gian styles, of which latter the Psalter of Charles
the Bold, is a fine specimen, prevailed on the continent during the
eighth and ninth centuries. Toward the end of the tenth century,
the Anglo-Saxon school, under the patronage of Bishop Ethelwold,
at Winchester, assumed a new and distinct character, which was not
surpassed by any works executed at the same period. This style, with
its bars of gold, forming complete frames to the text, when enriched
with interweaving foliage of the acanthus and the ivy, became the
basis of the latter and more florid school of illumination, which
attained its highest perfection in the twelfth century, and of which
the Arnstein Bible is an example. This Bible belonged to the Monks
of St. Mary and St. Nicholas, of Arnstein, and the value which was
attached to it may be inferred from the following quaint and mild
anathema at the end of the first volume:--
"The book of St. Mary and St. Nicholas, in Arnstein, the
which, if any one shall purloin it, may he die the death--may
he be cooked upon the gridiron--may the falling sickness and
fevers attack him--and may he be broken upon the wheel and
hung!"
In the thirteenth century Paris became celebrated for its
illuminators, and the productions of Franco-Bolognese, whose skill in
illuminating manuscripts was then paramount, is mentioned by Dante.
Mr. Humphreys thus graphically describes the style of the fourteenth
century:--
"It was a great artistic era--the architecture, the painting,
the goldsmith's work, the elaborate productions in enamel, and
the illuminator's art, were in beautiful harmony, being each
founded upon similar principles of design and composition;
even the art of writing lending itself to complete the chord
of artistic harmony, by adopting that, crisp and angular
feeling which the then general use of the pointed arch
introduced into all works of artistic combination."
* * * * *
THE PHANTOM WORLD.[1]
MR. CHRISTMAS, in his "Twin Giants," attacked the stronghold of
popular superstition by exhibiting the foundations and growth of error
in the early and ignorant ages, and of the progressive dissipation of
these delusions as the light of history and science spread over the
world. The present work is a translation from Calmet. It deals with
spectres, vampyres, and all that tribe of visionary monsters. We have
here the learning and opinion o
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