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    • History
      • Seals, Matrices & Documents
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    • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
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    • 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
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      • Abstracts of Papers for Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
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    • Photographic Exhibitions & Master Classes
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        • The Illustrated Catalogue (1997)
      • The Illustrated Handlist
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2022 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program

November 23, 2021 in Ibero-Medieval Association of North America, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Societas Magica, Uncategorized

2022 Congress Activities
Sponsored and Co-Sponsored by the RGME

at the 57th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Online
Monday, May 9 – Saturday, May 14, 2022

Le Parc Abbey, Theological Volume, Part B: Detail of Vellum Leaf.

Private Collection, Le Parc Abbey, Theological Volume, Part B: Detail of Vellum Leaf. Photography Mildred Budny.

Posted on 22 November 2021, with updates

Following the close of the 2022 Congress Preparations: Call for Papers, then the selection of proposals and arrangement of sequence of papers within the sessions, for the submission of their programs to the Congress Committee, we announce the Programs for our Sessions at the 2022 ICMS online in May 2021. As in previous years, we plan to hold a Business Meeting at the Congress.

All activities are to take place online, like 2021. See our 2021 Congress Report.

When appropriate, we can report the assignment of the scheduling of Sessions within the Congress Program overall.  Meanwhile, we publish the Abstracts of the Papers and Responses, as the authors might be willing. Note that the Abstracts for Congress Sessions are Indexed on our website by Author (in progress for 2022) and by Year (2022 included).

Now that [4 February 2022] the Congress Program has become available (see its website), we can post the assigned days and times for our activities, along with the assigned Numbers for the Sessions.  All our activities are scheduled for Wednesday and Friday, 11 and 13 May 2022.  Times are in Eastern Daylight Time.

Wednesday 11 May 2022

  • Session 173 (1 pm).  Medieval Writing Materials:   Processes, Products, and Case-Studies
  • Open Business Meeting (3 pm).  All are welcome.
  • Session 193 (7 pm).  Alter(n)ative Alphabets in the Iberian Middle Ages (co-sponsored with IMANA)|

Friday 13 May 2022

  • Session 310 (1 pm).  The Iconography of Medieval Magic (co-sponsored with the Societas Magica)
  • Session 324 (3 pm).  Pressing Politics:
         Interactions between Authors and Printers in the 15th and 16th Centuries

In due course, sometime in March, registration for the online Congress will commence.  After the close of the Congress, recorded content will be available to registrants from Monday, May 16, through Saturday, May 28.

Watch this space for updates. Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Aljamiado, Business Meeting, Divinatory Games, Hernán Núñez, History of Divination, History of Documents, History of Magic, History of Paper, Ibero-Medieval Association of North America, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Italian Paper, Libro del juego delas suertes, Manuscript studies, Marsilio Ficino, Medieval Writing Materials, Merchants of Venice, Morisco Manuscripts, Morisco Spells, Polish Coronation Sword, Societas Magica, Szczerbiec, The Lay of the Mantle, Venetian Documents
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2021 International Congress on Medieval Studies Report

July 7, 2021 in Conference, Conference Announcement, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Reports

Report

Activities of the
Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
at the
56th International Congress on Medieval Studies
(10–15 May 2021)

#kzoo2021 / #kazoo2021

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.

Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, MS W.782, folio 15r. Van Alphen Hours. Dutch Book of Hours. Image via Creative Commons.

We report the accomplishment of our activities at the 2021 ICMS, held entirely online. Individually and collectively, we have attended the Congress for many years.  Our ICMS blog records activities sponsored and co-sponsored by the RGME along the way.

This year’s Congress presented the first time for a totally “virtual” process.  Next year’s Congress will be the second.

The new format posed challenges, mostly surmounted.  Gladly we observe that, albeit with several technical glitches and scheduling issues, the activities of the RGME, both sponsored and co-sponsored, succeeded as we had wished.  The Sessions and Business Meeting proceeded smoothly, with time and scope for feedback and discussion.

How We Prepared

First, there was the cancellation of the 2020 Congress itself.  See our 2020 Congress Program Announced.

Then came the re-planning for the 2021 Congress.  Initially, it was designed to be held in person, like the 2019 Congress, and others before it.

Only after all the re-submissions of our intended 2020 Sessions to the Congress Committee, the completion of the 2021 Congress Call for Papers, the selection of the Session Programs, and the bookings for our Reception and Business Meeting (see our 2021 Congress Planning), did there come the decision that the 2021 Congress had to take place only online.

That choice led all 3 co-sponsors for our planned Reception —RGME, Societas Magica, and Index of Medieval Art — to agree that it makes sense to wait, instead, for such an event until a suitable occasion in person.  Likewise, a few rearrangements were required for the Sessions as had been planned.

Preparing for the 5 Sessions and our Open Business Meeting, we announced our Activities for the 2021 Congress Program.

Next came the Congress itself, as described in its own Program (plus Corrigenda), with further information on its website.

Sessions

Recorded Sessions

Vajra Regan presents his Paper for his 2021 Congress Session on “Prologues”.

With the virtual format, some Congress events were recorded, so as to be available for viewing by Congress Registrants from 17 to 29 May.  According with the participants’ wishes, 2 of our Sessions were recorded.  

  • Medieval Magic in Theory:
    Prologues to Learned Texts of Magic

Congress Session 103

  • Revealing the Unknown, II

    Congress Session 279

Thus were available, for a time, the chances to view and to re-view, a few of our activities ‘there’ this year.  For them and the others, this Report describes the accomplishment of the plans, already for the 2020 Congress, which had to be cancelled.  This year’s Congress gave the opportunity to complete the plan, with some changes as appropriate.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: 'Toulouse deformity', Bibliomancy, Ephesia Grammata, Headbinding, History of Documents, History of Magic, Manuscript studies, Matthew Paris, Medieval Lapidaries, Medieval Prologues, Medieval Seals, Picatrix, Reused Antique Gems, Scrying, Seals and Signatures, Sortilège, Thomas Hoccleve
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2021 Congress Program Announced

December 16, 2020 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Announcements, Business Meeting, Conference, Conference Announcement, Events, Index of Medieval Art, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Societas Magica

Activities of the
Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
At the
56th International Congress on Medieval Studies
(10–15 May 2021)

Following the Call for Papers
(due by 15 September 2020)
and the Selection of Papers (due by 1 October 2020)
We announce the Program for our Sessions

#kzoo2021 / #kazoo2021

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.

Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, MS W.782, folio 15r. Van Alphen Hours. Dutch Book of Hours. Image via Creative Commons.

Following the 2021 Congress Call for Papers, the Selection of proposed Papers, and the submission of the Programs for our Sessions to the Congress Committee (see our 2021 Congress Planning), we announce the Program for our Sessions and our other Activities for the 2021 ICMS Congress.

All activities at the Congress are scheduled to take place only “virtually”.  For such virtual plans, see the Congress page of the Medieval Institute. 

Watch this space. We await instructions from the Congress Committee regarding the revised approach to Sessions.

Note that, once the Committee announced that the Congress would have to go ‘virtual’, all 3 co-sponsors for our planned Reception agreed that it would make sense to wait for such an event until some suitable occasion in person.  However, we continue to plan for all 5 Sessions and our Open Business Meeting.

Update on 26 March 2021:
The Program of the Congress is now available. For information about the Congress, see its website.

*****

In a Nutshell

Open Business Meeting:  All are Welcome

Thursday, 13 May at 12:00 pm EDT.

  • 2021 Congress Program, page 99.

Sessions

Seal the Real, I–II

Congress Sessions 259 and 279, Virtually on
Thursday, 13 May at 11:00 am EDT and at 1:00 pm EDT

  • 2021 Congress Program, pages 92–93 and 100–101.

Medieval Magic in Theory:
Prologues to Learned Texts of Magic

Congress Session 103, Virtually on
Tuesday, 11 May at 11:00 am EDT

  • 2021 Congress Program, pages 38–39.

Revealing the Unknown, Parts I–II

Congress Sessions 181 and 201, Virtually on
Wednesday, 12 May at 11:00 am and 1:00 pm EDT

  • 2021 Congress Program, pages 66 and 73.

Details follow here.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Bibliomancy, History of Documents, History of Magic, Manuscript studies, Matthew Paris, Medieval Lapidaries, Medieval Prologues, Medieval Seals, Picatrix, Reused Antique Gems, Scrying, Seals and Signatures, Sortilège, Thomas Hoccleve
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2021 Congress Program in Progress

October 14, 2020 in Announcements, Business Meeting, Conference, Conference Announcement, Index of Medieval Art, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Societas Magica, Uncategorized

Activities of the
Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
Planned for the
56th International Congress on Medieval Studies
(13–16 > 10–15 May 2021)

Preparations

Following the Call for Papers due by 15 September 2020
and now the Announcement by the Medieval Institute on 16 October 2020

[Posted on 15 October 2020, with updates]

Update on 16 October 2020:

Today the Medieval Institute announced on its Congress page these changes for the 2021 Congress, which affect both the date-span and the activities, to occur only “virtually”:

Due to the ongoing health crisis, the 2021 International Congress on Medieval Studies hosted by Western Michigan University’s Medieval Institute will be held virtually, Monday to Saturday, May 10 to 15, 2021. More details will be released as they become available.

We will miss the camaraderie of the in-person experience. We look forward to hosting a vibrant and intellectually engaging virtual conference that offers plenty of opportunity for stimulating interaction at a distance. Please mark your calendar for these revised dates.

Watch this space.  We await instructions from the Congress Committee regarding the revised approach to Sessions.

Update on 5 November 2020:

As the plans advance for the now-virtual Congress, we announce that we continue to plan for the Sessions and the Open Business Meeting, but not for a Reception.  We co-sponsors for the Reception agree that it would make sense to wait for such an event under conditions in person.  We look forward to the new stages in preparing for a fully online presentation of the 2021 Congress.

*****

After the cancellation of the 2020 Congress (see our 2020 Congress Program Announced), preparations for the 2021 Congress permitted re-submitting the sessions which had been designed to take place in May 2020.  By popular request, we performed that re-submission for all 5 Sessions.  With approval by the Congress Committee, these Sessions joined the listings of all sessions on call on the Congress website — with additional details on our website, in our own 2021 Congress Call for Papers.  #kzoo2021.

New for this year, all proposals (or re-proposals from 2020) had to be made through a Confex system, as directed on the Congress website.  The new system imposed some teething problems for prospective participants, Session Organizers, and Sponsors.  These challenges emerged in several forms at various stages, including close to the several deadlines for submission of proposals for papers and of the proposed programs of the Sessions.

Especially under such conditions, it was helpful to have the benefit of collaborative consultations, among all our Organizers, and with our Sessions Co-Sponsor.  We thank Dr. Elizabeth Teviotdale of the Medieval Institute especially for her swift responses directly along the way, when our Director had to turn to her repeatedly for help, information, and advice.

In time, we will announce the Programs which we have chosen for the Sessions, now that the Call for Papers has completed on 15 September 2020, and following our choices for those Programs by 1 October 2020.  Before announcing our plans in detail, we await their Confirmation or adaptation by the Congress Committee.  We thank our Participants and Organizers for their contributions.

Adèle Kindt (1804–1884), The Fortune Teller (circa 1835). Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten. Image via Wikimedia Commons. A young lady, brightly lit and beautifully dressed, looks outward as an older woman, beneath a dark hood, holds a set of cards and stares at them with intent.

Adèle Kindt (1804–1884), The Fortune Teller (circa 1835). Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

The Plan We Had for the 2020 Congress

The Announcement for our Sessions and other Activities at the 2020 Congress describes what we planned.  As customary, we published the Abstracts of Papers, so as to record the intentions of speakers for their presentations. The Abstracts are accessible both through that Announcement and through the Indexes of published Abstracts by Year and by Author.

The Sessions included 3 Sessions sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence and 2 Sessions co-sponsored with the Societas Magica, in the 16th year of this co-sponsorship at the International Congress on Medieval Studies.

Like the 2015–2019 Congresses, we also planned for

  • an Open Business Meeting and
  • a co-sponsored Reception.

Even so, the Agenda for the postponed 2020 Business Meeting is available.  It takes into account the changes for Spring 2020:

  • 2020 Agenda.

The Plan We Have for 2021

We contemplate a similar approach to the 2021 Congress, conditions permitting.  [See Update above.]

For the 2021 Congress, we present the same Sessions, with a few changes.  Our pair of Sponsored Sessions dedicated to “Seal the Real I–II” remain as before.  The pair of co-sponsored Sessions dedicated to “Revealing the Unknown I–II” have some changes in the line-up.  One Session has a revised title (“Medieval Magic in Theory:  Prologues in Medieval Texts of Magic, Astrology, and Prophecy”).  For 2021, the Societas Magica has agreed also to co-sponsor this Session, so that the alignment of sponsorship has adapted to changing opportunities.

The 2021 Congress will be the 17th year of our co-sponsorship with the Societas Magica, in a constantly constructive partnership of friends, students, and colleagues.

As before, we have planned for an Open Business Meeting and a Co-Sponsored Reception.

For 2021, the co-sponsorship for a Reception joins the Research Group with the Societas Magica and The Index of Medieval Art, combining all 3 Sponsors in recent years.

[The virtual presentation of the Congress may allow for some form of Business Meeting and Reception.  Watch this Space.]

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Divination, History of Documents, History of Magic, Index of Medieval Art, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Manuscript studies, Medieval Seals, Skrying, Societas Magica
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Selbold Cartulary Fragments

July 4, 2020 in Manuscript Studies

 

Grapes Watermark in a Selbold Cartulary Fragment.

Selbold Cartulary Fragments

3 Leaves on Paper

Single columns of 38 lines
Circa 28.3 × 210 cm < written area of circa 20.6 × 15.5 cm>
Presumably Stift Selbold or its Region (Hessen) in Germany
Late 14th or early 15th Century
Watermark of Grape Cluster

[Posted on 3 July 2020, with updates]

Continuing our blog on Manuscript Studies (see its Contents List), we publish images and descriptions of a set of three leaves from the dismembered paper copy of a Latin cartulary (or codex diplomaticus or Kopialbuch, in Latin and German) of the former Premonstratensian monastery-and-then-abbey of Selbold in Hessen, Germany.  The set presents a now-disrupted series of uniform transcriptions in book form of individual dated documents issued by ecclesiastical and secular rulers confirming, or reconfirming, rights and privileges pertaining to that institution and its dependencies.

Purchased from Boyd Mackus in the United States some years ago and now in a private collection, the fragments comprise 1 single leaf and 1 bifolium.  We identify them here as folios “1” and “2–3”, using inverted commas or quotation marks to indicate a non-original sequence and location within the former volume.  Written by a single scribe with a uniform layout, the leaves contain a late-medieval copy of the texts of 8 documents (not all complete) issued by various authorities in a range from the 12th to 14th centuries.  Upon the original pages, even apart from the subsequent disruptions to the text through dispersal of leaves, the transcriptions are set out in sequences that are only partly chronological according to the issued dates of the documents.

Written in ink with elements of red pigment, the text is laid out on the leaves in single columns of 38 lines.  One leaf has a watermark.

These leaves deserve to be considered in the contexts not only of the transmission of the documents which they represent, but also of the preservation and circulation of Selbold Cartularies or Kopialbucher, insofar as they are known or survive.  Here we distinguish in red such historical records as the Selbold Cartulary Fragment(s) showcased here, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, one or more Selbold Kopialbuche (or Copialbuche) reported in German by various observers.  We indicate one or other of those  books known to have survived to the early modern or modern periods, but subsequently lost, or presumed to be lost, by a prefixed asterisk (*). Also recorded in some notices or copies thereof is a late-medieval [*]Liber privilegiorum et libertatum ecclesie Selboldensis (“Book of the Privileges and Rights of the Church of Selbold”), presumed to be lost.

Among the challenges, we might wonder to what extent one or other of those recorded  [*]Selbolder Kopialbucher corresponds to this dismembered one.  This post includes some detailed examinations of published editions of its texts and related texts.  Why this detailed work is useful, and can yield strikingly significant results even for only a few leaves from a dispersed manuscript otherwise inaccessible, is revealed in the PostScript. 

The subtitle for this post could be Manuscript Studies in a Time of Bibliographical ‘Lock-Down’.  [Now see also the Addendum below.]

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Archbishop Heinrich I of Mainz, Birstein, Briquet Number 13003, Büdingen, Conrad III, Frederick II, Gustav Simon, Heinrich Reimer, Helfrich Bernhardt Wenck, History of Documents, History of Watermarks, Integrated, Isenburg, Karl IV, King Adolf of Germany, Langenselbold, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Prince Bruno of Ysenburg-Büdingen, Royal Bible of St. Augustine's Abbey Canterbury, Selbold, Selbold Cartulary, Selbold Cartulary Fragment, Selbold Kopialbuch, Selbold Monastery, Ysenburg
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Vellum Binding Fragments in a Parisian Printed Book of 1598

June 30, 2020 in Documents in Question, Manuscript Studies

Pieces of an Early 16th-Century French Legal Document
Reused as Vellum Supports or Guards
in the Quarto Binding of
Henry de Suberville’s L’Henry-Metre
Printed in Paris in 1598

Manuscript Binding Fragments Remaining In Situ

[Posted on 30 June 2020, with updates]

Smeltzer Collection, Henry de Suberville, 'L'Henry-metre' (1598), Title Page.

Smeltzer Collection, Henry de Suberville, ‘L’Henry-metre’ (1598), Title Page.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Spine View as Preserved.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Spine View as Preserved.

With thanks to the owner, our Associate, Ronald K. Smeltzer, we observe some recycled vellum stiffeners which still stand in situ in a scientific book by the author and inventor Henry de Suberville, printed in Paris in 1598 by Adrien Perier.  All the photographs here are Ronald’s, reproduced with permission.  The volume has lost the boards and any covering of its former cover, but it retains elements of the binding, including the stitching and some stiffeners repurposed from earlier hand-written material. Our purpose here is to examine and illustrate the reused binding fragments in their settings.

Inspired by The Caxton Club/Bibliographical Society of America Symposium on the Book held in April 2015 on “Preserving the Evidence: The Ethics of Book and Paper Conservation”, Ronald has published a concise report (freely downloadable) about the volume and his approach to conserving and conserving it.

  • Ronald K. Smeltzer, “Preserving the Evidence:  A 16th-Century Book Absent Its Binding”, Caxtonian:  Journal of the Caxton Club, 18:9 (September, 2015), 1–3.

His Figure 5 (shown at the left) shows the volume in 3-quarter view, from the front and the spine, with minimal intervention.  Here, we learn, is “Suberville’s treatise in its polyester enclosure with hook-and-loop fasteners, showing the intact structure of the spine, including the remains of head and tail bands and cords”.

Moreover, there survive further remnants from the former state of the volume.  “Apparently as guards, vellum flaps are present, but not visible in Fig. 5, on both sides of the spine. Very old handwriting, not decipherable by me, is on the inner side of the vellum pieces, as illustrated in Fig. 6.”

Figure 6 (shown below) shows a reused vellum fragment as it fits in the volume, with the tops of the original script turned to the gutter and spine of the binding.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598): Vellum Support, as shown in Smeltzer (2015), Figure 6.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598): Vellum Support, as shown in Smeltzer (2015), Figure 6.

As Ronald observed, “Considering the interesting visible and apparently contemporary structure of this late 16th-century book, it seems appropriate to leave it as-is.”

We agree.  See, for example, Physical Evidence and Manuscript Conservation:  A Scholar’s Plea (1994) by our Director, and posts throughout our blog, listed in the Contents List.

The Volume ‘As Is’

The volume is a copy of Henry de Suberville’s L’Henry-Metre, Instrument Royal et Universal avec sa théorique, usage et pratique démontrée . . . (Paris:  Adrien Perier, 1598), lacking its former binding.  The title-page lists the printer’s address as rue sainct Iacques en le boutique de Plantin au Compass, on a notable street in Paris in the Latin Quarter, among other booksellers and printers.  Adrien Périer had marred Madeleine (or Magdalena) Plantin, daughter of Christophe Plantin and widow of Guy Beys (who died in 1595), and he came to use the Plantinian compasses as printing mark.  The colophon of the volume states that the book was printed by Jamet Mettayer, printer and bookseller, that is, during the second period of Mettayer’s work in Paris (1594–1605).

We might wonder what scraps lay to hand to put to use in the sewing when the individual copies of the work received their bindings.

This volume is described thus:

It joins Ronald’s collection of works on early scientific instruments.  On an “obscure” subject, Suberville’s book presents a text on mensuration with the trigonometric device which he had invented:  the HenryMetre.  Its Portraict is illustrated in the book and reproduced in Smeltzer’s Figure 2 (below left).  “With its circular base, both horizontal and vertical angles could be measured.  Hence, it could be used for surveying, measuring heights and distances, and carrying out astronomy measurements”.  Basically, the text offers a guide to the instrument.

Paris, Musée du Louvre, Department of Paintings, Henry IV, King of France in Black Dress (1610), by Frans Pourbus the Younger. Image Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Paris, Musée du Louvre, Department of Paintings, Henry IV, King of France in Black Dress (1610), by Frans Pourbus the Younger. Image Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), 'Pourtraict de l'HenryMetre'.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), ‘Pourtraict de l’HenryMetre’.

The book is a modest quarto.  Its first half has 72 woodcut illustrations, many full page or nearly so, showing how the Henry-Meter is used and providing diagrams of the relevant geometry for calculations based upon measurements to be made with it.  The second half of the text mainly considers specific problems, mathematical calculations, and tables of numbers.  The 4 engraved plates include the “Pourtraict” of the device and the frontispiece portrait, by Thomas de Leu, of the dedicatee, King Henri IV (1553–1610), King of France and Navarre.  (On this frontispiece, see, for example, its record in the British Museum collection.)

The Volume

The title page announces the Henry-Metre as subject, describes its abilities, names its inventor–author, Henry de Subreville Breton, and describes him as Chanoine en l’Eglise Cathedrale S. Pierre de Xaintes; & Aduocat en la Cour de Parlement de Bourdeaux.  The cathedral church at which he was a canon was the former Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Saintes in Saintes, Carente-Maritime, France.  Suberville composed his text apparently during the last few years of the wars of religion in 16th-century France — to which it refers.

Smeltzer Collection, Henry de Suberville, 'L'Henry-metre' (Paris, 1598), Title Page.

Smeltzer Collection, Henry de Suberville, ‘L’Henry-metre’ (Paris, 1598), Title Page.

The Spine

Apparently original, the sewing remains mostly intact.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Spine View as Preserved.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Spine View as Preserved.

The Location of the Strips

It is useful to recognize how the vellum supports are integrated into the book’s structure, noting neighboring blank leaves not part of the gathering structure. The gathering formula encapsulates the structure of this unusual book:

Suberville (1598) gathering formula.

At both front and back, a folded pair of blank paper leaves (comprising a bifolium) stands at the outer side of each gathering which has a vellum support.  At the front, the vellum support encompasses gathering ã and two blank leaves before it. At the rear, the vellum support encompasses gathering H and two blank leaves following leaf H2.  That the 2 blank leaves in each case are not part of the gathering structure itself is seen by their chain-lines that are vertical, and not horizontal as for the text leaves.  The paper of the blanks seems to be slightly different to the touch.  They carry no watermarks.

The Fragments and Their Text

The guards comprise 2 reused Strips, cut to shape.  The Strips are visible at each end of the volume, as a narrow Flap at the end of the text-block, formerly facing the boards and any pastedowns or endleaves pertaining to them.  Wrapping around the fold of its gathering, each Strip re-emerges into view within the text-block as a narrower Stub in the gutter in the opening between pages at the other end of the gathering.

Each Strip carries writing in ink only on one side, which is the flesh side of the animal skin and the Face of the written material.  The Dorse (hair side) is turned outward around the gathering.

We call the guards Strips 1 at the back and 2 at the front, each with a Flap on the outside of the gathering and a Stub on the inside.  Why number them that way, seemingly inverted?  Spoiler Alert:  Both Strips apparently come from a single manuscript or document, and the structure of their text indicates that Strip 1 would originally have preceded Strip 2.

The “outer” portion of each Strip, that is, the Flap, is slit about midway along into 2 sections.  The slit corresponds to the middle row of sewing across the gatherings and its raised band.

Along the spine, it is possible to see the exposed outer edge of the guard at the front of the volume.  Its color and texture contrasts with the paper of the gatherings otherwise.  The guard extends not the full length of the gathering, but rather between its rows of kettle-stitchings at head and foot. At the end of the textblock, the guard sits alongside the 3 raised bands of stitchings spaced at even intervals along the spine.  The slit midway along the guard which produced the 2 halves of the Flap on the outer side, but no division in the Stub on the inner side, is visible emerging alongside the raised middle band of stitching.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Spine View, with 3 Raised Bands flanked by a Row of Kettle-Stitching at either end.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Spine View, with 3 Raised Bands flanked by a Row of Kettle-Stitching at either end.

Close up:

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Spine: Front Midsection.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Spine: Front Midsection.

For each Strip, we show both front and back of each “outer” portion, or Flap, but only the visible Text Side of its Stub on the other side of the gathering.

Note that we view and number their portions taking the upright orientation of the script as the standard, not necessarily the position of the Strip as aligned with respect to the head or tail of the spine.

Strip 1 (at the Back of the Volume)

Flap 1a (Left-Hand Side)

Dorse (Hair side)

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Supports, Strip 1 'Upper' Dorse.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Supports, Strip 1 ‘Upper’ Dorse.

Face / Text Side (Flesh Side), with the text seen upright.  Compare Ronald’s Figure 6 above in black-and-white.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598): Vellum Support 1, 'Upper', Face of Text.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598): Vellum Support 1, ‘Upper’, Face of Text.

Flap 1b (Right-Hand Side)

Dorse (Hair Side)

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Supports, Strip 1 'Lower' Dorse.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Supports, Strip 1 ‘Lower’ Dorse.

Face (Flesh Side), with the text seen upright

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Supports, Strip 1 'Lower' Face.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Supports, Strip 1 ‘Lower’ Face.

*****

Strip 2 (At the Front of the Volume)

Flap 2a (Left-Hand Side)

Dorse (Hair side)

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Supports, Strip 2 'Upper' Dorse.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Supports, Strip 2 ‘Upper’ Dorse.

Face (Flesh Side), with the text upright

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Supports, Strip 2 'Upper' Face.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Supports, Strip 2 ‘Upper’ Face.

Flap 2b (Right-Hand Side)

Dorse (Hair side)

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Supports. Strip 2 'Lower' Dorse.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Supports. Strip 2 ‘Lower’ Dorse.

Face (Flesh Side), with the text upright

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Supports, Strip 2 'Lower' Face.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Supports, Strip 2 ‘Lower’ Face.

On the Other Side of the Gathering

Stub 1 (Strip 1)

Left-Hand Side

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Support Slip 1, Stub, Left ("Royal").

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Support Slip 1, Stub, Left (“Royal”).

Right-Hand Side

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Subermeyer (1598), Vellum Support Slip 1, Stub, Right.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Support Slip 1, Stub, Right-Hand Side.

Stub 2 (Strip 2)

Left-Hand Side

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Support Slip 2, Stub, Left.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Support Slip 2, Stub, Left.

Right-Hand Side

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Support Slip 2, Stub, Right.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Support Slip 2, Stub, Right.

The Pieces ‘Rejoined’

We virtually reconstruct the visible portions of the Strips, which had to be photographed in sections.  The fit in the reconstructed view is approximate, rather than exact, because, in photographing the elements within the still-sewn structure, the angles and distances would have varied between 1 half of an individual Strip and the other.

Strip 1 (Stub 1 + Flap 1)

Stub 1

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Supports Slip 1, Inner Stub, Text 'Rejoined'.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Supports Slip 1, Inner Stub, Text ‘Rejoined’.

 

Flap 1

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Support Slip 1, Outer Flap, Text 'Rejoined'.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Support Slip 1, Outer Flap, Text ‘Rejoined’.

Strip 2 (Stub 2 + Flap 2)

Stub 2

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Support Slip 2, Inner Stub, Text 'Rejoined'.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Support Slip 2, Inner Stub, Text ‘Rejoined’.

Flap 2

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Support Slip 2, Outer Flap, Text 'Rejoined'.

Smeltzer Collection, Henri de Suberville (1598), Vellum Support Slip 2, Outer Flap, Text ‘Rejoined’.

The Location of the Fragments in the Original Document
and in the Current Binding

A set of diagrams represent the placement of the pieces of the vellum and the direction of its written text both on its document and in its pair of reused strips.  With thanks to Leslie French for the renditions.

Reused Vellum Binding Fragments for Suberville (1598) in the Smeltzer Collection.

Reused Vellum Binding Fragments for Suberville (1598) in the Smeltzer Collection.

*****

The Script and Contents

Parts of the text are visible.  Some are legible.

The Stubs carry parts of 1 or 2 long lines of cursive script.  Flap 2 carries parts of 2 lines of script, comprising a line of text and a staggered line of names, plus flourishes.  Remnants of at least 6 lines of script can be seen on the Flap of Strip 1.  Near the beginning of its line ‘2’, there stand the words toutes ses . . . (“all his/her/its/their”).   Following the ‘join’ of the parts of the Flap in line ‘3’, there are the word loys qui . . . (“all his/her/its/their”).  The word Royal, with a distinctive capital R, appears clearly on Stub 1a.  Similar Rs occur elsewhere as well.  Made with a pen having a broader, scratchy nib and paler ink than the text above, the prominent signature(s), accompanied by flourishes (#), spread(s) across most of the Flap on Strip 2 ( . –reston # Lebr . . . #).

The 2 Strips manifestly derive from the same written text, which stood on the Face or recto of the vellum sheet (rather than sheets, presumably).  Given the location of the signature(s) and the orientation of the lines of script, it is appropriate to reconstruct the original — at least in its visible surviving parts — with Strip 1 before, or indeed above, Strip 2.  The text on each Stub precedes the text on its Flap, with an interval of script now hidden within the inside of the fold, amounting to 1 or more lines.  Perhaps the script on the 2 Strips interlocks at the cutting line between them?

Written in ink in a “loose and sloppy hand” characteristic of the period (as described by our Associate, David Sorenson), the now-bipartite fragment comes from a French charter from about 1510–1520 or so.  It was evidently a legal document of some sort, possibly a deed, lease, or other contract.  Perhaps its signer(s) might be identified in other sources.

Our blog has already presented some French documentary materials on vellum with 16th-century script from other private collections.

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

Private collection, Single-sheet document in Latin on vellum, circa 1530s, from Brie in France.

  • Scrap of Information.  Single-sheet document in Latin, circa 1530s, with a transaction at Vienne, in Isère.
Private Collection, Latin document from Vienne, France, circa 1530s. Reproduced by permission

Private Collection, Document in Latin from Vienne, circa 1530s.

Its Signatures:

Detail of document of 1530 for a transaction relating to Vienne in France, showing the lower left-hand side of the document, with its citation of the date in Latin and with attesting signatures. Reproduced by permission.

Private Collection, Document in Latin from Vienne, France, circe 1530s

  • Scrap of Information.  Fragment of a leaf or document on vellum with the number/date 1538.
    Recto of Scrap from a leaf or document, with the date 1538. Photography © Mildred Budny

    Recto of Scrap from a leaf or document, with the date 1538.

    Image-enhancement reveals more of its features:

    Recto of Scrap from a leaf or document, with the date 1538. Photography © Mildred Budny

    Recto of Scrap from a leaf or document, with the date 1538.

*****

We thank Ronald Smeltzer for permission to examine this volume and for information about its structure and context.  We also thank David Sorenson for advice about the script and type of document from which came the reused vellum strips.

Do you recognize this reused document or its scribe?  Can you read more of the text?

Do you know of other parts of the same document (or similar documents), say in the binding structures of other books — including this text by Henri de Suberville (1598) —  printed by the same printer/producer, whether Adrien Périer or Jamet Mettayer, for example when the latter returned to set up shop in Paris?

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

Watch for more discoveries.  See the Contents List for this blog.

*****

Update:  In January 2022, for the online series on “The Research Group Speaks”, Ronald Smeltzer gave a presentation on The Curious Printing History of La Science de L’Arpenteur.

Dupain de Montesson, La science de l’arpenteur (1766), Title Page Vignette. Ronald K. Smeltzer Collection. Photograph by Ronald K. Smeltzer, reproduced by permission.

*****

Tags: Adrien Périer, Binding Fragments, Binding History, Documents of the Ancien Regime., Henry de Suberville, History of Documents, Jamet Mettayer, Reused Documents
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A Charter of 1399 from High Ongar in Essex

May 11, 2020 in Manuscript Studies, Uncategorized

A Charter of
23 Richard II (=1399)
Issued on 17 July 1399
at Alta Aungre (High Ongar)

London, British Library, Royal MS 14 E IV, folio 10 recto. "Recueil des croniques" by Jean de Wavrin. Coronation of Richard II at the age of 10 in 1377.

London, British Library, Royal MS 14 E IV, folio 10 recto. “Recueil des croniques” by Jean de Wavrin. Coronation of Richard II at the age of 10 in 1377.

[Posted on 12 May 2020, with updates]

Mildred Budny continues the series of posts on medieval and early modern charters from England in a private collection. See our Contents List.

First we examined the numbered group of documents mainly from Preston in Sussex.  Then we turned to documents from other places.

  • Full Court Preston
  • Preston Take 2
  • Preston Charters, Continued
  • Charter the Course:  More on Preston Charters
  • Preston Charters:  The Chirographs
  • More Light on English Charters

From the Time of Richard II

Once again, we examine a charter from the time of King Richard II (6 January 1367 – c. 14 February 1400), who reigned from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399.

6 Richard II

Previously we considered a charter from this king’s Regnal Year 6, issued at an unnamed location on the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, that is, on 19 September 1382.  That one is Charter 1 in the numbered series in that private collection which opens the section devoted to English charters.  Charter 1 made its appearance in casting More Light on English Charters.

6 Richard II (= 22 June 1382 – 21 June 1383)
“On the Feast of Saint Michael Archangel” = 19 September
I. e. 19 September 1382

6 Richard II Face.

Private Collection, “Charter 1”: 6 Richard II Face.

The document retains its original seal, more-or-less intact, with its Legend in Lombard Capitals and its Device in the form of a (partly rubbed) heraldic shield.  The Legend begins with a customary star (*) and the word SIGILLUM (“Seal”).

Charter 1: 6 Richard II Charter Seal.

Charter 1: 6 Richard II Charter Seal.

The Document in Question:  23 Richard II from High Ongar

The later specimen from the reign of Richard II which we showcase here is not only later in date of origin, but also a later addition to the private collection; we had the chance to see it soon after its acquisition.

Like “Charter 1”, this document specifies both the Regnal year and a certain day within the year, upon a specific saint’s feast day.  Unlike Charter 1, it names its place of issue.

Single Sheet with Tag and Seal

Like all those others in the series (from Full Court Preston onward), this document in Latin on vellum stands on a single sheet.  It places the hair-side of the animal skin to the outside, folds its lower edge inward to form a flap, and holds between slits a pendant vellum tag upon which to attach the wax seal.

On the face of the sheet, the text forms a single column of 11 long lines, professionally written in Anglicana Formata script.  (See another in similar script, by a different scribe: Preston Charters Continued.) The dorse, originally blank, carries a few docketing inscriptions.  The uncolored seal survives in part.

Private Collection, Document of 23 Richard II, Face.

Private Collection, Document of 23 Richard II, Face.

The Dorse

The dorse is creased and stained.  The fold-lines and their directions demonstrate that the sheet was folded in half horizontally, then into thirds to form a packet, from which the tag extended.

Originally blank, the dorse acquired 3 docketing inscriptions. They stand in a “vertical row”, with their tops turned to the right-hand side of the sheet in one of its folded sections.  It would appear that they gathered upon that section as it lay or stood ‘upright’, and with the seal and its tag extending to the right.

23 Richard II Dorse with Tag and Seal..

23 Richard II Dorse with Tag and Seal.

The Docketing

The 3 lines of docketing entries on the dorse include a mostly erased line in brown ink, a statement of the Regnal Year (“23 R 2”) in dark brown ink with arabic numerals, and the date in pencil in arabic numerals (“1399”).

23 Richard II Dorse

23 Richard II Dorse

Back-lighting reveals a few more traces of the erased inscription and the differences of in width and smoothness between the strokes in the first and second ‘halves’ of the arabic numeral.

23 Richard II Docketing under Back-Lighting.

23 Richard II Docketing under Back-Lighting.

The Face

The text is laid out in a single column of 11 long lines written by a single scribe in a professional version of Angicana Formata documentary script (see Charter 6 in Preston Charters Continued).  Mostly the ink is light brown in color, but in some places, where the freshly dipped pen left darker strokes, it looks almost black.

Such is noticeably the case in line 2, where one personal name stands out jarringly in darker color than the flow of the script to either side.  Perhaps this effect resulted from a space left in the course of the transcription, to be filled upon a return (line 2) once the scribe had ascertained the name of this tenant (Nich’o) among the group of 4.

To the left of the first line and its enlarged initial, there stands a flourished mark, likewise in ink, forming an n-shaped feature rising to a clockwise loop.  The text concludes with a separate flourish, which forms an undulating hook-like motif suspended after the conclusion of the text.

23 Richard II Face with Tag and Seal.

23 Richard II Face with Tag and Seal.

The Tag and Seal

Part of the uncolored wax seal survives upon the partly crumpled vellum tag.

Private Collection, Document of 23 Richard II, Tag and Seal.

Private Collection, Document of 23 Richard II, Tag and Seal.

The wax by now is friable, as a close view shows.  To judge by the remnant of the seal, its matrix was round.  The imprint of its face retains about half of the rimmed border containing an illegible legend or inscription.  At the center the device has an oblong central element of some kind.

23 Richard II Seal Now.

23 Richard II Seal Now.

The Script

The document presents its record entirely in ink, the work of a single scribe.  It begins with an enlarged initial S which rises both above the line and into the left-hand margin, opening the process with minimum fanfare.  Along with such customary features of Anglicana Formata script as a double-compartment a, this scribe consistently used a rounded, closed, theta-like e formed in a single looped stroke, with the tongue descending to the right within the closed bow.

23 Richard II Face

23 Richard II Face: Left-Hand Side.

Of all the enlarged initial letters, the repeated N of the name Nich’o (lines 2 and 6) is both broad and distinctive, with a descending first stem, a slanted top leading to the second stem, and a backward-descending diagonal cross-stroke.

23 Richard II Face

23 Richard II Face

The Text

The text of the document exhibits similar wording and formulae to some charters in our earlier posts.  (For example, Preston Charters Continued.)  Into such a formula, the scribe would enter the relevant particulars:

Sciant presentes et futuri quod ego . . . dedi concessi et hac praesenti carta mea confirmavi . . . presenta carta sigillum meum apposui hiis testibus . . . Anno regni . . . etc.

Thus, with those ‘supplied’ particulars highlighted here in BOLD, with abbreviations expanded between square brackets ([so]), with superscript letters indicated between inverted commas [‘so’], and with the text transcribed line by line, the document declares:

[Line 1]

Sciant pr[e]sentes et ffuturi q[uo]d Ego Thomas Herde alias Tobere dedi concessi et hac p[rae]senti carta mea co[n]firmaui

Joh[a[n]i Passelewe de Aungre ad Castrum Will[el]mo atte Bregga de Stanford Ryi’r’us Nich[el]o Atte Style de Dodyng[-]

herst R[i]c[ardo Barne de Kelwedon[e] om[n]ia illa t[err]as et ten[ementa] que h[ab]ui ex dono et foeffamento Joh[an]is Marden[is]

Et Joh[a]ne ux[o]’r’is eius cu[m] accederint post decessu[m] p[rae]dictor[um] Joh[an]is et Joh[an]e in hameletto de marden[e] de alta

[Line 5]

Aungre h[ab]end[um] et tenend[um] o[mn]ia pr[ae]dict[as] t[err]as et ten[emena] cu[m] accederint p[raed]ict[i]s Joh[an]i Passelewe Will[e]mo atte

Bregge Mich[el]o atte Style R[i]c[ard]o Barne heredib[is] et assign[antis] eor[um] de capital[ibus] d[o]m[ini]s feod[i] illius p[er] S[e]’r’uicia

inde debit[ur] et de iure consuet[a] Et ego p[rae]dict[us] Thomas et hered[es] mei o[mn]ia p[rae]d[i]cta t[e]r[ra] et ten[ementa] cu[m] accederint

p[rae]dict[is] Joh[an]i Will[el]mo Nich[el]o R[i]c[ar]o heredi[bus] et assign[antis] eoru[m] contra omnes gentes Warrantizabim[us] in p[er]petu[m] In cuius

rei test[i]m[onium] huic p[rae]senti carte sigillu[m] meu[m] apposui hiis testib[us] Steph[an]o P[ar]ker Herico Symms Roberto

[Line 10]

Taylor Rob[er]to Muskh’a’m Joh[an]e Smyth et alis Datur apud alt[am] Aungre die Iovis p[ro]x[ime] post festu[m] t[ra]nslatio[ni]s

S[an]c]t]i Swithini Anno Regno regis R]i]c[ard]i Secundi post conquestu]m] vicesimo tercio.

Private Collection, Document of 23 Richard II, Tag and Seal.

In Sum

Supplied particulars:

Where & When

23 Richard II (= 22 June 1399 – 29 September 1399)
“On the First Thursday after the Feast of the Translation of Saint Swithin” (= 15 July in England)
I. e. 17 July 1399
at Alta Aungre (High Ongar, Essex)

From

Thomas Herda alias Tobere

What

Omnia terras et tenementa (“All lands and holdings”)
received of the late John Marden and his wife Johanna
in the Hamlet of Marden of Alta Angre

To a Group of 4 Tenants

John Passelewe of Aungre ad Castrum (Chipping Ongar, Essex)
William Atte Bregge of Stanford Ryirus (Stanford Rivers , Essex)
Nicholaus Atte Style of Dodyngherst (presumably Doddinghurst, Essex)
Richard Barne of Kelwedon (Kelvedon Hatch, Essex)

Witnesses

John Parker
Henricus Symms
Robert Taylor
Robert Muskham
John Smyth
Et Aliis

How do we know?  Read on, Dear Reader, Read On.

The Day and the Date of Issue

Among Richard II’s Regnal Years, Year 23 was his last, brief, Regnal Year, spanning 22 June 1399 – 29 September 1399.  The dating clause at the end of the charter spells it out, as pertaining to Anno regnis regis Ricardi Secundi post Conquestum vicesimo tercio (“in the 23rd year of the reign of King Richard II after the Conquest”).

This clause also specifies the place and the day:  Datum . . . die Jovis proxime post festum translationis sancti Swithini (“Issued . . . on the day of the first Thursday after the feast of the Translation of Saint Swithin”).  The feast-day of one of the principal English saints, Saint Swithin (circa 800 – 2 July 863), Bishop of Winchester from 852 to 863, is celebrated on 2 July or 15 July, marking the date of his death or the date of the translation of his relics.

The choice of the latter in the document commemorates the translation on 15 July 971 of Swithin’s body to the newly restored basilica at Winchester, newly  dedicated to him as its patron saint (in place formerly of the Apostles, Saints Peter and Paul).  The Benedictional made for the Anglo-Saxon reformer, Saint Æthelwold, Bishop of Winchester from 963 to 984, for whom the translation was effected, takes care to include an image of this patron among its magnificently illuminated pages.  There, the full-page image faces the opening of the text for the celebration of Swithin’s Deposition (2 July).

London, The British Library, Add MS 49598, folio 97v. Saint Swithin. Image Public Domain.

London, The British Library, Add MS 49598, folio 97v. Saint Swithin. Image Public Domain.

The document of 23 Richard II specifies the Feast of Swithin’s Translation.   In 1399, Saint Swithin’s Day on 15 July fell on a Tuesday.  The first Thursday after that would have been 17 July.  By such calculations can we find the day upon which the document was issued, and not only the year.

23 Richard II Face

23 Richard II Face

Names and Places

The place-name Aungre appears thrice in the document. First it qualifies the name of the first tenant:  Johannis Passelewe de Aungre ad Castrum (line 2).  Next it refers to a finding point in the boundary clause:  in hameletto de marden’ de alta Aungre (lines 4–5).  Then it specifies the location at which the document itself was issued:  apud alt’ Aungre (line 10).

23 Richard II Face

23 Richard II Face

The name Aungre stands for Ongar (meaning “Grassland” in Old English) in Essex.  Aungre is an oft-recorded spelling for that place.

Its appelation ad castrum (“at or by the castle”) relates to Chipping Ongar, which still has a a castle — albeit now in ruins.

Church of Saint Mary, High Ongar, Essex, with 12th-Century Nave. Photograph by John Salmon (8 May 2004), Image via Wikipedia.

Church of Saint Mary, High Ongar, Essex, with 12th-Century Nave. Photograph by John Salmon (8 May 2004), Image via Wikipedia.

The appelation alta (“tall” or “high”) designates High Ongar (see also High Ongar) — at the time probably only a hamlet.  High Ongar lies about 1 mile (1 1/2 km) to the south and east from Chipping Ongar.

The “hamlet of Marden of High Ongar” (in hameletto de Marden’ de alta Aungre) appears to have a modern incarnation in Marden Ash, which formerly formed part of the parish of High Ongar. Here “the name Marden goes back at least to the 11th century and means ‘boundary valley’:  it suggests that this was the boundary between Chipping Ongar and High Ongar even at that time”.
— — P. H. Reamey, The Place-Names of Essex.  English Place-Name Society, Vol. 12 (Cambridge:  At the University Press, 1935), page 73; also British History Online: High Ongar.

In this context, it may accord with long-standing practice that the document locates boundaries with reference to Marden as one of them.

Stanford Rivers is also near by, only about 2 miles (3 km) south of Chipping Ongar.  The common place-name Stanford derives from “a stone, or stony, ford” in Old English. A Stanford survives in Norfolk as a deserted village.  As with some other Stanfords, the place called Stanford in the document both received and retained an appelation.  Stanford Rivers is listed in the Doomsday Book as Stanfort, but in 1289 as Stanford Ryueres, adopting the name of the 13th-century manorial family Ryueres.  See, for example, Anthony David Mills, A Dictionary of British Place Names (Oxford:  Oxford University Press, revised edition, 2011:   ISBN 019960908X ), p. 432.  The document spells the name as Ryi’r’us (line 2), with a superscript r between the 3 minims (i and u); a similar superscript r stands above ux’r’is in line 4.

Dodyngherst is presumably Doddinghurst, in Essex, to the southeast of High Ongar and close to Stanford Rivers.  Across time, its recorded spellings varied, for example with Duddingeherst in 1218.  Pertaining to an early layer of Old English place-naming patterns in the early medieval migrations to England, the Old English name means “the wooded hill of Dudda‘s people”.  (For example, the Dictionary of British Place Names, page 146.)

Richard Barne of Kelwedon came also from Essex. Villages in Essex among medieval settlements still extant with such a name are Kelvedon (Kelvedon) in northeast Essex and Kelvedon Hatch (Kelvedon Hatch).  The latter stands within the Hundred of Ongar and considerably closer than the former to the other places cited in the document, pertaining to Aungre in its several manifestations, both on higher ground and near a castle, and now known as High Ongar and Chipping Ongar.  Kelvedon Hatch lies 3 miles south of Chipping Ongar.

The Hundred of Ongar comprised 26 parishes, including Kelved Hatch, Stanford Rivers, Cheping Ongar, and High Ongar.  Some Ongar parishes are picturesquely described and illustrated in “The Hundred of Ongar” by the English antiquary Elizabeth Ogborne (1763/4 – 1853) in The History of Essex from the Earliest Period to the Present Time (London:  R. H. Kelham,1 814), pages 235–280, with the full list of parishes on page 236.  The subtitle of this work advertised it as being Illustrated with accurate Engravings of Churches, Monuments, Ancient Buildings, Seals, Portraits, Autographs, &c., With Biographical Notices of the most distinguished and remarkable Natives.  Alas, the work was unfinished, with only Volume I, in which the illustrated descriptions of the individual parishes of this Hundred cease before they reach any of those names within whose reach the place-names of the document come to rest.

Spellings very similar to those in the document are recorded in the Essex Poll Tax for 1377, which dates only some 20 years earlier.  The modern edition of that record notes the modern equivalents.

  • Stanford Rever = Stanford Rivers
  • Alta Aungr = High Ongar
  • Kelwedon = Kelvedon Hatch
  • Aungr ad Castrum = Chipping Ongar

— — The Poll Taxes of 1377, 1379, and 1381, Part I:  Bedfordshire–Leicestershire, edited by Carolyn C. Fenwick.  Record of Social and Economic History, New Series, 37 (Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 1998–2005), “Essex 1377:  Ongar and Rochford Hundreds”, at E179.

Such close, and even precise, correspondences for the individual place-names — as their records adapted across time — and for the cluster of names recorded within the transaction appear to establish their identities in the document beyond doubt as pertaining to the Hundred of Ongar in Essex.

23 Richard II Face: Text.

23 Richard II Face: Text.

Location, Location, Locations

These places, with a few variants in spelling, appear on Old Maps of Essex, available among the Old Maps Online and other digital resources:

  • Map of Essex among the 35 colored maps published by Christopher Saxon in the Atlas of England and Wales (1579).
  • Interactive version of the Map of the County of Essex from the atlas of 25 engraved sheets by John Chapman & Peter André (1777).
  • Map of Essex actually surveyed with the several Roads from London, etc.  (London [1678]).

The latter, via Public Domain, comes from the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library:

Boston Public Library, Map of "Essex actually surveyed with the several Roads from London, etc." (London [1678]), Image via Public Domain.

Boston Public Library, Map of “Essex actually surveyed with the several Roads from London, etc.” (London [1678]), Image via Public Domain.

With a detail of Ongar Hundred:

Boston Public Library, Map of "Essex actually surveyed with the several Roads from London, etc." (London [1678]), Detail of Ongar Hundred. Image via Public Domain.

Boston Public Library, Map of “Essex actually surveyed with the several Roads from London, etc.” (London [1678]), Detail of Ongar Hundred. Image via Public Domain.

The Transaction as Record

From its details, the document yields information about a set of individuals and their interrelationships regarding landscapes, both which they have been associated — Aungre ad castrum, Alta Aungra, Stanford Ryirus, Dodyngherst, and Kolwedon — and over which they formally transfer custodianship on Saint Swithin’s Day, 1399.  In the case of the land at the center of the transaction, we learn also about its previous transfer (at an unspecified date) from a named couple after their death.

Private Collection, Document of 23 Richard II, Tag and Seal.

Private Collection, Document of 23 Richard II, Tag and Seal.

*****

Do you recognize other examples of this scribe’s work?  Do you know more about the history of these features, places, and persons?

Please contact us via Contact Us or our Facebook Page. Comments here are welcome too.

*****

More to Come. See the Contents List for this blog.

*****

P. S.  On a Personal Note (17 May 2020).  Although I don’t remember if I visited any of the places mentioned in the document, I vividly recall visiting Greensted close by. The purpose of the visit was Greensted Church, located about one mile west of Chipping Ongar town center. My interest resided in seeing the wooden structure of the building, because of its age and its Anglo-Saxon construction.

This was while I lived in London and engaged in long-term postgraduate study of Anglo-Saxon and related manuscripts and their broader context — leading from the M. A. in English Language and Literature before 1525 (University of London, 1972) to the Ph. D. in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts (London, 1985). An important component of the research was travel to examine material evidence first hand.

It was natural that part of the observation attended to building structures, given their settings for the production, viewing, and use of the manuscripts and other media, and given my studies in seminars with archaeologists and building historians, among others. Apart from archaeological excavations and ruins, many of the viewing opportunities allowed for more imposing architectural structures, but I wished also to see the “only remaining example of the many timber churches” of the Anglo-Saxon period before the Norman Conquest, as Greensted Church is described in a standard reference work on the subject.
— — H. M. and Joan Taylor, Anglo-Saxon Architecture (Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 3 volumes, 1965 and 1978), Volume 1, pages 262–264, at page 263.

North Side of Wooden Church at Greensted-juxta-Ongar, Essex. Photograph by Simon Garbutt via Wikimedia Commons.

North Side of Wooden Church at Greensted-juxta-Ongar, Essex. Photograph by Simon Garbutt via Wikimedia Commons.

The Church of Saint Andrew at Greensted is regarded as “the oldest wooden building in Europe still standing, albeit only in part, since few sections of its original wooden structure remain”. The nave, made of large split oak tree trunks, is mostly original.  The official name of the place is Greensted-juxta-Ongar (“Greensted adjoining Ongar”), to distinguish it from another Greenstead, also in Essex, but some 30 miles distant, in Colchester.

My visit took place on a sunny day, in a day trip by car from London.  I forget which year, but having a car places the date in the later 1970s.  I remember well the warm sunshine outside the building and the dark wooden interior, so it would probably have been in the spring or summer.  There are photographs from the visit, so others’ available photographs might serve.

From the distance of this blogpost, I survey the distance travelled across time and space by the document from its origins in Essex to my view of it as it first entered its current collection in the United States several years ago, and by my understanding of the subjects from immersion in study for the M. A. onward.  The “papers” selected for that M. A.  in London were dedicated to Language, Palaeography, Archaeology, and English Place-Names.

In all the travels and studies over the years devoted to such subjects (see, for example, Her Page and (Selected Publications), I might not have guessed that they would have come to include a close look at place-names centered upon one of the central areas of Ongar Hundred.

*****

 

Tags: Alta Aungre, Anglicana Formata, Aungre ad Castrum, Chipping Ongar, Dodyngherst, High Ongar, History of Documents, History of English Place Names, Hundred of Ongar, Kelvedon Hatch, King Richard II, Kolwedon, Medieval English Documents, Medieval Seals, Place Names of Essex, Preston Charters, Saint Swithin, Stanford Rivers, William Herde alias Tobere
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More Light on English Charters

April 16, 2020 in Manuscript Studies, Uncategorized

2 More English Charters
“English Charters 1–2”

6 Richard II (19 September 1382)
10 Henry VII (7 December 1494)

[Published on 16 April 2020]

Having completed the round of posts about a set of charters pertaining mostly to Preston in Suffolk, England, we turn to 2 more English charters in that private collection, as now revealed to our view.

Group of 8 Preston Charters: Front. Photograph Mildred Budny.

Group of 8 Preston Charters: Front. Photograph Mildred Budny.

The first round considered the group in stages, pair by pair:

  • Charters 5 and 7:  Full Court Preston and Preston Take 2
  • Charters 6 and 9:  Preston Charters Continued
  • Charters 10 and 11:  Charter the Course:  More on Preston Charters
  • Charters 12 and 13: Preston Charters: The Chierographs

(Remember, Charter 8 is missing.)

Now we turn to a new pair:  Charters 1 and 2 in the same set.

These documents have the owner’s numbers 1 and 2 entered on their dorse in black ink, at top left.  The numbers on the “Preston” group as we considered them show their placement clearly.

Private Collection, Preston Charters: Dorse with Guide. Photograph Mildred Budny.

Preston Charters: Dorse with Guide. Photograph Mildred Budny.

For Charters 1 & 2, the first purchased among the collector’s English charters, we can at present show you their face, not dorse. These 2 were purchased as single items.

Charter 1

6 Richard II (= 22 June 1382 – 21 June 1383)
“On the Feast of Saint Michael Archangel” = 19 September
19 September 1382

From Juliana X [Name to be deciphered], Wife of John of Saint Andrew, Miles (“Soldier”)

To Thomas Merdeleye of Sutton and others

Charter 6 Richard II Face.

Charter 1: 6 Richard II Face.

Richard II (6 January 1367 – c. 14 February 1400), who reigned from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399.
Among his Regnal Years, Year 6 spanned spanned 22 June 1382 – 21 June 1383.

London, British Library, Royal MS 14 E IV, folio 10 recto. "Recueil des croniques" by Jean de Wavrin. Coronation of Richard II at the age of 10 in 1377.

London, British Library, Royal MS 14 E IV, folio 10 recto. “Recueil des croniques” by Jean de Wavrin. Coronation of Richard II at the age of 10 in 1377.

The document specifies the date of the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel — namely 19 September.  Within the span of this king’s regnal years, crossing from one June to the next, that feast fell in the first calendar year.

Damage to the document by liquid, smears, folds, and holes imposes strategic impediments to deciphering some of the names.  Examples include the surname or appelation of the vendor

Ego Juliana ???  uxor Johannis de sancto Andrea milities

“Juliana [???], wife of John of Saint Andrew, miles” (line 1 and again line 6, both times disrupted after her first name)

and the names of some buyers and witnesses.

Charter 1: 6 Richard II Face top center.

Charter 1: 6 Richard II Face top center.

Image enhancement by the owner improves the legibility.  For example, viewing with Black Light reveals more of the text through the water damage.

Charter 1: 6 Richard II Charter Face with black-lighting of water damage.

Charter 1: 6 Richard II Charter Face with black-lighting of water damage.

Similar for other portions of the water-damage, lower down on the document.

Charter 1: 6 Richard II Charter black-lighting of water damage midway down.

Charter 1: 6 Richard II Charter with black-lighting of water damage.

Docketing

Another method, Back-lighting, reveals more of the docketing inscription on the dorse.  That inscription, for what it is worth, had the benefit of viewing the text before the water damage, which affected the docketing as well.

Charter 1: 6 Richard 11. Docketing Inscription under back-lighting.

Charter 1: f 6 Richard 11. Docketing Inscription under back-lighting.

All the same, the inscription exhibits some variations from the text of the document.

A Deede from Julian [sic] . . . wife of John S[. . .] A[.]nd[ . .]/
to Thomas Mo[?]edoley, of Sutton, to John d[. . . ] /
au to John de Bredon capellan [. . . ] /
dated on . . . sct[. . . ] /
[ . . . ]

People

The names might find identifications with persons recorded in other sources — provided, of course, that the dates are correct and the identifications are secure.  For example, records survive for

  • a Johannis de sancto andrea at Byfield, in 1428 (Way too late)
  • a Thomas de Merdeleye and Thomas de Merdeley, and
  • a John de Bredon.

More work to do.  Would you like to join the quest?

And the Seal

Charter 1: 6 Richard II Charter Seal.

Charter 1: 6 Richard II Charter Seal.

Charter 2

10 Henry VII (22 August 1494 – 21 August 1495)
“Seventh Day of December” = 7 December 1494

From Thomas X
To X
At “Kymbaston”

Charter 2: 10 Henry VII Face.

Charter 2: 10 Henry VII Face.

Date and Place

The text closes with its dating clause.

Charter 2: 10 Henry VII Face, lower left.

Charter 2: 10 Henry VII Face, lower left.

Apud Kymbaston . . . septimo die mensis decembris anno regni Regis Henrici septimi post conquestum Anglis decimo.

“At Kymbaston . . . on the seventh day of the month of December in the tenth regnal year of King Henry VII after the conquest of the English.”

Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509) reigned from 22 August 1485 until his death. Among his Regnal Years, Year 10 spanned 22 August 1494 – 21 August 1495.

So:  7 December 1491, at a place then called Kymbaston.

London, National Portrait Gallery, Portrait painted 29 October 1505. Henry VII wearing the Collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece and holding a rose.

London, National Portrait Gallery, Portrait painted 29 October 1505. Henry VII wearing the Collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece and holding a rose.

Who, What, Where

The forcible removal of much of the document by excision prevents a clear view of the transaction entire.

The vendor was a Thomas. That much is clear.

Charter 2: 10 Henry VII Face top left.

Charter 2: 10 Henry VII Face top left.

More research may reveal more about the persons and places.

Do you recognize any of these features, places, and persons?

Please contact us via Contact Us or our Facebook Page. Comments here are welcome too.

*****

More to Come. See the Contents List for this blog.

*****

Tags: Hency VII, Henry VII, History of Documents, John of Saint Andrew, Kymbaston, Medieval English Documents, Medieval Seals, Richard II, Saint Michael Archangel
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Charter the Course: More on Preston Charters

April 13, 2020 in Manuscript Studies, Uncategorized

Charter the Course

More on Preston Charters:
Charters 10 and 11
from Regnal Years 12 and 18 of Edward II

[Published on 13 April 2020, with Updates.]

Following our 3 previous blogposts on the group of charters from Preston in Suffolk, England, now in a private collection, we advance with further reports about them.  Those blogposts focused upon 4 of the group of 8 charters.  Employing the owner’s numbering system, they considered

  • Preston Charter 9 Face.

    Preston Charter 9 Face.

    Charters 5 and 7:  Full Court Preston and Preston Take 2

  • Charters 6 and 9:  Preston Charters Continued

(Remember, Charter 8 is missing.)

Now we turn to others.  Here we focus upon Charters 10 and 11.

Both of these are dated, like Charter 9; all 3 of these have dates within the reign of King Edward II, spaced at 4-year intervals.  Charter 9, already examined (also see its image to the right here), is dated to Year 8 of the reign.

The Group of Preston Charters

Sign for the Portobello Road, W11, London

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Church_at_Preston_St_Mary_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1598436.jpg

Church at Preston St Mary. Photograph by Andrew Hill via Wikimedia Creative Commons

The owner purchased the group of 9 documents in the 1980s in London, probably — according to his recollection — in the Portobello Road, a renowned location of markets and shops of many kinds, including used goods, curiousities, and antiquities.  The group has a consecutive series of modern Arabic numbers, running from 5 to 13.  The individual number is entered in black ink at the top left corner of the dorse (or back) of each document.

Of that original group, only 8 survive in the “Preston” collection, because Charter 8 went missing after a class some years ago, considerably before the group came into our view.  Consequently, we know now only of Charters 5–7 and 9–13.

Charters 5 and 7 have figured already in 2 previous blogposts, with an introduction, photographs and descriptions, transcriptions and translations of their texts, and some observations about their characteristics and contexts (Full Court Preston and Preston Take 2).  Next, Charters 6 and 9 took the stage (Preston Charters Continued).

We continue here to Charter the Course.

Now is the time for Charters 10 and 11.  Both carry the dates of their transactions during the reign of King Edward II, who lived from 25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327, and reigned from 7 July 1307 until his deposition in January 1327.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: History of Documents, King Edward II, Portobello Road, Preston, Preston Saint Mary, Reused Documents, Seal Tags
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Preston Charters: The Chierographs

April 12, 2020 in Manuscript Studies, Uncategorized

Meet the Preston Chierographic Charters:
Charters 12 and 13
from the Reigns of Edward IV and Elizabeth I

Preston Charter 7 Face with Tag and Seal. Photograph Mildred Budny.

Preston Charter 7 Face. Photograph Mildred Budny.

Following our 4 previous blogposts on the group of charters from Preston in Suffolk, England, now in a private collection, we advance with further reports about them.  Those blogposts focused upon 6 of the group of 8 charters.  Employing the owner’s numbering system, they considered

  • Charters 5 and 7:  Full Court Preston and Preston Take 2
  • Charters 6 and 9:  Preston Charters Continued
  • Charters 10 and 11:  Charter the Course

(Remember, Charter 8 is missing.)

Now we turn to the last pair:  Charters 12 and 13.

These are the chirographs, with wavy upper contours made to match.  Both documents are dated, like Charters 9–11, but those earlier charters belong to the reign of King Edward II (reigned 1307–1327), during which reign they were spaced at 4-year intervals.  Charters 12 and 13 stand more than a century apart from those and from each other.  Both retain their wax seals, in full or in part.

A wavy contour:

Preston Charter 12 Face with Seal. Photograph Mildred Budny.

Preston Charter 12 Face with Seal. Photograph Mildred Budny.

The Group of Preston Charters

Sign for the Portobello Road, W11, London

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Church_at_Preston_St_Mary_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1598436.jpg

Church at Preston St Mary. Photograph by Andrew Hill via Wikimedia Creative Commons

The present owner purchased the Preston group as a group, amounting to 9 documents, in the 1980s in London, probably in the Portobello Road, a renowned location of markets and shops of many kinds, including used goods, curiousities, and antiquities.

[Update:  Now we know that his first 2 purchases of English documents were of single documents:  “one Ric. II” and “the other Edw. IV”.  Then came the rest.  On those first 2, now see More Light on English Charters.]

The group has a consecutive series of modern Arabic numbers, running from 5 to 13.  The individual number is entered in black ink at the top left corner of the dorse (or back) of each document.

Of that original group, only 8 survive in the collection, because Charter 8 went missing after a class some years ago, considerably before the group came into our view.  Consequently, we know now only of Charters 5–7 and 9–13.

In our series of blogposts on the Preston Charters, Charters 5 and 7 figured in our first 2 blogposts, with an introduction, photographs and descriptions, transcriptions and translations of their texts, and some observations about their characteristics and contexts (Full Court Preston and Preston Take 2).  Next, Charters 6 and 9 took the stage (Preston Charters Continued). Then Charters 10 and 11 came forward to Charter the Course.

Now we complete the course with Charters 12 and 13.  Each carries the regnal year of the sovereign, but a different sovereign in each case:  Edward IV and Elizabeth I.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Chirograph, Edward II, Edward IV, Elizabeth I, History of Documents, Portobello Road, Preston, Preston Charters, Seal, Seal Tag
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