ILLUSTRATION OF BOOKS. There are two kinds of book-illustration: (1) an artist's attempt to make visual representation of scenes, or characters, or objects described in the text; (2) decoration and ornamentation for the purpose of embellishing the page. In both cases the illustration of books has followed the de velopment of graphic art and the mechanical de velopments in the processes of book-making. The books that have been the most frequently illustrated arc the Bible; the
The earliest known illustrated work is the wonderful set of Egyptian papyrus rolls called
During the Middle Ages books were the luxury of the wealthy. Comparatively few per sons could either read or write. Learning was almost confined to the monasteries. The book ish man was usually a monk, for those who loved study usually entered the priesthood Noblemen, as a rule, spent their time fighting or practising arms in the tilt-yard of the castle and their wives, daughters and sweethearts were occupied in household affairs or sat before their embroidery frames (see EMBROIDERY). In the evening the household and guests assembled in the great hall of castle or manor-house, where often some strolling minstrel or trouvere _would recite, or chant, a famous story. Perhaps this would be one of the great Arthurian group, such as of the Lake' or and Iseult' ; perhaps one of the Charlemagne cycle, such as of Bordeaux' ; or with the Big Foot); or one of the Crusader's tales, such as Count of Flanders.' Such
stories were called °Romans° and took the place of our modern novel. They were kept in cir culation and made popular by these traveling minstrels and trouveres (as they were called in France), and would have been handed down orally, if unrecorded. Happily, however, in the monasteries and in private households, monks, scribes and painters copied these famous works and illustrated them, finding models and in spiration in what they saw around them. These specialists in the art of "illuminating° were lavish with their work which was of beautiful style, marvelous in minute detail and of exquisite finish. The small medallions, or pictures, called "miniatures," were, sometimes done by one person and the decorative initial letters and borders by another worker, who also inlaid the gold leaf, whence the adjective "illuminated.° Bibles, missals, breviaries, books of hours, books of music and dry chronicles were illustrated in like style throughout Europe. Wealthy lords purchased these superb books and specially ordered books for gifts from monasteries, when they did not keep their own artists. Rene d'Anjou had a staff of copy ists and book-painters and his library was famed in the 15th century. Many of his sumptuous volumes are now owned by the Emperor of Austria. The Bibliotheque nationale in Paris owns the largest collection of °illuminated manuscripts° of the Middle Ages in the world. The British Museum also has a fine collection, including the (Harleian Ms,' and so has the Bodleian library in Oxford. The New York Public Library possesses some choice specimens of "illuminated manuscripts° and an excellent collection is permanently exhibited at the Met ropolitan Museum in New York. A superb col lection of "illuminated manuscripts') perished in the burning of the University in Louvain by the Germans in 1914—an irreparable loss. Apart from their artistic beauty these gillunu nated manuscripts° afford unlimited suggestion to decorators for motives of design and original lettering. They are, moreover, a storehouse of information for the historian, because the an cient illustrators depicted the scenery, archi tecture, costumes and personages that they saw around them. Many an old Flemish and French town appears in a Bible in a gold-brightened miniature as the artist's idea of Jerusalem, or Bethlehem, and many a contemporary king or queen masquerades as a Biblical character. In the case of Froissart's (Chronicles,' however, the painter depicted actual scenes and•real por traits. Therefore the pictures in an illuminated Froissart are often more valuable to the mod ern student than even the vivid writing of the old French chronicler.