The extraordinarily early dates assigned by of Charlemagne greater progress was made, some writers to the celebrated MSS. of and the art of writing in gold became more Virgil and Terence, in the Vatican, are practised. The Codex Aureus, for which altogether conjectural, and destitute of any Lord Treasurer Harley gave 5007., is of foundation in sound criticism. The first this time, and so is the volume well known has been referred to the same century in as the 'Hours' of Charlemagne. The Biwhich Virgil lived, the other to the time of ble which is said to have been written by Constantine! If these dates be true, ought Alcuin for Charlemagne, and which was we any longer to doubt that St. Mark's purchased for the National Library at the Library possesses, as it once boasted of cost of 7507., is more probably of the time doing, the autograph of that evangelist, or of Charles the Bald; for whom another that the Alexandrian MS. was written by splendid Bible, now in the Bibliothèque du Thecla in the time of St. Paul? The late Roi, is believed to have been written, of amiable and accomplished but credulous which a portion is in the Harleian Library. Mr. Ottley has published, in the Archæo- In this rapid sketch we cannot particularlogia of the Society of Antiquaries, an elabo-ize many things; we shall name only a few rate dissertation to prove that a MS. in the of sacred subjects. We have already menBritish Museum, containing an 'illustrated' tioned the Gospels belonging to Æthelstan, copy of Cicero's version of Aratus, is of the and we notice of the same century the Melike early date. We have known Mr. Ottley nologium in the Vatican, with illuminations discover vestiges of early Roman art in the which have been engraved under the ausilluminations of a work written by Conven- pices of Cardinal Albani, and the Benedicevole da Prato, the tutor of Petrarch, and tional belonging to the Duke of Devonaddressed to Louis of Anjou, King of Na- shire, which was written for S. Æthelwold ples! That the MSS. which we have Bishop of Winchester, and which is fully named, and many others which we could described by the late Mr. Gage Rokewood name, are of great antiquity is true; but in the Archæologia. These are worthy of we unhesitatingly assert that it is impossi- comparison. The Psalter of St. Louis is ble, without better criteria than we now in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, and the possess, to assign them, as is so confidently very splendid Bible of the Anti-Pope Cledone by sciolists, to any particular century. ment VII. (Robert of Geneva) is in the In our own country the arts of illumina- Bibliothèque du Roi. The identical copy tion flourished at a very remote period of of Guiar des Moulix's version of Pierre le time perhaps no nobler monument of its Mangeur's Biblical History, which was kind is possessed by any nation than the found in the tent of John king of France at ⚫ Book of St. Cuthbert,' or 'Durham Book,' the battle of Poictiers, is in the British Munow in the British Museum. It is a copy seum, and also the copy which belonged to of the Gospels in Latin, written, at the end his son the Duke of Berry. The 'Hours' of the seventh century, by Eadfrith, Bish- of this Duke of Berry are in the Bibliothèop of Lindisfarne, who died A. D. 721, and que du Roi. Sir John Tobin, of Liverpool, illuminated by Ethelwald, the succeeding possesses the famous 'Bedford Missal,' for bishop. It was then clothed in a binding which he gave 11007. It was written for of gold, inlaid with precious stones, by the Regent Duke of Bedford brother of Bilfrith, a monk of the same establishment: Henry V. The same gentleman also purand a Dano-Saxon version was interlined chased for 500 guineas, at Mr. Hurd's sale by a priest named Aldred. The old chron- in 1832, the Breviary which was presented icler, Turgot, or Simon of Durham, grave- to Isabella of Castille by Fernando de Roly narrates how, by the merits of St. Cuth-jas.* The beautiful Psalter of Henry VI. bert, and of those who, in his honor, had written and adorned the book, it was mi- * Amongst its many ornaments 'this MS. conraculously preserved when the Danes rav-tains the arms of the Roxas or Rojas family (or aged Lindisfarne. Simon says, 'Erat five etoiles of eight rays, saltire wise, azure), with enim aurificii arte præcipuus.' Its golden zabetha Hispaniarum et Siciliæ reginæ christianthe inscription (we give it in full) Dominæ Eliand gemmed binding is gone, but its intrin-issima potentissimæ semper augusta, suprema sic beauty is preserved, as may be seen by Mr. Shaw's facsimile. MSS. of this remote date are rare: still rarer are those which at all approach in beauty to the Durham Book. In the time Dominæ suæ clementissimæ Franciscus de Roias, ejusdem majestatis humillimus servus ac creatura, optime de se meritæ hoc breviarium ex obsequio obtulit.' Dr. Dibdin, who describes this volume (Bibl. Decameron, i. pp. clxiii.-clxvii.), mistakes the arms of Rojas for those of France!' wherein is in the British Museum; and that which are immortalized by Dante;* of Silvestro degbelonged to his father-in-law, René of An- li Angeli little more than his name is known. jou, and is said, but on what appear to us Francesco Veronese and Girolamo dei Libri insufficient grounds, to have been illumina- are known only by the beautiful missal ted by René himself, is in the Bibliothèque which they adorned for one of the cardide l'Arsenal at Paris. The 'Hours' which nals of the Della Rovere family; and we belonged to René, and afterwards to Henry have not many particulars of the life of VII., are in this country. One of the Don Giulio Clovio, who, although one of finest volumes of this kind, the 'Hours' of the latest, is yet confessedly the chief Anne of Bretagne, is in the Bibliothèque amongst all of his art. One testimony to du Roi; its exquisite illuminations are his celebrity is the ready attribution by scimost faithlessly and coarsely copied in olists of any manuscript, having any pretenSommerard's work. Another, certainly by sions to beauty, to his hand. A small volthe same hand, and which now is in Mr. ume, which the Strawberry Hill catalogue Holford's library, formerly belonged to said was his work, produced under the aucChristofero Madruzzi, Cardinal Bishop of tioneer's hammer about 4007. His unTrent, who is believed to have originated doubted works are few. A commentary the memorable council held there. The on St. Paul's Epistles, which he adorned Duke of Devonshire possesses the Missal of for Cardinal Grimani, is in the Museum of Henry VII. The Psalter of Henry VIII. Sir John Soane. Mr. Grenville possesses is in the British Museum. The Hours' the victories of Charles V., painted by Clcof Charles V. are at Vienna. We might vio for Philip II.; and a missal by his hand extend this list fifty-fold. We cannot, belongs to Mr. Townley of Townley, the however, pass over the Sherborne Breviary, head of the ancient Roman Catholic family in the collection of the Duke of Northum- of that name. It is not known where the berland at Sion House; the Missal (now volume which he painted for the King of in the British Museum) of the Croy family, Portugal, and which is elaborately describthat family so familiarized to us by Walter ed in William Bonde's work, exists at this Scott's Isabella-a volume richly adorned time, if indeed it be existing. The splenwith miniatures and with a profusion of did but unfinished genealogy of the Kings blazonry quite sufficient to have gratified of Portugal, lately added by the trustees of the vanity of Countess Hameline;-nor the British Museum to the National Collectwo beautiful Missals of Italian art belonging to the Queen, which are valuable not only for their intrinsic merits, but also as tokens of gratitude from the last of the Stuarts-the Cardinal of York-to King George IV. The names of those who executed the beautiful works which we have mentioned, and others of like nature, have in very few instances been handed down to us. We have already mentioned Bishop Æthelwald. Oderisi d'Agobbio, and Franco of Bologna, we observe the arms of France quartered on a blue ground and reads, or rather prints the latter part of the inscription thus H. marin ex obsequio obtulit.' Dr. Dibdin fairly gave up the interpretation. Not so the compiler of Mr. Hurd's Catalogue, who thinks it may safely be affirmed they conveyed a compliment to Isabella's patronage of Columbus's expedition. King Ferdinand having refused any assistance, Isabella generously supplied the greater part of the outfit. The mutilated words H. . . . marin . . furnish the key. The hiatus may probably be filled up nearly thus: H [is] [Trans] marin. [ex] [F], that is, Hispanic Transmarina expeditionis Fautrici ex obsequio obtulit!!' This equals Jonathan Oldbuck's A. D. L. L. Agricola Dicavit Libens Lubens. tion, has been by some persons attributed to him, but there is more reason to believe the paintings to have been done, at least in part, by Simon of Bruges for the Infant Don Fernando. Our readers may judge of the value of such productions by the fact that this genealogy, consisting of eleven leaves, is thought to have been cheaply purchased for the sum of 6007. Mr. Grenville's Giulio Clovio cost him we believe 500 guineas. We have scarcely space to mention another class of manuscripts; the Venetian Ducali, or codes of instructions given by the senate or pregadj in the name of the Doge to those nobles who were deputed to preside over the various possessions of the seignory. These volumes were generally adorned in a manner according with the rank of the doge and the patrician gover Three of these ducali were brought * O, diss' io lui, non sei tu Oderisi, Che penelleggia Franco Bolognese : i from Italy by Mr. Edwards; and attributed | paintings to illustrate the voyages of the fraby him to Titian, Tintoretto, and Battista telli Zeni in the Sala dello Scudo at Venice. Gelotti respectively. They formed part of This taste, perhaps the necessity for its inhis library sold in London in 1815. We dulgence, has gone by; we do not expect to know not who now possesses them. When see Parry's voyages or Burnes's travels dewe consider the numerous volumes of this picted in Her Majestys robing room, in kind which, during a long series of years, the new Houses of Parliament. were adorned for the numerous governors It is quite foreign to our purpose to enter of the numerous dependencies of the Vene- at length into the origin and history of entian republic, their great rarity is only to graving, or to discuss the priority of this or be accounted for by the system of secrecy that woodcut, or the relative authority or observed by that government. It is proba- credulity of Papillon, Heinecken, or Ottley. ble that these volumes were restored by the With regard to the woodcuts illustrative' various podestàs and capitani at their re- of the History of Alexander, and said by turn from their offices to the archives of the Papillon to have been executed in the year seignory, and there destroyed. It is cer- 1286 by a twin brother and sister of the tain that they were not sold, like our own name of Cunio, we cannot but agree (in Exchequer documents, to a fishmonger by spite of all that has been urged by Ottley the ton weight. On this supposition only and Zani) with Heinecken and those who can we account for the fact that not more believe the whole to be a fable. Were it than fifty, between the years 1360 and not for the fact that Papillon had been in1700, so far as we can learn, are known to sane, we should not hesitate to call it an exist yet the state archives have been impudent forgery. It is certain, however, brought to the light of day, the great fami- that engravings of some sort, or illustralies have been ruined, and their libraries tions, were not merely coeval with printing, dispersed. Count Daru mentions only fif- but even preceded it :-the block books, as teen. The British Museum possesses twen- they are termed, being amongst the first. ty-eight, the Bibliothèque du Roi (accord- The Biblia Pauperum,' whose every leaf ing to Daru and Professor Marsand) thir-is now worth a bank note, was the Pictoteen, Sir Thomas Phillipps six, Mr. Gren-rial Bible of the middle of the fifteenth cenville one. We know of one only at Cam-tury; and the 'Speculum Sacerdotum,' bridge, and we do not think that the Bod- which purported to be a help to 'pauperes leian possesses more than two or three. prædicatores,' may be considered typical of Simeon's Skeletons of Sermons,' intended for the same useful purpose. The history of the art of cutting in wood and copper has its interest-but that interest is not general. Before noticing the more modern illustrations, we must not omit to mention one mode (and that but little known to us moderns) of conveying information by pictorial representations on walls. We cannot undertake to particularize all these modes, but they well deserve a more enlarged space than we can afford to give here. We will allude to one subject only, that of geography; to the painted maps described by Eumenius, the Peutinger Tables (which we know only by a comparatively modern | copy), the maps in the king's chamber at Westminster, the Hereford map, and the * It is equally foreign to our purpose, and far beyond the limits of a review, to enumerate the individual books which have been put forth with illustrations during the four centuries wherein the arts of printing and engraving have flourished conjointly. Neither are the various epochs of improvement, if indeed improvement there be to any great extent, so marked as to enable us to point out to our readers those signs or Videat præterea in illis porticibus juventus et quotidie spectet omnes terras, et cuncta maria, et instances by which they may be judged of. quicquid invictissimi principes urbium, gentium, Our chief boast may be the great facility nationum aut pietate restituunt, aut virtute con- with which tens of thousands of copies are ficiunt, aut terrore devinciunt. Siquidem illic, ut produced in cases where a few hundreds ipse vidisti, credo, instruendæ pueritiæ caussâ, quo manifestius oculis discerentur quæ difficilius only in the earlier times were either made percipiuntur auditu, omnium cum nominibus suis or needed. We have said that no modern locorum situs, spatia, intervalla descripta sunt, printer has excelled the Mazarine Bible. quicquid ubique fluminum oritur, et conditur, Has any woodcutter excelled Albert Duquacumque se littorum sinus flectunt, qua vel amHave any 'Illustrations' to Dante bitu cingit orbem vel impetu irrumpit oceanus.'Eumenii Eduensis Oratio pro instaurandis scko- yet appeared which, save Flaxman's outlis Manianis, cap. xx. ed. Arntzenii, tom. i. p. 225. lines, excel those by Botticelli or Baldini rer? in the Florence Dante of 1481? Yet this cloyed literary public. Even here, even is the second book published with engrav- in the abuse of art, our forefathers excelled ings. Can a higher tribute have been paid us. We copy even their faults. Jonathan to the illustrations of a book than that, from Oldbuck says, their great beauty, they should for a long 'I conceive that my descent from that paintime and by many writers have been attri-ful and industrious typographer Wolfrand buted to Raffaelle, and that this opinion Oldenbuck,* who, in the month of December, can be refuted only by the fact of Raf- 1493, under the patronage, as the "Colophon" faelle's youth at the time when the book tells us, of Sebastian Scheyter, and Sebastian was published? What modern designer, Hammermaister, accomplished the printing of what modern engraver but would feel flat- the "Great Chronicle" of Nuremberg-I contered were such work his own? Yet this restorer of learning is more creditable to me ceive, I say, that my descent from that great book-the Hypnerotomachia of Poliphilo, as a man of letters than if I had numbered in by Francesco Colonna-was published in my genealogy all the brawling, bullet-headed, 1499, when Raffaelle was but sixteen years iron-fisted, old Gothic barons since the days of of age. If profusion be a test of modern Crentheminachcryme-not one of whom, I excellence, what work can be said to excel suppose, could write his own name.' the 'Perils and adventures of the famous We doubt if the laird of Monkbarns hero and knight Tewrdanncths,' printed in would have made this boast, had our learnNuremberg in 1517?+ In modern 'illus-ed friend Mr. Maitland's 'Papers on Sacred trated books' we have often recognized de- Art't appeared. He would have been signs and engravings as having come under startled at hearing that the 'great restorer our observation before; having appeared of learning,' from whom he claimed to deon the table as 'pièces de résistance,' we scend, had caused one and the same woodhave met with them hashed up in an annu- cut head to represent in succession Hosea al or in some rifacciamento, peppered-Sadoch-Scipio Africanus the younger highly to excite the languid appetite of the Antonio de Butrio, a Bolognese juris * * From this we must except maps and charts, which down to a surprisingly late period remained of very rude and inaccurate design and execution. Compare any isolario of the Mediterranean formed in the eighteenth century with that fine specimen of marine surveying, the map of the North Sea, published by the Admiralty, under the care of Capt. Beaufort, from the surveys of the lamented Capt. Hewitt, finished after his death by Capt. Washington. t This work is an allegorical poem on the marriage of the Emperor Maximilian I. (Tewrdanneths, or 'Noble Thoughts') with the Princess Maria of Burgundy (Erenreich, or Rich in Honor') it is dedicated to Charles V., by Melchior Pfintzing, chaplain to the emperor, who declares that he witnessed all the marvellous deeds narrated, and who is generally believed to be the author, though some writers have ascribed it to the emperor himself. The volume is a most splendid specimen of the art of printing, par rapport aux caractères extraordinaires avec lesquels le texte y est imprimé; caractères ornés de traits hardis entrelacés les uns dans les autres, et qui figurent d'une manière merveilleuse une belle écriture allemande.' It was long a matter of question whether the work were printed from metal types or from wooden blocks, but from accurate collations it is now proved that types were used. The woodcuts are of extraordinary beauty, and were executed by Hans Schaeufflein, whose initials (with his rebus, a baker's peel, Schauflein) are on several of the engravings. Some of them have been attributed to Hans Burgkmair, the pupil and friend of Albert Durer. Of this magnificent book the Earl of Ashburnham, the Earl Spencer, and the Right Hon. T. Grenville, and some others, possess copies printed on vellum. consult of the fifteenth century-and Nicolò Perotti, the conclavist of Cardinal Bessarion, who by his simplicity lost his master the popedom, himself a cardinal's hat. He would find one set of featuresliterally speaking, one block-head-used for Zephaniah, Esop, Philo Judæus, Aulus Gellius, Priscian, and John Wicliff-another for Hector, Homer, Mordecai, Terence, Johannes Scotus, Francesco Filelfo, and sundry others-a third for Eli the priest, Virgil the poet, Arius the archheretic, &c. But books with far higher pretensions than the Nuremberg Chronicle' were illustrated with equal fidelity. In Fox's Martyrs,' a book having the odor of sanctity, one woodcut represents eighteen persons burned by sixes at Brentford, Canterbury, and Colchester respectively, and serves also to depict seven who suffered at Smithfield. The portrait of Bishop Farrer answers as well for sundry persons of inferior note. The question whether the martyrologist's text partake or not of this system of repetition, whether the same dialogue, mutatis mutandis, occurs more than once or twice, forms no part of our present inquiry. We know of more modern instances of the history of literature; and we are surthis conventional portraiture; for example, prised that they are not a more frequent see Houbraken's heads. The same freak, object of collection by bibliographers and or rather imposition, has been practised in biblio-maniacs. They have their use too stone: thus a statue of John Sobieski, King in personal history. Most individuals of of Poland, trampling on a Turk, was called note, by rank or merit, had their emblem a statue of Charles II., having under his or device, or imprese, which served them feet the usurper Cromwell, and was erected often in lieu of a name, still oftener in lieu to that monarch's honor by Alderman Sir of arms, when, in the case of ignoble birth, Robert Vyner, Bart. This citizen-like il- arms could not, as now, be found to any lustration stood on the site of the present name,' by any seal-engraver. In England Mansion-house. The late Mr. George we had several writers of verses to emblems. Chalmers was of opinion that as features, Whitneys, and Withers and others are not the length or shape of the nose or chin or very generally known; but who does not mouth, and the color of the hair or eyes, remember Quarles's Emblems,' with all were matters capable of being described, the quips and quiddities-and withal the so they were capable of being depicted, absurdities-contained therein? Quarles and he exemplified his belief by composing, synthetically, a portrait of Mary Queen of Scots! We will not anxiously look out for very modern instances of somewhat similar deceptions; we speak with a tone of caution to those whom it may concern. It is not likely that now, as in the days of the 'Nuremberg Chronicle,' the same engraving will serve to represent Anglia, Troy, Toulouse, Pisa, and Ravenna; but we have réchauffés-usque ad nauseam. owed a vast deal to the Pia Desideria of Herman Hugo, a Jesuit, one of the most popular books of its class. Other subjects than religion had their emblems. Otho Vænius pui forth Emblemata Horatiana, where Horace's text is spiritualized to absurdity, and parva sapientia is figured as a baby Minerva, armed cap-a-pie, and bearing an ægis and spear! The most complete collection which we ever saw of these books of emblems was that formed by the late Duke of Marlborough, while Marquess of Blandford, and living at Whitenights. That collection is now dispersed. We hope some day to give our readers a separate article on Emblems.' For a long time the ornaments or illustrations of printed books were chiefly (we are far from thinking' or saying entirely) confined to representations of actual or material things, such as persons or places existing or purporting to exist. The more In the earlier half of the last century* imaginative portions of illustrations may, some few editions of a few books, as Milwe think, be considered to arise from a ton, Shakespeare, the 'Spectator,' &c., taste which once obtained throughout Eu- were published, having each a few plates rope-that of EMBLEMS, as they were not from designs by such artists as Hayman always correctly termed. Few comparative- and Wale, and others unknown to fame, ly of our readers may know that these books and deserving none. They have this merit are to be reckoned by hundreds, many of in common with the old illuminators, that them adorned with engravings which, both they represent faithfully the costumes and as regards design and execution, would in manners of the times. Once, we believe, the artistic slang of the present day be and once only, Hogarth designed a merely called Gems of Art.' What a sensation ornamental or imaginative subject for a would now be made were a work advertised volume. His plates to 'Kirby's Perspec'with illustrations designed by Il Parmi-tive' are real illustrations. In the last giano, and engraved by Giulio Bonasone'- century, too, existed a taste of which we even though the book bore the somewhat know few modern instances, that of books vague title of 'Symbolicæ Quæstiones de Universo Genere!' * From the nature of these books, their amusing tendency, and consequent frequent destruction by use, often, we have no doubt, by the hands of children, many of them are now very scarce. They form a curious chapter in printed entirely from intaglio or from engraved plates. Such were a 'Horace,' by Pyne, and a 'Virgil,' by Justice, now only * We do not mean to be understood as implying that no books had plates before this time. But we are not making a catalogue. One of the most beautiful books we ever saw was a copy of the first edition of Jeremy Taylor's Life of *See Roscoe's account of Achilleo Bocchi, in Christ,' with brilliant impressions in the first his Leo X., cap. xvii. state' of the plates engraved by Faithborne. |