To dilate on other centres, such as
Westminster, Exeter, Worcester, Norwich, or York, would lead us too far
afield for a mere handbook like the present. Enough has been said to
give a good idea of what our English abbats and priors were in the habit
of doing for art and letters.
[Illustration:
PSALTERIUM CUM CANTICIS
A.D. 1240
_Brit. Mus. Roy. MS. 2, A. xxii, fol. 14_]
[Illustration:
EPISTRE AU ROY RICH. 2
C. 1375
_Brit. Mus. Roy. MS. 20 B, vi, fol. 1_]
Since 980 a considerable quantity of transcription and illumination must
have been produced, notwithstanding disquiet, turbulence, and war. At
Westminster the traditions of illumination seem to have followed the
methods of the earlier Winchester school. But in the twelfth century
English work shows, on the whole, a greater likeness to the contemporary
work of Germany. Of Westminster work an example occurs among the Royal
MSS. (2 A. 22). The subject is the Psalter, and the text is the handsome
style of penmanship known as English Gothic of the latter part of the
twelfth century. It would appear from the frequent occurrence of this
particular service-book that it held the place of the later Book of
Hours, and so we may expect a great similarity among different copies,
both in the selection of the illustrations and their mode of treatment.
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