Illuminated manuscripts in classical and mediaeval times, their art and their technique — Inside the Classic

CHAPTER I. Page 1 to 10.

CLASSICAL MANUSCRIPTS WRITTEN WITH A STILUS.

Survival of classical methods in mediaeval times; epigraphy and palaeography; manuscripts on metal plates; lead rolls; tin rolls; gold amulets; Petelia tablet; waxed tablets and diptychs; tablets shown on gems and coins; tablets found in tombs; tablets from Pompeii; Consular diptychs; many-leaved tablets; the form of the waxed tablets; whitened boards used by the Greeks; late survival of tablets; "bidding the beads;" lists of members of guilds; wooden book in Norway; ivory tablets and diptychs; inscribed Anglo-Saxon lead tablet; "horn-books."

CHAPTER II. Page 11 to 30.

CLASSICAL MANUSCRIPTS WRITTEN WITH PEN AND INK.

Two forms of manuscripts, the roll and the codex; Egyptian Books of the Dead; Book of Ani; existing manuscripts on papyrus; the library of papyrus rolls found at Herculaneum; Herodotus on manuscripts; use of parchment; manuscripts on linen; inscribed potsherds or _ostraka_; manuscripts on leaves of trees; Greek libraries; Roman libraries; a list of the public libraries in Rome; Roman library fittings and decorations; recently discovered library in Rome; authors' portraits; closed bookcases; booksellers' quarter; cost of Roman books; slave scribes; librarii of Rome. The technique of ancient manuscripts; parchment and vellum; palimpsests; papyrus manuscripts; process of making papyrus paper; use of papyrus in Greece and Rome; ancient papyrus manuscripts; the qualities of papyrus paper; the form of papyrus rolls; the wooden roller; inscribed titles; coloured inks; use of cedar oil; black carbon ink, its manufacture and price; red inks and rubrics; purple ink; double inkstands; pens of reeds and of metal; Egyptian scribes' palettes, pen-cases, and pens.

CHAPTER III. Page 31 to 44.

CLASSICAL ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS.

Use of minium; Egyptian miniatures; illuminations in Roman manuscripts; Greek illuminations; two sources of knowledge about classical illuminations; the Ambrosian _Iliad_; the Vatican Virgil; the style of its miniatures; later copies of lost originals; picture of Orpheus in a twelfth century _Psalter_; another _Psalter_ with copies of classical paintings; the value of these copied miniatures.

CHAPTER IV. Page 45 to 61.

BYZANTINE MANUSCRIPTS.

The very compound character of Byzantine art; love of splendour; _Gospels_ in purple and gold; monotony of the Byzantine style; hieratic rules; fifth century manuscript of _Genesis_; the Dioscorides of the Princess Juliana; the style of its miniatures; imitations of enamel designs; early picture of the Crucifixion in the _Gospels_ of Rabula; the splendour of Byzantine manuscripts of the _Gospels_; five chief pictures; illuminated "Canons"; Persian influence; the Altar-Textus used as a Pax; its magnificent gold covers; the Durham Textus; Byzantine figure drawing, unreal but decorative; Byzantine mosaics; the iconoclast schism, and the consequent decadence of Byzantine art.

CHAPTER V. Page 62 to 79.

MANUSCRIPTS OF THE CAROLINGIAN PERIOD.

The age of Charles the Great; the school of Alcuin of York; the _Gospels_ of Alcuin; the _golden Gospels_ of Henry VIII.; the _Gospels_ of the scribe Godesscalc; Persian influence; technical methods; the later Carolingian manuscripts; continuance of the Northumbrian influence; beginning of life-study; the _Gospels_ of Otho II.; period of decadence in the eleventh century.

CHAPTER VI. Page 80 to 97.

THE CELTIC SCHOOL OF MANUSCRIPTS.

The Irish Church; Celtic goldsmiths; technical processes of the metal-workers copied by illuminators of manuscripts; the _Book of Kells_, its perfect workmanship and microscopic illuminations; copies of metal spiral patterns; the "trumpet pattern;" Moslem influence; absence of gold in the Irish manuscripts; the _Book of Durrow_; the monks of Iona; the Celtic missionaries to Northumbria; the _Gospels_ of St Cuthbert; the Viking pirates; the adventures of St Cuthbert's _Gospels_; the Anglo-Celtic school; improved drawing and use of gold; Italian influence; the early _Gospels_ in the Corpus library; the _Gospels_ of MacDurnan; the _Book of Deer_; the _Gospels_ of St Chad; the Celtic school on the Continent; the _Psalter_ of St Augustine; Scandinavian art; the _golden Gospels_ of Stockholm and its adventures; the struggle between the Celtic and the Roman Church; the Synod of Whitby; the Roman victory, and the growth of Italian influence; the school of Baeda at Durham.

CHAPTER VII. Page 98 to 105.

THE ANGLO-SAXON SCHOOL OF MANUSCRIPTS.

The Danish invasions; revival of art under king Alfred; the _Benedictional_ of Aethelwold; signs of Carolingian influence; the Winchester school; St Dunstan as an illuminator; Anglo-Saxon drawings in coloured ink; Roll of St Guthlac; the great beauty of its drawings; Canute as a patron of art; the Norman Conquest.

CHAPTER VIII. Page 106 to 125.

THE ANGLO-NORMAN SCHOOL.