John Obadiah Westwood

“ The illuminated initials are very similar, and it is ornamented with two drawings, in precisely the same rude style as those above mentioned in the St. John's College volume. Unfortunately, the fragments are so singed and blackened, that it has been with the utmost difficulty, and only with the aid of a magnifying glass, and by holding the pages in different lights, that I have been able to make out the lines of the figures; whereas, the beautiful ornamental borders are more easily determined by the colours, which have better withstood the action of the fire. ”

“ The extreme rarity and the singular character of the miniatures and ornaments of ancient Irish illuminated manuscripts, induce me to think that a few particulars relative to their remarkable peculiarities, may not be without interest to the members of the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. ”

“ Sacra Pict. ↑ The Gospels of Mac Durnan, at Lambeth, are certainly the most elaborate specimen of this class of minuscule written manuscripts in England, and are equalled only in some respects by the Book of Armagh in Dublin. Indeed, from several circumstances, I am almost tempted to believe that both these volumes were the work of the same scribe and artist. 1st. The exquisite character of the hand- writing is identical in both volumes. ”

“ The drawing before us will set the question at rest. The Anglo-Saxon MS. (Cotton. MS. Claudius, B. iv.,) of the tenth century, also contains a figure of a man using a sling of nearly similar form, copied by Strutt. (Horda, pl. xvii., fig. 4, and in his Sports and Pastimes.) ↑ There is a small figure of a man playing on a harp in the carved cumdach of the Duke of Buckingham's missal. ↑ The Jews, in the drawing of the seizure of Christ in the Book of Kells, have the moustache and beard precisely similar ”

“ Of the miniatures with which these manuscripts are ornamented, it is, on the contrary, impossible to conceive anything more barbarous, either as regards composition or treatment. The drawings, indeed, more nearly resemble Egyptian or Mexican figures, whilst the colours are laid on in solid masses, without the slightest attempt to introduce shading or relief. ”

“ Luke, in the Gospels of Mac Regol, dips an instrument very like a quill with the beard stripped off, into a square ink-pot stuck on the top of a stick, which is fixed into a projection of the seat on which he sits, and which is ornamented at the top with eagles' heads, whilst St. ”