ILLUMINATING, a kind of miniature painting, anciently much practised for illustrating and adorning books. Besides the writers of books, there were artists whose profession it was to ornament and paint manuscripts, and who were called illuminators. The writers of books first finished their part, and the illuminators embellished them with ornamented letters and paintings. We frequently find in manuscripts blanks left for the illuminators, which, however, were never filled up. Some of the ancient manuscripts were gilt and burnished in a style superior to those of later times. The colours were excellent, and the skill in preparing them must have been very great.

The practice of introducing ornaments, drawings, emblematical figures, and even portraits, into manuscripts, is of great antiquity. Varro wrote the lives of seven hundred illustrious Romans, which he enriched with their portraits, as Pliny attests (Hist. Nat. lib. xxxv. chap. 2). Pomponius Atticus, the friend of Cicero, was the author of a work on the actions of the great men amongst the Romans, which he ornamented with their portraits, as we are informed by Cornelius Nepos in his life of that illustrious Roman. But these works have not been transmitted to posterity. There are, however, many precious documents remaining, which exhibit the advancement and decline of the arts in different ages and countries. These inestimable paintings and illuminations display the manners, customs, habits ecclesiastical, civil, and military, weapons and instruments of war, utensils and architecture, of the ancients; and they are of the greatest use in illustrating many important facts relative to the history of the times in which they were executed. In these treasures of antiquity are preserved a great number of specimens of Grecian and Roman art, which were executed before the arts and sciences fell into neglect and contempt. The manuscripts containing these specimens form a valuable part of the riches preserved in the principal libraries of Europe; the Royal, Cottonian, and Harleian Libraries, as also those in the two universities of England, the Vatican at Rome, the Imperial at Vienna, the Royal at Paris, St Mark’s at Venice, and many others.

A very ancient manuscript of Genesis, which was in the Cottonian Library, and almost destroyed by a fire in 1731, contained two hundred and fifty curious paintings in watercolours. Twenty-one fragments, which escaped the fire, have been engraved by the Society of Antiquaries of London. Several specimens of curious paintings also appear in Lambecius’s catalogue of the Imperial Library at Vienna, particularly in volume third, where forty-eight drawings of nearly equal antiquity with those in the Cottonian Library are engraven; and several others may be found in various catalogues of the Italian libraries. The drawings in the Vatican Virgil, executed in the fourth century, before the arts were entirely neglected, illustrate the different subjects treated of by the Roman poet. A miniature drawing is prefixed to each of the gospels brought over to England by St Augustin in the sixth century, which is preserved in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. In the compartments of those drawings are depicted representations of several transactions in each gospel. The curious drawings and elaborate ornaments in St Cuthbert’s gospels, made by St Ethelwald, and now in the Cottonian Library, exhibit a striking specimen of the state of the arts in England in the seventh century. The same observation may be made respecting the drawings in the ancient copy of the four gospels preserved in the cathedral church [7:12:250]of Lichfield, and those in the Codex Rushworthianus in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The life of St Paul the Hermit, now remaining in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, affords an example of the style of drawing and ornamenting letters in England in the eighth century; and the copy of Prudentius’s Psycomachia in the Cottonian Library exhibits the style of drawing in Italy in the ninth century. Of the tenth century there are Roman drawings of a singular kind in the Harleian Library, No. 2820; whilst Nos. 5280, 1802, and 432, in the same library, contain specimens of ornamented letters, which'are to be found in Irish manuscripts from the twelfth to the fourteenth century. Caedmon’s Poetical Paraphrase of the book of Genesis, written in the eleventh century, which is preserved amongst Junius’s manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, exhibits many specimens of utensils, weapons, instruments of music, and implements of husbandry, used by the Anglo-Saxons. The like may be seen in extracts from the Pentateuch of the same age in the Cottonian Library. The manuscript copy of Terence in the Bodleian Library displays the dresses, masks, &c. worn by comedians in the twelfth century, if not earlier. The very elegant Psalter in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, exhibits specimens of the art of drawing in England in the same century. The Virgil in the Lambeth Library of the thirteenth century, and written in Italy, shows, both by the drawings and writing, that the Italians produced works much inferior to ours at that period. The copy of the Apocalypse, in the same library, contains a curious example of the manner of painting in the fourteenth century. The beautiful paintings in the history of the latter part of the reign of King Richard II., in the Harleian Library, afford curious specimens of manners and customs, both civil and military, at the close of the fourteenth and in the beginning of the fifteenth century. Many other instances might be produced; but those who desire further information may consult Strutt’s Regal and Ecclesiastical Antiquities, and his Horda Angelcynnan, published in three volumes.

This art was much practised by the clergy, and even by some in the highest stations in the church, “The famous Osmund,” says Bromton, “who was consecrated Bishop of Salisbury, a. d. 1076, did not disdain to spend some part of his time in writing, binding, and illuminating books.” Mr Strutt, as already noticed, has given the public an opportunity of forming a judgment as to the degree of delicacy and art with which these illuminations were executed, by publishing prints of a prodigious number of them, in his Regal and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of England, and his View of the Customs of England. In the first of these works we are presented with the genuine portraits, in miniature, of all the kings and several of the queens of England, from Edward the Confessor to Henry VII. mostly in their crowns and royal robes, together with the portraits of many other eminent persons of both sexes.

The illuminators and painters of this period seem to have been in possession of a considerable number of colouring materials, and to have known the arts of preparing and mixing them, so as to form a great variety of colours; for, in the specimens of their miniature-paintings which are still extant, we perceive not only the five primary colours, but also various combinations of these. Though Strutt’s prints do not exhibit the bright and vivid colours of the originals, they give us equally a view, not only of the persons and dresses of onr ancestors, but also of their customs, manners, arts, and employments, their arms, ships, houses, and furniture, and enable us to judge of their skill in drawing. The figures in these paintings are often stiff and formal; but the ornaments are in general fine and delicate, and the colours clear and bright, particularly the gold and azure. In some of these illuminations the passions are strongly represented. Terror, for example, is strongly painted in the faces of the Earl of Warwick’s sailors when they were threatened with a shipwreck, and grief in the countenances of those who were present at the death of that hero. After the introduction of printing, this elegant art of illuminating gradually declined, and at length became quite neglected.

Before concluding, it may not be improper to observe, that from the fifth till the tenth century, the miniature paintings which we meet with in Greek manuscripts, are generally good, as are also some which we find amongst those of Italy, England, and France. From the tenth till the middle of the fourteenth century they are commonly very bad, and may be considered as so many monuments of the barbarism of those ages; but towards the latter end of the fourteenth, the paintings in manuscripts were much improved; and in the two succeeding centuries many excellent performances were produced, especially after the restoration of the arts, when great attention was paid to the works of the ancients, and the study of antiquity became fashionable.