A still finer
example--the finest example of Old Minster craft--is the
Benedictional of Ethelwold, now in the Duke of Devonshire's
library. The versified dedication, inscribed in letters
of gold, tells us, in substance--"The Great Aethelwold . . .
illustrious, venerable and mild . . . commanded a certain
monk subject to him to write the present book: he ordered
also to be made in it many arches elegantly decorated and
filled up with various ornamented pictures expressed in
divers beautiful colours, and gold."[1] Godeman, abbot of
Thorney, was the scribe, but the illuminator is unknown.
Each full page has nineteen lines of writing, with letters
nearly a quarter of an inch long. Alternate lines in gold,
red, and black occur once or twice in the same page. There
are thirty miniatures and thirteen fully illuminated pages,
some of these having framed borders, foliated, others columns
and arches. The figures are remarkably well drawn, the
drapery being especially good. The whole is in a fine
state of preservation, especially the gold ornaments; the
gold used was leaf upon size, afterwards well burnished.
Of the rival craftsmanship at New Minster we have a
splendid example in the Golden Book of Edgar, so called
on account of its raised gold text.
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