We have seen in
the course of the preceding chapters that it did not spoil the trade of
the illuminator. Nor was it quite owing to the fact that many printed
books were so adorned as to appear like illuminated MSS. More than one
wealthy patron absolutely declined to have anything to do with printed
books. The matter was too vulgar and too cheap. The last Duke of Urbino
was a prince of this lofty way of thinking, and scarcely a court in
Europe but continued to have MSS. produced as if no such thing as the
printing-press were known. How they were multiplied in Spain and France
we have seen in detail. We will now proceed to take a farewell look at
the German and Italian libraries, in order to see how the illustrious
presses of Mainz, Strassburg, Augsburg, K?ln, Munich, Vienna, Venice,
Milan, Florence, and Rome affected the ateliers of the great schools of
illumination established in most of these cities. What do we find? In
point of fact, some of the richest, most magnificent books ever produced
by the illuminator, not only whilst the press was still a novelty, but
long after it had become perfectly familiar to everybody. For several of
the cities aforesaid we have the means of proof: thus for Mainz, at the
end of the superb copy of the Mazarine Bible, now at Paris, is the
following inscription: "Iste liber illuminatus, legatus and completus
est henricum Cremer vicari? ecclesie collegiate Sancti Stephani
Moguntini sub anno dni Melesimo quatring entesimo quinquagesimo Sexto,
festo assumptiois gloriose Virginis Marie.
Pages:
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282