12 JUNE 1858, Page 21

MEDIEVAL FAC-SIMILE.*

An illumination without colour is almost the white of an egg without its yolk ; and that has been adjudged insipid since the time of Job. Co- lourless as it is, however, (and far better colourless than imitated in colour vulgarly,) this fac-simile has the charm of very pure and graceful design, with simple truth, if not peculiar fervour, of religious expression. If executed by an English illuminator, it proves, (like the very beautiful little sacred picture of Richard the Second with his patron saint, and the Madonna and Angels, which was exhibited last year in Manchester,) that our countrymen of the fourteenth century had attained a high posi- tion in art, scarcely inferior to that of the French. The subjects of this MS. are divine, angelic, and saintly figures, with biblical and legendary histories, of considerable importance and accomplishment.

* Litany, sketched from a MS. illuminated in England in the early part of the fourteenth century, now in the Old Royal Collection, British Museum. By H. H. J. Westlake. Published by Hamilton, Adams, and Co.