Notes on the 4| inches); twenty-seven lines to the page, some pages
Plates ¿ave two columns. MARGINS approximately, Inner
I inch, Head under | inch (see Plate), Side i J inch (part
occupied by Versals), Foot inch.

THE WRITING is fairly legible, but approaches
Black Letter (p. 295) too nearly to ^e of use to us for
ordinary purposes. Note the ornamental Semi-Rustic
Capitals in text. Note the RULING of the two head
lines and of the foot line is carried into the margin.

THE VERSALS.—The main interest lies in the
varied forms of the Versals, which are most beautifully
made in red and green alternately. There is one elaborate
gold initial in the book, and several Versals in blue and
white (hollow: see p. 174).

The five ^ ’s—and the D in the text—on this page
(folio 85 b) by no means exhaust the varieties of D alone,
and there are very many varieties of the forms of the
other letters. On some pages each line begins with a
small Versal, while the more important Initials are much
larger, varying in size and ornament.

THE CONSTRUCTION of the Versals is un¬
usually slender, curved, and gradated. A rather fine pen
seems to have been used (p. 256), and though the letters
are upright, the natural tendency to slant the pen can be
detected in the thickening of the thin parts—above, on the
right, and below, on the left—giving the suspicion of a tilt
to the O.

The О-part of each was made first, and the tail \
added. This is very obvious in the D in the text, where
a stem | was added to О to make D.

Note the dots inside the Versals, one above and one
below. Originally these may have been intended to
effect—or hide—the junction of the thin strokes, by a
twirl of the pen at the end of the first stroke and the
beginning of the second, thus ( Their use is very
common in Versal forms (see fig. 189), and besides being

[Continued on p. 407

382

Plate I. Portion of Inscription on base of Trajan Column, Rome,
сггса a.D. 114 Scale approx. |th linear. (See also Plate II.)

Descriptive Note on p. 371.

.