170 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



of the thirteenth century." The book belonged 

 to Anne, daughter of Sir Simon Felbrigge, and 

 if the date given, the end of the thirteenth 

 century, is correct, it is a very early instance of 

 the Virgin's vase of lihes. The figures have 

 much dignity and sweep of hne, but the lily, 

 which is a fleur-de-lys in form, is red! Possibly 

 in the garden of the country convent where em- 

 broidery was worked no liliums grew. The nun 

 would therefore take the only lihes she knew, 

 those of the royal standard. For colour she 

 would remember that they surpassed Solomon 

 in his glory. But, even so, the red lily argues an 

 insensitiveness to symbolic values scarcely to 

 be found among the Latins. 



The original symbolism of the vase of lilies 

 was simple. It signified the purity of the Maid 

 of Nazareth, she of whom it was prophesied ' A 

 Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son.' She 

 does not hold the flower in her hand as do 

 the virgin martyrs who preserved their purity 

 through storm and stress, but it grows naturally 

 beside her and merely typifies her girlhood. In 

 the first half of the fifteenth century this seems 



^ British Museum. 



