[52] The colouring in this MS. is very elegant, being mainly restricted to gold, purple, white, and a little very brilliant vermilion;--the forms are principally Saxon. [53] Described at length by Dr. Waagen, "Treasures of Art in Great Britain," pages 104-106. [54] Many illustrations, but unfortunately without colour, are given by D'Agincourt, "Pittura," plates 40 to 45 inclusive. [55] The folio Vulgate (B. M. Addl. MSS. No. 10546) purchased by the British Museum authorities from M. Speyer Passavant, of Basle, in 1836, for £750, was considered by its late possessor to have been the original transcript "diligently emended" by Alcuin himself, for presentation to Charlemagne on his coronation as Emperor of Rome, in the year 800. It is a very fine and interesting volume, but has been referred, by more recent authorities, to the reign of Charles the Bald. Mr. Westwood, however, considers that "it appears to have better claims than any of the several Caroline Bibles now in existence, to be considered as the volume so presented." Its chief rival is the great Bible of the Fathers of Sta. Maria, in Vallicella, at Rome. Sir Frederick Madden has entered into a minute analysis of the claims of the Speyer Passavant volume, in a series of most learned articles in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1836. See also Westwood's "Palæographia Sacra," and the pamphlet, by its late possessor, J. H. de Speyer Passavant, "Description de la Bible écrite par Alchuine, &c." Par. 1829, pp. 112. [56] It is singular, considering how generally Hiberno-Saxon ornament was adopted by continental illuminators, that the peculiar Saxon _fluttering_ outline never obtained a footing. [57] The learned and most eloquent author of the "Poésie Chrétienne," M. Rio (from whom it was my privilege, while yet a youthful student, to receive many a valuable lesson), in noting this "total eclipse," remarks that "two rolls of parchment, one of which is preserved in the library of the Barbarini Palace, the other in the sacristy of the Cathedral of Pisa, are ornamented with miniatures which may serve to give us an idea of the state into which the arts of design had fallen in Italy in the 11th century. Those which were executed rather later, in the manuscript of a poem on the Countess Matilda (written by a certain 'Donizo,' in 1125), which is preserved in the Vatican, display no trace either of chiaroscuro or of correct imitation of form. "The Romano-Christian school ceased from this time to exist, after having fulfilled the whole of its mission, which had been to form the connecting link between the primitive inspirations of Christian art and the new schools which were destined to reap the harvest of this rich inheritance, and turn it to good account.