chrysography, in calligraphy, the art of writing in letters of gold or a piece of calligraphic work so set off. Chrysography perhaps reached its highest perfection 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 between 781 and 783, in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.