M?dard itself, is quite manifest, yet perhaps need not be
traced further than Soissons or Pavia. In certain of the illustrations,
as, for instance, the "Fountain of Life," there is at once a likeness
and a variation as compared with the same symbol in the Evangeliary of
St. Sernin. They are both too intricate to describe, but of both it may
be said that they show an intimate acquaintance with early Christian
symbolism. The ivory carving and architecture of Ravenna have evidently
been known to the director of these frames and backgrounds. In the year
which saw the completion of Godeschalk's Gospels, Alcuin was at Parma,
but when the St. M?dard's Gospels were written he was Abbot of St.
Martin's at Tours. It was the presence of Alcuin at the Court of
Charlemagne that accounts for the prevalence of the Saxon character in
the new and beautiful handwriting we now call Carolingian. It was the
presence of Paul Warnefrid that accounts for much of the classic and
most of the Lombardic features, both of the writing and the
illumination. Many other scholars assisted these two in the various
centres in which Alcuin established branches of the palatine schools.
The intercourse with Italy and England was constant, and led to the
frequent interchange of books, and community of methods and models.
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