We have seen how these monks
and clerics, with more goodwill than ability, did their best to adorn
the books which came into their hands. It is a poor show, but there is
no better. It is absolutely our only record of how civilisation managed
to struggle through the storm.
Let us, then, be thankful even for the Laon "Orosius," for the
Sacramentary of Gellone, and the Mozarabic Liturgies of Puy. They are
among the links between ancient and medi?val art.
As already stated, the handwriting of Merovingian MSS. is mainly an
adaptation of the Roman uncial, as it is in Irish and Lombardic, or, we
might say, everywhere else. Abbreviations we still uncommon. Where
minuscules are used, the writing is not quite so legible as in the
larger hands, but we are not met by the singular difficulties of some of
the Lombardic texts.
A few solitary texts of the earliest time are in capitals, such as the
really handsome "Prudentius" of the Paris National Library, where the
entire text of the great Christian poet is boldly inscribed in the
centre of a large white page of vellum, like a series of separate
inscriptions. The first few words are "rubrished" in the antique manner.
The MS. is supposed to date previous to the year 527. A little later
than this St.
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