Volume 1

A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood.

Date:: [between 1890 and 1899?]

Credit: A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

1033/1096 (page 1013)

$with angels; much blood is used, and the draw- ing is very rude. There is a miniature of the crucifix in the canon of the mass, the cross forming the T in the words “ Te igitui*.” In the same MS. the Mass of the Invention of the Cross has in its initial letter the figure of a man squaring a tree-trunk, as if to form the upright stem. The “ Leofric ” sacramentaiy, in the Bodleian, 9th century, has highly-ornamented initials in the canon of the mass, but is without figures. Our Lord sits in the initial of the word Quoniain, at the beginning of St. Luke’s Gospel, in the MS. of St. Medard. The grand whole- page St. Matthew of the Charlemagne evan- geliary, with its mystic fountain and symbolic building of the Church, is an interesting example of the decoration of manuscripts. As Gueranger remarks, the ideas of the heavenly city or palace, and possibly the pillars and polished corners of the Hebrew Temple, may have been in the minds of the artists (Ps. cxliv., 12). We cannot agree with him (Inst. Lit. p. 366) as to their admirable knowledge of perspective; but ingenuity of invention, splendour of material, harmony of colour, and minute accuracy of hand, can go no further than in most of their works. In- formation about Byzantine architecture is cer- tainly to be gathered from the illustrations of the Menologium or Calendar of the emperor Basil the Younger, and other works; as, for instance, Charlemagne’s evangeliary. They re- mind the student of the architectural back- grounds of Giunto of Pisa, in the lower church of Assisi and elsewhere. The ease with which cheap copies of the holy scriptures and other books are to be obtained in our own day, may prevent us from understand- ing the real and practical value of the sacred MSS. of the earlier ages, and still more from understanding the single-hearted devotion, and happy self-concentration, with which the copyists seem to have carried on their labours. It is probable that in most cases the best educated monks, or men of more natural refinement than others, must have been employed in the scrip- toria of the great houses; at least in every monastery which professed the life of labour and prayer wfith sincerity, some sensible division of labour, according to various capacities, must have taken place, and the fine hands of the oaligraphist or painter would hardly be set to hew wood or draw water, unless for temporary discipline. It is singular that Martene, who records forms of benediction in use for all other objects, from emperors and empresses down to pilgrims’ staves and scrips, says nothing in his chapter “ De Benedictionibus,” of forms for dedication of sacred books, though he gives the full order for blessing, a writing-desk (scrinium) or book-case (capsa), (^De Antiquis Ecclesiae Litibus, lib. iii. cap. 1). This is quoted from an English pontifical MS., and a second from a MS. of St. Victor, said to have been 500 years old, in his own time. The first, however, seems to apply to an area or credence, and neither are within the limits of our period. A specimen of malediction on any person guilty of stealing a 13th-century MS. is not to, be omitted (Colbert, Bibliotheque Nationale). “ This sacred gospel has been copied by the hand of George, priest of Rhodes, by the exertions and care of Athanasius, cloistered monk and by the labour of Christonymus Chartinos, for their souls’ health. If any man dares to carry it off, either secretly or publicly, let him incur the malediction of the twelve apostles, and let him also receive the heavier curse of all monks. Amen.” The first day of the month of Septem- ber, year 6743, of Jesus Christ 1215.” The mis.sal of St. Maur des Fosses speaks to the same purpose. “ This book belongs to St. Mary and St. Peter, of the monastery of the Trenches. He who shall have stolen or sold it, or in any manner withdrawn it from this place ; or he who shall have been its buyer, may he be for ever in the company of Judas, Pilate, and Caiaphas. Amen, amen. Fiat, fiat. Brother Robert Gualensis (of Wales?), being yet young and a Levite, hath devoutly written it for his soul's health, in the time of Louis (le Gros), king of the French, and of Ascelin, abbat of this place. Richard, prior and monk, caused this book to be copied, in order to deserve the heavenly and blessed country. Thou, 0 priest, who ministerest before the Lord, be mindful of him. Pater noster.” The bindings and outer cases (capsae) of the more important liturgical books are in them- selves a subject of no small interest. That of the Eusebian evangeliary of Vercelli is thus described by Mabillon {Fter Ital. p. 9, April 1685). “ Codicis operculum ex argento, a Beren- gario imperatore ab annis fere octingentis in- stauratum, ex una parte Salvatoris effigiem, ex alio sanctum Eusebium exhibet; ad cujus caput hi versus adscripti leguntur : Praesul hie Eusebius scripsit, solvitque vetustas; Rex Bereiigarius sed reparavit idem. In infima vero parte ad pedes Eusebii Argentum [o ?] postquam fulvo decompsit el auro, Ecclesiae Praesul obtulit ipse suae.” He also mentions (p. 213, Jan. 1686) the ivory covers of St. Gregory’s purple antiphonary, at Monza, one of which has a medallion of David, the other of the donor. The great MS. of Theo- dolinda (supra) has a golden cover, with the cross on each side. These ancient relics may be classed according to their material and orna- ments, whether of carved ivory, of chased metal, or of metal with jewelled ornaments. A special interest attaches to the ivory covers, not only from their intrinsic value, but from the use of ancient consular diptychs [DiFtvch]. There is no doubt that many of these ancient ivories have been employed by later ages in the bindings of liturgical books, sometimes with slight changes and adaptations, as in the antiphonary of Monza. This is, perhaps, the typical ex- ample of a consular diptych, converted to ecclesiastical use. Two ivory panels or plaques bear each its figure, perfectly recognisable as a consul of the 5th century, by the dress and the mappa of the games. But one of them has been converted into St. Gregory the Great, by the addi- tion of a tonsure, and the addition of a cross to his staff of office.1 The other has had his wand lengthened and curved into a shepherd’s staff, and passes for David. The consular ivory of a This Professor Westwood denies, Early Christian Sculptures, p. 34 3 U 2$