[27] The term Byzantine as applied to art is commonly used to denote the style which was developed in the Eastern empire soon after Constantine had transferred the seat of government from Old to "New Rome," or Constantinople as it was also called instead of Byzantium, which was the ancient name. [28] Several manuscripts of this class are described by H. Bordier, _Manuscrits Grecs de la Bibliothèque Nationale_, Paris, 1883. [29] A great public library was founded by Constantine in New Rome and partially stocked by manuscripts transferred from the old Capital. This library was rapidly enlarged by his sons and successors, and it was rebuilt on a grander scale by the Emperor Zeno after the building had been injured by fire about the year 488 A.D. [30] For a valuable account of Byzantine manuscripts, see Kondakoff, _Histoire de l'Art Byzantin_, Paris, 1886-1891. [31] The title _Porphyro-genitus_, "Born in the purple," referred to the fact that Byzantine Empresses brought forth their children in a magnificent room lined with slabs of polished porphyry. [32] A translation of this curious treatise was published by Didron and Durand, in their _Manuel d'iconographie chrétienne_; Paris, 1845. [33] All manuscripts described in this book, from the Byzantine school onwards, may be understood to be in the _codex_ form and written on _vellum_, unless they are otherwise described. [34] Published by Lambecius, _Comment. sur la Bibl. de Vienne_, 1776, Vol. III. [35] Copies of some of the miniatures in the Vatican _Cosmas_ are given by N. Kondakoff, _Histoire de l'Art Byzantin_, Paris, 1886, Vol. I. pp. 142 to 152. [36] St Mark's in Venice and the churches of Ravenna and Constantinople are full of examples of this design. [37] This Sasanian art was an inheritance from ancient Babylon and Assyria, and was the progenitor of what in later times has been called Arab art, though the quite inartistic Arabs appear to have derived it from the Persians whom they conquered and forcibly converted to the Moslem Faith. [38] The mere gold of even the finest Byzantine manuscripts is never as sumptuous or as highly burnished as that in manuscripts of the fourteenth century, owing to its being usually applied as a fluid pigment, or at least not over the best kind of highly raised ground or _mordant_, which is described below at p. 234.