fil6 Dibdin's JiilAw^rafhical Tour in France anct'Germanl/. 



tttied in Hl(ra marin(^, just boncatli a 

 ch)wn is the letier A, sinj;uliirly <le- 

 shjncd, within a hlack oonl upon a gold 

 gi'otnul. This Vdluinc, measures very 

 nearly t\wlve inches by seven inches 

 arid five-ei<^liths. Tlie clasps are iiw 

 doub t edit/ ov'tghuil. ' . 



<^HAKLEMAONE\S PBAYER BOOK. 

 " Now that I am in tliis magical re- 

 fifion, my good friend, allow nie to in- 

 spect the famous Prayer book of 

 XJHARliEMAGNE?" was my first solici- 

 tation to Mons. Barbicr. " Gently," 

 said my jTurrle. '• you are almost asking 

 to partake of forbidden fruit: but 1 

 sujipose yon must not be dis;ippointed." 

 This was only sharpening tiic edge of 

 mv curiosity — " for wheivforc this mys- 

 tery, good M. Barhier?" " T/tnt yon 

 may know another lime. The book is 

 here, and yon shall immediately in- 

 spect it," was his rqily. Well, it 

 hf/s been inspected, and you shall forth- 

 with be made acquainted with the re- 

 sult of such inspection. First of all, 

 however, T must tell you, that after I 

 had fairly and minutely examined it, 

 it was impossible not to feel persuade<l 

 (as I undisguisedly (old M. Barbicr) 

 that tliis was, in every respect, perhaps 

 the MOST precious volume, of its 

 kind, which France possessed; for it 

 is not only of the lime, but it had been 

 the property, of Cliarlem.^gne himself. 

 M. Barbier unlocked the recess in 

 Avliich it is religiously preserved; took 

 oft' the crimson velvet in wliidi it is 

 enveloped, and springing backward 

 only two feet and a half, exclaime<l on 

 the presenting it, " Le Aoila daustoute 

 sa beauts pristine." I own that I even 

 forgot Charles tlic. Dald, and eke his 

 imperial brother Lot/inrius. 



Tiie subject-matter of this most pre- 

 cious book is thus arranged: — In the 

 first place, there are five large illumi- 

 nations, of the entire size of the page, 

 which are much discoloured. The first 

 four represent the Evanirelists, each 

 sitting upon a cushion not unlike a 

 bolster. The fifth is. tiie figure of our 

 Saviour ; the back ground is purjile, 

 the pillow-like seat, upon which 

 Christ sits, is scarlet, relieved by white 

 and gold. The upper garment of the 

 iigure is dark green, tiic lower purple, 

 bordercxl in part with j;ohl ; the foot 

 stool is gold ; the book in the left baud 

 is red and gold ; tiie arabesque orna- 

 ments, in the border, are blue, red, 

 and gold : the hair of our Saviour is 

 ■intended to be flaxen, 

 y. ji On the reverse of this extraordinary 



figure, is an illumination of a tempi*?, 

 i)( whioli tlie (op, in the shape of ft tettt, 

 is supjwrted by eight columns. A va" 

 riety (if birds and leasts decoi-ate the 

 upper part; ;ii)ove we read " In VlGI- 

 LiA Natalis Domini." Opposite 

 the text begins, in capital letters; the 

 initials being about three-eighths of au 

 inch, tlie others about one-eightl>. The 

 text is in double columns, upon a i)ur- 

 ple ground, within an arabesque bor- 

 der of red, purple, yellow, and bluish 

 green. The text is uniformly execu- 

 ted in letters of gold, of which the sur- 

 face is cccasionaliy ratlier splendid. 

 This tes.t consists of a scries of gospel 

 extracts, for the whole year, amount- 

 ing to ahout two hundred and forty- 

 two. These extracts terminate 'with 

 " Et Ego Resuscitabo Eum In 

 NovissiNfo Die. Ames." But I 

 sliould observe that, before " the pas- 

 sion of our Lord .Jesus Clnist accord- 

 ing to St. Matthew," there is a sort of 

 arabesque ornament, of a bird with 

 flowers, not badly grouped. I do not 

 discover any other particular ornameiit 

 within the borders. 



Next comes a christian calendar, 

 from the Dominical year dcclxxv to 

 DCCXCVii. On casting the eye down 

 these years, and resting it on that part 

 of DCCLXXXi you observe, in the co- 

 lumns of the opposite leaf, this veiy 

 important entry or memorandum, in 

 the undoubted writing of tiie time: — 

 " lit Isto Anno ivit Domintix Rex K A RO- 

 l/US, ad sem Petrom et baptisatus est 

 J'dlus citt.i PiPPlNUS a Domino Apos- 

 tolivo ;" from which I think it is evi- 

 dent (as is observed in the account of 

 this precious volume in the Anmdes 

 Enct/clop(diqttes, vol. iii. p. 37^) that 

 this very book was commanded to b<r 

 writtcH chiefly to perpetuate a notice of 

 the baptism by Pope Adrian, of the 

 emperor's son Pipj)in. Tliere is no ap- 

 pearance whatever of fabrication, in 

 this memorandum. The v."hole is co- 

 eval, and doubtless of tlie time when 

 it is professed to have been executed. 

 The last two pages are occupied by 

 Latin verees. wi'itteu In a lower-case, 

 cursive hand ; but contemporaneous, 

 and upon a purple ground. From these 

 verses we learn that the Scribe or 

 copyist of this splendid volume, was 

 onefxODESCALB, or Gcdscualcus, a 

 German. The verses are reprinted in 

 the Dfcfides Pkilospohiqiics. 



This IMS. was niven to the Abbey of 

 St. Serviii, at Toulonse, by Charle- 

 magne, when his son Lewis was king 



of 



