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Article THE HAMILTON MANUSCRIPTS. ← Page 4 of 6 →
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The Hamilton Manuscripts.
in this collection for the number of the miniatures , no less than 100 , or the delicacy of their execution . This beautiful book is esteemed to have been made little , if any , later than the lifetime of the author , Jean de Menu , who died in 1364 . A French translation of Diodorus Siculus is remarkable as being the identical copy presented to Francis I .
with his monogram impressed on the sides of the binding . The first page represents the King seated on a throne , surrounded by his courtiers and his three sons ( the Dauphin Francis , afterwards married to Mary Queen of Scots , Henry , afterwards Henry II . of France , and Charles , Duke of Orleans ) . The painting is a chef d ' ceuvre
of the French art of the period from its perfect finish , and the detail is carried out with the greatest minuteness . In such a library of manuscripts we naturally expect to find some fine specimens of that favourite work on which illuminators were so wont to spend their best efforts—viz ., the " Hours of the Blessed
Virgin . " There are no less than twenty-seven examples of this book , several of which are of unusual beauty and excellence . A French " Heures a l ' usage d'Anges " is indeed a gem of its kind , ornamented with thirty-eight miniatures of exquisite finish . This volume belonged to the library of the Cardinal de Soubise , and is described on the fly-leaf as " Superbe Manuscrit , le plus beau de la Bibliotheque de
Soubise . It is m the old red morocco binding , with the Soubise arms on the side and back . Another manuscript of the " Hone Beatse Marias Virginis , " though coarse and rude in its execution , has a great historic interest from having been executed for Isabella of Scotland , daughter of James I . of Scotland , married to Francis I ., Due de Bretagne ,
October 30 , 1442 . The first miniature represents the Duchess Isabeau on her knees , her robe biparted with the arms of Brittany and Scotland . Between the Office for the Dead and the Hours of the Angels the scribe had left seven pages blank , which are filled up with prayers in the autograph of the Duchess Isabeau herself . Another volume of a similar
character , but of surpassing beauty of execution , is an " Officium Divse Mariae Virginis , " adorned with twenty-nine very beautiful miniatures by an Italian artist , or possibly by a French artist who had studied in Italy . Independently of the beauty of the paintings this book is altogether so daintily got up , the vellum of the finest texture , and the
preservation so spotless that it might have been completed but yesterday . An exquisite binding by Derome , with dentelle borders on the sides , makes this splendid volume all that can be looked for in such a book . The foregoing articles do not by any means exhaust the works of interest in the first division , the difficulty being rather to choose from among so many which to describe , than any lack of others worthy of description .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Hamilton Manuscripts.
in this collection for the number of the miniatures , no less than 100 , or the delicacy of their execution . This beautiful book is esteemed to have been made little , if any , later than the lifetime of the author , Jean de Menu , who died in 1364 . A French translation of Diodorus Siculus is remarkable as being the identical copy presented to Francis I .
with his monogram impressed on the sides of the binding . The first page represents the King seated on a throne , surrounded by his courtiers and his three sons ( the Dauphin Francis , afterwards married to Mary Queen of Scots , Henry , afterwards Henry II . of France , and Charles , Duke of Orleans ) . The painting is a chef d ' ceuvre
of the French art of the period from its perfect finish , and the detail is carried out with the greatest minuteness . In such a library of manuscripts we naturally expect to find some fine specimens of that favourite work on which illuminators were so wont to spend their best efforts—viz ., the " Hours of the Blessed
Virgin . " There are no less than twenty-seven examples of this book , several of which are of unusual beauty and excellence . A French " Heures a l ' usage d'Anges " is indeed a gem of its kind , ornamented with thirty-eight miniatures of exquisite finish . This volume belonged to the library of the Cardinal de Soubise , and is described on the fly-leaf as " Superbe Manuscrit , le plus beau de la Bibliotheque de
Soubise . It is m the old red morocco binding , with the Soubise arms on the side and back . Another manuscript of the " Hone Beatse Marias Virginis , " though coarse and rude in its execution , has a great historic interest from having been executed for Isabella of Scotland , daughter of James I . of Scotland , married to Francis I ., Due de Bretagne ,
October 30 , 1442 . The first miniature represents the Duchess Isabeau on her knees , her robe biparted with the arms of Brittany and Scotland . Between the Office for the Dead and the Hours of the Angels the scribe had left seven pages blank , which are filled up with prayers in the autograph of the Duchess Isabeau herself . Another volume of a similar
character , but of surpassing beauty of execution , is an " Officium Divse Mariae Virginis , " adorned with twenty-nine very beautiful miniatures by an Italian artist , or possibly by a French artist who had studied in Italy . Independently of the beauty of the paintings this book is altogether so daintily got up , the vellum of the finest texture , and the
preservation so spotless that it might have been completed but yesterday . An exquisite binding by Derome , with dentelle borders on the sides , makes this splendid volume all that can be looked for in such a book . The foregoing articles do not by any means exhaust the works of interest in the first division , the difficulty being rather to choose from among so many which to describe , than any lack of others worthy of description .