University of Virginia Library

Decorated Initials in the Lincoln Thornton Manuscript
by
Joel Fredell [*]

The Thornton Manuscript (Lincoln, Dean and Chapter Library, MS 91) occupies an important place in Middle English studies not only for the literary value of its texts. Robert Thornton, a gentry smallholder from the North Riding of Yorkshire, was both scribe and patron, producer and audience for this manuscript. Thornton's remarkably full relationship to the design of his miscellanies (one other, similar collection in Thornton's hand is extant) makes this manuscript of particular interest for the analysis of manuscript design as evidence for assessing the response of a late medieval gentleman to literary texts.[1]

One feature of this design is the large number of decorated initials and planned miniatures or initials scattered throughout the first two texts of the Thornton MS: in the Prose Alexander (hereafter PA) one large initial and nine blank spaces, all of similar (ten- to thirteen-line) size; one hundred and three small (two- to five-line) decorated initials also in the PA; and eighty-two small decorated initials in the Alliterative Morte Arthur (hereafter AMA). These initials not only provide evidence that Thornton completed and used

the quires containing these two major literary texts as separate booklets.[2] The programs of initials in the PA and the AMA also suggest a decorative hierarchy which attaches particular prestige to these two works in the miscellany as a whole.[3]

Two questions complicate our understanding of Thornton's reception of the works he reproduced. First, it has long been assumed that Thornton provided the decorated initials himself. The various programs or degrees of elaboration distinguishing the different texts could then be, at least in part, a measure of the amount of leisure time available to him to complete a project rather than an indicator of his responses to particular texts. However, if certain texts were designed to have a higher percentage of relatively costly professional decoration, we would have a much better indicator of Thornton's ideas of hierarchy among and within his literary texts. Second is the matter of decorative choices. Since he was both scribe and patron for his miscellany we may be sure that Thornton decided on the size, number, placement, and content of initials and/or miniatures. What remains unknown is how much his exemplars influenced these choices. If we had Thornton's exemplars for comparison we could easily judge when Thornton was simply following his exemplar or setting up the design himself in ways richly informative about just what he found important in his texts. Although we do not have that luxury, close analysis of the decoration itself provides strong evidence that Thornton had a particular interest in kingship and used a decorative hierarchy to develop this theme in the opening poems of this miscellany.

The physical compilation of the Thornton MS has been thoroughly studied, as have the available facts of Robert Thornton's life.[4] Beyond the

gathering structure and the ordering of the texts, however, the manuscript's design has been largely neglected. The decorative program in this manuscript still suffers from the charge of "amateurism" leveled at it in 1914, and repeated faithfully up through Derek Brewer's introduction to the revised edition of the Scolar Press facsimile.[5] Also, the kind of foliate initials and penwork decoration the Thornton MS shares with a multitude of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century English manuscripts has remained largely below the notice of art historians.[6] Provincial manuscripts which do not have a high level of workmanship are generally ignored unless a compelling literary interest, such as the classification of Chaucer MSS for the Manly-Rickert edition, attracts the attention of a scholar with the knowledge of Margaret Rickert.[7]

The assessment of the Lincoln Thornton decorated initials as Thornton's own work seems to me to be incorrect for a number of reasons. The most compelling is, quite simply, that there are three distinct styles among the decorated initials, and Thornton is unlikely to have produced more than one of those, if he in fact produced any. Placed side by side these three major styles do not look like the work of the same hand.[8] They involve substantially different penwork techniques, ones which are never varied or combined throughout the many examples of each style. Style one uses widely familiar abstract penwork flourishes and conventionalized toothed and trefoil foliage;[9]

style two uses acanthus leaf decoration, flower blossoms, and the more elaborate illumination associated with these elements;[10] style three uses a version of the East Anglian "cabbage leaf" with quantities of animal, human, dragon, and hybrid figures.[11] Each of these styles is very competent as well as internally consistent, the equal of most penwork initials in provincial secular manuscripts in this period.[12] All three styles are much more likely to be the work of three penwork initial specialists than the work of one gentry amateur whose scribal talents are, in the first place, admittedly limited.

Other explanations might be that Thornton adopted different styles at different points in his life in response to current manuscript decoration fashions, or that he used exemplars for his texts whose decoration prompted Thornton to imitate various styles. However, the incidence of these initials within the gathering structure far more clearly supports their origin as piecework by professionals. Styles one and two occur throughout the "romance" quires (A-K) of the MS except for quires D-F. Style one also occurs by itself in the "devotional" quires (L-P); no decorated initials are used in the Liber de Diversis Medicinis (Q-R).[13] Style three occurs only in quires D-F, which contain the AMA and the first part of Octavyane.[14] The next

initial in Octavyane (105r in quire G) is in style one, which is used for the rest of the initials in quire H and all decorated initials which follow except for two more style two initials. A chart may be helpful for visualizing this distribution:              

Quires	Contents	Styles	Size and Number
A-C	PA	1, 2	10-13 lines: 1 initial, 9 spaces
			2-5 lines: 103 initials (3 of them style 2)
D-F	AMA; begin Octavyane	3	2-4 lines: 82 initials
G-K	end Octavyane; "romances"	1, 2	2-6 lines: 24 initials (2 of them style 2)
L-P	Devotional Works	1	2-7 lines: 39 initials
Q-R	Liber de Diversis Medicinis	None	None

The best explanation for this pattern is that Thornton jobbed out quires D-F to get the AMA properly illuminated, having the beginning of Octavyane done in the bargain. The remnants of Octavyane and the following quires of romance poems were apparently a later (and a lesser) concern for a distinctive, consistent program of initials for a single text. If Thornton were the sole decorator he is not likely to have switched from style three to style one halfway through Octavyane merely because he started a new quire. Other textual evidence supports this explanation. Angus McIntosh long ago observed that the AMA and The Previte off the Passioune may have come from the same miscellany, basing his conclusions on remnants of Lincolnshire dialect in these texts.[15] Since both texts begin gatherings Thompson (1983, 117) and Keiser (1979, 177-179) speculate that these were the first works Thornton copied for the Lincoln MS. The Previte has an opening initial in style one (179r); the rest of the initials are unfinished. If Thornton were copying these two texts during the same period one would expect him to use the same initial style if he were imposing his own rather than following that of his exemplars.

Thornton could, nonetheless, be following his exemplars. A mixture of decorative styles in one manuscript is quite possible, particularly if Thornton's exemplar was a miscellany itself. However, the use of style one initials in a wide variety of texts throughout the Lincoln Thornton MS argues strongly for some stylistic independence from most of his exemplars, at least. If we do accept the notion of Thornton as an amateur decorator dependent on his exemplars for models, what strains credulity the most is the idea that Thornton's exemplar for Octavyane should not only have initials in the same style as does the AMA, but that it changes styles conveniently just where Thornton must start a new quire. Thompson (1983, 118) argues that there was a "time lapse" between copying the AMA and Octavyane. The decoration of Octavyane is clearly independent of any such lapse, and looks far more

like the work of two decorators applying their own styles to whatever quires were in hand.

If Thornton is responsible for any decoration, the most likely candidate is style one. The switch halfway through Octavyane could then be explained as the result of a decision to save on the expense of a professional decorator or the later unavailability of the style three decorator. However, the attribution leaves us with some problems accounting for the presence of style two initials. Style two appears only rarely and sporadically; since it is the most highly colored style (using black, blue, green and brown to decorate the red initials) it may have been the most expensive.[16] Twice it appears as the opening initial for a romance (Ysambrace and The Awntyrs off Arthure at the Terne Wathelyn, 109r and 154r respectively) in the midst of gatherings which otherwise contain style one initials: the lone internal initial for The Awntyrs, a text entirely contained within quire I, is in style one (158r). Only the PA has internal style two initials; these three initials (19r, 19v, 27r) occur in gatherings in combination with style one, as do all style two initials distributed through the "romance" quires.

If Thornton were also capable of producing the more spectacular style two initials, why didn't he use them more often? Whether they are the work of Thornton or a professional, their use as internal initials may indicate the higher prestige of the PA in the miscellany, the only text designed to have large initials or miniatures. Style two decorations also may be part of a decorative hierarchy within the "romance" quires, suggesting that Ysambrace and The Awntyres were considered by Thornton to be more prestigious texts. Still, they are very rare, comparatively; if Thornton could make style two initials, money would be no object and these initials might have played a much larger role in the decorative hierarchy of the Lincoln Thornton MS. than they do. Although no positive evidence can be advanced, the complexity and rarity of these initials suggest a professional hand particularly if, as I suspect, Thornton is not responsible for style one either.

Two points of evidence suggest that Thornton did not produce the style one initials. Most of the unfinished small initials in the PA are in one block in quire C, a small group of half-bifolia added to accommodate the end of the PA. No other quire in the Lincoln Thornton MS has all undecorated initials. If Thornton were the decorator this lapse in the PA makes no particular sense; but if he were dealing out job lots to artisans, overlooking this little leftover quire is more understandable: quires A and B would have been sent out for decoration before or while quire C was produced.

Also, some quasi-armorial references to the Thornton family included in the initials of the PA, and the AMA as well, argue for professional involvement. In the PA one style one initial "A" contains a rebus on the family name: a "thorn" (hawthorn) tree and a tun or barrel (23v). A version of this

same rebus is used on the gravestone of a later Robert Thornton, and thorn leaves figure prominently in the arms of the Thornton family at least since the funerary monument of our scribe's father.[17] The rendering of the hawthorn leaf here is pretty incompetent, however; in fact, it looks very much like the conventionalized foliage of all the other style one initials. If Thornton were the talented amateur illuminator for which he is given credit, he probably would have troubled to do a much better job on the top half of the rebus invoking the family arms.

In the AMA a bird holds a scroll in its claws bearing the legend "Robert Thornton" next to a style three initial "K" (93v). There is no apparent connection to any heraldic devices of the Thorntons. The bird seems to be looking at two cats inhabiting and flanking an initial "B" across on the facing recto, fitting the general drollery habits of style three far better than it glorifies the honorable name of Thornton. Again this "heraldry" looks more like a professional adapting his style to a client's agenda than a direct armorial invention by Thornton as a socially conscious gentry amateur.

The large blanks left in the PA may be explained in terms of piecework, also: waiting until a miniaturist and sufficient funds were available simultaneously. It is, of course, impossible to know whether Thornton intended miniatures, historiated initials, or simply very large initials in these spaces. The only space which is filled (6r) has a large "Q," a penwork enlargement of a typical style one foliate initial, so large initials may have been intended for the other spaces.[18] If so, however, it is unclear why Thornton would have left the other spaces unfinished. It is more likely that the blanks were meant for miniatures or historiated initials since there is evidence of the beginnings, at least, of an illumination program in the PA. Spaces for ten- to twelve-line initials in the PA are inset on every opening of facing pages up to f. 8. With an estimated four leaves missing from the front, Thornton seems to have planned an opening with eight to ten major miniatures or initials. And there is a series of smaller initials inhabited by kings (on five occasions), knights (two) and a dragon. Marginal instructions next to other large spaces provide instructions for miniatures or historiated initials at the point where the series of four- or five-line inhabited initials begins, and at a later point in the text.[19] Despite its unfinished state, the layout, the existing initials, and the remaining instructions establish the scope of Thornton's ambition for this text: a "front-loaded" opening display of large miniatures or initials to create the impression of a deluxe manuscript, assertions of major divisions, and a thematic program of illuminations emphasizing kingship.

The text of the PA in this manuscript is lost up to the point when the

young Alexander slays his biological father Anectanebus, as the latter had prophesied moments earlier.[20] The large initial spaces which follow mark incidents which anticipate Alexander's greatness. The first (1r) begins the story of the taming of Bucephalus; the next (2r) introduces Alexander's first battle, in which he defeats Nicholas, King of the Arridons; the third (2v) marks Alexander's first exchange with Darius, when Alexander takes the place of his sick father to refuse tribute; the fourth (3v) introduces the burial of Phillip and Alexander's assumption of the throne of Macedonia.

After this point small initials (the first occuring at the bottom of 3v) begin to indicate new episodes and emphases. The planned opening program of large initials probably spanned Alexander's youth up to his assumption of his father's throne. Not only would the design assure a splendid decorative opening for a deluxe edition, the planned miniatures or initials would emphasize episodes which anticipate Alexander's legendary attributes: his steed, battle prowess, regal pride, and astonishing ability to win thrones.

The remaining large spaces mark six other points in the narrative: Alexander's reception of God's prophecy (based on the Book of Daniel) from the Bishop of the Jews (6r); Alexander's departure from Jerusalem to meet Darius, his greatest opponent (7r); Alexander's letter announcing his assumption of the throne of Darius (22v); Alexander's letter of challenge to King Porus of India (24v); The Queen of the Amazons' letter to Alexander (26r); Alexander's persuasive reply to the Amazons (26v). These planned miniatures or initials are clearly grouped in the text as three pairs, establishing major stages of Alexander's military advance east and fulfillment of his role as the exemplary conqueror. Yet the program of large initials is not extended to include the final battle with Porus, or Alexander's encounters with the wonders of the east, the gymnosophists, Dindimus the Brahmin, Queen Candace, or the Temple of the Sun and the Moon. Only a small style one initial inhabited by a dragon (38r) opening one set of subcontinental exotica, and one style two initial beginning Alexander's march through the desert to meet Porus (27r), distinguish these later adventures.

Two reasons could be suggested for the limitations of this program. The large initials as they were designed are spaced economically throughout the text to maximize their decorative effect: an opening sequence, a pair a short way further along, and two more pairs grouped in the middle of the text. Also, the program as it stands emphasizes Alexander's military victories, assumption of thrones, and Judeo/Christian visions at the expense of Eastern bestiary marvels and pagan philosophical debate. Thornton's tastes or uses for the text may simply run to military, regal, and Christian prophetic material.

More simply, one element of the Alexander story which goes into virtual eclipse in the East is Alexander's kingship. Up to his assumption of the throne of Darius, Alexander's regal qualities are being tested in what were

by Thornton's time conventional romance topoi: battle, confrontation with didactic spiritual guides, the discourse of challenge and response. After Alexander enters India these tests are largely abandoned in favor of toying with wonders and playing identity games at the court of Queen Candace. Even his last major battle in the PA, with Porus of India, is brief and relatively anticlimactic, and set among the distracting variety of oriental marvels.

A program of portrait initials and at least two planned large portrait miniatures or initials supports this apparent slant to Thornton's interests. The evidence we have for an illumination program points to a concentrated interest in the earlier images of kingship. After the "youth" series of large spaces an eleven-line space has a crude square drawn in (7r). Inside the square are the words "hic incipit". Alongside in the margin are the words "rex equitans". This plan for a miniature or historiated initial, what seems to be a conventional portrait of Alexander astride Bucephalus, occurs after Alexander has worshipped Jehovah and seen the prophecy of Daniel in Jerusalem, and marks the beginning of his journey to confront Darius. At this point, a few lines below this planned miniature, a program of king portraits in small initial "D"s and "A"s begins with a "D" (for Darius). Hereafter all "D" initials (always beginning "Darius") have the face of an older, bearded king; some of the small "A" initials have either a beardless man in armor (11v and 16v) or a young, beardless king (17r, again on the same page as a portrait "D").[21] Later in the text (24r), when Alexander marches against Porus of India, Porus's letter of challenge is headed by a small initial "P" (beginning "Porus") inhabited by a king's face much like the "D" portrait. On the following verso Alexander's response, now using for himself the "king of kings and lord of lords" formula Darius had affected in his self-references, begins with an eleven-line space. This space is paired with the earlier missing blank beginning Alexander's letter to announce his assumption of Darius's throne, where Alexander first takes over the use of "king of kings and lord of lords."[22] In other words, as the large blanks for Alexander on 6r and 7r mark the opening of his movement East to confront Darius, an opponent portrayed in a small initial on 7r, the pair of large initials on 22v and 24v face off against the small portrait of Porus (24r), Alexander's second and last great individual military challenger.

The next pair of large spaces also have instructions which suggest a royal face-off. The letter of Talifrede, Queen of the Amazons (26r), begins with a twelve-line space. In the margin is the notation "Regina regalibus cum duabus astantibus."[23] On the following verso Alexander's reply (which convinces the Amazons to submit without a battle) begins with a thirteen-line space (probably for Alexander), the last in the series of what could have been

facing royal portraits. Not only do the small initials focus on kingship, then, but the placement and extant instructions for the large spaces reinforce that focus and emphasize the confrontation between Alexander and a sequence of royal figures.

Initials and planned miniatures or initials throughout the PA thus expand the theme of kingship and royal challenge and response in the series of small portraits, most emphatically among military challengers: the philosophical challenges of the gymnosophists and Dindimus are given neither large miniatures or initials nor small portrait initials. The instructions left in the margins for initials in the PA (7r, 26r) may be designed for a subcontractor, though they could simply be self-reminders. Thornton always includes the initial letter in small form beginning the lines in the PA; this habit might have kept the text readable while Thornton waited for its final form, or simply served as the initial. A miniature without an accompanying initial, however, seems unlikely given the importance the miniature would lend to the text division. The AMA, by comparison, has its style three initials frequently inhabited by grotesques and accompanied by drolleries without any sign of a meaningful program attached to these figures, or a hierarchy of decoration within the text. This poem also has a "frontispiece" with crude sketches of knights and a warhorse (52v), but the PA seems to have had a much more ambitious design planned with the same professionals who did all the other decorated initials in the Lincoln Thornton MS.

Based on the decorative evidence, I would suggest the following reconstruction: Thornton copied the AMA and Octavyane first among the "romances," then had quires D-F decorated professionally, a luxury in keeping with the elevated subject of the AMA. At some later point he copied the PA, planning an even more lavish decorative scheme into which were incorporated all the remaining texts except the Liber de Diversis Medicinis, so that quires D-F were surrounded by a new, largely unified style one decorative hierarchy in which the AMA, by virtue of its relatively deluxe and numerous initials, was granted second place.

In this same vein of what must remain speculation it is interesting to note that Thornton probably completed his miscellanies before his political star rose enough locally for him to be commissioned as a tax collector in the North Riding in 1453 and 1454, associating him with powerful local men apparently not among Thornton's circle of intimates during the time he was producing the Lincoln MS (Keiser 1979, 159-164). Although that same star appears to have fallen rather quickly (Thornton may have been suspected of involvement in North Riding disturbances related to the Neville-Percy rivalry), Thornton may have changed the arena for his assertion of status from literature to politics before the money or opportunity was available to have the PA illuminated.

After 1450 the North Riding was clearly becoming a dangerous place to travel. Thornton may have just given up on taking his miscellanies to an illuminating center such as York. There was no lack of available illuminators and initial specialists in York. (Keiser 1979, 165; Thompson, 1987, 62 n. 29)

It seems likely that the important market town close by Thornton's home in East Newton, Helmsley, would also have a modest share of professionals. Situated next to Rievaulx Abbey, one of the most important Cistercian monasteries in England (though long in decline at this point); next to the ancestral seat of the Roos, a powerful local aristocratic family (VHCE: YNR, 1. 485); and possibly next to one of the oldest schools operating in the north of England;[24] Helmsley could have attracted the kind of initial specialists many secular documents of the time required. However, Helmsley is less likely to have been able to support a resident miniaturist so close to a center like York. The unfinished state of Thornton's two miscellanies would correspond to the relative availability and expense of professional services: small initials could be done locally (the single large style one initial in the PA might have been a "trial balloon" for the local talent); the large initials or miniatures would have been reserved for a trip to York with sufficient funds. There is substantial evidence that professional bookshops such as Thornton might have patronized would, in fact, employ separate artists for the tasks of initials and miniatures.[25]

Overall the decorated initials in the Lincoln Thornton MS argue for Thornton's use of professional piecework whose provenance and expense would be visible to local society, accepted signs of the prestige of certain texts and the luxury value of the miscellany as a whole. We do not know whether any of the Lincoln Thornton MS decorations followed exemplars in their style, size, number, or placement. The evidence of the decorations themselves, predominantly style one among a wide range of texts, virtually eliminates the exemplars as the controlling force for the initials' decoration; and if Thornton did hire out that work he decided on the costs per text, significant choices in themselves. Whether or not Thornton produced the style one initials, whether or not he followed his exemplars, he clearly prepared the PA for a major, thematically coherent illumination program; he almost certainly gave the AMA a relatively extravagant professional decoration; and he is very likely to have designed the decorations in the other texts of the Lincoln Thornton MS in terms of the hierarchy established in these first two great poems. Despite their low profile among contemporary masterpieces of manuscript illumination, the initials of the Lincoln Thornton MS are rich lodes of information about a medieval provincial gentleman's conception of some of the major literary works of his time.

Notes