A Catalogue of Western Book Illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Colleges. Part Four: England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales. Volume One: Insular and Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts ed. by S. Panayotova and N. Morgan (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Catalogue of Western Book Illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Colleges. Part Four: England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales. Volume One: Insular and Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts ed. by S. Panayotova and N. Morgan R. M. Thomson Panayotova, S., and N. Morgan, eds, A Catalogue of Western Book Illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Colleges. Part Four: England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales. Volume One: Insular and Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts (Illuminated Manuscripts in Cambridge, 4.1), London, Harvey Miller, 2014; hardback; pp. 360; 440 colour illustrations; R.R.P. €175.00; ISBN 9781909400047. The most immediately noticeable feature of this volume is its splendour, deriving from a combination of large format, the use of digital technology to produce crisp illustrations in full colour, generously scaled, and sensitive and elegant layout. Take, for instance, pp. 106–07, which display a breathtaking opening (fols 17v–18r) from Trinity College, MS B. 10. 4, an early eleventh-century Gospel Book probably made in East Anglia; or pp. 252–53, reproducing two different leaves from Trinity College, MS B. 5. 2, the second volume of the great late eleventh-century Bible made at Lincoln Cathedral (where the first volume is still in situ as its MS 1). The book, then, is visually stunning, and might be deemed a superior ‘coffee-table’ item on that account; this is not true of its text. The book inevitably invites comparison with the third volume of Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford, edited by Otto Pächt and Jonathan Alexander in 1973, covering manuscripts of English origin and provenance. And yet there is really no comparison. That volume (and the whole series) was in small quarto, the reports of each manuscript were very summary, incorporating a general indication of contents and the briefest description of the decoration (e.g., no. 1127, ‘Border, initials’) unless it was extensive and important. The plates, save for the frontispiece, were black and white, good for the time but usually much reduced in scale and often useless for purposes of comparison. They were arranged at the back of the volume, like so many postage stamps in an album, and were from a selection of the MSS only. The two volumes are thus quite different in terms of presentation; there is also no comparison in the level of information offered. In the Cambridge volume, each manuscript is presented with a full description of its structure, contents, and provenance before proceeding to the decoration. Every book is accompanied by at least one illustration, usually of original size but often showing enlarged detail. In addition, there is full commentary covering anything of particular interest in any of these areas – not just the decoration – followed by a comprehensive bibliography: ‘mine of information’ is hardly an adequate description. The catalogue describes ninety-seven items (ninety-four English, one Irish, and two Welsh) plus thirteen addenda (MSS from the Frankish kingdoms c. 700–c. 1000; a welcome inclusion). The vast majority are in the possession of just two colleges, Corpus Christi and Trinity. They are catalogued in order of date, nos 1–25 bringing us quickly to the year 1000, while we pass the [End Page 345] Norman Conquest at about no. 58. About 40 per cent of the items catalogued, then, are dateable to the last quarter of the eleventh century. Very few of the books have a secure provenance, let alone origin. The identified secure places of origin or at least early provenances are dominated by the Benedictine abbeys or cathedral priories, especially the two Canterbury communities, Christ Church (twenty items) and St Augustine’s (fifteen). Most of the decoration in these books is attractive but not outstanding, confined to the initials, sometimes an exceptional opening page containing a major initial accompanied by coloured display script. The few items that could be described as lavish are all Gospel Books: nos 1, 9, 27, 35, 46, 51, all pre-Conquest. Also worthy of note are nos 11 (Amalarius, with its lively initials in ink of text tinted in pastel colours) and 27 (Prudentius, with a complete cycle of tinted line-drawings). Amid many interesting physical details recorded about these books is the high...