J. Henry Middleton

“ Illumination and printing. Thus we see that as early as about the year 1400 the printer's art had begun to supplement that of the manuscript illuminator [19] ; and the two arts continued to work, as it were, hand in hand till after the close of the fifteenth century when the illumination of manuscripts ceased to be a real living art and gradually degenerated into a mere appendage to individual pomp and luxury. ”

“ These Parisian prayer-books gradually superseded the coarse manuscript Horae which were still produced in the early part of the sixteenth century; and the latest examples of these vellum-printed books, the work of Geoffroi Tory and others as late as 1546, came to be sold without any assistance from the hand, one can hardly say the art, of the illuminator in his extreme decadence.
Latest decadence. In a feeble way the art of writing and illuminating manuscripts, as a sort of plaything for the wealthy, lingered on in Paris till the seventeenth century. ”

“ Sir John Thorold's copy on paper was sold in 1884 for £3900.↑ Italian books frequently had clasps at the top and bottom as well as two at the side.↑ The first or almost the first book printed by Aldus was the Hero and Leander of Musaeus of 1494 in small 4to. ”