In the Middle Ages, the only way to produce a book was by hand - the word manuscript means written by hand. Scribes, usually monks, spent hours carefully transcribing onto vellum (made of animal skin). Perhaps to relieve the boredom, fanciful characters were often added, some to the margins of the page, others to capital letters at the beginning of a chapter or paragraph. We have selected an alphabet's worth, from Acanthus to Zoology, for you to illuminate (color) as you like.