"Meanwhile along the cloister's painted side, The monks--each bending low upon his book With head on hand reclined--their studies plied; Forbid to parley, or in front to look, Lengthways their regulated seats they took: The strutting prior gazed with pompous mien, And wakeful tongue, prepared with prompt rebuke, If monk asleep in sheltering hood was seen; He wary often peeped beneath that russet screen. "Hard by, against the window's adverse light, Where desks were wont in length of row to stand, The gowned artificers inclined to write; The pen of silver glistened in the hand Some of their fingers rhyming Latin scanned; Some textile gold from halls unwinding drew, And on strained velvet stately portraits planned; Here arms, there faces shown in embryo view, At last to glittering life the total figures grew." --FOSBROOKE. The public scribes of those days were employed mostly by secular individuals, although subject to be called upon at any moment by the fathers of the church. They worked in their homes except when any valuable work was to be copied, then in that of their employer, who boarded and lodged them during the time of their engagement. To differentiate the character of the class of pigments or materials then employed in making colored inks, from those of the more ancient times is difficult; because we not only find many of like character but of larger variety. These were used more for purposes of illuminating and embellishing than for regular writing. Even when printing had been invented spaces were frequently left, both in the block books and in the earliest movable type, for the illumination by hand, of initial letters so as to deceive purchasers into the belief that the printed type which was patterned closely after the forms of letters employed in MSS. writings was the real thing. The learned soon discovered such frauds and thereafter these practices were abandoned. CHAPTER X. RENAISSANCE INK. INK OF GRAY COLOR BELONGING TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY AND ITS CAUSES--INFLUENCE OF THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH RESPECTING INK DURING THE DARK AGES--THE REFORMATION AND HOW IT AFFECTED MEDIAEVAL MSS.--REMARKS OF BALE ABOUT THEIR DESTRUCTION-- QUAINT INK RECEIPT OF 1602--SELECTION FROM THE TWELFTH NIGHT RELATING TO PEN AND INK--GENERAL CONDITIONS WHICH OBTAINED UNTIL 1626--THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT AWARDS AN INK CONTRACT IN THAT YEAR--OTHER GOVERNMENTS ADOPT THE FRENCH FORMULA--INKS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ALMOST PERFECT IN THEIR COLOR PHENOMENA-- NO ADDED COLOR EMPLOYED IN THEIR MANUFACTURE.