Romance aside, “In her self-satisfaction she has forgotten all about the Golden Age. It never was hers. It is mine, and I will recast it safely in the future. There will I hold Courts of Love to define all new ideals, my pleaders shall be poets and their words shall be spoken under correction of those that have feeling in the art of this broader love, and my good knights shall swear ‘To defy power that seems omnipotent, to love and bear, to hope till Hope creates from its own wreck the thing it contemplates.’” Thus does the romantic twentieth century realize the fruition of the ideals of democrats of the past. _A Word Regarding Bibliography_ The original documents[6] consulted for this book have been the works of art of which it treats. In the case of old books, I have also availed myself of facsimiles, which have this advantage over originals, they may be freely handled. Most interesting among them are THE BOOK OF KELLS, notes from copy of plates, with remarks by Westwood and Digby Watts; and ILLUMINATED BOOKS OF THE MIDDLE AGES, by Humphrey Jones. The authorities on Gothic architecture, which I have accepted as final, are Viollet-le-Duc and Corroyer. I have drawn much of my material from modern technical periodicals, most useful of which have been LES ARTS, REVUE ARCHEOLOGIQUE, REVUE DES QUESTIONS HISTORIQUES and the AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW. Though I have had recourse to general historians who treat of the Middle Ages,—Duruy, Gibbon, Guizot, Kitchin, Saint Martin, etc.; to guide books of accepted accuracy,—Baedeker, Guerber, Guides Joanne, and Dent’s Mediæval Town Series; to encyclopedias, English and French,—to the appended list of authorities I acknowledge especial indebtedness. Even when I have not borrowed statements from them I have been influenced by them in my interpretations of the Middle Ages: