"Probably much of the time they didn't."
Paul thought a moment.
"I suppose, though, the monks were paid for their hard work, so it was only fair for them to be careful," he reflected.
"On the contrary," replied his father, "they were not paid any more than were the slaves whom the Greeks and Romans employed. Their living was given them; that was all. Often the books they made were very beautiful and were sold to dignitaries of the Church or to titled persons for great sums; but any monies received from such a transaction went into the coffers of the Church and not into the monks' pockets. The Church however, in return, provided them with all they needed so they did not go entirely unrewarded. Some day when we can find time we will go to the city and hunt up some of these rare old manuscripts in the museum. You would be interested to see how exquisitely many of them are done. The initial letter, or frequently the catch word, is painted in color, and the borders are richly decorated with intricate scroll-work."
"Did the monks have to design the pages as well as print them?" inquired Paul with surprise.
"The same monk did not always do all the work," his father said. "Some merely inscribed the text and illuminated the first letter or word; afterward the sheets were handed to some one else who designed the decoration and sketched it in. Then it went to the colorist, who in turn illuminated, or painted, the drawing. You will find every inch of some of the more ornate manuscripts filled in with designs. The great objection to this method was that several persons handled the work and therefore in many cases the decoration had no relation whatsoever to the text; in fact, frequently it was entirely inappropriate to it."
Paul smiled.
"No more relation, I suppose, than the text of our school paper will have to its name: March Hare."
"Just about the same," conceded his father with amusement. "So that's the title you've selected for your monthly?"
"Yes, sir. We couldn't seem to think of anything better."