ther until, at its
highest state, most beautiful pictures were painted in manuscripts in
which rich colors were used on gold or silver backgrounds, and the effect
of the whole was as rich and ornamental as it is possible to imagine.

Many of these old manuscripts are seen in museums, libraries, and various
collections; they are very precious and costly, as well as interesting;
their study is fascinating, for almost every one of the numberless designs
that are used in them has its own symbolic meaning. The most ancient,
artistic miniatures of which we know are those on a manuscript of a part
of the book of Genesis; it is in the Imperial Library at Vienna, and was
made at the end of the fifth century. In the same collection there is a
very extraordinary manuscript, from which I give an illustration.

This manuscript is a treatise on botany, and was written by Dioskorides
for his pupil, the Princess Juliana Anicia, a granddaughter of the Emperor
Valentine III. As this princess died at Constantinople A.D. 527, this
manuscript dates from the beginning of the sixth century. This picture
from it represents Dioskorides dressed in white robes and seated in a
chair of gold; before him stands a woman in a gold tunic and scarlet
mantle, who represents the genius of discovery; she presents the legendary
mandrake root, or mandragora, to the learned man, while between them is
the dog that has pulled the root, and falls dead, according to the
fabulous story. This manuscript was painted by a masterly hand, and is
curious and interesting; the plants, snakes, birds, and insects must have
been painted from nature, and the whole is most skilfully done.

[Illustration: FIG. 20.--THE DISCOVERY OF THE HERB MANDRAGORA. _From a MS.
of Dioskorides, at Vienna._]

During the Middle Ages the arts as practised in Rome were carried into all
the different countries in which the Romans made conquests or sent their
monks and missionaries to establish churches, convents, and schools. Thus
the mediaeval arts were practised in Gaul, Spain, Germany, and Great
Britain. No wall-paintings or mosaics remain from the early German or
Celtic peoples; but their illuminated manuscripts are very numerous:
miniature-painting was extensively done in Ireland, and many Irish
manuscripts remain in the collections of Great Britain.

When Charlemagne became the king of the Franks in 768, there was little
knowledge of any art among his northern subjects; in 800 he made him