TYRIAN PUEPLE. 123 



In after times^ the ligliter kinds of Tyrian pnrple were 

 nsed in d}ing parchments^ or vellum^ with the design of 

 rendering still more splendid the gold and silver letters 

 -with which they were adorned ; and these, Casiri tells us, 

 reflected objects like a mirror. Bat as Tjrian robes were 

 confined to the palace and person of the Emperor, so this 

 magnificent and expensive style of writing was appropriated 

 to BibHcal manuscripts, and the hbraries of princes. 

 Theonas admonishes Lucian, the grand chamberlain, not to 

 permit any transcription upon pui'ple vellum, in gold and 

 silver letters, unless especially required by the prince. '' I 

 entreat you," says Boniface, Bishop of Mentz, the apostle of 

 Germany, in a letter to the Abbess Cadbtirga — '' I entreat 

 you, send me the epistle of the apostle Saint Peter, 

 written in letters of gold, that by exliibiting them, in 

 preaching, to the eyes of the irreKgious, I may procure the 

 greater honour and veneration for the Holy Scriptures " 

 Such was the book of the Gospels, which Louis the Pious 

 gave to the monastery of St. Medard, at Soissons, now in 

 the royal Hbrary of Prance. Such, too, was the Book of 

 Prayers, written in letters of gold upon purple vellum, 

 bound in ivory, and studded with gems, formerly belonging 

 to Charles the Bald, but now in the celebrated Colbertine 

 Library. 



