[301]

The same want of appreciation extends to bindings. As a rule a book in a fine mediaeval binding sells for no more than if it were in a modern binding by Bedford. It is only the sixteenth century bindings of so-called "Grolier style" and the like which add largely to the value of a book.

[302]

This library is now deposited in the Guildhall; the press-mark is probably that of an old monastic library.

[303]

Probably a blundered version of Pliny's statement (Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 119) that azure blue (cyanus) was invented by a king of Egypt.

[304]

This is evidently a different thing from the epicausterium or brazier for hot coals mentioned below. My friend Mr J. T. Micklethwaite suggests that it was a board covered with leather on which to stretch and dry vellum before writing on it.

[305]

An explanation of the nature and constitution of the Breviary will be found in the preface to the Psalter-volume of the Cambridge University Press edition of the Sarum Breviary, lately published.