a great
book of religious Instructions which he had illuminated, and for
every letter therein, he received pardon for one sin. Behold! When
the account was completed, there proved to be one letter over!
the narrator adds naively, "And it was a very big book."

[Illustration: ILLUMINATION BY GHERART DAVID OF BRUGES, 1498; ST.
BARBARA]

Perhaps more than any books executed in the better period, after
the decline had begun, were the Books of Hours, containing the
numerous daily devotions which form part of the ritual of the Roman
Church. Every well appointed lady was supposed to own a copy, and
there is a little verse by Eustache Deschamps, a poet of the time
of Charles V., in which a woman is supposed to be romancing about
the various treasures she would like to possess. She says:

"Hours of Our Lady should be mine,
Fitting for a noble dame,
Of lofty lineage and name;
Wrought most cunningly and quaint,
In gold and richest azure paint.
Rare covering of cloth of gold
Full daintily it shall enfold,
Or, open to the view exposed,
Two golden clasps to keep it closed."

John Skelton the poet did honour to the illuminated tomes of his
day, in spite of the fact that the aeesthetic deterioration had
begun.

"With that of the boke lozende were the clasps
The margin was illumined all with golden railes,
And bice empictured, with grasshoppers and waspes
With butterflies and fresh peacock's tailes:
Englosed with... pictures well touched and quickly,
It wold have made a man hole that had be right sickly!"

But here we have an indication of that realism which rung the death
knell of the art. The grasshoppers on a golden ground, and the
introduction of carefully painted insect and floral life, led to
all sorts of extravagances of taste.

But before this decadence, there was a very interesting period of
transition, which may be studied to special advantage in Italy,
and is seen chiefly in the illuminations of the great choral books
which were used in the choirs of churches. One book served for
all the singers in those days, and it was placed upon an open
lectern in the middle of the choir, so that all the singers could
see it: it will be readily understood that the lettering had to
be generous, and the page very large for this purpose. The
decoration of these books took on the characteristics of breadth
in keeping with their dimensions, and of large masses of ornament
rathe