• News
    • News & Views
    • Reviews
    • Highlights
  • Blogs
    • Manuscript Studies
      • Manuscript Studies: Contents List
    • International Congress on Medieval Studies
      • Abstracts of Congress Papers
        • Abstracts of Papers Listed by Author
        • Abstracts of Papers Listed by Year
  • About
    • Mission
    • History
    • Activities
    • People
      • Mildred Budny — Her Page
      • Adelaide Bennett Hagens
    • Congress Activities
      • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
        • Panels at the M-MLA Convention
      • Co-sponsored Conference Sessions (2006‒)
    • Events
    • Genealogies & Archives
  • Bembino
  • Congress
    • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
    • Co-sponsored Conference Sessions (2006‒)
    • Abstracts of Congress Papers
      • Abstracts Listed by Author
      • Abstracts Listed by Year
    • Kalamazoo Archive
    • Panels at the M-MLA Convention
      • Abstracts of Papers for the M-MLA Convention
  • Events
    • Seminars, Workshops, Colloquia & Symposia (1989–)
      • Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
      • Symposia on ‘The Transmission of the Bible’
      • The New Series
    • Abstracts of Papers for Events
      • Abstracts of Papers for Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
      • Abstracts of Papers for Symposia, Workshops & Colloquia
    • Receptions & Parties
    • Photographic Exhibitions & Master Classes
    • Business Meetings
    • Events Archive
  • ShelfLife
    • Journal Description
    • ShelfMarks: The RGME-Newsletter
    • Publications
      • “Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge” (1997)
        • Mildred Budny, ‘Catalogue’
        • The Illustrated Catalogue (1997)
      • The Illustrated Handlist
      • Semi-Official Counterfeiting in France 1380-1422
      • No Snap Decisions: Challenges of Manuscript Photography
  • Galleries
    • Galleries: Contents List
    • Scripts on Parade
    • Texts on Parade
      • Latin Documents & Cartularies
      • New Testament Leaves in Old Armenian
    • Posters on Display
    • Layout Designs
  • Donations
    • Orders
  • Contact Us
  • Links
    • Manuscripts & Rare Books
    • Maps, Plans & Drawings
    • Seals, Seal-Matrices & Documents

Log in

Featured Posts

Poster Announcing Bembino Version 1.5 (April 2018) with border for Web display
Bembino Version 1.5 (2018)
Lower Half of the Original Verso of a Single Leaf detached from a prayerbook in Dutch made circa 1530, owned and dismembered by Otto F. Ege, with the seller's description in pencil in the lower margin. Image reproduced by permission.
A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 214’?
© The British Library Board.  Harley MS 628, folio 160 verso.  Psalms 101 begin.
2018 M-MLA Call for Papers
Medieval Seal Matrices 1-14  in Tray with color guide at 72 dpi
Starter Kit
Libro de los juegos. Madrid, El Escorial, MS T.1.6, folio 17 verso, detail.
2018 International Congress on Medieval Studies Program
Fountain of Books outside the Main Library of the Cincinnati Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.
2017 M-MLA Panel Report
Leaf 41, Recto, Top Right, in the Family Album (Set Number 3) of Otto Ege's Portfolio of 'Fifty Original Leaves' (FOL). Otto Ege Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Photograph by Mildred Budny.
2017 M-MLA Panel
Poster for 'In a Knotshell' (November 2012)with border
Designing Academic Posters
Opening Lines of the Book of Zachariah. Courtesy of Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA. Reproduced by permission.
More Discoveries for “Otto Ege Manuscript 61”
Slice of Brie. Photograph by Coyau via Wikipedia Commons.
Say Cheese
Alcove Beside Entrance to Garneau at AZO 2017. Photography © Mildred Budny.
2017 Congress Report
Duck Family at the 2007 Congress. Photography © Mildred Budny.
2017 Congress Program
Verso of the Leaf and Interior of the Binding, Detail: Lower Right-Hand Corner, with the Mitered Flap Unfolde
A 12th-Century Fragment of Anselm’s ‘Cur Deus Homo’
Reused Leaf from Gregory's Dialogues Book III viewed from verso (outside of reused book cover) Detail of Spine of Cover with Volume Labels. Photograph © Mildred Budny.
A Leaf from Gregory’s Dialogues Reused for Euthymius
Detail of the top of the verso of the fragmentary leaf from a 13th-century copy of Statutes for the Cistercian Order. Reproduced by permission.
Another Witness to the Cistercian Statutes of 1257
Initial d in woodcut with winged hybrid creature as an inhabitant. Photography © Mildred Budny
The ‘Foundling Hospital’ for Manuscript Fragments
985 top left
A Reused Part-Leaf from Bede’s Homilies on the Gospels
Detail of middle right of Verso of detached leaf from the Nichomachean Ethics in Latin translation, from a manuscript dispersed by Otto Ege and now in a private collection. Reproduced by permission.
More Leaves from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 51’
Running title for EZE on the verso of the Ezekiel leaf from 'Ege Manuscript 61'. Photography by Mildred Budny
A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 61’
Decorated opening word 'Nuper' of the Dialogues, Book III, Chapter 13, reproduced by permission
A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 41’
Leaf from the A-Group of the 'Interpretation of Hebrew Names' in 'Ege Manuscript 14'. Photography by Mildred Budny
A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’
985 top left
A Reused Part-Leaf from Bede’s Homilies on the Gospels
Photography by David Immerman.
Radio Star
Close-Up of The Host of 'The Library Cafe' in the Radio Studio. Photography © Mildred Budny
A Visit to The Library Café
Booklet Page 1 of the 'Interview with our Font & Layout Designer' (2015-16)
Interview with our Font & Layout Designer
Initial I of Idem for Justinian's Novel Number 134, with bearded human facing left at the top of the stem of the letter. Photography © Mildred Budny
It’s A Wrap
The Brandon Plaque. Gold and niello. The British Museum, via Creative Commons.
Seminar on the Evidence of Manuscripts (January 1992)
© The British Library Board. Cotton MS Tiberius A III, folio 117v, top right. Reproduced by permission.
Seminar on the Evidence of Manuscripts (August 1993)
Invitation to 'Canterbury Manuscripts' Seminar on 19 September 1994
Seminar on the Evidence of Manuscripts (September 1994)
Logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence in Monochrome Version
Seminar on the Evidence of Manuscripts (May 1989)
Logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (colour version)
2016 Report for CARA
Heading of Blanked out Birth certificate after adoption completed.
Lillian Vail Dymond
Initial C of 'Concede'. Detail from a leaf from 'Otto Ege Manuscript 15', the 'Beauvais Missal'. Otto Ege Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Photograph by Lisa Fagin Davis. Reproduced by Permission
2016 Symposium on ‘Words & Deeds’
Detail with Initial G of Folio Ivb of Bifolium from a Latin Medicinal Treatise reused formerly as the cover of a binding for some other text, unknown. Reproduced by permission
Spoonful of Sugar
Detail of Leaf I, recto, column b, lines 7-12, with a view of the opening of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 23, verse 3, with an enlarged opening initial in metallic red pigment
New Testament Leaves in Old Armenian
Decoated initial E for 'En' on the verso of the Processional Leaf from ' Ege Manuscript 8'. Photography by Mildred Budny
A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 8’
Cloth bag, now empty, for the original seal to authenticate the document, which remains intact, for a transaction of about the mid 13th-century at Preston, near Ipswich, Suffolk, UK. Photograph reproduced by permission.
Full Court Preston
The Date 1538 on the Scrap, enhanced with photographic lighting. Photography © Mildred Budny
Scrap of Information
Lower half of Recto of Leaf from the Office of the Dead in a Small-Format Book of Hours. Photography © Mildred Budny
Manuscript Groupies
Detail of cross-shaft, rays of light, and blue sky or background in the illustration of the Mass of Saint Gregory. Photography © Mildred Budny
The Mass of Saint Gregory, Illustrated
Penwork extending from a decorated initial extends below the final line of text and ends in a horned animal head which looks into its direction. Photography © Mildred Budny
Lost & Foundlings

Archives

  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • November 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • May 2017
  • March 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014

You are browsing the Blog for Photographic Exhibition

Updates for Some “Otto Ege Manuscripts”

March 23, 2018 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition, Reports

More is More

New Acquisitions Exhibition at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in November 2016: View of Some Parts of "Otto Ege Manuscript 14".

“A Long Shot”. New Acquisitions Exhibition at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in November 2016: View of Some Parts of “Otto Ege Manuscript 14”.

Continuing our series on Manuscript Studies, Mildred Budny (see Her Page) adds new evidence to her earlier reports of some leaves from medieval manuscripts dispersed by Otto F. Ege (1888–1951).

Revisions are now in order.  As we continue to look at, and for, evidence of the dispersed materials, the old and new evidence shows more.  While giving some answers, the observations also raise new questions. 

Time now for more Updates for Some “Otto Ege Manuscripts”.

[Published on 15 December 2017, with updates]

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Ege Memorial Microfilm, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Otto Ege, Otto Ege Manuscript 14, Otto Ege Manuscript 41, Otto Ege Manuscript 51, Otto Ege Manuscript 61, Otto Ege Manuscript 8
No Comments »

Starter Kit

February 13, 2018 in Announcements, Photographic Exhibition, Uncategorized

Would You Like
Your Very Own Collection of
Medieval Seal Matrices?

Now is your chance

The Research Group on Manuscript Evidence has been offered a starter collection to examine, photograph, and offer for sale. With the donation of proceeds to support our nonprofit educational corporation’s mission.  A generous contribution!

Generosity?  You bet.  That’s how we roll: Contributions and Donations.

*****

About this new Medieval Matrix offering.

Sneak preview here.

Medieval Seal Matrices 1-14  in Tray with color guide at 72 dpiDescriptive booklet coming soon. Ooh!

To Have & To Hold, For Real

Would you want your very own collection of Medieval Seal Matrices to have and to hold? We confidently say that it is a treat to hold these specimens from medieval life.

While we prepare the Sale Catalogue, with photography by our in-house photographer, with layout by our in-house designers, and with research by our resident specialist, we can say that we’d love to sell this collection as a whole, as the complete ensemble.

That is how the collection, they tell us, came to become available.  Through a generous, well-meaning donation, it can be offered for sale with proceeds to support our nonprofit educational mission.

Wouldn’t you love to have this collection, and its specialist booklet showcasing its qualities and varieties, for your very own?

Please Contact Us.

*****

Tags: medieval seal-matrices
No Comments »

More Discoveries for “Otto Ege Manuscript 61”

May 23, 2017 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition, Uncategorized

Initial I of 'In' opening of the Book of Zachariah. Courtesy of Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA. Reproduced by permission.

Zachariah. Courtesy of Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA.

More Fragments are Revealed
from a Dismembered and Dispersed
32-line French Vulgate Pocket Bible
Made Probably in Southern France
circa 1325 C.E.
= “Otto Ege Manuscript 61”

Probably Southern France, circa 1325

Circa 186 × 126 mm
< written area circa 119 × 81 mm >
Double columns of 32 lines, with embellishments and running titles

Updating an earlier blogpost reporting A New Leaf from “Otto Ege Manuscript 61” in our series on Manuscript Studies, Mildred Budny (see Her Page) describes further progress in locating and identifying more parts from that little book.  It should be said that, after the initial discovery and draft write-up, in the excitement of new discoveries, some long illnesses and a wrenching death in the family, with some gratuitous onslaughts from so-called family members, made it difficult to return on course.  Back again.

These new discoveries go hand-in-hand with a rapid pace of strides further in continuing research on some other dismembered “Ege Manuscripts”, owned and dispersed by Otto F. Ege (1888–1951), as well as on some other manuscript fragments – which turn out to have unexpectedly interlocking patterns of transmission by 20th-century sellers.  The advances are described in Updates for Some ‘Otto Ege Manuscripts’.

Read On, Dear Reader, Read On. To say that “The Plot Thickens” would take the words right out of our mouth.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Budny Handlist, Dawson's Bookshop, Ege Memorial Microfilm, Manuscript studies, Otto Ege, Otto Ege Manuscript 61, Philip Duschnes, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, Vulgate Pocket Bible, WorldCat
No Comments »

Say Cheese

May 21, 2017 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition, Uncategorized

Survey of Rents for Plots of Land
circa 1530s
from Brie in France

Single-Sheet Document
Undated
in French on Vellum
with mostly Blank Dorse

Continuing our series on Manuscript Studies, our Principal Blogger, Mildred Budny (see Her Page) briefly describes a single-sheet vellum document, which lists in French the rents for various plots of land concerning the region of Brie (renowned for, among other things, its distinctive Cheese).

[First published on 21 May 2017, with updates]

Detail of "Brie Champenoise" from the "Atlas Moderne" by Rigbert Bonne (1771). Via Wiki Commons.

Detail of “Brie Champenoise” from the “Atlas Moderne” by Rigbert Bonne (1771). Via Wiki Commons.

Face Front

The document in question, now in a private collection, measures at the most circa 298 × 149 mm. The script of the document uses the whitish flesh side of the animal skin.  The written side presents a description in French in 22 1/3 long lines of fields and rents from various properties in the area.

By a single hand, the text is skillfully and swiftly written in faded brown ink.  The lines are not uniformly horizontal.  They stand upon an unevenly trimmed sheet, whose contours perhaps conform partly to the shape of the sheet as it emanated from the initial preparation of the writing material.

The dorse (not shown here; no image is yet available) is mostly blank, although apparently black light reveals some scarcely decipherable traces of script which has been rubbed or effaced.  To quote the collector’s report:  the document “has nothing obvious written on the verso, although a black light shows what may possibly be faint text that has rubbed out.  The recto text is mostly readable with the black light.”  Glad for image enhancement, wherever possible.

Single-sheet document in Latin on vellum, circa 1530s, listing rents for plots of land, from Brie in France. Private collection, reproduced by permission.

Face of the document.

The document is undated.  A sensible assessment of its probable date of origin must depend, for example, upon the style of its script.  Given points of comparison (in Latin:  comparanda), let us suggest that it probably dates from the 153os.  An earlier post in our blog considers 16th-century script by more than one skilled French hands: Scrap of Information.

That post illustrates a large single-sheet charter from Vienne in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, also in a private collection, emanating from the 1530s.  Seen here:

1530 document from Vienne. Reproduced by permission

Different hands, stylistic differences, but some similar approaches in both these documents.  Plus, the Vienne document contains entries by several different hands.  Shared features.

Closer Up

A few closer views, first the left-hand half:

Left-hand half of face of Single-sheet document in Latin on vellum, circa 1530s, listing rents for plots of land, from Brie in France. Private collection, reproduced by permission.

Left-hand Half of the Brie Document. Reproduced by permission.

Now the right-hand half:

Right-hand half of face of Single-sheet document in Latin on vellum, circa 1530s, listing rents for plots of land, from Brie in France. Private collection, reproduced by permission.

Right-hand Half. Reproduced by permission.

What Up?

To put it mildly, much of the vocabulary is more than a bit unfamiliar.  Let’s take a sampling, and you might take it from there.

For example, one line (guess which one?) reads “. . . Les courres des godeaux situes du ladite paroisse de brye contenans trois journaulx ung quart de journaul et ung quar de carreau ladit bernardeau promo . . .”  Presumably the terms ‘carreau’ and ‘journaul’ are land measures. 

To state that this is “not exactly our field” applies both to the fields in the region of Brie, not possessed by anyone we know, and to our own fields of expertise (so far).  Way to go?  Bien sur!

Way to Go

Do you know, perhaps, of other extant monuments of script from this scribe, from this region at the same point in time, or locations indicated in the span of the document?  We would be glad to know more.

Piece of Cake?  Piece of Cheese?

Slice of Brie. Photograph by Coyau via Wikipedia Commons.

Slice of Brie. Photograph by Coyau via Wikipedia Commons.

Over to you.  Please let us know your comments.

*****

Next stop:  More Manuscripts, Of Course.

Keep sight of the Contents List for this Blog.

*****

Tags: documents in question, French documents, List of Fields and Rents, manuscript fragments, Manuscript Photography, Manuscript studies, Region of Brie
No Comments »

Fit to Be Tied

May 9, 2017 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition, Uncategorized

1320 Letter of Berengarius
Concerning a Dispute at Calahorra

Or Not!

Single-Sheet Document
of Cardinal–Bishop Bérengar de Frédul
dated 13 July 1320
in Latin on Vellum
with Red Cord Tie
and Docketing on the Dorse in Spanish

Budny Handlist 21

Budny Handlist 21 Dorse of Document of Berengar Fredul of 1320 with red cord tie and Docketing in Spanish. Photography by Mildred Budny.

Document of Pope John XXII for Berengarius, unfolded. Photography by Mildred Budny

Continuing our series on Manuscript Studies, our Principal Blogger, Mildred Budny (see Her Page) describes a single-sheet vellum Latin document, plus cord, which came within the span of her conservation, photography, and research for the Illustrated Handlist.

There, the document holds Number 21.  Unlike the other items (so far) in the Illustrated Handlist, this one appears to be a forgery, albeit skilled.  In a word:  Curious.

The Thing as Such

First some ‘statistics’.

Cameo of Pope John XXII. Photograph via Wikimedia Commons.

Cameo of Pope John XXII. Photograph via Wikimedia Commons.

Epistolary Document of
Bérenger Fredoli (circa 1250 – 1323),
Cardinal–Bishop (1309–1323)
of Frascati near Rome,
Issued Purportedly during
Year 4 of the Reign
of the Avignon Pope John XXII (1316–1377)
and dated 13 July 1320,
with knotted red cord tie

Circa 230 × 423 mm with flap closed; full height counting flap = circa 169 × 316 mm
Single column of 18 long lines
< written area circa 169 × 316 mm >
plus red knotted cord tie laced through the flap
with docketing in Spanish on the dorse

Provenance Interrupted

The document was acquired by gift in 1955.  The method and appurtenances of presentation provide the name of the donor, Philip Hofer, (1898–1984), his letter announcing and accompanying the gift as a thank-offering, and his custom-made box for the offering.

However, it provides no information whatsoever about the provenance, source of acquisition, the presentation provides other useful elements of information which the intermediary would have had.  We are stuck with those gaps.  Shame.

About those lamentable and noxious with-holdings of information in the transmission of materials between modern handlers, some of our blogposts already document the miseries in trying to piece together the traces.  See the blog’s Contents List.

We are entitled to wonder, also, about the caliber of the gift, which, itself doubtless well-meaning between equals at Harvard with stature and means, carries questionability in its own ‘right’ (or ‘wrong’), considering the dubious nature of the document itself.

Information about where and how the donor acquired the document is much to be wished.  Or what he thought it constituted.

As a Gift

Folded in half horizontally and then in thirds across, along its medieval folds, the document was contained in its custom-made 20th-century lined clam-shell box for presentation to the Owner by Philip Hofer, along with the letter describing that presentation, signed by Hofer and dated 14 December 1955.

With that presentation enclosure, I first came to know the shape and features of the object.  It took a while before the oddities came pressingly into the forefront.

Happy as a Clam-Shell

The Presentation Box

In and Out.  All About.

1.  Outside

Unfolded exterior of Custom Clam-Shell Box

2.  Inside
Unfolded Interior of Custom Clam-Shell Box with Donor's Presentation Letter

Unfolded Interior of Custom Clam-Shell Box with Donor’s Presentation Letter and Folded Document

CenterFold

Opening of Indulgence from Pope John XXIII for Berengarius, Cardinal-Bishop of Frascati. Photography © Mildred Budny

Who, What, Where, Wherefore?

The text of the document begins with an enlarged and decorated ink initial B, which stands upon the baseline of the first line of script and rises firmly into the upper margin.  The other letters of the name Berengarius ascend as a clustered, narrow group, before the document settles into the main script, which provides an upright, neatly written Gothic Textualis, with some curved, hook-like tips ascending or descending into the interlines.  Although the lettering, which employs some abbreviations, is, for the most part, clearly decipherable, the sense of the phrasing overall proves a puzzle.

A transcription and attempted translations of the text reveal that the Latinity leaves something to be desired in terms of clarity or comprehension.  Several of us looking at its challenges wonder about its command of the language.  Neatly put, as one scholar declared in a message:  “I cannot make out much of your document; the Latin is awful!”

The Bishop addresses the recipient of the letter, the Thesaurius (“treasurer”) of Calahorra in the province of La Rioja in northeastern Spain, with an appeal on behalf of the clergy of its churches of Saint Andrew and Saint Christopher.  The clergy claimed that they had “at one time” made a deal with the Thesaurius, who possibly had given them property to administer (or something).  The deal went sour.  They claimed that the Thesaurius had pulled a fast one on them; they appealed to the Bishop, who had authority from the Pope; and the Bishop turned to the official.  To whit, this Letter.  To quote our scholar again:  “That’s the best I can do.  I find most of the Latin incomprehensible.”

Panorama view of the historical district of Calahorra. Photograph: Own Work by De Zarateman via Creative Commons.De Zarateman - Trabajo propio, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50474431

Panorama view of the historical district of Calahorra. Photograph: Own Work by De Zarateman via Creative Commons.

Cameo of Pope John XXII. Photograph via Wikimedia Commons.The letter declares its issue during the reign of Pope John XXII (1244–1334), the second Avignon Pope (reigned 1316–1334).  The issue of the letter relates to the span of “political and administrative correspondence of the Avignon popes, 1305–1378”, as surveyed, for example, by Patrick Zutschi in a paper presented in 1988 (published in 1990).  As such, it would hold interest as a relic of that contested period in the papacy.

*****

When the Dust Has Settled

An interior view of the fold:

Detail of Document of Berengarius, viewing the interior of the right-hand side of the folded flap at its bottom, to reveal the gathered dust and glimpse part of the red silk cord. Photography © Mildred Budny

We plan to write some more about this questionable document, but other tasks and challenges (including illnesses and a death in the family) have interfered with the completion of the report.  Returning somewhat to health, I decided that it might be useful to send forth these observations, questions, and images, to set the discussion going.  Do you have any views on this matter and material?  Please let us know.

Meanwhile, feast your eyes on its features.  Photography by Mildred Budny.

 

Document of Pope John XXII for Berengarius, unfolded. Photography by Mildred Budny

*****

Budny Handlist 21 Dorse of Document of Berengar Fredul of 1320 with red cord tie and Docketing in Spanish. Photography by Mildred Budny.

*****

Some Background Reading

Patrick Zutschi, “The political and administrative correspondence of the Avignon popes, 1305–1378:  a contribution to papal diplomatic”, in Actes de la table ronde d’Avignon (23-24 janvier 1988).  Publications de l’École française de Rome, 138 (1990), 371–384

*****

More to come.  Please watch this space.

Tags: Avignon Popes, Bérengar de Frédul, Budny Handlist, Calahorra, Document with Cord Tie, Documents of 1320, Forgeries & Imitations, Medieval Documents, medieval forgery, Pope John XXII
No Comments »

A Leaf from Gregory’s Dialogues Reused for Euthymius

December 24, 2016 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition, Uncategorized

A Leaf from Gregory’s Dialogues
Reused for Binding
A Copy of
Euthymius Zigabenus’s On the Psalms

Budny Handlist 3

In our blog on Manuscript Studies (see its Contents List), Mildred Budny (see Her Page) continues to report the results of research for her Illustrated Handlist.

Here, we focus upon a leaf plucked from its 12th-century manuscript and pressed into service, with trimmed edges and mitered folds, as the vellum covering for a binding for a different text of small format.  Both texts, primary and secondary in the life of the leaf, concern religious subjects, but they emanate from authors of different dates, locations, and languages in the Latin West and the Orthodox East respectively.  The primary text represents a remnant of a text and an author familiar in some other blogposts, which consider the Dialogues, the Sermons or Homilies, and other texts by Pope Gregory the Great (pope from 590 to 694 CE).

Reused Leaf from Gregory's Dialogues Book III viewed from recto (inside of reused book cover) with text upright and with guides. Photograph © Mildred Budny.

Handlist 3, Recto

Reused Leaf from Gregory's Dialogues Book III viewed from verso (outside of reused book cover) with text upright and with guides. Photograph © Mildred Budny.

Handlist 3, Verso

Part of Gregory’s Dialogues, Book III, Chapter 7

(on Andreas, Bishop of Fondi/Fundi):
Sections 2 (Hic namque uenerabilis uir) –
8 (uel quae in conuentu)

Present measurements:
Circa 357 × 237 mm
< written area circa 266 × 133 mm >
Single column of 28 lines
in revived Caroline minuscule
without embellishments
Germany, circa 1175

Reused for some time as the vellum cover for the binding of a copy of
Euthymius Zigabenus‘s Commentary on the Psalms
in Greek or in Latin translation?
(now lost or preserved elsewhere in a location unknown)

For this secondary use, the remnants of a set of titles on the outside of the spine of the cover (the original verso of the reused leaf) remain in place, albeit abraded and fragmented, as both a pasted, inscribed paper label (orientated along the ‘horizontal’ across the spine) and an ink inscription on the reused leaf itself in Capitals (‘vertical’, with the tops of those letters turned toward the ‘front cover’).  Another, smaller and fragmentary pasted label with a broad rectangular border stands near the bottom of the broad spine of the cover and partly overlies the ‘vertical’ spine inscription.

Reused Leaf from Gregory's Dialogues Book III viewed from verso (outside of reused book cover). Photograph © Mildred Budny.

Acquired, probably by purchase (according to the Owner’s recollections), in France in the past 15 years or so, but before 2007 when I first saw and began to photograph the leaf.   This item and others in the Illustrated Handlist acquired in France at various times and by various means (purchase, gift, or exchange), came from a single source in the Département of Saône-et-Loire, from about 1999 onward.  Because the leaf does not carry indications of its original place and time of production, apart from its materials, layout, design, script, orthography, and punctuation, those unknowns must depend upon evaluations of the style of the script, lacking any forms of embellishment, such as decorated initials, which might have provided possibly more closely datable symptoms than the letters “alone”.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: 'Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts', Binding History, Bishop Andrew of Fundi, Budny's Illustrated Catalogue, Ege Manuscript 41, Euthymius Zigabenos, Fondi, Gregory the Great, Gregory's Dialogues, manuscript fragments, Manuscript Fragments Reused in Bindings, Manuscript studies, Psalter Commentary, Saki, Temple of Apollo
No Comments »

Another Witness to the Cistercian Statutes of 1257

December 2, 2016 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Detail of the top of the verso of the fragmentary leaf from a 13th-century copy of Statutes for the Cistercian Order. Reproduced by permission.Part-Leaf from a Dismembered Witness
to the 1257 Codification of the Statutes
for the Cistercian Order

A Part-Leaf, now on its own, carries parts of the Chapter De Conversis (“On the Lay Brothers”)
from Distinctio (“Section”) XIV (out of XV in total)
in the Codification of 1257 of Statutes for the Cistercian Order

This installment of our blog on Manuscript Studies identifies a fragmentary 13th-century leaf on vellum with monastic rules in Latin.  Now reduced to a single column of its original double columns of text, the fragment carries parts of the Statutes of the Cistercian Order, in a mid-–13th-century version — or, rather, extension — of those Statutes.  That extended version appears in full in a few other extant manuscripts.  Mildred Budny describes the fragment and its testimony.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: British Library Additional MS 11294, Cistercian Statutes, Cistercian Statutes of 1257-1258, Fontanay Abbey, Manuscript studies, Medieval manuscripts
2 Comments »

It’s A Wrap

October 3, 2016 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Initial I of Idem for Justinian's Novel Number 134, with bearded human facing left at the top of the stem of the letter. Photography © Mildred Budny

Q for ‘Quem’

Laying Down the Law

A leaf from the Novellae Constitutiones (or Authenticum)
of the Emperor Justinian’s Corpus Iuris Civilis
with Parts of ‘Novels’ Numbers 159.2 and 134.1–3
plus Embellishments

Reused as a Wrapper, with Added Vellum Tie,
for Some Other Material (now lost)

Still preserved in this folder form

Budny Handlist Number 7

 

Continuing our series of blogposts on Manuscript Studies, Mildred Budny reports on manuscripts and fragments dispersed in various ways.  Now we unveil a leaf reused as an wrapper-style enclosure or tied folder, with its own story to tell.

Legal Manuscript Leaf in Latin on Parchment
Made probably at Bologna, circa 1300 CE,
with Medieval Additions and Modern Alterations

Purchased in Florence, Italy, in June 1972

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Bolognese Legal Manuscript, Budny Handlist, David Immerman, Emperor Justinian I, Glossed Manuscripts, Justinian's Novellae Constitutiones, Legal Manuscripts, Libreria Leo S. Olschki, Manuscript Fragments Reused in Bindings, Scott Gwara, Seminars on Manuscript Evidence, Susan L'Engle, Valerio Cappozzo, Vellum Wrapper
No Comments »

Research Group Archives

September 24, 2016 in Events, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Manuscript Studies, Parker Library, Photographic Exhibition, Reception, Seminars on Manuscript Evidence, Uncategorized

Our Archives

[First published on 24 September, 2016, with updates]

As our website (You are Here) records more and more of our activities, which continue to advance and to expand, we also present more elements from our organization’s archives. These elements take various forms, on paper, in photographs, in print, and in scanned materials.

Our Websites (2007‒)

Header for the RGME website

Our official website is a generous, long-term donation by our Webmaster, our Associate Jesse D. Hurlbut.  Designed and maintained by Jesse, it is updated by our WebEditor, Mildred Budny, with contributions by Guest Bloggers and Administrators.  It is one of our principal Publications, whose number continues to grow.

Our First Website (2007‒2014)

From the first, once we received a website (2007‒), it began to report our activities variously in progress and in preparation.  In a series of Pages, it published our Profile (formerly circulated only in print — as with the Profile dated October 1992 — but now online, with updates, starting with our Front Page).  With our Mission statement on the Front Page, this first website presented a series of Pages outlined in its sidebar.  It named our Officers, Associates, and Volunteers, described our various events, listed our Publications, and more.

That first website is archived in some “snapshots” by the Wayback Machine.

  • March 24, 2008
  • May 25, 2008
  • September 11, 2011
  • February 11, 2013
  • June 5, 2013
  • December 11, 2013
  • January 2, 2014
  • May 8, 2014
  • May 9, 2014
  • May 17, 2014
  • December 8, 2014
  • December 17, 2014

Thenceforth, the Wayback Machine has captured snapshots of our new website (You are Here), starting in June 2015.

  • June 24, 2015

In the transition between websites (2014), the first site (Drupal) remained active, as a site archived online and still accessible directly, while the second site (WordPress) was launched, albeit with some “teething problems”.

As preserved in a final snapshot via the Wayback Machine (December 17, 2014), the first site proclaimed its obsolescent state prominently at the top of the Front Page:

PLEASE NOTE:  OUR WEBSITE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION.  We are upgrading and redesigning our website.  While we transfer materials from this site (our first website), to the new one, it is now available for viewing:  http://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/).  The new site allows for images and other media, so that we can illustrate our activities and publish more of our materials.

At that time in our history, when we could launch our first website in 2007, our principal activities in the form of scholarly gatherings focused upon the Congress Activities (1993‒1995, 1997, and 2004‒), occurring at the annual International Congress of Medieval Studies, held at Kalamazoo each May. Soon, we resumed the tradition of other events as well.

For convenience, we come to distinguish between these many “Congress Activities” (1993‒1995, 1997, and 2004‒) and our other “Events”, which occur elsewhere. Those Events take the forms notably of Seminars, Workshops, Colloquia, and Symposia (1989–).

Another group of Events comprises our Photographic Exhibitions and Masterclasses. They overlap in significant ways with our growing list of Publications, which appear in print and electronic forms.

Our Second Website (2014–)

Cover for the Report on 'Two Detached Manuscript Leaves containing New Testament Texts in Old Armenian' by Leslie J. French for the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, with a detail of Leaf I verso, column a lines 10-12, with the opening of Acts 23:12Snapshots of our second, redesigned website (You are Here) appear in the Wayback Machine.

  • June 24, 2015
  • August 1, 2015
  • October 20, 2015

And so on.  The archive presents 11 snapshots for 2016 and 6 for 2017. See manuscriptevidence.org there.  Thus the Internet Archive contributes (arbitrarily) to the records of our history outside our own sphere.

With the upgrade and redesign of our website (launched in 2014), we could display more materials, in both images and downloadable pdfs. This opened the path to set up Galleries of Images, for example to show you the Posters for our Events and our Congress Activities, to exhibit examples of our Layout Designs, to display Photographs from our Events, Activities, and Research Discoveries, and to give you more of our Publications, including the Program Booklets for Events and Activities and the Booklets publishing some of our Research Discoveries.

Other Social Media

  • Research Group on Manuscript Evidence Page on Facebook (2011–). Set up and maintained principally by Mildred Budny.

Seminars, Workshops, Colloquia & Symposia (1989‒)

One of the first phases of the process of opening the Research Group Archives for our website focused upon the Early Years of our Seminars, Workshops, and Symposia, which occurred regularly as part of the collaborative Research Project at the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, from which the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence emerged. This “First Series” was principally dedicated to Seminars on “The Evidence of Manuscripts” (1989‒1995). Organized or co-organized by Mildred Budny, these events took place mainly at the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and occasionally at other centers in England, Japan, and the United States.

View Toward the Entrance to the Parker Library in mid-1989 photograph © Mildred Budny

View Toward the Entrance to the Parker Library in mid-1989. Photograph © Mildred Budny.

Following the move of our principal base to the Princeton in 1994, we developed a wide-ranging further series of Seminars, Workshops, Colloquia, and Symposia. First among them was the annual series of Symposia on “The Transmission of the Bible” (1995‒2000), held in turn at Princeton, Rutgers, and Fordham Universities. There followed the The New Series of Symposia, Colloquia, Workshops & Seminars (2001–), held at a variety of centers, including Princeton University.

Poster for 'Crusading and the Byzantine Legacy" Session 1 of the RGME MEMS Sessions. Poster set in RGME Bembino.Poster for the Sponsored Session on 'Paper or Parchment' at the 51st International Congress on Medieval Studies, sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence. Poster laid out in RGME Bembino, with images supplied by David W. Sorenson. Reproduced by permission.Poster 2 for the 2016 'Words & Deeds' Symposium at Princeton University, with 2 images from the Otto Ege Collection, The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Photography by Lisa Fagin Davis. Reproduced by permission. Poster set in RGME BembinoWhile the Research Group continued its Congress Activities at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, with the addition annually (since 2014) of a Reception and an Open Business Meeting (and its handy 1-page Agenda, available on our website), we have also begun the tradition of Sponsored Panels at the Annual Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association (2016‒).

As the redesigned website took fuller shape, and the work of presenting more of our archival evidence, the site could include a blog on Manuscript Studies (2014–), which, among other things, showcases some discoveries from our long-term, as well as recent, research.  See the Contents List for the blog, arranged mainly by subjects and materials.

Detail of an initial M on the verso of the leaf. Photography by Mildred Budny

M for ‘Manus’ (‘Hand’), Bouquets Included

Interviews

A new series of Interviews, in various forms, reflects upon our origins and history as an organization, as well as our publications and activities.

  • Radio Star
  • Interview with Our Font and Layout Designer

*****

More is on the way. Watch this Space.

*****

Tags: Archives, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Parker Library, Seminars on Manuscript Evidence
No Comments »

Research Group Events in Japan (November-December 1992)

September 17, 2016 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition, Seminars on Manuscript Evidence

Logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence in Monochrome VersionResearch Group Visit to Japan
Seminar, Workshop, Lectures, and Symposium
November and December 1992

In November and December 1992, 4 members of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence visited Japan at the invitation of our Japanese Associates, Professors Shuji Sato and Tadao Kubouchi.  The visit included a Research Group Seminar, a Research Group Workshop, a Research Group Symposium, a Research Group Photographic Exhibition, and Lectures at various locations.  The visit was organised with the help of very many members of the Japan Society for Medieval English Studies and others.

Cover for "Selected Pages from Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Palaeographical and Textual Handbook" by Mildred Budny, Leslie French et al.The lectures, seminar, and workshop considered in depth specific subjects surveyed in the symposium; demonstrated the approach of the Palaeographical and Textual Handbook; and examined themes, challenges, and advances in Anglo-Saxon manuscript studies.  The photographic exhibition accompanied the seminar, workshop, and symposium.

A Set of Events, with Lectures and a Seminar, Workshop, and Symposium, took place at several centers in Japan in November and December 1992.

They formed an extension of the Research Group Series on “The Evidence of Manuscripts” (1989–1995)
held mostly at the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

The previous seminar in the Series considered

“Research on Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Cambridge and Oxford”
(with a Travelling Exhibition of Photographs)
Pembroke College, Oxford, 20 June 1992)

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: 'Integrated Approach to Manuscript Studies', Abraham Whelock, Aoyama Gakuin University, Ælfric, Chuo University, Corpus Christi College Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 12, Corpus Christi College Ms 139, Corpus Christi College MS 144, Corpus Christi College MS 173, Corpus Christi College MS 173A, Corpus Christi College MS 173B, Corpus Christi College MS 178, Corpus Christi College MS 190, Corpus Christi College MS 201, Corpus Christi College MS 23, Corpus Christi College MS 383, Corpus Christi College MS 41, Corpus Christi College MS 422, Corpus Christi College MS 422B, Evidence versus Interpretation, Imperial Palace Kyoto, Japan Society for Medieval Studies, John Joscelyn, Kinkaku-ji Kyoto, Manuscript Art, Matthew Parker, Palaeographical and Textual Handbook, Parker Library, photographic exhibition, Photographic Exhibitions, Professor Shuji Sato, Professor Tadao Kubouchi, Robert Talbot, Seminars on Manuscript Evidence, University of Tokyo at Komaba, Wulfstan
No Comments »

« Older Entries
  • Top


is proudly powered by WordPress. WordPress Themes X2 developed by ThemeKraft.