2788), also in all probability executed at Metz. At Paris (Nat. Lib.,
Theol. Lat. 266) is the Evangeliary of Lothaire--a most beautiful
example of gold-writing and ornament. So we might enumerate a score of
splendid MSS., and classify them into their various minor schools. But
such is not our object. All we want here is a general but clear idea of
the style as a whole.
To characterise it broadly by the names of its most important elements
we should call it a Lombard-Saxon style--the interlacing bands and knots
and other minor features and the main character of the writing being of
Saxon origin, the classical foliages and manner of painting the figures
and certain ideas of design Lombardic, strengthened by direct contact
with the sources of the latter style. Whatever variations there may be,
they can generally be accounted for according to locality and centre of
production. We have instanced a few examples of the earlier time as
showing the principal features of the style. Under the Emperor Charles
the Great's grandson, Charles the Bald, Carolingian illumination reached
its highest point of excellence, and the MSS. executed for him or his
contemporaries accordingly give a correct idea of what Carolingian
illuminators considered as good work.
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