The coloured pigments. The vehicles used; blue pigments, ultramarine; its great value; story told by Pliny and Vasari; _smalto_ blues; "German blue;" Indigo and other dye-colours; how they were made into pigments; green pigments; terra verde, verdigris, smalt, leek-green; red pigments, _minium_ red lead, vermilion, red ochre (_rubrica_); _murex_ and _kermes_ crimson; kermes extracted from scraps of red cloth by illuminators; madder-red; lake-red; purples; yellow pigments, ochre, arsenic and litharge; white pigments, pure lime (_Bianco di San Giovanni_), white lead, _biacca_ or _cerusa_. Black inks, carbon ink and iron ink (_incaustum_ or _encaustum_ and _atramentum_); red and purple inks; writing in gold; the illuminator's pens and pencils; the lead-point and silver-point; red chalk and _amatista_. Pens made of reeds, and, in later times, of quills; brushes of ermine, minever and other hair, mostly made by each illuminator for himself; list of scribes' implements and tools. Miniatures representing scribes; the various stages in the execution of an illuminated manuscript; ruled lines; writing of the plain text; outline of ornament sketched in; application of the gold leaf; the painting of the ornaments and miniatures; preparation for the binder. CHAPTER XVI. Page 257 to 264. THE BINDINGS OF MANUSCRIPTS. Costly covers of gold, enamel and ivory; the more usual forms of binding; oak boards covered with parchment and strengthened by metal bosses and corners; methods of placing the title on the cover; pictures on wood covers; stamped patterns on leather; English stamped bindings; bag-like bindings for portable manuscripts; bindings of velvet with metal mounts; the costly covers of the Grimani _Breviary_ and other late manuscripts. The present prices of mediaeval manuscripts; often sold for barely the value of their vellum; modern want of appreciation of the finest manuscripts. APPENDIX. Page 265 to 270. Directions to scribes, from a thirteenth century manuscript at Bury St Edmund's. Note on Service-books by the late Henry Bradshaw. Extract from the Cistercian _Consuetudines_. [Illustration: Painting on panel by a fifteenth century artist of the Prague school; it represents St 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.] PREFACE. The object of this book is to give a general account of the various methods of writing, the different forms of manuscripts and the styles and systems of decoration that were used from the earliest times down to the sixteenth century A.D., when the invention of printing gradually put an end to the ancient and beautiful art of manuscript illumination.