File:The arts in early England (1903) (14598054798).jpg

Identifier: artsinearlyengla03brow (find matches)
Title: The arts in early England
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Brown, G. Baldwin (Gerard Baldwin), 1849-1932 Webster, A. Blyth (Adam Blyth), 1882-1956 Sexton, Eric H. L. (Eric Hyde Lord), 1902-1980
Subjects: Art Architecture Architecture, Medieval Church architecture Crosses Decoration and ornament, Celtic Inscriptions, Runic
Publisher: London, J. Murray
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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cernstheir designs. The multiplicity just noticed might have beenexpected to result in a similar variety of types, but this is notthe case. The designs on the gold trientes, though sometimesof much interest, are wanting in the variety and inventivenessthat are so characteristic of the sceat types. The obverse ofthe Merovingian coins, inherited from the earlier Romantrientes, is almost always a profile bust, though the full facealso occurs, and occasionally other devices. The reversetypes are naturally more varied, and in most cases can bereferred to Roman originals. The earliest in point of time isthe figure of a Victory but from about 600 this is replaced bythe cross, which in the words of M. Prou * constitue le typedu revers de la plupart des monnaies emises en Gaule depuisla fin du VIe siecle jusquau milieu du VIIIe siecle. Thiscross appears in diverse forms and the variations may stand to1 Les Monnaies Merovingiennes, p. lxxxvi. II facing p. 65 MEROVINGIAN AND GALLO-BRITISH PIECES
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Enlarged less than 1^ diameters CELTIC AND FRANKISH COIN TYPES 65 the credit of the Gallic designers. It occurs on a globe, onsteps, in a Latin shape or a Greek, with pendants from theextremities of its arms, and with these f gammees, potencies,c ancrees, or treated in some other of the decorative fashionsdistinguished by heraldic terms, that are said to numberseveral score. It always however remains the cross, and thisfact suggests a remark on the general subject of the treatmentby the barbarian artist of ornamental motives derived fromclassical sources. The illustrations on PI. 11 comprise, first. No. 1, a finegold coin of the solidus class that is a very careful reproductionby a Gallic moneyer of Marseilles of an aureus of the EmperorMaurice Tiberius, 582-602 a.d. ; second, a number of Mero-vingian trientes, generally in gold but in the case of certainlater issues in silver, which give a fair idea of triental types,while there are added below for purposes of comparison a fewexample

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