ROMANCES. 



39' 



and dialogues, were twice as prolix, but were received with great favour. 

 Many copies of them were brought out, and some of these copies, written in 

 large letters upon costly vellum (Fig. 315), were ornamented with capitals in 

 gold and colours, and with art istically painted miniatures. The libraries of the 

 great houses were made up of these manuscripts, most of them in folio, bound 



Fig. 315. Copyist writing upon a Sheet of Vellum. Miniature from Manuscript of the Fifteenth 

 Century. In the Eoyal Library, Brussels. 



in wood, with a covering of leather or some rich material. These enormous 

 volumes, which could only be read from a desk, were much used by the ladies 

 of the family, who, undismayed by the length to which these stories of love 

 and chivalry extended, read from them every day. This was a very favour- 

 able period for the romances ; nor was it the last, for, when printing was 

 discovered, fresh editions of nearly all the romances made their appearance 



