The Use of
Gold &
Colours in
Initial
Letters &
Simple
Illumination

A very pretty effect may be obtained in a small
and not very formal manuscript by painting into
the spaces left for the capitals little squares of red
and blue, and painting upon these the letters and
ornament—all in gold powder—very freely and
quickly. The kind of treatment
is rather crudely suggested by
fig- 113- The pleasant appear¬
ance of the pages—as though
they were scattered over with
tiny squares of cloth of gold and
red and blue—is produced with
comparative ease, while the use
of leaf gold might entail an ex¬
penditure of more time and pains than the book
was worth. In the finest class of manuscripts,
however, these matt gold letters would be somewhat
informal and out of place.

BURNISHED GOLD

Gold is always raised, and burnished as bright as
possible, unless there is a special reason for using
matt gold.

The height to which it is raised varies, according
to the effect desired, from a considerable thickness
to the thinnest possible coat of “size.” Extremely
thin and extremely thick raising are both objection¬
able (see p. 116) : roughly speaking, a suitable height
for any ordinary purpose is between ' and ■ ' of
an inch. 32

The surface, in the case of large forms, is gene-
rally made as smooth and perfect as possible, so that,
as Cennino Cennini says, the burnished gold “и¡ill
150

IT-Л^Ж.І

Fig. 113.

appear almost dark from its own brightness ” ; and its The Use of
brightness is only seen when the light falls on it at Gold &

a particular angle. The gilding of a manuscript, Colours in
however, is slightly flexible, and a large gilded sur- Initial
face is likely to be bent, so that some part of it is Letters &
sure to catch the light. Simple

Small surfaces highly burnished very often do not Illumination
show the effect of, or “tell” as, gold, unless they
catch the light by accident. It is well, therefore,
where the forms are small to have several on the
page, so that one or another will always shine out
and explain the rest. And while the proper crafts¬
man tries always to get the best finish which he
reasonably can, the natural, slight unevennesses or
varying planes of small gilded forms may be of advan¬
tage to the whole effect. The pleasant effect of such
natural variations may be seen in thirteenth-century
Initials, where numbers of little gold pieces are fitted
into the backgrounds, and their changing surfaces
cause the whole to be lit up with little sparkles of
light. A parallel to this may be found in the hand-
tooling of a book-cover, which sparkles with gold,
because the binder could not press in each piece of
gold-leaf absolutely level. On the other hand, the
“deadness” of a machine-stamped cover is largely
due to the dead level of its gilding.

Black and Gold.—One of the finest effects in
calligraphy can be obtained by the simple contrast
of gold capitals with black writing (see p. 263).

While, as in the case of black and red, the strongest
effects are obtained by a marked contrast, gold may
yet be very effectively used for small capitals through¬
out the black text. It does not lose or blend its
brilliance with the black of the writing as colour is
apt to do, but lights up and illuminates the page.

151