MS.

ms., but beautifully painted. in all three mss. the borders show no lack of finish; they are of a high standard and are worthy of the miniatures. but perhaps the very finest miniature-work to be found in any ms. of french origin of this period is the breviary (harl. ms. 2897) illuminated for john the fearless, duke of burgundy, who was assassinated in 1419. it could hardly be surpassed in refinement and minuteness of detail. development towards the modern methods of painting moves on rapidly with the century. first, the border in the middle period grows florid; the simpler ivy-spray design, which had held its position so long, is gradually pushed away by a growth of flowering scrolls, with flowers, birds and animal and insect life introduced in more or less profusion. but henceforward deterioration increases, and the border becomes subsidiary. in the case of miniatures following the old patterns of the devotional and liturgical books, a certain restraint still prevails; but with those in other works, histories and romances and general literature, where the paintings are devised by the fancy of the artist, the advance is rapid. the recognition of the natural landscape, the perception of atmospheric effects now guide the artist's brush, and the modern french school of the second half of the 15th century is fairly established. the most celebrated leaders of this school were jean foucquet of tours and his sons, many of whose works still bear witness to their skill. in the mss. of this school the influence of the flemish contemporary art is very obvious; and before the advance of that art french illumination receded. a certain hardness of surface and want of depth characterize the french work of this time, as well as the practice of employing gilt hatching to obtain the high lights. this practice is carried to excess in the latest examples of french illumination in the early part of the 16th century, when the art became mechanical and overloaded with ornament, and thus expired. it has been seen that the flemish school of illumination in the 13th and 14th centuries followed the french model. in the 15th century, while the old tradition continued in force for a while, the art developed on an independent line; and in the second half of the century it exercised a widespread influence on the neighbouring countries, on france, on holland and on germany. this development was one of the results of the industrial and artistic activity of the low countries at this period, when the school of the van eycks and their followers, and of other artists of the great and wealthy cities, such as bruges, antwerp, ghent, were so prolific. the flemish miniatures naturally followed on the lines of painting. the new style was essentially modern, freeing itself from the traditions of medieval illumination and copying nature. under the hand of the flemish artist the landscape attained to great perfection, softness and depth of colouring, the leading attribute of the school, lending a particular charm and sense of reality to his out-door scenes. his closer observation of nature is testified also in the purely decorative part of his work. flowers, insects, birds and other natural objects now frequent the border, the origin of which is finally forgotten. it ceases to be a connected growth wandering round the page; it becomes a flat frame of dull gold or colour, over which isolated objects, flowers, fruits, insects, butterflies, are strewn, painted with naturalistic accuracy and often made, by means of strong shadows, to stand out in relief against the background. this practice was soon carried to florid excess, and all kinds of objects, including jewels and personal ornaments, were pressed into the service of the border, in addition to the details copied from nature. the soft beauty of the later flemish style proved very attractive to the taste of the day, with the result that it maintained a high standard well on into the 16th century, the only rivals being the mss. of italian art. the names of celebrated miniaturists, such as memlinc, simon bening of ghent, gerard of bruges, are associated with its productions; and many famous extant examples bear witness to the excellence to which it attained. the grimani breviary at venice is one of the best known mss. of the school; but almost every national library has specimens to boast of. among those in the british museum may be mentioned the breviary of queen isabella of spain (add. ms. 18,851); the book of hours of juana of castille (add. ms. 18,852); a very beautiful book of hours executed at bruges (egerton ms. 2125); another exquisite but fragmentary ms. of the same type (add. ms. 24,098) and cuttings from a calendar of the finest execution (add. ms. 18,855) ascribed to bening of ghent; a series of large sheets of genealogies of the royal houses of portugal and spain (add. ms. 12,531) by the same master and others; and late additions to the sforza book of hours (add. ms. 34,294). but, besides the brilliantly coloured style of flemish illumination which has been described, there was another which was practised with great effect in the 15th century. this was the simpler style of drawing in white delicately shaded to indicate the contour of figures and the folds of drapery, &c., known as _grisaille_ or _camaieu gris_. it was not indeed confined to the flemish schools, but was practised also to some extent and to good effect in northern france, and also in holland and other countries; but the centre of its activity appears to have been in the low countries. the excellence to which it attained may be seen in the mss. of the _miracles de nostre dame_ now in paris and the bodleian library, which were executed for philip the good, duke of burgundy, in the middle of the 15th century. of the dutch school of illumination, which was connected with that of flanders, there is little to be said. judging from existing examples, the art was generally of a more rustic and coarser type. there are, however, exceptions. a ms. in the british museum (king's ms. 5) of the beginning of the 15th century contains scenes from the life of christ in which the features are carefully modelled, very much after the style of english work of the same time; and some of the specimens of dutch work in _camaieu gris_ are excellent. german illumination in the 15th century appears to have largely copied the flemish style; but it lost the finer qualities of its pattern, and in decoration it inclined to extravagance. where the flemish artist was content with single flowers gracefully placed, the german filled his borders with straggling plants and foliage and with large flourished scrolls. italian illumination, which had developed so rapidly in the 14th century, now advanced with accelerated pace and expanded into a variety of styles, more or less local, culminating in the exquisite productions of the classical renaissance in the latter half of the 15th century. as in the other national styles of france and flanders, the italian miniaturist quickly abandoned the conventional for the natural landscape; but with more character both in the figure-drawing and in the actual representation of scenery. the colouring is brilliant, not of the softness of the flemish school, but of stronger and harder body; the outlines are firm and crisp and details well delineated. the florentine, the lombard, the venetian, the neapolitan and other schools flourished; and, though they borrowed details from each other, each had something distinctive in its scheme of colouring. the border developed on several lines. the rayed gold spots or studs or pellets, which were noticed in the 14th century, are now grouped in profusion along the margins and in the interstices of delicate flowering and other designs. another favourite detail in the composition of both initials and borders was the twining vine tendril, generally in white or gold upon a coloured ground, apparently a revival of the interlacing lombardic work of the 11th and 12th centuries. at first, restrained and not too complex, it fills the body of initials and short borders; then it rapidly expands, and the convolutions and interlacings become more and more elaborate. lastly came the completed solid frame into which are introduced arabesques, vignettes, candelabras, trophies, vases, medallions, antique gems, cupids, fawns, birds, &c., and all that the fancy led by the spirit of classical renaissance could suggest. among the principal italian mss. of the 15th century in the british museum there are: a copy of _plutarch's lives_, with miniatures in a remarkable style (add. ms. 22,318); aristotle's _ethics_, translated into spanish by charles, prince of viana, probably executed in sicily about 1458 (add. ms. 21,120); a breviary of santa croce at florence, late in the century (add. ms. 29,735); livy's _history of the macedonian war_, of the neapolitan school, late in the century (harl. ms. 3694); and, above all, the remarkable book of hours of bona sforza of savoy of about the year 1490 (add. ms. 34,291); besides a fair number of mss. exhibiting the rich colouring of the venetian school. like that of the french and flemish schools, italian illumination survived into the 16th century, and for a time showed vigour. very elaborate borders of the classical type and of good design were still produced. but, as in other countries, it was then a dying art. the attempt to graft illumination on to books produced by the printing press, which were now displacing the hand-written volumes with which the art had always been associated, proved, except in a few rare instances, a failure. the experiment did not succeed; and the art was dead. spain. it remains to say a few words respecting the book ornamentation of the peninsula. in the earlier centuries of the middle ages there appears to have been scarcely anything worthy of note. the mozarabic liturgies and biblical mss. of the 9th to 12th centuries are adorned with initial letters closely allied to the primitive specimens of the merovingian and franco-lombardic pattern, and coloured with the same crude tints; the larger letters also being partly composed of interlaced designs. but the style is barbaric. such illustrative drawings as are to be found are also of a most primitive character. moorish influence is apparent in the colours, particularly in the yellows, reds and blacks. in the later middle ages no national school of illumination was developed, owing to political conditions. when in the 15th century a demand arose for illuminated mss., recourse was had to foreign artists. flemish art naturally was imported, and french art on the one side and italian art on the other accompanied it. in the breviary executed for queen isabella of spain about the year 1497 (brit. mus., add. ms. 18,851) we find a curious random association of miniatures and borders in both the french and the flemish styles, the national taste for black, however, asserting itself in the borders where, in many instances, the usual coloured designs are replaced by black-tinted foliage and scrolls. in other outlying countries of europe the art of illumination can scarcely be said to have existed. in slavonic countries a recollection of the byzantine school lingered in book ornamentation, but chiefly in a degraded and extravagant system of fantastic interlacings. in the 16th century there was a revival in russia of the byzantine style, and the head-pieces and other ornamental details of the 11th and 12th centuries were successfully imitated. the consideration of oriental art does not come within the scope of this article. it may, however, be noted that in arabic and persian mss. of the 13th to 16th centuries there are many examples of exquisitely drawn title-pages and other ornament of intricate detail, resplendent with colour and gold, which may be ranked with western illuminations. authorities.--medieval and later works dealing in part with the technicalities of illumination are collected by mrs merrifield, _original treatises dating from the 12th to 18th centuries on the art of painting_ (1849); see also theophilus, _de diversis artibus_, ed. r. hendrie (1847). text-books and collections of facsimiles are count a. de bastard, _peintures et ornaments des manuscrits_, a magnificent series of facsimiles, chiefly from carolingian mss. (1832-1869); shaw and madden, _illuminated ornaments from mss. and early printed books_ (1833); noel humphreys and jones, _the illuminated books of the middle ages_ (1849); h. shaw, _handbook of medieval alphabets_ (1853), and _the art of illumination_ (1870); tymms and digby wyatt, _the art of illumination_ (1860); birch and jenner, _early drawings and illuminations_, with a dictionary of subjects in mss. in the british museum (1879); j. h. middleton, _illuminated mss. in classical and medieval times_ (1892); g. f. warner, _illuminated mss. in the british museum_ (official publication, 1903); h. omont, _facsimiles des miniatures des plus anciens mss. grecs de la bibl. nationale_ (1902); v. de boutovsky, _histoire de l'ornement russe du x^e au xvi^e siecle_, including facsimiles from byzantine mss. (1870); j. o. westwood, _facsimiles of miniatures and ornaments of anglo-saxon and irish mss._ (1868); e. m. thompson, _english illuminated mss._ (1895); _paleografia artistica di montecassino_ (1876-1884); _le miniature nei codici cassinesi_ (1887); a. haseloff, _eine thuringisch-sachsische malereischule des 13. jahrhunderts_ (1897); g. schwarzenski, _die regensburger buchmalerei des 10. und 11. jahrhunderts_ (1901); sauerland and haseloff, _der psalter erzbischof egberts von trier_ (1901). several of the most ancient illustrated or illuminated mss. have been issued wholly or partially in facsimile, viz. the _ambrosian homer_, by a. ceriani; the _schedae vaticanae_ and the _codex romanus_ of virgil, by the vatican library; the vienna dioscorides, in the leiden series of facsimiles; the vienna genesis, by hartel and wickhoff; the greek gospels of rossano, by a. haseloff; the ashburnham pentateuch, by b. von gebhart; the utrecht psalter, by the palaeographical society. facsimiles from illuminated mss. are also included in large palaeographical works such as silvestre, _universal palaeography_, ed. madden (1850); the _facsimiles_ of the palaeographical society (1873-1894) and of the new palaeographical society (1903, &c.); and the _collezione paleografia vaticana_, the issue of which was commenced in 1905. excellent photographic reproductions on a reduced scale are being issued by the british museum and by the bibliotheque nationale in paris. (e. m. t.) illuminati (lat. _illuminare_), a designation in use from the 15th century, and applied to, or assumed by, enthusiasts of types distinct from each other, according as the "light" claimed was viewed as directly communicated from a higher source, or as due to a clarified and exalted condition of the human intelligence. to the former class belong the _alumbrados_ of spain. menendez pelayo first finds the name about 1492 (in the form _aluminados_, 1498), but traces them back to a gnostic origin, and thinks their views were promoted in spain through influences from italy. one of their earliest leaders, born in salamanca, a labourer's daughter, known as la beata de piedrahita, came under the notice of the inquisition in 1511, as claiming to hold colloquies with our lord and the virgin; having high patrons, no decision was taken against her (_los heterodoxos espanoles_, 1881, lib. v.). ignatius loyola, while studying at salamanca (1527) was brought before an ecclesiastical commission on a charge of sympathy with the _alumbrados_, but escaped with an admonition. others were not so fortunate. in 1529 a congregation of unlettered adherents at toledo was visited with scourging and imprisonment. greater rigours followed, and for about a century the _alumbrados_ afforded many victims to the inquisition, especially at cordova. the movement (under the name of _illumines_) seems to have reached france from seville in 1623, and attained some proportions in picardy when joined (1634) by pierre guerin, cure of saint-georges de roye, whose followers, known as guerinets, were suppressed in 1635 (hermant, _hist. des heresies_, 1717). another and obscure body of _illumines_ came to light in the south of france in 1722, and appears to have lingered till 1794, having affinities with those known contemporaneously in this country as "french prophets," an offshoot of the camisards. of different class were the so-called illuminati, better known as rosicrucians, who claimed to originate in 1422, but rose into notice in 1537; a secret society, combining with the mysteries of alchemy the possession of esoteric principles of religion. their positions are embodied in three anonymous treatises of 1614 (richard et giraud, _dict. de la theol. cath._). a short-lived movement of republican freethought, to whose adherents the name illuminati was given, was founded on may-day 1776 by adam weishaupt (d. 1830), professor of canon law at ingolstadt, an ex-jesuit. the chosen title of this order or society was perfectibilists (_perfektibilisten_). its members, pledged to obedience to their superiors, were divided into three main classes; the first including "novices," "minervals" and "lesser illuminati"; the second consisting of freemasons, "ordinary," "scottish" and "scottish knights"; the third or "mystery" class comprising two grades of "priest" and "regent" and of "magus" and "king." relations with masonic lodges were established at munich and freising in 1780. the order had its branches in most countries of the european continent, but its total numbers never seem to have exceeded two thousand. the scheme had its attraction for literary men, such as goethe and herder, and even for the reigning dukes of gotha and weimar. internal rupture preceded its downfall, which was effected by an edict of the bavarian government in 1785. later, the title illuminati was given to the french martinists, founded in 1754 by martinez pasqualis, and to their imitators, the russian martinists, headed about 1790 by professor schwartz of moscow; both were cabalists and allegorists, imbibing ideas from jakob boehme and emmanuel swedenborg (bergier, _dict. de theol._). see (especially for details of the movement of weishaupt,) p. tschackert, in hauck's _realencyklopadie_ (1901). (a. go.*)