For examples of it, the
Bolognese Law Books, Decretals, and such-like, afford frequent
illustration. Before leaving this first-quoted MS., we may say that it
points to France rather than to Germany or Lombardy for its general form
of design, but the foliages are quite of another kind. Another Laon MS.
(352) shows the same treatment of foliage, but in effect more like what
may be considered as the typical Italian style seen in the famous
Avignon Bible of the anti-pope, Clement VII. (Robert of Geneva), which
dates between 1378 and 1394.[42]
[42] See Humphreys, _Illum. Books of the Middle Ages_, pl. 16; and
Silvestre, _Pal?ographie Universelle_, pl. 117.
A further example still more powerful in expression and skilful in
manipulation is seen in a copy of the Poems of Convenevole da Prato, in
the British Museum (Roy. 6 E. 9), executed for King Robert of Naples, a
patron of Giotto (1276-1337), which, in comparison with the Laon Letters
of St. Bernard of about the same date, is even still more Italian.
Cardinal Stefaneschi, another of Giotto's patrons, was also a promoter
of illumination. His Missal, now at Rome in the archives of the Canons
of St. Peter's, is a fine example of this style. It dates from 1327 to
1343. The MS. of Boethius at Laon is another.
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