In the examples collected on this plate, it is manifest that the pictorial has not been allowed to usurp the proper province of the conventional element of design, as it too frequently does in many works of the same period, particularly in Italy,--undoubtedly beautiful as much of the illumination of the 15th century was in that country. PLATE XI. provides an outline of Plate X., for fully colouring in facsimile. PLATE XII. shows the general style of the lettering, both capital and lower-case, the initials, and the borders which pervade this beautiful triumph of Flemish art. Of these, figs. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 are especially adapted for mural decoration, on, of course, a greatly enlarged scale. M. D. W. 37, TAVISTOCK PLACE, LONDON. _April, 1861._ TECHNICAL MANUAL. LIST OF PLATES. PLATE I. is from the Speyer Passavant Charlemagne Bible, British Museum add. 10,546, described at page 39 of the "Historical Manual." The student cannot fail to observe how distinctly legible, and indeed how entirely Roman in character, the alphabet of capitals remained so long after the Augustan period as the ninth century after Christ. In the lower-case letters, in which the text is written, the legibility is evident; but the classical derivation through the uncial form of writing is not equally manifest. Desiring to guide the beginner in the class of exercises most likely to lead him on satisfactorily, we have in this technical manual in every case allowed the outline illustrations of each style of writing to precede the fully-coloured specimens of the corresponding ornament of the leading epochs of the art of illumination; enforcing thereby our conviction that the study and practice of that, which of old fell more directly within the province of the scribe than within that of the miniature painter, should invariably receive the student's first and chief attention--for, let it always be remembered that good writing looks well if enhanced by little, or the very simplest, ornament, while in illumination the effect of the best possible painting is irretrievably marred if the writing is irregular and badly formed or spaced. PLATE II., from the same precious volume, provides some simple but excellent conventional forms, suitable for execution both on a small and on an enlarged scale. By repeating either one of the three borders at the bottom of the plate, very pretty margins may be produced, suitable either for surrounding a page of writing or for enclosing a panel in mural decoration.