NOTED LITERARY TREASURE

Evening Star, Issue 20985, 26 December 1931, Page 9

NOTED LITERARY TREASURE

DOMED TO AUCTION BLOCK

[From Our Own Correspondent.]

SAN FRANCISCO, November 26. The ‘ Blickling Homilies,’ a famous Anglo-Saxon manuscript and one of the greatest English historic literary treasures not owned by the British Museum and other public institutions, has just been exhibited in New York at the American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, where it will be sold some time in January. This tenth century collection of sermons and improving tales is a part of the Lothian Library of ancient books and manuscripts, which the Marquis of Lothian, more widely known as Philip Kerr, has decided to sell at auction in the United States. Lord Lothian, who is a member of the MacDonald Government, caused, by his decision to sell the library outside England, _ more than the standard fuss and stir in the British Press which follows such announcements. He was attacked on two grounds—first, for failing to give the British Museum aud other national institutions the first chance to acquire some of his treasures, and, second, for his implied opinion that Ncw_ York was a better book and manuscript mart than London. The old ‘Book of Homilies’ is not much to look at, but it is a thing for scholars to dote over. It was written within a century after King Alfred started the movement to _ translate pious classics and books of instruction into the vernacular. ODD LITERARY STYLE.

Experts in Anglo-Saxon or old English place the book, from its literary style, somewhere between Alfred (848-90) and /Elfric (955-1020). No other Anglo-Saxon manuscript of great importance is known to exist in private hands anywhere, and it is claimed that no American private or public library owns a single page of AngloSaxon.

The ‘ Blickling Homilies - is a small book consisting of 149 leaves of vellum. The tough old sheepskin and the ink used by the ancient monks who wrote it have stood the test of nine and a-half centuries. Some of the leaves were warped and darkened a little, and part of the text a little worn, but it was generally in good condition. The volume contains nineteen edifying narratives and exhortations to piety. The style is described by John S. Westlake as standing “ midway between the style of Alfred and that of /Elfric; it is more developed than the one, more primitive than the other; it is rude, vehement, homely; the syntax is clumsy and the vocabulary often archaic.” ECONOMICAL MAYORS.

The volume belonged for more than three centuries, it is said, to the city of Lincoln. The economical mayors and sheriffs of Lincoln cut their stationery bills by scribbling records of their nominations on its margins. The second item in importance is an ancient psalter written _ in Latin on eighty-eight pages, with interlineations in several hands, both in AngloSaxon and in Latin. The earliest of the annotations is ascribed to the ninth century, and written in red. One set of pious comments between the lines runs from the eleventh to the ninth century. The psalter then seems to have been allowed two centuries of idleness, when it fell into the hands of others with the itch for writing their own reflections in their books. The volume is calledthe ‘Lincoln Psalter,’ because it is believed to have been the property of the city of Lincoln at one time. It has been conjectured that the manuscript was written in Canterbury.

Third in importance is the beautifully illuminated Tykitt, or ‘ Tikyll Psalter,’ named after Bro. John Tykitt, who spent many years of his life on the work and died before it was completed. Tykitt was the prior of the Augustinian monastery of Wyrkesopp, now Radnor, in Nottinghamshire. Most of this volume gleams and flares with the gold cunningly used by the monk in his illustrations of the sacred text, whic happear on every one of the first ninety pages. Bro. John worked about the year 1300, in the most glorious period of his art. The fine human figures seem as fresh as if they had been painted yesterday.

OTHER TREASURES. The text is bordered with a variety of intricate patterns in gold and colour, miscroscopically wrought. By the cident of the monk’s death while the work was in hand, the volume gives the key to many of the ancient illuminator’s secrets. In some of the miniatures only the foundation of gold has been laid. In others the human figures have been partly outlined. In others the colouring is half done. Other items include several royal bindings. One is a copy of ‘Tacitus,’ printed in Paris in 1574, which was bound and presented to Queen Elizabeth of England. It bears the royal arms of the queen. Other bindings are from the libraries of the famous Queen and the famous mistress of Henry 11. of France, Catherine De Medici and Diane Do Poitiers.

One of the early illuminated Bibles is the twelfth century _ Royal Bible, which was kept as a family treasure of the Lothians and Blickling House, and brought forth on great State occasions for the autographs of visitors of importance. It contains the signatures of Wellington, Castlereagh, and Edward VII. as Prince of Wales.