Floral borders, which in some instances spread freely around the text and fill the margins, unconfined though not uninfluenced by rectangular lines or limits from a light and open, yet rich and delicate tracery of leaves and fanciful blossoms (as in the Bedford Hours); are in others framed in with firm lines (Tenison Psalter, p. 11); and in later fifteenth century MSS. with gold lines and mouldings, as the treatment of the page becomes more pictorial and solid in colour and relief. Sometimes the borders form a distinct framework, inclosing the text and dividing its columns, as in "The Book of Hours of René of Anjou" (Egerton MS. 1070), and the same design is sometimes repeated differently coloured. Gradually the miniaturist--the picture painter--although at first almost as formally decorative as the illuminator--asserts his independence, and influences the treatment of the border, which becomes a miniature also, as in the Grimani Breviary, the Romance of the Rose, and the Choir Books of Siena, until at last the miniature or the picture is in danger of being more thought of than the book, and we get books of framed pictures instead of pictured or decorated books. In the Grimani Breviary the miniature frequently occupies the whole page with a single subject-picture; or the miniature is superimposed upon a pictured border, which, strengthened by rigid architectural lines and tabernacle work, form a rich frame. [Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. "CHRONEKEN DER SASSEN." (MAINZ, SCHÖFFER, 1492.)] All these varieties we have been examining are, however, interesting and beautiful in their own way in their results. In considering any form of art of a period which shows active traditions, real life and movement, natural growth and development, we are fascinated by its organic quality, and though we may detect the absorption or adaptation of new elements and new influences from time to time leading to changes of style and structure of design, as well as changed temper and feeling, as long as this natural evolution continues, each variety has its own charm and its own compensations; while we may have our preferences as to which approaches most nearly to the ideal of perfect adaptability, and, therefore, of decorative beauty. In the progressive unfolding which characterizes a living style, all its stages must be interesting and possess their own significance, since all fall into their places in the great and golden record of the history of art itself. [Illustration] CHAPTER II. OF THE TRANSITION, AND OF THE SECOND PERIOD OF DECORATIVELY ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, FROM THE INVENTION OF PRINTING IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY ONWARDS.