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A huge thank you to all who donated in 2025; 2026 Q1 Web hosting 0 / $400; planning a move to much cheaper hosting this quarter.
Galleries: index · 
· 
![[picture: book cover]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Tymms-Illuminating/tn/0000-cover-q50-360x500.jpg "[picture: book cover]")
Images scanned from The Art of Illuminating As Practised in Europe from the Earliest Times by W. R. Tymms, with an Essay and Instructions by M. D. Wyatt, Architect. London. Published April 2nd 1860 by Day and Son, Lithographers to the Queen.
There are 100 full colour plates in the book done in chromolithography, as well as a chromolithographed title page. I have only scanned a few because my scanner damages the binding. The text is by Matthew Digby Wyatt and the images appear to have been made by W. R. Tymms (and not Symms, as this page used to say).
Title: The Art of Illuminating As Practised in Europe from the Earliest Times
Date: 1860
Total items: 133
Out of copyright (called public domain in the USA), hence royalty-free for all purposes usage credit requested, or as marked.
![[picture: Clip-art: calligraphic decorative initial capital letter Y from XIV. Century No. 1]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Tymms-Illuminating/wm/big/43-letterY-q75-160x200.jpg "[picture: Clip-art: calligraphic decorative initial capital letter Y from XIV. Century No. 1]")
Clip-art: calligraphic decorative initial capital letter Y from XIV. Century No. 1
Calligraphic letter Y from XIV. Century No. 1. [more...] [$]
![[picture: Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique brown]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Tymms-Illuminating/wm/big/p27-border-antique-brown-166x200.jpg "[picture: Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique brown]")
Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique brown
This is a version of the red border from Page 27 coloured a sepia brown. There are also a green and a black and white version. To make your own coloured version of this old page border, see the notes for the Red and the black-and-white versions. [more...] [$]
![[picture: Fourteenth-Century illuminated D with saint]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Tymms-Illuminating/wm/big/067-Fourteenth-Century-No-25-letter-d-q75-221x200.jpg "[picture: Fourteenth-Century illuminated D with saint]")
Fourteenth-Century illuminated D with saint
This illuminated initial letter “D” is from the 1300s (14th century); it’s a red and blue calligraphic capital letter, with a picture of an unidentified female saint inside (as indicated by the gold halo). The saint holds a book in one hand and perhaps giant [...] [more...] [$]
![[picture: Clip-art: calligraphic decorative initial capital letter M from XIV. Century No. 1]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Tymms-Illuminating/wm/big/43-letterM-q75-192x200.jpg "[picture: Clip-art: calligraphic decorative initial capital letter M from XIV. Century No. 1]")
Clip-art: calligraphic decorative initial capital letter M from XIV. Century No. 1
Calligraphic letter M from XIV. Century No. 1. [more...] [$]
![[picture: Decorative initial letter S from fifteenth Century Nos. 4 and 5.]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Tymms-Illuminating/wm/big/074-medieval-red-blue-initial-letter-s-133x200.jpg "[picture: Decorative initial letter S from fifteenth Century Nos. 4 and 5.]")
Decorative initial letter S from fifteenth Century Nos. 4 and 5.
Decorative initial letter S from Fifteenth Century No. 4. [more...] [$]
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