MS. Lyell 10

Decoration

Up to fol. 287 (Ezekiel) beginnings of Books and Prefaces have painted floriated initials (sometimes with borders) in blue, pink, orange-brown, and yellow, generally on pink grounds, sometimes incorporating monsters (fols. 1r, 107v), birds (fol. 84r, 95v, 183r), monsters’ heads (fols. 22v, 47v, 93v, 162v, 170v, 174r, 192v); there is another painted initial on fol. 440r; other initials are red and blue with fine pen flourishes in the same colours, or red flourished in blue or blue in red, often with elaborate bicoloured trails of penwork in the margins. (Pächt and Alexander iii. 455)