Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). * * * * * [Illustration] THE HISTORY, THEORY, AND PRACTICE OF ILLUMINATING. SKETCHED BY M. DIGBY WYATT, V.P.R.I.B.A. ETC. With Illustrations by W. R. TYMMS. CONDENSED FROM "The Art of Illuminating," BY THE SAME ILLUSTRATOR AND AUTHOR. _London_: DAY AND SON, _Lithographers to the Queen_, GATE STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. HISTORICAL MANUAL. LIST OF PLATES. PLATE I.--From the fragments of the Bible of Charles the Bald, preserved in the British Museum, Harleian 7551. In most of the MSS. of the date of Charlemagne and his immediate successors, the ornamental forms are generally compounded of Anglo-Saxon and semi-classical details; thus, fig. 1 presents us with a lunette, or arch-filling, borrowed from some Latin type; while in figs. 3, 4, 5, the interlaced knots, and in figs. 2 and 6 the "zoomorphic" terminations, are equally characteristic of Celtic art. This class of conventional design, although apparently complicated, is of comparatively easy execution, and on that account forms a suitable style for the young illuminator to try his "'prentice hand" upon. PLATE II. gives the outline of the preceding plate, and the beginner may make his first attempt at practical illumination in an endeavour to make it resemble Plate I. as closely as possible. PLATE III., from the same source as Plate I., gives, in figs. 1 and 4, two alphabets, and in fig. 2 one sentence, in the characters in which the Latin text of the original is written throughout the volume, with the usual form of initial letter; together with, in fig. 3, an ornament showing, on a largish scale, the principle upon which the most common interlacement of the Saxon school is usually worked out. It may be here noted that, considering it as likely to be more useful to the student, throughout these illuminations the characters, which in the originals express Latin, French, or barbarous English, have been arranged to exhibit Scripture texts of simple language, such as may be frequently desired for the embellishment of churches or schoolrooms.