THE VOLUME: one of two (the other numbered 27695), a _Latin_ treatise on the Virtues and Vices (The miniatures, drawings, &c., probably by "the Monk of Hyères," Genoa). The vellum leaves have been separated, and are now preserved in paper books. The leaf illustrated shows a margin of vellum of less than 3/16 inch all round (the plate).
The decorative borders are much more naturalistic in [p428] form and colouring than any other old illumination that I have seen (see reference to Plate XVI., p. 203).
The foliage is a delicate green, the berries are dark purple, the single fruits plain and pale orange-red; the two beetles in _crimson_ and _brown_ are made darker and too prominent in the photograph. The bands of small "Lombardic" Capitals are in burnished gold.
Note how skilfully and naturally the upper corners of the border are managed, and also the beautiful way in which the branches run into and among the text (see p. 213).
_PLATE XVII.--French Fifteenth-century Writing, with Illuminated Borders. Ex libris E. Johnston._
THE PAGE 9-1/2 inches by 6-1/8 inches: MARGINS, approx.: _Inner_ 1-1/8 inch, _Head_ 1-3/8 inch, _Side_ 2-3/8 inches, _Foot_ 2-7/8 inches (the edges have been slightly cut down). The marginal lines (from head to foot of the page) and the writing lines are RULED in faint red.
THE WRITING is a late formal "Gothic"--the thin strokes have evidently been added (p. 47). The written Capitals are blotted with yellow (see p. 140). The ILLUMINATED INITIAL Q is in blue, white lined, on a gold ground, contains a blue flower and five ornaments in "lake." The LINE-FILLINGS are in blue and "lake," separated by a gold circle, triangle, or lozenge.
THE FILIGREE ILLUMINATION springs from the initial in the narrow margin, and from a _centre_ ornament (see "knot," fig. 127) in the wide side margin. The side margins are treated similarly on either page (see p. 213); the inner margins are generally plain. This repetition gives to the pages a certain sameness--which is a _characteristic_ rather than a fault of the treatment.
The border on the _recto_ of the vellum leaf shows through on the _verso_ or back of the leaf. The main lines of the first border, however, are freely traced and [p429] followed on the _verso_ (and so nearly hidden) by the second border. This is also suggestive of the more rapid methods of book production in the 15th century.