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    • 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
    • People
      • Mildred Budny — Her Page
      • Adelaide Bennett Hagens
    • Activities
      • Events
      • Congress Activities
        • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
          • Panels at the M-MLA Convention
        • Co-sponsored Conference Sessions (2006‒)
    • History
      • Seals, Matrices & Documents
      • Genealogies & Archives
  • Bembino
    • Multi-Lingual 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
    • The Research Group Speaks: The Series
    • Seminars, Workshops, Colloquia & Symposia (1989–)
      • Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
      • Symposia on ‘The Transmission of the Bible’
      • The New Series
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Program: The Roads Taken
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Registration
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Registration Open
    • Abstracts of Papers for Events
      • Abstracts of Papers for Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
      • Abstracts of Papers for Symposia, Workshops & Colloquia
    • Receptions & Parties
    • Business Meetings
    • Photographic Exhibitions & Master Classes
    • 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
    • History and Design of Our Website
  • Galleries
    • Watermarks & the History of Paper
    • Galleries: Contents List
    • Scripts on Parade
    • Texts on Parade
      • Latin Documents & Cartularies
      • New Testament Leaves in Old Armenian
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  • Contact Us
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2023 Pre-Symposium Call for Papers: Intrepid Borders Lightning Talks
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ShelfMarks Issue 2 (Volume 2, Number 1 for Winter 2022–2023)
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Specimens of Ege Manuscript 40 in the Ege Family Portfolio
Otto F. Ege: Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts, Leaf 40, Printed Label, Special Collections and University Archives, Stony Brook University Libraries.
Otto Ege Manuscript 40, Part II: Before and After Ege
rivate Collection, Koran Leaf in Ege's Famous Books in Nine Centuries, Front of Leaf. Reproduced by permission.
Otto Ege’s Portfolio of ‘Famous Books’ and ‘Ege Manuscript 53’ (Quran)
J. S. Wagner Collection, Early-Printed Missal Leaf, Verso. Rubric and Music for Holy Saturday. Reproduced by Permission.
Carmelite Missal Leaf of 1509
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Smeltzer Collection, Subermeyer (1598), Vellum Supports Strip 2 Signature Surname.
Vellum Binding Fragments in a Parisian Printed Book of 1598
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Opening of the Book of Maccabees in Otto Ege MS 19. Private Collection.
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At the Exhibition of "Gutenberg and After" at Princeton University in 2019, the Co-Curator Eric White stands before the Scheide Gutenberg Bible displayed at the opening of the Book of I Kings.
“Gutenberg and After” at Princeton University Library
J. S. Wagner Collection. Leaf from from Prime in a Latin manuscript Breviary. Folio 4 Recto, Initial C for "Confitimini" of Psalm 117 (118), with scrolling foliate decoration.
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J. S. Wagner Collection. Detached Manuscript Leaf with the Opening in Latin of the Penitent Psalm 4 or Psalm 37 (38) and its Illustration of King David.
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The red wax seal seen upright, with the male human head facing left. Document on paper issued at Grenoble and dated 13 February 1345 (Old Style). Image reproduced by permission
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Detail of illustration.
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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.
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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.
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Decorated opening word 'Nuper' of the Dialogues, Book III, Chapter 13, reproduced by permission
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“Gutenberg and After” at Princeton University Library

December 11, 2019 in Book & Exhibition Reviews, Events, Princeton University

Guided Tours 2019

Gutenberg & Friends

Among the events for our 2019 Anniversary Year (see below), the Research Group enjoys a set of Guided Tours by our Associate Eric White, Curator of Rare Books in Special Collections of Princeton University Libraries.  He guided us through his co-curated Exhibition at Princeton University Library on Gutenberg and After:  Europe’s First Printers 1450-1470 (12 September 2019 – 15 December 2019).

At the Exhibition of "Gutenberg and After" at Princeton University in 2019, the group listens to Eric White's tour..

The Group Listens. Photograph by Mildred Budny.

These tours, which included members of the Princeton Bibliophiles and Book Collectors (a subgroup of the Friends of the Princeton University Libraries), took place on Monday, 18 November, and Friday 13 December.  In appreciation, we took Eric for refreshments afterward nearby.

Thus, it was possible not only to ask questions during the tour itself, but also to reflect further in conversations emerging from those direct, expertly guided encounters with the materials themselves.

At the Exhibition of "Gutenberg and After" at Princeton University in 2019, the Co-Curator Eric White stands before the Scheide Gutenberg Bible displayed at the opening of the Book of I Kings.

Eric White Explains the Choice for Display of the Opening of I Kings in the Gutenberg Bible of 1455 (Scheide Library copy). Photograph by Mildred Budny.

 

Armchair Exhibition

More information about the exhibition, its background, and its selected exhibits, is presented online. Enjoy!

  • Rare Collections
  • About the Exhibition

Close Up & Personal

Accompanying the exhibition is an online series of 7 short, thematic essays focusing upon selected aspects of the materials and their evidence.

1.  Authenticity

Princeton University Library. "La Grant Danse Macabre" (Lyons, 1499), one of two surviving copies. It contains the earliest depiction of a printing shop, albeit accompanied by animated cadavers.

Princeton University Library. “La Grant Danse Macabre” (Lyons, 1499), one of two surviving copies. It contains the earliest depiction of a printing shop, albeit accompanied by animated cadavers.

2.  Indulgences

Princeton University Library, Special Collections. Printed Cyprus Indulgence, 31 Lines. (Mainz: Johann Gutenberg, 1454).

Princeton University Library, Special Collections. Printed Cyprus Indulgence, 31 Lines. (Mainz: Johann Gutenberg, 1454).

3. Illumination

Princeton University Library, Scheide Library. Gutenberg Bible of 1455, Opening Page of I Kings.

Princeton University Library, Scheide Library. Gutenberg Bible of 1455. Opening Page of I Kings.

4. Uniqueness

THURCORUM (Mainz: Gutenberg, late 1456), opening page.

Princeton University Library, Scheide Library. CALIXTUS III, BULLA THURCORUM (Mainz: Gutenberg, late 1456), opening page.

5. Johann Neumeister

Princeton University Library, Scheide Library. Turrecremata, "Meditations" (Albi: Johann Neumeister, 1481).

Princeton University Library, Scheide Library. Turrecremata, “Meditations” (Albi: Johann Neumeister, 1481).

6. Fragments

Princeton University Library, Scheide Library. Donatus, "Ars minor" on vellum (Mainz: almost certainly Johann Gutenberg and Johann Fust, perhaps ca. 1453-54), fragment.

Princeton University Library, Scheide Library. Donatus, “Ars minor” on vellum (Mainz: almost certainly Johann Gutenberg and Johann Fust, perhaps ca. 1453-54), fragment.

7. Survivals

Princeton University Library, Scheide Library. Mainz Psalter on vellum (Mainz: Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer, 14 August 1457), folio 98.

Princeton University Library, Scheide Library. Mainz Psalter on vellum (Mainz: Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer, 14 August 1457), folio 98.

Round-Up

These articles are stored here:

Inside Milberg Gallery “Gutenberg and After” .

An online exhibition displays detailed views: here .  There, exploration is possible among the options of “Printer”, “Publisher”, “Subject”, “Language”.  For example, seaching by “Printer” and selecting Gutenberg, Johann yields closer views and detailed descriptions of 7 exhibited items, with their digital facsimiles.  Thus it is possible virtually to turn their pages, from

1.  The 2-volume Gutenberg Bible of circa 1455 from Mainz in the Scheide Collection, with its original Erfurt binding and illuminations

to

7.  A reused leaf from a Gutenberg Bible in the Princeton University Library, in its converted state as a vellum binding cover for a 1666 lawbook — seen here at the left in the exhibtion.

Princeton University Library. Gutenberg Bible Leaves Recycled as Binding Materials. Photograph by Mildred Budny.

Princeton University Library. Gutenberg Bible Leaves Recycled as Binding Materials. Photograph by Mildred Budny.

Previews

The Cover Page for the 2019 Anniversary Symposium Booklet displays the name and logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, the title and subtitle of the Symposium, the List of Sponsors, and a description of the scope and aims of the Symposium. Like the rest of the Booklet, the Cover Page is set in RGME Bembino, the copyright multilingual font of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence.

2019 Symposium Booklet, Cover Page

2016 Symposium Program Booklet, Cover Page, with RGME logo, Symposium title, list of sponsors, and description.

2016 Symposium Program Booklet, Cover Page.

Eric White presented some of the discoveries which appear in the exhibition earlier for 2 of our Research Group Symposia at Princeton University, including our Symposium in this Anniversary Year.

  • Words and Deeds (2016)
  • The Roads Taken (2019)

The booklets for these Symposia (downloadable through those links) include the abstracts of Eric’s papers and some accompanying images — which present materials included in the current exhibition.  His presentations and workshops for those events gave helpful preparation for viewing the exhibition and for learning more from Eric’s guided tours.

We thank him for teaching us more about these challenging, intriguing, and ground-breaking materials in the history of books.  We look forward to learning more.

*****

Preparations are on course for a printed catalogue of the exhibition.  More to discover!

At the Exhibition of "Gutenberg and After" at Princeton University in 2019, the Co-Curator Eric White answers questions.

Eric Answers Questions. Photograph by Mildred Budny.

*****

Anniversary Celebrations

These events in Princeton form part of our activities during 2019, a landmark Anniversary Year for the Research Group on Manuscript [and Other] Evidence.  They include:

  • Specially Guided Tours for the RGME at the the Princeton University Exhibition on Gutenberg and After (November and December)
  • Permanent Panel at the Midwest Duality and Manuscript Evidence at the Midwest Modern Language Association 2019 Convention (November)
  • 2019 International Congress on Medieval Studies (May)
  • 2019 Anniversary Symposium on “The Roads Taken” (April)

Watch This Space

Building upon the momentum of events for our Anniversary Year, we plan more events for 2020. Among them are the activities for the 2020 International Congress on Medieval Studies in May.

Also a Symposium at Princeton University in the Spring. Perhaps with more news about the background and foreground of the Gutenberg and Beyond Exhibition?  Hopeful.

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Tags: Early Printed Fragments reused in Bindings, Early Printing, Eric White, Fragments, Gutenberg Bible, Gutenberg Press, Indulgences, Johannes Gutenberg, Milberg Gallery, Princeton University Library
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The ‘Foundling Hospital’ for Manuscript Fragments

June 26, 2015 in Book & Exhibition Reviews, Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition, Uncategorized

Gathering Waifs and Strays among Manuscript Fragments
Dispersed to the Winds of Change

Their Recognition for What They Are
Can Emerge Through Chance Discoveries as Well as Dedicated Expertise

As Part I in a series, Mildred Budny reflects on recognizing the familial connections of ‘orphans’ among dispersed manuscript leaves. Part II considers a group of them as ‘Lost and Foundlings’.

Initial d in woodcut with winged hybrid creature as an inhabitant. Photography © Mildred Budny

Initial D on a detached bifolium, printed on vellum. Photography © Mildred Budny

‘Do the right thing’, we often hear.  Yes, presumably, that seems worthwhile, given the chance, ability, or will.   But how to do it and what to do?

Doing the Right Thing for Historical Records?  Hmm.  Preserving artefacts and monuments from the past is not always straightforward, nor always deemed desirable.  The issues remain subject to controversy and concern.  When it comes to old manuscripts and their fragments, the set of choices could depend upon opportunities, determination, and intention, as well as, on occasion, serendipity.

Foundlings, Given the Chance

Recently I have been thinking about the humanitarian purpose and activities of the 18th-century foundation of the Foundling Hospital, whose grounds I used to visit during my long postgraduate years in London.   Now my thoughts focus on that place, and its place in history, not only in its own right, but as a metaphor or model for the challenges and opportunities in gathering together the orphans, waifs, and strays among despoiled manuscripts and books of earlier ages.

Coloured engraving of a bird's eye view of the Courtyard of the Foundling Hospital, Holbourne, London, with scenes of humans and other creatures both within and without.  Coloured engraving by T. Bowles after L.P. Boitard (1753).  Image via Wikimedia Commons from Wellcome Images (http://wellcomeimages.org

The Foundling Hospital, Holbourn, London: A bird’s eye view of the courtyard. Coloured engraving by T. Bowles after L.P. Boitard (1753). Wellcome Images (wellcomeimages.org) via Wikimedia Commons

These reflections have come to mind as I work to shape the illustrated Handlist of a group of medieval and early modern manuscript fragments and documents, plus some early printed materials, which I have had the opportunity to photograph, conserve, and study for some time (as reported, for example, on this website and in a close-up).  By its owner’s wishes, for now the group is called an ‘Assemblage’ because its group was assembled over decades less specifically or purposefully than a ‘Collection’ as such might imply.

Recently, during the accelerated course of the work on the materials as a group, there has appeared the poignant illustrated blogpost by Erik Kwaakel showcasing a group of handwritten tags intended to identify, and to accompany, children who passed through the Holy Spirit Orphanage (Heilige Geest- of Arme Wees- en Kinderhuis in Dutch) in Leiden in The Netherlands in the 15th century.  These brief slips can or must stand now for their bearers, long gone into the past, perhaps with little or no other written record for their living existence.

Manuscripts and Foundlings:  somehow they interrelate.  Manuscripts as Foundlings, and Human Foundlings with Manuscript Tags.  Poignant predicaments, and poignant traces.  It seems a mercy that any traces may remain to bear witness to the lives, and also the books which any lives have produced, owned, read, perhaps enjoyed, and lost.  The time has come for finding, and for caring.

A New Handlist for a Group of Manuscript and Early Printed Materials

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

Budny Handlist 13

Although few in number, the fragments in the Handlist come from a varied range of types of texts, dates and places of origin, and modes of descent into modern times — not least through their dismembered reuse as binding materials of several kinds or for individual display as specimens of script, decoration, or illustration.  Mostly they comprise single leaves (folia), pairs of conjoined leaves (folded bifolia), or scraps.  Mostly they come with few, if any, indications of either their former ‘families’ within their original volumes and their former ‘homes’ in libraries or collections, or the identity of their despoilers.  That is, apart from the clues which they carry upon their very surfaces or on materials which may have migrated with them, whether by chance or by design.

Those indicators, written or unwritten, may reveal their testimony principally in connection with the evidence preserved in other materials in other collections, provided that researchers might find it or learn about it.  We have described and illustrated the interim results for one of the Handlist items recently (‘Handlist 13’, shown here), a detached 15th-century leaf with an intricate illustration on its verso of the Mass of Saint Gregory the Great, at which the celebrant of the Mass experiences a vision of Christ surrounded by the Instruments and Agents of the Passion.

The widespread dispersal, across the centuries and even — alas — nowadays, of scraps, leaves, or bits of manuscripts without regard, usually, to their complete original context within a whole manuscript, collection, or body of work by their given creator(s) can give rise to mixed feelings.  The degree of mixture may depend upon the circumstances of dispersal or the disposition of the viewer, in various measures.  On the one hand, the phenomenon constitutes a trashing of cultural heritage to be deplored.  On the other, we might have some slender sense of relief that something, at least, has remained, if only by the skin of its teeth.

Following that toothy metaphor, we might lament or marvel, by turns or in combination, that any traces whatsoever might remain of past achievements, however down in the tooth, toothless, or plagued with perhaps ill-fitting artificial teeth they might now be.   Let’s chew on that.

The Tips of Icebergs

In recent years, much attention in medieval manuscript studies (for example) has considered the despoliation, usually willful, of whole manuscripts so as to extract the juicy bits, such as illustrations, decoration, and choice specimens of script.  Mostly without bothering to record their context and companions. Such practices have occurred across the centuries in many situations and for varied purposes, sometimes laudable.

The Magnificent, Despoiled,
Royal Bible of Saint Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E.VI, folio 43r. Reproduced by permission

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E.VI, folio 43r. Reproduced by permission

Years ago, in embarking on manuscript studies in earnest as a graduate student at University College London, I encountered this tendency, at a safe distance removed by centuries, in deciphering the evidence of the remnants of a superb manuscript made in the 9th century C.E. at St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury. The manuscript contained a large-format copy of the full Vulgate Bible in Latin, with some prefatory texts and illustrations.Its remaining treasures include some richly purple-dyed leaves with full-page monumental inscriptions in gold and silver lettering and the majestic opening to the Gospel of Luke, which enshrines the intricately decorated opening words Quoniam quidem (‘Foreasmuch as’) within a full-page arcade with panels of ornamental interlace, geometrical, foliate, and animal patterns and with the half-length figures of both the evangelist’s symbol (a winged bull) and Christ holding books and appearing within heavenly clouds.

That monument, whose remnants survive mostly in London, British Library, Royal MS 1 E.vi, formed the subject of a detailed, holistic study, entitled ‘British Library Manuscript Royal 1 E. VI:  The Anatomy of an Anglo-Saxon Bible Fragment’ (London, 1984), available freely online.  Further discoveries about the manuscript and its astonishing Late-Antique model, the now-lost Biblia Gregoriana of the abbey, are reported here.

The process, progress, and discoveries of this cumulative work, demonstrating the value of a detailed, holistic study integrating multiple forms of evidence and fields of expertise, helped to lead to the formation and practices of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence.  Such fruits appear, for example, in the largest co-publication to date of the Research Group:  the 2-volume Illustrated Catalogue of Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 4r. Reproduced by permission

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 4r. Reproduced by permission

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 28v. Reproduced by permission

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 28v. Reproduced by permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taking It Out

Why the medieval abbey — one of the principal centers of book-production in England — which had created so splendid a manuscript as the Royal Bible would choose to strip it of samples of illustrations and exemplary script within a mere two centuries of its creation (as the evidence establishes) remains a mystery, although there are some possible explanations.  Explanations are not necessarily tenable justifications, of course.

By about the middle of the 11th century, some leaves and parts of leaves were cut from the manuscript at knifepoint, mostly with uneven cuts which appear to manifest disdain or haste — or both — in the process of excision.  Thus were removed:

  • numerous whole leaves with illustrations, leaving no gaps in the Bible text
  • some frontispieces with illustrations for individual Books of the Bible (as with each of the four Gospels and the Gospel unit itself)
  • some of the full-page monumental inscriptions which provided descriptive captions (tituli) for those illustrations (as with Matthew and John)
  • some elaborate openings of Books of the Bible (as with the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John)
  • some specimens of one or more elaborate lines of script (as with the last line of the Gospel frontispiece titulus on folio 1 and the complete concluding titles for the Mark and John chapter lists on folios 29 and 69)
  • and perhaps more sorts of elements.
© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 29r.  Reproduced by permission

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 29r. Reproduced by permission

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 1v.  Reproduced by permission

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 1v. Reproduced by permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of those removed leaves or parts of leaves left offsets of their pigments on the pages which they formerly faced.  Such are the case, for example, with the concluding title for the Mark chapter list and both the titulus and opening page for John.

Sometimes the removed portion introduced a gap within a leaf or at a lower corner of a leaf left behind.  They occurred in excising specimens of elaborate script from it:  taking the last line, in gold, from the descriptive titulus for the frontispiece to the Gospels (folio 1) and the elaborate concluding titles for the Mark and John chapter lists (folios 29 and 68).

The gaps were replaced with patches of parchment pasted onto the bare backs of the leaves. For a purple leaf, the patch was colored, somewhat inefficiently, with a pigment that has now faded to brown.

Taking Advantage, with Restorations of Sorts, in the 11th Century

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 30v. Reproduced by permission

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 30v. Reproduced by permission

The cutting lines along part or all of some leaves adjacent to fully excised leaves, resulting from the slits of the knife drawn along the inner margin of the book, as the plunderer faced the wanted page, have been stitched together in a set of repairs following the spoliation and, it seems, following the retrieval of some of the fully severed leaves.  For example, the leaf with the titulus for the Mark Gospel frontispiece (now folio 30) was completely severed, but it was resewn to its resulting ‘stub’.  The following leaf received the same treatments, that is, severance by knife followed by reconnection with needle and thread.

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 30v, detail.  Reproduced by permission.

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 30v, detail. Reproduced by permission.

That this spoliation occurred by the mid-11th century or so is established by the white pigment overlay and overflow onto one of those stitching lines, along the inner margin of verso of that leaf  which carries the Mark titulus on its recto.  The overlying pigment belongs to the added frontispiece on the verso, which provides a framed frontispiece in a different style and with a different structure.  In outlining the roundel at the bottom right of the paneled rectangular frame, the brush caught onto the repairing stitch, which tugged part of its tip and dragged some of the pigment, leaving the track which establishes the sequence of accretions.  First came the cuts to excise leaves and parts of leaves.  There followed the repairs to stitch some severed parts back into the book.  Then came the addition of the painted frontispiece for the Mark Gospel, perhaps in an effort to refurbish the book, replace the lost Mark frontispiece in a new style, and/or try out an approach to painting on a purple-dyed leaf on an available expanse.

The artist of that Mark addition is identifiable as an artistic active in Canterbury, and at Saint Augustine’s Abbey, in about the mid-11th century.  I have identified his work in some other manuscripts in my detailed long-term study.  Among them are

  • contributions to parts of the Illustrated Old English Hexateuch
  • the 2 added frontispieces for the Rule of Saint Benedict and the Regularis Concordia
    in British Library, Cotton MS Tiberius A. iii and
  • the added frontispieces in the Corpus Eremetical Saints’ Lives.

Within the Royal Bible, in applying an outline of white pigment to the border roundel at the lower right-hand corner of the frame, his brush caught onto the stitching repair and left its traces there. Caught in the act.

Taking More, with Some Further Repairs, by the 14th Century

By the late Middle Ages, the manuscript had lost many more of its leaves — while still at the abbey — for reuse as binding material for other texts.  Two of those reused leaves have surfaced at Canterbury Cathedral (as a folder for some unknown materials, removed from them without record in the 19th century) and in the Bodleian Library in Oxford (as a folded pair of endleaves for a 10th-century manuscript, removed from it in the 19th century).  This form of despoilation of leaves for reuse in binding texts of other kinds occurred apparently by the 14th century.  The forms of evidence which point to this date-range include the abbey librarian’s inscriptions, entered in stages at the top of one of the flyleaves added to the Royal portion by the 14th century.  They provide the library ownership inscription, the library pressmark, and a brief description of the contents as an ‘old’ (vetera) and ‘bare’ or ‘despoiled’ (nuda) copy of the ‘4 Gospels with [the lettermark] A’.   As on other books from the library, the lettermark stood on the binding (now lost in the rebinding at the British Museum in the 18th century).  The rough parchment patches on the flyleaves, like the flyleaves themselves, belong to a recognizable stock of parchment leaves used for flyleaves, patches, and other work on the manuscripts in the abbey library during the 14th century.

Useful to know.  And that knowledge about those tell-tale features of the parchment itself comes from having looked at very many of the many manuscripts which survive from the abbey library and show signs of refurbishment and other forms of alteration during this period (among others).

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio ii recto, top. Reproduced by permission

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio ii recto, top. Reproduced by permission

Altogether only 79 leaves remain of more than 1,000 leaves originally, plus the 2 endleaves added in the 14th-century to the front and back of the London portion, then reduced to a fragment of the Gospels.  The Canterbury leaf, with its part from the John Gospel, formerly followed the last leaf in the Royal portion directly, as the first leaf of the next quire.  Formerly placed at the distance of a few leaves from the Gospel portion, perhaps halfway through the quire after that, the Oxford leaf holds part of the Acts of the Apostles.

A small, but significant, remnant.

Competition

Few full Bibles survive from the Latin West up to the time of this 9th-century Royal Bible, and only one made in England:  the early 8th-century Codex Amiatinus, but with fewer illustrations and less magnificent decoration.  (No offense to that Bible, an astonishing witness in its own ways.)  That somewhat distant relative, from Northumbria, and from the double monasteries of Monkwearmouth–Jarrow, home of the Venerable Bede (who may have had a hand in the production or design), helps to gauge the former stature of the monument, when complete.

The nearly contemporary Continental competition for our Royal Bible among large-format illustrated Carolingian Bibles or Spanish and other Bibles is another story.  Have a look, for example at one of the earliest.  These are big books, worth standing up to view them and, when chance arises, turn their pages.

‘The Ozymandias of Early Anglo-Saxon Book-Production’

About the Royal Bible, it is worth remembering that the despoiled carcass (shall we say) which remains of that vibrant whole, although dispersed between London (now with online facsimile), Canterbury, and Oxford, continues to bear witness to a former monument of extraordinary magnificence, albeit reduced to the floating tips of a once-weighty and mighty iceberg. Having worked to identify its significance as a precarious, but vigorous, witness, both to its original monument and to its majestic Late-Antique exemplar, the lost Biblia Gregoriana, I find some solace in the recognition by a sympathetic colleague, Richard Gameson  (our Associate), that this 9th-century Royal Bible of St. Augustine’s Abbey, “still majestic despite truncation and mutilation,” might rightly be regarded as “the Ozymandias of early Anglo-Saxon book-production” (Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (2011), no. 2).

In order words, this fractured, but still magnificent, monument must and can carry the weight of centuries. Fortunate it might be to find the opportunity, after all, to regain some of its eloquence. It is a privilege to spend time in its company, and I continue to remember, with affection, the very many days, months, and years on end of turning its pages, inspecting its details, learning to know its features, reflecting upon its character and contexts, and becoming familiar with its variety, complexity, and beauty as one of the most significant manuscripts of its age.

*****

And so now, with this case study freshly in mind, we turn to another group of ‘Lost and Foundlings’ among manuscript fragments, this time from dispersals of books from various centers, periods, types of texts, and styles of medieval book production, in ‘The Case of Otto F. Ege’, selfstyled ‘Biblioclast’. We invite you to have a look, as we unveil some newly recognized fragments among those dispersals.

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

A whimsical creature at the bottom of the page faces the music. Budny Handlist 4

 

A Virtual ‘Orphanage’

How the different ‘Foundlings’ among manuscript fragments might sometime find a proper, albeit virtual, home so as to acknowledge, to record, and to welcome their familial connections in former whole manuscripts as a form of ‘genealogical recovery’ remains to be determined in the concerted quest in various centers to establish and to foster such projects.  While they find their fuller footing, with larger institutional supports, we will turn to the next report on our findings.

Next stop:  ‘Lost and Foundlings’.

We welcome your comments, questions, and feedback.  Please leave a comment or Contact Us.

*****

 

 

Tags: Biblia Gregoriana, Illustrated Old English Hexateuch, Mass of Gregory the Great, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Otto F. Ege, Royal Bible of St. Augustine's Abbey Canterbury, Saint Dunstan's 'Classbook'
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2014 Colloquium on “When the Dust Has Settled” Accomplished

November 17, 2014 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Anniversary, Bembino, Book & Exhibition Reviews, Conference, Events, Exhibition

We report successful completion of the Colloquium on Friday, 14 November 2014 at Princeton University.

[This post updates both the Announcement for this event (published as Colloquium Announced), and its Colloquium Program.]

Document of Berengarius, detail, unfolded, with concluding date and gathered dust in the fold. Photography © Mildred Budny

“A Settling of Dust”

When the Dust Has Settled

(or, When Good Scholars Go Back . . . )

A Colloquium
co-sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
and the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University

Sponsors

Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University
John H. Rassweiler
Celia Chazelle

The Aim
“Settled Dust Could Give Clarity of Vision”

What happens when a dedicated specialist returns to a subject of long-term interest after other tasks — other projects, jobs, administrative tasks, life in general — have cleared away? While the world, methods, tools, and aims of research (let alone publication) have changed dramatically, sometimes beyond recognition, a return to the chosen subject might also draw upon experience and reflection gained through the passage of time, an accumulation of experiences, and extended “immersion” both in the subject matter and its wider contexts. Thus, although daunting, the return need not involve a start completely from square one or ground zero.

When the dust has settled, and, it may be, the air has cleared, a return might allow for renewal, which could build upon an available, partly remembered, foundation for direction and refinement in this light. Our colloquium offers informal reflections, questions, and discussions about the challenges and potential of returning now to a variety of subjects, in the arts and letters, from Antiquity to Modernity.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, Apocalypse manuscripts, Architectural Sculpture, Charles Rufus Morey, Deir Sim'an, Department of Art and Archaeology, Early Christian Sculpture, Flemish Psalter Illustration, Günther Haseloff, Illustrated Old English Hexateuch, Index of Christian Art, Interlace Ornament, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript studies, Psalter Illustration, Qal'at Sim'an, Royal Bible of St. Augustine's Abbey Canterbury
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The Bouquet List: A Gathering of Books

October 31, 2014 in Book & Exhibition Reviews, Index of Christian Art, Manuscript Studies, reviews

 

"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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