An Enqiry [!] Into the Art of the Illuminated Manuscripts of the Middle Ages (Volume 1) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1897 Excerpt: ... culture in general as an additional confirmation of the results we have arrived at, regarding the advance and chronology of a most intimately connected branch of Celtic art. Ecorations of the exquisite finish and per--yll fection shown in the Lindisfarne work were, in the nature of things, at no period very numerous. It is obvious that such a production could only have arisen under the hands of an exceptionally well trained and gifted scribe, and must have appeared even to its contemporaries as something far above the ordinary level. The works produced by the minor artists, who, no doubt, were in the majority, were necessarily of a plainer character. Several examples of this class of works have descended to us. But they contain very little to add to our knowledge of Celtic art of illumination. The elements employed in their decoration present, as a rule, no novel features. Foliageous ornament is still absent. The general execution is of varying quality, sometimes rather feeble. In several cases the scribe has entered his name; and attempts have been made by modern writers to fix the date and origin of the volume by identifying its maker with some more or less renowned namesake whose lifetime is known from early Irish annals and records. Very little can, however, be made out in this way with certainty. First in the series of minor books we note a volume of small quarto size known as the Book of Dimma1, and preserved in the library of Trinity College, Dublin (see National MSS. Irel, vol. 1, plates xvm, xix). It is a copy of the Gospels, based on the Vulgate version, and presenting the usual texte mile (Berger) of the ancient Irish Evangeliaria.2 Its ornament consists of (i) full-page miniatures representing the Evangelist or--in the case of St. John--his...