Illuminated B from a thirteenth-century Psalter

29.2 x 19.4 cm.

Beckwith, Victorian Bibliomania catalogue no. 20

Source: Examples of the Art of Book Illumination during the Middle Ages Reproduced in Facsimile

Collection: New Bedford Free Public Library

Bernard Quaritch's bookshop in London was a meeting place for Victorian bibliomaniacs, and he counted John Ruskin and William Morris among his clients. Quaritch (1819-1899) showed his interest in disseminating knowledge of early manuscripts and printed books to the general public by bringing out Henry Noel Humphreys's History of The Art of Printing in 1867. (cat. 18). [continued below]

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Commentary by Alice H. R. H. Beckwith

During the 1880s and '90s he published a series of photochromolithographs by William Griggs (1832-1911) which reproduced works in his own collection and others. The plates in these series are still among the best examples of the new technique, but they lack the scholarly approach of the books of Madden, Westwood, Humphreys, and Ruskin. Griggs did not adopt the role of artist and historian, nor did Quantch. The New Bedford version of their book is a picture collection without even the unifying feature of strictly chronological organization.

Apparently Quaritch's illustrations were available as single images and in collections of fascicles. A set in St. Deiniol's Library, Hawarden, dated 1889 contains 100 plates of bookbindings, and the examples of the art of book illumination found in the New Bedford group. A second set at St. Deiniol's dated 1892 informs us that the Biblical and liturgical manuscripts were from Quaritch's own collection and also includes examples of what he called "Romances of Chivalry" among its six fascicles. The five fascicles bound together in the New Bedford copy are: the Comus drawings of William Blake, a Pre-Columbian Mexican chronicle. Biblical and liturgical manuscripts, miscellaneous facsimiles from 1370 to 1584, and the title group of medieval illuminated works.

The illuminated B illustrated here is from a Psalter probably made for William, First Baron de Vescy, who died in 1297 (Needham, 100). This manuscript and its letter B are primary examples of the witty and imaginative modifications of natural forms for decorative purposes that characterized the thirteenth century and that Ruskin recommended in Modern Painters III and elsewhere. Paul Needham suggests that William Morris bought the manuscript (now in the Pierpont Morgan Library) from Quaritch in 1892 or '93. Morris particularly noticed the blown leaves at the sides of the great B, calling them "an undeniable token of an English hand" in his notes about his own collection of illuminated manuscripts (Needham 100). In his comments about this thirteenth-century book one senses Morris's interest as a practicing designer who tried to fathom the secrets of his predecessors, just as Humphreys, Jones, and Ruskin hoped designers would. For instance, Morris remarked that the thickness of the black boundary lines in this B and its ornament were important in producing the effect of the color (Needham 100).

References

Beckwith, Alice H. R. H. Victorian Bibliomania: The Illuminated Book in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Exhibition catalogue. Providence. Rhode Island: Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 1987.

Examples of the Art of Book Illumination during the Middle Ages Reproduced in Facsimile. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1888-1891. Photochromolithographer: William Griggs.

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Last modified 31 December 2013