,transcriber's note3 ,some typographical
 errors in the printed work have been   
corrected3 they are listed at the end of
 the text4    ,text enclosed by         
underscores is in italics 7italics74    
,page numbers enclosed by curly braces  
7example3 #be7 have been  incorporated  
to facilitate the use of the ,index4    
,images of the original plates are      
available through ,internet ,archive4   
,see                                    
https3_/_/archive4org_/details_/palograp
hynote#jjquarrich           99       99 
99       99       99      ,,pal,,ography
    ,,notes ,,upon ,,the    ,,history   
,,of ,,writing    ,,and ,,the           
,,medieval ,,art ,,of ,,illumination    
,,by    ,,bernard ,,quaritch            
,extended from a ,lecture1 delivered at 
a ,conversazione of the ,sette  of ,odd 
,volumes1 at the ,galleries of the      
,royal ,institute of  ,painters in      
,water ,colours1 #abth ,december1 #ahic 
,london    ,,privately ,,printed        
#ahid        ,this ,volume is           

,dedicated to my excellent friend       
,,brother ,,alexander ,t4               
,,hollingsworth1    ,,artificer1 and    
,,president ,,of    ,the ,odd ,volumes1 
#ahic-id1    ,,and ,,to    ,,the        
,,brethren ,,of ,,the ,,sette    ,,with 
,,which    ,i have been united since    
#ahgh in ,o4 ,v4 bond1    ,,by          
,,bernard ,,quaritch1    ,librarian to  
the ,sette4    ,london1 #ae ,piccadilly1
 ,march #cast1 #ahid4                   
#a;,foreword    ,of the books which     
preceded the invention of ,printing1 a  
much larger  quantity is still extant   
than the world in general would suppose1
 but they  are nevertheless so widely   
scattered and so seldom immediately     
accessible1  that only a very long      
experience will enable any one to speak 
or to write  about them in other than a 
blundering fashion4 ,so many            
qualifications are  required1 that it   
may seem presumptuous in me to treat    
upon a matter  bristling with           
difficulties and uncertainties4 ,the    

brief but admirable  outline of its     
history which ,mr4 ,maunde ,thompson has
 lately published is  likely to mislead 
the inexperienced into a belief that a  
science defined  with so much clearness 
and apparent ease may as easily be      
mastered4 ,no one  knows better than    
that accomplished scholar how hard it   
would be to supply  sure and definite   
criteria for the guidance of            
palographical students in  all the      
branches of their fascinating pursuit4  
,my excuse must be that the             
observations which appear in the present
 opusculum may be useful to some  who   
are unable for various reasons to give  
the necessary fulness of  #bstudy to    
,mr4 ,thompson's work1 and who1 while   
loving manuscripts as well  as ,i do1   
have not had so large an experience4 ,i 
may venture to justify  myself by a     
personal anecdote4 ,the author of the   
,stones of ,venice once  said that he   
was surprised by my apparently exact    
knowledge of the  commercial value of   

manuscripts2 and my reply was that1 as  
,i had for twenty  years been the buyer 
of1 or the underbidder for1 all the fine
 examples  which had appeared in the    
public auctions1 there was no great     
reason for  his wonder4    ,the         
following sketch will consist of a      
number of cursory remarks upon the      
calligraphy and the ornamentation of    
medieval manuscripts2 preceded by an    
historical sketch1 arranged in          
chronological paragraphs1 of the        
beginnings  and the gradual diffusion of
 the art of writing throughout the      
world4      ,the ,beginnings of ,writing
    ,palography is the branch of science
 which deals with ancient writing       
7,greek3 palaia graph74 ,as the ,greek  
word for writing comprises a great  deal
 more than the work of pen and ink1     
palographical study would be  imperfect 
if it did not take into consideration   
the ancient inscriptions  upon stone and
 metal which are usually left to        
numismatists and other  archologists4   

,in a small treatise like the present1  
no such ambitious and  comprehensive    
treatment is intended4 ,the object is   
mainly to summarise the  results of     
other men's labour1 and to give a       
general idea of what is known  at the   
present day about the diffusion of the  
art of writing and the  methods of      
producing books before the sixteenth    
century4    ,the name for book in       
various ancient languages is indicative 
of the  earliest stage in the history of
 writing4 ,the ,english word itself     
appears  in its oldest written form in  
the ,gothic ,scriptures of the fourth   
century1  in which boka  writing1 and   
bokos  things written  books4 ,this is  
#c;believed to be derived from the name 
of the tree we call beech and the       
,germans buche1 because it is supposed  
that the bark or wood of that tree  was 
used for cutting runes upon4 ,similar to
 this is the ,latin liber1  which       
originally meant the inner bark of a    
tree1 and afterwards came to  mean book1

 because leaves were made from that     
inner bark for the purpose of  writing4 
,diphthera1 in ancient ,ionic-,greek1   
was equivalent to book1  because it     
meant a polished skin 7like parchment or
 leather7 used for  writing upon before 
the ,greeks adopted papyrus 7byblos1    
biblos7 from  the ,egyptians4 ,then the 
name for papyrus became the name for a  
book1 and  has been retained in modern  
speech in the word ,bible4 ,the word    
diphthera  passed into use among the    
,persians about five hundred years      
before ,christ1  as the material was    
borrowed by them from the ,ionians for  
the use of the  scribes who kept the    
royal records1 and it still remains in  
the speech of  the modern ,persians as  
defter  book4 ,the ,hebrew word sepher  
engraving1 and is therefore used to     
designate a book2 and the same sense    
underlies the ,arabic word ,kitab4      
,writing was a scratching or incising of
  symbols representing sounds 7or ideas7
 upon stone or metal1 upon wood1 or     

bark1 or leaves 7folia71 dressed        
leather1 parchment1 papyrus1 wax        
tablets1  and paper4    ,the form in    
which the sheets 7of skin1 parchment1   
bark1 papyrus1 or paper7  were gathered1
 may have been rolls in which they were 
united to form a  single page1 or a     
square combination of successive leaves 
united only at  one side4 ,the former   
was of course the earlier mode1 but the 
latter was  also in use at a remote     
date4 ,greek and ,roman scribes had     
evidently begun  to prefer the square   
fashion during the early days of the    
,roman empire2 and  we may take it to   
have become the prevalent custom in the 
fourth century4  ,black ink has always  
been in use for writing1 red and blue   
ink are of  comparatively recent date4  
,the use of gold ink1 which was of      
course so  costly that it could never be
 otherwise than rare1 originated        
probably when  the empire was as #dyet  
unshaken by barbarian inroads2 it was1  
however1  not extinct in ,rome during   

the sixth and seventh centuries1 and was
  relatively not uncommon at the        
magnificent court of ,byzantium4 ,late  
examples were produced in ,gaul for the 
,frankish princes in the ninth  century2
 and in these the simple splendour of   
the ,roman style was  embellished with  
ornamentation chiefly drawn from ,irish 
and ,anglo-,saxon  models4    ,although 
people knew how to write and to read    
more than five thousand years  ago1 a   
reading public1 as we understand the    
term1 came into existence for  the first
 time in ,greece in the fifth century   
,b4,c41 and again in ,rome in  the first
 century ,b4,c4 ,by this it is meant    
that there were people who  bought books
 for the pleasure of reading them1 as   
distinguished from the  class which     
produced or used books as an official   
necessity4 ,the  requirements of that   
reading public among the ,greeks1 led to
 the disuse of  skins for the purpose of
 writing1 since only a cheaper and more 
plentiful  material could satisfy the   

demand4 ,egyptian papyrus being both    
cheap and  plentiful1 it was adopted and
 remained in use for over a thousand    
years  among the people who spoke ,greek
 and ,latin4 ,books upon vellum or      
parchment--charta pergamena1 an improved
 form of the old skins--were only       
produced occasionally1 as luxuries1     
between the second century ,b4,c4 and   
the  fifth century of our era4 ,at this 
latter period1 the reading public was   
extinguished in the revolutions of      
barbarian conquest1 and the cheap       
material ceased to be necessary4 ,in the
 absence of a popular demand for  books1
 and when only persons of exceptional   
learning1 churchmen1 statesmen1  and    
monks1 experienced the need of reading  
and writing1 the supply of  vellum was  
sufficient1 and this dearer material was
 relatively economical  because of its  
durability4 ,a reading public can hardly
 be said to have come  into renewed     
existence till the fifteenth century1   
and then once more  vellum was          

superseded by the cheaper material of   
paper4 ,paper1 from linen  or rags1 had 
been made in the #e,saracenic east for  
several centuries1 but  was little used 
in ,europe till the thirteenth century1 
and was not  fabricated in the west to  
any considerable extent until the       
fourteenth  century4      ,writing in   
,egypt #ejjj ,b4,c4    ,the origin of   
writing1 that is of the art of          
transmitting information by  means of   
symbols representing speech1 is1 like   
the origin of every other  invention1   
obscure and uncertain4 ,it is not the   
proud ,aryan1 nor his elder  brother the
 ,semite1 who can claim the honour of   
the invention4 ,it belongs  neither to  
,japhet nor to ,shem 7convenient        
eponyms7 but to the despised ,ham1  with
 whom they are unwilling to acknowledge 
kinship4 ,four thousand years  before   
,christ 7the very period at which1 in   
,milton's opinion1 ,adam and ,eve  were 
banished from ,paradise7 the people of  
the ,nile ,valley formed a rich  and    

powerful monarchy1 with an old          
civilisation1 and possessed the arts of 
painting1 sculpture1 architecture1 and  
writing4 ,their writing was chiefly     
upon stone monuments1 and recorded the  
deeds of their ,kings or the  greatness 
of their ,gods4 ,they also wrote upon   
leaves of papyrus the forms  of prayer  
and eulogy which were buried with their 
dead4 ,among the surviving  written     
productions of that great monarchy is a 
work containing the ,moral  ,precepts of
 ,ptah-,hotep4 ,written in the language 
of ,khem 7old ,egypt71 and in  the      
hieratic character1 upon papyrus1 it is 
the oldest book in the world4  ,the     
period of its composition is more       
ancient than the date of the writing1   
which1 by internal evidence1 has been   
proved to be over #bjjj ,b4,c4 ,it is   
now  in the ,bibliothque ,nationale1 and
 is known by the name of the ,papyrus   
,prisse4 ,as there can be no question   
that hieroglyphic writing 7engraving7   
upon stone was considerably anterior to 

the evolution of the cursive  hieratic  
written with pen and ink upon papyrus2  
and as there is a  hieroglyphic         
inscription on stone in the ,ashmolean  
,museum #fwhich is  assigned to #djjj   
,b4,c4--we must infer that the real age 
of ,egyptian writing  is beyond our ken4
 ,it must be at the least six thousand  
years old2 and  there are numerous      
examples in lapidar inscriptions which  
represent the  millennium preceding the 
date of the ,prisse ,papyrus4 ,with this
 book1  written several centuries before
 ,moses dwelt in the land of ,egypt1 a  
sketch  of the history of writing may   
modestly begin4 ,it must not be imagined
 that  the dates of ,egyptian and       
,babylonian documents are based upon    
enthusiastic  conjecture1 or upon       
unaided calculation of the years        
assigned to the lives  and reigns of    
monarchs in their newly discovered and  
deciphered records4  ,josephus and      
,eusebius have preserved fragments of   
older historical writers1  among them   

portions of the lost ,chronicles of     
,berossus the ,chaldan and  ,manetho the
 ,egyptian1 whose works were written in 
,greek in the fourth and  third         
centuries before ,christ4 ,in former    
days1 when scholars were nurtured  upon 
the ,christian chronology which counted 
the birth of ,christ as ,a4,m4  #djjd1  
or ,a4,m4 #ehgj1 according as the       
,hebrew ,bible or the ,septuagint was   
adopted as the authority for dates1 it  
was the custom to deride as fabulous    
the immense lists of ,chaldean and      
,egyptian dynasties1 which spoiled the  
story of ,genesis2 but the hieroglyphic 
and the cuneiform monuments have        
yielded up their long-buried testimony  
to justify the discredited  chroniclers4
 ,nothing in romance is more wonderful  
than the story of the  work of          
interpretation1 by which old ,egypt and 
old ,assyria have been  brought forward 
into the light of authentic history4    
,two generations of  acute and patient  
scholars working contemporaneously in   

,england1 ,france1  ,germany1 and       
,italy1 have contrived1 without         
dictionary1 without grammar1  without   
even a key to the mysterious letters1 to
 decipher and to read the  stony records
 of those ancient empires4 ,their first 
labour was to  distinguish the symbols1 
and to assign to them a phonetic value1 
then to  compare the resultant words    
with the vocabulary of known languages  
supposed  to be akin to the old #gones4 
,in the case of the hieroglyphics1 the  
,coptic  language alone offered its aid1
 this being the tongue of ,egypt as     
written  and spoken in the first ten    
centuries of our era1 genuine ,egyptian 
indeed1  but necessarily differing      
enormously from its earliest phases     
thousands of  years back4 ,as to the    
cuneiform inscriptions1 the various     
,semitic tongues  furnished means of    
comparison for ,assyrian texts1 the     
,persian and ,zend  for old ,persic and 
,median1 and certain cuneiform          
vocabularies were  discovered which     

rendered it possible to understand a    
third language1 the  most ancient of    
them all1 which had been utterly unknown
 even by name4 ,from  the time of       
,christ1 perhaps even before it1 down to
 sixty years ago1 the  languages and    
monuments of ,egypt and ,chalda had     
never been looked upon by  the eye of   
intelligence4 ,the mystery of ages is a 
mystery no more4      ,writing in       
,chalda1 #djjj ,b4,c4    ,the age of    
,chaldan writing 7engraving7 is not far 
behind that of the  ,egyptian           
hieroglyphics4 ,it is said that an      
inscription of the first ,sargon1  ,king
 of ,akkad 7in the square or angular    
character out of which the  wedge-shaped
 or cuneiform letters were evolved71    
carries the record back to  #chjj ,b4,c4
 ,even if we take a large latitude in   
discounting the chronology1  there still
 remains a certainty that the cuneiform 
character of ,babylonia  was used over  
the greater part of ,western ,asia from 
at least #bejj ,b4,c41 and  in ,persia  

and its tributaries down to #cjj ,b4,c4 
,while1 of the ,egyptian  writing1 we   
have remains exhibiting all the stages  
of development1 namely  7#a7 the        
hieroglyphic1 7#b7 the hieratic1 7#c7   
the demotic1 7#d7 the ,coptic in  ,greek
 letters2 of the cuneiform script we    
have only the two phases which  may be  
roughly said to correspond to the       
,egyptian hieratic and demotic1 or  more
 exactly to two stages of the hieratic4 
,we cannot reconstruct the  original    
,chaldan hieroglyphics which must have  
preceded the ,chaldan  hieratic and     
#h;cuneiform2 nor do we know 7at        
present7 of any truly cursive  hand     
developed from the wedge-letters4 ,among
 the relics of the ,assyrians is  a     
great number of stone tablets of small  
size1 containing reports to the  monarch
 from provincial governors4 ,one of     
them1 now in the ,british ,museum1  is  
supposed1 from a phrase which occurs in 
it1 to show that the stone  tablets were
 simply copies made for preservation in 

the archives1 while the  actually       
transmitted originals were written on   
papyrus4 ,if that were the  practice1   
and there is inherent probability in the
 suggestion1 there would  assuredly have
 been a great quantity of papyrus used  
throughout the  ,assyrian empire2 yet   
not a fragment of that material has been
 discovered4  ,in the absence of some   
positive evidence1 we can but suppose it
 likely that  the ,assyrians used       
papyrus 7or skins7 for writing on1 as   
well as the  ,egyptians1 but applied it 
only to temporary purposes1 trusting    
rather to  granite and brick1 than to   
paper or to leather1 whatever was       
intended for  enduring record4          
,progress of the ,art1 ,b4,c4 #bejj-aejj
    ,at about #bejj ,b4,c4 all the      
civilisation of the world was confined  
to the  regions bordering the whole     
length of the ,red ,sea1 and extending  
northwards  to ,armenia4 ,in the ,south 
was ,egypt1 a powerful monarchy dominant
 at times  from ,ethiopia to ,asia      

,minor1 and in the ,north the ,chaldee  
kingdom of ,akkad  dominant over        
,mesopotamia and the frontier lands4    
,the country of ,egypt was  named by its
 people ,keme or ,kheme1 and their      
language was called the speech  of ,keme
 7out of which the ,hebrews made ,ham74 
,the name of ,ai-,gupt was given  to the
 ,delta by its ,semitic neighbours and  
inhabitants1 while they called  the     
whole country ,mizr 7,mizraim7 or ,misr4
 ,the former name has prevailed in      
,european use1 as well as furnished the 
words ,copt and ,coptic1 although this  
is questionable4 ,the ,kheme language   
was written both in hieroglyphic and in 
hieratic #i;characters at the year #bejj
 ,b4,c4 ,the former were the ancient    
picture-symbols1 which were arranged in 
vertical columns and read from top  to  
bottom and from left to right4 ,this    
practice was retained to the end1       
notwithstanding that the ,egyptians had 
been long in contemporaneous  possession
 of the cursive hieratic characters1    

written in horizontal lines  from right 
to left1 just as ,hebrew and ,arabic4   
,the hieratic character was  simply an  
abridgment of the hieroglyphic1 a       
reduction of the pictorial to           
conventional forms4    ,the two scripts 
endured side by side till ,christianity 
supervened1 and then  the modified      
,greek alphabet which we call the       
,coptic came into existence4  ,the      
demotic script1 a still more cursive    
reduction of the hieratic1 had  come    
into use probably a thousand years      
,b4,c41 but it was only used for        
private mercantile transactions1 and it 
died out on the establishment of  the   
,coptic4 ,examples of both hieroglyphic 
and demotic writing are given in  the   
plates accompanying this sketch4    ,the
 ,akkadian ,chaldee language 7to be     
distinguished from the later ,semitic   
,syro-,chaldee7 has1 like the ,egyptian 
,khemi1 no immediate affinities with    
any other important form of speech4     
,they are both of an older type and     

stock than the oldest known members of  
the ,aryan and ,semitic families4 ,the  
,akkadian is called ,turanian1 as       
showing undoubted resemblances to the   
,turki  and ,mongol languages of the    
lands lying north and east of ,persia1  
which  were named by the ,persians      
,turan1 as distinguished from ,iran4    
,the place of  the ,khemi in philology  
is not so easily defined4 ,it does not  
seem that any  other language than that 
of ,egypt was ever written in the       
,egyptian script4  ,the case is somewhat
 different with the ,chaldee characters4
 ,they were  adopted in varying modes   
for writing ,semitic and ,aryan         
languages1 as well  as the native       
,akkadian4 ,this resulted from the      
blending of populations by  successive  
conquests4 ,the ,akkadian-,chaldees     
ruled in ,mesopotamia till #aejj        
,b4,c41 when they went down before the  
,semites from ,northern ,arabia4 #aj;,a 
branch of these ,semites had already for
 a considerable time occupied the       

eastern side of ,mesopotamia and were in
 possession of the region round         
,nineveh1 at the time when their        
,arabian kindred swept away the old     
dynasty  that had had its chief seat in 
,babylonia4    ,at or about #acjj       
,b4,c41 the ,ninevite ,assyrians or     
,syro-,chaldans united the  whole of    
,mesopotamia by conquest1 and completed 
the downfall of the  ,akkadian ,chaldans
 who were thenceforward reduced to      
servitude4 ,even the  later uprisings in
 ,babylonia were only the work of       
princes of ,assyrian  blood4 ,the date  
mentioned is another standpoint in the  
history of writing4  ,the ,semite       
,assyrians were now the chief users of  
the cuneiform script4 ,at  ,babylon they
 seem to have retained it in the same   
form into which it had  developed in the
 hands of the ,akkad people4 ,at        
,nineveh1 it had undergone a            
modification2 the combinations of the   
symbols being considerably altered1  so 
that one may speak of ,babylonian       

characters and of ,assyrian characters  
as being two scripts1 although they look
 identical4      ,the ,semitic ,alphabet
 about #agjj ,b4,c4    ,this is 7in     
chronological sequence7 the place at    
which mention should be  made of the    
,greek myth that alphabetical letters   
were introduced into  ,boeotia by       
,cadmus the ,phoenician4 ,it has always 
been accepted as  substantially true1   
even by those who knew that ,cadmus in  
,semitic speech  meant simply ,the      
,ancient1 or ,the ,eastern2 and has     
usually been assigned to  about #aejj   
,b4,c4 ,the story requires some         
modification1 and the date is  probably 
a good deal out of reckoning4 ,here it  
is only referred to as  showing the     
early use of letters by the             
,phoenicians4 ,there are really no      
extant monuments to prove the           
anteriority of the ,semite alphabet to  
that of  the ,greeks1 but there can be  
no question as to the fact4 ,the names  
of the  ,greek letters are manifestly   

borrowed from a ,semitic speech1 and the
 ,cadmus  story is in #aa;itself a      
sufficient acknowledgment of the        
secondary  position of the ,hellenes4   
,it is generally held that the          
,phoenicians derived  their alphabet by 
means of a selection from the phonetic  
symbols of the  ,egyptian hieratic      
script4 ,whether the process was due to 
the ,phoenicians  themselves1 is not so 
clearly asserted4 ,mr4 ,maunde          
,thompson1 following  ,lenormant and the
 ,vicomte de ,roug1 seems to consider   
that it gradually  took place in ,egypt 
after the ,arabs had conquered the      
country1 and when the  ,hyksos or       
,shepherd ,kings had established their  
dynasty 7#bjjj ,b4,c474 ,during  the    
five hundred years of their rule there  
must have been a large ,semitic         
immigration1 and it is not unlikely that
 the ,semitic alphabet was then  derived
 from the ,egyptian for the use of the  
,syrians and ,arabs who dwelt in  ,lower
 ,egypt4 ,there is1 on the other hand1 a

 modern theory that the ,semitic        
alphabet was not evolved in this way1   
but from the hieratic ,babylonian       
writing4 ,it is true that similarities  
may be found between them1 and it is    
also demonstrable that the ,greek names 
of the alphabet were drawn from the     
speech1 not of ,phoenicia or ,palestine1
 but of ,aram or ,semitic ,chalda4      
,nothing is certain as to the origin of 
the ,semitic alphabet1  notwithstanding 
the elaborate comparative tables        
produced by ,roug and  others1 beyond   
the fact that several letters resemble  
,egyptian 7and  ,chaldo-,assyrian7      
symbols having sometimes the same       
phonetic value4 ,the  names given to    
their characters by the ,semites are    
undoubtedly descriptive  of their       
apparent iconism1 and the initial sound 
of each name is the power  of the       
letter4 ,this1 on the face of it1 would 
imply that the ,aramaic  alphabet was an
 original invention4 ,the ,greeks who   
first received it1 must  have been those

 of ,asia ,minor1 not those of ,hellas2 
and the first  transmitters were neither
 ,arabs1 nor ,jews1 nor ,phoenicians1   
but ,babylonian  ,aramans in contact    
with ,cilicia and ,cappadocia4 ,the     
names of the letters1  as sounded by the
 ,syrians of ,palestine 7,phoenicians1  
,israelites1 ,jews71  were3 ,aleph1     
,beth1 ,gimel1 ,daleth1 ,he1 ,vau1 ,zain
 7,zai71  ,hheth 7,kheth71 ,teth1 ,yod1 
#ab;,caph1 ,lamed1 ,mem  7maimwaters71  
,nun1 ,samekh1 ,ain 7,oin71 ,pe1 ,tsade1
 ,koph1  ,resh 7head71 ,shin1 ,tau4     
,we have no actual knowledge of the     
,chaldo-,aramaic sounds of these names1 
but we know that the ,eastern ,syrians  
would probably have written them        
thus3--    ,alpha1 ,beta1 ,gamla1       
,dalta1 ,he1 ,vau1 ,zaita1 ,hheta1      
,teta1  ,yoda1 ,kappa1 ,lamda1 ,mu      
7water71 ,nun 7,nu71 ,samkha            
7,simkha,sigma71 ,oin 7,oi871 ,pe1      
,tsada1 ,koppa1 ,rash  7,ro8face71      
,shen1 ,tau4    ,leaving aside for the  
present any consideration of the changes

 and  additions in the ,greek alphabet1 
we may assume that it passed from       
,babylonia through ,cilicia to the      
,phrygians and ,lydians2 and that1      
whatever  intercourse may have taken    
place between the ,european ,greeks and 
the  ,phoenicians then or afterwards1   
the ,ionians of ,asia ,minor had already
  formulated the ,hellenic alphabet     
before it reached the ,thebans4 ,as it  
seems  to be nearly certain that the    
,phrygians possessed it in the tenth    
century  before ,christ1 the ,aramans   
must have had it much earlier1 and we   
may  credit them with the use of writing
 as far back as #acjj-abjj ,b4,c4 ,it is
  very unlikely that the ,western       
,syrians were far behind1 but the oldest
  monuments extant go no higher than the
 tenth century1 and are probably        
surpassed in antiquity by some of the   
,saban 7,himyarite or ,homerite7        
inscriptions of ,southern ,arabia4 ,the 
,himyari alphabet1 which is the direct  
ancestor of the modern ,abyssinian1     

introduces some novel forms1 and has    
less resemblance to the ,aramaic        
original than any of the others4 ,most  
of  the letters are1 however1 ultimately
 traceable to the ,aramaic1 although the
  date must have been remote1 to judge  
from the large divergences in shape     
which had had time to develop themselves
 before the type was fixed4    ,about1  
or soon after1 #ajjj ,b4,c41 we find a  
considerable portion of the  earth's    
surface occupied by people knowing how  
to write2 namely1 ,egypt1  ,nubia1      
,abyssinia1 ,arabia1 the whole of ,asia 
,minor1 ,syria1 ,babylonia1  ,assyria1  
,armenia1 #ac;and ,china4 ,abyssinia and
 ,armenia are included because  into the
 one country ,egyptian and ,himyaritic  
characters had been imported1  and into 
the other a form of ,babylonian4 ,china 
is placed in the list1 far  below her   
pretensions1 because we do not really   
know the age of the  character in which 
,chinese books preserve the inscriptions
 of ,yu4 ,it  appears derivable from the

 dissertations of ,m4 ,terrien1 whose   
sagacious  learning has attracted many  
scholars1 that the earliest history     
recorded in  ,chinese annals is not     
geographically ,chinese2 but that it    
represents the  legends and traditions  
which were carried into ,china by the   
ancestors of  the race4 ,a connexion has
 been found to subsist between those    
traditions  and the early history of    
,babylonia1 which leads to the inference
 that the  ,akkadian people of #chjj    
,b4,c4 and the ancestors of the ,chinese
 were at one  time united4 ,assuming    
that the theory is justifiable1 we may  
treat the  ,chinese in ,china as having 
inherited the art of writing1 however   
strangely  altered in form4 ,it is      
probably true that they used the letters
 out of  which their present characters 
descended1 in the country they now      
inhabit1  at more than #ajjj ,b4,c4     
,the ,alphabet in ,european ,greece1    
#hjj ,b4,c4    ,the ,european ,greeks   
are not included in the preceding       

paragraph1 simply  because there are no 
means of proving that they had the use  
of letters in  the tenth century ,b4,c4 
,the probability1 however1 is that they 
were not far  behind their brethren in  
,asia ,minor4 ,the variations in the    
forms of some of  the letters of the    
,greek alphabet which are found in      
inscriptions at  different places both  
in ,asia ,minor and in ,greece1 are     
attributable to  local fashions and to  
the fact that the script was not built  
up all at once  from a single model4 ,it
 is here that the tradition about       
,cadmus has its  chief significance2 for
 there can be little doubt that the     
alphabet of  ,tyre1 not quite identical 
with its elder ,aramaic #adsister1 had  
some  immediate influence in modifying  
the forms borrowed by the ,boeotians    
from  the ,ionians4 ,the older ,greek   
alphabet has been already mentioned4 ,it
 was  found after a while to be both    
insufficient and more than sufficient4  
,the  ,tsade 7ts7 and ,koppa 7q7 were   

not needed in ,greek1 and were only     
retained  formally as numerals4 ,as most
 ,greek organs could only give the same 
sound  7s7 to both the simkha and the   
shen 7which they called sigma and  san71
 one of the two names was superfluous4  
,so they kept the symbol for  shen as an
 s1 but transferred to it the name of   
the simkha4 ,the  symbol of the latter  
they retained in its place1 but sounded 
it as ks1 and  called it ,ksi1 a name   
which did not badly suit the original   
,semitic sound  of the letter which was 
like hs rather than s4 ,the unaspirated 
,he  they called mere ,e 7,e psilon72 to
 the aspirated ,heta1 they left its     
name1 but regarded it as aspirated ,e4  
,its original ,semitic value as an      
aspirate 7adaptable to any vowel7 was   
not wholly lost sight of1 and this  idea
 of its power survived the stage at     
which ,h had become nothing more  than  
or ee4 ,the necessity of making         
aspirated letters led to the  prefixing 
or over-writing of the ,h1 at first in  

its full size1 then 7so  as to avoid    
confusion with ,eta7 in small1 then in  
half shape1 thus -4 ,this  custom       
produced its complement in the shape of 
-1 to mark the soft  breathing2 until in
 the eleventh century of our era1 the   
two breathings  were worn down into     
semicircular form1 thus 7 1 74 ,another 
rejected symbol  was the vau1 formed    
like the letter ,f and sounded like our 
,v4 ,it dropped  out of usage1 and they 
forgot its name1 although it had been   
considerably  used by the old poets1 in 
connexion with whom it is usually named 
digamma1 because of its resemblance to a
 double gamma1 or one gamma             
superimposed on another4 ,it was found  
necessary to have a character for  u1   
and advantageous to use single symbols  
for double letters frequently           
occurring1 such as ph1 kh1 ps and oo    
7long o74 ,the old ,eastern form  of vau
 supplied the u2 in fact1 having dropped
 the letter as a  consonant out of its  
sixth place in #aethe alphabet1 they put

 it in its  vowel-character at the end4 
,the symbol of the discarded koppa was  
used  for the ,ph1 which was not        
equivalent in sound to our ph1 but must 
have  resembled the ,german pf4 ,the    
discarded tsada 7a trident7 was used to 
represent1 in some places ps1 in others 
kh1 but finally the symbol fell  into   
two distinct forms1 by being written    
upright as  7psi7 and leaning  sidewise 
as  7chi74 ,by the time of ,herodotus   
the ,greek alphabet may be  considered  
as having reached exactly its present   
form in capital letters4  ,the cursive  
hand which must have existed at all     
times of ,greek writing was  simply a   
rapid deformation of the capitals1 and  
consequently did not attain  to any     
uniformly distinctive character till    
much later4 ,the general use of         
minuscules in any such uniform type is  
always referred to the eighth  century  
after ,christ1 but really there is no   
essential change of form  between the   
cursive letters a hundred years before  

,christ and those of a  thousand years  
after ,christ4 ,the chief difference is 
in the greater freedom  and fluency of  
the late letters1 an air of practised   
familiarity which is  lacking in the    
earlier cursive4      ,writing in ,italy
 from #gjj to #ajj ,b4,c4    ,the       
,greeks and the ,phoenicians had a      
similar aptitude for establishing       
colonies abroad to that which the       
,english have shown during the past     
three  centuries4 ,thus the coast line  
of the ,mediterranean from ,tripoli to  
,morocco1 and from ,sicily and ,southern
 ,italy to ,spain and ,gaul1 was dotted 
with ,punic and ,greek settlements      
created for purely commercial purposes1 
but gaining an independent importance as
 time went on4 ,the chief seat of       
,phoenician domination was at ,carthage2
 of ,greek nationality at ,syracuse1    
,cum 7near ,naples71 and ,marseilles4   
,the age at which those colonies        
acquired political greatness may be     
roughly set down as in the fourth       

century before ,christ1 but it is       
sufficient for our purpose to know that 
they had been founded considerably      
#af;earlier2 and that the art of writing
  had been carried westward as far back 
at least as the seventh or eighth       
century ,b4,c4 ,it was virtually the one
 alphabet1 applied by various races to  
their various languages1 which was used 
at ,carthage and ,cadiz1 at  ,marseilles
 and in ,sicily and ,italy1 in the      
seventh century ,b4,c4 ,italy was       
occupied by several distinct sets of    
people4 ,the ,umbrians1 ,latins1 and    
,oscans occupied all the middle of the  
peninsula2 the ,pelasgic tribes who     
were in the heel and toe of the         
geographical boot were nearly ,grecised2
 the  ,etruscans held ,tuscany1 and     
,celts occupied ,lombardy4 ,mommsen     
thought that  the ,greek alphabet had   
reached the ,italians more than #acjj   
years before  ,christ2 but a more modest
 estimate will be safer4 ,it was        
probably about  seven hundred years     

,b4,c4 when the ,etrurians received     
their alphabet from  the ,greeks2 and   
there is no reason for thinking1 as     
,mommsen implies1 that  their first     
contact with ,greek letters had been    
elsewhere than in ,italy4  ,the alphabet
 reached them no doubt from ,cum1 as it 
did the ,latins1 and  there was         
sufficient variation in the practice of 
the ,greek colonies in  ,italy to       
account for the differences which mark  
,etruscan1 ,umbrian1 and  ,latin        
writing4      ,roman ,writing4    ,the  
usual date of the founding of ,rome is  
undoubtedly correct or nearly so4  ,it  
was about the middle of the eighth      
century ,b4,c41 and the rapid           
enlargement of the new ,latin town on   
the ,tiber1 produced by the influx of   
settlers into a trade emporium with     
waterway1 must have led to an early use 
of writing4 ,this indicates something   
like #gjj ,b4,c4 for the period of the  
extension of that art over the whole of 
,italy4 ,the custom of writing from     

right to left and left to right in      
alternate lines was retained for several
  centuries among the various ,italic   
peoples1 but the ,latins seem to have   
been the first to adopt the ,greek      
modification by which #agthe letters    
took their permanent shape from the     
left-right sequence4 ,in several ,greek 
towns1 the old ,,gamma was replaced by a
 ,c 7the result of a cursive mode of    
writing71 and the triangular ,,delta had
 its second and third lines  represented
 by a single curve4 ,the ,,pi was still 
a ,symbol3 ,p not  connected in the     
middle1 and the ,p had a little stroke  
added to it  7,symbol3 ,r with short    
tail7 for the sake of distinction4 ,the 
,sigma was  commonly written ,symbol3   
reverse tilted ,z instead of ,symbol3   
reverse #c  7,,sigma74 ,the ,latins     
omitted of course such letters as they  
found  superfluous 7z1 th1 k1 ph1 ch1   
ps1 and oo71 but were  naturally bound  
to retain letters already becoming      
superfluous to the  ,greeks 7,f1 ,q74   

,the third letter of the alphabet was   
used for both ,k and ,g2  but later1    
when the need of some differentiation   
became felt1 the useless ,z  was        
replaced by a second ,c to which a tail 
was added 7,symbol3 ,c with  diagonal   
tail74 ,the ,eta 7or ,heta7 was made to 
retain its earliest function  as a      
strong breathing 7,h71 although the     
,greeks were treating it as no more     
than ,,ee4 ,the ,greek confusion between
 the symbols for ks1 ps1 and ch1        
affected the ,latins so far that one of 
the three letters1 i4e4 ,x1 was  taken  
to represent the only sound of the three
 which their language needed1  namely   
ks2 and this being an afterthought1 it  
was put at the end of the  alphabet4    
,thus in the second century ,b4,c4 the  
,romans had their alphabet  completely  
formed in the capital shapes1 and with  
the phonetic values1  which it          
thenceforward retained4 ,the letters    
were ,a1 ,b1 ,c1 ,d1 ,e1 ,f1 ,g1 ,h1    
,i1 ,l1 ,m1 ,n1 ,o1 ,p1 ,q1 ,r1 ,s1 ,t1 

,v1 ,x1 the ,f being sounded probably as
 our ,v  and ,f1 the ,v as our ,u and   
,w4 ,it was long afterwards that the ,f 
was  restricted to the sound of ,english
 ,f1 and ,v as a consonant took the     
sound  of ,english ,v 7instead of ,w47  
,the ,q was a more guttural letter than 
the ,c  originally1 but afterwards lost 
its distinctiveness of utterance4 ,when 
it  became fashionable to learn and     
quote ,greek1 in the time of ,cicero and
  after1 the letters ,,kappa1 ,,upsilon1
 and ,,zeta were reinserted in the      
,latin alphabet for form's sake1 as ,k1 
,y1 ,z4 ,it was not till the sixteenth  
century that1 in the northern countries 
of ,europe1 the letter ,j was evolved   
from the black letter form #ahof ,i     
7,symbol3 blackletter ,i7 and the       
letter ,v split into ,u and ,v4 ,as for 
the ,w1 it was needed only by ,germanic 
people1 and was consequently a late     
intruder into the modern ,roman         
alphabet4      ,indian ,writing about   
#cjj ,b4,c4    ,to return to the ,east1 

the first examples of native ,indian    
writing appeared  in the rock-inscribed 
decrees of ,asoka1 found in various     
places over the  north of ,india1 from  
the ,indus to the ,ganges1 and even in  
the ,dekkan2 which  can be dated between
 #bej and #bcj ,b4,c4 ,the language is  
,prakrit or ,pali1 the  characters      
7although at first sight they seem an   
independent script7 were  derived like  
so many others from the ,semitic system1
 and the nearest of the  parallel types 
is the alphabet of the ,himyarite       
inscriptions4 ,the ,saban  monarchy     
which ruled over ,southern ,arabia a    
thousand years ,b4,c4 had had  large    
commercial relations with ,india1 and it
 was probably from that source  that the
 people of ,bombay and the ,north-,west 
acquired the art of writing1  how long  
before ,asoka it would be difficult to  
learn4 ,out of the simple  forms of     
,asoka's alphabet all the modern scripts
 of ,indian native writing  descended1  
including the artificial and elaborate  

,nagari alphabet which is  one of the   
latest of them4      ,writing in        
,central ,asia from #cjj ,b4,c4    ,in  
the kingdom of ,bactria1 the coins of   
the kings who from about #aej ,b4,c4    
followed the older ,greek princes1 bear 
inscriptions in ,indian ,prakrit1 but   
not written in the same character as was
 used by ,asoka4 ,the two scripts       
differ so much in appearance not only   
from all others1 but also between       
themselves1 that one does not easily    
recognise the fact that they both must  
have been of ,himyaritic origin4 ,they  
are very different from the ,pehlvi     
which was used by ,parthian sovereigns  
in the second century after ,christ1    
and by the ,sassanide kings in the      
fourth4 ,the #ai,pehlvi had been evolved
  from the later ,aramean1 and must have
 been in use in ,persia before the time 
of ,alexander2 but the existing         
specimens are all subsequent to the     
beginning of the ,christian era4 ,and as
 for the script which is called ,zend1  

and which is used for writing the       
,zoroastrian books of the most ancient  
,persian language1 there is nothing to  
prove that it is not of much later      
invention than the ,pehlvi4             
,oriental ,letters after the beginning  
of the ,christian ,era                  
,samaria4--,the writing of ,palestine   
was probably identical originally with  
that of the ,phoenicians1 and the       
,samaritan script1 which is still in use
  for biblical purposes1 has retained to
 the present day a considerable         
resemblance with that of ,tyre and      
,sidon4 ,the expatriation and partial   
repatriation of the ,jews and           
,israelites during the seventh and sixth
  centuries ,b4,c41 had the effect of   
leaving only a small remnant in the     
north  of the land who preserved their  
ancient writing4 ,from that time to this
  some of the descendants of the        
,samarians have continued to write their
  ,pentateuch 7which for them is the    
whole of the ,bible7 in the ancient     

characters of the ,hebrew language 7a   
specimen is found on plate #d74 ,all the
  rest of the ,jews1 in whatever part of
 the world they may have been1 have     
retained the square character 7with its 
various ,rabbinical modifications7      
which they learned in ,chalda in the    
seventh century ,b4,c4 ,but the ,hebrew 
language never returned to the ,holy    
,land4 ,hebrew1 as spoken among the     
,samaritans1 underwent the same         
,aramaisation as the language of the    
,judans1  and from three or four        
centuries ,b4,c4 down to the eighth     
century of our  era1 the language of all
 ,syria was ,syriac with local dialects1
 and ,greek in  the great cities4 ,the  
usual character in which ,syriac was    
written has  already been mentioned1 but
 the ,samaritans wrote even their       
semi-,syriac  speech in the old         
#bj;characters of their ,bible2 and     
there is a really  ,samaritan           
,pentateuch--different from the ,hebrew 
,pentateuch in ,samaritan               

letters--which corresponds in ,samaritan
 literature to the ,chaldee ,targums  of
 the ,jews4 ,none of the                
,hebraeo-,aramaic dialects long survived
 in ,syria  the conquest of the ,arabs4 
,syriac still lived on in ,western      
,persia and in  ,mongolia1 and in ,india
 for a time1 but only survived as a dead
 liturgical  language4 ,chaldo-,hebraic 
made its way westwards to ,morocco1     
,italy1 ,spain  and ,gaul4 ,the faithful
 in ,samaria1 now nearly extinct1 clung 
to their  ,pentateuch and their religion
 through all vicissitudes1 and have     
never  ceased to write the ,bible in the
 ,hebrew script of ancient ,palestine4  
,arabia4--,arabian writing before the   
time of ,mohammad is only known to us   
under the name of ,haurani and ,nabathan
 in the ,north1 of ,himyaritic in the   
,south4 ,none of these scripts resembles
 the ,islamic characters called         
distinctively ,arabic4 ,the             
,gospel-script 7,estrangelo7 of the     
,syrians is the  nearest of all the     

,aramaic hands to that used by the      
earliest ,mohammadans1  which 7from its 
special cultivation in the town of      
,cufa7 is called ,cufic4  ,but even     
here1 the resemblance is not so close as
 to make it improbable  that there was a
 link between them in some lost script  
of pre-,christian  days4 ,the ,cufic    
writing which prevailed for three       
centuries as the mode of  writing the   
,koran cannot strictly be shown to be   
the mother of the ,naskhi  which        
replaced it and has flourished for a    
thousand years4 ,it is clearly  older   
than the ,naskhi in its forms1 but the  
,naskhi has been proved to have  existed
 contemporaneously with the ,cufic      
almost from the beginning of            
,mohammadanism4 ,after the third century
 of the ,hijra1 the ,cufic was only     
retained for ornamentation and          
head-lines4 ,by that time the ,arab     
conquests  had created a vast           
,mohammadan empire2 the ,syrians1 the   
,persians1 and the  ,egyptians were     

obliged to give up their old scripts1   
and to accept that of  their conquerors4
 ,arabic writing occupied not only all  
#bathe seats in  which ,phoenician      
letters had been used fifteen centuries 
before1 but even a  far larger area4    
,the writing and the language were used 
and known from  ,seville to the         
frontiers of ,india4 ,soon after1 ,india
 likewise fell a prey2  and ,arabic     
letters have been used there ever since 
by the ,mohammadan  population4 ,the    
elegant script called ,talik1 which was 
peculiar to the  ,persians 7but has been
 borrowed in ,india71 was developed in  
the fourteenth  century4 ,it differs    
little1 except in gracefulness1 from the
 typical  ,naskhi4    ,india and the    
further ,east4--,the characters in which
 the ,pracrit  inscriptions of ,northern
 ,india were engraved on stone1 in the  
third century  ,b4,c41 descended1 with  
considerable modifications of form1 to  
the various  tribes of ,hindus who      
developed the modern languages of       

,india1 now called  ,hindi1 ,gujarati1  
,mahratti1 ,panjabi1 ,bengali4 ,all     
these languages are akin1  their        
differences being produced by           
segregation and by local contact with   
aboriginal or foreign populations4      
,their character two thousand years ago 
7before local diversities were          
perpetuated in names7 is described by   
the  term ,prakrit 7,natural7 as        
distinguished from the title given to   
another  form of the language1 namely   
,sanskrit 7,artificial7 which is        
believed to  represent a far more       
ancient stage of ,indian speech4 ,in    
this artificial  language the earliest  
traditions and literature of the        
,hindo-,aryan race are  preserved1 but  
it is supposed to have died out of      
speech 7if ever it was  spoken7 several 
centuries before the ,christian era4    
,however that may be1 we  have no       
monument or record to show that it was  
written till the tenth  century after   
,christ1 and the ,sanscrit alphabet is  

undeniably not more than  eight or nine 
centuries old1 having been artificially 
elaborated from the  much simpler script
 of ,asoka's time4    ,the graphic      
systems of ,southern ,india1 ,ceylon1   
,thibet1 ,burma1 and ,siam were  all    
derived from the script of ,aryan ,india
 after ,budhism had begun to  spread4   
#bb;,in ,north-,eastern ,asia1 the      
,mongolian script 7and out of it1 the   
,manchurian7 were formed from the       
writing of the ,nestorian ,christians   
who  carried their ,syriac books to the 
frontiers of ,china4      ,spain and    
,gaul under the ,romans    ,it has been 
already said that ,punic settlements    
were made in ,spain probably  as far    
back as the seventh century ,b4,c4 ,to  
the ,phoenicians or ,carthaginians  we  
may ascribe the introduction of letters 
and their application to coins  and     
inscriptions1 not only in the ,punic    
language of the men who held ,cadiz1    
,carthagena1 and ,barcelona1 but also in
 the ,iberian and ,celtiberian language 

of native princes4 ,strabo says that the
 ,turdetani 7of the present  ,andalusia7
 boasted the possession of historical   
and poetical books of  immense age in   
their own language2 but when he was     
writing1 about the time  of the birth of
 ,christ1 they were all ,romanised and  
unable to speak any  other tongue than  
,latin4 ,there exists1 however1 a great 
quantity of coins  struck in ,spain     
between #djj ,b4,c4 and the time of     
,augustus4 ,there are three  varieties  
7omitting those of ,greek colonies in   
,aragon71 namely1 those in  ,punic      
language and ,punic letters1 those with 
,iberian names in ,punic  letters1 and  
those with ,celtiberian names in        
modified ,punic letters4 ,the  later    
,iberian and ,celtiberian have sometimes
 ,latin inscriptions added to  the      
native ones4 ,in the first century after
 ,christ1 the whole of ,spain was       
virtually ,romanised4 ,the ,transalpine 
,gauls retained their own speech longer 
than the ,spaniards did theirs1 because 

the conquest was later2 but the  people 
of ,cisalpine ,gaul were ,romanised even
 earlier than the ,spaniards4  ,the     
independence of ,marseilles as a ,greek 
republic came to an end in the  first   
century of the ,roman empire1 and the   
,greek language probably died out  in a 
few generations4 ,then1 no doubt1 ,roman
 letters took the place of the  ,greek1 
which1 as ,csar said1 were used by the  
,gauls in his time4  ,henceforward1 till
 the fifth century1 ,spain and #bc;,gaul
 were simply  outlying provinces of the 
empire1 without anything in literature  
or  calligraphy to distinguish their    
people from the ,romanised ,italians4   
,it was  not till the sixth century1    
when the ,gothic kingdom had become a   
stable  institution1 that anything like 
a local fashion of calligraphy began to 
develop itself in ,spain4 ,gaul was     
similarly affected by the influx first  
of  the ,visigoths1 then of the ,franks4
      ,influence of the ,bible upon     
writing    ,the events which led to the 

compilation of the ,gospels were of the 
greatest  moment in the history of      
writing4 ,the educational influence of  
the  ,bible--apart entirely from its    
claims to supernatural importance--in   
spreading the use of letters and        
creating schools for the study of       
reading  and writing1 has been          
incalculable4 ,the historical and       
religious traditions  of the ,jews would
 probably have had but little effect    
upon the world1 if  the result of the   
various wars by which ,syria was so     
often desolated had  not been to        
expatriate the chosen people of the     
,lord4 ,a large ,jewish  population     
occupied ,northern ,egypt at the time   
when ,alexander's conquests             
revolutionised the old world4 ,the      
establishment of ,greek dynasties in    
that  country and in ,syria speedily    
,hellenised the upper classes and the   
citizens  in both2 and the linguistic   
subjugation of the ,jews in ,egypt was  
even more  complete than that of their  

old masters4 ,their peculiar condition  
facilitated a change2 for while they    
possessed the sacred book of the ,law   
of their forefathers in a language that 
had been dead for centuries1 they  had  
only translations in the language of the
 country of their former exile          
7,chalda72 and though they had the      
commercial qualification of             
bilingualism1 their ,chaldee and their  
,egyptian were probably equally weak4   
,two generations were enough to         
,hellenise them1 and seventy years after
  ,alexander's death1 the ,bible was    
introduced to the knowledge of the      
,greek  world in an edition destined to 
render the old ,hebrew #bdscripture     
intelligible to ,egyptian and ,syrian   
,jews4 ,this fortunate circumstance drew
  a number of people into the ,elohistic
 fold who would never otherwise have    
been found there2 and had no small      
influence in bringing about the social  
and moral revolution which signalised   
the beginning of our era4    ,the       

,septuagint must remain the true ,bible 
of ,christendom until the ,hebrew  text 
of the pr-,christian ages is discovered4
 ,next to it in importance is  the      
,syriac ,bible1 and next to that1 the   
,latin ,vulgate4 ,all three indicate    
the prior existence of a ,hebrew        
original2 but to obtain a critically    
exact  knowledge of what that original  
was at the time of ,alexander the       
,great1 one  must resort to the         
,septuagint2 at the time of ,christ1 to 
the ,syriac2 and at  the time of the    
,emperor ,julian1 to the ,vulgate4 ,the 
,hebrew text1 as we now  have it1       
underwent so many changes and           
corruptions during the first few        
centuries of the growth of ,christianity
 as a younger rival to ,judaism1 that   
even the oldest ,hebrew ,,mss4 are      
precluded by their comparative modernity
  from claiming equal importance with   
the three versions referred to4 ,the    
multiplication of copies of the ,syriac 
,scriptures1 between the first  century 

after ,christ and the seventh1 must have
 been very great2 that of  the ,greek   
,bible and ,testament1 from the first to
 the fourteenth century1  still greater2
 and that of the ,latin ,vulgate1 from  
the fifth to the  fifteenth1 enormous4  
,the early missionaries of the          
,christian ,church were  ,hellenised    
,syrians or ,egyptians1 and they stamped
 the art of their native  countries upon
 the new ,biblical literature in every  
country except ,italy4  ,italy was the  
exception1 simply because it was the    
centre of political  power and of       
,grco-,roman culture1 and thus too      
learned and too fastidious  to accept a 
new popular religion or an inferior type
 of ornamental art4 ,but  all the       
external provinces of the ,empire       
underwent the influence of the          
enthusiastic proselytizers1 and even    
,byzantium succumbed to it after the    
,empire of the ,west had been           
extinguished4 ,the types of ornament    
created for  the embellishment of       

,bibles were ,egyptian in #be;design and
 colouring2 and  this is the reason why 
the pictures in all the early examples  
of  book-illustration in the ,west are  
supposed to have a ,byzantine aspect2   
the  fact being that while classical art
 faded away almost with paganism in     
,italy and ,hellas1 the ,oriental       
substitute1 which reigned from ,asia    
,minor to  ,ireland1 was preserved in   
,byzantium till the downfall of the     
,greek empire4  ,a few belated specimens
 of degenerate classical ornament are   
found to  represent the ages between    
,constantine and ,charles the ,great2   
but in  general terms it may be said    
that ,roman book-illustration died out  
in the  fourth century4 ,it came to life
 again1 but in utter metamorphosis1 in  
the  decorated ,irish books of the      
sixth-seventh century1 which were really
 the  first examples of the medival art 
of illumination4    ,the ,coptic        
alphabet and the ,gothic alphabet were  
two late and artificial  inventions1 due

 entirely to a holy rage for producing  
the ,bible in the  language of the      
,egyptians and the ,goths4 ,the two     
,slavonic alphabets  likewise were late 
scripts1 invented for the purpose of    
translating the  ,bible into ,slovene4  
,the ,armenian alphabet 7and out of it  
the ,georgian7 had  a similar origin1   
and seems to have had some relationship 
to the ,slav  ,glagolitic4 ,they are    
both attributed to the fifth century4   
,writing in ,italy during the first five
 centuries of the ,christian era    ,we 
have not as full a knowledge as could be
 wished for of the ordinary  styles of  
writing under the ,roman empire4 ,the   
books of the fourth and fifth  centuries
 which are extant show that calligraphy 
was then flourishing in  great          
splendour1 so far as capitals and       
uncials were concerned2 and the  coins  
and inscriptions of the three preceding 
centuries show us ,roman  capitals at   
their best4 ,that rustic capitals were  
used in the first century  is proved by 

the ,herculanean remains1 and that the  
fashion of writing in  square capitals1 
#bfrustic capitals1 and uncials was     
still practised in  ,italy down to the  
eighth century1 we have sufficient      
grounds for knowing4  ,but as to the    
style of handwriting used in books of   
which editions of  perhaps a few hundred
 copies were issued--such1 for example1 
as the edition  of his own epigrams     
which ,martial found at ,lyons--we can  
only form  conjectures4 ,the            
semi-uncials of the fifth and sixth     
centuries1 which grew  into the         
minuscules of the seventh and eighth1   
must have been as much  needed in the   
first century as the sixth1 but there is
 no trace of them4  ,the ,roman cursive 
hand1 upright or backsloped1 that       
appears in the few  extant tablets and  
wall-inscriptions of the first and      
second centuries1  would have been too  
difficult for the readers who bought    
books to enjoy  them1 and would         
assuredly have served as an obstacle to 

their sale4 ,it  resembles rather the   
charter hand of later days than the     
minuscule writing  of books1 but the    
letters are unconnected1 and there is no
 trace of any  attempt at neatness4 ,it 
is indeed almost illegible1 without slow
 and  painful decipherment4 ,one        
striking peculiarity is the b1 which has
  frequently the shape of d1 a form that
 was retained in the official           
diplomatic hand of the fifth century4   
,such as it was1 however1 the cursive   
hand would have had considerable        
influence in shaping the semi-uncial or 
minuscule writing1 which must have      
existed before it was adopted by the    
,irish in the fifth century and most    
other barbarians in the sixth4 ,that    
semi-uncial1 although we find no        
examples of its use in the empire before
  the end of the fifth century1 had     
evidently been the immediate parent of  
the first ,irish1 which only differs    
from it in the superior evenness and    
regularity of the latter4 ,it included  

the g1 r1 s1 t1 which are  usually      
looked upon as special and              
characteristic letters of the ,irish and
  ,anglo-,saxon alphabet4    ,after the 
fifth century ,italy ceased to be       
entirely ,roman4 ,in ,rome itself1  and 
in the region subject to the ,popes1 the
 production of fine manuscripts  of the 
old style in capitals and uncials still 
went on1 sometimes written  in gold     
#bg;and on purple vellum2 and the       
modified cursive hand above  referred   
was applied to the writing of books as  
well as the writing of  despatches4     
,when this custom began is just what we 
should like to know1  because it would  
give us the true origin of all modern   
minuscule writing or  printing4 ,a      
specimen1 dating from the seventh       
century1 is given in the  ,palographical
 ,society's facsimiles1 which is clearly
 the type that was  followed and        
improved upon in ,central ,france1 in   
the ,caroline period4  ,carelessly      
written as it seems1 it indicates that a

 considerable length of  time had       
elapsed since the pen had been trained  
to form alternate light and  heavy      
strokes1 and to give to the curves of   
the letters an agreeable  roundness1    
which was wholly missing in the earlier 
,roman cursive4 ,it does  not seem      
unreasonable to suppose that such       
writing was used in books long  before  
the arrival of the fifth century2 but   
there is no proof accessible4      ,the 
,british ,isles during the ,roman period
    ,it would have been correct enough  
to bracket ,britain along with ,spain   
and  ,gaul in a preceding paragraph1 but
 we cannot venture to claim for this    
country any knowledge of writing before 
the arrival of the ,romans4 ,it is  true
 that a great part of the south of the  
island was ,gaulish1 and that the       
,gauls of ,gaul1 who knew how to write1 
were in intimate relations with the     
,britons4 ,britania was probably a land 
of ,celtiberian population like ,spain1 
but without such traditions as the      

,turdetani4 ,it was ,romanised very     
effectively all over the south1 and with
 the ,latin language the people used    
,latin letters like their fellows in    
,gaul and ,spain4 ,like other ,roman    
citizens1 the ,britons became           
,christians1 underwent subjugation by   
pagan  barbarians1 and lost their lives 
or their ,latinity1 those who escaped   
massacre being absorbed by the invaders4
 ,so far as writing is concerned1  they 
have left nothing beyond some lapidar   
inscriptions2 but these and  whatever   
else they #bhproduced in the form of    
,,mss4 during the first four  centuries 
were no doubt as wholly ,roman as       
anything of the kind in ,italy4    ,at  
so short a distance from the shores of  
,roman ,britain1 it is not likely  that 
the ,irish remained letterless till the 
fifth century of the ,christian  era4   
,it is almost certain that the labours  
of ,st4 ,patrick 7about the middle  of  
that century7 were but complementary to 
those of earlier missionaries2  and that

 the adoption of the ,roman alphabet in 
,ireland may be dated from  the end of  
the fourth or the beginning of the fifth
 century4 ,the consummate  ornamental   
beauty of the ,,mss4 executed in        
,ireland during the seventh  century1   
and the testimony given by ,st4 ,adamnan
 7writing about ,a4,d4 #fgj7 to  the    
expertness of ,st4 ,columba as a        
calligrapher 7about #eej7 tend to prove 
that the art had been practised for a   
long time before it attained to such    
excellence4 ,the particular merit of the
 ,irish is that they seem to have       
developed 7out of ,roman semi-uncials7 a
 handsome minuscule form of writing     
earlier than any other people4 ,the     
cursive of the ,romans had always been  
an  ugly and ill-decipherable script2   
and it was only in the seventh century  
that even the ,italians1 under barbarian
 pressure1 evolved a fairly good        
readable minuscule4 ,the minuscules of  
,gaul and ,western ,germany1 called     
,merowingian1 were still in a formless  

and primitive rudeness at the time  when
 the ,irish had already attained the    
elegance of practised penmanship4       
,the ,goths have next to be mentioned1  
as they and the ,irish were the only    
two barbarian nations that adopted the  
,grco-,roman alphabet before the        
break-up of the ,roman empire4      ,the
 ,goths and ,germans    ,the people who 
in the fourth century after ,christ     
called themselves  ,gut-thiuda1 i4e4    
,goth-people1 had been for many         
centuries the most  easterly branch of  
the ,germanic race4 #bi;,down at least  
to the second  century ,b4,c4 their     
tribes occupied the regions bordering on
 the ,vistula and  the ,dniester1       
extending from the ,bay of ,dantzig to  
the ,black ,sea4 ,at the  north-western 
end of the line they were in the time of
 ,tacitus known as  ,guthones2 those at 
the other end were called ,bastarn by   
,polybius and  ,strabo1 and recognised  
as ,germans4 ,the latter people were the
 first of  their race to become         

acquainted with civilisation4 ,the      
amber-trade was  already in the time of 
,herodotus a vigorous traffic1 carried  
on between the  ,baltic and the ,greek  
settlements on the ,euxine4 ,it passed  
through the lands  of the ,guthones and 
the ,bastarn1 and led undoubtedly to the
 growth of the  form of notation called 
,runes4 ,the ,runic alphabet1           
inscriptions in which  are numerous in  
,scandinavia1 was evidently deformed    
from the ,greek1 and  must have         
originated about the ,dniester some five
 or six centuries before  ,christ4 ,as  
time went on1 that alphabet naturally   
drifted further and  further north2 the 
,goths and ,germans1 nearest to the     
,greeks1 having1 of  course1 less need  
of it according as their knowledge      
increased4 ,from the  shores of the     
,baltic it was carried into             
,scandinavia1 and became the  earliest  
form of writing in ,northern ,europe4   
,mr4 ,george ,stephens claims for  the  
oldest of the extant ,norse ,runes an   

antiquity exceeding that of our  era1   
but a more moderate ,scandinavian writer
 sets the earliest date at  about ,a4,d4
 #cjj4 ,in any case1 it must be allowed 
that some form of writing  was obtained 
by ,gothic tribes from ,greek traders   
before the time of ,christ1  and that it
 afterwards found a home in ,denmark1   
,sweden1 and ,norway4 ,the  name of     
,runes is equivalent to that of ciphers 
or riddles or mysteries1  and we may    
infer that its real origin was in the   
cutting of strokes to  express numbers4 
,runic letters never reached the        
pen-and-ink stage of other  alphabets1  
and their records are hardly more than  
inscriptions upon  tombstones4 ,for that
 and similar purposes they continued to 
be occasionally  employed1 both in      
,england and ,scandinavia1 long after   
the #cjuse of ,roman  or modified ,roman
 letters had been established in all    
countries4 ,the  singular variations in 
form and number and value between runes 
of different  dates and different       

places1 are easily accounted for by the 
circumstance  that there can have been  
no continuous practise of such          
inscriptions in any  country in which   
,christianity had already established a 
simpler script4    ,runes do not seem to
 have come into use among the ,western  
,germans1 that is1  the tribes which    
occupied the region which we now call   
,germany4 ,hrabanus  ,maurus1 in the    
tenth century1 wrote about the runes of 
the ,marcomanni1 and  gave figures of   
them4 ,this has led ,german writers to  
assert the existence  of ,runic letters 
among the ,suevi in the early days of   
the ,roman empire2 but  ,hrabanus adds  
to ,marcomanni the gloss quos nos       
,northmannos vocamus4 ,his  ,marcomanni 
were not the ,marchmen of the ,roman    
period4 ,bede is also said to  have     
formulated a list of the runes of the   
,northmen4 ,one reason which  retarded  
the educational advancement of the      
,western ,germans was that they  never  
came into contact with the ,romans till 

the beginning of the first  century     
,b4,c41 and even then only for a short  
time1 in the invasion of the  republic  
by the ,cimbri and ,teutones4 ,they were
 shut away from the ,roman  frontiers by
 the buffer states of ,celtic countries1
 and it was only after  the conquest of 
,gaul1 ,rhtia1 and ,noricum that the    
,romans came into  continuous conflict  
with ,marcomanni and ,suevi4 ,it was    
,csar who first made  the name of       
,germani historical1 and ,tacitus who   
invented ,germania as the  name of the  
country4    ,the name ,germani is1 as   
,zeuss suggests1 ,gallic for            
,neighbours1 and was  pronounced ,grmani
 by the ,gauls1 who had first been asked
 by the ,romans  how their neighbours   
were called4 ,it is curious that even in
 this country  the ,britons called the  
invading ,english ,garmani1 by what     
,bede supposed to  be a corruption of   
speech4 7,the ,celts in later days were 
not ,latinised  ,britons1 and knew      
nothing of #ca;,germans4 ,they made no  

distinction between  ,angles1 ,saxons1  
and ,jutes1 but called them all         
,saxons47    ,the name by which the     
,germans call themselves is not a race  
name1 but  merely the adjective meaning 
national1 native1 vernacular4 ,just as  
the  ,italians afterwards used the      
phrase in volgare to mean in ,italian1  
as  distinguished from ,latin1 so the   
,germans had the word diutisc or        
thiutisc 7deutsch7 to mean vulgar1 as   
opposed to walahisc or walesc  7welsch71
 which meant ,latin4 ,the two adjectives
 became in time proper  names1 with the 
sense of ,german and ,roman4 ,the       
,western ,germans had nothing  to do    
with writing till they conquered the    
,welshmen of ,gaul4 ,consequently1  we  
proceed to the ,gothic alphabet4        
,after repeated attacks on the ,roman   
empire in the third century1 and        
repeated defeats1 the ,goths had        
extended their seats southwards1 and    
were  resident1 in a partly             
,christianised state1 in the lands north

 and south of  the ,danube4 ,wulfila1 or
 ,ulfila1 a ,goth1 said to have been    
born in  ,cappadocia1 a man of great    
ability1 who was able to preach in      
,gothic1 in  ,greek1 and in ,latin1     
thought the time had come to            
,christianise his  countrymen           
completely4 ,for that purpose he        
translated the ,bible into the  ,gothic 
language1 and created an uncial         
alphabet1 derived partly from ,greek1   
partly from ,latin1 and partly from     
,runic4 ,of his twenty-seven letters1   
two  are merely numerals4 ,in the       
twenty-five that were used for writing1 
the c  7g71 d1 l1 p1 and ch have their  
,greek uncial shapes1 the a1 b1  e1 f1  
h1 i1 k1 m1 n1 r1 s1 t1 and z may be    
called  ,latin uncials2 the q resembles 
our capital u1 but is plainly an        
adaptation of the ,greek koppa1 the th  
seems to be modified from the  ,greek   
ph1 but may have easily been the ,greek 
th2 a ,roman ,g is inserted  in the     
alphabet in the place of the ,greek     

,ksi1 and seems to have been  used as gh
 or ,y consonant2 a ,greek ,y is used   
for the ,runic angular ,p  which        
represented the ,teutonic w2 an o with a
 dot in the centre stood for  hw2 and   
the vowels ,o and ,u appear as ,symbol3 
#h without bottom half-loop  and        
,symbol3 inverted ,u4 ,the ,gothic th1  
hw1 w1 o1 #cb;and u are  found in the   
,runic alphabet1 from which ,ulfila must
 have borrowed them4 ,so  far as it was 
possible to him he avoided the letters  
of his pagan  ancestors1 but for certain
 sounds existing in ,gothic1 and not in 
,greek or  ,latin1 he was compelled to  
fall back upon the ,runes4 ,just in a   
similar way1  the ,anglo-,saxons two    
hundred years later1 when adopting the  
,irish-,roman  alphabet1 were obliged to
 add the necessary th and w from the    
same  ,runic source4    ,the ,gothic    
letters of ,ulfila were used for about  
two centuries by the  so-called         
,ostrogoths1 all the extant manuscripts 
of the ,gothic ,bible having  been      

written in ,italy in the sixth century1 
the famous ,silver ,gospels of          
,stockholm included4 ,of the ,visigoths 
who had preceded the ,ostrogoths in     
,italy1 but gone onward thence to fix   
their rule in ,southern ,gaul and       
,spain1  we have nothing to show that   
they ever made use of the ,ulphilan     
alphabet4  ,their coins of the sixth and
 seventh centuries bear inscriptions in 
debased  ,roman capitals2 and the       
so-called ,visigothic writing in        
manuscripts of the  eighth to the       
twelfth centuries is simply             
,spanish-,roman4 ,the use1 in modern    
times1 of the word ,gothic to indicate  
special forms of writing and            
architecture is very absurd1 but the    
phrase has become convenient4 ,in so    
far as writing is concerned1 we may     
continue to use the word gothic 7with a 
small g7 to denote the angular black    
letter of the fourteenth1 fifteenth1    
and sixteenth centuries4      ,irish and
 ,british writing    ,of the various    

species of national writing which were  
evolved from ,roman  calligraphy1 and   
which1 from the seventh century onwards1
 are divided by  palographers into      
,lombardic and ,visigothic1 ,frankish   
7,merowingian71 and  ,irish 7,hibernian 
and ,anglo-,saxon71 the ,irish was      
probably the first to  attain a distinct
 type of its own4 ,there would be       
#cc;inherent probability  in the notion 
that the ,irish alphabet and the ,irish 
style of ornament were  created in      
,britain and transferred to ,ireland in 
the fifth century when the  ,english    
arrived4 ,professor ,westwood seemed to 
regard the idea with favour  but        
hesitated in giving it full expression4 
,he says it may be observed  that the   
earliest of the sculptured ,christian   
stones of ,wales exhibit the  same      
system of ornamentation1 as well as the 
same style of writing1 as  the ,irish   
,,mss4 which are1 in all probability1 of
 a somewhat more recent  date4 ,one will
 naturally seek to test the value of    

this observation by  examining the      
writer's ,lapidarium ,walli4 ,in that   
work1 however1 no  substantiation will  
be found4 ,there are a couple of        
instances in which  sculptured stones   
bearing names1 which are assigned by    
,bishop ,stubbs to the  ninth century1  
are said by ,prof4 ,westwood to be      
perhaps of the sixth or  seventh2 and   
that is all4 ,on the contrary1 the one  
salient fact observable  in the         
,lapidarium is1 that all the            
inscriptions of the ,roman and early    
post-,roman time are in pure ,roman     
capitals1 while the inscriptions upon   
sculptured stones in minuscules         
resembling the ,irish alphabet1 all     
belong  to the period when the ,angles  
and ,saxons were in full possession of  
,irish  calligraphic and artistic       
models--that is1 after the seventh      
century4 ,the  ,britons of the fifth    
century1 at least all over the ,southern
 half of the  island1 were a ,romanised 
people as much as the ,gauls1 and it    

would be  ridiculous to expect ,celtic  
provincial art in the home of ,roman    
culture4  ,they were exterminated or    
absorbed in the east and middle of the  
island by  the ,germanic invaders1 and  
they were harried out of the west by    
their ,cumri  kindred from the north1   
and by pirate ,scots from ,ireland4 ,the
 latter part  of the fifth century and  
the whole of the sixth and part of the  
seventh1  formed a period during which  
the inhabitants of ,cambria can have    
produced  little or nothing in the way  
of letters or art4 ,it was probably not 
till  the beginning of the eighth       
century that the ,cumri began to        
identify  themselves with the           
#cd;ancient ,britons1 and to gather up  
the legends and  historical traditions  
of the ,british remnant as their own4   
,there is a clear  testimony that the   
,cumri and the ,britons were closely    
akin as a race1 but  not identical1 in  
the fact that names beginning with ,v in
 ,british use down  to the fifth century

 are found to begin with ,gu 7,gw7 in   
the language of the  ,welsh4 ,guend and 
,vend were of course two phases of an   
old ,celtic word1 but  the former is    
necessarily the older4 ,consequently the
 people who have used  ,gw from the     
fifth to the nineteenth century cannot  
be the same as those  who had already   
reached the ,v-stage in the first       
century4 ,they were close  relatives    
undoubtedly1 but had little in common   
beyond their racial  affinity and the   
original homogeneity of their speech4   
,it may be surmised  that the ,briton   
found no more kindness in his ,cumric   
stepbrother1 or his  ,irish cousin1 than
 in the fierce strangers who called him 
a ,welshman  7because they found him    
talking ,welsh1 i4e4 ,latin74    ,bede1 
in spite of his ,romanist tendency1 and 
his ,romanist aversion to the  practice 
of the ,celtic church with regard to the
 ,paschal festival and the  tonsure1    
gives clear evidence that in the middle 
of the seventh century  many ,englishmen

 of the noble and the meaner sort       
resorted to ,ireland1 and  dwelt there  
for the purpose either of study or of   
leading a religious life  7divin        
lectionis vel continentioris vit grati71
 and states that the  ,scots received   
them all most willingly1 giving them    
their daily food  without charge1 also  
books for reading1 and gratuitous       
instruction4 ,the  ,angles were apt     
pupils4 ,they learned to write and      
ornament books of their  own in the     
,irish manner1 and they had ,irish monks
 in their new monasteries  who fostered 
the art4 ,by the close of the seventh   
century1 there were  expert penmen among
 the ,anglian monks1 and during the     
eighth century1  although the very close
 adherence to ,irish models is the      
feature of most of  the ornamental      
manuscripts1 they began to strike out a 
new and  characteristic line of their   
own in which they soon surpassed their  
masters4 ,this was in                   
#ce;figure-drawing1 in miniatures       

painted with a  mastery of design which 
was altogether unknown to the ,irish4   
,the heads or  figures which appeared in
 ,irish illuminations were merely       
accessory and  subordinate to the scheme
 of decoration1 utterly contemptible as 
delineations of human form4 ,in the     
,anglo-,saxon miniatures of the period  
which began--say about #gej and         
continued to the eleventh century1 there
 is  a distinct national school1 in     
which the over-anxious treatment of     
draperies and the striking addiction to 
light green pigment1 are prominent      
characteristics4 ,the style gives a sort
 of general impression that it had  been
 formed upon a ,byzantine model1 but the
 probability is that the later          
classical survival in ,italy in the     
seventh century had helped to form the  
,anglo-,saxon taste as well as the taste
 of the ,carolingian school4 ,a         
similar1 but ruder1 expression of the   
same ,anglo-,saxon method of            
illustration appeared in ,german work of

 the tenth and eleventh centuries2  and 
as this had its parentage in the ,french
 ,carolingian art of the ninth  century1
 we may suspect that the tendency which 
brought that art to its  perfection in  
the time of ,charles the ,bald1 had     
begun in ,gaul before the  time of      
,charles the ,great1 that is1 earlier   
than the usual date of its  sudden      
genesis4 ,this conjecture would make the
 production of books  illustrated with  
miniatures synchronise in ,france and   
,england1 and thus  obviate the         
difficulty of supposing that the        
,anglo-,saxons invented the art  and    
carried it to perfection within a       
century of their learning how to  write4
 ,it is sufficient glory for them to    
have converted the artistic  movement of
 the time into a national school of     
painting unmistakable with  any other1  
at a time when the calligraphical       
schools of central and  ,southern       
,france1 under an enlightened ,frankish 
emperor1 and with far  superior         

opportunities1 were labouring for a     
,gallo-,roman renaissance4              
#cf,origin of ,medival ,illumination    
,books in the classical period had of   
course been ornamented with             
illustrations1 but the illumination of  
books 7in the medival sense7 did  not   
originate with the ,grco-,roman         
calligraphers of the ,empire4 ,we cannot
  suppose that it sprang into life in   
,ireland1 but certainly its first       
,european manifestation was in ,irish   
,,mss41 and the art had not been        
received  by the ,irish from any of the 
,european nations4 ,the only alternative
 is1  however1 far fetched1 that        
,christian missionaries from the ,east  
7or with  ,eastern training7 had        
preceded ,st4 ,patrick and brought with 
them those  characteristics of          
,syro-,egyptian art which are traceable 
alike in ,irish and  in ,byzantine work4
 ,the documentary period of writing in  
,ireland is of  course later than the   
actual practice of the art in that      

country1 but it is  earlier than amongst
 any other of the unromanised           
barbarians4 ,adamnan1  writing about    
,a4,d4 #fgj1 relates the life of ,st4   
,columba 7dead in #eih7 and  describes  
the writing materials which that saint  
had used in his  scriptorium in the     
island of ,hy4 ,as he had learned to    
write in ,ireland and  had begun his    
priestly career there before #edj1 we   
may place the  historically             
ascertainable use of writing in ,ireland
 as beginning with the  early years of  
the sixth century4 ,irish monks carried 
the art to ,britain1  to ,gaul1 to      
,germany2 and those elaborate and       
intricate patterns to which  the ,french
 give the names of lettres perles1      
lettres brodes1 spirales1  noeuds1 et   
entrelacs1 initiales ophiomorphiques1   
ichthyomorphiques1 c41  and which they  
claim as indigenous productions of      
,carolingian ,france in the  early part 
of the ninth century--were fruits of the
 teaching of ,irish  missionaries1 in   

the houses which they founded in        
,britain and all over the  continent in 
the seventh century4    ,some of the    
remarks in the preceding section will be
 found in strong  disagreement with the 
authority of ,professor #cg,westwood1   
whose work on  the ,anglo-,saxon and    
,irish miniatures is such a splendid    
testimony to his  zeal and ability4 ,his
 conjectural dates are1 however1        
frequently  misleading4 ,an instance is 
that of the so-called ,bible of ,st4    
,gregory1  figured on his plates #ad1   
#ae4 ,in the text he says that ,sir     
,frederick ,madden  had declared the    
,,ms4 to be unquestionably of the eighth
 century1 but he  prefers to call it of 
the seventh1 in agreement with ,casley  
and ,astle 7who  thought so in the last 
century674 ,he ought to have accepted   
the opinion of  a recognised master in  
palography like ,sir ,frederick1 so far 
as the  writing is concerned1 in        
preference to that of two men living at 
a time  before the science had attained 

anything like exactness in ,england4 ,he
  ought also to have seen or felt1 while
 making his elaborate facsimile1 that   
the nearest parallel to the style of    
illumination of his first page of  ,luke
 is to be found in ,carolingian work    
executed about #hjj2 and that no  great 
space of time could separate the two    
examples4 ,the ,english work was        
probably the earlier1 but it can hardly 
have been accomplished before #ggj4     
,the purely ,irish patterns in the      
columns supporting the arch1 with the   
excellent picture of ,st4 ,luke that    
surmounts it1 prove by their combination
  that the work is ,anglo-,saxon of its 
second and finer period1 that is after  
the phase in which it was merely and    
wholly imitative of the ,irish4 ,with   
these considerations in view1 and a     
remembrance of ,bede's words quoted     
above in relation to ,anglian education 
in ,ireland about ,a4,d4 #fej1 the      
assignment of the ,bible of ,st4        
,gregory to the seventh century is a    

pure  absurdity4--,again1 ,westwood's   
facsimile from the ,golden ,gospels of  
,stockholm1 bears the attribution ,sixth
 ,century8 ,ninth ,century8 while its   
position in the book1 as the first      
plate1 tends to show that ,professor    
,westwood leaned to the earlier date4   
,yet the book is unquestionably not     
,irish2 its artistic illustration is a  
singularly fine development of          
,anglo-,saxon art--think of             
,anglo-,saxon art and chrysography in   
the sixth  century6 ,the writing cannot 
be #chmistaken for ,roman uncials of the
 sixth  century2 it is plainly in       
,carolingian uncials of the latter half 
of the  eighth4 ,the book seems to have 
been illustrated by an ,anglian hand1   
and  written by a ,frankish             
one1--probably on the continent rather  
than in  ,england4    ,books in ,irish  
or ,saxon-,irish writing are found all  
over the continent4 ,as  they were      
written in monasteries founded by ,irish
 missionaries during the  seventh and   

eighth centuries1 they only indicate    
that a succession of ,irish  or of      
,saxon monks continued to make their way
 for a considerable period to  ,france1 
,germany1 and ,italy4 ,the writing can  
hardly be said to have left any  traces 
in the various national hands of those  
countries1 but the ,irish  house at     
,bobbio probably transmitted the use of 
the interlaced  ornamentation which     
revived in ,italy several centuries     
later4    ,most of the motifs of        
decoration in the illuminated           
,carolingian1  ,visigothic1 and         
,lombardic ,,ms4 were derived from the  
,irish methods of  ornamentation        
introduced through monastic houses and  
schools established by  ,irish monks on 
the continent4 ,french writers deny     
their indebtedness to  foreigners for   
it1 since1 as they say1 the pattern was 
always at hand in  the tessellated and  
mosaic pavements of ,gallo-,roman       
architecture4 ,but there  is something  
of unnecessary vanity in the denial4    

,the ,irish ,,mss4 of the  seventh      
century are the first in ,europe which  
contain decorative initials  of the     
kind4 ,this fact is indisputable1 and is
 not affected by the question  of       
original derivation1 which in my opinion
 is to be sought for in the east  among 
those ,hellenised ,syrians and          
,egyptians who were the propagators of  
,christian art as well as ,christian    
religion in the west4      ,merowingian1
 ,lombardic1 ,visigothic    ,these      
names1 applied to varying styles of     
writing1 are without historical         
exactness4 ,roughly speaking1 the first 
#cimeans the debased ,roman used in     
,gaul and ,western ,germany from the    
sixth to the eighth century1 the second 
was the script of the larger part of    
,italy 7but chiefly the east and the    
south7 between the ninth and the twelfth
 centuries1 the third was the  national 
hand of ,spain and ,languedoc during the
 eighth to the twelfth  century4 ,the   
names are based upon erroneous          

historical assumptions4 ,the  ,frankish 
kings1 supposed to be descended from    
,merowig1 carried with them  across the 
,rhine no graphic system whatever4 ,they
 found in ,gaul the  identical styles of
 writing which were used in ,italy1 and 
such of their  people as gave up the    
trade of warriors to assume that of     
clerics and  councillors1 were obliged  
to learn the arts of the ,gauls4 ,the   
circumstances  under which the new      
kingdom was established as a permanent  
institution1  were not such as to make  
the ,franks a nation of penmen2 and the 
influence  of their bad taste in        
calligraphy could hardly have been felt 
till the  beginning of the seventh      
century4 ,their ,gallic underlings      
continued to  write as before1 but in   
the absence of enlightened patronage1   
the schools  of art no longer produced  
good work1 except in the monasteries of 
the  ,provincia ,romana1 where less     
deterioration took place than elsewhere4
 ,the  ,frankish monarchy was so widely 

extended throughout the territories     
stretching from the ,loire to the ,main1
 and along the whole course of the      
,rhine from south to north1 even in     
,merovingian times1 that the use of the 
word to designate a special style of    
writing is hardly desirable4 ,it is     
probable enough that in the seventh     
century and the early part of the       
eighth a kind of uniformity existed in  
the writing used in all the region      
between ,paris and ,mentz1 but it was   
nothing else than ,roman uncials1       
semiuncials1 and minuscules written in  
more or less cramped and graceless      
fashion2 varying only in the degree of  
badness according to the locality4  ,it 
is ,roman cacography with a ,germanic   
stamp upon it4 ,there was a decided     
improvement in it when the eighth       
century was in progress4    #dj,the     
,lombardic hand is also a ,roman hand as
 written by or for barbarians  who lived
 nearer to the centre of civilisation   
than the ,franks did4 ,to  justify its  

name it would be necessary to show that 
it originated and was  practised in the 
region we call ,lombardy in the seventh 
century4 ,there is1  however1 no trace  
of its existence before the ninth       
century1 and very  little show of its   
having been used to any extent in       
,cisalpine ,gaul4 ,most  of the         
surviving examples of its employment as 
a national or local script  indicate    
,eastern and ,southern ,italy as its    
home during the ninth to the  twelfth   
century2 while most of the manuscripts  
produced in ,lombardy and  northern     
,italy during that time belong rather to
 the ,carolingian type4 ,in  fact1 the  
,carolingian minuscule1 the ,visigothic 
minuscule1 and the  ,lombardic minuscule
 all show at their beginning so much    
similarity that we  look for examples of
 the latter two sufficiently early to   
decide a doubt  which arises--which of  
the three was the fountain head of      
modern letters4  ,the chief marks of    
distinction in the ,lombardic through   

its whole career  are the t shaped      
nearly like a1 and the a shaped like cc4
 ,the  ,visigothic t is identical with  
the ,lombardic2 and in the a there is so
  little unlikeness that the form of the
 letter seems to be something halfway   
between u and cc4 7,it is equivalent to 
cc without their beaks or  initial      
knobs47 ,the circumstance that two      
scripts so widely removed in  place     
should retain common peculiarities1 down
 to the very end of their  severed      
existence1 leads to a suspicion that the
 so-called ,lombardic was  probably a   
post-,ulfilan ,ostrogothic4 ,the        
peculiarities referred to1 and  some    
others which need not be specialised1   
are also found in the ,merowing  writing
 of books produced west of the ,rhine in
 the seventh century4 ,now as           
,carolingian writing is quite free from 
these peculiarities1 we can safely      
conclude that the ,lombardic and the    
,visigothic are both older than the time
  of ,charles the ,great4 ,it is usually

 supposed by those who see the          
difficulty attaching to the use of the  
name ,lombardic1 that the mode #daof    
writing so styled was used in the       
kingdom of the ,longbeards1 but died out
  in its chief home after the conquest  
by the ,franks1 and only maintained a   
continued existence in the ,neapolitan  
duchies held by princes of ,lombardic   
origin4 ,the suspicion hinted at above  
becomes stronger when we review these   
facts4 ,the ,lombards were a far rougher
 and more uncultivated race than the    
,goths1 and found a ,gothic-,roman      
script in use in ,italy when they       
entered to  destroy the kingdom of      
,theodoric4 ,it was probably in ,ravenna
 that the  so-called ,lombardic         
minuscule had its seat during the sixth 
century1 side  by side with the         
declining ,gothic uncial of ,wulfila4   
,from ,ravenna1 its  spread over the    
east and south of ,italy would be much  
more easily effected  than from ,milan  
or ,pavia2 and its undeniable similarity

 to the ,visigothic  script of ,spain   
leads to the belief that these two were 
the real ,gothic  writing of the early  
,middle ,ages1 as distinguished from the
 ,moesian  alphabet1 which cannot have  
endured much longer than the reign of   
,theodoric  himself4 ,the hand which is 
called broken ,lombard belongs to a     
later time4  ,its characteristic is an  
attempt to produce an ornamental wavy   
effect by  suspending the weight of the 
pen-stroke in the middle of each        
descent1 but  the forms of the letters  
remain unchanged4 ,it was a fashion of  
,neapolitan  writing in the eleventh and
 twelfth centuries1 and seems to        
correspond in  its own school with that 
tendency in the schools of northern     
countries  which produced the angular   
gothic of the thirteenth4 ,as has been  
remarked  in another paragraph1 the     
,lombardic flourished even in ,italy1   
side by  side with the pure             
,carolingian1 which had become the most 
favoured of all  handwritings since the 

,empire of the ,west was renewed in the 
family of  ,charles the ,great4 ,the    
,carolingian1 however1 seems to have    
encroached to no  more southerly point  
than ,rome itself1 leaving all the      
region beyond to its  ,lombardic rival4 
,of the ,visigothic1 as of the          
,lombardic1 it has to be said that1 so  
far as  extant specimens are concerned1 
it might #dbwell have been the offspring
  of the ,carolingian1 rather than an   
elder form of writing4 ,its kinship1    
however1 to ,merowingian and ,lombardic 
is undeniable1 and there is a  very fair
 show of probability that the ,visigoths
 had something to do with  it1          
notwithstanding the fact that we only   
know it in examples later than  the     
destruction of the ,gothic monarchy in  
,spain4 ,what the term ,visigothic      
means we do not know4 ,most people think
 it meant ,west ,gothic1 and that is    
how it was interpreted by ,jornandes1   
who1 as an ,italian ,ostrogoth of the   
sixth century1 ought to have been       

capable of understanding the sense of   
the  word4 ,it is1 however1 very        
uncertain2 for ,jornandes1 though       
intelligent and  well-informed1 was not 
impeccable even as regards his ,gothic  
kinsmen4 ,most  of his knowledge was    
derived from his ,latin education1 and  
to him probably  we owe a good many     
misconceptions1 arising from his        
acceptance of various  geographical     
names in ,latin and ,greek writers as   
referring to his own  people and their  
kindred4 ,nothing which he has said has 
had a more enduring  influence upon     
opinion than the statement that         
,scandinavia1 the vagina  gentium1 had  
bred all the barbaric tribes which      
overpowered the ,roman  empire4 ,of     
course1 he knew nothing of ,scandinavia 
beyond the vague facts  that ,goths1    
,heruli1 ,burgundians1 ,lombards1 and   
,cimbri inhabited the  southern shores  
of the ,baltic1 and that there was a    
vast land beyond that  sea4 ,everything 
that descended from the north seemed to 

have come down from  ,scania1 or        
,scandinavia4 ,he did not know1 as we   
do1 that the climate of  ,scandinavia   
must have been at that time much more   
severe than now1 and that  the          
population of ,norway1 ,sweden1 and     
,denmark cannot have reached in the     
fourth and fifth centuries to anything  
like its present numbers4 ,the          
movements of that age1 which carried    
millions of warriors to ,greece1 ,italy1
  ,france1 ,spain1 and ,africa1         
represented a wave of emigration1 caused
 by an  overflow of population1         
beginning in the far ,east1 on the      
confines of  ,china1 of which the       
typical originators1 so far as          
#dc;,europe is concerned1  were the     
,huns4 ,no such overflow was possible   
from ,scandinavia4    ,the ,visigothic  
script had certainly not yet come into  
existence when the  kingdom of ,alaric  
had its capital at ,toulouse in the     
fifth century4 ,after  the ,franks had  
driven the ,goths southward1 and the    

monarchy was established  in ,spain     
7incorporating the ,suabians1 who had   
held a separate state in  ,portugal71 we
 may suppose that the ,visigothic hand  
was derived from that of  the           
,ostrogoths1 and used in the service of 
the ,gothic monarchs until their        
dynasty was destroyed by the ,saracenic 
conquest in #gac4 ,from that time       
onwards to the twelfth century it was   
employed in all the ,christian lands  of
 ,spain1 although1 as in ,italy1 the    
,carolingian script began to be         
introduced in the ninth century4 ,the   
two kinds of writing went on side by    
side1 the ,carolingian always gaining   
ground as time went on1 until in the    
thirteenth century ,spain fell into line
 with the other countries of ,europe  in
 adopting a sort of ,french angular     
gothic4      ,the ,carolingian ,renewal 
,the renewal of art and learning in     
,gaul in the second half of the eighth  
century is ascribed to the patronage of 
,karl the ,great and his descendants4   

,he was a man of extraordinary gifts1   
and few figures of equal majesty have   
ever appeared on the stage of history4  
,king of the ,franks and the ,lombards1 
,roman ,emperor of the ,west1 a great   
conqueror1 a wise statesman1 and a man  
of learning1 he has left his name even  
in the annals of palography4 ,it can    
hardly have been in the beautiful ,roman
 handwriting which is called after  him 
that he transcribed the ,frankish       
ballads or set down the rules of        
,frankish grammar1 as he is said to have
 done4 ,he was fond of practising  with 
his pen1 but1 as ,eginhart says1 the    
study was begun too late in life  to be 
cultivated with success4 ,he had        
excellent taste1 however1 #dd;and       
bestowed generous rewards upon the      
calligraphers who worked for him4 ,his  
usual home was at ,aachen1 and his      
palace there contained a library and a  
scriptorium1 in which scribes were      
always busy4 ,a greater school of       
calligraphy was in the ,abbey of ,st4   

,martin at ,tours1 directed by the      
famous  ,alcuin1 under the ,emperor's   
patronage4 ,it was at ,tours1           
undoubtedly1 that  the ,carolingian     
writing reached the stage at which it   
became the model for  all succeeding    
time1 and ,alcuin was almost certainly  
the man who introduced  the             
,irish-,saxon fashion of decorative     
ornament1 as practised in ,york when  he
 resided there with ,archbishop ,egbert4
 ,a great deal of the learning which    
7with some latitude of phraseology7 has 
been attributed above to the  ,emperor1 
was due to the frequent lectures upon   
all branches of science  which ,alcuin  
was in the habit of delivering when he  
and his patron were  together--usually  
at ,aachen4 ,karl did not spend much of 
his leisure time in  the ,france which  
regards him as her own prince4 ,he is   
believed to have  founded the           
,university of ,paris1 but he did not   
regard the city on the  ,seine as equal 
to ,rome or ,arles4 ,it was not included

 in the twenty-one  metropolitan cities 
of his empire4    ,wherever the movement
 arose which produced the beauty of     
,carolingian work1  we can have no      
difficulty in declaring it to have been 
in central or  ,southern ,france1 not in
 the ,rhenish territories4 ,that        
contemporary  calligraphers would have  
followed the lead was to be expected1   
whether they  worked at ,aachen or at   
,metz1 or at ,trier or elsewhere2 but   
the real  perfection of the style must  
have been attained in those parts of    
,france  which were most nearly         
connected with ,provence4 ,the uncials  
of ,carolingian  work were imitated from
 ,roman work of the fifth century1 the  
capitals from  ,roman inscriptions of   
the empire1 and the minuscules were     
improved from the  two contemporary     
,italian scripts in which they were     
found1 that is the  ,papal ,roman and   
the ,gotho-,lombard4 ,the art was       
cultivated 7and we may allow  that it   
had been so cultivated for many years   

before ,alcuin's #de;arrival7  so       
carefully that a fine sthetic sense had 
arisen1 and every letter of all  three  
kinds was drawn with an elegant         
simplicity and truth which the world    
has never ceased to admire4 ,the letters
 are upright and wholly without         
angularities1 and are quite free from   
the mannerisms by which in the two      
,gothic hands of the time certain       
unessential portions of the outline were
  dwelt upon and made over-prominent1 to
 the deterioration of the graphic  form4
 ,fine as the writing is in the time of 
the great ,emperor1 it is still  finer  
throughout the half century or so which 
followed his death1 in all  the ,gallic 
centres4    ,at the same time1 the      
decoration of manuscripts1 otherwise    
remarkable for  their calligraphical    
excellence1 with illuminated initials1  
border  ornamentation1 and miniatures   
resembling in character those of the    
,anglo-,saxon school but infused to a   
greater degree with the feeling and the 

style of late classical art1 render the 
,carolingian ,french school of the      
ninth century one of the most splendid  
in the history of palography4    ,the   
scripts of ,spain and ,italy lived on   
for centuries uncorrected in  certain   
peculiarities by the example of         
,carolingian writing1 but gradually     
drawing nearer1 and visibly improved in 
manner4 ,this was brought about by  the 
introduction into both countries of pure
 ,carolingian work1 practised           
simultaneously with the native styles1  
and constantly increasing in  influence4
 ,in ,england the ,carolingian type won 
but little ground1  notwithstanding the 
,romanising tendencies of ,winchester   
and ,canterbury and  the ,southern      
monasteries in general4 ,it was not till
 the tenth century that  certain signs  
of ,carolingian influence are seen in   
the writing of ,latin  charters1 and it 
was only in the twelfth century that the
 handwriting of  ,northern ,france and  
of ,england began to take an identical  

character4 ,in  ,germany1 of course1    
,carolingian writing was an inheritance1
 but it was  never cultivated with the  
same elegance as in ,france4 ,the       
letters began  gradually to slope and   
grow #dfnarrow1 and to take small       
projections at  the extremities which by
 and bye became medieval gothic forms4  
,a ,review at the standpoint of the     
,ninth ,century    ,the middle ages     
began with the establishment of         
barbarian monarchies over  the area of  
the ,roman empire of the west2 and with 
the middle ages began  the final and the
 most important chapter in the history  
of manuscripts4 ,the  study of          
manuscripts1 for most persons1 is       
confined to the period between  the     
twelfth century and the sixteenth2 since
 it is not given to everyone to  make   
pilgrimages to the museums scattered    
over ,europe1 for the purpose of        
looking at the earlier and rarer        
examples of writing4 ,besides1 the chief
  interest of the study lies rather in  

the decoration than the calligraphy of  
manuscripts2 and it was not till the    
fourteenth century that the production  
of such work became so large and general
 as to leave a sufficient number of     
specimens readily accessible to modern  
inspection4 ,the history of  illuminated
 manuscripts begins in ,ireland in the  
sixth century1 that first  phase being  
the application to written books of a   
system of ,oriental  decorative ornament
 which had previously been confined to  
architectural  work4 ,it spread into    
,england in the seventh century1 a      
little later into  ,gaul and ,germany1  
and a new phase began in the eighth     
century by a happy  combination of      
,romanesque pictorial design with the   
more purely decorative  features of     
barbaric art4 ,in the ninth century     
,england and central ,france  were      
easily ahead of all the other barbarian 
states4 ,in ,germany1 in  ,aquitaine1 in
 ,spain1 and in ,northern ,italy1 the   
same system was followed1  but with a   

prevailing stamp of barbarism1          
especially in the design of the  human  
figure1 which affords a striking        
contrast to the refined luxury of       
,carolingian art and the more sober     
splendour of ,english work4 ,the only   
parallel was in ,byzantium and          
,alexandria1 where a similar combination
 had  led to a nearly similar           
#dg;effect1 with this difference        
however1 that the  decorative           
illumination was a far less prominent   
feature than the pictorial  designs4    
,roman ,italy and ,roman ,provence still
 kept aloof from the new  movement4 ,the
 classical traditions which survived    
there permitted the  production of      
,,mss4 written in gold1 and perhaps also
 illustrated with  pictures1 such as had
 constituted the splendour of books in  
the first five  centuries2 but the      
immixture of decorative patterns from   
architectural  design1 which formed the 
art of illumination1 was a thing of     
alien  character to the taste of the    

older school4 ,examples of course were  
produced both in ,rome itself and in    
,provence of the new mode of            
illumination1 but they are to be        
ascribed to the barbarian element which 
was encroaching there as elsewhere1 and 
which finally triumphed4      ,byzantine
 ,work    ,the traditions of classical  
art1 which had begun to grow weaker in  
,byzantium even before the seventh      
century1 had faded away when the        
,eastern  ,emperor lost all hold upon   
,italy4 ,not ,athens1 nor ,rome1 but    
,memphis1 seemed  to inspire the later  
stheticism of ,byzantine art2 and the   
,greek emperors1  from the ninth century
 onwards1 appeared to be the successors 
rather of a  line of ,ptolemies than of 
,csars4 ,when we contrast the sculptures
 of  ancient ,greece1 the designs upon  
,grco-,roman coins1 and the pictures in 
,pompeii1 with the work of ,byzantine   
illuminators1 we are inevitably         
reminded that the word ,greek is rarely 
appropriate in connexion with ,,mss4    

,there is very little of true ,greek in 
the artistic features of                
,thraco-,grcian or gypto-,grcian work2  
and it is not to real ,greeks or to     
real ,romans that we owe the handsome   
,roman and the handsome ,hellenic type  
in which the texts of the ancient       
classics are now printed4    ,in the    
minuscule writing of ,greek1 which is   
usually #dhsupposed to have  come into  
use about the end of the eighth century1
 there never was the same               
calligraphical character as the uncials 
of an earlier time had exhibited1  nor  
the same desire to attain symmetrical   
beauty as was shown over and over  again
 in the manuscripts of ,western ,europe4
 ,the best writing of ,greek  minuscules
 belongs to the ninth and tenth         
centuries of our era1 in which a        
sufficient amount of practice had been  
gained to ensure regularity of form4  ,a
 specimen of such writing1 executed     
towards the end of the tenth century1   
probably in ,cyprus1 will be found in   

,plate #f4 ,from the eleventh century to
  the sixteenth all minuscule writing in
 ,greek looks like a free cursive       
written without any calligraphical      
ambition1 and it became more and more   
ungraceful as time went on4 ,the value  
of ,greek ,,mss41 however1 depends more 
upon their contents than upon their     
beauty1 and frequently the              
roughest-looking piece of work may      
command an interest far greater than    
attaches to the splendid penmanship of  
the west4    ,the recently discovered   
,gospel of ,peter is in a curious       
primitive  minuscule hand1 which the    
editor of the facsimile1 ,oscar von     
,gebhardt1  ascribes hesitatingly to the
 eighth or ninth century1 as had already
 been  done by ,h4 ,omont4 ,it would not
 be surprising if other scholars were to
  assign it to the seventh century1 and 
thereby throw back the age of ,greek    
minuscule writing to a century or more  
behind the date usually fixed for  it4  
,the mingling in that curious ,christian

 document of many uncial forms1  with a 
set of minuscular letters that betray a 
want of familiarity with set            
minuscules1 seems to prove that the book
 is older than the eighth century4      
,this observation is made1 not from any 
desire to be critical1 but simply in    
order to show that the question of age1 
mentioned in the preceding  paragraph1  
is a thing which is still not finally   
settled4      #di,the ,tenth ,century   
,the ,irish school of writing1 after its
 triumphs of the seventh1 eighth1 and   
ninth centuries1 lost much of its       
home-life in the midst of the struggles 
with the ,norsemen4 ,in ,england and on 
the continent its influence was still   
felt for some time longer2 even in the  
thirteenth century many of the          
,psalters produced by ,english          
illuminators have the initial letter ,b 
decorated in the style adopted from the 
,irish six centuries before4 ,irish     
,,mss4 of any age are excessively rare2 
even the comparatively worthless        

transcripts of the eighteenth century   
are in no inconsiderable request4       
,the ,english school continued to blend 
its ,irish style of writing with the    
illustrative pictures and borders which 
may have been entirely of native        
production in the eighth century1 as was
 seemingly the fact1 or may have        
originated from the artistic tendencies 
of ,frankish ,gaul1 as has already  been
 surmised4 ,they were1 in any case1     
influenced to some degree by  examples  
of late ,roman work1 introduced by the  
,italian missionaries who  came to      
convert the ,saxons of ,south ,england  
after the ,angles of the north  had been
 converted by the ,irish monks of ,iona4
 ,it was really this ,english  phase of 
decorative art which blossomed into     
,anglo-,norman in the twelfth  century4 
,the ,french schools were still         
,carolingian and splendid1 but their    
pre-eminence was not maintained after   
the breaking up of the empire of        
,charles the ,great4 ,the revolutions of

 the ninth century led to the making  of
 nations4 ,france ceased to be the      
,gallo-,roman province of a ,frankish   
monarchy4 ,a ,french language and a     
,french nation emerged into existence in
  the tenth century1 but the grand      
ornamental and calligraphic work of the 
,franco-,gallic time was no longer      
equalled4 ,the ,caroline writing1 which 
attained its greatest beauty about the  
middle of the #ejninth century1         
gradually lost its elegant boldness1    
tending towards angularity and          
crampness when the eleventh century had 
begun4      ,scandinavian ,writing      
,the ,scandinavian countries have not   
yet been alluded to specifically4 ,the  
immense quantity of ,runic monuments    
found in ,denmark1 ,sweden1 and ,norway1
  of all ages1 and in ,england1 of and  
after the ,norse period1 proves that    
,runic writing was almost exclusively   
,scandinavian4 ,there is now no question
  as to the actual origin of the ,runic 
alphabets4 ,they came into existence1   

as already said1 by reason of the       
necessities of the amber-traffic between
  the coast of the ,baltic and the      
,crimea long before the time of ,christ2
 but  what has survived belongs to the  
monuments of the ,north4 ,the real age  
of  the extant runes does not probably  
exceed the fifth century4 ,that they    
were  prized as national characteristics
 seems to be proved by their continued  
use among the ,northmen1 even after they
 had come into collision with a         
superior civilisation in the ,british   
isles4    ,christianity was not so      
easily adopted in ,scandinavia as in    
some other  countries4 ,from the time of
 the first mission to its ultimate      
triumph at  least two centuries elapsed1
 and the result might have been still   
further  delayed if it had not been for 
the example of two royal proselytes1    
,olaf  ,trygvason and ,st4 ,olaf1 who   
belong to the first half of the eleventh
  century4 ,with the first introduction 
of ,christianity1 the ,norse people also

  received the script which they had    
found in use in ,england4 ,the          
colonisers  of ,iceland1 in the ninth   
and tenth centuries1 carried with them  
the  language and the writing of        
,scandinavia2 and it was probably the   
remoteness  of that island from ,norway 
which has caused the preservation in it1
 down to  the present #ea;day1 of the   
old ,norse tongue 7little modified by   
age7 and  the ,anglo-,saxon letters of  
the tenth century4    ,in ,denmark1     
,sweden1 and ,norway1 the influence of  
,north ,germany prevailed in  time over 
old national tradition1 and the gothic  
hand of the thirteenth  century took the
 place of the special alphabet4 ,by the 
time of the  ,reformation the writing in
 ,scandinavia had been wholly           
,teutonised 7with  some exceptions too  
slight to need mention74 ,the most      
remarkable part of  the change was the  
exclusion of the th letter from the     
script of ,sweden1  ,norway1 and        
,denmark4 ,this tendency1 which had for 

centuries been in growth1  had the      
remarkable effect of practically        
confining the old ,norse literature  to 
,iceland1 and of making it the apparent 
home of all the poems and ,sagas  which 
,norway had produced4 ,it was at least  
the home of most of the literary  men   
who in the twelfth1 thirteenth1 and     
fourteenth centuries wrote for the      
delight of their kinsmen1 in both       
,norway and ,iceland4 ,the great        
literary  activity in ,iceland1 at that 
time and afterwards1 produced a large   
quantity  of ,,mss41 usually written on 
vellum1 and rudely decorated with       
painted  initials2 but of those which   
remained in the country most have       
perished4 ,a  relatively considerable   
number were1 however1 carried to        
,denmark in the  sixteenth and later    
centuries1 and have been preserved in   
museums4 ,very few  yet remain in       
circulation1 unsecured by public        
appropriation4      ,the ,slavonic      
,alphabet    ,slavonic writing is said  

to have begun with ,st4 ,jerome4 ,to him
 is ascribed  the invention of the      
,glagolitic alphabet1 a set of symbols  
for ,illyrian  use1 which seem to have  
no affinity to any of the familiar      
scripts4 ,it  cannot have obtained much 
currency1 notwithstanding the ample     
sufficiency  of its twenty-eight        
letters2 as otherwise the ,cyrillic     
alphabet 7derived  from the ,greek1 with
 necessary #eb;additions7 would never   
have come into  being4 ,in any case1    
,st4 ,cyril's alphabet1 devised in the  
ninth century for  the use of the       
,slovenes in ,moravia1 quite overpowered
 the ,glagolitic of  ,dalmatia1 and     
while the ,croats and the ,dalmatians1  
who came under the  influence of the    
,roman see1 retained their ,glagolitic  
only for liturgical  use1 the ,slavs to 
the east fell into communion with the   
,greek ,church1 and  employed the       
,cyrillic letters as their national type
 of writing4 ,it has  lasted to the     
present time in its old form1 in        

biblical and liturgical  books of which 
the texts are ancient1 but a plainer    
type1 more like the  ,greek of to-day1  
has been adopted for modern literature4 
,the ,poles and  ,bohemians1 and the    
various ,slavs in ,germany1 have always 
followed the  custom of ,germany in     
writing4 ,the ,russian alphabet is more 
complex than  that of ,servia2 but it is
 only in modern time that the latter has
 been  simplified4 ,the ,bulgarians1    
since the establishment of their        
autonomy1 have  given up the old        
,slovene alphabet1 and adopted that of  
,servia4      ,the ,labour of ,medival  
,scribes from the ,ninth ,century       
onwards    ,the literature which was to 
afford material for the exercise of the 
penmen's skill was restricted within    
,christian boundaries4 ,it was rarely   
that a scribe condescended to make      
copies of any of the literary work      
produced in pagan ,rome or ,greece4     
,occasional instances are found which   
offer exception to the rule1 but as in  

the ninth century all the men who  knew 
how to write were1 in one form or       
another1 servants of the ,church1 it    
was not to be expected that many among  
them would help to perpetuate the       
pernicious books of the dead heathens4  
,consequently many of the treasures  of 
ancient literature perished4 ,the ,bible
 was the substitute2 and  innumerable   
copies were made in the ,east and the   
,west of the book which has  influenced 
the world more powerfully #ecthan any   
other production of the  wit of man4 ,in
 the ,east1 there was a more logical    
tendency to neglect the  ,old ,testament
 and to copy only the ,new2 in the      
,west1 it was the custom to  multiply   
transcripts of the complete ,latin      
,scripture as left by ,st4 ,jerome4     
,besides the ,bible1 there were the     
liturgical monuments4 ,the ,sacramentary
  which contained the order of sacrifice
 and adoration in the most solemn       
office of the ,church1 with all the     
prayers that preceded and followed the  

acts of offering and worship1 required  
careful and frequent copying1 so  that  
it should not deviate in the smallest   
degree from the established  model4 ,the
 slight changes which constituted       
differences of use in this part  of the 
liturgy1 and which have distinguished   
the so-called ,gallican1  ,mozarabic1   
,milanese1 and ,celtic churches as at   
least co-val with 7and  possibly older  
than7 the ,latin church of ,rome1 began 
to lose their historic  distinctness in 
the ninth century and soon faded away4  
,the survival of  belated and rare      
examples 7by the grace of papal         
sanction7 at ,toledo and at  ,milan1 is 
but an antiquarian curiosity without any
 significance4 ,rome  triumphed in the  
ninth century1 and the diversities in   
certain respects  which have been       
dignified in ,england and elsewhere with
 the name of use  since then1 are simply
 local varieties in unimportant         
particulars4    ,beyond the             
establishment of the supreme rite of    

sacrifice on certain holy  days1 the    
,church began1 at an early period of its
 existence1 to treat every  day as      
consisting of so many hours of which    
some were necessarily to be  yielded up 
to religious service4 ,the use of the   
,psalms1 and of set prayers1  for that  
purpose1 and the fact that the          
anniversaries of saints' and  martyrs'  
deaths had to be borne in remembrance1  
led to the creation of the  ,breviary4  
,besides this1 the office of the ,mass  
itself became requisite for  celebration
 on every day as well as on the more    
solemn days1 and thus a  variable       
portion 7according to the character of  
the day7 had to be added to  the        
invariable4 ,thus enlarged1 the volume  
of the #ed,sacramentary1 with all  its  
lessons from the ,bible1 and its        
accumulations of antiphonal phrases1    
grew into the ,missal as we know it4    
,the ,breviary underwent similar        
increase1 and the result was to make the
 ,liturgy so extensive and so  complex  

that it gave continual employment in the
 scriptorium of every  church and       
monastery all over ,europe4 ,there were 
,psalters1 ,sacramentaries1  ,missals1  
,breviaries1 ,lectionaries of several   
kinds1 ,hymnals1 ,graduals  7,books of  
the chanted antiphonal portions of the  
,mass71 ,antiphonaries  7,books of the  
chanted antiphonal portions of the      
,hours-offices71  ,martyrologies1       
,homilies1 and 7at a later time7        
,rituals1 ,processionals1 and           
,pontificals 7offices to be performed by
 ,bishops74 ,st4 ,gregory had been the  
latest official arranger of the         
,sacramentary or ,missal1 in the seventh
  century2 but its text was hardly      
settled till the twelfth century1 and   
the  same may be said of the ,breviary4 
,in the ninth century1 however1 the     
texts  had grown to something not very  
different from their ultimate state4    
,here  was plenty of work for the       
priestly and monkish scribes4           
,besides the ,bible and the ,liturgy1   

there were the works of the fathers1 and
  by-and-by the treatises of the        
schoolmen and the chronicles of monkish 
historians2 quite enough1 in all        
conscience1 to render useless the heavy 
lucubrations of ,livy and ,trogus       
,pompeius1 and the absurd conceits of   
the  heathen poets4    ,things were not 
dissimilar in ,byzantium4 ,the ,liturgy 
there was even more  complex and        
extensive than in the ,west1 and the    
foolish literature of old  ,hellas was  
generally ignored by the men who were   
engaged in daily study of  the          
,euchologium1 the ,horologium1 the      
,menologium1 the ,archieraticon1 the    
,synaxarium1 the ,octoechos1 c4 ,the    
,bibliotheca of ,photius shows1 however1
  that the race of students who         
cultivated the old literature was not   
wholly  extinct4    ,at all times1 both 
in the ,east and the ,west1 the letters 
and charters of  ,kings1 and diplomatic 
documents of every #eekind1 needed the  
service of  trained penmen4 ,this       

department of graphic labour was not    
completely in the  hands of churchmen2  
and it led to the creation of a caste of
 writers in  every country who were not 
under the influence of the monkish      
schools4 ,they  could not afford to     
spend so much time as the book writers  
over their work1  and thus a hand of    
cursive character was established in    
every chancellery  in ,europe1 devoted  
only to the service of the ,state and   
never employed for  any other purpose4  
,it was nearly always ugly1 sometimes   
fantastic1  sometimes difficult to be   
read except by the officials engaged in 
such  work4 ,from the earliest days of  
diplomatic writing1 in the sixth century
 in  ,italy1 down to the seventeenth    
century in ,england1 it preserved a     
strange  and fanciful style1 first long1
 thin and narrow letters looking like a 
congeries of wandering parallel lines   
indistinguishable without a glass1  and 
finally letters of proper size1 but so  
disguised in shape as to be             

indecipherable without a special        
training4 ,at only one period1 that is1 
in  the late eleventh and in the twelfth
 century1 was diplomatic writing fair   
and readable4 ,that was in ,england and 
,northern ,france2 but even here1 the   
upright strokes of letters like l1 and  
d1 and b1 were elongated to an  enormous
 extent1 and in their sweep offered to  
the scribe his few  opportunities of    
ornamentation4 ,as our business1        
however1 is with books we  leave the    
charters and the rescripts on one side1 
and proceed to the  consideration of the
 main character of the calligrapher's   
work4    ,the ,bible and the ,liturgy   
for churchmen have been spoken of as the
 chief  objects of reproduction among   
the scribes for many centuries4 ,it was 
not  till the twelfth century that their
 labours required to be augmented for   
the service of laymen4 ,men 7and women7 
who could afford the expense1 or  whose 
position demanded that they should have 
prayerbooks for their own  use1 whether 

they could read ill or well or not at   
all1 were furnished with  ,latin        
,psalters1 to which were added1 at the  
end1 the ,athanasian #ef;,creed1  a     
,litany of ,saints1 some general        
prayers1 and the office for the ,dead4  
,they  were extracts from the ,breviary 
for the use of persons who only prayed  
occasionally4 ,the growth of something  
like education1 and a religious  desire 
to share to a somewhat greater extent   
the communion with ,heaven  which was   
monopolised by monks and priests1 caused
 a further extension of  calligraphic   
labour towards the beginning of the     
fourteenth century4 ,the  ,psalter with 
its scanty additions was no longer      
sufficient for pious  laymen4 ,a larger 
selection of prayers and lessons from   
the ,breviary was  concocted2 the       
offices of the ,virgin1 of the ,cross1  
of the ,holy ,ghost1 and  of some       
special saints were united to form the  
,book of ,hours4 ,it was  nothing like  
the severe and frequent task of orisons 

with which the monks  performed their   
duties at the canonical ,hours of the   
day and night1 but it  was sufficient   
for the most zealous laymen and         
laywomen2 and it became the  private    
,prayerbook of the fourteenth1          
fifteenth1 and early sixteenth          
centuries4 ,during that period it was   
produced in countless thousands of      
manuscripts in ,england1 ,france1       
,flanders1 ,italy1 and to a less extent 
in  ,germany and ,spain4 ,in ,england it
 was called ,hor ,beat ,mari ,virginis1 
or  ,book of ,hours1 or ,primer2 in     
,france always ,hor1 or ,livre          
d',heures2 in  ,italy it was ,officium  
,b4,v4,m41 and in ,flanders and ,holland
 ,ghetijden4 ,the  ,gebetbuch of        
,germany belongs chiefly to the         
fifteenth century1 and was  nearly      
always in ,german1 while in ,france1    
,flanders1 and ,england1 prayers in  the
 vernacular only crept in gradually here
 and there4 7,in ,italy the book  always
 continued to be written in ,latin      

only47 ,in the ,english ,hours or       
,primer the vernacular portions became  
at last so important that it was  found 
advisable to issue many of the printed  
,primers in the sixteenth  century in   
bilingual form1 ,latin and ,english2 and
 it was undoubtedly this  tendency both 
in ,england and in ,germany which       
produced the ,reformation4 ,it  was not 
so much the desire for a ,reformation of
 the ,church--even ,boccaccio1  himself 
a churchman1 #eg;and many others of his 
kind had wished for  that--as an        
invincible demand for a vernacular      
liturgy1 which widened  through         
opposition into an eagerness to sweep   
away everything that opposed  it4 ,hence
 the break with ,rome1 which still      
imperiously demanded the  uniformity    
that could only be maintained by the use
 of a single language  throughout       
,europe4 ,the few exceptions to the rule
 which ecclesiastical  policy had ever  
allowed were in the concession to the   
affiliated ,greek1  ,slavonic1 and      

,oriental congregations of a right to   
use their own vernacular  liturgies4    
,the antiquity of the ,greek and ,syriac
 formulas1 on the one hand1  the utter  
impossibility of making ,latin familiar 
even to the priests of the  ,slavic and 
,oriental churches1 and the certainty   
that a denial of their  needs would     
throw them into the ,byzantine          
fold--account for ,papal  acquiescence  
in that respect4 ,but the ,popes could  
not see that ,england and  ,germany1    
which had from so early a time been the 
seats of ,roman colonies  and the homes 
of ,latin churches1 likewise needed a   
liturgy that the people  could          
understand2 and that the ,teutonic      
speech of the north had no such  generic
 sympathy with the language of the      
,roman liturgy as the rustic ,latin     
tongues of ,italy1 ,spain1 and ,france4 
,the ,canon ,law1 deriving from the     
remains of the apostolical constitutions
  and the acts of the ,councils1 the    
,penitentiaries which had been          

formulated  by bishops for the          
government of ,christianised barbarians1
 and the decrees  of ,popes1 began to   
take shape as a ,code in the eleventh   
and twelfth  centuries4 ,the existence  
of forged documents among the decretals 
was a  matter of no great importance4   
,everything was sufficiently old to be  
respectable2 and the schools of law1    
which had never given up the study and  
cultivation of the ,civil ,code         
7digested in ,justinian's time from the 
various works of the old ,roman         
jurists71 set to work to arrange and    
gloss  the ,canon ,law4 ,the two ,codes1
 especially the ,ecclesiastical1        
provided the  scribes of ,western       
,europe with an enormous amount of work4
 ,bologna1  #eh,padua1 ,paris1 and      
,oxford were renowned for their lawyers 
and their  schools of law2 with the     
accompanying armies of students and     
copyists4    ,christian poets1 too1 were
 not lacking4 ,from the time of         
,lactantius  onwards1 the quantity of   

metrical ,latin work done by churchmen  
was very  large2 and the lyrical        
yearning inherent in all societies had  
produced an  immense hymnology1 which   
comprised a great deal of real          
poetry--most  poetical and most charming
 when least ,ciceronian4 ,here1 again1  
was rich  material for the copyists of  
the scriptorium2 and both ,hymnals and  
,lawbooks  lent their aid towards the   
gradual tendency of students to go back 
and  investigate the ancient sources of 
literature and philosophy and history4  
,pliny had never been wholly forgotten1 
even in the most anti-pagan times1  and 
the treatises on natural science which  
had appeared among the  schoolmen1 all  
stimulated curiosity to learn what had  
been written before  the days of        
,constantine4 ,the result of these      
intellectual tendencies made  the       
fourteenth century a dawn of the        
,renaissance1 and with the beginning of 
the fifteenth a large body of heathen   
literature was annexed to the  libraries

 of universities1 scholars1 and         
monasteries1 giving increased           
employment to the transcribers who were 
at that time busy all over ,europe4  ,it
 was in the thirteenth century that the 
monks and the priests lost their        
monopoly of the practice of ornamental  
writing2 in the fourteenth century      
every great city had its ateliers of    
calligraphers unconnected with the      
,church2 and when the fifteenth century 
arrived the trained citizen penmen1  who
 formed crafts throughout ,europe1 were 
probably not inferior in number  to the 
scribes who worked in ecclesiastical    
edifices4      ,the ,illuminated ,,mss4 
of the ,middle ,ages    ,this division  
of our matter is the largest1 and is    
also the most  interesting to the       
majority of students and #ei;collectors4
 ,in beginning  it1 some repetition will
 be necessary in order to bring the     
subject as a  whole before the reader4  
,between the ninth century and the      
sixteenth1 the multiplication of ,,mss4 

in  ,europe was very great1 but         
comparatively few of the ninth1 tenth1  
and  eleventh have been preserved4      
,beautiful examples of blended writing  
and  decoration were produced in        
,england in the ninth century by        
,anglian and  ,irish calligraphers in   
the north1 and by ,saxon writers in the 
south4 ,in  ,york and ,durham1 and      
,lindisfarne1 the style and the motifs  
of ornament were  still thoroughly      
,irish2 in the south1 although the late 
,roman had conquered  the ,celtic1 their
 collision had produced a singularly    
fine type of  illumination1 reminiscent 
of ,byzantine work1 but much more free  
and  natural4 ,that art had already     
beautified the ,carolingian ,french     
school2 in  the ,carolingian ,german its
 influence appears in a weaker and ruder
 form4  ,when with the tenth century    
,france and ,germany emerged as two     
distinct  nations from the chaos of the 
,frankish empire1 their modes of        
book-decoration began to diverge4 ,the  

rudeness of an earlier time remains1    
with a good deal of spirit1 in the      
illustrative designs produced in        
,germany2 the beauty of ,french work    
began to decay1 while the ,english was  
at  its best4 ,winchester1 ,canterbury1 
and ,glastonbury were the real centres  
of  ,english art at the middle of the   
tenth century2 the ,norsemen having     
destroyed the ,anglo-,irish monasteries 
in the north4 ,this south ,english      
school is considered to have benefited  
materially by the technical  superiority
 of ,french methods4 ,what the north    
,english schools of ,york and           
,lindisfarne had given to ,tours in the 
eighth century1 came back to            
,winchester at the end of the ninth1    
refined and embellished4 ,thus the      
supremacy of ,english art was assured at
 a time when ,french art was  declining4
 ,the great variety1 however1 in all    
countries1 of work done by  different   
men1 renders it difficult to draw       
general deductions4 ,the  calligraphic  

decoration of ,visigothic and ,lombardic
 manuscripts during  the ninth1         
#fjtenth1 and eleventh centuries is     
visibly ,celtic in origin  and style4   
,their pictorial illustration is        
sometimes very striking1 and  indicates 
the existence of several central schools
 of design in ,europe4 ,the  ,english1  
the ,french1 the ,german1 the ,spanish1 
and the ,italian1 had all  certain      
qualities in common1 but the first two  
were most nearly akin4 ,the  other three
 schools produced in the eleventh and   
twelfth centuries books  containing     
pictures1 in which the composition is   
more remarkable than the  drawing1 and  
the painting is full of barbaric        
contrasts of colour4 ,at all  times1    
fine work was to be found in ,italy1 but
 only in isolated examples1  and ,italy 
as a whole underwent the same           
barbarisation as the other  countries4  
,from that stage the ,english and the   
,french were the first to  emerge4 ,they
 can hardly be said to have revived any 

former state of art  in connexion with  
books4 ,it was with them a real         
creation4 ,the frequent  reference to   
,byzantium as having supplied the models
 for ,european  illuminated work is     
misleading4 ,the first sign of actual   
contact with  ,byzantium is in the early
 part of the ninth century1 when certain
 pictures  produced in ,carolingian     
,,mss4 show that the painters had been  
made aware of  the existence of similar 
,byzantine work4 ,and that is actually  
all that can  be referred to as direct  
imitation of ,byzantine art4 ,the       
magnificent early  examples of          
chrysography on purple vellum were not  
,byzantine but  ,eastern-,roman1 and the
 ,roman traditions of the ,eastern      
capital lingered on  into the ninth     
century1 having begun to grow weaker at 
the end of the  sixth4 ,italy was nearer
 and more potent in its influence upon  
barbaric art  than ,byzantium1 and there
 was little difference in               
book-decoration between  ,east ,rome and

 ,west ,rome till after the time of     
,justinian2 so far as the  cultivation  
of the arts was concerned4 ,consequently
 there is no need to  look to ,byzantium
 as having supplied models for the rest 
of ,europe to  follow4 ,there is a      
difference of kind1 not merely of       
degree1 between the  livres de luxe of  
the two ,roman empires1 and those of the
 new nations  which began #fawith ,irish
 work about ,a4,d4 #fjj1 and ended with 
,italian and  ,french work about #aeej4 
,the former were books written in gold1 
perhaps2  perhaps decorated with red ink
 only2 illustrated1 maybe1 with a       
picture or  with pictures4 ,the latter  
were books of which the principal       
characteristic  was not their           
bookishness but their decorativeness4 ,a
 set scheme of  ornament sustained from 
beginning to end1 with due proportion in
 the  intervals1 in which even the      
pictorial designs were subordinate to   
the  decorative plan1 constituted the   
value of the illuminated books of the   

,european middle ages4    ,bibles and   
liturgical books in the twelfth century 
are remarkable for their  large size and
 the quantity of decoration with which  
they were produced4 ,in  ,germany1 the  
method of ornament still repeats the    
,anglo-,saxon type derived  from        
,carolingian work1 and the handwriting  
is still ,carolingian1 but the  letters 
lean forward instead of being upright1  
their forms are narrowed and  chiselled 
off by short sharp terminal strokes that
 give an appearance of  angularity4 7,an
 example of the art is given on plate   
#ba47 ,in ,spain1 the  beautiful round  
,visigothic letters are still retained1 
with large  initials of interlaced      
,celtic pattern1 and the illustrative   
pictures 7if  there are any7 have the   
same style as had been developed some   
centuries  earlier in ,aquitaine4 ,the  
,german and the ,spanish have a sort of 
resemblance  by reason of their common  
origin1 but more especially because of  
the  striking combination of green and  

yellow in the paintings1 the note of    
yellow apparently being strongest in the
 latter1 and of green in the  former4   
,the use of green tints predominates    
likewise in ,english work of the        
eighth-twelfth centuries1 but became    
much more sparing under the influence   
of the ,french school which1 after the  
eleventh century1 began to avoid        
indulgence in that colour4 ,it never    
lost its favourite place in ,german art1
  and the ,,mss4 of ,holland and        
,flanders only dropped it when they     
began to  assimilate ,french methods in 
the fourteenth century4 ,england in the 
twelfth  century #fbproduced much finer 
work than the ,french4 ,in fact the     
,english  school of that century was the
 parent of nearly all the art of the    
following century4 ,both in calligraphy 
and in pictorial designs1 it            
forestalled the work done in the whole  
of ,western ,europe between #abjj and   
#acjj1 which has rendered the thirteenth
 century the most noteworthy in the     

history of illustrated ,,mss4 ,the mode 
and style of drawing1 unfinished by     
illumination1 which were practised in   
,england towards the close of the       
thirteenth century1 may be examined in  
plate #aj4 ,italian work of the same    
time is shown in plate #aa to have been 
much more barbaric and unskilful4  ,the 
difference between ,english             
twelfth-century work and that of ,europe
 in  the thirteenth century consisted in
 the large and ample freedom of hand    
which marks the former and the delicate 
minuteness which characterises  alike   
the writing and the miniatures of the   
latter4 ,as for style and  quality of   
work1 there is scarcely any difference  
between them4 ,this new  ,english       
school1 so admirable in the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries1 had  grown up over
 the decline of the ,anglo-,saxon phase1
 which1 fine as it was1  had still      
somewhat of a barbaric air about it4    
,the conquest of the ,saxon  monarchy by
 a ,duke of ,normandy in the eleventh   

century1 and the succession  in the     
twelfth of a ,count of ,anjou who united
 under his sceptre ,england1  ,normandy1
 and ,aquitaine1 made this country the  
centre of ,french art and  literature   
for a considerable period4 ,hence the   
almost complete identity of  the modes  
of writing and ornamentation between    
,english and ,french work in  the       
thirteenth century4 ,in ,central and    
,south-eastern ,france the style  varied
 somewhat as will be seen by comparing  
the examples given on plates #h  and #i4
 ,there is no school of art more        
interesting than the ,anglo-,norman1 as 
it is called1 of that time4 ,the        
illuminated border had not yet          
established  itself1 but the initials1  
drawn upon a ground of burnished gold or
 of  diapered tints1 enclose painted    
miniatures looking like very fine       
pen-and-ink designs carefully coloured4 
,bibles thus decorated are very         
#fcnumerous4 ,as they approach the end  
of the century1 they exhibit now and    

then long straight lines1 ending in     
curves or fleurons1 which spread from   
the pictured initial upwards and        
downwards1 and form a simple border to  
more than half the page4 ,this incipient
 practice increased gradually from  the 
beginning of the following century      
onwards4 ,the fleurons became gold      
ivy-leaves1 and similar leaves were     
figured as sprouting out from the long  
straight border-lines1 these lines being
 extended so as to enclose the page  on 
all sides4 ,still the effect was stiff  
and imperfect1 but by the close of  the 
fourteenth century1 a very splendid kind
 of foliated border was used by  ,french
 illuminators4 ,the gold leaves called  
ivy-leaves were now introduced  in      
greater number and made to sprout1 no   
longer from the straight border  frame  
itself1 but more naturally out of       
branches which festooned from the       
frame4 ,the ivy-leaf border in this     
state was very much favoured in ,french 
illumination1 but was little used       

elsewhere4 ,it generally accompanies    
pictorial illustration of superior      
merit1 and gives an air of distinction  
and elegance to any ,,ms4 in which it is
 found4 ,the ,french schools of ,central
  ,france and of ,paris had by the      
middle of the fourteenth century        
regained  their lost pre-eminence in    
art4    ,the thirteenth century was the 
first and the finest period of medival  
gothic1 so far as handwriting is        
concerned4 7,the name is a misnomer1 but
  has a clear recognised sense1 and is  
useful47 ,the letters are angulated at  
their extremities1 but the bodies are   
still rounded and perfectly clear4  ,the
 square and lapidar ,gothic was         
introduced in the fourteenth century1   
and  prevailed during that and the two  
succeeding centuries4 ,it was a vicious 
script1 indistinct and difficult to     
read2 and although some examples1       
distinct1 legible1 and handsome1 were   
brought out in the fifteenth century1   
the system was generally bad1 and there 

is no reason to regret its  extinction1 
which took place in ,france1 ,italy1 and
 ,spain about the middle  of the        
sixteenth #fd;century1 and in ,england  
somewhat later1 although it is          
lingering on even now in ,germany and   
,denmark4    ,the square ,gothic of the 
fourteenth century1 however unclear and 
objectionable as a script1 was not ill  
adapted to ornamental purposes1 as  the 
vast number of prayerbooks for the laity
 produced between #acej and  #adjj1 and 
throughout the succeeding century1 make 
manifest4 ,of those  prayerbooks1 which 
for a hundred and fifty years were the  
chief medium for  displaying the skill  
of the medival illuminator1 the number  
of copies  which were made for          
individuals or families1 as birth-day or
 wedding gifts1  or for whatever reason1
 was incredibly large4 ,the existence of
 such  prayerbooks1 well written and    
decorated with paintings1 for private   
persons1 is enough in itself to show    
that the office of calligrapher and     

miniaturist was a secular trade1 and    
that the old monks1 to whom so many     
persons ascribe the writing of the      
missals1 had long ceased to be the  sole
 producers of ,,mss4    ,not many of the
 earlier ,books of ,hours have survived1
 that is1 of those  which were written  
between #acjj and #acej2 but from the   
latter date onwards  to #adjj they are  
not uncommon1 and from #adjj onwards    
very numerous4 ,this  statement refers  
to ,french and ,franco-,flemish and     
,burgundian work4 ,of  ,english work1   
there are very few extant anterior to   
#adjj1 and the same may  be said of     
,dutch examples4 ,as for those written  
in ,italy and ,germany1 it is  only     
towards the close of the fifteenth      
century that they are met with4 ,the    
,english and ,french ,hours produced    
during #acej-adbj are very different in 
their mode of ornamentation4 ,the       
,gothic writing was pretty nearly the   
same  everywhere1 and the larger        
illuminated initials had followed one   

model  since the thirteenth century4    
,these initials 7when not historiated   
with  little miniatures7 were painted in
 colour upon a ground usually of gold4  
,the space within the letter-forms was  
filled up with a conventional           
flower-pattern1 having buds of red and  
blue tints4 ,at the earlier  #feperiod  
the letter-form has a small extension   
upwards and downwards1 in  a simple     
style resembling wood-carving4 ,in the  
fourteenth century this  extension is   
increased1 and the long straight border1
 with ivy-leaves here  and there1 was   
produced4 ,while that kind of border was
 in ,france being  developed into its   
most elegant phase1 a different type was
 preferred in  ,england4 ,the gold      
ground of the initial is prolonged into 
a stem1 around  which twines a          
corresponding prolongation of coloured  
foliage springing  from the curved      
extremities of the initial letter4 ,thus
 they form a border  which would be     
pretty enough in itself1 but which is   

further decorated with  tufts of long   
feathery grass1 tipped with buds1 which 
grow out of the stem  and sweep in      
graceful curves outside the line of     
foliage4 ,this feathery                 
ornament--which1 except for the little  
fleurons in colour here and there1      
seems drawn with a fine pen in brown    
ink--is distinctly ,english1 and was    
retained till late in the fifteenth     
century1 side by side with newer        
methods borrowed from ,france4 ,the red 
and blue1 with white lights1 which  are 
used in the initials and capitals by the
 ,french illuminators1 are in  the      
,english ,,mss4 pink and pale blue1 and 
the white lights are broader4    ,as    
soon as the ivy-leaf pattern1 with its  
brilliant gold points1 began to  go out 
of fashion in ,france1 a new kind of    
border came into vogue4 ,the            
conventional red and blue foliage still 
continued to spring out from the        
initials and at intervals below and     
above2 all the intervening space was    

filled in with curling and twining      
tendrils1 drawn with a pen or a very    
fine brush1 forming a kind of hedge1 in 
the midst of which were scattered  here 
and there little natural flowers and    
fruits1 growing out of the curled       
tendrils4 ,this was in use in ,french   
and ,burgundian and ,flemish ,,mss4 from
  about #adbj-cj onwards1 and became a  
favourite method of decoration in       
,england towards the middle of the      
century4 ,at that time1 and in that     
style1  prayerbooks done in the three   
countries are often much alike1 and it  
is  #ffonly the painting of the         
miniatures and the differences in the   
calendar  and litany which distinguish  
them4      ,the chief ,liturgical ,books
 distinguished    ,a word may be said   
here as to the means of distinguishing  
the liturgical  ,,mss41 and obtaining an
 idea of their place of origin4 ,it     
ought not to be  necessary1 but1 as a   
matter of fact1 there are many persons  
of fair  education1 and possessing no   

inconsiderable familiarity with         
manuscripts1  who call every ,book of   
,hours a ,missal1 and who cannot        
distinguish between  a ,breviary and a  
,missal4    ,the ,missal gives the      
service of the ,mass for the whole year4
 ,its essence  lies in the ,canon of the
 ,mass1 beginning with the words ,te    
igitur1 which  is preceded by a number  
of prfationes 7some of them general1    
some of them  appropriated to special   
occasions71 and followed by the         
,communion and the  concluding          
thanksgivings4 ,this was in more ancient
 times the first and the  larger part of
 the ,mass-book1 and was followed by a  
set of prayers1 which  in the service   
itself preceded and led to the ,preface1
 these preliminary  prayers being       
arranged under the festivals of the year
 from ,december to  ,december4 ,in the  
,missal1 as arranged and enlarged in the
 thirteenth  century1 there are four    
divisions3 #a4 ,de ,tempore 7,sundays   
and festivals72  #b4 ,prefaces1 ,canon1 

and ,ordinary of the ,mass2 #c4         
,mass-prayers appropriated  to special  
,saints' days2 #d4 ,mass-prayers common 
to all ,saints' days4 ,the              
chronological order from ,advent to     
,advent 7#cjth ,november to #bith       
,november7  was followed1 except in the 
case of some of the most solemn and     
ancient  commemorations1 and also of    
some special festivals that had been    
appointed  after the original           
compilement of the ,mass-book4 ,these   
were incorporated in  the part ,de      
,tempore1 in succession to the text     
relating to the ,advent4 ,at  the end of
 the fourth part were also added some of
 the special offices in  regard to the  
laity1 which had to be #fgperformed by  
the priest1 such as  matrimony1 baptism1
 and burial4    ,the essence of the     
,breviary was the ,psalter1 which formed
 the groundwork of  all the forms of    
devotion used at the ,canonical ,hours4 
,with the appointed  extracts from the  
,psalter a number of prayers were used1 

and these were  divided in exactly the  
same way as those of the ,missal into   
,temporal 7of  ,sundays and festivals7  
in one sequence2 and ,sanctoral1 in two 
sections1  ,proper and ,common4 ,the    
perpetually recurring rubrics of        
,matins1 ,lauds1  ,prime1 ,tierce1      
,sext1 ,none1 and ,vespers 7ad          
matutinas1 in laudibus1 ad  primam1 ad  
tertiam1 ad sextam1 ad nonam1 ad        
vesperas7 mark the hours of  their use  
from midnight to midnight4 ,these       
headings1 repeated from day to  day all 
over the year1 ought to be sufficient   
even to the least observant  eye to     
indicate the ,breviary4 ,it also        
contains at the end the offices of      
,marriage1 ,baptism1 ,burial1 c42 and in
 some of the ,breviaries the office of  
the ,mass itself 7not the whole ,missal7
 is included4    ,the ,book of ,hours   
7or ,private ,prayerbook7 is a selection
 from the ,breviary1  and is likewise   
marked with the rubrics of the hours    
7,matins1 ,lauds1 ,nones1  c471 but they

 are applied only to the offices        
selected1 and do not contain  the       
chronological divisions1 ,temporal and  
,sanctoral1 for the year4 ,the  offices 
are usually those of the ,virgin1 of the
 ,cross1 of the ,holy ,ghost1  of the   
,trinity1 and these1 with the ,office   
for the ,dead1 and commemorations  of   
some special ,saints1 form the chief    
bulk of the ,hor4    ,the ,calendar1    
which is found at the beginning1 and the
 ,litany 7or ,litanies7  of ,saints1    
which is found in the body1 of each of  
the three books1 are  usually the most  
obvious sources of information with     
regard to the origin  of the manuscript4
 ,if the use1 or diocesan form of the   
liturgy1 is purely  ,roman1 as is       
sometimes the case even in books written
 in ,france1 ,flanders1  and ,england1  
then the search is frustrated4 ,it      
happens1 however1 frequently  that even 
#fhthe ,roman ,calendar and the ,roman  
,litany are enlarged by the  addition of
 names to which a special local         

veneration was paid1 and then  one is   
able to discover hints of origin which  
may indicate either a country  or a     
diocese4 ,in the ,french books1 the     
number of ,french ,saints is usually    
considerable1 that is of ,french ,saints
 who do not appear in the ,roman        
calendar1 but they are generally        
gathered impartially from all the       
dioceses4 ,it is only when we find that 
a single diocese furnishes the names  of
 two or three canonised bishops1 or when
 a name appears in gold in the  calendar
 which had no special importance for the
 whole of the country1 but  must have   
had a particular interest in one city or
 diocese1 that we can  begin to think of
 special attributions4 ,thus1 if ,st4   
,ives 7,yvo71 ,ste4  ,genevieve1 ,st4   
,germain1 ,st4 ,leufroy1 ,st4 ,louis1   
,s4 ,faro1 ,st4 ,ursin1 ,st4  ,saintin1 
,st4 ,saturnin1 ,ste4 ,radegonde1 ,st4  
,fiacre1 ,st4 ,austrebert1 and many     
others1 are found in the ,calendar1 and 
any of them in the ,litany1 it is a     

sure proof of ,french origin4 ,if ,st4  
,saturnin appears in gold in the        
,calendar1 it serves to indicate        
,toulouse2 if ,st4 ,sainctin1 ,meaux2   
,martial1  ,limoges2 ,firmin1 ,metz or  
,amiens2 and if ,,ss4 ,ursin1           
,guillaume1 and  ,austregisile occur    
together in the ,litany1 they point out 
,bourges--all  three having been        
,archbishops of that see4 ,but in all   
cases collateral or  cumulative         
testimony is required4    ,saints       
,vedastus and ,amandus 7,vaast and      
,amand71 although belonging to          
,flanders1 may occur either in ,french  
or ,flemish ,calendars2 but when they   
are combined with ,bavo and ,bertin1 and
 ,quintin and ,aldegund1 they indicate  
,ghent or its vicinity as the place of  
origin4 ,st4 ,piat1 ,st4 ,lehyre 7or    
,eleutherius71 and ,st4 ,guillain point 
to ,tournay4 ,st4 ,valery or ,walery    
7,walaricus7 is another ,flemish ,saint1
 as also are ,audomar1 ,gaugericus1     
,godeleve1 ,winnoc1 and ,amelberga4 ,as 

for ,,mss4 of ,flemish origin1 it must  
be  remembered that the word ,flemish is
 loosely used to designate all portions 
of the ,low ,countries except the       
#fipurely ,dutch provinces1 and that    
,artois  and ,picardy and other portions
 of the ,french ,pays ,reconquis of the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were  
part of them4 ,in the same way  ,franche
 ,comt and the ,duchies of ,burgundy and
 ,lorraine were also outside of  ,france
 in the fifteenth century2 and          
,languedoc and ,provence and ,dauphin   
were late additions to the ,french      
monarchy4 ,the words ,flemish 7in its   
fullest sense7 and ,french have         
therefore to be used with caution4 ,even
  ,brittany was only incorporated at the
 end of the fifteenth century4          
,manuscript liturgies of ,english origin
 of any date are unmistakable by  reason
 of the saints' names4 ,st4 ,thomas a   
,becket is not one of the  distinctive  
ones1 for he was worshipped everywhere2 
but all the ,english  books1 whether    

they be of ,roman use1 or of ,salisbury 
or ,york use1 contain  the names of     
,,ss4 ,alban1 ,cuthbert1 ,aldhelm1      
,guthlac1 ,botulph1 ,grimbald1  ,edward1
 ,richard1 ,edmund1 ,swithin1 ,dunstan1 
,etheldreda1 ,edith1 ,winifrid1  ,chad1 
,john of ,beverley4 ,the names of ,st4  
,wilfrid1 ,st4 ,william1 ,st4 ,hilda1   
,st4 ,aidan1 ,st4 ,bede1 and ,st4       
,everilda1 are proofs of ,york and      
northern use2  ,st4 ,milburga1 ,st4     
,guthlac1 and ,st4 ,thomas ,cantilupe   
indicated ,hereford1 as  also does ,st4 
,osytha1 although one name alone is not 
sufficient4 ,st4  ,wulfstan points to   
,worcester1 ,st4 ,hugh to ,lincoln1 but 
not always4 ,aldatus1  ,kinburga1       
,egwin1 and ,elwin1 are only found in   
books of ,gloucester or  western origin4
 ,st4 ,erkenwald always indicates       
,london or the south4    ,scottish      
liturgies of the kind are very rare1 and
 contain the names of  saints not       
elsewhere met with4 ,there can be no    
doubt as to the origin  beyond the      

border of a book which either in its    
calendar or its ,litany  gives the names
 of ,kentigern1 ,ninian1 ,aidan1        
,adamnan1 ,monan1 ,queen  ,margaret1    
,duthac1 and ,modoc4 ,even any one of   
these names is sufficient1  although    
,adamnan1 ,aidan1 and ,ninian might     
possibly appear on this side of  the    
,tweed1 as well as ,st4 ,adrian who was 
likewise ,scottish4    #gj,special      
,german saints are ,gotthard1 ,lambert  
7not always71 ,adelbert1  ,bernward1    
,sebald1 ,swibert1 ,cunegund1           
,hermenegild1 ,willibald1 ,kilian1      
,hedwig1 ,wolfgang1 ,irmin4    ,among   
the saints of the ,spanish calendar are 
,isidore1 ,ildefonsus1 ,eulalia1        
,raimund1 ,leocadia1 ,gumersind1        
,baldomer1 ,leander1 ,braulio1          
,turibius1  ,quiteria1 ,froilan4 ,there 
is sometimes a curious coincidence      
between the  ,spanish and the ,german   
calendars4 ,the ,spanish coincidences   
with the  calendar of ,southern ,france 
are more easily to be accounted for4    

,the ,italian saints are always those of
 the ,roman calendar1 but ,st4 ,zenobio 
is seldom found outside of ,tuscany4    
,,ss4 ,bernardinus of ,siena and        
,nicolas of  ,tolentinum are ,italian   
saints of the fifteenth century more    
frequently  found in ,italian calendars 
7after #adej7 than in calendars of other
  countries4 ,in the case of the latter 
two1 their names are sometimes useful   
in fixing a limit for the age of a book1
 because ,,mss4 of the time of their    
canonisation are numerous4 ,the dates of
 beatification of some earlier  saints  
such as ,thomas ,becket1 ,francis1      
,dominic1 and ,king ,louis1 are also    
occasionally of service2 but as a rule  
the names of the saints in the          
calendars are far older than the        
thirteenth century4      ,the           
,fourteenth ,century in ,italy and      
,germany    ,to go back to the          
fourteenth century4 ,in ,italy the      
broken ,lombard had given  way to the   
general adoption of the modern gothic4  

,some excellent decorative  work began  
to appear in the borders and miniatures 
of ,,mss4 executed in  ,northern and    
,central ,italy4 ,as a rule in the      
earlier times1 ,italian  miniatures were
 rude in drawing1 and barbaric in colour
 like ,german and  ,spanish work2 but in
 the thirteenth century a distinct      
,italian type arose1  based at first on 
imitation of the semi-,byzantine art of 
,calabria and  ,sicily2 but soon growing
 more national under the influence of   
,giotto4 ,there  is no resemblance in   
style or manner between the miniatures  
and borders of  ,italian artists1 and   
#gathose of ,northern ,europe4 ,the     
figures and faces  are painted with     
opaque colour1 and a broad brush2 giving
 altogether a  stronger impression of   
representing real men and women1 than   
the exquisite  drawing of the ,french   
artists1 in which faces were washed with
 colour after  having had the features  
drawn in with a pen or a fine brush4    
7,plate #ab  shows the style of         

illustration used at ,venice in the     
first half of the  fourteenth century1  
in which there is a curious combination 
of ,french-like  calligraphy with the   
painty miniatures of the home school of 
art47 ,there  was in fact more of       
modelling in the ,italian illuminator's 
work in its  purely national stage from 
about #acej to #adej4 ,after the later  
date a more  subtle and minute delicacy 
in the drawing altered the character of 
the  pictorial work4 ,the borders which 
prevailed during #acbj to #adbj are also
  quite different from ,french work4    
,broad foliage of architectonic pattern 
hangs in soft tints of red and blue from
 a long upright slender pole like  an   
ornamental curtain-rod1 and little buds 
or drops of burnished gold fall  here   
and there within the line of sight1 but 
there is no attempt to fill up  the     
spaces with any elaborate scheme of     
twining branches and real leaves  and   
flowers1 as in the ,french parallels4   
,the writing is usually square and      

gothic1 but with few of the oblique     
angles and little projecting points     
that are seen in ,western gothic4 ,the  
,lombardic hand of ,eastern and         
,southern  ,italy1 had left no trace in 
the script which succeeded it4 ,the     
round and  beautiful ,carolingian letter
 of ,north ,italy had a distinct        
influence in  moulding the ,italian     
gothic1 and preserving its freedom from 
,teutonic  angularities4 ,it had lasted 
longer here than in other countries1 but
  ,spanish ,visigothic was also a late  
lingerer1 and did not succumb to ,french
  influence till the thirteenth century4
    ,in ,germany1 the fourteenth century
 proceeded as elsewhere to produce a    
closely packed difficult ,gothic letter1
 and also to introduce an ugly  cursive 
which came generally into use in the    
next century4 ,in decoration1  the old  
#gb;,germanic style had given way to the
 influence of ,french and  ,italian     
work1 and a sort of new school was      
created1 which in the following  century

 became distinctively ,german4 ,the     
cursive writing alluded to was an  ugly 
rapid script deformed from the          
minuscule1 which was very largely used  
in the fifteenth century1 and developed 
in time the handwriting which still     
prevails in ,germany1 although gradually
 giving way to the ,roman4      ,english
 ,work in the ,fourteenth ,century      
,the cursive hand in ,england1 as used  
between #abej and #aeej for all         
purposes1 and in legal documents for a  
long time afterwards1 seems to have     
grown up in the early part of the       
thirteenth century4 ,it is quite unlike 
the earlier charter hand1 although it   
must have been derived from it4 ,for    
the first century or more of its use1 it
 is remarkable by reason of the  long   
strokes which are broad and heavy above1
 but taper into thin lines  below1 those
 heavy heads being bifurcated in the    
earlier times and looped  in the later4 
,during the thirteenth and a great part 
of the fourteenth  century it looked    

handsome1 and could be read without     
difficulty2 from the  late part of the  
fourteenth century onwards it           
deteriorated both in aspect  and in     
clearness4 ,nothing resembling this     
,english hand was used on the           
continent1 except 7in a slight degree7  
in the notes written sometimes on  the  
margins of philosophical and legal      
books1 by means of a hard leaden        
stylus4 ,another cursive was also       
employed1 which was merely the rapid    
writing of the gothic minuscule1 like   
that of ,germany2 but this appeared     
rather on the continent4    ,it has been
 remarked that the ,norman conquest     
introduced a new fashion in  writing2   
but the observation is too strong4 ,that
 event led gradually to the  disuse of  
writing in the angular ,anglo-,saxon    
letters1 but had little  influence on   
the fashion of the script used for      
writing ,latin1 which had  become round 
and clear since the tenth century4 ,the 
#gc;,carolingian  reformation had failed

 to supersede the ,anglo-,irish hand1   
but its influence  extended far enough  
to improve the shape even of the purely 
,english  letters4 ,in ,ireland1 the    
angular character had fixed its type    
which has not  since varied4    ,at the 
beginning of the fourteenth century1 the
 ,english1 as has been said  above1     
began to relinquish the lead in         
calligraphy and ornamentation1 which    
they had held since the twelfth4 ,the   
,latin ,bibles which had been produced  
towards the end of the twelfth century  
were usually folios of good size1       
written in a large and fine hand1 and   
decorated with miniatures of the type   
seen in the ,huntingfield ,psalter4 ,the
 fashion of the thirteenth century      
inclined to work of smaller dimensions1 
and the ,bibles came out in small       
octavo or duodecimo size until the end  
of the century approached1 when  there  
was a tendency to revert to small       
folios4 ,in the fourteenth century1  a  
favourite size was quarto or small      

quarto4 ,the illustrations in ,,mss4 of 
both twelfth and thirteenth centuries1  
and of the beginning of the  fourteenth1
 were similar in style1 but varying in  
appearance according to  the space      
allowed the artist4      ,french ,work  
in the ,fourteenth ,century    ,the     
,french took the lead in the fourteenth 
century1 especially during the  second  
half4 ,there was not much to choose in  
the writing of the time in any  country1
 but it was best in ,italy4 ,it was in  
the dainty adornment of their           
illuminated ,,mss41 and in the fine and 
delicate beauty of the pictorial        
designs1 that the ,french school now    
assumed its place of pre-eminence4 ,the 
,apocalypse was a favourite book in the 
first half of this century1 as it  had  
been in the twelfth1 and artists        
delighted in drawing pictures of its    
strange visions4 ,these pictures were   
seldom quite original in design1 since  
the earliest delineations had acquired a
 sort of traditional authority1 but     

they were sufficiently variant in       
#gdparticulars to exhibit the strength  
of the artist4 ,diapered and chequered  
patterns came more prominently into     
fashion along with the older use of     
burnished gold1 for backgrounds2 and a  
great deal of excellent work was done4  
,an example from a ,french ,apocalypse  
is given on plate #ac4 ,in most cases1  
the picture was drawn with a fine  brush
 and the colours delicately washed in   
afterwards4 ,french artists  attained to
 singular perfection in this dainty     
method of illustration1 and  nothing of 
the kind excels some of the superior    
specimens4 ,amongst them  will be found 
a number of charming ,books of ,hours   
executed at ,bourges1  ,tours1 and      
,paris1 for ,charles ,v of ,france and  
his brothers4 ,whatever may be  thought 
of the beautiful paintings in ,flemish  
and ,italian ,,mss4 at the end  of the  
fifteenth century1 it is undeniable that
 the last thirty years of  the          
fourteenth produced ,french work which  

will hold its own against the           
illumination of any period or of any    
country4 ,it is curious as showing how  
little the warfare against ,edward ,,iii
 had affected the progress of art in    
,france4      ,the ,fifteenth ,century  
,the second half of the fourteenth      
century saw a dynasty of ,french princes
  established in the ,duchy of          
,burgundy1 and the union of the states  
which had  belonged to the ,counts of   
,flanders1 to the ,duke's dominions4    
,these  political circumstances had the 
effect of diverting some of the best    
,french  miniaturists to the court of   
,philippe le ,hardi1 and of founding a  
grand  ,burgundian school of art1 which 
led to the creation of the ,flemish one4
 ,the  ,burgundian ,,mss4 of the first  
half of the fifteenth century were      
usually  executed at ,dijon 7the capital
 of the ,duchy7 or ,besancon2 and were  
thus  simply works of ,french art1 not  
very different in style from those      
produced  at ,bourges1 ,nevers1 and     

,auxerre2 but a certain local type was  
developed in  the ornamental borders of 
the miniatures2 and as soon as the      
political  centre of gravity #gewas     
shifted northwards1 by reason of the    
greater  wealth and importance of the   
,low ,countries1 ,bruges and ,brussels  
became the  chief towns in ,philip the  
,good's dominions1 and a new element was
  introduced into ,burgundian art4 ,the 
,flemish artists of ,bruges1 ,lille1 and
  ,liege had been renowned since the    
middle of the fourteenth century for    
their skill in miniature painting1 and  
,van ,eyck himself was a dependent of   
,philippe le ,bon1 in whose service he  
spent the last nine years of his life   
at ,bruges 7#adcb-addj74 ,it is supposed
 that the earlier ,flemish artists were 
the creators of grisaille painting1     
although that beautiful mode of         
pictorial illustration is first found in
 ,french books of the middle of the     
fourteenth century4 7,a specimen is     
given on plate #ad47 ,the finest        

examples  of grisaille were produced by 
,flemish artists at ,bruges between     
#addj and  #adgj1 and a book of ,hours1 
illuminated for ,jaquot de ,brgilles in 
#addc1 in  the possession of the writer1
 is one of remarkable beauty4 ,another  
fine  specimen1 of somewhat later date1 
is the ,miroir ,historial1 a miniature  
from  which is reproduced on plate #ag4 
,side by side with this kind of chaste  
work1 splendid illumination of the rich 
,french style was practised in          
,flanders1 and a favourable example is  
given of a ,book of ,hours painted at   
,tournay about #adfj1 on plate #af4     
,grisaille painting originated evidently
 from the suggestions of carved         
stone-work in cathedral-decoration4 ,the
 figures of saints occupying niches1    
which were familiar to the visitants of 
churches1 were the first models  that   
led to the painting of miniatures with  
the figures in grey tints4 ,it  must    
have been1 for a true artist1 delightful
 to triumph over the  difficulty of     

achieving the effects of relief and of  
modelling with the aid  of a single     
pigment only4 ,to be the master of such 
an art1 and to handle  the monochrome in
 such a way as to run with perfect touch
 through a gamut  of gradations in tone1
 would surely have been more gratifying 
than to win  success by the splendour of
 full illumination4 ,the artist did not1
 however1  entirely abstain #gf;from the
 use of gold2 he allowed it to shine on 
the  crowns of kings and around the     
heads of his saints2 and colour was used
  sparingly in the backgrounds4 ,these  
backgrounds in the pictures of earlier  
date were ornamental diapered surfaces1 
but after the first decade or two  of   
the fifteenth century1 landscape        
backgrounds made their appearance4 ,it  
was1 however1 some time before the      
miniaturist succeeded in realising      
effects of distance1 and thus producing 
true pictures as distinguished from     
ornamental historiation4 ,the ,italians 
were the first to gain a tolerable      

knowledge of perspective1 but the       
,flemings were not much behind them4 ,it
  was not1 however1 till late in the    
fifteenth century that anything like a  
faithful expression of perspective is   
found in the miniatures of ,,mss4    ,in
 the latter part of the fifteenth       
century1 pure grisaille was extended    
into camaieu2 that is1 the monochrome   
might be any other colour than grey1  so
 long as it was used in the same manner4
 ,this1 however1 was usually  confined  
to parts of miniatures1 and not         
inconsistent with a lavish use of  gold 
for the lights1 and masses of different 
colour in other portions of  the same   
picture4 ,the quantity of gold that gave
 magnificence to the work  of the       
miniaturist in ,flanders and ,france in 
the last quarter of the  fifteenth      
century became excessive4 ,it was a     
relief to the eye when this  blaze of   
gold receded before the outcome of late 
,flemish art4 ,scarcely any  school     
produced work comparable for delicacy   

and truth to the miniatures  painted in 
prayerbooks at ,bruges and ,ghent       
between #adij and #aebj4                
,illuminated ,borders in the ,fifteenth 
,century    ,after the year #adjj1 as   
has been already said1 the private      
,prayerbooks1 or  ,books of ,hours1     
which at that time were used in ,france 
and ,england1 but not  to any great     
extent elsewhere1 began to increase in  
numbers and develop new  styles of      
ornament4 ,the pages with illuminated   
#gg;initials still preserved  the older 
border1 the basis of which was a double 
line of gold and colour  issuing from   
the initial and running squarely round  
the page4 ,at the  corners and at       
intervals gold branches1 bearing gold   
and coloured  ivy-leaves1 went forth in 
somewhat stiff curves to form the outer 
decoration of the border4 ,this was in  
,french ,,mss4 ,in the ,english ones1   
heavy masses of gold and colour         
representing conventional foliage       
appeared  at the corners1 and out of the

 border-lines emerged the long sweeping 
tufts  of feathery grass with red and   
blue buds1 which have been already      
alluded  to4 ,towards #adcj the         
ivy-leaves lost their prominence in     
,france1 and were  only preserved in    
portion of the ornament4 ,the straight  
framing lines were  abandoned both in   
,england and ,france1 and a broader     
border was obtained by  a methodical    
arrangement of hundreds of curling      
hair-lines1 black or brown1  out of     
which sprung little red and blue flowers
 of natural appearance4 ,this  pattern  
was drawn and massed so as to represent 
a broad frame1 even and  square1        
enclosing the page4 ,this became a      
customary mode of ornamentation  in both
 countries1 so that a large proportion  
of ,english and ,french work  was much  
alike in style1 though not always in    
execution4 ,when the middle of  the     
century arrived1 a modification began to
 take place in ,french ,,mss42 the  fine
 black hair-lines of the borders gave   

place to wreathing green  branches1 less
 numerous1 and thus more proportionate  
in quantity4 ,the  flowers and leaves   
springing from them became more         
numerous1 more natural  and less        
conventional4 ,by this time ,burgundian 
and ,flemish ,livres d',heures  were    
also produced in large numbers1 and     
brilliant pictures of blossoms  growing 
in the rich gardens of ,burgundy added  
the weight of their influence  to the   
tendency towards floral decoration4 ,the
 flowers in the borders grew  more      
realistic and varied1 and were sometimes
 fine large examples of their  species4 
,this method was followed in ,england as
 well as in ,france4 ,next  appeared    
#gh;in continental work backgrounds1    
either of gold or of colour1  to the    
borders2 which had previously been      
painted on the plain vellum4  ,finally1 
in ,france it became fashionable to     
break the border into spaces  7taking   
various shapes71 of which some had gold 
grounds and some were  without grounds2 

or to treat the border in such a fashion
 that the branches  and flowers should  
appear partly on gold1 partly on russet1
 partly on blue1  or in other           
combinations4 ,this bizarre fashion did 
not take the taste  either of ,english  
or of ,flemish artists4 ,the ,english   
retained their crowded  border of       
flowers and branches painted on the     
plain vellum1 while the  ,flemings began
 to paint rich natural cut flowers upon 
a monochromatic  ground of pale gold or 
yellow4 ,on this pale ground1 free from 
all the  convolution of twining branches
 seen in ,french and ,english work1 they
 were  enabled to throw shadows beneath 
the cut flowers1 so that these appeared 
to  stand out in strong relief1 with    
excellent effect4 ,the new fashion at   
once  found copyists everywhere2 the    
celebrated ,hours of ,anne of ,brittany 
is one  of the finer ,french examples4  
,the imitations done in ,england were   
not very  successful4      ,end of the  
,fifteenth ,century    ,we now reach the

 last decade of the fifteenth century2  
in which the late  ,flemish school      
already alluded to arose in ,bruges and 
,ghent4 ,in combination  with those     
beautiful borders of fresh cut flowers  
painted in apparent  relief upon pale   
gold or yellow1 the delicate art of     
,memling and ,gerard  ,david produced   
small and exquisite miniatures with     
architectural and  landscape            
accessories2 the like of which had not  
yet been seen in the  illustration of   
books1 unless we find a parallel in the 
lovely and no less  exquisite pictures  
in ,florentine manuscripts of the same  
period4 ,the  radical difference between
 the work of the north and that of the  
#gisouth--notwithstanding that each of  
them betrays to some extent the         
influence of the other--is1 that the    
,fleming took his types from real life1 
the ,florentine from his conceptions of 
angelic existence4    ,all the rest of  
,europe was behind the two favoured     
countries in which  pictorial and       

decorative art now reached their        
culminating point4  ,sentimental writers
 have been1 from time immemorial1 in the
 habit of  scouting at wealth and of    
pouring enthusiastic praise upon penury1
 as  though the two conditions were     
equivalent to vice and virtue in morals1
 to  dulness and genius in intellect4   
,it is quite true that an impoverished  
state of society produces better poetry 
than a rich one2 but it is equally  true
 that the finest artistic work is born  
amid luxurious surroundings4 ,it  was   
the wealth of ,ghent1 ,bruges1 ,antwerp1
 and ,brussels which attracted  talent  
to a warmer air in which it could grow  
and flourish1 on the border  land       
between the ,celt and the ,teuton1 with 
all the advantages derivable  from      
either side4 ,in the same way the riches
 and luxury of ,venice1  ,florence1     
,rome1 ,naples1 ,verona1 ,cremona1      
,padua1 stimulated the faculties of  men
 who had inherited the traditions of    
,grco-,roman art4 ,it was a brilliant   

autumn in the annals of illumination1   
but a short one1 by reason of the       
changes which the new art of ,printing  
had brought about in all things4  ,drer 
visited ,bruges and ,venice2 he admired 
the work of ,gerard ,david and of  the  
,italian miniaturists1 but he did not   
seek to imitate or to rival their       
efforts4 ,he belonged to the modern     
world1 and he gave to the art of        
engraving what he would1 twenty years   
earlier1 have given to the art of       
illumination4 ,we have nothing to do    
here with his profession as a painter   
of canvases in which he followed the    
same tendency as had during the         
fifteenth century so wonderfully        
multiplied the number of ,giotto's      
descendants in ,italy4 ,we may imagine1 
if we choose1 what wonderful            
illuminators of manuscripts were lost in
 ,schongauer1 ,drer1 and ,lucas van     
,leyden1 three men who owed #hjtheir    
artistic existence and taste to the     
atmosphere of rich cities4 ,from the    

year #adej the career of ,calligrapher  
and ,illuminator had been doomed to     
extinction4 ,its members gradually      
retired from an unequal strife with the 
clever mechanics from ,mentz2 some      
became printers1 some became engravers1 
and others joined the ranks of the      
canvas-painters4 ,those who remained    
true to their early training achieved   
the most brilliant triumphs of their    
profession before it was extinguished4  
,this is the reason why we look to the  
,flanders1 and to the ,italy of         
#adhj-aebj1 for the most absolutely     
perfect work that was ever produced in  
the illumination of manuscripts4        
,considering that it flourished side by 
side with the paintings of the ,bellinis
 and of ,andrea ,mantegna1 and that it  
was in touch with the times of          
,lionardo1 of ,raphael1 of ,michel      
,angiolo1 of  ,titian1 and of ,paolo    
,veronese1 we cannot wonder either at   
its marvellous  beauty or at its sudden 
withering4    ,of the late ,flemish     

school1 certain work done for the       
,austrian ,archduchess  ,margaret       
7resident in ,bruges with her brother   
,philip1 as children of  ,maximilian who
 had become sovereign of the ,low       
,countries in right of his  wife ,mary  
of ,burgundy71 of which the famous      
,grimani ,breviary is only one  amongst 
some ten or twelve examples--was the    
finest of its kind4 ,the  present writer
 has possessed one of them--a little    
volume internally  justifying the       
tradition that it was illuminated by    
,gerard ,david for the  ,archduchess    
7 4   4   ,margot la gente demoiselle   
,qu' eut deux maris et si mourut pucelle
    as she once suggested for her own   
epitaph when in danger from a storm at  
sea7 for presentation to her            
sister-in-law ,juana1 the heiress of    
,castile  7,juana la ,loca1 the ,crazy  
,jane who has become a personage in     
nursery lore74    ,as for the ,italian  
school1 it was of wider extent4 ,the    
illuminators found  generous patrons at 

,milan1 at ,venice1 at ,padua1 at       
,cremona1 at ,verona1 at  ,florence1 at 
,bologna1 at ,rome1 and at ,naples4 ,in 
the last city1 the ,kings  of           
#ha;,aragonese origin were noble        
employers of talent1 and found their    
chief rivals in the ,medicis1 and in    
,mathias ,corvinus1 the ,king of        
,hungary1  who divided with them the    
patronage of the best ,italian          
miniaturists4 ,they  also helped to     
stamp on ,spanish work the ,italian     
impress which  characterises it in the  
last half of the fifteenth century1 and 
thereby to  continue the line which in  
contact with ,naples on the one hand1   
with ,bruges  on the other1 formed at   
the end of the century a ring1 uniting  
,flanders and  ,italy as its chief      
jewels4    ,the name of ,attavante1 so  
famous as a ,florentine miniaturist1    
reminds me of  a ,petrarch manuscript   
which ,i have seen sold in ,paris as    
illustrated by  him4 ,one of the        
illuminations contained a bust of a     

,roman warrior1 in the  style so        
frequently seen in ,italian work of     
about the year #aejj1 and under  it were
 the initials ,m4,a41 intended evidently
 for ,marcus ,aurelius or ,marcus       
,antonius4 ,out of them1 the cataloguers
 of two different collections of  great 
repute1 had evolved the idea that they  
stood for ,maestro  ,attavante--an      
absurd notion for which there was       
absolutely no excuse  whatever4 ,other  
famous ,italian miniaturists were       
,girolamo dai ,libri of  ,verona1 and   
,sigismondo da ,carpio4 ,i have had     
examples of the art of both4  ,one still
 more celebrated was ,giulio ,clovio1   
but he belonged entirely to  the        
sixteenth century and to the late       
,renaissance1 and his work is in  nowise
 that of the ,middle ,ages4 ,it is      
over-florid and reveals the  theatrical 
splendour which always accompanies      
decline4 ,i have possessed one  of his  
finest examples1 which was formerly in  
the ,towneley library4    ,during the   

last twenty years of the fifteenth      
century1 a favourite style of  border   
among the ,italians was an imitation of 
goldsmith's work4 ,gems of  various     
colours set in gold1 with cameos or     
medallions of classic busts1  were the  
chief feature1 but spaces were always   
left in which the  miniaturist could    
paint his tiny exquisite figures of the 
fight between  ,david and ,goliath1 or  
something of the kind4 ,venetian        
#hb;examples of such  miniatures are    
remarkably beautiful--the beauty mingled
 with a certain  gravity of manner2     
those which are of ,roman origin have an
 air of masterly  splendour2 but those  
which were produced at ,florence between
 #adhj and #aeaj  are so lovely as to   
upset our critical judgment in comparing
 them with work  done at ,bruges4 ,in   
the border-illustration there never was 
any resemblance  between the work of    
,italy and that of other countries1 and 
there can be no  hesitation in deciding 
between them in favour of ,italy as more

  appropriately decorative4    ,i       
possess a ,psalter written and          
illuminated for ,pietro dei ,medici1    
apparently about #adij1 in which the    
first two pages are stained light       
green1 so as to soften and make delicate
 the numerous tints found in the        
painting and border upon one of them4   
,these are the work probably of         
,attavante1 and can hardly be excelled  
for the exquisite taste and finish  both
 of the miniature and of the            
ornamentation4 ,i have also had a       
charming  little ,prayerbook written for
 ,lorenzo the ,magnificent1 which was   
evidently  from the same hand2 and a    
,siennese ,psalter of kindred type and  
of the same  period4 ,the loveliness of 
these ,tuscan examples takes away all   
possibility  of critical fault-finding4 
,they delight the eye with a fuller     
satisfaction  than even the best of the 
,flemish illuminations4 ,the latter we  
examine  carefully1 with a continual    
increase of admiration2 while we enjoy  

the  harmonious beauty of the           
,florentine1 we feel that the critic's  
functions  are set aside4    ,the       
writing of the late ,italian ,,mss41    
among which classical texts rival the   
books of prayers in the elegance of     
their adornment1 was more frequently    
,roman than gothic1 but a fine          
black-letter hand survived into the     
sixteenth  century1 especially at       
,venice4 ,the initials decorated with   
interlacements1  in a style that evinced
 its ,irish origin1 which are found in  
,italian  manuscripts after #acej were  
retained till near the end of the       
fifteenth  century in ,venice and       
,naples1 but they had fallen out of use 
in ,tuscany  #hcsomewhat earlier1 being 
hardly appropriate to the rich          
neo-classical  style of ,florentine     
border-decoration4    ,as for the       
,italian styles of writing after the    
twelfth century1 they were  various4    
,the ,carolingian in a bold and handsome
 type lasted longer in ,italy  than     

elsewhere2 but both it and the ,lombard 
were passing away about the  year #abjj4
 ,the thirteenth century saw the        
evolution of the gothic letter  out of  
the ,carolingian1 in ,italy as well as  
over the rest of ,europe1 but in  ,italy
 it was accompanied by a sort of        
,carolingian cursive1 slightly sloped1  
which finally developed the two forms   
now familiar over all the  world--,roman
 and ,italic4 ,in the fourteenth century
 a beautiful square  gothic letter was  
in use in ,italy1 and remained unaltered
 in form till the  end of the fifteenth2
 but it was not unaccompanied by various
 other styles  of writing4 ,the ,italic 
was still in its primitive stage without
 elegance1  and some books were written 
in a gothic letter derived from ,french 
and  ,german models1 and quite unlike   
the square ,italian gothic4 ,the script 
of  the book1 from which a facsimile is 
given on plate #ab1 is an example of    
this outlandishness4 ,before the        
fifteenth century arrived the cursive   

hand  had split into its two branches4  
,the more elaborately written letters   
were  upright1 and tended to restore the
 ,carolingian original2 the less        
elaborate  characters began to slope    
still further1 and by degrees became a  
separate  script1 which then became     
cultivated4 ,the writing of ,petrarch   
7who died in  #acgd7 was chosen as the  
model for the first ,italic types used  
in printing  7#aeja72 and the upright   
round hand used by numerous ,florentine 
and ,venetian  calligraphers towards the
 middle of the fifteenth century was    
chosen as the  model of the first ,roman
 types1 cut by ,sweynheym and ,pannartz 
in the  ,benedictine monastery of       
,subbiaco1 not far from ,rome1 in the   
year #adfd4      ,remarks on the        
subjects reproduced in the plates       
,the first plate represents portion of a
 hieroglyphical #hdtext written on  a   
roll of papyrus which was wrapped up    
with the mummy of the man whose  virtues
 are recorded on it4 ,as for the exact  

age and contents of the roll1  it is    
beyond my capacity to say anything      
definite2 but there is a delicacy  in   
the drawing of the figures and in the   
formation of the letters which  seem to 
indicate a considerable age1 probably   
not less than twelve hundred  years     
,b4,c4 ,each column of the writing has  
to be read from top to bottom1          
beginning with the first column on the  
left4 ,it has been said in an earlier   
page that the hieratic and demotic      
scripts differed from the hieroglyphic  
in being written like ,hebrew in long   
horizontal lines from right to left4    
,the difference is1 however1 merely     
formal4 ,if we turn the hieroglyphic    
page  half round1 so that the right side
 becomes the bottom1 and the left side  
the top of the page1 we can see the     
inscription run in hieratic fashion     
from right to left4    ,plate #b is     
perhaps more difficult to decipher than 
,plate #a4 ,we know1  however1 that the 
demotic script was used only amongst    

laymen in matters of  business and of   
money2 and this no doubt represents some
 commercial  transaction that took place
 between #ejj and #bjj ,b4,c4 ,the      
demotic was a  complex cursive evolved  
from the hieratic2 its invention1 or at 
least its  use to any considerable      
degree1 does not appear to have been    
much  antecedent to #fjj ,b4,c41 and    
there was little necessity for its      
continuance  after the second century   
,b4,c4    ,it was probably about the    
beginning of the ,christian era that the
 demotic  finally disappeared before the
 ,coptic1 an alphabet derived from the  
,greek1  of which ,plate #c gives an    
example4 ,the ,arabic heading which     
accompanies the  ,coptic rubric above   
the ,psalm that begins below 7the #aahth
 ,greek3 ri71  is in a hand of the      
latter part of the fifteenth century4   
,notwithstanding  the lateness of the   
specimen1 the script takes its proper   
place here as  representing a script of 
the first century4    ,plate #d is taken

 from a copy1 written on vellum at      
#he,nabls1 of the  ,samaritan           
,pentateuch4 ,both in language and in   
letters it represents the old  ,hebrew  
of the days of ,solomon1 long anterior  
to the time when ,ezra  introduced from 
,chalda the square characters now called
 ,hebrew2 the  ancient letters having   
been preserved by a small remnant in    
,north  ,palestine4 ,the writing        
resembles that of the ,phoenicians1 and 
the example  given on plate #d1         
notwithstanding its lateness1 does not  
exhibit a very  much modified form of   
the character4    ,plate #e is from an  
,abyssinian ,,ms4 of the sixteenth      
century1 on the ,life of  the ,virgin4  
,the real origin of the artistic        
decoration is unmistakable4 ,it  is what
 we call ,byzantine1 but ought rather to
 be called gypto-,grecian4  ,the people 
of ,abyssinia1 who were mainly ,southern
 ,arabs or ,sabans1  received their     
instruction in art along with their     
,christianity a few  centuries after the

 beginning of the era1 and they have    
never abandoned  them4 ,as for the      
writing which appears on the plate1 it  
is in the old ,geez  or ,ethiopic       
language1 and descended from that of the
 ,saban people whose  monumental        
inscriptions in ,himyaritic language and
 characters are now  attracting         
considerable interest4    ,plate #f is  
from a ,greek ,gospelbook written on    
vellum1 which was brought to  ,england  
from ,cyprus by ,cesnola4 ,the          
ornamental border at the top is         
somewhat freer and less stiff in style  
than those which we find in most of  the
 ,byzantine ,,mss42 and the writing is  
neater and less negligent than if it    
had been executed in the eleventh or    
twelfth century4 ,it slopes a little    
backwards and has the breathings in     
their antique form as halves of the     
letter ,h4 ,hence ,i have assigned it to
 the latter part of the tenth century4  
,on plate #g ,i have given a reduction  
after ,westwood of a page from an ,irish

  ,,ms4 now in the ,archiepiscopal      
,library at ,lambeth4 ,although it is of
  comparatively late date 7the ninth    
century71 and the writing is the ,irish 
script in its second or wholly minuscule
 stage1 the ornamentation is            
#hfsufficient to show what ,irish work  
had been and still was4 ,the            
marvellously elaborate convolutions and 
interlacements1 the dexterous use  of   
colours1 the utter absence of gold1 and 
the introduction of grotesque  animal   
figures1 are all seen in this plate from
 the ,gospelbook of  ,mac,durnan4       
7,while ,i write ,i am reminded of a    
personal experience which ,i  may be    
forgiven for setting down in print4     
,when ,westwood's great book had  come  
out1 ,i was one day speaking with an    
,english lady of high social  position1 
cultivated and accomplished in many     
branches of knowledge1 to  whom after   
mentioning ,westwood ,i expressed my    
admiration of what the ,irish           
calligraphers had done in the seventh   

and eighth centuries1 when art was so   
low in most of the other lands of       
,europe4 ,the lady listened with patient
  good-breeding1 till ,i paused1 and    
then said quietly1 ,i presume that you  
are yourself an ,irishman6 ,she had     
evidently mistaken one unfamiliar accent
  for another1 and her remark was a     
polite criticism upon my credulity or   
veracity47    ,plate #ba 7which ought to
 have been inserted in succession to    
plate #g7  reproduces a miniature from a
 ,breviary written about #aaej-fj for   
,isengrim1  ,abbot of the ,benedictine  
,monastery at ,ottenbeuern in ,suabia4  
,the miniature reproduced is a picture  
of the ,ascension1 and shows the        
,saviour standing in an almond-shaped   
frame1 supported and borne aloft by     
four angels4 ,the ,virgin and the       
,apostles are looking upwards from      
below1  and the picture is enclosed     
within a square blue border1 this being 
lighted  by ornamental fretwork in      
white4 ,the faces are generally well    

drawn1 and  the rapt attention in the   
eyes of the uplookers is very skilfully 
depicted4  ,the colours used are blue1  
green1 yellow1 red1 chesnut1 and white4 
,the  whole effect is reminiscent of    
,anglo-,saxon work1 and one might       
easily1 at  first sight1 mistake it for 
a picture out of an ,english book of the
 tenth  century4 ,a somewhat similar    
design of the same subject is found in  
,king  ,athelstan's ,psalter--an        
,anglo-,saxon ,,ms4 of the late ninth   
century1 now  #hg;in the ,british       
,museum2 but the ,suabian illustration  
is decidedly  inferior in taste and     
delicacy of treatment4 ,it shows1       
however1 such a  kinship that we are    
inclined to believe in a nearer         
connexion between  ,german and ,english 
art than between ,german and ,french    
,carolingian4    ,plates #h and #i      
reproduce miniatures from two           
manuscripts of the ,latin  ,bible1--the 
first page of ,genesis in each4 ,the    
first is either ,english or  ,norman    

work1 perhaps rather the latter than the
 former1 and is interesting  as         
affording one of the earliest examples  
of the border with leaves of the        
so-called ivy pattern4 ,the writing is a
 beautiful early gothic of the          
transition period between the           
,carolingian round hand and the medival 
square gothic4 ,it is unmistakably      
,norman1 if not ,anglo-,norman1 but may 
have  been ,english4 ,if the reds in the
 tiny miniatures had been a little more 
pinkish1 and the blue a little lighter1 
we should have had no hesitation in     
calling it ,english work4 ,in plate #i1 
the writing is somewhat rounder and  the
 ink is paler--showing that the work is 
neither ,english nor ,norman2 and  we   
find in the minute pictures a style of  
design1 both in the figures and  the    
draperies1 which reminds us of late     
classical art4 ,the interlaced  pattern 
in the lowest portion of the ornament is
 also a survival of the  ,celtic manner 
which might be found in ,southern       

,france1 but which had ceased  to be    
used in ,english work1 except in the    
decoration of letters4 ,on the  plate1  
the picture is dated #acaj-bj2 but we   
may venture to think that it  was       
executed in ,south-,eastern ,france     
about the year #acjj4    ,the design and
 the writing on plate #aj are thoroughly
 ,english of the end of  the thirteenth 
century4 ,the picture is unfinished1    
having been left by the  artist in its  
sketch-condition1 uncoloured4 ,the faces
 are blank1 and the  drawing simply in  
outline2 but the careful treatment of   
the folds in the  drapery is remarkable4
 ,the miniature is one of several       
illustrating the  ,apocalypse1 which    
were done in the convent at ,eaton or   
,nun-,eaton in  ,warwickshire about     
#abhj4 ,the #hh;,apocalypse is not given
 in its ,latin  summaries1 as was usual1
 but in ,french quatrains of ,english   
origin4 ,the  volume which contains     
these drawings is interesting1 as having
 been a sort  of omnium gatherum1 made  

up for the ladies of ,eaton at the end  
of the  thirteenth century4 ,one of the 
pieces it contains is a ,bestiaire by   
,william  the ,trouvre1 an ,englishman  
of the twelfth century2 a ,french poem  
called  the ,chastel d',amours by       
,raymond ,grosseteste2 and a popular    
,english poem of  the time1 of which    
another example has been lately         
published in facsimile  in his ,english 
,palography by the ,rev4 ,walter ,w4    
,skeat4    ,the miniature of the        
,crucifixion which is reproduced on     
plate #aa is visibly  ,italian work of  
the rudest style4 ,it is taken from a   
,missal1 written in a  hand which is    
also ,italian of the end of the         
thirteenth century1 but gothic  in form4
 ,the liturgical character of the book  
is1 however1 such that we may  believe  
it to have been produced in ,england1   
perhaps by an ,italian  ,cistercian     
monk4 ,the writing on the miniature is  
in so-called ,lombardic  uncials1 a     
script which was used for capitals      

nearly everywhere in the  thirteenth    
century4 ,the three figures in the      
picture have red or auburn  hair1 a     
favourite colour at all times among the 
,italians1 even after the  ,flemings had
 introduced a blackhaired ,christ4      
,another noticeable feature is  the     
building with an arcade and windows1 in 
the lower background4    ,plate #ab is  
an illustration of the story of ,troilus
 and ,cressida1 taken  from ,guido      
,colonna's ,tale of ,troy4 ,it is       
,venetian1 of about the years  #accj-dj1
 and exhibits the ,italian style of     
using strong pigments for their         
figures4 ,whatever the faults of drawing
 may be1 this is a real painting  done  
with a full brush4 ,there is no         
appearance of the outlines drawn with a 
pen or a fine brush1 such as we see in  
,french and ,english work1 and the      
folds in the draperies appear to be     
produced by broad shadowings after the  
main body of colour had been painted4   
,in fact1 it seems to be1 like other    

,italian illuminations1 the work of a   
painter1 not #hiof a miniaturist4 ,the  
place of origin is revealed by the      
calligrapher's instructions to the      
artist1 which occur on several pages in 
a minute hand1 and which are  written in
 a pure ,venetian dialect4 ,the         
manuscript is illustrated with an       
unusual quantity of pictorial designs4  
,the writing is remarkable as           
resembling that of the ,english charters
 of the same period1 but with  greater  
regularity and evenness in the          
downstrokes4    ,plate #ac is reproduced
 from a ,french ,apocalypse of the      
fourteenth century1  with a text in     
,french prose4 ,the writing is gothic1  
much changed from the  style of the     
thirteenth century1 and less regular and
 elegant4 ,the picture  is thoroughly   
,french1 of the time when ,english      
illuminators had yielded up  their      
supremacy to the men of the ,french     
school4 ,we see the fine outlines  and  
features as we are accustomed to see    

them in thirteenth century work1        
offering in their delicate style a      
curious contrast to the broad free      
paintiness of the illustration in plate 
#ab4 ,the ,apocalypse1 from which the   
plate is taken1 is a ,french work of the
 middle of the fourteenth century1      
showing a good deal of the feeling of   
the preceding century1 but tending      
visibly towards the manner of the time  
when ,charles ,v of ,france and his     
brothers were associated with           
manuscripts of an unusually beautiful   
kind4    ,plate #ad is an example of    
,french grisaille in its earlier stage4 
,the four  designs look like fine chalk 
drawings prepared for the use of an     
engraver1  rather than like finished    
illustrations in a book4 ,there is an   
ease and  freedom in the figure-drawing 
which reveal the hand of a true artist1 
and  the treatment of the draperies is  
excellent2 but the landscape accessories
  in the lower two divisions are        
primitive in their absurdity and        

childish  execution4 ,the writing in    
this example1 and in plate #ac also1 is 
typical  fourteenth century gothic2     
small1 cramped1 square1 and angular4    
,the border  is of the early ivy-leaf   
pattern1 stiff and not natural1 but not 
inelegant  as decoration4 ,the style and
 character of #ijthe two plates are     
essentially ,french1 and could not be   
found in examples of illumination at    
the period anywhere outside of ,france4 
,plate #ae introduces us to a totally   
different kind and style of ornament4   
,there is no appearance of stiffness    
here in the border1 with its bold       
conventional foliage of light blue and  
green1 and the long feathery lines  that
 sweep out from it in free and graceful 
curves4 ,the miniature too is  full of  
merit both in design and execution1 its 
only drawback being the  rather ugly    
pattern of the green flooring4 ,the     
seated priest is in the full  costume of
 a doctor or literatus of ,chaucer's    
time2 and the expression in  his        

features1 as well as in those of the    
kneeling ,gower1 is excellently         
rendered4 ,the writing here is not the  
square angular gothic of the two        
preceding plates1 but a more rounded    
script1 partaking of the nature of the  
charter hand1 which was appropriated to 
the ,english language4 ,the a is the    
only letter in it quite identical with  
that of the fourteenth century  gothic1 
and the p 7for th7 shows the survival of
 ,anglo-,saxon writing1  just as the w  
shows us a modern ,english letter at a  
tolerably early stage  of its growth4   
,the k is likewise noteworthy1 as being 
the peculiar form of  the letter which  
had been evolved in the rapid writing of
 court-scribes1  and which is still used
 in ,german manuscript4    ,plate #af   
shows us ,franco-,flemish art in a phase
 in which the simple mastery  of design 
had become subordinate to the brilliancy
 and magnificence of  decoration4 ,the  
inner border of interwoven blue and red 
lines upon a ground  of gold is         

connected with1 and grows out of1 the   
illuminated initial in a  suitably      
appropriate fashion1 but the outer      
border of conventional foliage1  red1   
blue1 green1 and yellow1 with its       
inserted figures of a kneeling man  and 
a hybrid dromedary1 has no              
comprehensible affinity to the rest of  
the  work1 and is tacked on without any 
reason beyond the desire for splendour  
and variety4 ,the style is not          
distinctively ,flemish1 although the    
painting  was done at #ia,tournay4 ,it  
is rather a development out of          
,franco-,burgundian models1 and more    
suggestive of ,french origin than any   
other2 in fact1 the extension of central
 ,french influence northwards  through  
,burgundy4    ,in plate #ag there is    
real ,flemish work4 ,here is pure       
grisaille at its best2  no infusion of  
extraneous colour in the design1 except 
in the tesselated  pavement of yellow   
and white marble1 and no glitter of     
illumination beyond  what is given by a 

gold crown in the hands of one figure1  
and a couple of  gold chains on the     
breasts of two others4 ,this is indeed a
 true historical  picture broadly       
conceived1 well composed1 and admirably 
executed4 ,the  perspective is          
excellent1 and we realise clearly the   
size and depth of the  large vaulted    
chamber1 lighted only from the doorways 
and the open  window-spaces1--in which  
the eight personages are grouped4 ,the  
manuscript  from which the miniature is 
taken was written and illustrated1      
almost  undoubtedly1 at ,bruges about   
#adgj for a nobleman of the ,lannoy     
family1 a  member not of the principal  
house which still flourished in         
,flanders1 but  of the transplanted     
branch in ,picardy4    ,plate #ah is    
taken from an ,english manuscript of    
considerable interest4 ,a  number of    
armorial bearings1 which are found on   
the margins of the pages1  show that it 
was written either for the ,marquis of  
,dorset1 ,edward ,,iv's  son-in-law1 or 

for one of his children4 ,whichever was 
the case1 the book  was in the          
possession of ,john ,grey1 dominus de   
,blisworth1 the son or near  relative of
 the ,marquis1 in the early part of the 
sixteenth century2 and  there is a      
record added in the calendar of the     
death of ,dame ,elizabeth  ,grey1 this  
,john's wife1 about #aebj-cj4 ,the      
miniatures are good1 but not  excellent2
 better in composition than in design1  
and showing grave  deficiencies with    
regard to perspective4 ,they are1       
however1 well executed  and well        
painted2 and the borders are remarkably 
elegant4 ,the conventional  large       
foliage1 of architectonic character1 is 
admirably disposed upon small  and      
appropriate fields of gold2 and the     
twining #ib;branchlets that bear  tiny  
buds and small leaves and flowers are   
not so crowded as to hide the  vellum   
ground4 ,the border is indeed a fine    
decorative composition1 without  a      
fault1 and thoroughly ,english in style4

 ,there is an inscription at the  foot  
of the miniature which inspires         
curiosity to learn who the writer was4  
,she was evidently a woman of high      
position2 for only such a personage     
would  have been allowed to write in a  
,prayerbook of the kind4 ,the words are1
  ,madame1 ,i pray you remember her that
 ys yours and evver sall be1 but the    
bookbinder has unfortunately cut off the
 signature4 ,the person addressed  was  
no doubt ,dame ,elizabeth ,grey4 ,the   
writing is strangely like that of       
,henry ,,vii1 but cannot of course have 
been his4 ,it is possibly as late as    
#aebj4    ,plate #bb is from a          
,prayerbook written and illuminated     
about #aebj-cj for a  certain ,giovanni 
,bentivoglio4 ,if the book had been a   
dozen or twenty years  earlier than it  
seems to be1 one might have supposed    
that it was executed  at ,bologna1 by   
the order and for the use of the last   
,bentivoglio who ruled  in that city4   
,as1 however1 he died in exile and      

misfortune in #aejh1 the  ,giovanni to  
whom the prayerbook belonged1 must have 
been his grandson1 born  about #aeaj1   
who was in the imperial service in      
#aecj4 ,the artistic merit of  the      
illumination is considerable1 but they  
are over-florid and mark a decay  of    
taste4 ,the colours are vivid and       
harmonious1 gold is plentifully used1   
and the beauty of the work is           
undeniable2 but it is meretricious and  
corrupt in style4 ,italian examples of  
the period are1 however1 rare and       
highly prized4    ,on plate #ai we have 
a large initial 7,o7 cut from an        
,italian ,antiphonal or  ,gradual1      
written probably about #aedj-ej4 ,it    
encloses a miniature  representing the  
,adoration of the three ,kings1 painted 
with so much skill  as to suggest the   
hand of some student of ,titian's       
school4 ,in design1  composition1 and   
execution1 it is very good2 the only    
drawback being the  superfine air of    
courtly elegance #icwhich is seen in    

every figure beneath  the thatched roof 
of the stable4 ,there is a theatrical   
character in the  whole performance1    
that reminds us of ,federico ,baroccio4 
,of similar date is the picture on plate
 #bj4 ,it comes from a ,gospel-lesson   
book1 written in a mitred abbey on the  
,german side of the ,rhine1 probably    
not far from ,cologne1 in the year      
#aedh4 ,the design of the company of    
monks  headed by their ,abbot1 all in   
white raiment and kneeling before an    
unseen  altar1 is excellent ,german     
work4 ,the landscape with distant       
towers1 seen  through the pillars of an 
arcade behind would look better than it 
does1 if  it were not for the floating  
cherubs who hover in the spaces1 and    
support  two armorial shields4 ,the     
border is a close imitation of the late 
,flemish  style4 ,on a yellow ground1   
lighted with twining gold branchlets1   
cut  flowers are vividly painted1 along 
with figures of a bee1 a fox1 a bird1 a 
rabbit1 and a hybrid animal like an ape4

          #id;,,index4        ,aachen1  
metropolis of the ,frankish ,empire1 #dd
    ,abyssinia1 writing in1 #ab1ac      
,abyssinian ,,ms4 ,life of the ,virgin1 
#he    ,adamnan 7,st471 #bh1 #cf        
,adoration of the ,magi1 a miniature1   
#ib    ,ai-gupt1 ,semitic name of the   
,delta1 #h    ,akkadian writing1 #g1 #i 
,alcuin at ,tours and ,aachen1 #dd      
,amber-trade1 #bi    ,ambrosian use in  
the ,milanese liturgy1 #ec    ,angles   
civilized1 #cd    ,anglo-,saxon         
alphabet1 #bf1 #cb    -- decoration of  
,,ms41 #ce1 #cg    ,antiphonale1 #ed    
,apocalypse ,,mss41 #gc1 #hi            
,apocalyptic designs1 ,english work1 #hg
    ,arabian writing 7,arabic71 #bj     
,arabian 7,south7 writing1 #ab          
,arabic language1 #ba    -- writing1    
#bj1 #hd    ,aragonese ,kings of        
,naples1 #hj    ,araman ,chaldees1 #aa1 
#ab    ,ascension1 ,pictures of the1 #hf
    ,asoka's ,rock-inscriptions1 #ah    
,assyrian ,empire formed1 #aj           
,assyriology1 #f    ,attavante1 work    

done by1 #ha1 #hb      ,babylonian      
monarchies1 #g1 #i1 #aj    ,bactrian    
,kingdom1 #ah    ,barbarians1 movements 
of the1 #db    ,baroccio 7,federico71   
#ic    ,bastaru1 a ,gothic people1 #bi  
,bede1 the ,venerable1 #cd1 #cg         
,bentivoglio 7,giovanni71 ,prayer book1 
#ib    ,berossus1 ,assyrian ,chronicle1 
#f    ,bible1 its influence on writing1 
#bc    -- multiplied by scribes1 #eb    
-- ,greek1 #bd                          
#ie    -- ,syriac1 #bd    -- ,hebrew1   
#bd    -- ,latin ,,mss41 #hg    ,bologna
 school of law1 #eg    ,book 7origin of 
the word71 #b    ,borders in ,,mss41    
#fb1 #fe1 #ga1 #gf    ,boustrophedon    
writing1 #af    ,brgilles ,livre        
d',heures1 #ge    ,breviary1 foundation 
of the1 #ec    -- constitution of the1  
#fg    -- ,,ms4 written at ,ottenbeuern1
 #hf    ,britain ,celtiberian1 #bg    --
 ,gallic1 #bg    -- ,latin1 #bg    --   
,english1 #bg    ,british ,isles1 age of
 writing in1 #bg    ,bruges ,,mss41 #ha1
 #ia    ,burgundian school of art1 #fe1 

#gd1 #ia    ,burmese writing1 #ba       
,byzantine ornamentation1 #be    -- ,art
 not ,hellenic1 #dg      ,cadmus the    
,phoenician1 #aj    ,calendars in       
,prayer books1 #fg    ,calligraphy      
extinguished by ,printing1 #hj    ,canon
 ,law1 #eg    ,canonical ,hours1 #ec    
,canterbury school of writing1 #ei      
,capitals in writing1 #be               
,carolingian art1 #ce1 #cg1 #dc1 #ei    
-- writing1 #dj1 #dc    ,celtic ,church1
 #ec    ,cesnola 7,l4 ,p4 di71 #he      
,chalda1 age of writing in1 #g          
,chaldees 7,turanian or ,akkad71 #i     
-- 7,araman or ,semitic71 #aa           
,charles the ,great1 #ce1 #da1 #dc      
,charters1 style of writing used in1    
#bf1 #ed1 #ee    ,charter hand in       
,england1 #gb    ,chastel d',amours1    
,,ms41 #hh    ,chinese origins1 #ac     
,christ blackhaired in pictures1 #hh    
,chronology of the ,bible1 #f           
#if    ,chrysography1 #c1 #bf1 #fj      
,churches 7,early ,christian71 #ec      
,civil ,law1 #eg    ,classic survival in

 ,italy1 #ce    ,clovio 7,giulio7       
,miniatures1 #ha    ,colonna 7,guido7   
,tale of ,troy1 #hh    ,colours in      
miniatures and ornament1 #fa    ,columba
 7,st471 #cf    ,coptic alphabet1 #be   
-- writing1 #i1 #hd    ,cufic writing1  
#bj    ,cursive ,roman1 #bf1 #bh        
,cymry of ,north ,england1 #cc    --    
settled in ,wales1 #cc    ,cyril 7,st471
 #eb    ,cyrillic alphabet1 #ea         
,david 7,gerard7 of ,bruges1 #gh1 #hj   
,decoration of ,,mss41 ,irish1 #ce1 #cf 
-- ,anglo-,saxon1 #ce    -- ,frankish1  
#cg1 #dc    -- ,gallo-,roman1 #dd1 #dg  
-- ,english1 #de    -- ,german1 #de     
-- ,spanish1 #df    -- ,italian1 #df    
-- ,byzantine1 #df1 #dg    ,demotic     
writing 7,egyptian71 #i1 #hd            
,deutsch1 meaning of the word1 #ca      
,devanagari alphabet1 #ah1 #ba          
,diplomatic writing1 #bf1 #ed1 #ee      
,drawing and design1 ,medival1 #fb      
,durer 7,albert71 #gi    ,durham school 
of writing1 #ei      ,eginhart1 the     
,frank1 #dc    ,egypt called ,khem1 #e1 

#h    -- -- ,aigupt1 #h    -- --        
,mizraim1 ,misr1 #h    -- ,age of       
writing in1 #e    ,egyptology1 #f       
,england the centre of ,french art and  
literature1 #fb    ,english ,art in     
,,mss41 #di1 #fj1 #fb1 #gb1 #ij1 #ia    
-- ,calendars in ,hor1 #fi    --        
illuminated borders1 #fe1 #gg1 #ij      
#ig    -- ,,ms4 ,bible ,sec4 ,,xiii41   
#hg    ,estrangelo ,syriac1 #bj         
,ethiopic language1 #he    -- writing1  
#ab    ,etruscan alphabet1 #af          
,euchologium1 #ed    ,evangeliarium1    
,german ,,ms41 #ic      ,flemish school 
of art1 #gd1 #gf1 #gi1 #ij1 #ia    --   
,calendars in ,hor1 #fh    --           
illuminated borders1 #gh    ,floral     
borders1 #fe    ,florentine miniatures1 
#gh1 #ha    ,formation and use of books1
 #c    ,france 7,central7 ,,mss4        
produced in1 #fb    ,frankish empire1   
#ci    -- writing1 #bh1 #cg1 #ci        
,french art in ,,mss41 #fj1 #fb1 #gc    
-- ,calligraphy and ornamentation1 #di  
-- ,calendars in ,hor1 #fh    --        

illuminated borders1 #fe1 #gg    --     
,,ms4 ,latin ,bibles1 #acjj1 #hg        
,gallic language1 #cj    ,gallican use  
in liturgy1 #ec    ,gaul1 ,age of       
writing in1 #bb    -- ,greek writing in1
 #bb    ,german ,art in ,,mss41 #hf     
-- ,calendar in liturgies1 #gj    --    
illumination1 #fa    -- -- in ,flemish  
style1 #ic    -- writing1 #ga           
,germany1 name of1 #cj    ,girolamo dai 
,libri1 #ha    ,glagolitic alphabet1 #ea
    ,glastonbury school of writing1 #ei 
,gloucester calendar1 #fi    ,gospel of 
,st4 ,peter1 #dh    ,gothic alphabet    
7,wulfila's71 #be1 #bh1 #ca    --       
,kingdom in ,spain1 #bc    -- ,kingdom  
in ,italy1 #da    -- medival writing1   
#cb1 #fe    ,goths and ,germans1 #bh    
,gower 7,john7 in a miniature of the    
,confessio ,amantis1 #ij    ,graduale of
 the missal1 #ed    ,greek alphabet1    
#aj1 #ac1 #ad    -- ,bibles1 #ec    --  
,colonies1 #ae                          
#ih    -- ,gospels1 ,,ms41 ,sec4 ,x41   
#he    -- writing1 minuscules1 #dg      

,gregory 7,st471 #ed    ,grey 7,thomas7 
,marquis of ,dorset1 #ia    -- 7,john   
and ,elizabeth71 #ia    ,grimani        
,breviary1 #hj    ,grisaille painting1  
#ge1 #hi1 #ia    ,grosseteste           
7,raymond71 #hh    ,guthones1 #bi       
,hebrew language1 #ai    -- writing in  
square letters1 #ai1 #hd    ,hellenised 
,oriental peoples1 #bc    ,herculaneum1 
writing at1 #be    ,heures d',anne de   
,bretagne1 #gh    ,hieratic writing in  
,egypt1 #i    -- ,,ms4 on papyrus1 #hd  
,hieroglyphic writing 7,egyptian71 #i   
-- ,,ms4 on papyrus1 #hc    ,himyaritic 
alphabet1 #ab    ,hor for private       
prayer1 #ef1 #fg    -- of ,french work1 
#gd    -- of ,english work1 #fi1 #gf1   
#gg1 #ij    -- constitution of1 #fg     
,horologium1 #ed    ,hours1 the         
,canonical1 #ec1 #ef    ,hours of the   
,virgin1 see ,hor    ,hrabanus ,maurus1 
#cj    ,huntingfield ,psalter1 ,,ms41   
#gc    ,hyksos or ,shepherd ,kings in   
,egypt1 #aa    ,hymnals1 #ed1 #eh       
,iberian writing in ,spain1 #bb         

,iceland and its literature1 #ea        
,illumination 7,medival71 origin of1 #cf
    ,india1 age of writing in1 #ah1 #ba 
,indian languages 7modern71 #ba         
,initials illuminated1 #fb1 #fd    ,ink 
used in ,,mss41 #c    ,ireland1 writing 
in1 #bh1 #cb    ,irish alphabet1 #bf    
-- ,,ms41 #bh1 #cf    -- ,mac,durnan's  
,gospels1 #he    -- ornamentation in    
,,mss41 #he    -- teachers of the       
,angles1 #cd    ,isengrim1 ,abbot of    
,ottenbeuern1 #hf    ,italian art1 #fb1 
#gi1 #ib                                
#ii    -- late classical art1 #fj    -- 
miniatures1 #hh1 #ib    -- ,picture of  
the ,crucifixion1 #hh    -- ,schools of 
,illumination1 #gj    -- ,saints in     
,calendars1 #gj    ,italic characters1  
#hc    ,italy1 age of writing in1 #ae   
,italy1 various hands used in1 #hc      
,ivy-leaf borders1 #fc      ,jerome     
7,st471 #ea    ,jornandes the ,gothic   
historian1 #db    ,juana la ,loca1 #hj  
,khem1 name of old ,egypt1 #e1 #h       
,lannoy1 ,low country family1 #ia       

,latin alphabet1 origin of the1 #ag     
,latin ,bible1 #eb    -- -- ,,mss41 #hg 
-- ,liturgies1 #ec    ,lectronaries1 #ed
    ,lenormant 7,francois71 #aa         
,liturgical books1 #ff    -- frequently 
transcribed1 #ec    ,liturgies in the   
vernacular1 #eg    ,lindisfarne school  
of writing1 #ei    ,livres              
d',heures--see ,hor    ,lombardic       
writing1 #ch1 #dj1 #da    -- uncials1   
#hh    ,lombards1 ,the ,kingdom of the1 
#dj    ,lombardy 7,cisalpine ,gaul71 #bb
    -- under the ,goths1 #dj1 #da    -- 
under the ,lombards1 #da    -- under the
 ,franks1 #da      ,mac,durnan's        
,gospels1 ,irish ,,ms41 #hf    ,madden  
7,sir ,frederick71 #cg    ,manchu       
script1 #bb    ,manetho1 ,egyptian      
,chronicle1 #f    ,,mss4 on purple      
vellum1 #bg1 #fj    ,marcomanni1 #cj    
,margaret of ,austria1 #hj              
,marseilles1 ,greek colony1 #ae1 #bb    
,materials of books1 #c    ,mathias     
,corvinus1 #hj                          
#ajj    ,medici1 patrons of art1 #hj    

-- 7,lorenzo dei7 ,prayer book1 #hb     
-- 7,pietro dei7 ,prayer book1 #hb      
,memling 7,hans71 #gh    ,menologium1   
,greek ,liturgy1 #ed    ,merowingian    
writing1 #bh1 #ch    ,minuscule letters1
 #bf    ,miroir ,historial1 ,,ms41 #ge1 
#ia    ,missal1 ,,mss41 #ed    --       
formation of1 #ec    -- constitution of1
 #ff    -- ,anglo-,italian ,,ms41 #hh   
,mizraim1 ,misr1 names of ,egypt1 #h    
,moeso-,gothic ,alphabet1 #ca1 #da      
,mongolian script1 #bb    ,mozarabic    
liturgy1 #ec      ,nagari alphabet1 #ah1
 #ba    ,naples1 work done at1 #hb      
,naskhi ,arabic writing1 #bj    ,norman 
,conquest of ,england1 #fb    ,norse    
,runes1 #cj    ,nuneaton ,convent1 work 
done in1 #hg      ,ornamentation in     
,,mss41 #fj    ,oscan and ,umbrian      
writing1 #af    ,ostrogoths1 #cb        
,ottenbeuern ,,mss41 #hf    ,oxford     
,school of ,law1 #eh      ,padua        
,university1 #eh    ,palography 7the    
word71 #b    ,papal prohibition of      
vernacular liturgies1 #eg    ,papyrus   

for books1 #d    -- in ,assyria1 #h     
,parchment for books1 #d    ,paris      
,university1 #dd1 #eh    ,patrick       
7,st471 #bh    ,pehlvi writing1 #ai     
,penitentialia1 #eg    ,persian writing 
7,cuneiform71 #g    -- ,pehlvi1 #ai     
-- ,talik1 #ba    ,perspective in       
miniatures1 #gf    ,petrarch ,,ms4      
attributed to ,attavante1 #ha    ,philip
 ,i4 of ,castile 7,archduke of          
,austria71 #hj    ,phoenician colonies1 
#ae    -- use of letters1 #aj           
#aja    ,photius1 ,bibliotheca1 #ed     
,phrygian use of letters1 #ab           
,pontificale1 #ed    ,prakrit language1 
#ah1 #ba    ,prayer books for private   
persons1 #ee1 #ef    ,primers1 #ef      
,prisse ,papyrus1 #e    ,processimale1  
#ed    ,psalter in the ,liturgy1 #ed    
-- for private prayer1 #ee    ,ptah     
,hotep's ,precepts1 #e    ,punic writing
 in ,spain1 #bb      ,reformation  in   
the ,church1 #eg    ,renaissance of     
,literature1 #eh    ,roman letters in   
their modern forms1 #hc    ,roman       

origins1 #af    -- writing1 #be    ,roug
 7,vicomte ,emm4 de71 #aa    ,runic     
letters1 #bi    ,rustic capitals1 #be   
,ruskin 7,john71 #b      ,sabaan use of 
letters1 #ab    -- origin of            
,abyssinians1 #he    ,sacramentaries1   
#ec1 #ed    ,saints' names in           
,calendars1 #fg1 #fh1 #fi    ,samaritan 
alphabet1 #ai    -- ,pentateuch1 #hd    
,sanskrit language1 #ba    ,sargon1     
,king of ,akkad1 #g    ,sarum use1 #fi  
,saxons and ,angles1 #cd                
,scandinavia1 #db    ,scandinavian      
writing1 ,anglo-,saxon1 #ej    -- --    
,teutonic1 #ea    -- -- ,runic1 #bi1 #ej
    ,scots1 ,irish pirates1 #cc         
,scottish ,liturgies1 #fi    ,semitic   
,alphabet1 #aa    ,semi-uncials1 #bf    
,septuagint1 creation of the1 #bc       
,siamese writing1 #ba    ,sigismondo da 
,carpio1 #ha    ,singalese alphabet1 #ba
    ,skeat 7,rev4 ,w4 ,w471 #hh         
,slavonic alphabets1 #ea    ,slovene    
language and script1 #eb    ,spain1 ,age
 of writing in1 #bb    -- ,visigothic   

writing in1 #dc    -- ,carolingian      
writing1 #dc                            
#ajb    -- medival ,gothic1 #dc         
,spanish ,calendars in ,liturgies1 #gj  
-- ornamentation of ,,mss41 #fa         
,stephens 7,george71 #bi    ,stubbs     
7,bishop71 #cc    ,suevi1 #cj           
,sweynheym and ,pannartz1 #hc           
,synaxarium1 #ed    ,syriac language1   
#ai1 #bd    ,syrians1 #ab      ,talik   
writing 7,persian71 #ba    ,terrien de  
la ,couperie 7,prof471 #ac    ,teutonic1
 #ca    ,theodoric the ,ostrogoth1 #da  
,theotisc1 #ca    ,thibetan writing1 #ba
    ,thompson 7,e4 ,maunde71 #a1 #aa    
,tournay ,hours1 #ge1 #ij    ,tours1    
,abbey of ,st4 ,martin1 #dd    ,troilus 
and ,cressida1 #hh    ,troybook1        
,venetian ,,ms41 #hh    ,turdetani of   
,spain1 #bb      ,ulfila--see ,wulfila  
,umbrian and ,oscan writing1 #af        
,uncials in writing1 #be      ,vellum   
for books1 #d    ,venetian ,art1        
,troybook1 #hh    -- miniatures1 #ha1   
#hb1 #hh    ,visigoths1 #cb    -- in    

,spain1 #bc    ,visigothic art1 #ci     
-- writing1 #ch1 #dj1 #db1 #dc          
,volumes1 rolled books1 #c      ,wales1 
,briton and ,cymry1 #cd    ,welsh1      
meaning of the word1 #ca    ,westwood   
7,professor71 #cc1 #cg    ,william the  
,trouvere1 #hh    ,winchester school of 
writing1 #ei    ,wulfila1 ,gothic       
,bishop1 #ca      ,york school of       
writing1 #dd1 #ei    ,york use in       
,liturgy1 #fi      ,zend writing1 #ai   
,illustration3 ,,portion ,,of ,a        
,,funerary ,,inscription4  ,written on  
papyrus in the ,hieroglyphic character4 
,illustration3 ,,egyptian ,,inscription4
  ,written on papyrus in the ,demotic   
character4    ,illustration3 ,a ,,page  
,,from ,a ,,coptic ,,liturgy4  ,written 
in ,egypt in the fifteenth century4     
,illustration3 ,,samaritan ,,ms4 ,,on   
,,vellum1 ,,probably ,,sec4 ,,xv4       
,leviticus1 ,x4 #af to ,,xi4 #ac4       
,illustration3 ,a ,,miniature ,,in ,,the
 ,,tamhera ,,maryam4  ,an ,ethiopic work
 on the life of the ,virgin1 written in 

#aebb4    ,illustration3 ,,the ,,first  
,,page ,,of ,,st4 ,,john',s ,,gospel4   
,from a ,greek ,,ms4 of the ,tenth      
,century1 brought by ,cesnola from      
,cyprus4    ,illustration3 ,a ,,page    
,,from ,,macdurnan',s ,,gospels4  ,a    
,,ms4 written in ,ireland in the ,ninth 
,century1 now at ,lambeth4              
,illustration3 ,,the ,,first ,,page ,,of
 ,,genesis4  ,in a ,latin ,bible1       
written probably in ,england about      
#abij-acjj4    ,illustration3 ,,the     
,,first ,,page ,,of ,,genesis4  ,in a   
,latin ,bible written in ,france about  
#acaj-bj4    ,illustration3 ,,the       
,,second ,,angel ,,blowing ,,his        
,,trumpet4  ,from a series of unfinished
 designs illustrating the ,apocalypse2  
executed  at ,nuneaton about ,a4,d4     
#abhj4    ,illustration3 ,,miniature    
,,of ,,the ,,crucifixion4  ,in a        
,missale written by an ,italian hand    
about #abij4    ,illustration3 ,,criseis
 ,,sent ,,back ,,to ,,the ,,greeks4     
,from a ,,ms4 of the ,liber ,trojanus   

written at ,venice about #acbe4         
,illustration3 ,a ,,page ,,from ,,the   
,,revelations4  ,in a ,french ,,ms4     
,apocalypse ,figure1 written about      
#acfj4    ,illustration3 ,,first ,,page 
,,of ,,the ,,roman ,,de ,,la ,,rose4    
,,ms4 written in ,france about #acgj4   
,illustration3 ,,john ,,gower ,,and     
,,the ,,priest ,,of ,,venus4  ,from a   
,,ms4 of ,gower's ,confessio ,amantis1  
written before #acii4    ,illustration3 
,a ,,page ,,from ,a ,,livre ,d',,heures4
  ,written at ,tournay about #adfe4     
,illustration3 ,,tiberius ,,receiving   
,,the ,,imperial ,,crown4  ,from a ,,ms4
 of the ,miroir ,historial1 written     
probably at ,bruges about  #adgj4       
,illustration3 ,,christ ,,in ,,the      
,,garden ,,of ,,gethsemane4  ,from the  
,prayer book of ,grey1 ,marquis of      
,dorset1 about #adgj4    ,illustration3 
,,adoration ,,of ,,the ,,magi4  ,from an
 ,italian ,chorale written about        
#aecj-dj4    ,illustration3 ,,an ,,abbot
 ,,and ,,monks ,,kneeling ,,before ,,an 

,,altar4  ,from an ,evangeliarium       
illuminated in ,flemish style by a      
,german hand in  #aedh4                 
,illustration3 ,,miniature ,,of ,,the   
,,ascension4  ,from the ,suabian        
,breviary written at ,ottenbeuern about 
#aafj4    ,illustration3 ,,the ,,first  
,,page ,,of ,,the ,,office ,,of ,,the   
,,virgin4  ,from the ,bentivoglio       
,prayerbook1 written in ,italy about    
#aebj4             99       99       99 
99       99        ,corrections made to 
printed text    ,page #i3 ',the hieratic
 character was simply an abridgment of  
the  hieroglyphic' corrected from ',the 
hieratic character was simply an        
abridgment of the hieratic' 767    ,page
 #ca3 ',gothic th' corrected from       
',gothie th'    ,index1 ,italy3         
'various' corrected from 'varions'      
,index1 ,mizraim3 corrected from        
',mizzaim'