" If the _marmousets_ could have hanged him they
would. In default they hanged his treasurer.
All this maladministration was very wrong, but we cannot afford to burn
the MSS. in consequence, for the Bible, the "Grandes Heures," and other
books once possessed by the wicked Duke, are among the most precious
relics of any age. Add to them the beautiful volumes of poetry and
romance composing the contemporary literature of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, and we have treasures that we dare not relinquish.
By the beginning of the fifteenth century pure French illumination was
losing its own characteristics and acquiring others. In the North, in
Flanders and Brabant, Franche-Comt? and the Burgundian Dukedom
generally, it was becoming that peculiar kind of French which had
received the name of Burgundian. It can scarcely be said to be Flemish
enough to rank as Netherlandish, yet neither can it stand side by side
with "French of Paris."
Let us look at a few examples. There is the Book of Offices in the
Library of St. Genevi?ve at Paris (Bibl. Lat. 66), also the St.
Augustine in the same library. Also a small crowd of volumes in the
Royal Library at Brussels, another in the National Library at Paris. One
of the richest examples known is the "Psalter of the Convent of Salem,"
in the University Library at Heidelberg.
Pages:
149
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