124 IXTRODUCTION TO CONCHOLOGY. 



The fourth and fifth centuries were equally remarkable 

 for magnificent specimens of chrysography_, and of illu- 

 minatioUj or ornamental decorations of Biblical manuscripts. 



Among the books at the sale of Sir William BurrelFs 

 library, in 1798, was a manuscript Bible, beautifully writ- 

 ten on vellum, and highly illuminated; it contained the 

 autograph of the writer, Guido de vSars,in which he stated 

 that the work had taken him half a century to execute, — that 

 he had begun it in his fortieth, and finished it in his 

 ninetieth year, during the reign of Philip the Fair, in 1294. 



Similar manuscripts were also occasionally made in 

 England. The famous Wilfred ordered a copy of the four 

 Gospels to be ^Titten for the church of Eipon, in letters 

 of the purest gold, upon leaves of parchment, purpled in 

 the ground, and variously coloured on the surface. But 

 such were extremely rare, as we learn from the observations 

 of the venerable Bede, who notices the one at Eipon as a 

 kind of prodig}^, before unheard of. The Gregorian Bible, 

 presented by a monkish missionary and his companions to 

 the first Christian church erected at Canterbury, was also of 

 a similar description. It was written in red letters, with 

 several splendid purple and rose-coloured leaves inserted in 

 the beginning of each book. 



