Turning to the French border, we find towards the close of the 14th century that the early ivy-leaf pendant has now invaded all the margins and that the page is set in a conventional frame throwing off on every side sprigs and waving scrolls of the conventional ivy foliage, often also accompanied with very delicate compact tracery of minute flower-work filling the background of the frame. Nothing can be more charming than the effect of such borders, in which the general design is under perfect control. The character, too, of the French miniature of this period harmonizes thoroughly with the brilliant border, composed as it is very largely of decorative elements, such as diapered patterns and details of burnished gold. In the Low Countries, as was natural, the influence of French art continued to have great weight, at least in the western provinces where the style of illumination followed the French lead. The Italian border in its ordinary form was of independent character, although following the methods of the West. Thrown out from the initial, it first took the form of pendants of a peculiarly heavy conventional curling foliage, associated, as progress was made, with slender rods jointed at intervals with bud-like ornaments and extending along the margins; at length expanding into a frame. The employment of gilt spots or pellets to fill spaces in the pendants and borders becomes very marked as the century advances. They are at first in a simple form, but they gradually throw out rays, and in the latter shape they become the chief constituents of one kind of border of the 15th century. 15th Century. Illumination in the 15th century enters on a new phase. The balance is no longer evenly maintained between the relative values of the miniature and the border as factors in the general scheme of decoration. The influence of a new sentiment in art makes itself felt more and more; the flat treatment of the miniature gradually gives place to true laws of perspective and of figure-drawing, and to the depth and atmospheric effects of modern painting. Miniature painting in the decoration of MSS. now became more of a trade; what in old times had been done in the cloister was now done in the shop; and the professional miniaturist, working for his own fame, took the place of the nameless monk who worked for the credit of his house. Henceforth the miniature occupies a more important place than ever in the illuminated MS.; while the border, with certain important exceptions, is apt to recede into an inferior position and to become rather an ornamental adjunct to set off the miniature than a work of art claiming equality with it.