The Art of Illuminating As Practised in Europe from the Earliest Times (page 12/13)

Plate 93.—Sixteenth Century No. 5

Not a complete alphabet, and with an odd “O” but still an interesting set of decorative initials, including fishes and vegetables and leaves and grapes, with red letters on a black and white background. [more...]

G to M from XIV. Century No. 1.

See XIV. Century No. 1 for the full alphabet, miniscule and majiscule (capitals and small letters). Actually it’s not a full alphabet by modern standards. [more...]

G to M from XIV. Century No. 1.

See XIV. Century No. 1 for the full alphabet, miniscule and majiscule (capitals and small letters). Actually it’s not a full alphabet by modern standards. [more...]

Lower row of lower-case (miniscule) blackletter from XIV. Century No. 1.

The small (miniscule) letters from p to z; strictly speaking these are not to be called “lower case” since they are for writing and not printing, but it is a distinction no longer widely followed. [more...]

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Plate 71.—Fifteenth Century No. 1a.

“A series of bold initials from detached fragments in the South Kensington Museum.” (p. 103) [more...]

Plate 71.—Fifteenth century No. 1b.

“A series of bold initials from detached fragments in the South Kensington Museum.” (p. 103) [more...]

Red and Blue Medieval Border with Butterfly

This border was taken from “Hours of the Virgin” (Harl. 2,936). The book is attributed to the Master of Martainville and includes 24 miniatures with foliate borders (such as this one) in colours [...] [more...]

Gold and Purple Medieval Foliated Border, Vertical

A side-border or vertical area with vine-leaves and berried, partly in purple and partly in gold. The scanner didn’t pick out the gold very well, so I had to redo it afterwards. This border would make a fine decoration to one side [...] [more...]

Blue vine border from 15th century manuscript

Anther side-border or edge (edging?) taken from “Hours of the Virgin” (Harl. 2,936). This one has blue vine leaves on a dark brown background. [more...]

Full-page gold and coloured medieval border

It’s easy to imgine that interest in medieval borders, calligraphy and decoration started with William Morris and Edward Johnston in the 1880s, but this book was produced in 1860 and includes such beautiful full-page borders as this illuminaged green, blue and gold example from a fifteenth century book of hours. There are birds and vines, frogs and [...] [more...]

Colophon with full-page border

This colophon identifies the printer of the book; it is set in pseudo-mediæval banderols, or banners, in blue and black, with red, bluee and gold decoration. [more...]