In Rome itself during the ninth
century barbarism was at its very lowest point. Only the sea-port towns
had any notion of what was being done in other places. Painting was
practised, it is true, so was mosaic, but the worst of Oriental carpets
would be a masterpiece of elegance beside anything done in Italy.
Whatever gleams of artistic intelligence appear, they certainly emanated
from Ravenna or Pavia. But as there were no wealthy and peaceful courts,
no indolent, high-bred, luxurious courtiers during that dark and
troublous period, miniature or illumination had no call for existence.
In the twelfth century book-illustration consisted simply of
pen-sketching of the most elementary kind. The Lombards alone produced
anything like illumination. A sort of roll containing pictures of the
various scenes of the Old and New Testaments which represented the
leading doctrines of the Church, and which used to hang over the pulpit
as the preacher discoursed upon them, is the only representative of the
time. Such a roll was called an "Exultet" from its first word, which is
the beginning of the line "Exultet jam Angelica turba c?lorum" of the
hymn for the benediction of the paschal wax tapers on Easter Eve.
Several of these "Exultets" are still kept in the Cathedral at Pisa, and
in the Barberini and Minerva Libraries in Rome.
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