Identifier: oldpicturebooksw00pollrich (find matches)
Title: Old picture books; with other essays on bookish subjects
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Pollard, Alfred W. (Alfred William), 1859-1944 Pollard, Alice
Subjects: Bibliography Illustrated books
Publisher: London : Methuen and co.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ault, Ysambre,by which they were known in the French plays on theNativity, and the shepherds are French Shepherds of thefifteenth century. But however great their anachronisms,the tableaux in the Miracle Plays and the pictures in booksof devotion were found abundantly helpful, and for morethan a century and a half, first in manuscript and after-wards in print, the Horae or Primers, the prayer-booksof the laity, hold the first place among illuminated books.A few years ago Mr. Ouaritch possessed a charming Book of Hours, which at one time belonged to ElizabethPoyntz, a relative of the Thomas Poyntz at whose bookwe were looking a little while back. To this manuscriptMr. Quaritch in his catalogue assigned the date about1360, which, if correct, gives it considerable antiquityamong illuminated Horae. The end of the fourteenthcentury is the date at which these first become at allcommon, and it was during the fifteenth century that theyobtained their greatest popularity, and that the greatest
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FROM A SARUM IIORAE. PARIS : P. PIGOUCHET FOR S. VOSTRE, I£02 A BOOK OF HOURS 6i artists were employed in their production. Numerousand very beautiful examples of the manuscripts producedduring this period form part of the permanent exhibitionin the Grenville Library at the British Museum, andI hope that many of my readers will go to look at themthere. All fine examples of manuscript Horae possess(i.) beautiful initial letters, (ii.) borders surrounding everypage, formed of leaves, flowers, birds, grotesques, andthe like, (iii.) a number of beautiful miniatures, filling thewhole or the greater part of a page, and representing thescenes from the life of Christ and His Mother mentionedin the lines quoted above, with additional illustrationsfrom the Passion, and from the lives of the saints.Beyond saying this, it is impossible to give any generaldescription of these manuscript Hours, each one of whichpossesses its own delightful individuality. Two or threespecial examples, however, may

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