On the Rouen and Devonshire Benedictionals much interesting
information may be found in vol. 24 of the _Arch?ologia_ and in the
recent volume of the Bradshaw Society concerning them.
The work is peculiar; and if we consider the treatment of foliage apart
from the colour, we cannot but notice its similarity to the ivory
carving observable in the consular diptychs. Ivory carving was then a
popular artistic occupation. The foliage is graceful, the composition
well-balanced, and the colour mostly bright body colour applied in the
Greek manner. The fault of the heads is that they are too small for the
figure, and of the draperies that the folds are overdone too much
fluttering detail. The gilding differs from the Byzantine in not being
laid on the vellum in the form of burnished leaf, but painted on like
the colours, not only in the figures but in the framework and ornaments.
The British Museum contains several characteristic examples, but, as has
been said, the very finest are those at Rouen and in the library of the
Duke of Devonshire.
Perhaps no genuine example exists earlier than the Golden Charter of
King Edgar of true Winchester illumination, executed forty years after
the accession of Athelstan, whose Coronation Book (Brit.
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