No one has been able to explain these curious inscriptions. In
the Grimani Breviary they were thought to be either Croatian or merely
ornament. Here they cannot well mean anything but decoration. The
portraits are fanciful but interesting mementoes of the period, and
include several personages noted in history.
The last MS. to be mentioned in this hasty sketch is one in the British
Museum (Stowe 597). It is a "Missale Romanum," and is said to have been
illuminated for John III. in 1557. It was once the property of the Abb?
Gamier, chaplain for near thirty years, of the French factory at Lisbon.
The binding is red morocco, and once had silver clasps.
It commences with a large mirror-like oval tablet, containing the title,
set between two pillars of pink-veined marble with bronze-gold capitals
and bases. The tablet is crimson with a violet-slate frame moulding of
egg and dart pattern. At foot are two Roman legionaries, one seated as
supporting the tablet, on each side. On folio 3 is the index in a
rose-wood panel and pale green frame. The peculiar forms of the frames
and the scroll-work on them are of the fantastic kind, differing from
Italian, which is characteristic both of Spanish and Portuguese
ornament. The chief colours are a bright emerald green and blue, with
ochre, gold, and crimson.
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