fe
Ivory Tabernacle, Ravenna
The Nativity; Ivory Carving
Pastoral Staff; Ivory, German, 12th Century
Ivory Mirror Case; Early 14th Century
Ivory Mirror Case, 1340
Chessman from Lewis
Marble Inlay from Lucca
Detail of Pavement, Baptistery, Florence
Detail of Pavement, Siena; "Fortune," by Pinturicchio
Ambo at Ravello; Specimen of Cosmati Mosaic
Mosaic from Ravenna; Theodora and Her Suite, 16th Century
Mosaic in Bas-relief, Naples
A Scribe at Work; 12th Century Manuscript
Detail from the Durham Book
Ivy Pattern, from a 14th Century French Manuscript
Mediaeval Illumination
Caricature of a Bishop
Illumination by Gherart David of Bruges, 1498; St. Barbara
Choral Book, Siena
Detail from an Italian Choral Book

ARTS AND CRAFTS IN THE MIDDLE AGES

CHAPTER I

GOLD AND SILVER

The worker in metals is usually called a smith, whether he be
coppersmith or goldsmith. The term is Saxon in origin, and is derived
from the expression "he that smiteth." Metal was usually wrought
by force of blows, except where the process of casting modified
this.

Beaten work was soldered from the earliest times. Egyptians evidently
understood the use of solder, for the Hebrews obtained their knowledge
of such things from them, and in Isaiah xli. 7, occurs the passage:
"So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth
with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, 'It is ready
for the soldering.'" In the Bible there are constant references
to such arts in metal work as prevail in our own times: "Of beaten
work made he the candlesticks," Exodus. In the ornaments of the
tabernacle, the artificer Bezaleel "made two cherubims of gold
beaten out of one piece made he them."

An account of gold being gathered in spite of vicissitudes
is given by Pliny: "Among the Dardoe the ants are as large as Egyptian
wolves, and cat coloured. The Indians gather the gold dust thrown up
by the ants, when they are sleeping in their holes in the Summer;
but if these animals wake, they pursue the Indians, and, though
mounted on the swiftest camels, overtake and tear them to pieces."

Another legend relates to the blessed St. Patrick, through whose
intercession special grace is supposed to have been granted to
all smiths. St. Patrick was a slave in his youth. An old legend
tells that one time a wild boar came rooting in the field, and
brought up a lump of gold; and Patrick brought it to a tinker,
and the tinker said, "It is nothing bu