One of the most famous examples of this lavish expenditure of time on one book is the _Breviary_ of the Duke of Bedford, who was Regent of France from 1422 to 1435[133]. This wonderful manuscript, in addition to countless elaborate initials, and borders round every page, contains more than 2500 miniature paintings, all delicately and richly executed in burnished gold and brilliant colours, with backgrounds, in many cases, of the fourteenth century type, with chess-board patterns and other diapers of the most elaborate and sumptuous kind. The figures are of the finest Franco-Flemish style, showing the influence of the Van Eycks, who were then becoming the most skilful painters, technically at least, in the world. _The Bedford Missal._ Another no less famous manuscript is the _Bedford Missal_ in the British Museum, which was painted for the Duke of Bedford, and was presented by his wife to Henry VI. of England, when he was crowned King of France in Paris in the year 1430. The _Bedford Missal_ contains no less than fifty-nine large miniatures and about a thousand smaller ones, not counting initials and borders. One point of special interest about this gorgeous manuscript is that the illuminations have evidently been executed by at least three different miniaturists, who represent three different schools, the Parisian-French, the Franco-Flemish and the English. _MSS. by various hands._ It is by no means uncommon to find the work of several different illuminators in one manuscript. Naturally, when a wealthy patron ordered a magnificent book, he was not always willing to wait several years for its completion, as must have been necessary when the whole of a sumptuous manuscript was the work of one man. Again, it was not an uncommon thing for unfinished manuscripts to be sent to Bruges, Ghent and other centres of the illuminator's art from various distant towns and countries, especially from France, Italy and Spain, in order that they might be decorated with borders and miniatures by one of the Flemish miniaturists. In some cases it was only the miniature subjects which were left blank; so that we have the text with the illuminated borders and initials executed in the style of one country, while the miniatures are of another quite different school. Moreover, we find from the Guild records of Bruges that a certain number of Italian and Spanish scribes had taken up their residence in Bruges, and become members of the Guild of Saint John and Saint Luke, so that some manuscripts actually written in Flanders have a text which in style is Italian or Spanish. Various other combinations of style occur not unfrequently. Many English manuscripts, for example, have miniature paintings which are French or Flemish in style, united with bold decorative borders of the most thoroughly English type. _MSS. in Grisaille._