[124] See page 187 for a fine Italian example of this subject. It is interesting to note that the popular legend of Saint George and the dragon is simply a mediaeval version of the old classical myth of Perseus and Andromeda. In the more genuine Oriental lives of Saint George this episode is not introduced. [125] It should be remembered that Norman-French continued to be the Court language of England till late in the fifteenth century, and for certain legal purposes even later. Its use still survives in the Law-Courts of Quebec and Montreal. [126] Dante, _Purg._ XI. 80; see above, p. 31. [127] In the magnificent English embroideries of the thirteenth century, such as the Lateran and Pienza copes, mentioned at page 112, we see birds of exactly similar style and kinds introduced among the scroll-work of the grounds and borders. [128] The phrase _ivy pattern_ is a convenient one to use, as it expresses a very common and well-defined type of ornament, but the leaf is too conventionally treated to be recognized as that of the ivy or any other plant: and the pattern is varied with blossoms of different forms and colours. [129] See Laborde, _Les Ducs de Bourgogne_, Vol. II. p. 1, and note to p. 121. [130] The manner in which this splendid effect is produced is described below, see page 234. [131] Shown, for example, in fig. 25, page 134. [132] The border from the Grimani Breviary shown on page 168, is an example, though a very beautiful one, of this decadence of taste. [133] Now in Paris, _Bibl. Nat. Lat._ 17, 294. John, Duke of Bedford, was a son of Henry IV.; he married in 1423 Anne, daughter of the Duke of Burgundy. Very fine portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Bedford occur in the _Bedford Missal_ mentioned below. [134] The Italians call it _chiaro-scuro_ or "light and shade" painting; its use in manuscripts may have been suggested by the _grisaille_ stained glass windows which were introduced by the Cistercian monks, whose Rule prohibited the use of brightly coloured figure subjects either in their windows, on their walls, or in their books. [135] It was sold for £650 at the Perkins sale in June, 1873. [136] Christina was one of the most famous authors of her time; she produced thirteen different works; one of which, _The Fayts of Armes and Chivalry_, was translated and printed by Caxton about a century after it was written, in 1489. [137] A fine manuscript of Christina's _Romance_ is mentioned above, see page 138. [138] These chivalrous romances were no less popular in England; Dan Lydgate's _Boke of the siege of Troy_, adapted and translated from Guido de' Colonna's romance, was one of the most popular English books in the fifteenth century; see page 123.