e parchment makers, from the pulpit,
to be honest and conscientious in preparing skins. A bookseller,
too, was solemnly made to swear "faithfully to receive, take care
of, and expose for sale the works which should be entrusted to
him." He might not buy them for himself until they had been for
sale a full month "at the disposition of the Masters and Scholars."
But in return for these restrictions, the bookseller was admitted
to the rights and privileges of the University. As clients of the
University, these trades, which were associated with book making,
joined in the "solemn processions" of those times; booksellers,
binders, parchment makers, and illuminators, all marched together
on these occasions. They were obliged to pay toll to the Rector
for these privileges; the recipe for ink was a carefully guarded
secret.

It now becomes our part to study the books themselves, and see
what results were obtained by applying all the arts involved in
their making.

The transition from the Roman illuminations to the Byzantine may
be traced to the time when Constantine moved his seat of government
from Rome to Constantinople. Constantinople then became the centre
of learning, and books were written there in great numbers. For
some centuries Constantinople was the chief city in the art of
illuminating. The style that here grew up exhibited the same features
that characterized Byzantine art in mosaic and decoration. The
Oriental influence displayed itself in a lavish use of gold and
colour; the remnant of Classical art was slight, but may sometimes
be detected in the subjects chosen, and the ideas embodied. The
Greek influence was the strongest. But the Greek art of the seventh
and eighth centuries was not at all like the Classic art of earlier
Greece; a conventional type had entered with Christianity, and is
chiefly recognized by a stubborn conformity to precedent. It
is difficult to date a Byzantine picture or manuscript, for the
same severe hard form that prevailed in the days of Constantine
is carried on to-day by the monks of Mt. Athos, and a Byzantine
work of the ninth century is not easily distinguished from one of
the fifteenth. In manuscripts, the caligraphy is often the only
feature by which the work can be dated.

In the earlier Byzantine manuscripts there is a larger proportion
of Classical influence than in later ones, when the art had taken
on its inflexible uniformity of design. One of the most interesting
books