and a similar work, in his
estimation, could not _now_ be executed under 100,000 francs.

A SIMILAR MS. This consists but of one volume, of a larger size, of 321
leaves. It is also an historical Bible. The illuminations are arranged in a
manner like those of the preceding; but in black and white only, delicately
shaded. The figures are tall, and the females have small heads; just what
we observe in those of the _Roman d'Alexandre_, in the Bodleian library. It
is doubtless a manuscript of nearly the same age, although this may be
somewhat more recent.

LIBER GENERATIONIS IHI XTI. Of all portions of the sacred text--not
absolutely a consecutive series of the Gospels, or of any of the books of
the Old Testament--the present is probably, not only the oldest MS. in that
particular department, but, with the exception of the well known _Codex
Claromontanus_, the most ancient volume in the Royal Library. It is a
folio, having purple leaves throughout, upon which the text is executed in
silver capitals. Both the purple and the silver are faded. On the exterior
of the binding are carvings in ivory, exceedingly curious, but rather
clumsy. The binding is probably coeval with the MS. They call it of the
ninth century; but I should rather estimate it of the eighth. It is
undoubtedly an interesting and uncommon volume.

EVANGELIUM STI. IOHANNIS. This is a small oblong folio, bound in red
velvet. It is executed in a very large, lower-case, coarse gothic and roman
letter, alternately:--in letters of gold throughout. The page is narrow,
the margin is large, and the vellum soft and beautiful. There is a rude
portrait of the Evangelist prefixed, on a ground entirely of gold. The
capital initial letter is also rude. The date of this manuscript is pushed
as high as the eleventh century: but I doubt this antiquity.

LIBER PRECUM: CUM NOTIS, CANTICIS ET FIGURIS. I shall begin my account of
PRAYER BOOKS, BREVIARIES, &C. with the present: in all probability the most
ancient within these walls. The volume before me is an oblong folio, not
much unlike a tradesman's day-book. A ms. note by Maugerard, correcting a
previous one, assigns the composition of this book to a certain Monk, of
the name of _Wickingus_, of the abbey of Prum, of the Benedictin order. It
was executed, as appears on the reverse of the forty-eighth leaf, "_under
the abbotships of Gilderius and Stephanus_." It is full of illuminations,
heavily and clumsily done, in colours, whi