 a portion of the Great Bible supposed to have been printed at Mentz before 
 1455, and to be the earliest work of the press of Fust and Schoyffer. A few 
 wealthy people had Prayer-books illuminated for their own use down to a 
 comparatively recent period. The celebrated Jarry wrote exquisite little volumes 
 
 ' The miniatures were as follows: — I. The Annunciation, a beautiful miniature with the border painted 
 upon a gold ground ; this is the case with all the borders containing miniatures. 2. The Meeting of Mary and 
 Elizabeth. 3. The Infant Jesus lying in the manger at the Inn at Bethlehem, Joseph and the Virgin Mary 
 kneeling in adoration. 4. The Announcement of. the Birth of the Saviour to the Shepherds by night. 5. The 
 Worship of the Magi. 6. The Presentation in the Temple. 7. The Journey into Egypt. 8. The Coronation 
 of the Virgin. 9. The Crucifixion. 10. The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. 11. Saint 
 Anthony; a small miniature. 12. The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian; a small miniature. 13. King David 
 at his devotions in a chamber within his Palace. 14. The Raising of Lazarus. 15. The Virgin Mary with the 
 Infant Jesus, guarded by angels; a small miniature. 16. The body of Jesus taken down from the Cross. 
 17. Saint Ouentin the Martyr. iS. Saint Adrian. 19. Mater Dolorosa. 20. The Virgin and Child. The 
 four last were small.
 
 GENERAL SKETCH. 
 
 XI 
 
 
 for Louis XIV. and his courtiers. A very fine Book of Hours was in the Brao-ae 
 Collection, and must have been written in the sixteenth century, perhaps for some 
 widow of rank in France. It contained sixteen miniatures which closely resembled 
 Limoges enamels, the only decided color used being the carnation for the faces, 
 the rest of the design being in black, white, gold, and a peculiar pearly grey. 
 Each page had a border of black and gold. From another manuscript, a Book 
 of Hours written in France in the four- 
 teenth century (and exhibited at the Bur- 
 lington Club by Mr. Robert Young), we 
 have some outline tracings of the ivy pat- 
 tern (see page 12). The famous illumina- 
 tions of Giulio Clovio (a native of Croatia, 
 who practised in Italy 1498- 15 78) hardly 
 deserve the admiration they receive. They 
 are in fact small pictures, the colors very 
 crude and bright, and without the solem- 
 nity which attaches to ancient religious art. 
 An illuminated work by Clovio was recently 
 sold in London for the enormous sum of 
 ;^2050. It had been long in the possession 
 of an old Lancashire family, and is believed 
 to have been illuminated for Cardinal Alex- 
 ander Farnese, and by him presented to his 
 uncle Paul 1 1 1., who was pope between 1 534 
 and 1550. In England the latest illumin- 
 ators became the first miniature painters; 
 and the succession of English artists is carried on from Godemann and Paris, 
 through Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619) and Isaac Oliver (1556-1617), to the 
 school of Cooper (1609-1672) and Dobson, whose portraits are on vellum. 
 
 Short as is this survey of the history of Illumination, it will not do to omit 
 all reference to Heraldry. Heraldic manuscripts, it is curious to remark, are rarely 
 illuminated with borders or initials; but in the Chronicles of Matthew Paris shields 
 of arms are frequently introduced with good effect. Occasionally in Books of 
 Hours the arms of the person for whom the work was undertaken are placed in 
 the border. Some fine examples of this kind are to be found in the so-called 
 Bedford Missal, which is really a Book of Hours, and was written for John, 
 
 Conversion of St. Paul, by Giulio Clovio. 
 From " St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans," in the Soane Museum.
 
 xii ART OF ILLUMINATING. 
 
 duke of Bedford, the brother of Henry Y. Most of the manuscripts now 
 extant on the subject are of late date and rude execution, consisting chiefly 
 of rolls of arms, catalogues with shields in " trick " — that is, sketched with the 
 colors indicated by a letter, or lists of banners, of which last a fine example 
 is in the library of the College of Arms. Heraldry may be studied to advantage 
 by the modern illuminator, who should endeavour to become so conversant 
 with the various charges that in making a border or filling a letter he may be 
 able to introduce them artistically without violating the strict laws of the "science." 
 A late but very beautiful MS., in four little square volumes, which belongs to 
 Mr. Malcolm of Poltalloch, has been identified as having been written for 
 Bona of Savoy, duchess of Milan, who died in 1494. This identification has 
 been made by means of the frequent occurrence of her badge and mottoes in 
 the borders, many of which contain other devices of a semi-heraldic character, 
 such as a phcenix, which is known to have been a favourite emblem of the 
 duchess, an ermine, a rabbit, and a child playing with a serpent or dragon, all 
 of them allusive to the heraldry of the lady and her husband. The study of 
 heraldry has a further advantage in offering certain fixed rules about the use 
 of colors which may help the student to attain harmony, aad also in accustoming 
 the eye and the hand to adapting certain farms to the place they have to fill, 
 as for instance, the rampant lion within his shield, so as to leave as little 
 vacant space as possible. 
 
 Some examples of animals treated in heraldic style will be found interspersed 
 in this work as tailpieces. One of these, at the end of the Contents, represents 
 a wild boar, to whose neck a mantle, bearing a coat of arms, is attached. It will 
 be understood that what are called in heraldry "supporters" were a knight's 
 attendants, who disguised themselves as beasts, and held their master's shield at 
 the door of his tent at a tournament. The figures cannot, therefore, be too 
 much conventionalized. (See the examples shown in Plate VH.) Some of the 
 other designs are from the Rows Roll, a heraldic manuscript of the time of 
 the Wars of the Roses. Some beautiful heraldic designs are to be found in 
 Drummond's Noble Families. They were drawn by Mr. Montagu, the author 
 of a charming volume on Heraldry. 
 
 Our facsimile reproductions of ancient manuscripts have been selected with 
 a view to supply such examples as are most likely to prove useful to the 
 student. For this purpose we have preferred in several instances to present 
 the whole page with its writing complete, so that the modern illuminator may see
 
 GENERAL SKETCH. xiii 
 
 how the ancient one worked, and how he arranged his painting and his writing 
 with respect to each other. 
 
 To this we may add, that for the rest we have chosen our examples as much 
 as possible because they were pretty, instructive, and of English Avorkmanship, 
 a majority of our pictures being copied from manuscripts written in our own 
 country. I need only call attention to the well known but very beautiful style 
 usually called the " English flower pattern," which admits of an endless series of 
 variations and even improvements, and which is as characteristic of our medieeval 
 painters as the Perpendicular style in Gothic is of our architects, both having 
 flourished here and here only during a long period. 
 
 And in conclusion I should be inclined to advise the illuminator against 
 stiffness. We are too fond of a vellum which is like sheets of ivory, and of 
 working on it with mathematical precision. The old illuminators used a material 
 much more like what is now called " lawyer's parchment," but perfectly well 
 adapted for taking color and gold. A moment's inspection of our e.xamples will 
 show the freedom and ease of the old work, and the dislike evinced by almost 
 every ancient book painter to having his work confined within definite lines. 
 Such freedom and ease are only attained by careful study combined with experi- 
 ence. Every one has not the ability to originate, but without great originality it 
 may still be found possible to avoid servility. " Who would be free himself must 
 strike the blow;" but those who aspire to climb must first be certain that they can 
 walk. The thing that most often offends the eye in modern illumination is that 
 the artist, to conceal his own want of style, mixes up a number of others. Incon- 
 gruity is sometimes picturesque, but this kind of incongruity is always disagreeable, 
 from the staring- and inharmonious evidence of ignorance which it betravs. 
 
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 SIXTEENTII-CEXTURV WRITING— From "Albert Durer's Prayer-Book."
 
 PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS. 
 
 XV 
 
 PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS. 
 
 ip^'NLESS when intended for mere practice, all illuminated 
 work should be executed upon Vellum; its extreme beauty 
 of surface cannot be imitated by any known process of 
 manufacture, while its durability is well known. Bristol 
 Board approaches nearest to it in appearance, is equally 
 pleasing to work upon, and for all practical purposes of 
 the amateur is quite as good. But, if even that is not 
 attainable, excellent work may be done on any smootli 
 grained drawing paper. 
 
 Brushes. — Red Sable Brushes are preferable to all 
 others for illuminating purposes, and are to be had in 
 goose, duck, and crow quills, — the larger for laying on 
 washes of color, or large grounds in body color,— the duck and crow for filling in the smaller 
 portions of color, for shading and general work. One of the smallest size should be kept 
 specially for outlining and fine hair-line finishings. For this purpose all the outer hairs should 
 be neatly cut away with the scissors, leaving only about one-third of the hair remaining. 
 
 Drawing-pen— Circle or Bow-pen.- For doing long straight lines or circles these 
 instruments are indispensable; they give out ink or color evenly, making a smooth, true line 
 of any thickness required for lining any portion of the work, as in border margins, or any 
 part requiring even lines, unattainable by the hand alone. It is necessary to put the ink 
 or color into the pen with the brush after mixing it to the proper consistency for use. Ink 
 or body color may be used with equal facility. Before starting, the pen should always be tried 
 upon a piece of loose paper, to test the thickness of the line, and also to see if the ink in the 
 pen is not too thick or too thin : if too thick, it will not work evenly, while, if too thin, it will 
 flow too rapidly, and run upon a color ground as if on blotting paper. 
 
 Straight-edge, Parallel-ruler, &c.— A thin wooden straight-edge, or, what is 
 better, a parallel-ruler, and also a set square (a right-angled triangular piece of thin wood), 
 will be found necessary for planning out the work. 
 
 Burnisher and Tracer. — Agate Burnishers are to be had at the artists' colormen's, 
 either pencil or claw shaped ; the former will be most useful to a beginner. An ivory 
 style, or point, is requisite for tracing, and useful for indenting gold diapers. 
 
 Pens.— For text or printing, either the quill or the steel pen may be used; both 
 require special manipulation to fit them for the work. It will be most convenient, 
 however, for the amateur to use the quill, as being more easily cut into the shape 
 required ; though a steel pen, once made, will last for years if taken care of. The point 
 must be cut off slightly at an angle, such as may be found most convenient. If a 
 steel pen is used, it will be necessary, after cutting off the point, to rub the pen care- 
 fully on an oilstone to smooth the roughened edges, and prevent it from scratching the 
 
 B
 
 xvi ART OF ILLUMINATING. 
 
 paper. The text pen, when properly made, should work smoothly, making every stroke 
 of equal thickness. It is well to ha\-e text pens of different widths, to suit for letter- 
 ing of various thicknesses of body stroke. The pen should be held more upright than for 
 ordinary writing. A broad, almost unyielding point, will give a fine upward and a firm 
 downward or backward stroke with equal facility. For finer writing the pen should be cut 
 with a longer slope in the nib. Fine-pointed pens, for finishing and putting in the hair lines 
 into the text, should also be provided. For this the fine mapping, or lithographic, pen, made 
 by Gillott and others, is most suitable. 
 
 Text or Printing Letter.S. — This is a kind of penmanship which the amateur 
 will, at first, find verj' difficult to write with regularity, as it requires much special practice 
 to attain anything like proficiency in its execution. But as much of the beauty and 
 excellence of the illuminating depends upon the regularity and precision of the text, it is 
 well worth all the application necessary to master it. The styles of text usually introduced 
 within the illuminated borders are known under the names of "Black Letter," "Church Text," 
 " Old English," and " German Text." 
 
 Indian Ink and L.\mp Black are the only paints generally used for black text; the 
 difference being that Indian Ink is finer, and therefore better adapted for writing of a fine 
 or delicate character. It works freelj', and retains a slight gloss, while Lamp Black gives 
 a full solid tint, and dries with a dull or mat surface; — a little gum-water added will help 
 the appearance in this respect. Some illuminators recommend a mixture of Indian Ink and 
 Lamp Black, with a little gum-water, as the best for text of a full black body, working better 
 than either alone. The mixture should be well rubbed together in a small saucer with the 
 finger before using. If a portion of the text is to be in red, it should be in pure vermilion. 
 If in gold, it must be shell gold, highly burnished with the agate, as hereafter described. 
 
 Colors. — Not to confuse the learner with a multiplicity of pigments, we will only 
 mention such as are essential, and with which all the examples in the following studies 
 may be copied. As experience is gained by practice, the range of colors may be increased 
 as requirements may dictate. 
 
 G.\MB0GE. Crimson Lake. Burnt Umber. Prussian Blue. 
 
 Indian Yellow. Sepia. Lamp Black. Burnt Sienna. 
 
 Vermilion. Emerald Green. Chinese White. Cobalt. 
 Yellow Ochre. 
 
 A little experimental practice with the colors will do more to show the various com- 
 binations of which they are capable than any lengthy exposition. Various portions of color 
 may be tried, particularly for the more delicate tints, for greys, neutrals, and quiet compounds, 
 where great purity is required, and the most pleasing noted for future use. 
 
 There are two methods or styles of coloring, which are used either alone, or in 
 conjunction. In the Celtic, and other early styles, including that of the fourteenth century, 
 where the colors are used flat — no relief by shading being given — it is purely a surface 
 decoration, the colors well contrasted, merely graduated from deep to pale, and outlined 
 with a clear, black outline. The masses of color or gold are here usually enriched by diapers, 
 while the stems, leaves, &c., are elaborated by being worked over with delicate hair-line 
 finishings on the darker [jround. The other method of trcatin<r ornamental forms embraces
 
 PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS. xvii 
 
 a wide range of style of illuminating, approaching more nearly to Nature in treatment, the 
 ornament being more or less shaded naturally, or conventionalized to some extent. It is 
 important to lay the color evenly in painting, not getting it in ridges, or piling it in lumps, 
 as the amateur is apt to do. This will be best attained by painting as evenly as possible 
 with the brush, mostly in one direction, and not too full of color, and refraining from going 
 back over the parts just painted, if it can be avoided. Patches always show, more or less, 
 and can hardly ever be made to look smooth. 
 
 Gold, Silver, &C. — To the inexperienced, the laying on of gold or silver may seem 
 a difficult affair; but it is really comparatively easy, especially when gold and silver shells, 
 sold by artists' colormen, are used. These contain the pure metal ground very fine with 
 gum, and need no preparation. When a drop of water is added, the gold can be removed 
 from the shell, and used with the brush in the ordinary way as a color. One brush should 
 be kept for painting gold or other metallic preparations. As silver is liable to turn black, 
 we would advise the use of aluminium instead, which is not affected by the atmosphere. 
 It can be had in shells in the same manner. In applying gold, or other metal, it should 
 be painted very level and even, especially if it is to be burnished, which make irregularities 
 more prominent. Gold that is to be burnished should be applied before any of the coloring 
 is begun, as the burnisher is apt to mark and injure the effect of the adjoining parts. When 
 the gold is laid on, put a piece of glazed writing paper over it, and, with the burnisher, rub the 
 paper briskly, pressing the particles of gold into a compact film : this gives it a smooth even 
 surface. In this way it is principally used, and is called mat gold. For burnished gold, the 
 paper is removed, and the agate rubbed briskly upon the gold surface, not dwelling too long 
 upon any one part, until a fine, evenly-bright metallic surface is produced. Rubbing the gold 
 lightly with the finger, after touching the skin or hair, facilitates the action of the burnisher. 
 
 Preparing for Work, &c. — The vellum or paper having been strained, the surface 
 will, when dry, be perfectly flat and smooth. If the paper or vellum is to be much worked 
 upon, it will be found advantageous to fasten it to a board by drawing-pins or by glueing 
 the edges, having previously damped the back; when this is dry, the surface will be perfectly 
 level, and not apt to bag in working.. Paper so mounted should be larger than the size 
 required, to allow for cutting off the soiled margin when completed. To prevent the margins 
 being soiled, a sheet of paper should now be fastened as a mask over the page, v.'ith a flap 
 the size of the work cut in it, by folding back portions of which any part of the surface 
 may be worked upon without exposing the rest. 
 
 It is almost impossible to erase pencil lines from vellum. The black lead, uniting w ith 
 the animal matter of the skin, can never be properly got out — India rubber or bread only 
 rubbing it into a greasy smudge. It is, therefore, better to prepare a complete outline 
 of the design upon paper first, which can afterwards be transferred to the strained sheet. 
 For this purpose tracing paper is required, possessing this advantage, that corrections upon 
 the sketch can be made in tracing, and, in placing it upon the vellum, if the sheet has been 
 previously squared off for the work, its proper position can be readily seen and determined. 
 The tracing paper should be about one inch larger each way, to allow of its being fastened 
 to the mask over the exposed surface of the page. A piece of transfer paper of a convenient 
 size is then placed under the tracing. When the tracing is fixed in its proper position by 
 a touch of gum or paste at the upper corners, slip the transfer paper, with the chalked side 
 
 13 2
 
 xviii ART OF ILLUMINATING. 
 
 downwards, between the vellum and the tracing, and tack down the bottom corners of 
 the tracing in the same way, to prevent shifting. Seated at a firm table or desk of a con- 
 venient height, with the strained paper or drawing board slightly on an incline, the amateur 
 may consider all read}' for work. All the lines of the tracing are first to be gone over with 
 the tracing point, or a very hard pencil cut sharp will answer the purpose. A corner may 
 be raised occasionally to see that the tracing is not being done too firmly or so faintly as to 
 be almost invisible. A piece of stout card should be kept under the hand while tracing, 
 to avoid marking the clean page with the prepared transfer paper underneath, by undue 
 pressure of the fingers. 
 
 For larger work, not requiring such nicety of detail, the sketch may be transferred direct 
 —especially if the paper is thin — without the use of tracing paper, by merely chalking the 
 back of the drawing, and going over the lines with the tracing point; but the other method 
 is best, and the transfer paper may be used over and over again. 
 
 When the subject is carefully traced on the prepared page, and the tracing and transfer 
 paper removed, it will be best to begin with the text. The experienced illuminator will 
 generall)', after arranging his designs and spacing out his text, with the initial letters in their 
 proper places, transfer all to his vellum, and do the writing before he begins coloring, covering 
 up all the page except the portion he is working upon. When the lettering is complete, 
 it will in its turn be covered, to prevent its being soiled while the border is being painted. 
 
 Work out the painting as directed under " Colors," beginning with the gold where it is in 
 masses, burnishing it level when dry, as before explained : smaller portions can more readily 
 be done afterwards. Paint each color the full strength at once, keeping in mind that 
 it becomes lighter when dry, and finishing each color up to the last stage before beginning 
 another. 
 
 Outlining and Finishing. — When the work is at this stage, the colors will have 
 a dull and hopeless appearance; but, as the outline is added, it changes to one more pleasing. 
 The addition of the fine white edging and hair-line finishings (as in fourteenth-century style), 
 still further heightens the effect, giving the appearance of great elaborateness and brilliancy 
 to the coloring, and beauty and decision to the forms. In the conventional style of treatment 
 in coloring, a careful outline is an imperative necessity, and, in this part of the work, practice 
 in the use of the brush is essential. Sometimes objects are outlined in a deeper shade of the 
 local color — as a pink flower or spray with lake, pale blue with darker blue, &c. ; but this 
 is not very usual. In the real or natural treatment of the objects forming the subject of the 
 illumination, an outline is seldom used, everything being colored and shaded as in Nature, 
 Lamp black with a little gum water will be found the best medium, being capable of making 
 a very fine or a firm line, at the same time retaining its intense glossy black appearance. 
 A little practice will enable the learner to know the best consistency to make the ink. As 
 it evaporates, a few drops of water may be added, and rubbed up with the brush or finger. 
 For Jiair-Iine finishing, either light lines upon a darker ground or vice versa, the same kind of 
 brush will be used as for outlining. For diapers of a geometrical character, the drawing-pen 
 and small bow-pen will be of great use, either upon color or gold grounds. The ivory tracing 
 point is used to indent upon gold scrolls or diapers. Sometimes there is put over the entire 
 back-ground a multitude of minute points of gold, but not too close together, and punctured 
 with the point of the agate or tracing-point, producing a beautiful glittering effect.
 
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE I. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE I. 
 
 ESIGNED by English illuminators of the 
 twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the initials 
 on this Plate must be separately described. 
 Those at the left top corner are the oldest, 
 and show a certain stiffness of form and 
 dulness of color which contrasts strongly 
 with the spirit and lightness of the letters to 
 the right side of the Plate. These letters, which may be found 
 in manuscripts of many different periods, should be carefully 
 studied. There are some examples in which the initial is simply 
 red or blue, as the case may be. Next it is red and blue combined, 
 the two colors being carefully kept apart by a narrow line of white, 
 which the student will do well not to mark with white paint but to leave out 
 by delicate manipulation. Next the edge of the letter both within and without 
 is followed with a line of red or blue drawn a little way from it and never 
 touching. Then the space so marked within the letter is filled by a tracery of 
 slight flourishes in red and blue, the latter always predominating in the whole 
 design so as to obtain the more harmony of effect. The blue and gold letters are 
 very sparingly treated with red. The blue is Prussian, but very deep in tint in 
 the original. (Addl. MSS. 11,435.) 
 
 The initial S in the lower left-hand corner is of earlier date. It will probably, 
 like the letters above it, be seldom used for ornamental purposes, and it will suffice 
 here to mention that the colors used are as follows : — Cobalt raised with Chinese 
 White for the blue parts; for the red, Vermilion shaded with Lake; and for the 
 cool pale olive tint, Indigo and Yellow Ochre, toned with Chinese White. 
 
 The large initial E shows a sacred scene, and is of English late thirteenth 
 century work, in a private collection. The harmony is studiously correct, and the 
 original, which is slightly larger, glows with color. It is rather more than four 
 inches square. The figures are firmly outlined, as are their draperies. The gold 
 is leaf the architectural portion being left very flat, but the nimbus and the border
 
 2 ART OF ILLUMINATING. 
 
 are burnished. It has been found impossible to reproduce exactly the pattern 
 of the ground in chromo-lithography, but as it may readily be done by hand, a 
 description taken direct from the original will be acceptable to the pupil. The 
 blue ground within the letter is dark: on it is ruled a square cross-bar of deep 
 olive lines of great fineness. Intersecting them, and so to speak keeping them 
 down, is a net-work of very fine nearly white lines, the points of intersection being 
 marked by minute circles. Within the little spaces thus divided are minute circles 
 of vermilion. The outer groundwork is of olive diapered with a deeper shade 
 of the same color. The ground outside the letter is pink divided into squares 
 by brown lines, each square having a little red circle in it. The edges of the 
 draperies are marked by minute white lines, and there is less shading than in the 
 reproduction. Altogether this letter represents the best work of the period, and 
 is an admirable e.xample of the painstaking care by which alone great effects are 
 produced. Even a genius, such as was the artist who produced this little picture, 
 must condescend to take infinite trouble if he would obtain an adequate reward. 
 
 Heraldic Popinjay.
 
 Plate I.— INITIALS BY ENGLISH ILLUMINATORS, i2th and 13TH Centuries. 
 
 3
 
 LETTERS FROM AN ALPHABET OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 (Tlie remaimler of the alphabet is shown in colors in Plate II.)
 
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE II. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE II. 
 
 XECUTED in the llfteenth century, probably 
 in the north of France, the small manuscript 
 from which the twelve initial letters are taken 
 is in a private collection. It consists of twenty- 
 four leaves of rather stout vellum, measuring 
 4| inches by 3 inches, and has evidently been 
 a sampler or pattern book for a school of illu- 
 mination. It contains two alphabets. The 
 letters in the plate are selected from one of 
 them. Outlines of the rest of this alphabet 
 are on the back of Plate I. In copying them 
 for color the student will remember that those 
 letters which contain blue flowers are red, and vice versa. Each letter 
 is painted on a ground of leaf-gold highly burnished, and is ornamented 
 with a natural flower, ^^'e may recognize the rose, the pansy, the strawberry, the 
 columbine, the wall-flower, the corn-flower, the sweet pea, the iris, the daisy, the 
 thistle, and others. Pinks, dog-roses, and forget-me-nots also occur, and the little 
 volume forms, in this respect, a curious and interesting record of the produce of the 
 flower garden so long ago as the time of the English " Wars of the Roses." 
 
 The second alphabet is of a wholly different character, the letters, not the 
 ground on which they are placed, being gilt, and the ground colored red or blue. 
 Over the red and the blue is a scroll pattern in white, but the red is sometimes 
 decorated with a pattern in body-yellow^ which produces an e.xceedingly gorgeous 
 effect. In two or three cases the ground is green, worked over in a darker olive 
 tint heightened with yellow. In one, a flower or scroll of grey is placed on 
 a ground of blue dotted all over with minute gold spots. 
 
 The blue used in copying these initials for the plate was Prussian, mixed with 
 Chinese White, and shaded with pure color. The green is a mixtm-e of Indian 
 Yellow and Prussian Blue. The pink is Lake and White shaded with pure Lake. 
 The red terminals which appear in some of the letters are of Vermilion, shaded 
 with Lake. Chinese White body color is largely used in working diapers over 
 the letters of both colors.
 
 6 ART OF ILLUMINATING. 
 
 These letters are good examples of the form chiefly in use for ilkiminated 
 manuscripts and in ornamental sculpture all over northern Europe from the twelfth 
 century to the sixteenth. They are generally called " the Lombardic character," 
 from some real or fancied connection with Lombardy. Such names must be 
 cautiously accepted. " Arabic numerals,"' for example, have been proved to be 
 somewhat modified Greek letters. But the Lombardic capitals, whatever their 
 origin, lend themselves readily to the exigencies of the illuminator, and are all 
 the more eft'ective from the contrast they present to the text. 
 
 It is now almost universally acknowledged that all the forms of the mediaeval 
 and modern alphabet may be traced to Egyptian hieroglyphics. A very interesting 
 passage in Mr. Isaac Taylor's learned book on " The Alphabet," shows us the 
 development of the letter M from the Egyptian picture of an owl. " It will 
 be noticed," he says, "that our English letter has preserved, throughout its long 
 history of six thousand years, certain features by which it may be recognized as the 
 conventionalized picture of an owl. In the capital letter M the two peaks, which 
 are the lineal descendants of the two ears of the owl, still retain between them 
 a not inapt representation of the beak, while the first of the vertical strokes 
 represents the breast." It would be easy to show the same ancient origin for 
 many other letters, and for most of those in the Greek alphabet. F was a horned 
 snake. G was a basket with a handle. K was a triangle. L was a lion seated. 
 N was a zigzag line, of which only three strokes have survived. P was a faggot 
 of papyrus. There is no perceptible difference between the long S still sometimes 
 in use and the hieroglyphic form. U was a quail. Z was a serpent. 
 
 The initial E at the beginning of the previous page is of English work, and 
 represents Edward the Black Prince receiving a charter from the hands of his 
 father King Edward III. The prince places one knee on his helmet, and has 
 on his head only the ornamental cap called a "bonnet." His arms and those of 
 the king are colored on their respective " tabards." 
 
 The large letter M on the back of Plate II. is from a volume now in the 
 British Museum (Harl. MSS. 3045), which was written in Germany in the twelfth 
 century. It is illuminated in three colors. The ground is emerald green; the 
 letter itself red; and the scroll-work also in red outline, a pale purple ground 
 being substituted for the green in the circular spaces. It would be instructive to 
 the student to color the outline from this description.
 
 Plate II.— INITIAL LETTERS FROM FRENCH MANUSCRIPT, 15111 Century. 
 
 7
 
 LARGE INITIAL LETTER OF TWELFTH CENTURY. 
 Harleiax MSS. 3045, British Museum.
 
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE III. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE III. 
 
 HE beauty of the work executed in the thirteenth 
 century in England, and that part of what is now 
 France which then belonged to England, can hardly 
 be exceeded. In this Plate are gathered a few 
 examples of the period. They are from two books, 
 both in the British Museum, but one probably 
 written in France and the other at Canterbury. 
 The initials from the French manuscript may be 
 readily distinguished. The scroll-work is irregular 
 and even wild, and in some examples the artist 
 seems to have aimed at nothing less than startling the reader by his eccentricities. 
 The volume is numbered in the Catalogue, Additional MSS. 11,698, and contains 
 a treatise on the art of war. The letters numbered in the Plate 6, 7, and 8, are 
 from this book. The student will observe the simple scale of harmonious coloring, 
 blue predominating, as is necessary, and both yellow and also gold being used 
 to heighten the effect. In copying them the artist used these colors, besides 
 Chinese White and shell gold: namely, Prussian Blue, Lake, Indian Red, Emerald 
 Green, Indian Yellow, shaded with Burnt Sienna, and Burnt Umber, with 
 Sepia for the outlines. In imitating or copying these initials, the student will 
 find a firm but delicate and even outline of the greatest importance. If the hand 
 is very steady it may be put in Avith a small brush, which is particularly useful 
 in the erratic flourishes in which this writer rejoiced so much. 
 
 The English letters are much more sober and rectilinear in character. The 
 T (fig- 5) commences the prologue of the Book of Wisdom, for the volume is a 
 Bible (Bibl. Reg. i D. i), and a small portion of the text is given with the initial 
 as a guide to the arrangement. The colors are the same as in the French examples. 
 The lines and dots in white are very delicate, and may be closely imitated by the 
 use of Chinese White w^ith a very fine brush, care being taken not to disturb the 
 underlying color. This is the book mentioned in the General Sketch as being 
 the work of a writer named "Wills. Devoniensis," or William of Devonshire.
 
 lO ART OF ILLUMINATING. 
 
 It is a small folio in size and is written in double columns. At the commencement 
 of the book of Psalms there is a magnificent illumination covering the greater part 
 of the page, and showing, with much scroll-work by way of border, a series of small 
 vignettes, which include a crucifixion, and a number of scenes from the life of 
 St. Thomas of Canterbury, better known in history as Thomas BeckeL 
 
 A somewhat similar Bible, but not so delicate in workmanship, is also in the 
 British Museum (i B. 12), and was written at Salisbury in 1254 by William 
 de Hales. 
 
 The writing of the thirteenth century difters considerably from that of the two 
 followino; centuries. It is not so stiff but much more legible. The distinction will 
 be apparent from a comparison of this Plate with those two which are copied from 
 manuscripts at Lambeth (Plates IV. and IX.) Modern illuminators seem to have 
 preferred the later style, but the advantages of the early should recommend it. 
 The Chronicles written at St. Albans by and under the superintendence of Matthew 
 Paris are all in this style. Facsimiles of several pages are given in the volumes 
 published under the direction of the Master of the Rolls. 
 
 The initial T on the previous page is from a beautiful Nuremberg treatise of 
 1489 on the " Preservation of Body, Soul, Honour, and Goods." 
 
 On the back of Plate III. are two pages in outline from a small Book of Hours 
 in the collection of Robert Young, Esq., Belfast. This kind of work is known as 
 the " Ivy Pattern." It was exclusively practised in France in the fourteenth 
 century. The coloring is usually of a very sober character : the prevailing colors 
 being blue and gold only. 
 
 Hart, Badge of Richard U.
 
 olccenrcg tbii fintda 
 
 cdicenfeei funcafiani 
 
 ! t ipi p^euennctanpa 
 
 fireufe apfie-n ccab \vf 
 acceflic i'p^prg«fcc t 
 
 mca t)educecmcrmcto{ ? 
 
 cancnccm'jncipic pioio 
 
 ;ofophonte> 
 
 p2opi5e|3^ aucauug 
 
 ponaninnnailo-ip 
 ro9quo;p2opljas m 
 
 itre-tintg^amosui^ 
 
 _J 
 
 Plate III.— EXAMPLES OF THIRTEENTH-CENTURY WORK.
 
 > 
 
 H 
 u 
 
 H 
 
 W 
 H 
 f- 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 Pi 
 
 t^-^ 
 
 fc. 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 P5 
 
 «5 
 
 o 
 Pi 
 
 W 
 O 
 
 <
 
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE IV. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE IV. 
 
 UR next Plate is from a manuscript in the Lambeth 
 Library. Leave to copy it was readily granted to 
 us by the lamented Archbishop Tait. It is No. 459 
 in the Library Catalogue, and contains no fewer 
 than twenty miniatures, as well as borders like this 
 one. It belongs like Plate IX. (the Frontispiece) 
 to the English flower pattern style of the fifteenth 
 century, and is remarkable for the sober effect of 
 tlie gorgeous colors employed, and for the delicacy 
 of the scroll-work in black. 
 A great deal of this effect is due to the application of gold. The illuminators 
 employed both what we call "shell gold" and leaf They attached the greatest 
 importance to skill in gilding, and the result is that their "raising" survives after 
 centuries, when that executed at the present day often cracks off after a few weeks 
 or months, if not very carefully handled. Many books, containing the secret of 
 making these preparations, and sizes of all kinds, are in existence; and show that 
 while the same end was attained by many different kinds of processes, one 
 ingredient was never omitted, namely, great care and pains, and the gradual 
 gathering of skill through experience. 
 
 It is difficult to explain the method of using gold-leaf without an actual 
 demonstration : and the student will learn more in ten minutes by watching 
 a competent gilder than by reading a library of books on the subject. The 
 " raising " is to be obtained from any artist's colorman, and nothing but practice 
 long and assiduous can secure the power to use it. The same rule must be laid 
 down for burnishing, which is an art not to be acquired in a day. It might be well 
 to commence with the dotted work, common in the fourteenth century, and when 
 we have learned to make a burnished dot with our agate point we may go on and 
 burnish a larger surface. The effect of burnished leaf gold cannot be given in 
 chromo-lithography, but it may be worth while to remark that all the gilding in 
 the original illumination from which this Plate is copied is burnished on a raised 
 surface, even the small letters in the text.
 
 14 ART OF ILLUMINATING. 
 
 The colors employed by the copier were of a more mixed and complicated 
 character than those fur the other page from the Lambeth Library. The reason 
 is apparent in a moment on comparing the two. In this page the brilliancy is so 
 tempered as to produce a comparatively subdued effect. In the General Sketch 
 mention has already been made of miniatures in which the artist restricted himself 
 to the use of certain colors, so as to insure a peculiar and delicate effect. Here 
 there has been no such restriction, but each color has been softened and so worked 
 over with patterns and lines in body white or in pale yellow, that there is no glare 
 or contrast. The student should be careful how he obtains harmony by this 
 method, as he may lind all his work weakened and paled; but, skilfully used, the 
 system may be made to produce the most charming results. 
 
 The blue is Prussian, over which are dots and lines of Chinese White. The 
 pink is obtained by mi.xing Lake and Chinese White, shaded with darker Lake, 
 and also heightened with white lines and dots. The orange is pale Indian Yellow 
 shaded with Burnt Sienna, and with an admixture of Lake in the deeper shadows. 
 The green in this example is obtained by mixing Prussian Blue and Indian 
 Yellow in different proportions. 
 
 On the back of Plate lY. are two more outlines from Mr. Robert Young's little 
 French Book of Hours. They are admirable models of a kind of work which for 
 fully half a century was to France what the " flower pattern " was to England. 
 The branches are generally dark blue delicately lined with white. The leaves 
 are sometimes gold, that is where there is not already a gold ground, and some- 
 times yellow, red, and blue. The prevailing tint is blue, and in some pages no 
 other color, besides the gilding, is employed. 
 
 Some outline borders and ornaments of the same period and style are to be 
 found on the back of Plates V. and VI. The coloringf of some of them will be 
 indicated by a reference to Plates III. and I. 
 
 UuLL, Badge of Neville.
 
 ;^i 
 
 £mmsihiu^fm 
 
 X>ii"ea6abmuan^ 
 tmmmMiS If 
 j3atn^6IioFt|lputt 
 
 fitaunple lUpnagraquc tu 
 ff?^ o jeramtcifelutiffiauftqt^uoD 
 imqubiiMi oo^ gllUjaia tmsine mc* 
 cmtD fitmia Oi^rmsjr !ariapleaa|^ 
 mattr^nfie tunos/abftotejtige mfic^ 
 
 ?ianoitluo feluumf f&cietii 
 
 jirlutEtua iutome. ::o tmi^ 
 auMofonan m^ aun^j^rSba o;i$? 
 tneijL 1 m alJentmluTOmmtr a tmiu 
 iie(%fi);ite^ qucftonftaiam m ea grib 
 nblhmml^ tmanteog n^edafitUi!^' 
 
 em tgqg iatiiumfllime^ tommnigil _ 
 tp;eftanime mEe^ rittemalaimmiate 
 
 ? 
 
 ND 
 
 re/' 
 
 Plate IV.— FACSIMILE OF MANUSCRIPT IN LAMBETH PALACE LIBRARV, 15x11 Century. 
 
 '5
 
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE V. 
 
 17 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE V. 
 
 J 
 
 LATE V. sliows three ornaments from manuscripts of late 
 date, all in the National Collections. 
 
 The border with the raspberries is from a Missal of the 
 sixteenth century in the British Museum (Addl. 18,855), 
 and was probably written and illuminated in the Low 
 Countries. We have already mentioned the extraordinary freedom 
 and ease of the Flemish work of that period. Every beautiful 
 object was made use of for pictorial effect. Children, birds, jewels, 
 shells, as well as fruit and flowers, are to be found. They particu- 
 larly excelled in painting pearls. One border is green, with chains 
 and ropes of pearls strewn all over it. The calendar represents 
 domestic scenes, each strongly surrounded with a double gold line, 
 the written part being simply left out in the middle, so that the scene 
 forms its border. The gold ground presents a slightly different 
 appearance from that shown in our engraving, as it is flat, being 
 painted with shell-gold not put on very thickly. The shadows are of 
 Burnt Umber, which has a very transparent effect on the gold ground. 
 Beside this border is a fine letter of somewhat earlier date from 
 a chorale book, German work in all probability, which, with many 
 others, Italian and Flemish as well as German, were ruthlessly cut 
 up into fragments, perhaps at the Reformation, perhaps more recently, 
 and are now in the Art Library of the South Kensington Museum. 
 They are much rubbed and faded, and our chromo-lithograph repre- 
 sents this initial C as it appeared when first finished. In much of the 
 northern work of this period — about the middle of the fifteenth 
 century, say 1450 — there is a beautiful style of ornamental scroll-work, 
 which some have proposed to call the " Leather Pattern." It may 
 
 represent the 
 cut leather 
 work of the 
 mantling of
 
 I8 ART OF ILLUMINATING. 
 
 a knight's tilting lielmet. A small specimen of it is shown in the turned-back 
 petals of the flowers in this letter, but whole volumes are to be seen entirely 
 decorated with it, and some of the best work of the period was accomplished in it. 
 
 The third of these ornaments is also from the collection in the South 
 Kensington Museum. In this design the thing to be most noticed is perhaps that 
 which is least prominent, namely, the gold spots, with black filaments, as it were, 
 floating from them. They serve to eke out and fill up the composition, and in 
 some books are used with fine effect on almost every page. They should be 
 thickly gilt on a raised surface, and should have dark outlines, and the filaments 
 rapidly and lightly drawn, either with a pen or with a very fine brush, pruned 
 down almost to a single hair. Many other pretty effects may be obtained by early 
 training the hand and eye to draw single lines in this way. The letters in one 
 of our other Plates (No. I.) are entirely filled with tracery of the kind, and the 
 patterns principally in use are easily learned. Anything free is preferable to 
 servile imitation and tracing, and these diapers in particular lose more than almost 
 anything else in the whole art of illumination by direct copying. The student 
 should learn to adapt his delicate lines — chiefly in red and blue — to any form 
 of letter, and while drawing them should not let his hand falter or hesitate for 
 a moment. It is the same with the lace-like patterns in white which were so 
 much in vogue for heightening the edges of letters in the thirteenth and fourteenth 
 centuries. They are very necessary to the effect, but must be painted in with 
 a light touch and great rapidity, or they lose all spirit. 
 
 The initial P on the previous page, and also the initials in pages vii. and 
 I, have been taken from MSS. illuminated with the " English flower-pattern." 
 An attempt has been made to represent the colors employed by means of lines. 
 This system was first applied to heraldry in the first half of the seventeenth 
 century. Horizontal lines represent blue; vertical, red; cross hatching, black; 
 dotting, gold or yellow. Green is denoted by lines " in bend dexter," and purple 
 by lines " in bend sinister." 
 
 The bands and borders on the back of Plate V. are of the fourteenth century, 
 but similar ornaments were common at all times. They are chiefly red or blue, 
 with patterns in white lines and dots, and in highly burnished gold. They are 
 employed both as borders and to fill up incomplete lines of writing.
 
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE VI. 
 
 21 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE VI. 
 
 ^^-f~^ '^(cS?W'^^'$^ »") BE^^ PAGE of writing and five separate initials from 
 
 a book of " Hours," written in Flanders or Holland 
 at the end of the fifteenth century, are here shown, 
 with a border of the same period from another 
 volume. The first book, which is in a private 
 collection, affords an exam^Dle of the kind of illum- 
 ination which is styled by the French "grisaille," a 
 word which may be translated "grey-work." In this 
 style, which consists usually in the artist restricting 
 himself to certain colors, or to black, grey, and white only, very few books were 
 ever written. I have already, in the General Sketch, mentioned one which had 
 pictures in imitation of Limoges enamels. A volume apparently illuminated by 
 the same hand as those in our MS. is in the Burgundian Library at Brussels. 
 The figure pictures in both look as if they were not painted by the same artist 
 as the writing and illumination of the letters, and it is probable two or more 
 were employed in the production. 
 
 There was great activity in all the arts in the Low Countries during the 
 fifteenth century, and the most gorgeous books ever illuminated were written there 
 at that period. At Dortrecht, at Bruges, and other places there w^ere schools of 
 illuminators, and the practice of the art was not confined, as in England, to 
 ecclesiastics and the cloister. The books written were, however, mainly religious; 
 and the same designs were used over and over again. It would, in fact, be easy 
 to identify each guild of miniature painters by their employment of the same set 
 of forms. This eventually led to deterioration, and only the introduction of oil 
 painting, by turning the minds of the artists into a wider channel, saved Flemish 
 art. The masters of the Van Eycks, of Memling, of Matsys, of Van Romerswalc 
 were undoubtedly the teachers of illumination in books. 
 
 The artist in "grisaille" always took especial pains with his draperies. He 
 had so little wherewith to produce his effect that he sometimes almost reached the 
 chiaro-scnro of a later period. Some of the pictures of this school which I have 
 seen look as if they were intended to represent moonlight views. In the present
 
 22 ART OF ILLUMINATING. 
 
 volume the effect of the soberly coloured figure subjects is greatly enhanced by 
 the rich colors of the border, and the brilliantly burnished gilding. The ground 
 on which the letter O is gilded in Plate VI., is quartered into red and blue, and 
 the outer part " counter-changed," as they say in heraldry. A delicate pattern is 
 worked over the colors in body-white. The small leaves are painted with thick 
 coats of Emerald Green. 
 
 The border is from a Book of Hours in the British Museum. The gilding 
 in the original is laid on with shell, worked very flat and very thin, so as rather 
 to impart a yellow tone to the ground than to give it any special lustre. There 
 are other borders in the book of a similar character, and some which, on a green 
 or a purple ground, show jewels of various kinds, especially pearls, sometimes 
 strewn irregularly over the ground, sometimes worked up into ornaments, or made 
 to look as if they were mounted in richly designed gold settings. In fact, at that 
 age the artist let nothing escape him that would go to enhance the beauty or 
 brilliancy of his page. In the original this border enclosed a very elaborate 
 miniature. These miniatures are very carefully and delicately painted, but 
 perhaps by a different hand, as they are not equal in refinement to the borders. 
 The Office for the Dead is ornamented with a black border, on which is archi- 
 tectural tracery in gold on which skulls are arranged, one of them with a pansy 
 or heartsease and forget-me-not, beautifully painted, growing out of the hollow 
 eyes. The border of the picture of the Annunciation is made with a tall lily 
 growing from an ornamental vase at the side. 
 
 The Dutch and Flemish illuminators at this period excelled in manipulation, 
 and many of the books which they painted have all the merit and almost all the 
 importance of pictures. Anything and everything was used as ornament. In 
 some no two pages are even in what can be called the same style; but delicacy of 
 workmanship, the faces especially being finished as real miniatures, is characteristic 
 of all. It is probable that whole schools of artists worked on a single volume, 
 dividing the labour according to the skill of each artist. 
 
 On the back of Plate VI. will be found some further examples of the orna- 
 ments, letters, and "line finishings" of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, 
 chiefly from French books. The A and the Z are from the same MS. as 
 Nos. 6 and 7 on Plate III. The KL united form the heading of the Calendar 
 in a book with ivy pattern borders.
 
 of rVb?)toiicitttii^mfflTml/ 
 
 
 ^^gm T lD2tf liten 
 
 tnloenentettnlietlMftfn .^ 3 
 
 
 ewo aentmtmmnct) tPtfgojJtl 
 "tot fertoogieglametfi j>m| | .■«| 
 
 1 
 
 Plate VI.-PAGE AND INITIALS (Low Countries, isth Century). BORDER i-rom MS. in British Museum. 
 
 n
 
 FRENCH INITIAL LETTERS AND BORDER ORNAMENTS— Fourteenth Century.
 
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE VH. 
 
 25 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE VII. 
 
 ICTORIALLY considered the illustrations on Plate VII., 
 it must be admitted, are more quaint than beautiful. 
 All the subjects on this page are, with the ex- 
 ception of the thirteenth and fourteenth century 
 borders (6), (4), more or less heraldic in character. 
 It will be best to take them in the order in which 
 they are numbered. 
 
 The lady seated (i) holds in either hand the 
 arms of the Duke of Burgundy, slightly varied as 
 to quarterings. The picture is taken from the 
 famous " Bedford Missal " in the British Museum, which is not a missal at all, but a 
 Book of Hours, illuminated in France for the Duke of Bedford, one of the brothers 
 of Henry V. It therefore belongs to the fifteenth century. The lady is sitting on 
 what in heraldry is called "a mount vert," which in turn is supported by the little 
 half architectural scroll-work below; her dress is purple, shaded with grey, in opaque 
 color; the arms are painted in Prussian Blue and Vermilion, the gold being shell. 
 The gentleman to the right (2) is Sir Nele Loring, a Knight of the Garter. 
 Some time in the fourteenth century a monk of St. Albans, Thomas Walsingham, 
 compiled a list of the benefactors of the abbey, and as far as possible presented his 
 readers with a portrait of each. They are rather rough but eminently picturesque. 
 The book is particularly interesting from the curious particulars it gives us as to 
 the expenses of the illuminator. One Alan Strayler, it tells us, " worked much 
 upon this book," and the editor or compiler ran up a debt with him of the com- 
 paratively large sum of three shillings and fourpence, equal to at least ^^3, 10^. od. 
 of our money, for the colors he had used. The book came into the possession 
 of the great Lord Verulam, better known as Lord Chancellor Bacon, and by him 
 it was given to Sir Robert Cotton, who collected the Cottonian MSS. It is known 
 in the British Museum as " Nero D. vii." from its place in the book-case of Sir 
 Robert Cotton which bore the effigy of that Caesar. Sir Nele, or Nigel, Loring 
 died in 1386, having given the abbey many gifts, and as he was K.G. he is 
 represented in a white robe diapered with "garters."
 
 26 ART OF ILLUMINATING. 
 
 Our next j^icture (3) is from a very curious and beautiful, but much injured 
 manuscript, reckoned tlie number ii. in the collection at Heralds' College. By the 
 kindness of "Somerset Herald" we are allowed to copy it. The book is a list 
 of banners used probably at a tournament in the reign of Henry VHI. Heraldry 
 became more or less the kind of "science" it still is under the last of the Planta- 
 genet kings, and was kept up in great glory by their successors, the first two 
 Tudors. The banner here given is that of Henry Stafford, who was made Earl 
 of Wiltshire in 1509. It shows the swan, the crest of the Staffords, with a crown 
 round its neck and a chain, and the ground, partly black and partly red, the colors 
 of the family, is powdered with " Stafford knots," their badge. Across, in diagonal 
 lines, is the motto " D'Umble et Loyal." These banners, which might well be 
 imitated in modern illumination, are made up of livery colors, with crests and 
 badges, and are usually accompanied by the coat of arms of the person to whom 
 each belonged. 
 
 The last of the heraldic features 01 the page (5) is also the earliest. It re- 
 presents part of the border of a Psalter made, it is believed, in honour of the 
 intended marriage of Prince Alphonso, the son of Edward I., with a daughter of 
 the King of Arragon. He died at the age of ten years in 1282; but it is possible 
 that the illuminations refer to the intended marriage of his sister, the princess 
 Eleanor, with Alphonso, the young King of Arragon. In any case the manuscript 
 certainly belongs to the middle of the thirteenth century. To the right we see a 
 knight in the chain armour of the period with his shield hung over his arm. Small 
 gold crosses, alternating with " lions rampant " on a blue ground, form part of the 
 border, the other part consisting of " lions passant " on a red ground. Two shields 
 bear, one, the arms of the son of King Edward, " England, differenced with a label, 
 azure," and the other, those of Leon. Crests and mottoes had not been invented, 
 and the artist had little scope for his fancy. But it may not be out of place to call 
 attention to the fact that even at this early period heraldry was made use of for 
 ornament, as in this border, and that it answered the purpose admirably. 
 
 On the back of Plate YII. is the outline of an illumination of the Adoration 
 of the Magi, from a French MS. of the i6th century. Borders of this type though 
 very rich seldom occur in books ornamented in England. The branch work is in 
 delicate black lines, with leaves and berries in o-old or color. The scrolls are 
 generally in blue, turned up with gold, red, or pink; blue being, however, always the 
 predominant color, so as to insure a certain measure of harmony. The effect, how- 
 ever, depended more on the skill with -which the branch work in black was disposed.
 
 ^ pRum Tc gmtj \ p\b d^Jxe^^ce 
 
 mutt) mtKmi^.m^fpm0.s>me 
 
 lmttg!\mttg tt) gm<teta'l!:t?tnit 
 
 ^ima tm^ fryttc fa n) ouiyltep 
 
 tlnt<x>tmtixtq; tn<>tt4toig»Co6mtt^C6 
 
 «fmmtn"Gg^c6 fmimiJc^^ 
 
 
 BORDER AND TEXT, with Adoration of the Three Kings — Sixteenth Century. 
 
 fS
 
 DESCRIFI'ION OF PLATE VIII. 
 
 29 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE VIII. 
 
 book on this subject would be complete without 
 something more than a passing reference to the 
 earliest of all the fashions in illumination which 
 have prevailed in our islands. This Plate gives 
 some examples from the very curious manuscript 
 in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, known 
 as the " Book of Kells." This venerable volume 
 ^ contains the four Gospels in Latin, and, it is 
 sometimes asserted, dates from the seventh cen- 
 tury, but more probably belongs to the ninth. 
 The late Sir M. D. Wyatt says of it: " Of this very book Mr. Westwood examined 
 the pages, as I did, for hours together, without ever detecting a false line, or an 
 irregular interlacement. In one space of about a quarter of an inch superficial, 
 he counted, with a magnifying glass, no less than one hundred and fifty-eight inter- 
 lacements, of a slender ribbon pattern, formed of white lines, edged by black ones, 
 upon a black ground. No wonder that tradition should allege that these unerring 
 lines should have been traced by angels." 
 
 The examples before us are purposely taken from a less complicated page, 
 but will be found sufficient to try the skill and patience of even the most pains- 
 taking student. The colors are rather more vivid than in the original, which has 
 now greatly faded through age and ill-usage. There is litdc to be said as to the 
 beauty of the design. Grotesques have an attraction in spite of their ugliness: 
 but we can hardly expect the most enthusiastic admirer of antiquity to imitate 
 these extraordinary complications of form and color, except as an exercise of skill 
 and patience. In one respect, however, early manuscripts and especially manu- 
 scripts of this class, are well worthy of imitation. The writing is very clear and 
 distinct. It is easier to read a charter of the seventh or the eighth century than 
 one of the seventeenth. Illuminators might do worse than learn the old Irish 
 aljjhabct, if only on this account. 
 
 There is no gilding in the Book of Kells, but some occurs in the contemporary.
 
 -iQ ART OF ILLUMINATING. 
 
 or nearly contemporary Book of Durham. The effect depends wholly on the skill 
 of the scribe in using a very limited palette so as to make the most of it. The 
 modern student would do well to remember this. A wide range of colors does 
 not alwajs conduce to bright or good coloring. Harmony is often found to follow 
 from a sparing use of the more brilliant pigments at our disposal, with a careful 
 eye to effect. The beginner too often imagines that he can make his border or his 
 initial look well if he puts enough gold or vermilion on; but he should remember 
 that the more sober and simple his scale of coloring the more splendid will the 
 bright colors look when he does employ them. It is well to remember that 
 absolute harmony is obtained by the use of blue, red, and yellow in these propor- 
 tions: — blue, eight; red, five; yellow, three; and that all good pictures or illumi- 
 nations must depend on this principle. White and black, and also in some cases 
 gilding, may be treated as neutrals. There is usually a sufficiency of black in the 
 lettering of a page. White, in the shape of dots and as heightening, may be 
 largely employed if there is any want of harmony detected. Gold should not be 
 used for this purpose, except in certain styles; and the student may rest assured 
 that a desisjn which does not look well without gold will not look better with it. 
 
 A few other specimens, without color, will be found on the back of Plate VIII. 
 It might be good practice for the student to tint them in the style of the colored 
 examples. 
 
 The Byzantine style, as it is called, prevailed about the same period in the 
 countries of eastern and northern Europe. The books are of a very different but 
 equally ungraceful character. The work is not so minute or complicated, but the 
 lavish use of gold distinguishes them. Sometimes a page is written in gold letters 
 on vellum stained purple; sometimes the page is entirely gilt. None of the 
 examples in the British Museum are worth the trouble and indeed expense of 
 copying, but they are curious as specimens of barbaric splendour. 
 
 Heraldic Lion.
 
 Pi.ATF, Mil. -EXAMPLES FRflM Tlir. POOR OF KELLS, 9TII Centiky.
 
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE IX. 
 
 jj 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE IX. 
 
 (frontispiece.) 
 
 UCH measure of perfection as had been attained by 
 Englisli illuminators in the latest period is well 
 illustrated by this Plate. It is from a Book of 
 Hours in the library of the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury at Lambeth. Leave to copy it was kindly 
 accorded to us by His Grace the late lamented 
 Archbishop Tait. The volume is square in shape 
 and rather thick, the vellum not being of the fine- 
 ness seen in the Bibles of the thirteenth century, 
 alreadynoticed. It is numbered 474 in the Catalogue, 
 and is described by Mr. S. W. Kershaw, f.s.a., in his book on the Ar^ Treasures 
 of the Lambeth Library, who assigns it to the early part of the fifteenth century. 
 
 The illuminations in this book are admirable examples of what is known as 
 the English flower pattern, a style, as we have already observed, which was as 
 peculiar to our insular artists as the Perpendicular style in architecture. It was 
 used for all kinds of manuscripts, and even law deeds are sometimes to be seen 
 thus ornamented. Even after the invention of printing it continued to flourish for 
 a while; and books are sometimes found printed on vellum abroad, and illuminated 
 in England with the beautiful native flower pattern in borders and initials. 
 
 Mr. Kershaw observes regarding the book from which the present page has 
 been taken : " This, a very nice example, is fairly written, and ornamented with 
 a profusion of beautiful illuminated initials of English art. The volume contains 
 but two miniature paintings, the remainder usually found in MSS. of this class 
 having been abstracted. The initial letters vary in size and pattern; they are all 
 upon backgrounds of gold, and frequently form with their finials short marginal 
 ornaments of elegant tracery work. Pink, blue, and orange brown are the prevail- 
 ing colors, the blue being often heightened on the outer edge with flat white tints. 
 The larger initials are rich in design and varied in their coloring, and would supply 
 the artist or amateur with abundant materials for study." 
 
 I would desire to call the student's attention to one or two points of
 
 34 
 
 ART OF ILLUMINATING. 
 
 importance. In imitating or copying work of this kind it is well to observe that 
 though the artist appears to have used the utmost freedom of line and direction, 
 he has really been most careful in his composition. The initial O comes well 
 out from among its surroundings, and is not overpowered by the weight of 
 its dependent ornament. The scroll-work requires especial attention. That 
 which fills the centre of the letter appears to press tightly against the edge, and 
 is so arranged as to fill completely the vacancy for which it is intended. There is 
 nothing limp about it. Too often modern work can be detected by its want of 
 what I must call the crispness of the original. 
 
 With regard to the writing, it will be observed that a great change in the 
 form of the letters has taken place since the thirteenth century. The difference 
 between ii and n is often hardly perceptible, and has led to many curious mistakes. 
 Nevertheless, if the student is careful about such 25articulars, this is a very beautiful 
 style, and admirably suited for modern requirements. The colors used by the 
 artist who copied this page were as follows: — for the blue, Prussian, lined and 
 dotted with Chinese White; for the pink. Lake and Chinese White, shaded with 
 the same color darker; the deepest shadows are Lake; for the orange, pale Indian 
 Yellow for the lights, shaded with Burnt Sienna, and Lake for the deepest shadows. 
 
 In some books illuminated in this style the centre of the letter is occupied 
 with a scene containing figures, and occasionally a picture extends across the page, 
 the initial fitting close up to it. The picture, in this case, is always surrounded 
 with a double line or framework of blue, or red, and gold; and the color has a 
 delicate white line on it, and occasionally gives out a branch which, crossing the 
 gold line, bursts into flower in the margin. This style was largely used for official 
 documents for a long period, and many excellent facsimiles representing e.xamples 
 are to be found as frontispieces to the volumes of the Roll Series. It lasted with 
 more or less modification until the reio-n of Charles I.
 
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 "The choice of subjects is admirable; there is not an ugly drnvv- I of beautiful forms, as well as the liand in the representation of what 
 
 ing in the book. Parents and tcaclicrs who liave been looking in the eye sees, will be very grateful to the Science and Art Department 
 
 vain for drawing-books that sliould really train lie eye in the study | for these cheap and most satisfactory productions." 
 
 LONDdN; ISLACKIK & SON; GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND DUBLIN. 
 
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 BLACKIE & SON'S BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG. 
 
 Price 1$. bd. 
 
 The UniveFSe: Or the Infinitely Gier.t .ind the Infinitely 
 Little. A Sketch of Contnsls in Creation and Marvels 
 revealed and explained by Nature and Science. By F. A. 
 PoucHET, M.u. With 273 Engravings on wood. 8th 
 Edition, medium 8vo, cloth elegant, gilt edges. 
 
 Price 6s. 
 
 True to the Old Flag: A Tale of the American War of In- 
 dependence. By G. A. Henty. Witli 12 full-page Illus- 
 trations by GiiRDON Browne. Cloth elegant, olivine edges. 
 
 In Freedom's Cause : A Story of Wallace and Bruce. By 
 G. A. He.ni'v. With 12 full-page Illustrations by Gordon 
 Browne. Cloth elegant, olivine edges. 
 
 With Clive in India: Or the Beginnings of an Empire. By 
 G. \. Hentv. With 12 full-page Illustrations by Gordon 
 IJKOWNE. Cloth elegant, olivine edges. 
 
 Bunyip Land: The Story of a Wild Journey in New Guinea. 
 By G. M.\NVILI.E Fenn. With 12 full-page Illustrations 
 by Gordon Browne. Cloth elegant, olivine edges. 
 
 The Golden Magnet : A Tale of the Land of the Incas. i;y 
 Giji. Mawii.i.i; Fenn. With 12 full-page Pictures by 
 GiiKnoN Browne. Cloth elegant, olivine edges. 
 
 The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson 
 
 Crusoe. By D.\niel Defoe. Beautifully Printed, and 
 Illustrated by above loo Pictures designed by Gordon 
 Browne. Cloth elegant, olivine edges. [Reprinted from 
 the Author's Edition.] 
 
 In the King's Name: Or the Cruise of the A'i-sln-l. By 
 Geo. M.vnville Fenn. With 12 full-page Pictures by 
 Gordon Brown i:. Cloth elegant, olivine edges. 
 
 Under Drake's Flag. A Tale of the Spanish Main. By 
 i;. A. Henty. With 12 fidl-page Pictures by Gordon 
 Browne. Cloth elegant, olivine edges. 
 
 Price y. 
 
 St. George for England : A Tale of Cressy and Poitiers. By 
 (;. A. Henty. With 8 full-page Illustrations. CI. elegant. 
 
 Menhardoc: A Story of Comish Nets and Mines. By G. Man- 
 viLLE Fenn. With 8.full-p,ige Illustrations. CI. elegant. 
 
 The Pirate Island : A Story of the South Pacific. By Harry 
 CoiLiNc.wooD. With 8 full-page Pictures. Cloth elegant. 
 
 The Wigwam and the Warpath; stories of the Red 
 
 Indians. By AscoTT R. IIoi'E. With 8 full-page Pictures. 
 Cloth elegant. 
 
 By Sheer Pluck; A Tale of the Ashanti War. By G. A. 
 Henty. With 8 full-page Illustrations. Cloth elegant. 
 
 Stories of Old Renown. Tales of Knights and Heroes. By 
 Ascot 1 K. Hope. With 100 Illustrations by Gordon 
 Browne. Cloth elegant, olivine edges. 
 
 Facing Death: Or the Hero of the \'aughan Pit. By G. .A. 
 Henty. With S full-page Illustrations. Cloth elegant. 
 
 Nat the Naturalist: Or a Boy's Adventures in the Eastern 
 Seas. By Geo. Manville Fenn. With 8 fidl-page 
 Pictures. Cloth elegant. 
 
 Price y. dd. 
 
 Cheep and Chatter; Or Lessons fiom Field and Tree. By 
 Alice Banks. With 54 Character Illustrations by Gordon 
 Browne. Cloth elegant. With gilt edges, \s. 
 
 The Wreck of the Nancy Bell : Or Cast away on Ker- 
 guelen Land. By John C. Hutcheson. Illustrated by 
 6 full-page Pictures. Cloth extra. 
 
 Picked up at Sea: Or the Gold Miners of Minturne Creek. 
 By John C. Hutcheson. With 6 full-page Pictures in 
 Tints. Cloth extra. 
 
 Dr. Jolliffe's Boys: A Tale of Weston School. By Lewis 
 HdUGH. With 6 full-page Pictures. Cloth extra. 
 
 Traitor or Patriot? A Tale of the Rye-House Plot. By 
 JIary C. Rowsei.l. Illustrated by 6 full-page Pictures. 
 Cloth elegant. 
 
 Brother and Sister : Or the Trials of the Moore Family. 
 By Ei.iZAr.ETii J. LvsAGHT. With 6 full-page Illustrations. 
 Cloth extra. 
 
 Dora: Or a t;irl without a Home. By Mrs. R. II. Read. 
 With 6 full-page Illustrations. Cloth extra. 
 
 Garnered Sheaves. A Tale for Boys. By Mrs. E.mma R. 
 Pitman. With 4 full-page Illustrations. Cloth extra. 
 
 Florence Godfrey's Faith. A Story of Australian Life. By 
 Mrs. Pitman. With 4 full-page Illustrations. Cloth extra. 
 
 Life's Daily Ministry. A Story of Everyday Service for 
 Others. By I\1rs. Emma R. Pit.man. With 4 full-page 
 Illustrations. Cloth extra. 
 
 My Governess Life : Or Earning my Living. By Mrs. Emma 
 R. Piiman. With 4 full-page Illustrations. Cloth extra. 
 
 Price 2S. (id. 
 
 Each book is be.^urifuIly iUustrated, and bound in cloth e-xtra. 
 
 Brothers in Arms: A Stoi-yof the Crusades. By F. Bay- 
 EORD Harrison. 
 
 Jack o' Lanthorn. A Tale of Adventure. By Henry 
 Frith. 
 
 Winnie's Secret: -^ Story of Faith and Patience. By Kaie 
 Wood. 
 
 A Waif of the Sea : Or the Lost Found. By Ka IE WooD. 
 
 Hetty Gray, or Nobody's Bairn. By Rosa Mcliiolland. 
 
 Miss Fenwiek's Failures: Or "Peggy Pepper-pot." By 
 
 KsmF, Sti'art. 
 
 The Ball of Fortime ; Or Ned Somerset's Inheritance. By 
 Charles Pf. vkce. 
 
 The Family Failing. By Dari ey Dale. 
 
 Stories of the Sea in Former Days; Narratives of 
 
 Wreck and Rescue. 
 
 Adventures in Field, Flood, and Forest; Stoiies of 
 
 Danger and Daring. 
 
 *** A complete List of Books for the Young, prices from 4d. to 7s. 6d., with Synopsis of their Contents, will 
 
 be supplied on application to the Publishers. 
 
 LONDON: BLACKIE & SON, 49 & 50 OLD BAILEY, E.G.; 
 
 GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND DUBLIN. 
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