Many different arts were represented in the making of a mediaeval book.  Of those employed, first came the scribe, whose duty it was to form the black even glossy letters with his pen; then came the painter, who must not only be a correct draughtsman, and an adept with pencil and brush, but must also understand how to prepare mordaunts and to lay the gold leaf, and to burnish it afterwards with an agate, or, as an old writer directs, “a dogge’s tooth set in a stick.”  After him, the binder gathered the lustrous pages and put them together under silver mounted covers, with heavy clasps.  At first, the illuminations were confined only to the capital letters, and red was the selected colour to give this additional life to the evenly written page.  The red pigment was known as “minium.”  The artist who applied this was called a “miniator,” and from this, was derived the term “miniature,” which later referred to the pictures executed in the developed stages of the art.  The use of the word “miniature,” as applied to paintings on a small scale, was evolved from this expression.

[Illustration:  A SCRIBE AT WORK:  12TH CENTURY MANUSCRIPT]

The difficulties were numerous.  First, there was climate and temperature to consider.  It was necessary to be very careful about the temperature to which gold leaf was exposed, and in order to dry the sizing properly, it was important that the weather should not be too damp nor too warm.  Peter de St. Audemar, writing in the late thirteenth century, says:  “Take notice that you ought not to work with gold or colours in a damp place, on account of the hot weather, which, as it is often injurious in burnishing gold, both to the colours on which the gold is laid and also to the gilding, if the work is done on parchment, so also it is injurious when the weather is too dry and arid.”  John Acherius, in 1399, observes, too, that “care must be taken as regards the situation, because windy weather is a hindrance, unless the gilder is in an enclosed place, and if the air is too dry, the colour cannot hold the gold under the burnisher.”  Illumination is an art which has always been difficult; we who attempt it to-day are not simply facing a lost art which has become impossible because of the changed conditions; even when followed along the best line in the best way the same trials were encountered.

Early treatises vary regarding the best medium for laying leaf on parchment.  There are very few vehicles which will form a connecting and permanent link between these two substances.  There is a general impression that white of egg was used to hold the gold:  but any one who has experimented knows that it is impossible to fasten metal to vellum by white of egg alone.  Both oil and wax were often employed, and in nearly all recipes the use of glue made of boiled-down vellum is enjoined.  In some of the monasteries there are records that the scribes had the use of the kitchen for drying parchment and melting wax.