New-York tribune., 1894-10-22
NOVEL BOOK LORE.
Mr.. CLOUsTON OPENS A NEW FIELD FOR
COLLECTORS.

94-lA Frederick A. STOKES 'oiPd"S'
This volume not only, gives a complete history
OF hieroglyph.c Bibles from the pen OF MI
Clouston but an elaborate example, the hahdi-
work Of Mr. Laing. The latter work was heces-
sary for so novel is the subject that many
even bookish persons might be in DOUBT as 10
the character of the works which the volume
describes. AS Mr.. Laing's beautifuI specimen
sbows a hierog,yphic Bible is book in which
Scripture stories told by the substitution OF
a tiny picture for every word that can be thus
replaced Sometimes the word for Which the
picture stands occurs to the mind instantly ana
sometimes /, requires a great deal Of ingenuity
TO discover the exact intent Of the author II
will he seen at once that books OF this class are
the uncal descendants Of the block books when
nreceded the invention of movable types, and
that they afford a pretext for the collation. or
much curious learning With hieroglyphic Bibles.
which are comparatively modern device as his
theme Mr.. CloustOn naturally has to relate MS
bbiogra phic history backward, beginning al
the present day and ending somewhere IN the
Middle Ages But when these new-found curl
osities get their proper place In the record 'he
story Of which they are an episode can be retold
with due difference to chronology In tracing the
history of popular picture books, Mr.. C!ouston
goes beyond the block books for he has luckily
hit upon a manuscript which is pat to his pur-
pose. 1t is a small Illuminated vellum book owned
by the Earl Of Denbigh. This manuscript. he
explains, might be entitled 'Bibia In Repus'
but more appositely "Biblicum Memorable EN-
blematicum. or a 'Mnemonic Bible: it was
evidently designed to aid the memory OF persons
already familiar with the Scriptures in Latin by
means of figures. portions of certain passages
and sometimes only the opening words Of chap
r. MT ha
sion of the late Earl of Denblgh upon his mar
Rage with Louisa Pennant. granddaughter OF
Thomas Pennant an antiquarian of some re-
nown Mr. Pennant received il as a gift from
Fatfer West. s. j.. author of a Guide TO the
Lakes of Cumberland" Further than this its
history cannot be traced continuously, but
stamp on the binding discloses the fact that 1t
orce belonged to a Prince Of Wales This stamp,
II is added "was made for Prince Henry the
elder brother of King Charles the First. who
died in 1912" Each page Of the manuscript was
constructed in the form Of what is conventonally
called castle" each stone or division of the
structure being devoted to separate passage OF
Scripture These pecuarities led to conjecture
that the book might have been written for Sir
John Oldcastle who died Lord Gotham. In l4lS'
but experts agree that the writing is of later
date and by a German rather than an English
hand Mr. Clouston's conjecture is that it was
written in Germany. carried or sent thence by
the Queen of Bohemia, sister TO King Charles
and thus came into the possession of Prince
Henry The depredatons of the Roundheads
are reckoned sufficient to account for its disap-
pearance from among the literary treasures OF
royalty.
The minuteness Of the writing and the abbre-
yiations render the manuscript almost indecipher-
balr, hoy
the Scripture narrative is meant In each case.
Generally they are emblematic rather than true
pictures The armament in the story of creation
is simply round dngy circle and the Garden Of
Eden is apparently an orchard inclosed by high
wall with archways through which pour the four
rivers Of Paradise A helmet is used to interpret
the phrase mighty men which were of old men
of renown" This drawing fixes the antiquity OF
the manuscript in measure. 1t Is visor IKE
a birds peak and therefore belongs to style
of armor which was not in existence according to
Dcmmns "Waffenkunde' beforet the closing years
of the fourteenth century. Mr.. ClOuston Is too
emphatic in seeming to limit 1t to the close of the
fifteenth century. since its counterpart was rep
resented In at least one picture, which Dem
min copies. carly as 144l To illustrate the
qualities of good soldier described by the
Apostle Paul in the second epstle TO Timothy, a
lOng-shanked spur with enormous rOwels is
figured, and this also Mr. Clouston uses to fix the
age OF the manuscript. Put Demmin copies a
similar spur from the Munich Museum, which he
dates about the close of the fourteenth century.
Without other proofs. therefore. may give
the manuscript all the age Mr.. ClOuston is will
ing 10 allow il and possibly half a century
more. The question is Of importance only in the
light Of the suggestion thai the scribe may have
ob,o b;c ,fo iltt,c,r tad hut,
mentary Bible from the block books If the
manuscript be generation or 50 earlier than
Mr.. Couston supposes then the block books
could not have been known TO the scribe who
the time to have been something
of artist. In any the manuscript has an
aim very different from that usually observed
in block books. 1t is essentially an aid to the
memory. One who already had by heart the
passages of Scripture to which reference is made
by picture and abbreviated phrase would at once
recall the appropriate words for each division Of
a page. Leaving out the words the pictures
alone correspond exactly in purpose to those
found in American Indian recOrds-for example,
the chant of the Lenni-Lenape or Delaware In
dians, telling of the creation and Of the tribal
history. taken down by Professor Rafnesque,
and subsequently published by Z. G. Squier. In
that instance each rude picture suggested line
Of the song. horizontal double line surmounted
by the segments Of two circles one within the
other representing a which meant that
when the world created all the land was
covered by the sea. Thus this curious manu-
script may point to form of popular lore not
often thought of in connection with medieval
Europe. However this may be- both it and the
block books manifestly related to the hier-
ogyphic Bibles OF the seventeenth and eigh-
tcenth centuries. But the pictures Of the block
books were intended to tell fairly complete
story in themselves. and the printed words were
often little more than titles. They appealed not
10 a memory already awake to the themes but
10 the uncultivated minds of the ignorant, who
could not read the words. but to whom pictures
appealed at once. When the pictures were more