Chapter CLX

. instructions are given on “How to Grind Gold and Silver, and How to Temper Them to Make Foliage and Embellishments.” Evidently in this case the gold was prepared by grinding the leaf-gold--not, as was the case in the earlier descriptions, by first filing the metal and gradually reducing it to a fine powder.

The powder gold was, however, generally used only for painting in fine gold lines and heightening miniatures, although in the latter part of the fifteenth century matt gold grounds were often used as borders round miniatures, etc.

The raised gilding was, however, used more often, and the various recipes given in the different MSS. are generally very similar to those given by Cennino. Sometimes chalk or pipe-clay is used instead of gesso, and occasionally parchment size or fish-glue is recommended as a medium for mixing it with.

Endeavouring to work from these recipes is no easy matter, and the student is not advised to waste too much time in experimenting in this direction. Although there is a certain amount of fascination in trying the various preparations and methods, there is so much that is important that should claim the attention of the student that it is hardly profitable for him to spend a lot of time trying to work from these old formulas when it might be better employed.

One cannot help being interested, however, in these old recipes and directions for applying gold to vellum.

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