Grenville Library. On the walls are the books bequeathed in 1847 by the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville. The exhibition-cases contain a selection of mediï¾µval illuminated manuscripts. Cases E-H in the Manuscripts Saloon should be studied in conjunction with the cases in this room. We begin at the farther (West) end, on the north side.
CASE I (West slope), Byzantine (11-13th century); (East slope) English (10-11th century), especially in the southern style originating from Winchester; note the free outline drawing and conventional elongation of the figures.
CASES II and III (and below I), English (12-15th century): 17. Life of St. Guthlac, with outline drawings resembling those in the Winchester Manuscripts; 32. Admiralty Ordinances (circa 1413), with typical English decoration of foliage; 33. Initials cut from a missal, probably made for Richard II., with delicate miniatures enclosed in the letters. Lectionary (circa 1400), with a large portrait-group of the artist presenting the book to his patron; 36. Metrical life of St. Edmund, with miniatures valuable for the costumes.
CASE IV. French (9-16th century). About 1400 the French style and the English diverge, the French being marked by the delicate ivy-sprig borders, which later became mechanical. No. 41. Gospels (9th century); 43. Psalter (13th century); 44. Roger Parmensis on surgery, with illustrations of cases; 47. Bible history moralized; 49. Apocalypse; 52. Order of the Coronation; 51. Missal (14th century).
CASE V. French and Flemish (12-16th century). The finest style prevailed in the late 15th century. 67. Cï¾µsar, with miniatures in grisaille; Hours of the Virgin, with delicate landscape miniatures surrounded by borders of flowers, fruit, and birds; numerous Books of Hours; 76. Miniatures illustrating Mandeville's Travels; 77. Ordinance of Charles the Bold; 78. Statutes of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Some of the manuscripts have portraits of their first owners.
CASE VI. Italian (12-15th century): 84. Psalter (12th century) in the Monte Cassino style; 87. Breviary in the Byzantine style, which survived in Italy; 88. Miniatures of the school of Giotto. The later examples (especially No. 102) show Renaissance influence.
In the lower compartments of Cases I, IV-VI are manuscripts too large for their proper places; 106-109 are English, 110-114 French, 115-122 Flemish, 123-128 Italian; note the romances. CASES VII and VIII. Manuscipts of various schools, bequeathed by Baron Ferdinand Rothschild and A. H. Huth (died 1910).
CASE IX (between II and III), Bindings of manuscripts. Metal bindings, with enamels; 4. Worked and jewelled silver binding; 5. Ivory carvings; 14. Deer-skin; 24, 26. English royal velvet. Opposite is a case containing recent acquisitions and a Hebrew Pentateuch on leather (probably 14th century).
