ox CERTAIN ANCIHNT ENAMELS. 53

embedded in the solid; in otlicrs, the divisiuiis are iiun(jv strips of metal set on edge, and slightly attached to the plate at the back, so as to form a kind of filagree in which the enamel is laid.^ It is to the examples of the latter chiss, to those embedded in filafjrec, that the following observations relate, in which I shall endeavour to explain the maimer of their execution, and briefly notice the few exanii)les that have survived destruction. Theo|)hilus the monk, h/oniiis prrsbz/fe); as he calls him- self, and with respect to whose country and the age in which he lived, so many different opinions have been entertained,'* has left us, in his Diversariim artium scheduld, an elaborate and detailed treatise on most of the arts pi-actised in his time. He has given instructions of considerable extent for making church plate, devoting no less than six chapters of his w^ork to the construction of the chalice alone. His chalice was to be of a large size, with a wade bowl and two handles ; the material, gold, ornamented with jewels, pearls, and "lectra.^ He gives directions for making these electra, from which it appears, undoubtedly, that they are enamels of the kind we are examining, that is to say, enamels embedded in filagree. Haviiig made the vase and its handles, he proceeds to say,^ " take a thin piece of gold and join it to the upper rim of the vase, and measure it out from one handle to the other, which piece of gold must be as broad as the stones which you wish to place upon it ; and in arranging them, dispose them in this wa}^, — first, let there be a stone with four pearls, one at each angle, then an electrum, next to which a stone with pearls, and again an electrum, and you will so arrange them that the stones may always be next to the handles ; the settings and grounds of the stones, and the ' Tlie French terms for these two sub- has been published by Heiidrie, Loud, divisions are champlcve and cloisonne, or U{47. rather a cloisons mohiles. The first word '^ The chalice when made must gi-eatly does not seem to convey a good idea of have resembled that of S. Gozliii,enf;i"aved the process. The latter is good, but it is in De Caumont's Abifce'daire d'Arche'o- difficult to find an English equivalent. 1 logie, Paris, 18.t0. have used " embedded in filagree," for Book iii., Chap, liv., De Electw. In want of a better. the following translation I have left the •* The most probable theory seems to word diririnn untranslated ; it evidently be, that Theophilus, or Rugerus, as he is means enamel, or rather the enamelled called in some MSS., was a Lombard, and object. Esealopier has translated the word lived in the twelfth century at the latest ; very erroneously cahuchon ; this is a vide, the Introduction to Escalopier's edi- tallow cut stone, and cannot apply to these tion of his works, Paris, 1848. A more electra. Hendrie has called tlitin some- complete text, with an English translation, times glaw gems, at others enamels.