PLATE CXXX. MINUSCULE CAROLINE WRITING, MIXED WITH UNCIALS. MIDDLE OF THE IXTH CENTURY. THE EPISTLES AND GOSPELS, IN SILVER LETTERS, UPON PURPLE VELLUM. MANUSCRIPTS entirely written on purple vellum are of very great rarity; and in many exceedingly fine volumes only the principal portions of the text are thus treated. The place or period of the first invention of the staining of vellum, either with saffron or purple color, cannot be exactly determined. We are told in the life of Maximinus the younger, that his mother, when she sent him back to his tutor, presented him with the works of Homer, written upon purple in letters of gold. The simplicity of this statement of the historian (Julius Capitolinus), would lead us to infer, that books thus executed were not an extraordinary novelty at the commencement of the third century of the Christian era; and the Benedictines (Nouv. Dipl. ii., p. 98) refer the practice even to the end of the first century. It was still, however, of sufficiently rare occurrence in the fourth, when the monks having bestowed much care on the art of making purple vellum, the usage became thenceforward more common, and St. Jerome speaks of it as a custom well known in his days*, and which prevailed during the fifth and three following centuries. St. * In his Letter to Eustochium, " Inficiuntur membranæ colore purpureo; aurum liquescit in litteras," Opp. tom. iv. pt. 2, p. 43, fol. 1706. Wilfred, Archbishop of York, presented to his church a book of the Gospels and a copy of the Bible, written in gold on purple vellum, which he had caused to be executed, and ornamented with covers of gold and gems. In the ninth century this taste for magnificent manuscripts was not diminished; the glory of the empire of Charlemagne gave a strong impulse to all the intellectual pursuits of the age; but which scarcely survived the great man who was the source of such prosperity. Towards the end of his reign, and during those of his immediate successors, a decline in the arts became manifest, and the practice of staining vellum with a purple hue deteriorated among the rest; so that instead of a brilliant violet, deep red, or fine blue, the vellum appeared of a dingy purple tinge. The manuscript which has furnished the fac-simile in the Plate, is a specimen of this second and debased period of the art of staining purple vellum; being very dark and dullcolored, with an uniformity of tint almost amounting to a fault. Nevertheless, the antiquity and fine graphic execution of the volume, render it of great value. It is still more highly to be prized from its being written in letters of silver; the initials and headings of chapters alone being in gold. Manuscripts written in silver are still rarer than those in letters of gold, since the latter were used both on white and on purple vellum; whereas silver writing, in order to appear to advantage, required a dark ground, and consequently was only employed on purple vellum, the expense of the preparation of which was considerable. Hence we learn the reason, why manuscripts in silver letters are of far rarer occurrence even than those in gold. The Bibliothèque Royale at Paris possesses several of the former class, among which (Suppl. Lat. No. 688,) is the volume from which the fac-simile before us has been copied. This volume contains the Epistles and Gospels for the feasts throughout the year. The text is written in a beautiful square, upright, massive, nearly continuous, Caroline minuscule, mingled with uncial and Anglo-Saxon letters; the tails cut off diagonally, and the tops of the tall letters truncated transversely; presenting very few abbreviations, but a few of the letters at the ends of the lines are conjoined. The first word, PAULUS, is in the Anglo-Saxon style, the letters being edged with dots of gold. The initial is a gigantic P, the lower part of which is floreated; the thick strokes ornamented with interlaced work, and the transversestroke at the top prolonged into a leaf-like ornament, and surmounted with the letters FRS united to a cross, being the abbreviation of the word Fratres. The two other initial letters are in the same style, but much less ornamented. lines at the commencement* are to be read thus: The FRS[Fratres] PAULUS servus ihū xpi [Jhesu Christi], vocatus apostolus, segregatus in evangelium di [Dei], etc. The stops introduced into the text are intended for regulating the reading, rather than for punctuation. The origin of this manuscript is not known, but the Benedictines (Nouv. Dipl., tom. iii., pp. 122, 196, 351,) have described a volume corresponding perfectly with the volume before us, and if the samet, the volume must have come from the library of the Prince de Soubise. Epist. ad Romanos, cap. i. v. 1.—ED. + There can be no doubt, that the volume mentioned by the Benedictines is the same with the one here described.-ED. 2 A VOL. I. PLATE CXXXI. MINUSCULE CAROLINE WRITING. IXTH CENTURY. THE SACRAMENTARIUM OF THE CATHEDRAL OF METZ. THE words Sacramentarium, Sacramentorium, or Liber Sacramentorum, are employed to designate the work in which Pope Gregory the Great, in his reformation of the service of the Romish Church, collected together all the prayers to be used at the celebration of mass for all the feasts of the year, and at the administration of the sacraments. This liturgical code was circulated by means of numerous copies throughout the churches of the pontifical dominions. Compiled towards the end of the sixth, or beginning of the seventh century, many copies were made contemporary with the original work; these were re-copied from age to age, and some are still in existence which may be attributed to the eighth century, and many more to the ninth, among which is the fine volume which has supplied the accompanying fac-simile. This manuscript is a small folio volume, nearly square, of beautifully white vellum, written in Roman capitals, rustic capitals, uncial capitals, and Caroline minuscules, in gold and black letters, and enriched with paintings in body-color, which distinguish this volume from all others of the same kind. Its binding is of velvet, ornamented with small ivory bas-reliefs let into the substance of the cover, and surrounded by a frame-work of silver. Many pages are written consecutively in capitals of gold, containing the principal prayers of the mass. All the titles are similarly written, and the numerous initial letters are alternately in gold and colors. The fac-simile represents the recto of the 68th leaf of the manuscript, being the commencement of the Office of the Epiphany, the title of which is announced in these words: VIII ID[us] JANR[Januarii] EPHYPHANIA. STATIO AD SCM[Sanctum] PETRUM. The prayer following commences thus: DS[Deus] QUI HODIERNA unigenitum tuum gentibus stella duce revelasti, etc. DIE In these lines of the title is exhibited an admirable Roman uncial character, massive, well proportioned, truncated at the summits, and occasionally at the bases; the upright strokes massive, terminating diagonally, and prolonged into an acute superfluous stroke; several Roman capitals are mingled with these uncials, the words are semi-divided, and punctuated at the end of a title. The gigantic initial D, which follows, is one of the most elegant possible, and of fine proportions. It is a Roman capital letter, ornamented with figures and arabesques. The summit of the upright stroke terminates in a dome, beneath which is seated the Virgin holding the infant Jesus on her knees, and a star conducts the three shepherds with their offerings towards her. In the open space of the letter another star guides three men on horseback, habited in oriental costume, and drawn within the curved stroke of the letter, representing the adoration of the Magi. At the foot of the letter are three armed soldiers, probably the guards of Herod, who is represented sitting at the door of his house. All these figures are painted in body-color, and although of small size are executed with much spirit. The manuscript abounds with designs of a similar kind; there being scarcely a large letter which does not contain one. The S inserted in the middle of the open space, is intended for the last letter of the word DEUS. The paragraph following commences with a large Roman |