Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/467

 1922 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 459 exhibits the pomp of ornament that characterized the Italian classical Renaissance. Only England is scantily represented, for the only good example of English illumination is an important Sarum Missal (24) which served as a basis for the late Dr. Wickham Legg'a recent edition. By the provost of Eton illuminations naturally have full credit done to them. They could not, in fact, have been more systematically or satisfactorily described. It is common to most modern collections of choice manuscripts that subject-matter tends to be eclipsed by artistic adorn- ment. As an offset to this, we should have preferred that subjects and authors should have had a separate index, instead of being combined with place-names, proper names, and saints. Several writers whose names should have been included fail to appear ; for example, Petrus Pictaviensis (72), Martinus Dumiensis (124), and Robert Grosseteste, whose translation of the Testamenta Patriarcharum occurs in no. 125. Historical works are very few, the most important being the earliest copy of the ' Leges Anglorum Londiniis collectae ' (155). A collection of letters of the Genoese chancellor, Jacobus Bracellus (178), will probably repay investigation. H. H. E. CHASTER.