Endeavour to strike a balance between what may be called "practical" and "ornamental" considerations: an illuminated MS. is not meant to be entirely "practical," but it is a greater failure if made entirely "ornamental." Let the text be _readable_ in every sense, and let the ornament _beautify_ it: there should be give and take, as it were, and that most desirable quality--"sweet reasonableness." [p223]
[Illustration: FIG. 134. _Part of Fig. 133. Enlarged twice linear._]
(_This and fig. 134 d are copies from a thirteenth century MS. in the possession of Mr. Yates-Thompson._)]
"The intricacies of a natural scene (fig. 134 _a_--after Bewick) may be simplified when rendered in such a simple medium as the pen drawings of a MS. (comp. fig. 134 _b_). Figs. 134 _c_ & _d_ are old examples of strong, simple drawing. Students should practise themselves by translating figs. 132, 133 into fine, Quill-pen drawings."--(N. R.)
[Illustration: FIG. 139.--THE CARNATION.]
____________________ FOOTNOTES TO PART I:
[5] "The alphabet which we use at the present day has been traced back, in all its essential forms, to the ancient hieratic writing of Egypt of about the twenty-fifth century before Christ. It is directly derived from the Roman alphabet; the Roman, from a local form of the Greek; the Greek, from the Ph[oe]nician; the Ph[oe]nician, from the Egyptian hieratic. . . . We may without exaggeration . . . carry back the invention of Egyptian writing to six or seven thousand years before Christ."--_Sir Edward Maunde Thompson, "Greek and Latin Palæography,"_ pp. 1-2.
[7] "G. & L. Palæography," p. 204. (Minuscules = "small letters." _Half-Uncials are sometimes distinguished, as "round minuscules"_--p. 302.)
[8] It is possible that their forms were influenced by the use of the brush in painting up public notices and the like. The introduction of the use of vellum--a perfect writing material--in the making of books, led to such a great advance in the formality and finish of the book-hands (especially of the Uncial character) that, practically, it may be said to mark the beginning of _penmanship_ as a "fine" art. This change may be assigned to any time between the first and the third centuries (palæographical dates before the fifth century must generally be regarded as approximate).