Notes on the The capitals of the pillars mark the position of the
Plates cross-bar of A. The top serif is carried up and forms
a bud, which gives rise to leaf-like flourishes; the free
thin stem runs down forming a grotesque, which gives out
a leaf-like tongue In either case the object—in every
sense recreative—is a renewal of interest in the designed,
elongated, growth of the forms.

Note the curved thickening of A’s left stem ends
nearly level with the foot of the right stem. This gives
balance to the letter (see R, fig. 81 & A, fig. 189), and
preserves the essential form, which suffers no distortion by
the thinner continuation below.

Note the balancing of the background mass on the
straight and curved sides of the Initial (as in Plate XII,
see above); also the extension and shape of the background
accompanying the drawn out parts of the letter.

COLOURS of Initial—

Right stem: red (with white lines

Left stem and serif: blue i and patterns.

L. stem, lower half, & dragon: pale “lake.”

The back- «-outer: pale “lake.”

ground I inner: blue.

(counter- I lower extension: blue,

charged) '•final flourish: pale “lake”

Band (dark) down left side,!
dragon’s wings, 6 “berries,” \ burnished gold.
halo, seat, tops of pillar caps:J
Leaves (dark) & pillar caps: red.

Small stems & leaves: green.

Here again no natural work would come of a modern
attempt to imitate so complex a “design"—natural and
even inevitable 600 years ago. But the spirit of delicacy
and fantasy, the ingenious contrivance, and the balancing
and disposal of form and colour shown by the antique
art, may well be matter for imitation by the modern
draughtsman-illuminator, and even by the mere penman.
410

PLATE XIV.—Thirteenth-century Line-finishings: Pen- Notes on the
work. (Psalter.) Brit. Museum, Royal MS. r. D. x. Plates

THE LINE-FINISHINGS (see p. 171), of which
there are very many throughout the book, all in red or
blue pen-work, are very varied. Nine kinds are shown
in the plate (which represents about a quarter of a page),
and three others from the same MS. are given in figs.

87 (b) and 126 (f,g).

The directions of the thick and thin strokes indicate
a pen held at right angles to its usual position (almost
“upside down,” in fact: see fig. 126, g), and the pen¬
manship exhibits great speed and lightness of hand—the
rapidity and skill are indeed quite remarkable (e.g. in the
Lion in the eighth line).

Note that, though the writing occasionally runs into
the margin, the line-finishings stop at the marginal-line.

The photograph shows red dark and blue light: e.g.
the Bird is red, the Lion and the Fish are blue. The
fifth Line-finishing is a red filigree with blue “berries”

—it can hardly be described as a “floral growth,” as the
“branching” is reversed: the rubricator gained speed and
uniformity by the simple repetition of the whorls all along
the line—the upper branches were probably put in after¬
wards, and the “berries” were added later when he was
making the blue Line-finishings.

The more complex decoration (not shown in the plate)
in this MS. is inferior to the penmanship: the small
background Capitals with which the verses begin—pre¬
sumably put in by a different hand—are more pretentious,
and do not match the Line-finishings.

General Note.—When a space occurs at the end of a
line of writing, it is often best to leave it, and in a plain
MS., if it be “well and truly” written, there is no objec¬
tion to varying lengths of line (see pp. 227, 335). But
abook, such as a Psalter, divided into many short verses
—in which the last line usually falls short of the marginal
line—offers a fair field for such simple and effective

411