Notes on the
Plates

THE COLOURS—

Initial, Foliage, Fish: red: (outlined) Vellum
Jonah: black:)& lined/ leftplain.

Bands on Initial,

Hollows in Initial, \gold, outlined red.

Backs of folded leaves:J

Outer background: paled green.

Dots on outer ground: red.

Inner background: paled blue.

We ma y not, I think, attempt to imitate the complex
12th-century decoration of this initial (see p. 162), but
the treatment of the elements of form and colour is very
suggestive, and the whole piece of lettering is characteristic
of the grand style in which a book was at that time begun.
The ARRANGEMENT of the letters themselves is
very simple, and might be made good use of (fig. 220).

INCIPIT-JONASiPPHA:

M.

(ET)

verbum d(om*)ni ad jonam filiu(»>) amathi
dicens. Surge & vade in niniven ci-
vitatem magnam. & pr(a)edica in ea.

408 Fig . 220.

PLATE XIII.—English (2nd half) Thirteenth-century Notes on
Writing and Illumination. (Latin Bible.) Ex libris Plates
S. C. Cockerell.

THE VOLUME—probably written at York—con¬
tains 427 leaves (8 inches by 5J inches): two columns to
the page: MARGINS, approx.: Inner § inch, Head
f- inch, Side I inch, Foot iT7ïï inch. (Between the columns
I inch.) The pages have been cut down.

THE WRITING is very small, and there are many
contractions.1 In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
the whole Bible, written in this fashion, was often small
enough to be carried in the pocket. Note the closed ¿J
and the 7 form of &. The page is RULED with 50
lines; the 49 lines of writing lie between these, so that
in each case the ascenders touch the line above, and the
descenders, the line below. Note the double lines in the
Foot margin (see p. 307).

VERSALS.—A very narrow type is used in the
narrow margins: the example shown is in red, flourished
blue; it begins the second chapter (Et angelo ephesi, iff с.),
which is also marked by coloured Roman Numerals at
the side (II). The page heading is “APOCA” in small
red and blue Versals.

THE ILLUMINATED INITIAL is “histori-
ated”—i.e. it contains a picture illustrating the text, viz.
a representation of S. John writing to the Seven Churches
—purely conventional forms, or rather symbols, for the
most part, are used and beautifully fitted into the available
space. The greater size and more careful drawing of
the human figure (the centre of interest) is characteristic
of a fine convention. The slope of the vellum page on
which S. John is writing, and even the manner in which
the quill is held, are such as would naturally be employed
by a scribe (see frontispiece, Sc p. 33).

» The Apocalypse here begins “APocalipfis іни x1” (for
IHU XPI, derived from the Greek and used as a mediæval Latin
contraction for Jesu Christi).

409