Tag Archives: illumination

Friday Dragon: Exemplar

The Illuminated Books of the middle ages; an account of the development and progress of the art of illumination ... from the IVth to the XVIIth centuries ... Illustrated by a series of examples ... executed on stone and printed in colours by Owen Jones.

ID: F60135-40
Title: The Illuminated Books of the middle ages; an account of the development and progress of the art of illumination … from the IVth to the XVIIth centuries … Illustrated by a series of examples … executed on stone and printed in colours by Owen Jones.
Author: “Humphreys, Henry Noel (Henry Noel Humphreys)”
Illustrator: “Jones, Owen (Owen Jones)”
Provenance: London, 1844-49.
Caption: A dragon.
Source identifier: 1899.r.41
British Library Shelfmark: 1899.r.41

From the British Library collection in Flickr Commons

Friday Illumination: Through my tears

Phoebe Anna Traquair’s illuminated copy of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’ - Sonnet 30

Phoebe Anna Traquair’s illuminated copy of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’ – Sonnet 30. From the National Library of Scotland, via Flickr Commons.

I see thine image through my tears tonight,
And yet to-day I saw thee smiling. How
Refer the cause? Beloved, is it thou
Or I, who makes me sad The acolyte
Amid the chanted joy and thankful rite
May so fall flat, with pale insensate brow,
On the altar-stair. I hear thy voice and vow,
Perplexed, uncertain, since thou art out of sight,
As he, in his swooning ears, the choir’s amen.
Belovëd, dost thou love? or did I see all
The glory as I dreamed, and fainted when
Too vehement light dilated my ideal,
For my soul’s eyes? Will that light come again,
As now these tears come – falling hot and real?