" 47 " 185. Illumination from an Italian manuscript executed for the Countess Matilda in the twelfth century; this illustrates the extreme decadence of art in Italy before the thirteenth century. " 48 " 187. Miniature of Saint George and the Dragon from a _Missal_, illuminated about 1330 to 1340 by a painter of the school of Giotto. " 49 " 196. An illuminated border from a manuscript by Attavante, of characteristic north-Italian style. " 50 " 198. A miniature from the Bible of Duke Borso d'Este, painted between 1455 and 1461 by illuminators of the school of Ferrara. " 51 " 201. A Venetian retable by Giovanni and Antonio di Murano, in the style of an illuminated manuscript. " 52 " 208. Grotesque figure from a French manuscript of the fourteenth century. " 53 " 209. Miniature of a comic subject from a German manuscript of the twelfth century, representing a monastic scribe worried by a mouse. " 54 " 213. View of the scriptorium alley of the cloisters at Gloucester, showing the recesses to hold the wooden _carrels_ for the scribes or readers of manuscripts. " 55 " 219. Picture by Quentin Matsys of Antwerp, showing a lady selling or pawning an illuminated manuscript. Frontispiece. Painting on panel by a fifteenth century artist of the Prague school; it represents Saint Augustine as an Episcopal scribe. The background and the ornaments of the dress are stamped in delicate relief on the _gesso_ ground and then gilt. This picture, which is now in the Vienna Gallery, was originally part of the painted wall-panelling in the Chapel of the Castle of Karlstein. CHAPTER I. CLASSICAL MANUSCRIPTS WRITTEN WITH A STILUS. Before entering upon any discussion of the styles and methods of decoration which are to be found in mediaeval manuscripts and of the various processes, pigments and other materials which were employed by the mediaeval illuminators it will be necessary to give some account of the shapes and kinds of books which were produced among various races during the classical period. _Survival of methods._