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Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, MS W.782, folio 15r. Van Alphen Hours. Dutch Book of Hours made for a female patron in the mid 15th century. Opening page of the Hours of the Virgin: "Here du salste opdoen mine lippen". Image via Creative Commons. At the bottom of the bordered page, an elegantly dressed woman sits before a shiny bowl- or mirror-like object, in order, perhaps, to perform skrying or to lure a unicorn.
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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.
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Slice of Brie. Photograph by Coyau via Wikipedia Commons.
Say Cheese
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Verso of the Leaf and Interior of the Binding, Detail: Lower Right-Hand Corner, with the Mitered Flap Unfolde
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A Leaf from Gregory’s Dialogues Reused for Euthymius
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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.
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A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 61’
Decorated opening word 'Nuper' of the Dialogues, Book III, Chapter 13, reproduced by permission
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A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’
A Reused Part-Leaf from Bede’s Homilies on the Gospels
Photography by David Immerman.
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Interview with our Font & Layout Designer
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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.
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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
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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
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Manuscript Groupies
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You are browsing the Blog for Manuscript Photography

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

[First published on 21 May 2017, with updates]

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).

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.

*****

Update July 2020

For reports on other 16th-century documents in French on vellum, see

  • Scrap of Information, from a document including the date or number 1538,
    and also a document of circa 1530 from Vienne, Isère
  • Vellum Binding Fragments in a Parisian Printed Book of 1598, from a legal document of circa 1510 to 1520

Please let us know if you know of other documents like these.

You might reach us via Contact Us or our Facebook Page. Comments here are welcome too.

*****

Tags: documents in question, French documents, List of Fields and Rents, manuscript fragments, Manuscript Photography, Manuscript studies, Region of Brie
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Seminar on the Evidence of Manuscripts (September 1990)

October 4, 2016 in Seminars on Manuscript Evidence

“Corpus Christi College MS 139”
A Twelfth-Century Historical Miscellany

Invitation Letter to 'Corpus Christi College, MS 139' Workshop on 28 September 1990

Invitation Letter for 28 September 1990

The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
29 September 1990

In the Series of Seminars (and Workshops) on the Evidence of Manuscripts
The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Invitation Letter (with no RSVP form or slip) in pdf

The previous seminar in the series considered
Sixteenth-Century Interventions in Anglo-Saxon and Related Manuscripts
Parker Library, 22 April 1990

[First published on 3 October 2016, with an update to add the diagram of sewing patterns]

*****

The Subject

The Invitation asks for collective help in guiding the course of the research work on one of the manuscripts selected for the Research Project proposal.  It invites the selected specialists

to join us for a workshop consultation concerning our MS 139, a twelfth-century composite manuscript which includes the unique medieval copy of the Historia Regum attributed to Symeon of Durham.  It also has an erased ex-libris inscription of the Cistercian abbey of Sawley, although it may not have been made there.

At present it is undergoing conservation and research while disbound.  This has provided a unique opportunity for examining and comparing the different sections of the manuscript, some of which originated separately.  Before it will be rebound in the autumn, we wish to discuss the evidence thus revealed with a team of specialists in various disciplines.  For example, we would like to consider how the evidence modifies the existing historiography of this important manuscript.  The script and decoration may help to determine the date and place of origin of the manuscript and its components more satisfactorily.  The character of the texts included in the manuscript might have further implications worth exploring.

We would very much value your presence in these discussions.  We hope that your expert knowledge might help provide some fresh evaluations of the evidence.  In this way we hope to ensure that the research on the manuscript will be of the maximum benefit for future scholarship.

Ruins of the Chapel of Salley / Sawley Abbey, Lancashire. Photograph by Chris Heaton via Wikipedia Commons.

Ruins of the Chapel of Salley / Sawley Abbey, Lancashire. Photograph by Chris Heaton via Wikipedia Commons.

The Logistics

The time-frame for “the consultation over the disbound manuscript” was planned to begin at 11 a.m. and “to work until about 4:40 p.m.  As for logistics:

Although we are unable to reimburse fares, we will provide a buffet lunch.  We might also, depending upon availability, be able to supply overnight accommodation in College free of charge on the 27th or 28th, if you require it.

Some participants chose to stay in College for one night or the other.

*****

Participants

Invitations were, in the first instance, sent to:

Bernard Meehan, Patrick McGurk, Christopher Brooke, Christopher Norton, Anne Lawrence, Derek Baker, Tessa Webber, Ian Doyle, Alan Piper, Martin Brett, David Rollason, Simon Keynes, Julia Crick

Most of them attended.  The Research Group Archives contain correspondence relating to the preparations and the follow-up of the “consultation workshop”.

Invitation Letter to 'Corpus Christi College, MS 139' Workshop on 28 September 1990

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Binding Stitching Patterns, Budny's Illustrated Catalogue, Composite Manuscripts, Corpus Christi College Ms 139, Historia Regum, manuscript facsimiles, Manuscript Photography, Parker Library, Sawley Abbey, Seminars on Manuscript Evidence, Symeon of Durham, Technical Drawings
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Seminar on the Evidence of Manuscripts (November 1991)

August 26, 2016 in Manuscript Studies, Seminars on Manuscript Evidence, Uncategorized

“Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 383”
20 November 1991

MS 383 Seminar Invitation 16 November 1991

16 November 1991

In the Series of Seminars on the Evidence of Manuscripts
The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Invitation in pdf.

The previous Seminar in the Series considered:

“Sixteenth-Century Transcripts of Ango-Saxon Texts”
Parker Library, October 1991

*****

The Subject

The “workshop” was designed to focus on one manuscript: “Corpus Christi College, MS 383, a collection of legal and other texts”.  A small-format volume, but its texts pack a punch (not that our Invitation Letter put it so emphatically).

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Anglo-Saxon legal history, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, British Library, British Museum, Corpus Christi College MS 173A, Corpus Christi College MS 383, Manuscript Exhibitions, Manuscript Photography, Manuscript studies, Parker Chronicle and Laws, Parker Library
No Comments »

Manuscript Groupies

August 2, 2015 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Preview:

An Illustrated Handlist of a Group of
Medieval and Early Modern
Manuscripts, Documents, and Printed Materials

Conservation, Photography, Research, and Descriptions

by Mildred Budny

Detail of opened book with schematic text. Photography © Mildred Budny

Bookish

As we unveil more of the research results for an extended study of a group of medieval and early modern manuscripts, documents, and printed materials, its Illustrated Handlist deserves an Introduction.  Here, instead, is a Preview or Trailer.

[Update:  And here is the Illustrated Handlist.]

Jest for Fun

Details of the materials in the Handlist, their conservation, and cumulative research results are reported, in stages, on other parts of this website (for example here), as well as in an illustrated Album, now in preparation for print.  Here is a light-hearted Preview, in the form of:

A Brief Introduction,
Partly Playful but Also Earnest,
Illustrations Included

Photography by Mildred Budny

The Best Side

To set the scene, a pair of informal Group Portraits shows the Best Sides of some hand-written leaves in the Handlist.
(P.S. Each Side counts as a Best Side in our book . . . )

These specimens — AKA ‘Models’ for the Portraits — come from several different parts of the Handlist.  Our Models here belong among Parts I and II of the Handlist, along with the other ‘Single Leaves’ and ‘Documents’ — in these cases all on vellum or parchment and mostly in Latin.

Some of them have richer decoration than others, depending upon their own resources, their talents, their training, their agents, their stylists, their make-up, the set-designers, the Director (in this context, that would be me), and the parts they have been assigned, or have decided, to play.  Play is the operative word today.

Take Two

And so here we have Group Portraits I & II (with Lady), unretouched.  Don’t we love seeing the Stars when they don’t have extra makeup, bodyguards, etc., and can show their real, natural selves?

For my part, I like both these Portraits.  For one thing, they show different Sides.  For another, they both look fabulous, just the way they are.  That’s my view(s), anyway.

Which would you prefer?

Six Manuscript Fragments in the 'Illustrated Handlist', View 1. Photography © Mildred Budny

Group Portrait, Take 1

Six Manuscript Fragments in the Illustrated Handlist, View 2. Photography © Mildred Budny

Group Portrait, Take 2

Seeing the Bright

Lower half of Recto of Leaf from the Office of the Dead in a Small-Format Book of Hours. Photography © Mildred Budny

All That Glitters Might Be Gold

As for asking for their autographs, well, these Models already show their signature handwriting.  Some elements are even in gold.  Real gold, at that.

By the way, as a photographer (See Here Too), I observe that the gold leaf worn, for real, by three of our Models gleams especially effectively in these informal Portraits. Did you know that gold is diabolically difficult to photograph well on manuscripts?  No kidding.  No matter if you didn’t know that already, now you do.

Happily, the gold shows brightly in these snapshots, better even than in some more formal settings.  Didn’t plan it.  It just happened.  A bonus!  Remember what I said about their Good Sides?  Er, no, I mean, their Best Sides?

When it comes to photographing touchy, sensitive, demanding Subjects (As If! Who’s the Subject, as in Servant, here?), the Golden Oldies can be extremely demanding. It feels special when, without elaborate Special Effects, they can be allowed to reveal their unique inner light.  Now that takes Talent Scouting.

Roll Credits

To give credit where credit is due, I will readily name names.  In each version of the Group Portrait, here are, from left to right, in Rows 1 and 2 (upper and lower):

  • Handlist 7.   From the Book of Ezekiel in a ‘Pocket Bible’ made in France
    (part of the dismembered ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 61’)
  • Handlist 4.   From a Processional for Singing Nuns on Palm Sunday
    (part of the dismembered ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 8’, also known as the Wilton Processional)
  • Handlist 13.  From a Prayerbook, the Gregory Mass Revealed
  • Handlist 12.  From the Office of the Dead in a small-format Book of Hours
  • Handlist 22.  The ‘Scrap’ (Also Known As a Scrap of Information, and
  • Handlist 11.  From the Hours of the Virgin in a Tiny Book of Hours.
Detail of an initial M on the verso of the leaf. Photography by Mildred Budny

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

Their relative sizes are clear at a glance, don’t you think?

As they line up, it is as if they take their bows and acknowledge our applause.  After all, it took centuries to get their acts together! And they look really good for their ages.

We should be so lucky.  (We live in hope.)

Back to Front

You may wonder that, in each Group Portrait, some leaves show their recto (‘front’), while others show their verso (‘back’), seemingly inconsistently.

As in: Verso/Recto/Verso/Recto/Recto/Verso in Take 1, and the reverse in Take 2.

Well, to let you in on the secret, when the time came for their Group Portrait — it was an exceptional Photo Op, which, shall we say, required clearing with their Press-Agents and within my own schedule — they jostled for pride of place, like any or every celebrity or hopeful. It seemed helpful, anyway energy-conserving (for some, or one, of us at least), to allow them to choose their positions, while I worked on the lighting.

This opportunity came at an early stage in the processes of photography, conservation, and research (in varying order, sometimes as the interlinked stages of examination, consultation, photography, and research entered into cycles of immersion, reflection, revision, and renewal), and before more of the items arrived.  At that first stage, at the Photo Op, I had to recognize, not at all unwillingly, although a bit warily, that I had returned to photography of original manuscript materials after all, and after many things had rapidly changed, the world of photography included.

This return happened unexpectedly, and fortunately, after a gap of some years since the completion of the collaborative research project during which the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence was born, and the completion of its photographic work — some of which is showcased in the Illustrated Catalogue (1997), other publications, and other photographic exhibitions.  With this invigorating renewal, I began to experiment with different approaches to manuscript photography, both analogue (as before) and digital (as now, in addition to analogue), with different views of the artefacts, with different forms of backgrounds and lighting, and with a new sense of exploration.

Exploration for its own sake, and for what it might offer for manuscript studies.  With limited resources, true.  (Life is short.)

But also with resourcefulness, dedication, perseverance, curiosity — and, yes, a sense of fun.

Back to the Future

Some of the results appear on exhibition, in print, and on screen in various ways.  For example, Handlist 13 (Row 1), with its haunting image of the visionary Mass of Gregory the Great, is revealed in detail in a report, and it also features as the Star, Spokesman, and Poster Person (‘Poster Poster’?) representing principles and practices for photographic reproduction in our newly revised Style Manifesto.

Back on that set, during the Photo Op, without assistants to set the equipment, to soothe and distract the Models, to order pizza for them, to contend with their agents, to redirect the many requests for autographs, to arrange the bouquets, to hold back the paparazzi, and to book the tables for the post-shoot festivities, I had the pleasure of completing a first Test Shoot, in Takes 1 and 2, with narry a tantrum nor publicity agent in sight.  A fantastic, auspicious start.

These Models were the Best!  (No offense to the others!)  Great Cast.  Assigning their parts, or places, in the Handlist came later, as its script came into shape.  Likewise, discovering their identities mostly came later, as my and others’ research work yielded more discoveries — as with the ‘Stage Names’ for the original volumes from which some of the dispersed fragments came, as with the ‘Otto Ege Manuscripts’ (on which see, for example, our 2016 Symposium, its Report, and its Illustrated Program Booklet).

If these Models were in print rather than manuscript, I might say that they were Type Cast, but that distinction belongs to some of the other Items in the Handlist.

Hug Shots

Years later, coming upon these snap-shots from the Photo Shoot, I wondered why I hadn’t taken more formal Portraits of the whole Group, that is, with others in the Handlist included.  This while I had been taking such care to photograph each one in various views — as you can see, for example, in the reports about them in turn, on their own terms.  (As in the revealing personal interview with the Gregory Leaf.)

The look back and into the future, at this stage of shaping the Handlist, allows for a moment of wistfulness, while welcoming those quick, provisional, snapshots (‘Polaroids’ in an even earlier age).  Wistfulness, not regret. It is possible to be clear.

You see, now I see that perhaps these quick snaps can suffice to show the happy occasion of a gathering in recognition.  Happy, we can say, it marks the resumption of detailed study of manuscript materials in the flesh, and also the celebration of companions gathered as ‘foundlings’ from among many ‘waifs and strays’ of medieval and early modern written materials ‘abducted’ from their original homes (books, documents, libraries, collections, locations) in Western Europe (not forgetting the British Isles), brought one way or another across the ocean to the United States, and welcomed into a new form of ‘foster home’ — whether, say, as a mobile or a ‘forever’ home.

Perhaps it is not really a mystery, although it remains a wonder.  Every artist/actor/writer/manuscript worth his/her/its salt/sugar/weight-in-gold needs an audience.  Nice when we can meet and greet, don’t you agree?

Lost-and-Foundling Hospitality

You can see that I continue to reflect on the fates of Lost and Foundlings among dispersed bits and pieces of written materials from earlier centuries, and to consider the possibilities of a Foundling Hospital of sorts, where we might welcome them, directly or indirectly, tangibly or virtually, and together find some companionable nourishment in embarking on our picnics with the past.

And now, next, let me introduce more of them, and their rescued companions, to you.  Watch this space!

As the posts emerge, they join the Contents List for this blog on Manuscript Studies. Arranged by subjects or categories, rather than in the chronological sequence of publication, the List allows you to select your choices as from a Menu. Even possible is Dessert First!

*****

Floral border from 15th-century Book of Hours, with photography copyright Mildred Budny

Photography © Mildred Budny

Tags: Book of Ezekiel, Budny's Illustrated Catalogue, Hours of the Virgin, manuscript fragments, Manuscript Photography, Mass of Gregory the Great, Mass of Saint Gregory, Office of the Dead, Otto Ege MS 61, Otto Ege MS 8, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Pocket Bible, Style Manifesto, The Illustrated Handlist, Wilton Processional
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2015 Congress Report

May 23, 2015 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Bembino, Business Meeting, Conference, Conference Announcement, ICMS, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Reception

Events Sponsored and Co-Sponsored
by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
at the 2015 International Congress on Medieval Studies

14–17 May

[First published with the Announcement of Programs on 6 January 2015, with updates;
revised with Schedule Assignments on 1 February, with updates;
issued with Program Updates plus Abstracts of Papers on 7 April, also with updates;
and now issued here on 23 May 2015 with the 2015 Congress Report
]

Corbel Head with handlebar moustache on Le Pont Neuf, Paris. Photograph by Ilya V. Sverdlov, reproduced by permission

Photography by Ilya V. Sverdlov

For the 50th International Congress on Medieval Studies, the Research Group had 2 sponsored and 3 co-sponsored Sessions. They build, in part, upon our 2014 Congress in our Anniversary Year.  The aims of the 2015 sessions are described in our 2015 Congress Call for Papers.

As before, we co-sponsored sessions with the Societas Magica (since 2006) and with the Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Florida (since 2014). Like last year, we sponsored a celebratory Reception — now with both the Societas Magica and the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University.

For the first time, our Business Meeting was open to all and listed in the Congress Schedule, which presents the Program as a whole (see below).

Here we announce the events as accomplished, with their Posters. We also post the Abstracts of Papers.  A new Feature of our website this year are the
Indexed lists of the Authors of Abstracts for our Congress Sessions
searchable
By Author and
By Year.

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Tags: ancient and biblical models for medieval kings, Carolingian Studies, Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Florida, Dream Books, Dream Interpretation Manuals, Early Medieval Art, Germanic folk prayers, Index of Christian Art at Princeton University, Lydgate, Manuscript Photography, Medieval astrological songs, medieval charms, medieval counterfeiting, Medieval Dream Interpretation, medieval forgery, Medieval Kingship, medieval princes in Central Europe, merovingian chronicles, Power of Words, pre-photographic reproduction, Reginald Scot, Saint Erkenwald, Saints Edmund and Fremund, Semi-Official Counterfeiting, Societas Magica, Solomonic Magic, Somniale Danielis, Songs of the Zodiac
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Style Manifesto

May 8, 2015 in Bembino

Red Version of the 'Seal of Approval' logo for the Style Manifesto of the Research Group on Manuscript EvidenceIn its Style Manifesto, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence defines the principles of its approach to publications. Foremost is the principle that form and content must be appropriate for function and audience.

A New, Illustrated Version with Our Font Bembino

Page 1 of the 'Style Manifesto' of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence in the version of April 2014 (4 pages)

Opening Page in the New Version (May 2015)

As the Research Group launches its new, updated official website in May 2015, it issues the new version of its Style Manifesto.  Circulated as a booklet, it is available here.

It now takes the form of a 4-page booklet, laid out in our own multilingual font Bembino.  The Style Manifesto describes, demonstrates, and illustrates our continuing dedication to the principled, unified approach to our Publications.

These principles pertain, of course, also to the reproduction of images, including photographs of manuscripts and other forms of material evidence. In the new booklet, the horizontal pair of half-page plates present 2 views of the same late-medieval manuscript page (subject of our blogpost on The Mass of Saint Gregory, Illustrated), un-cropped and un-retouched.  These views represent photographs taken with the same lighting but different backgrounds, and with both a scale ruler and a color guide in view.

Such practices can supply guides to convey the integrity of the object and to aid the viewer to assess the accuracy, or otherwise, of images as presented variably in print or on screen.  They may encourage consideration of the specific circumstances and choices governing any given photograph, which might represent only some aspects of the original which other choices could supplement, just as different snapshots or portraits may reveal different aspects of the same sitter.  This position fosters the integrated approach which the Research Group seeks to promote.

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Tags: Bembino, Budny's Illustrated Catalogue, Corpus Christi College MS 326, design layout, Manuscript Photography, Mass of Saint Gregory, publication guidelines, RGME Program Booklets, ShelfLife: Bulletin of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, ShelfMarks: RGMEnewsletter, Style Manifesto
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The Mass of Saint Gregory, Illustrated

April 7, 2015 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

A Solitary Leaf, Detached

[Published on 7 April 2015, with updates]
Mildred Budny (see Her Page) reflects on a medieval manuscript leaf and its clues as a detached artifact.  This post is one of the first in our blog on Manuscript Studies, for which there is now a Contents List.

Detail of the head of Christ. Photography © Mildred Budny

Christ’s Head, with Crown of Thorns

Detail of Veronica's Veil with the imprinted Face of Christ. Photography © Mildred Budny

Veronica’s Veil

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the occasion of Holy Week, Good Friday, and Easter (Western and Orthodox) 2015, we post a new set of photographs of a detached leaf from a 15th-century prayerbook of some kind, as yet unidentified.  Perhaps other parts of the book survive elsewhere.

The Image

Illustration of Gregory Mass, cropped to frame. Photography © Mildred Budny

The Mass of Saint Gregory

The small-format vellum leaf carries a full-page, framed illustration of the visionary Mass of Saint Gregory the Great (pope from 590 to 604).  It represents a scene derived from an early account of his life and transmitted through later sources.

Here, the part-length upright figure of Christ, surrounded by many of the Instruments of His Passion as well as the disembodied heads of Tormenters, Traitors, and Others involved in those processes, arises from the open top of a sarcophagus behind a draped altar, which stretches the full width of the scene, as He appears to the tonsured and richly vested celebrant of the Mass.  Seen from the back, turning his head toward the right, and lacking a halo, the part-length celebrant, who understandably raises both hands in wonder, might represent not only Gregory himself but also any metropolitan (or above) entitled to wear the pallium over his chasuble.  With such cues, the image appears to stand, and to resonate, within, across, and outside time.  The niche-like frame, with straight sides and a curved top, encloses the votive image with a rimmed gold band.

Both the details of the subject and the style of the skillful illustration point to a place of production probably in Flanders or Northern France in the early fifteenth century.  The subject of Gregory’s Mass enjoyed wide popularity in the late Middle Ages, especially at this time, with depictions in various media (including manuscripts) encouraging meditation upon Christ’s Passion and its implications.  Surveys of the transmission of the subject and suggested reading lists for further information appear freely online for example in German, French, and English, dedicated to somewhat different audiences and interests as well as languages — much as the subject itself could do in its medieval and early modern spheres.

An example of an illustration fit for a king, likewise with a bright blue background, painted circa 1500 in Tours, France, by the expert artist Jean Poyer, precedes the Seven Prayers of Saint Gregory in the Hours of Henry VIII, accompanied in its reproduction online by an exemplary curatorial description of the nature, history, and setting of the subject.  Although less richly and expertly painted, with fewer human “witnesses” present, and deprived of its former manuscript context as well as the name of its artist and its place of production, “our” leaf apparently belong to a similar version of the genre, and perhaps to a similar place in its own book.  Within Books of Hours, the illustration of Gregory’s Mass often, fittingly, accompanied the Hours of the Cross or the Seven Penitential Psalms as well as “Gregory’s Prayers”.

Surveys of the surviving medieval corpus of materials with representations of the subject and variations upon its theme, such as the Instruments of the Passion (or Arma Christi) on their own, include the German Gregorsmesse database and the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University, whose resources and staff on site have aided the study and decipherment of this case.  Without identifying inscriptions, the interpretation of some objects among the Instruments and the Persons among the scattered heads depend upon their characteristics, attributes, and location, for example as some pairs of heads may depict a particular scene or episode.  For a contemporary audience, the various forms of headdress, expression, and demeanor would have conveyed clear clues which to some extent have disappeared from our own awareness of modes of social presentation, given the extent to which customs, fashions, and expectations have changed over the centuries.  Fortunately we might find help, for example, in expert guides (for example here) to the depiction of forms of dress in manuscripts in France and the Netherlands during the period of production and early ownership of “our” image.  Among many variants of the scene, cases with similar choices of objects and heads appearing in Gregory’s vision include this one.

The Instruments and Individuals

As in many cases, here the Instruments and Participants in the Passion seem to be scattered across, or clustered upon, the background, without identifying inscriptions, as if they challenge the viewer to discern their identities correctly, somewhat like a Riddle or Rebus.  Set for the Mass, the altar table carries an opened missal-type book, poised upon a lectern, with double columns of indecipherable text per page; two silver candlesticks supporting tall, unlit white candles; and a gold chalice standing upon a spread corporal, which partly covers a rimmed gold paten.  Below the short front of the plain white altarcloth, the pale foreground flanking the celebrant is decorated with branching, scrolling foliage, perhaps emulating an embroidered or brocaded altarfront.

Illustration of Gregory Mass, cropped to upper portion of scene. Photography © Mildred BudnyAs for the Instruments, how many do you see?

I count the centrally placed tau-shaped True Cross, surmounted by its Titulus, draped with a garment (presumably the Shroud or seamless Garment, not the purple Robe), and flanked by the Ladder for the Deposition at the left and the Column for the Flagellation at the right.  The Crown of Thorns rests upon Christ’s Head.  The rim of the Sarcophagus appears as an extension beyond the altar table.  Between the Cross and the Ladder stretches the Veil of Veronica, bearing the imprint of Christ’s closed-eyed frontal Head. Atop the Column perches the Rooster, facing left, for Peter’s Denial.  The Whips (Scourge and Switches) are crossed, right over left, halfway down the front of the Column, with a dangling pair of romal reins of another Whip (or two) which descends from the base of the Switches to the top of the Sarcophagus.  Between the unbroken rungs of the Ladder, which leans upon the Cross, rise the long shaft of the Lance and reed of the Sponge.  Between their tops hover three Nails for Christ’s Wounds.  Suspended, as if scattered, upon the background in counterclockwise formation, there appear three more-or-less identical balustraded Vessels (perhaps buckets, salt-cellars, censers, and/or covered Jars for the gall-with-vinegar and the anointing myrrh); a Hammer and set of Pincers for attaching and removing the Nails; three stacks of Silver Coins for Judas’s price of betrayal; three silver Dice for casting lots for the Robe; the Scimitar for severing the High Priest’s Servant’s Ear; a Lantern for the Arrest; and a Pitcher or Ewer upon a Platter or Basin for service perhaps severally at the Last Supper, the Washing of the Hands, and the gathering of Christ’s Blood.

Seven human Heads, male and female, hover in the background.  Those in profile appear to scowl or scoff.  Five heads wear headgear. The base of each neck has the rounded neckline of a garment.  A helmeted, short-haired, clean-shaven soldier (presumably Longinus) rises above the Veil.  Below it, a Mocker or Spitter confronts Christ’s Head, with a brimmed “bag hat”(capeline) and projected, pointed beard which abuts Christ’s hair.  To the right of the Column, more-or-less in line with the Veil, there appears a woman wearing a neat white wimple (perhaps Veronica, the Servant Girl at Peter’s Denial, or Mary).  In a row to the right appears a bearded, long-haired head tilted outward below the Ewer-with-Dish (probably Christ at the Betrayal, rather than Peter at either his Denial or the Notice Thereof) and the scowling Judas wearing a pendant moneybag at his neck.  In a vertical row beside the upright Sword; a glowering figure wearing a high hat with a bilobed top (probably the High Priest Caiaphas) and an imposing frontal figure  with an elaborate headdress or diadem (presumably Pilate or, rather, Herod).

Wearing a loincloth, a double-pointed beard, and long, straight hair, Christ opens his eyes and crosses his hands in front of his bare chest, with rays of light as a cross-nimbus streaming from his head.  Without visible Wounds, He emerges alive through or despite the Crucifixion.  Similar rays extend both from the version of his Head on Veronica’s Veil and the Head of Judas’ Companion.  Some other depictions of the Gregory Mass endow other figures than Christ (notably Gregory) with rays of light, so that this case could designate or imply Peter (compromised at the Denial, but rehabilitated and raised to sainthood through subsequent events).  However, the features of face, hair, and beard, the rays, and the positioning appear here to designate Christ at the Moment of Betrayal, with a prescient set of rays of light which also pertain to Veronica’s Veil.  Wedged between the Ewer, the branching Scourge, and the Lantern, this Companion seems to be hemmed in for the events of Holy Week leading to the Crucifixion and the Re-emergence from the Tomb.  Such tokens imply that the “narrative” of the imagery follows a sequence that moves, or might move, from moment to moment, from episode to episode, from implement to implement, and from import to impact in a cycle which follows varying directions and possibilities from top to bottom, left to right, right to left, around and about, and back again, as contemplation, reflection, and reconsideration might direct.

The choices among which Instruments to include, and how to represent them, opt for plenitude as to number of Instruments (among representatives of the genre) and for triplicate in series of objects.  That there are 3 Nails (for the spread Hands and the overlapping Feet), 3 similarly-shaped Vessels (perhaps for different types of materials more or-less-viscous and more-or-less vicious applied at different stages of the proceedings), 3 piles of the 30 silver Coins, and 3 Dice, reiterates an emphasis upon trifold entities.  That is, in sum, a Trinity.  Such emphasis could govern the focus for this illustration, its intended viewer, and, perhaps, within (or at) its full volume.

The Leaf

The leaf now belongs to a private assemblage of manuscript and early printed materials.  It was purchased, on its own, from a renowned bookseller about 25 years ago.  A black-and-white reproduction of the illustration appears in print here (first published in 1995), page 229.

Beginning several years ago, I have had the opportunity to examine, photograph, conserve, and re-frame the fragment, as part of a long-term project described elsewhere on this website.  This work included the preparation of photographs with different lights, backgrounds, cameras, and lenses, experimenting with different methods and responding to various aspects of the artifacts themselves as the research developed.

The time has come to illustrate the leaf, on both sides, and in detail, as a contribution toward the study of this artifact, its genre, and the group of medieval and early modern materials to which it now belongs.  In my Handlist of those materials, this leaf is Number 13.  [Future posts, starting here, describe the Handlist and its components.]

First, to show its scale and the brilliance of its colors, including gold, we exhibit an image of the leaf in full, with both a standard scale (both inches and centimeters) and color-guide.  The presence of the color guide within the image can demonstrate — even at first glance — the degree of fidelity of the color reproduction which this shared method of digital transmission permits (or not), as it passes from screen to screen, from device to device, and from viewer to viewer.

Full-page, framed illustration of the Mass of Saint Gregory on a detached leaf from a prayerbook. Photography © Mildred Budny

The Full Extent of the Leaf, plus Scale and Color Guide

Although the “interesting” part of the leaf — for those who (like Alice) prefer their books to have pictures — would be the illustrated side, it is worth showing the other side, too, for what it’s worth.

 The Front and Back, Revealed

Blank side of leaf with illustration of the Mass of Saint Gregory. Photography © Mildred Budny

Recto

Leaf with Gregory Mass illustration on black background. Photography © Mildred Budny

Verso

 

It is worthwhile to see what the leaf, in all its surviving glory, both has and does not have.  No text, not a bit, apart, that is, from the 20th-century seller’s code in pencil at the bottom left (‘4327Ø3315o67W0’), the schematic lines of “text” on the celebrant’s opened book, and the partly effaced Monumental Capitals of the Latin Titulus (“Label”) of the Cross, with the acronym INRI abbreviating Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum (“Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews“).

Gregory Leaf on Black cropped to top of cross reduced

The Titulus

So, apart from that Titulus, the leaf itself carries no original text as such to indicate what language(s), form(s) of script, numbers of lines of text per page, and specific genre of prayerbook pertained to the manuscript to which this now-solitary leaf once belonged, nor the place which it held within the sequence of the book, apart from somewhere in the “middle” and within a binding. The size of the leaf implies that the main text occurred in single columns.  The language may have been Latin and/or a vernacular.  The professionalism of the painted illustration and the use of gold leaf and powdered gold among its pigments indicate a production of some quality and expense.  Some details of the execution — like schematic facial features and the overshot outlines of the outer contours of the frame as they rise from the left-hand side into, and partly over, the curved top of the frame — demonstrate an approach somewhat below the highest order of meticulous craftsmanship and artistry.

For a while when I first encountered the fragment, it could be viewed only behind the glass and mat of the gilded frame into which its owner had placed it. This setting allowed a view only of part of the illustrated side, “cropped” by the window of the mat to a narrow margin around the arch-shaped border of the scene.  (As you see at the top of this Post.)

The considered decision to remove the fragment from the frame, to release it from the non-archival mat and backing, to conserve and photograph it, and to re-frame it (with archival materials) allowed the opportunity to see the full extent of the leaf, that is, insofar as its historical spoliation permits.

Clues

Thus revealed are the surviving extents of the margins, the notched edge of the stitching line at the former spine of the leaf, and consequently the former layout of the leaf as recto and verso.  It is clear that the originally blank flesh side and the illustrated hair side of the animal skin were turned to the front and back respectively. Within the volume, the illustration faced the opening of its companion text, after the “blank” page at the end of the preceding text.

Orange pigment offsets onto the blank recto from the formerly adjacent leaf (now lost). Photography © Mildred Budny

Orange pigment offsets from the (lost) preceding verso

Detail of recto lower edge with red stain and inner edge with stitching groove. Photography © Mildred Budny

Stitching notches (bottom here) and red stain traces (at right)

Revealed, too, are some other tell-tale features. They reveal aspects of the processes of production and characteristics of the volume apart from the image itself.

For example, the offsets of a pair of curved segments of bright reddish orange pigment on the “blank” recto migrated from the formerly adjacent page, perhaps part of an initial in an upper line of the text.

The faint traces of reddish stain at the lower edge of the leaf indicate colored treatment which it must have shared with the other leaves in the rest of the closed book-block.

Production prickings to lay out the contours of the frame and yellow "gunge" on the recto of the leaf. Photography © Mildred Budny

Pricking holes lower on the frame

Detail of "blank" recto with show-through from the illustration and preliminary pricking holes to delineate the contours of the border. Photography © Mildred Budny

Pricking holes for the frame

The closely spaced pricking holes made to delineate the outer contours of the frame and some other parts for the illustration have pierced the leaf, with partly blackened edges from corrosion of the metallic traces left by the sharpened implement.  On the “blank” side, these holes emerge more clearly into view.  The yellowish “gunge” comes from an unknown stage in the history of the fragment.

The clear background revealed between the surviving portions of the gold leaf, where other portions have flaked or lifted away, indicates the uncolored form of adhesive used in its application.  In addition, the illustration employs powdered gold pigment, adding highlights and rays of light.

The pair of darkened stains at the outer edge of the leaf may bear witness to clasps for the volume. The notches along the inner edge, severed by an uneven cutting line from its former stub or adjacent leaf in its original bifolium, demarcate the stitching stations for the binding, in accordance with widespread medieval bookbinding practices, in this case 5 stations.

Detail of cross-shaft, rays of light, and blue sky or background in the illustration of the Mass of Saint Gregory. Photography © Mildred Budny

Layers of pigment, including powdered gold

Such traces could help to confirm the identification of other parts of the same volume, should they survive.  In the absence of a specimen text-page, this leaf must await other methods of discovery than, say, the convenient and widely employed searching method to reunite (even if only virtually) books and their fragments by number of lines per column and per page.

It is a pity that this leaf has been forcibly removed from its original manuscript setting, presumably for commercial purposes, but it is useful to recognize that, at least, the despoiler did not trim away all traces of the former margins and sewing line.  In such ways, the leaf itself, when revealed in the processes of conservation, photography, and uncropped reframing, can show clues about its former book that the cropped image alone fails to do.

Set “free” in such a way, it might direct our research more surely to its former “home”, even if that reunion might have to remain within our imagined or “virtual” reconstruction.  Such a process could befit the aims of the image, intended to evoke reflective meditation upon the nature and significance of its subject-matter across the instances of time and place.

Gold Leaf partly lifted. Photography © Mildred Budny

The Fragility and Tenacity of Gold Leaf

*****

Photography © Mildred Budny
High-quality images suitable for reproduction may be available upon request to director@manuscriptevidence.org.

Perhaps you know where other parts of the original manuscript may survive?  We would be glad to hear from you.
Please leave a Comment here, Contact Us, or enter into a conversation with us on Facebook.

*****

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: Archaeology of Manuscripts, Budny Handlist, Instruments of Christ's Passion, Manuscript Photography, Mass of Saint Gregory, Medieval Manuscript Fragments
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2014 Seminar on “Manuscripts & Their Photographs”

December 12, 2014 in Events, Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Initial P of Prayer in Book of Hours, with Photography © Mildred Budny

Photography © Mildred Budny

Close Up & Up Close

On Tuesday, 9 December 2014, we held a seminar at the Index of Christian Art of Princeton University.  With examples on hand, Giles Constable and Mildred Budny offered reflections on the processes involved in

1) assembling over decades an ‘accumulation’ — not exactly a deliberate ‘collection’ — of medieval manuscripts (or fragments thereof), documents, and early printed materials, and

2) photographing them over several years, in stages and under varied conditions, for the record and for research, sometimes along with conservation work (where called for in certain cases).

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Tags: Book of Hours, Index of Christian Art, manuscript fragments, Manuscript Photography, manuscripts reused in bindings, medieval seal, Philip II Count of Savoy, Vitae Patrum
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The Bouquet List: A Gathering of Books

October 31, 2014 in Book & Exhibition Reviews, reviews, Uncategorized

 

"The Bouquet List: A Gathering of Books", a review by Mildred Budny with motto: "A Rose by Another Name is a Bouquet of n Circles" (Anonymous)

The first in a series of reviews by Mildred Budny

This review celebrates research by and partly by Trustees and Associates of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (RGME) by showcasing some recent publications in print and online.  The title alludes to the widespread medieval genre of florilegia (“gatherings of flowers”), which collect selected extracts of texts from a larger body or bodies of work. Such compilations, also called “Commonplace Books” or “Miscellanies” — whether deliberate, haphazard, or serendipitous in their assembly — have figured in various RGME workshops and publications, and continue to offer challenges for examination.  The title also takes inspiration from the term bouquet in mathematics, wherein, according to some definitions, a “rose”, also known as a “bouquet of n circles”, yields a “topological space” by “gluing” together a collection of circles (which might take various shapes such as loops) along a single point (Bouquet of circles).  The mathematical term ‘Rose’ is defined at Wolfram MathWorld. Figural examples appear here:  Bouquet of n circles via Tikz.

roses croppedThe group of flowering works selected here represent a sampling of our collective and individual interests, which converge and overlap to various extents.

First I salute the most recent publications in the long series issuing from conferences held by the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University.  This University, through its Departments and Programs, including the Department of Art and Archaeology, the Index, and the Program in Medieval Studies, has been the most frequent host and co-sponsor for symposia of the RGME since our arrival in Princeton in 1994.  The publications are edited by our Honorary Trustee Colum Hourihane, with contributions by some of our Trustees, Officers, and Associates.  They are:

  • Patronage:  Power & Agency in Medieval Art (Princeton, 2013, ISBN 978-0-9837537-4-2), issuing from the 2012 conference celebrating the 95th anniversary of the foundation of the Index, and
  • Index of Christian Art Online Publications (generously available without subscription), starting with the first two, which record the annual conference proceedings devoted to The Digital World of Art History
    [originally [I] (July 12th, 2012), now here] (July 12th, 2012) and
    [originally II: Theory and Practice, now here] (June 26th, 2013).

The fourteen papers in the Patronage volume consider diverse materials, regions, dynamics of creation/commission, patterns of patronage, and issues of interpretation.  Cases poised upon textual evidence — occurring in manuscript, documentary, and monumental forms — are plentiful.  They include Elizabeth Carson Pastan’s nuanced assessment of “The Bayeux Embroidery [not a Tapestry!] & Its Interpretative History” particularly within the sphere of its original creators and audience; Nigel Morgan’s reading of “Patrons & Their Scrolls in Fifteenth-Century English Art” through text- or speech-scrolls in manuscripts, stained glass windows, and monumental brasses; Lucy Freeman Sandler’s sensitive assessment of “The Bohun Women & Manuscript Patronage in Fourteenth-Century England”, as revealed through the stages of “commissioning, conceiving, executing, receiving, and bequeathing”, and our Trustee Adelaide Bennett’s reconsideration of “Issues of Female Patronage: French Books of Hours, 1220–1320”, with an instructive analysis of the traces of women’s reading habits and instruction.  The ensemble offers a series of explorations into both charted and hitherto uncharted waters in the vast ocean of medieval materials which came into being through the aid, impediments, guidance, inspiration, and vision of patronage in many forms.

Among the multiple worthy subjects considered in the two e-volumes of The Digital World of Art History (with twenty-two papers), several are firmly central to RGME research activities.  For example, jointly Maria Oldal, Elizabeth O’Keefe, and William Voelkle (Volume I, chapter 4 = I.4) present a guide to the Corsair database of the Pierpont Morgan Library, which freely provides “unified access to over 250,000 records for medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, rare and reference books, literary and historical manuscripts, music scores, ancient seals and tablets, drawings, prints, and other art objects”.  Gretchen Wagner offers a trenchant survey of the challenges and possible solutions facing the issues of “Copyright and Scholarship in the Arts” (I.5) in a fast-changing world.  In “The ‘Art’ of Digital Art History” (II.7), focusing upon her experiences in assembling a major report on Transitioning to a Digital World for the Kress Foundation, Diane Zorich reflects as a consultant on the nature and potential of digital strategies and issues involving cultural heritage in cultural and educational institutions, principally major museums.  Members of the Staff of the Index of Christian Art – Judith Golden, Jessica Savage, our Associate Henry Schilb, Beatrice Raddan Keefe, and Jon Niola – contribute reports (in I.10–14) of its iconographic and bibliographic work, its collaborative projects accomplished or in preparation, and its other resources.

Kandice Rawlings (II.4) describes the varied history and development of the Oxford Art Online encyclopedia — available through subscription — about anything and everything connected with art, also said to provide “access to the most authoritative, inclusive, and easily searchable online art resources available today”.  As a contributor to the original printed form, that is, the Grove Dictionary of Art (1996), I find the story of this enterprise instructive as a vigorous case of transfer from an earlier age of publication, in book form, to the present internet industry of cumulative and composite forces able and willing to overtake, update, expand, and gain, while offering valuable research resources to privileged subscribers.

ShelfMarks 1 as booklet 23 Oct LJF page 3 really with images as a pair

Anglo-Saxon double-sided seal-matrix of the thegn Godwin (front) and the nun Godgytha (back), made of walrus-ivory in the first half of the 11th century C.E.  The front of the handle depicts the Trinity resting upon a prone human figure.  The coin-like roundels on obverse and reverse depict the part-length male and female figures identified by Latin inscriptions, ready for sealing wax.  Photographs © Genevra Kornbluth, reproduced by permission.  A detail appears here, with more information here.  Original: London, British Museum, M&ME 1881,4-4,1.

The report by our Associate Genevra Kornbluth on “Kornbluth Photography: From Private Research to Private Archive” (II.4) describes the creation, many years in the making, of her expert photographic archive, now available, with honorable copyright conditions, on her website.  Its “Historical Archive” gathers images of objects or monuments arranged by multiple indexes (culture/period, chronology, iconography, medium, object type, location, and artist), including text-based works such as manuscripts, charters, seals and matrices, relic labels, book covers, and inscriptions.

I first met Genevra years ago, when she was conducting research for her Ph.D. dissertation, published as Engraved Gems of the Carolingian Empire (Penn State University Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0-271-01426-5), and I have followed the progress of her work with care, so that I have long been aware of the beauty of her detailed photographs of carved rock-crystal gemstones and many other objects of complexity.  Like her, I have devoted much time to photographing original source materials — in my case mostly manuscripts and other written works — not only for my own study, but also for that of others, already in the age before digital methods paved the way for widespread access, now at least on screen and often in high-definition.

As a practitioner, I can attest that the active photographic process (not only as product) of close study of the works themselves – including manuscripts and other written works – might reveal features otherwise unsuspected.  For the gems, the microscopic traces of carving methods, with tools of distinctly differing points, allowed Genevra to distinguish between Byzantine and Carolingian works, in a valuable contribution to knowledge of their identifying characteristics, with photographs recording the features for all to see.  While Genevra’s contribution to the Index volume freely provides a sampling of her photographs we may illustrate other examples from her website here, generously with her permission.  Thus it can be possible to look through, as it were, the eyes of the expert examining the sources directly and closely.

ShelfMarks 1 page 4 really images as a pair

Rock crystal (quartz stone) intaglio, mid-to-late 9th century, seen from the smooth front and the engraved, incised back of the stone.  The upright, cross-bearing “St. Paul the Apostle”, is identified by Latin inscription.  Photographs © Genevra Kornbluth, reproduced by permission.  An oblique view appears here.  Original: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Cabinet des Médailles, H3416.

Now, to the bouquet I respectfully add the final publications by our RGME Associate Malcolm B. Parkes, who died in 2013 at the age of eighty-three.  A memorial by our Trustee David Ganz appears here:  Malcolm B. Parkes., Palaeographer (1930‒2013.  A collection of Malcolm’s essays in 2012 (complementing an earlier collection in 1991) has now followed the printed version in 2008 of his Lyell Lectures.

  • 3) M. B. Parkes, Their Hands Before Our Eyes:  A Closer Look at Scribes.  The Lyell Lectures Delivered in the University of Oxford, 1999 (Ashgate Publishing, 2008, [formerly “http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754663379” but now] ISBN 978-0-7546-6337-9).
  • 4) M. B. Parkes, Pages from the Past:  Medieval Writing Skills and Manuscript Books, edited by P. R. Robinson and Rivkah Zim (Ashgate Publishing, 2012, [formerly “http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409438069” but now ISBN 978-1-4094-3806-9).

These works record and preserve multiple fundamental, often ground-breaking, insights into the nature of scripts in relation to the process of writing, the minds at work, and the voices of the languages, authors, and speakers which the scripts transmit.  The plates offer examples for study and instruction.  We are grateful for their presence, while we lament the passing of their author, a kind friend and teacher.

This requirement calls forth the wistful reflection that some florilegia transmitted from the past may represent cherished recollections of previous living voices and vivid moments of instruction — of which only parts of the originally full representations may yet endure, both in memory and in “print”.  We treasure these traces.

For the next issues of the Newsletter, the RGME invites suggestions and donations for books to review.  While this first “Bouquet” centers upon publications by, or with contributions by, contributors to the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, we welcome works by others too.

GenEld_1

Genoels–Elderen openwork ivory diptych made circa 800 C.E. — perhaps formerly the paired covers for a sacred book or a writing tablet.  Framed within geometric and interlace borders and accompanied by Latin inscriptions, the cross-bearing Christ, flanked by angels, stands upon the Beasts (with Bird in the form of Rooster), while His mother Mary experiences both the Annunciation with Gabriel and the Visitation with Elizabeth, all with attendants.   Photograph © Genevra Kornbluth, reproduced by permission.   More views and details here: Genoels Elderen.   Original: Brussels, Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Musée du Cinquantenaire, no. 1474.

Roses according to n=6, n=7, and n=8, laid out by Mildred Budny

*****

This review forms part of the first issue of the Research Group Newsletter, ShelfMarks.
An e-version of this issue, with ShelfTags for ShelfMarks and some extra images, appears here.
The full issue appears here: ShelfMarks, Volume 1, Number 1 (PDF).
You might Subscribe here.

Masthead for ShelfMarks, the newsletter of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, laid out in RGME Bembino

*****

Tags: Florilegia, Index of Christian Art, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript Photography, Manuscript studies, Palaeography, Photography of Works of Art, Roses in Mathematics
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1994 Congress

January 1, 2014 in Conference Announcement, ICMS, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Photographic Exhibition

29th International Congress on Medieval Studies

5‒8 May 1994

[First published on our first website on *19 April 2006, with updates]

At the 1994 Congress, in the second year of its sponsorship of Sessions, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence sponsored three Sessions and provided a Photographic Exhibition for the Dedication ceremony of the new Richard Rawlinson Center for Anglo-Saxon Studies.  At the time, as of February 1994, Mildred Budny, Director of the Research Group, had been appointed the first Director of that Center.

A change in direction several months later, required by unilateral and impractible changes by the University to the agreed appointment, led the Research Group to a base in Princeton instead.

The record of subsequent activities by the Research Group at the International Congress on Medieval Studies and in our other Events demonstrates the momentum of our mission following the First Phase which gathered focus and intent during the early years of our work in the major multidisciplinary Research Project from which the Research Group emerged.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Abraham Whelock, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, Anglo-Saxon Poetry, Anglo-Saxon Studies, Computer-Based Image Enhancement, Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Illuminated Manuscripts, Eadwine Psalter, Early Modern Studies, Editing Medieval Texts, George Hickes, Illuminated Manuscripts, John Joscelyn, Manuscript Imaging, Manuscript Photography, Medieval Palaeography, Medieval Studies, Morphing Software, Old English Charters, Old English Lexicography, William L'Isle, William Somner
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