a small scale,
was evolved from this expression.

[Illustration: A SCRIBE AT WORK: 12TH CENTURY MANUSCRIPT]

The difficulties were numerous. First, there was climate and temperature
to consider. It was necessary to be very careful about the temperature
to which gold leaf was exposed, and in order to dry the sizing
properly, it was important that the weather should not be too damp
nor too warm. Peter de St. Audemar, writing in the late thirteenth
century, says: "Take notice that you ought not to work with gold
or colours in a damp place, on account of the hot weather, which,
as it is often injurious in burnishing gold, both to the colours
on which the gold is laid and also to the gilding, if the work
is done on parchment, so also it is injurious when the weather
is too dry and arid." John Acherius, in 1399, observes, too, that
"care must be taken as regards the situation, because windy weather
is a hindrance, unless the gilder is in an enclosed place, and
if the air is too dry, the colour cannot hold the gold under the
burnisher." Illumination is an art which has always been difficult;
we who attempt it to-day are not simply facing a lost art which
has become impossible because of the changed conditions; even when
followed along the best line in the best way the same trials were
encountered.

Early treatises vary regarding the best medium for laying leaf on
parchment. There are very few vehicles which will form a connecting
and permanent link between these two substances. There is a general
impression that white of egg was used to hold the gold: but any
one who has experimented knows that it is impossible to fasten
metal to vellum by white of egg alone. Both oil and wax were often
employed, and in nearly all recipes the use of glue made of
boiled-down vellum is enjoined. In some of the monasteries there
are records that the scribes had the use of the kitchen for drying
parchment and melting wax.

The introductions to the early treatises show the spirit in which
the work was undertaken. Peter de St. Audemar commences: "By the
assistance of God, of whom are all things that are good, I will
explain to you how to make colours for painters and illuminators
of books, and the vehicles for them, and other things appertaining
thereto, as faithfully as I can in the following chapters." Peter
was a North Frenchman of the thirteenth century.

Of the recipes given by the early treatises, I will quote a few,
for in reality th