From such early examples Byzantine art advanced to a maturer style in the 9th and 10th centuries, two MSS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris being types of the best work of this time. These are: the copy of the sermons of Gregory Nazianzen (MS. _Grec._ 510), executed about the year 880 and containing a series of large miniatures, some being of the highest excellence; and a psalter of the 10th century (MS. Grec. 139), among whose miniatures are examples which still maintain the old sentiment of classical art in a remarkable degree, one in particular, representing David as the psalmist, being an adapted copy of a classical scene of Orpheus and the Muses. The same scene is repeated in a later Psalter in the Vatican: an instance of the repetition of favourite subjects from one century to another which is common throughout the history of medieval art. At the period of the full maturity of the Byzantine school great skill is displayed in the best examples of figure-drawing, and a fine type of head and features is found in the miniatures of such MSS. as the _Homilies of Chrysostom_ at Paris, which belonged to the emperor Nicephorus III., 1078-1081, and in the best copies of the Gospels and Saints' Lives of that period, some of them being of exquisite finish. By this time also the scheme of decoration was established. Brilliant gilded backgrounds, give lustre to the miniatures. Initial letters in gold and colours are in ordinary use; but, it is to be observed, they never become very florid, but are rather meagre in outline, nor do they develop the pendants and borders which are afterwards so characteristic of the illuminated MSS. of the west. By way of general decoration, the rectangular head-pieces, which are such prominent features in Greek MSS. from the 10th to the 13th centuries, flourish in flowered and tesselated and geometric patterns in bright colours and gold. These are palpably of Oriental design, and may very well have been suggested by the woven fabrics of western Asia.