Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/89

Rh and St. Andrew,, The inscriptions, it will be seen, are very irregular, partly owing no doubt to the difficulty of shaping the gold fillets, of which they, as well as the outlines, are formed. These fillets, to which it has been scarcely possible to do justice in the engraving, are very thin bands of gold, one ninth of an inch broad, very slightly attached by their edges to the plate at the back. The colours of the enamels employed are numerous, amounting in all to thirteen. Three of these are transparent; blue, purple, and green: dark, and very brilliant. The remainder are opaque, consisting of two whites, one bluish, the other yellowish; three blues, light, full, and greenish; light yellow, flesh colour, light green, red, and black. The ground to the figures and inscriptions is of the transparent green; the glories yellow, the hair black or bluish white.

This interesting object was probably worn as a pectoral cross, and contained a relic. A hole has been barbarously broken through the centre of one of the sides, by a devotee, it is said, of the last century. The rudeness of some of the outlines, the very unusual symbol employed for the first Person of the Trinity, and more especially the absence of the, or any contraction for it, before the name of the Apostles, all seem to carry back the date of this relic to an early period. M. Labarte considers the date of it to be not later than the tenth century; it may well be earlier. It is greatly to be regretted that so interesting and rare a specimen of ancient workmanship should not have been secured for the national collection.

2. In the Library at Munich is the cover of a Book of Gospels, executed by order of the Emperor, Henry the Second, for the Cathedral of Bamberg, about 1004. On one side of this book-cover is an ivory tablet, exquisitely sculptured in relief, and surrounded by a border of gold, ornamented with pearls and enamels. At the corners are enamelled medallions, representing the symbols of the Evangelists. Between them are placed twelve other medallions, representing half figures of our Lord and eleven Apostles. These medallions are all executed by the filagree process. The names of the Apostles are given in Greek, and are executed by fillets of gold on a coloured ground, as in the specimens last described. The date of the cover is placed