Beginning with the simpler conventional styles of the Carlovingian school, in Plates I., II., and III. (from the fragments of the Bible of Charles the Bald, Harleian, 7,551), involving outline and flat tinting only, the student may advance to the lightly-shaded pen-work and foliation of the Romanesque style given in Plates IV., V., and VI., from the British Museum, Reg. 1, C. VII. In the purely mediæval illumination of the 14th century, Plates VII., VIII., and IX., from the British Museum (Reg. 1, D 1), the tints become more solid; while the raised and embossed gold, the complicated diapers, and more fully-shaded foliage, demand both considerable mechanical dexterity, and some real artistic capability on the part of the amateur, who would successfully revive the brilliant and powerful execution of the master-scribes of the Edwardian age. Towards the end of the 15th century, the miniatures of the illuminated books reflected the general advance made all over Europe in the art of painting. Imitative art rapidly superseded conventional, and although much ornament is freely introduced in combination with small pictures, it is made to participate in the general system of light and shade and arrangement of colour which dominates over the more essentially-pictorial portions of the decoration. Such a style of ornament is well shown in Plates X., XI., and XII., from the Bedford (so called) missal, and in the three last plates of this manual, from the beautiful Missal of Ferdinand and Isabella--British Museum, add. 18,851. Thus the student will find, that his own progress will tally with the transitional changes of the art, from its infancy to its most artistic phase, and that long before he may have learnt enough to enable him to imitate successfully the miniature style of the 15th century, he may be in a position to produce tolerably satisfactory reproductions of the early and mediæval work. Having thus suggested the most profitable mode in which the student can, I believe, make use of the beautiful examples Mr. Tymms has prepared for his assistance, I consider it well to proceed to offer to his notice such counsel, as may, I trust, tend to induce him not to rest contented with reproduction of old examples upon a small scale, but rather to extend the sphere of his studies and operations into the origination of a fresh and expanded system of decoration, based as a starting-point upon the labours of the most zealous masters of the craft.