Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/649

 Books and Science in the Middle Ages 553 as clear, small, and almost as regular as if they had been printed, illuminated The whole volume containing the Old and New Testaments is "^^""^'^"P ^ about the size of this book. After the scribe had finished his work the volume was often turned over to the illumijiato)'^ who would put in gay illuminated initials and sometimes page borders, which were delightful in design and color.^ Books de- signed to be used in the church services w^ere adorned with pic- tures as well as with ornamented initials and decorative borders. Plate VIII is a reproduction of a page from a Book of Hours in the library of Columbia University. It is the same size as the original. The written books were, in short, often both compact and Slow process beautiful, but they were never cheap or easily produced in by hand great numbers. When Cosimo, the father of Lorenzo the Magnificent, wished to form a library just before the in- vention of printing, he applied to a contractor who engaged forty-five copyists. By working hard for nearly two years they were able to produce only two hundred volumes for the new library. Moreover, it was impossible before the invention of printing to Errors of have two copies of the same work exactly alike. Even with the greatest care a scribe could not avoid making some mistakes, and a careless copyist was sure to make a great many. The universi- ties required their students to report immediately any mistakes discovered in their textbooks, in order that the error might not be reproduced in another copy and so lead to a misunderstand- ing of the author. With the invention of printing it became possible to produce in a short time a great many copies of a given book which were exactly alike. Consequently, if suffi- cient care was taken to see that the types were properly set, the whole edition, not simply a single copy, might be relied upon as correct. 1 The word " miniature," which is often applied to them, is derived ixom.mmhtm, that is, vermilion, which was one of the favorite colors. Later the word came to be applied to anything small. copyists