CHRYSOGRAPHY

in calligraphy, the art of writing in letters of gold or a piece of calligraphic work so set off. From the 2nd century, scribes or book artists catering to the Roman luxury market responded to the allure of parchment and the rectangular page of the codex form of book. Chrysography perhaps reached its highest perfection, however, in the West during the Middle Ages under the impetus of the 8th- and 9th-century Carolingian literary renaissance, when a number of splendid manuscripts known as the Golden Gospels were produced. Most famous among these masterpieces is the Godescalc Gospels, written before 783 (Bibliothque Nationale, Paris).