pass about among them, making suggestions and correcting
errors, a beautiful example of true consecration, the great scholar
spending his time thus in supervising the transcription of the
Word of God, from a desire to have it spread far and wide. Alcuin
sent a letter to Charlemagne, accompanying a present of a copy
of the Bible, at the time of the emperor's coronation, and from
this letter, which is still preserved, it may be seen how reverent
a spirit his was, and how he esteemed the things of the spiritual
life as greater than the riches of the world. "After deliberating
a long while," he writes, "what the devotion of my mind might find
worthy of a present equal to the splendour of your Imperial dignity,
and the increase of your wealth,--at length by the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit, I found what it would be competent for me to
offer, and fitting for your prudence to accept. For to me inquiring
and considering, nothing appeared more worthy of your peaceful
honour than the gifts of the Sacred Scriptures... which, knit
together in the sanctity of one glorious body, and diligently
amended, I have sent to your royal authority, by this your faithful
son and servant, so that with full hands we may assist at the
delightful service of your dignity." One of Alcuin's mottoes was:
"Writing books is better than planting vines: for he who plants a
vine serves his belly, while he who writes books serves his soul."

Many different arts were represented in the making of a mediaeval
book. Of those employed, first came the scribe, whose duty it was
to form the black even glossy letters with his pen; then came the
painter, who must not only be a correct draughtsman, and an adept
with pencil and brush, but must also understand how to prepare
mordaunts and to lay the gold leaf, and to burnish it afterwards
with an agate, or, as an old writer directs, "a dogge's tooth set
in a stick." After him, the binder gathered the lustrous pages and
put them together under silver mounted covers, with heavy clasps.
At first, the illuminations were confined only to the capital letters,
and red was the selected colour to give this additional life to the
evenly written page. The red pigment was known as "minium." The
artist who applied this was called a "miniator," and from this,
was derived the term "miniature," which later referred to the
pictures executed in the developed stages of the art. The use of
the word "miniature," as applied to paintings on