г Si , ap?ears that YoIk> besides being unsuited in

Gold & colour for tempering this blue, changes it to a

Colours ,n greenish colour (the effect of the oil, which forms
Initial about 22 per cent, of Yolk of Egg).

Letters & WHITE. The tube Chinese White1 is the most

¡simple convenient to use when tempering colours.

Illumination u White Line or Hair Finishing” (see p. 183).

Various tools have been recommended for this A
sable pencil with the outer hairs cut away, “the
smallest brush ” made, and even a fine steel pen. I
am inclined to believe that some of the early Illumi¬
nators used a fine quill—such as a crow quill, or a
goose quill scraped thin and sharply pointed.

PURPLE is seldom used in simple pen-work,
lettering, ¿ce., but largely and with very fine effect
in complex illumination. A reddish-purple is to be
preferred. A good colour can be made from the
purple stain described on p. 141, or from Ruby
madder and a little Rose madder, with a very little
Ultramarine.

SIMPLE COLOUR EFFECTS

Simple “Rubrication" (see p. 93).—Red letters
were most commonly contrasted with blue (the
“warmest” and “coldest” colours),2 in some MSS.
with green alone, but more commonly the three

wb-F°I m constant use—the Chinese

Whi e m bottle is said to be the best; a little Spirits of wfnl
should be poured into it, to keep it moist and bake it wo?k
better. It should be stirred well, and a sufficient quantity for
immediate use is taken out and mixed in a small saucer The
bottle is kept tightly corked.

‘ And single forms were often parti-coloured, as III IV
Blue, with red serifs, or vice versd (see also pp. 174, 182).

I46

The Use ol
Gold &
Colours in
Initial
Letters &
Simple
Illumination

Repetition and Limitation of Simple Colours (and
Forms).—The uniform treatment of a MS. neces¬
sitates that no colour (or form) in it should be quite
singular, or even isolated if it can possibly be re¬
peated. If, for example, there be a Red capital on
the “Verso” page, the “opening” is improved by
some Red—a capital, a rubric, or even a line-
finishing—on the “Recto” page. Very often the
one piece of colour is very small, and, as it were,
an echo of the other (compare Line-finishings and
Initials, pp. 171, 159). While it is not always pos¬
sible or desirable so to treat both pages of an opening,
yet, in the book taken as a whole, every colour used
should be repeated as often as there is a reasonable
opportunity. And, therefore, where the opportunities
for colour in a book are few and far between, it is
well to limit the “colours” used to two, or even
one.

This necessity for repetition applies to simple
rather than to complex “Illuminated” Forms—e.g.
a book need not have more than one Illuminated
Initial—but within such complex forms themselves

147

colours were used together, the alternations being
generally—

Red cap.
Blue cap.
Red cap.
Green cap.

See.

RED

in

columns of BLUE
Versal RED
letters

(see fig. GREEN
93)-

&c.

in lines of
Caps,
(see fig.
89).