The gatherings, originally
quaternions or quires, became different, and those who undertake to
examine MSS. with respect to their completeness have to be familiar with
the various methods.[7] This kind of knowledge, however, though useful,
is by no means essential to the story of illumination.
[7] Wattenbach, _Schriftwesen_; Madan, _Books in Manuscript_, _etc_.
CHAPTER IV
GREEK AND ROMAN ILLUMINATION
The first miniature painter--The Vatican Vergils--Methods of
painting--Origin of Christian art--The Vienna Genesis--The
Dioscorides--The Byzantine Revival.
It has been already stated that the earliest recorded miniature painter
was a lady named Lala of Cyzicus in the days of Augustus C?sar, days
when Cyzicus was to Rome what Brussels is to Paris, or Brighton to
London. All her work, as far as we know, has perished. It was
portraiture on ivory, probably much the same as we see in the miniature
portraiture of the present day.
But this was not illumination. The kind of painting employed in the two
Vatican Vergils was, however, something approaching it. These two
precious volumes contain relics of Pagan art, but it is the very art
which was the basis and prototype of so-called Christian art of those
earliest examples found in the catacombs and in the first liturgical
books of Christian times.
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