Lead the People Forward (by Zoey Kambour)

February 13, 2022 in Manuscript Studies, Uncategorized

Lead the People Forward:
The Contemporaneity
of the Medieval Iberian Haggadah

Zoey Kambour, MA

15 February, 2022

Pursuit by the Egyptians. Detail of Figure 4 (see Figure 4b below). Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 18v, lower. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

[Editor’s Note: This blogpost, by GuestBlogger, Zoey Kambour, is published through the process of peer review by three expert reviewers, each of whom we thank. Thanks are due to the owners of the manuscripts and photographers for permission to reproduce the images here of the medieval manuscripts and architectural structures.

About Zoey, see linkedin.com, uoregon.academia.edu/ZoeyK (with CV), and below. We thank Zoey for proposing to contribute to our blog, preparing this essay from on-going research interests and projects, joining the peer-review process, responding to questions and suggestions, completing the presentation for publication in this format, and obtaining the permissions to reproduce the illustrations here. Congratulations!

Zoey’s essay in the format of a blogpost presents its scholarly structure with Text, interlinked Notes, Acknowledgments, Zoey Kambour’s Biography, and Figures. All the full-size Figures appear in a group at the end, with details along the way.]

“Lead the People Forward”

Passover is a holiday that focuses on the personalized retelling of Exodus — the second book in the Torah, which tells the story of the plight, liberation, and departure of the Israelites under the prophet Moses in Egypt. In this retelling, the participants must see themselves as if they were liberated from Egypt.[1] In addition, the exercise facilitates reflection on how the story of Jewish liberation applies to the current moment. During a time of stress and loss, such as the current pandemic, Passover is a deeply unifying holiday; it reminds the Jewish people of their deep connection to each other, despite the quarantined distance, through their suffering and fight for freedom. Passover conveys a message of hope that applies to any current moment.

The Haggadah (plural Haggadot), the text recited at Seder, is not liturgical, but rather a guide. The participants follow the order of prayers and interactions with the ritual foods displayed on the Seder plate. After the Seder, Exodus is retold in the Maggid portion of the Haggadah.[2] However, unlike a standard liturgical text, the worshippers are encouraged to ad lib, improvise, and add their own unique spin upon the story of Exodus during the performance.

Figure 1. Rylands Haggadah. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 15v. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

During the high and late medieval period in the Iberian Peninsula, many Jewish people lacked literacy in Hebrew. While the rituals and prayers are written in Hebrew, many surviving medieval Haggadot contain rich illuminations in the Maggid, enabling the illiterate to recite and personalize the story of Exodus, while still faithfully conveying it.[3] Through reciting, performing, and personalizing the Haggadah, Jews connect the hay-yamim ha-hem (“in those days”) with the z’man ha-zeh (“in this time”).[4]

The performance of the Haggadah is not the only means of tying the contemporary moment to Exodus; the Biblical illuminations and marginalia in medieval Iberian Haggadot additionally aid in this association. In late thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Haggadot shel Pesaḥ (הגדה של פסח or “Haggadot for Passover”), such as the Rylands Haggadah (Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Hebrew MS 6) and the Golden Haggadah (London, British Library Add. MS 27210), the visual anachronism of contemporaneous clothing and architecture present in the illuminations of a biblical story [5] The images not only situate it in the current moment, but may also serve as a commentary against Christian rulers through the presence of the heraldic colors of Barcelona and the monarchical clothing of the Pharaoh.

Figure 2. Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329–1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, fol. 11r.

Jews in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century, although segregated to their communally governed communities called aljamas, held prominent places in Christian courts for their financial and intellectual abilities, a practice that began in al-Andalus as early as the Caliphate of Córdoba in the late tenth and eleventh century.[6] This service to Christian crowns legally protected these elite Jews from persecution, but branded them as property of the crown.[7] Aside from the privilege of protection awarded to the Jews of the Christian courts, anti-Semitism remained prominent throughout the Christian kingdoms. However, nothing brought on a wave of persecution quite like the devastation caused by the fourteenth-century plague.[8]

To best demonstrate the contemporaneous application into Exodus, a focus is placed on the visual anachronism of the garments of the biblical figures and the architecture situated within or framing the illuminations.[9] Almost every figure wears a saya (also known as a gonela in Aragon), which is a gown worn over a base camisa, or chemise. The saya could be worn as either a loose version, fastened at the neck with buttons, or a closely fitted version where there is lacing at either the back or the side of the garment. Sayas could be sleeved or sleeveless and were frequently belted. Over the sayas, as shown on the depictions of the Pharaoh, is a pellote which is a kind of surcoat. In addition to the pellote, the Pharaohs wear a medieval European golden crown. The attendants often wear a hooded garment called a capirote. Another distinguishing costume is the headwear. The most common is the cofia, a fabric cap that can be worn, for women, with a fillet that covers the ears. Other common forms of headwear include sombreros (any brimmed hat), capiellos (a cylindrical hat), and boinas (a round hat with no brim).[10] These styles of clothing are not limited to the fourteenth century — many, if not all, of these types of clothing and hats can be found in the thirteenth-century manuscript of the Cantigas de Santa Maria.[11]

Figure 1a. Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 15v, upper panel. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Figure 2a. Moses’ Staff transforms into a Snake. Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329–1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, fol. 11r, lower right.

The upper panel of Rylands folio 15v demonstrates most of these clothing elements (Figures 1 and 1a). Kneeling in front of the Pharaoh, who dons a pellote and golden trefoil crown, Moses and Aaron wear sleeved and belted sayas of red and blue. The Pharaoh’s attendants behind Moses and Aaron wear capirotes. In a similar scene in folio 11r from the Golden Haggadah, as the staff turns into a snake, Moses and Aaron wear capes over their sayas, the Pharaoh wears the same pellote over a saya in addition to a golden crown (Figures 2 and 2a). The scene differs from the former only in its presentation of the attendants, one of whom wears a cofia with a felt cap while the other wears a capirote.

Figure 3a. Pursuit of the Egyptians. Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329–1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, 14v, lower right.

The clearest examples of contemporary imagery are present in the scene of Exodus 14:8 — Pursuit of the Egyptians, as seen in folio 14v in the Golden Haggadah and folio 18v in the Rylands Haggadah (Figures 3 and 4). In the lower panel of folio 18v (Figure 4a) in the Rylands Haggadah, the Pursuit of the Egyptians features a procession of armed equestrian figures led by the crowned figure, all wearing high medieval armor.[12] One of the shields carried by the equestrian figures bears red and gold stripes, representing the crown of Aragon, while another shield with gold and blue stripes possibly represents the House of Bourbon.[13] Folio 14v in the Golden Haggadah (Figure 3a) similarly shows a group of equestrian knights led by the crowned Pharaoh. Another allusion to contemporaneous politics is similarly made in the colors of one of the shields, which bears the symbols of the House of Leon.[14] The presence of the heraldry and monarchical dress visually conflates Pharaoh and his soldiers with secular leaders.

Pursuit of the Egyptians. Detail of Figure 4. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 18v, lower. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Figure 6. Entrada del Castillo Templario de Ponferrada, El Bierzo, 1178. Picture by Jgaray, Wikipedia, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/legalcode , August, 2006.

Figure 5. Lancet windows in the Santa Maria de Léon Cathedral, Léon, ca. 1205. Photo by Michael Boyles, 2015. Reproduced by permission.

Rather than pyramids and nomadic structures, which one might expect in images of Egypt, the architecture in the folios manifest as late Romanesque and early Gothic architecture. For example, the Pharaoh in the top right section of folio 11r from the Golden Haggadah (Figure 2) sits underneath a trefoil pointed arch, supported by columns topped with Corinthian capitals. On the same folio to the left of the aforementioned scene, the Israelites build a structure than includes a double arch trefoil window, such as the window lancets at the Santa Maria de Léon Cathedral (Figure 5). In the Rylands Haggadah, the Israelites flee from a multi-turreted and crenelated military structure, similar to the twelfth-century castle, Castillo de Ponferrada in Leon—Castile (Figure 6).

Through the visually anachronistic depiction of medieval clothing and architecture in the Exodus illuminations, the medieval Iberian Haggadah emphasizes the reflection of the current moment through Exodus. While the Haggadah, regardless if it is from the fourteenth or twenty-first century, aids in the retelling of Exodus through its personalization, imagery, and guidance, the hope for freedom expressed in Exodus is applicable to any contemporary era of unrest.

*****

Notes

[1] Based upon Maimonides’ compilation of Jewish law in the Mishneh Torah, the text says: “In every generation one is obligated to show oneself (l’harot et atzmo) as if one has, just at that moment, been released from enslavement in Egypt.” Quoted from: Julie A. Harris, “Making room at the table: Women, Passover and the Sister Haggadah (London British Library, MS Or. 2884)”, in Journal of Medieval History, vol. 42, 1, (2016) 131–153.

[2] A maggid is a person, typically a para-rabbi, who skillfully narrates the Torah and other religious stories. The Maggid portion of a Jewish holiday, today, is the narrative re-telling of a part of the Torah.

[3] Marc Michael Epstein, The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011), 14.

[4] Ibid, 149.

[5] Library online catalogue entries and digital facsimiles:

Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Hebrew MS 6;
London, British Library Add. MS 27210.

[6] Benjamin R. Gampel, “Jews, Christians and Muslims in Medieval Iberia: Convivencia through the Eyes of Sephardic Jews,” in Convivencia: Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Medieval Spain (New York: The Jewish Museum, 1992), 23. David Nirenberg documents that this practice began as early as Alexandrian Egypt: Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2013), 22–25.

[7] Gampel, “Jews. Christians and Muslims”, 22.

[8] David Nirenberg, “Epilogue: THE BLACK DEATH AND BEYOND” in Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages. (Princeton: Princeton University Press: 1996), 231-250.

[9] Visual anachronism can mean a few different things, especially in regards to the medieval period, but in this context I am using visual anachronism to mean the incongruency between the contemporaneous elements juxtaposed against more historically accurate ancient models. See: Linde Brocato, “Visual anachronism,” Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle, R.G. Dunphy ed. (Brill, Leiden and Boston, 2010), 1483–1485.

[10] Grace M. Morris, “Jessamyn’s Closet — Costume in Medieval and Renaissance Spain and Portugal,” Blog, Jessamyn’s Closet (blog), August 9, 2005; Margaret Scott, Medieval Dress & Fashion (London: British Library, 2007).

[11] Four parts of this manuscript survive in three different libraries in Spain and Italy (with some parts shown online in digitized facsimiles):

Códice de Toledo, Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España, MS 10069;
San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Biblioteca de El Escorial, MS T.I.1;
Códice de Florencia, Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale, MS br 20;
Códice de los músicos, Biblioteca de El Escorial, MS B.I.2.

[12] Scott, Medieval Dress & Fashion, 70.

[13] Raphael Loewe, The Rylands Haggadah: A Medieval Sephardi Masterpiece in Facsimile. An Illuminated Passover Compendium from Mid-14th-Century Catalonia in the Collections of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester with a Commentary and a Cycle of Poems. (London: Thames and Hudson, 1988) 13.

[14] Bezalel Narkiss, Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts in the British Isles: A Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982) 43.

*****

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Mildred Budny and the rest of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence for their support and guidance during the stages of this blog post. I would like to thank my reviewers, Linde Brocato, Julie Harris, Maile Hutterer, and Marla Segol, for their helpful and productive comments, and for their constructive criticism in my first peer-review process. I wish to express thanks to the British Library, the Rylands Library, and Michael Boyles at the University of Northern Florida for their permission to use their images. I thank the University of Oregon ARH 525 class, “Medieval Identity”, for the opportunity to first conduct this research, and for the student and instructor feedback on this project.

Biography

Zoey Kambour is the Post Graduate Fellow in European & American Art at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene, OR. They hold a MA in art history from the University of Oregon, and BAs in art history and music performance from Lewis & Clark College. They will be pursuing their doctoral study this fall (2022) in art history, at a university TBD. They are a specialist in medieval manuscript illumination and medieval Iberia.

Bibliography

Brocato, Linde. “Visual anachronism,” in Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle, 1483–1485. Ed. R.G. Dunphy. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010.

Epstein, Marc Michael. The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011.

Gampel, Benjamin R. “Jews, Christians and Muslims in Medieval Iberia: Convicencia through the Eyes of Sephardic Jews.” In Convivencia: Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Medieval Spain, 11–38. New York: The Jewish Museum, 1992.

Harris, Julie A. “Making room at the table: Women, Passover and the Sister Haggadah, (London British Library, MS Or. 2884)” in Journal of Medieval History, vol. 42, 1, (2016) 131–153.

Loewe, Raphael. The Rylands Haggadah: A Medieval Sephardi Masterpiece in Facsimile. An Illuminated Passover Compendium from Mid-14th-Century Catalonia in the Collections of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester with a Commentary and a Cycle of Poems. London: Thames and Hudson, 1988.

Morris, Grace M. (“Mistress Maddalena Jessamyn di Piemonte”),“Jessamyn’s Closet — Costume in Medieval and Renaissance Spain and Portugal.” Blog: Jessamyn’s Closet (blog), August 9, 2005.

Narkiss, Bezalel. Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts in the British Isles: A Catalogue Raisonné. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.

Nirenberg, David. “Epilogue: THE BLACK DEATH AND BEYOND.” Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996, 231–250.

——— Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2013.

Scott, Margaret. Medieval Dress & Fashion. London: British Library, 2007.

****

Figures

Figure 1. Moses and Aaron tell Pharaoh the Lord’s Message (upper); the Labors of the Israelites (lower).
Rylands Haggadah, Catalonia, Spain, mid-14^th century. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands MS Heb. 5, folio 15v. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Figure 1. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 15v. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Fig. 1a: Moses and Aaron tell Pharaoh the Lord’s Message.
Rylands Haggadah, Catalonia, Spain, mid-14^th century. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 15v, upper. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 15v, lower. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Figure 2. Labors of the Israelites (upper left and upper right), Plague of Blood (lower left), Moses’ Staff Transforms into a Snake (lower right).
Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329–1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, fol. 11r.

Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329–1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, fol. 11r.

Figure 2a: Moses’ Staff Transforms into a Snake.
Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329-1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, fol. 11r, lower right.

Moses’ Staff. Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329-1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, fol. 11r, lower right.

Figure 3. The Departure of the Israelites (upper) and the Pursuit of the Egyptians (lower).
Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329–1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, 14v.

Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329–1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, 14v.

Figure 3a: The Pursuit of the Egyptians.
Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329-1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, 14v, lower right.

Pursuit by the Egyptians. Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329–1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, 14v, lower right.

Figure 4. The Departure of the Israelites and the Pursuit of the Egyptians.
Rylands Haggadah, Catalonia, Spain, mid-14^th century. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 18v. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Rylands Haggadah, Catalonia, Spain, mid-14th century. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 18v. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Figure 4a: The Pursuit of the Egyptians.
Rylands Haggadah, Catalonia, Spain, mid-14^th century. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 18v, lower. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Pursuit by the Egyptians. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 18v, lower. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Figure 4b: The Departure of the Israelites.
Rylands Haggadah, Catalonia, Spain, mid-14^th century. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 18v, upper. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Departure of the Israelites. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 1vv, lower. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Figure 5. An example of lancet windows in the Santa Maria de Léon Cathedral, Léon, ca. 1205. Photo by Michael Boyles, 2015. Reproduced by permission.

An example of a lancet window from the Santa Maria de Léon Cathedral, Léon, ca. 1205. Photo by Michael Boyles, 2015.

Figure 6. El Bierzo, Entrada del Castillo Templario de Ponferrada, 1178.
Picture by Jgaray, via Wikipedia, Creative Commons (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/legalcode ), August, 2006.

Entrada del Castillo Templario de Ponferrada, El Bierzo, 1178. Picture by Jgaray, Wikipedia, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/legalcode , August, 2006.

****

Editor’s Note:

We thank Zoey for this peer-reviewed article joining our blog on Manuscript Studies. In the Contents List for the blog, which arranges the blogposts by category (“Setting the Stage”, “Bits & Pieces”, “Documents in Question”, etc.), Zoey’s article opens a new category, “Books Telling Their Stories”.

We look forward to learning more from Zoey’s continuing research and their engagement with medieval and other materials.

Comments are welcome. You might add your Comment here, reach us via Contact Us, or visit our Facebook Page. We look forward to hearing from you.

Update on 26 March 2022:

We look forward to Zoey’s presentation on another subject in the 2022 Spring Symposium on “Structures of Knowledge” on 2 April.

****

Tags: British Library Add MS. 27210, Castillo Templario de Ponferrada, Golden Haggadah, Illustrations of Exodus, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript studies, Medieval Architecture, Medieval Clothing, Medieval Iberian Hagaddah, Medieval manuscripts, Rylands Haggadah, Rylands Hebrew MS. 6, Santa Maria de Léon Cathedral, Visual Anachronism, Zoey Kambour
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2020 Spring Symposium: Save the Date

February 15, 2020 in Announcements, Conference, Conference Announcement, Events, Index of Medieval Art, Princeton University, Reception, Uncategorized

$New York, Grolier Club, \*434.14\Aug\1470\Folio. Flavius Josephus, De antiquitate Judiaca and De bello Judaico, translated by Rufinus Aquileinensis, printed in Augsburg on paper by Johannn Schüsseler in 2 Parts, dated respectively 28 June 1470 and 23 August 1470, and bound together with a manuscript copy dated 1462 of Eusebius Caesariensis, Historia ecclesiastica.$

New York, Grolier Club, *434.14Aug1470Folio.

“From Cover to Cover”

Activities Devoted to Manuscripts, Early Printed Books & Beyond
From Collecting & Cataloguing to Deciphering & Beholding

2020 Spring Symposium
of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Princeton University
Friday & Saturday 13–14 March 2020

Update 5 April 2020

The Symposium Booklet, with illustrations and Abstracts of Papers, is now published and available for download.
See Keeping Up: Updates for Spring 2020.

The Abstract of one paper in the 2020 Symposium Booklet has been expanded to a Draft Paper, available for Feedback:

“A Quick Introduction to Indian Manuscripts for the Non-Specialist”, with examples and illustrations,
downloadable here.

Update 9 March 2020

This event is now cancelled, as Princeton University and other institutions respond to current health concerns, and take precautions regarding travel and meetings of various kinds in person.
The Symposium might be rescheduled, conditions permitting.

Meanwhile, the Research Group aims to complete the Symposium Booklet and distribute it to contributors, registrants, and others, as a souvenir of our speakers’ good intentions. Already, as a sign of appreciation, we have adopted the custom of posting on our website the abstracts of contributors who become unable to attend to present in person (as with the 2018 Congress, among others).

This time, under wider — even global — circumstances affecting the ensemble as a whole, we wish to show appreciation for the remarkable enthusiasm and dedication for the collaborative event demonstrated by our hosts, sponsors, speakers, moderators, and others. This knowledge is something to remember with satisfaction, gratitude, and praise.

The publication could, perhaps, give a token to show for our shared efforts, and to demonstrate something of the spirit of dedication and focus which prepared to assemble for the event itself.

This aim might help to ease some of the disappointment over cancellation, while the cancellation itself might ease some uncertainties about travel at present.

P. S. Only once before, in more than 30 years of activities in many centers in the United States and elsewhere (see our Events and Congress Activities}, has the Research Group had to cancel an event. It, however, was only 1 Session among 7 sponsored and co-sponsored Sessions at the 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies in May 2013, when the Session organizer and 2 presenters were unable to travel to the Congress. We honored their intentions to contribute by continuing to record their abstracts and the statement of purpose of the Session on this website.

Similar solidarity pertains to our record of this intended 2020 Spring Symposium. A summary of this Update appears in its own post.

Here we preserve the description of the event in the updated version just before the decision to cancel this Symposium, among many gatherings at Princeton University and elsewhere at the beginning of the week in which the Symposium was planned to take place.

*****

What We Planned

Saint Andrew. Oil on Canvas. Artus Wollfort (1581–1641). Private Collection, Public Domain. Via Wikipedia Commons.

We announce the next Symposium of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, to be held at Princeton University on Friday afternoon and Saturday, 13–14 March 2020. This event follows from, and builds upon, our earlier events, including our 2019 Anniversary Symposium, also held at Princeton University.

Our subject this time: “From Cover to Cover”. Some say, “That Covers It”. (We might well agree.)

Such activities include Collecting, Curating, Conserving, Cataloguing, Deciphering, Editing, Reading, Teaching, Translating, Displaying, Accessing, Beholding, Reconsidering, and More. Cover to Cover.

Naturally, these activities need not necessarily occur in that order, and often they appear in combination.

In addition we consider activities dedicated to manuscripts, early printed books, and beyond, in terms (as is our custom) of both media and chronology. As often, we consider medieval manuscripts and early printed books from Western Europe, but also— as usual — we examine materials from other cultures, languages, and time-frames.

This recognition of the processes (necessarily integrated) infuses the collection of presentations and conversations which our Symposium aims to gather. In a nutshell: Food for Thought, Refreshments included.

For which ability, we have Sponsors, Hosts, Trustees, Associates, Contributors, and Volunteers heartily to thank.

On the Road

Poster 1 for 2019 Anniversary Symposium, with symposium information with images of manuscript and early printed pages..

Poster 1 for 2019 Symposium

Poster 2 for 219 Anniversary Symposium, with symposium information and 2 images of cropped initials, from 12th-century Latin manuscripts, from the Princeton University Art Museum.

Poster 2 for 2019 Symposium

Following upon, and building upon, the success of our Anniversary Symposium last year, we prepare the 2020 Spring Symposium. Its date is now set, as is the Schedule. (See below.)

For our 2019 Anniversary Symposium, see its Report and its freely downloadable 2019 Anniversary Symposium Booklet. Like the Booklet, the 2 Posters (seen here) illustrate examples of manuscripts (Western and non-Western) showcased in the Symposium, its papers, and its workshops.

All these publications, as customary, are set in our very own copyright multilingual font Bembino , and designed and laid out according with our Style Manifesto. This font is freely available through our website, for your use – whether individual, nonprofit, or commercial.

Both the font, and its descriptive Booklet, are downloadable here . We have also prepared a booklet showing its abilities in setting multiple languages, both Western and non-Western. See Multi-Lingual Bembino . Plus our Style Manifesto .

Cover Story

Now we turn to our 2020 Spring Symposium. Please register (details below).

Gladly we list the Sponsors, Speakers, and Moderators.

Speakers and Moderators (in alphabetical order)

Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection, MS LJS 101, folio 1v. Opening of Boethius's translation of Aristotle's "Peri erimenias" within a collection of secular and classical texts, France, possibly at the Abbey of Fleury (Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire), 9th–11th centuries. Photograph courtesy OPenn.

Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection, MS LJS 101, folio 1v. Photograph courtesy OPenn.

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS latin 190, folio 1r. Opening page of the Commentarii notarum tironiarum, with an enlarged initial decorated with interlace and foliate ornament. Image via gallica.bnf.fr.

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS latin 190, folio 1r. Photograph via gallica.bnf.fr.

Christine E. Bachmann (Art History Department, University of Delaware and Graduate Student Fellow 2019–2020, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, University of Pennsylvania)

Mildred Budny (Director, Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, Princeton)

Raymond Clemens (Curator, Early Books and Manuscripts, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven)

Meghan Constantinou (Librarian, The Grolier Club, New York, New York)

Barbara Williams Ellertson (Books as Symbols in Renaissance Art and Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)

Lynley Anne Herbert (Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland)

Carson Koepke (Program in Medieval Studies, Yale University)

Laura Light (Director and Senior Specialist, Text Manuscripts, Les Enluminures)

John T. McQuillen (Associate Curator, Printed Books & Bindings, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, New York)

Bernard Maisner (Bernard Maisner and Bernard Maisner, Master Calligrapher)

New York, Morgan Library & Museum, PML 7, folio P2r. Blockbook of Apocalypsis Sancti Johannis, printed in Germany circa 1468. Revelation 15:1, with hand-colored illustration.

Sabrina Minuzzi (Researcher in Early Modern History, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)

Ronald D. Patkus (Associate Director of the Libraries for Special Collections and Vassar Head of Special Collections, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York)

Pamela Patton (Director, Index of Medieval Art at Princeton University)

Lynn Ransom (Curator of Programs, The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, University of Pennsylvania Libraries)

Helmut Reimitz (Professor of History and Director, Program in Medieval Studies, Princeton University)

Jessica L. Savage (Art History Specialist, Index of Medieval Art)

Barbara A. Shailor (Department of Classics, Yale University, and President, Bibliographical Society of America)

David W. Sorenson (Independent, Quincy, Massachusetts)

Kelly Tuttle (Project Cataloger, Manuscripts of the Muslim World, University of Pennsylvania Libraries)

Eric White (Curator of Rare Books and Acting Curator of Manuscripts, Special Collections, Firestone Library, Princeton University)

Princeton University Library, Rare Books and Special Collections, William H. Scheide Library, 53.8. Latin Bible in double columns of 49 lines, printed in Strasbourg by Johann Mentelin, not after 1460 CE.

Princeton University Library, Rare Books and Special Collections, William H. Scheide Library, 53.8. Latin Bible (printed in Strasbourg by Johann Mentelin, not after 1460 CE.) Photograph courtesy Princeton University Library, Rare Books and Special Collections.

The Aim

In a nutshell.

The Plan

Day 1

Friday 13 March: Classes, Workshops, Discussion, and a Reception

1) 12:00–1:00, 12:00–1:30, or 12:00–2:00pm (By Invitation)
Seminar Room of the Index of Medieval Art

“Comparing Notes about Databases: Past, Present & Futures”

An Informal Discussion

2–3) 1:00–2:45 pm or 3:00–4:45 pm
Classes on Site at Firestone Library (Registration Required and Space Limited)

For registration for these classes and the symposium, see below.

“Material Evidence: A Workshop with 15th-Century Manuscripts and Incunabules”

Classes given (twice) by Eric White, Curator of Rare Books, Princeton University Library, in the Large Classroom of Floor C (Rare Books and Special Collections) at Firestone Library

Please gather in the Lobby at the entrance to Firestone Library, for special escorted access to Floor C, where there are lockable lockers (free) for your coats and cases, before entry to Special Collections.

2) Class 1: Meet at 1:00 for 1:15–2:45 pm

3) Class 2 (repeated): Meet at 3:00 for 3:15–4:45 pm

4) Session 3:00–5:00 pm
106 McCormick Hall

“Materials, Processes & Products: A Workshop”

This workshop offers presentations by Bernard Maisner on “The Materials and Methods of Medieval & Renaissance Manuscript Gold-Illumination Techniques” and by David W. Sorenson on “An Introduction to Indian Manuscripts for the Non-Specialist”, along with curated displays of original materials in private collections and demonstrations of results from their close study.

5) Reception

5:00–7:00 pm
Lobby outside 106 McCormick Hall

Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, Anonymous, Still Life, German school of the XVI century, circa 1510, oil on wood, 70.2 × 65 cm. Opened book with fanned leaves showing pages of text and music set out in double columns and adorned with decorated initials and illustrations. Image via Wikimedia, public domain.

Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, Anonymous, Still Life of an Illuminated Book, German school of the XVI century, circa 1510. Opened book with fanned leaves. Image via Wikimedia, public domain.

Day 2

Saturday 14 March: Sessions, Refreshments, and Reception

106 McCormick Hall and its Lobby

6) 10:00 am – 5:30 pm

Sessions, Coffee Breaks, Lunch, and Discussion

7) Reception (5:30–7:00 pm)

2020 Symposium "From Cover to Cover" Poster 2

2020 Symposium Poster 2

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The Schedule

The Schedule is available here.

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Registration

Please register for the Symposium. We offer the Registration form as a downloadable pdf .

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Maps and Directions

Here.

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Please Contact us with questions and suggestions.

Watch this space and visit our FaceBook Page for updates.

We invite you to donate to our nonprofit educational mission. Donations may be tax-deductible. We welcome donations in funds and in kind: Contributions and Donations .

Please join us at the symposium, open to all. You can register here .

*****

Tags: Early Printing, manuscript fragments, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript studies, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Medieval Studies, Medieval Writing Materials, Spring Symposium
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Revisiting Anglo-Saxon Symposia 2002/2018

May 1, 2019 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, British Museum, Conference, Manuscript Studies, The British Library, Uncategorized

Revisiting Beloved Ground

[Published on May 1, 2019] A personal post by our Director.

A New Look

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

We have returned from a trip to London for multiple views of the exhibition of Anglo-Saxon and related manuscripts at The British Library, and for a visit to its companion set of conferences to showcase work by selected elder and younger scholars.

My review does not have the purpose of providing a purview as such of the exhibition or the conferences. Other venues have provided more-and-less expert evaluations of the exhibition and its scholarly events.

It was lovely to see the manuscripts — in most cases, again, for I have seen them in person in their current collections. It took decades of travel, decades of dedication, and worth the view.

#turnedthepages

Suffice it to say that I, for one, can state accurately as well as precisely that, with determination, time, travel funding, part-time work, and perseverence, topped by a deep and abiding love of the subject, along with permission by the custodians, I have been able to examine closely and directly, and to turn the pages of almost all the manuscripts (and many of the documents) on display. A labour of love.

Having the opportunity to view the gathered manuscripts of course demands praise for the organisers of the exhibition and the enlightened donors for its accomplishment. Having the opportunity to attend the conference and to view the exhibition of course commands recognition that I have myself had to pay for that privilege, in travel, housing, conference dues, exhibition entrance, and the like. It is important to record, with thanks, the generous donation of 2 tickets for attendance by a Research Group Associate, which made it possible to continue to view the exhibition in company.

I talk about logistics because these matters, also, matter.

You all who talk, and with reason, about the need to have funding in order to persist and persevere with this and or that field of study, I hear you. Funding applications, part-time jobs, free-lance work, supposedly ignominious independent scholarly endeavors all must hold their place. Sometimes hard work.

Center Stage

For me, it was important to see, in person, again, some manuscripts which I love deeply. That comes from close and appreciative knowledge. Did I mention my favorite hashtag. #turnedthepages. Here, aplenty, in this exhibition, it applies. And then some.

Plus, the exhibition is nontrivial. See here: Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts.

It was a special delight to see as the first images for the concluding plenary lecture such a view, from “my thesis manuscript”, and from such an excellent speaker.

The Thesis is available without charge via British Library Manuscript Royal 1 E.vi: The Anatomy of an Anglo-Saxon Bible Fragment (1985) or ethos.bl.uk (order no. thesis00342356)

Julia Smith introduces The Royal Bible of Saint Augustine's Anbbey Canterbury in her Plenary Lecture December 2018. Photograph by Mildred Budny

Julia Smith introduces The Royal Bible of Saint Augustine’s Abbey Canterbury in her Plenary Lecture December 2018.

Revisiting the Territory

Interesting, isn’t it, that there remain on the scene in this new “international conference” at The British Library so many Anglo-Saxonists that participated in the 2002 British Museum Symposium of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence?

The 2002 BM Symposium:

Form and Order in the Anglo-Saxon World

Its Program:

2002 BM Program

Its Program Booklet, with Abstracts of Papers:

British Museum Colloquium Booklet

Reception at the 2002 British Museum Colloquium.

Instructive, don’t you think, that the speakers and presiders from that Colloquium in 2002 are mostly represented among the speakers, presiders, and attendees of the 2018 British Library International Conference? Here, in the order in which they appeared on our 2002 Program, they are:

Dáibhí Ó Cróinin
Richard Gameson
Rosamond McKitterick
Andy Orchard
Simon Keynes
Helen Gittos
Alan Thacker
Carol Neuman de Vegvar
Michael Ryan
Susan Youngs
James Graham-Campbell
Jane Hawkes
Carol Farr
Nancy Netzer
Mildred Budny
Michael Wood
Elizabeth M. Tyler
Leslie E. Webster

Coffee Break at the 2002 British Museum Colloquium.

Coffee Break at our 2002 British Museum Colloquium.

Some others on our 2002 Program could not be present in 2018 because they had died. We remember them with esteem.

A few others on our 2002 Program did not, alas, feel included sufficiently in 2018 to attend the British Library event.

We remember both events with appreciation for the conversations, presentations, and collegiality.

At our 2002 Colloquium.

Reception at the 2002 British Museum Colloquium.

At our 2002 Colloquium Reception: Sue Youngs and Joyce Hill. Photograph by Mildred Budny.

Tags: 2002 British Museum Colloquium, 2018 British Library Symposium, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, British Library MS Royal 1 E. vi, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript studies, Research Group Symposia
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Design & Layout of “The Illustrated Catalogue”

October 12, 2018 in Bembino, Design, Interviews, Manuscript Studies, Parker Library, Photographic Exhibition, Reports, Uncategorized

Continuing our series of interviews and reports, we explore the processes by which Mildred Budny’s 2-volume Insular, Angl0-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge: An Illustrated Catalogue (“The Catalogue” or “The Illustrated Catalogue”) was designed, laid out, and typeset to camera-ready copy for its publication as a set of 2 volumes of “Text” and “Plates”.

Now we present a joint interview with the Author and the Layout Designer of “The Illustrated Catalogue”.

For information about that publication see Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge: An Illustrated Catalogue.

Our interview appears in the new Booklet describing “The Design and Layout of ‘The Illustrated Catalogue’ “. This 16-page booklet is available freely as a pdf for quarto-size pages:

As a series of consecutive pages.
In foldable booklet form suitable for printing on 11 1/2 in. × 17 in. sheets.

Some of the background for preparing this ground-breaking publication is described in the “Interview with our Font & Layout Designer” (published in print on 25 September 2016 and online on 6 October 2016), with illustrations, and downloadable here.

For the progress and development of our Research Group Publications, please see our Publications. We invite your contributions, suggestions, and feedback.

*****

Tags: Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, Budny's Illustrated Catalogue, Manuscript Illumination, Medieval manuscripts
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A Leaf from the Office of the Dead

March 15, 2016 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

A Part of the Office of the Dead

from a 15th-century Book of Hours
made in Flanders
(perhaps at Bruges or Antwerp)
circa 1470

A single leaf, trimmed down in spoliation
to produce a decorated tidbit on its own
Circa 135 mm × 100 mm
< written area circa 66 × 50 mm >
Single column of 17 lines

Budny Handlist 12

Our series of posts by Mildred Budny on Manuscript Studies continues with a somber view of a detached leaf from the Office of the Dead in a gracefully decorated Book of Hours from Flanders. With this post, given the subject of the manuscript text, we also reflect wistfully on the passing of some friends, colleagues, and others dear to us. The occasion prompts us to offer a personal recollection of Jennifer O’Reilly (1943–2016).

Text and Layout

Manifestly the text on this detached leaf demonstrates that it forms part of the Office of the Dead. On its own, it is not exactly clear for which part of that Office this part of the text was intended to serve, mainly because there are no indications upon the leaf, and because the assigned practices for liturgical observance could vary considerably from place to place, custom to custom, and time to time.

Such is the nature of Books of Hours, a widely popular and personal genre of manuscripts or printed books in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. At least we know which part of that set of texts, that is, the Office of the Dead, to which this leaf pertained in its original setting, although we cannot be certain of its specifically intended purpose, that is, which part of that particular Office. Discovery of other parts of the original book might reveal such features more precisely. Meanwhile, let us see what we can see.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: 2002 British Museum Colloquium, Book of Hours, Detached Leaves, Jennifer O'Reilly, Josephine Edmonds Case, Manuscript Conservation, manuscript fragments, Manuscript Illumination, Office of the Dead, Swimming Lessons, Wedding Present
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Memorials

December 31, 2014 in Anniversary

Remembering

[Published on 31 December 2014, with updates.]

Considering the completion of the calendar year, in our landmark Anniversary Year of 2014, we recollect with sadness the Associates who have departed from this life during the year, and the Trustees and Associates who have thus departed across the years since our foundation both as an international scholarly society in 1990 and a nonprofit educational corporation in 1999. We remember these colleagues and friends with thanks and admiration.

This year is the first year, in the redesign of our official website, that we record those colleagues, sponsors, and friends of the Research Group in a special group honored respectfully ‘In Memoriam’. We aim to gather recollections of their presence, in respect and admiration.

DSCN1561 Stairway to Heaven Accessible If You Dare

*****

Vivien A. Law

[From Mildred Budny on 26 May 2021]

We continue to lament the passing of a beloved friend, colleague, and Trustee, Vivien A. Law (22 March 1954 – 19 February 2002). After her death, her widower, Sir Nicholas Shackleton (1937–2006), also a friend, asked me to return to Cambridge in 2006 so as to examine her archives, whilst he was preparing for his own rapid demise, and to give advice about their appropriate distribution.

As he put it, he as a scientist knew about the distribution of his own archives (for example to the Royal Society), but he knew “few humanists who had a comparable range and depth of interests as Vivien”. It wasn’t that she and I had the same interests, because we and they were to some extent different, but we shared an unusual range and depth for them.

It was disgraceful that her former supervisor, getting wind of my visit, took it upon himself to spread the word that I would be coming as a predator intent upon taking advantage of a widower losing control of his faculties and sense. That this gossiper conceived of, and embarked assiduously upon, this plan probably has more to do with his continuing contention with my former boss in Cambridge (by then dead), and a desire to take them out (still) on me as a handy target, than with Nick’s faculties or susceptibilities.

Vivien and I had been close friends for decades, well before I reached Cambridge in 1986 (her home since 1974), and more frequently afterward. We talked often about interests and issues well beyond the academic spheres, important as they were and are. Thus, I knew already about many of her interests and the events of her life — and from her own lips — before the obituaries revealed some (but not all) of them to a wider world.

For exploring her archives, Nick granted me access to all of them (after some appropriately probing questions). Thus, for example, I could read all her diaries (journals), which stretched across the decades, with very few gaps.

Vivien’s dedication to that journal-writing seems to have been as fervent and as steady as her mother’s, to judge by the mother’s correspondence. I keep the sole letter to me from Vivien’s mother, after Vivien’s death. The densely cramped lines of handwriting show that same dedication as in her many, many letters to her sole daughter. It became clear from that long correspondence that I knew from Vivien some of her own private, familial experiences which remained unknown to her mother. Because of that knowledge, I could venture to ask Nick about them, with further and poignant insights. Someday, with Nick’s ready encouragement at the time, I might record those insights.

It was a pleasure to read in Vivien’s diary the eloquent entry for the relevant year and date, regarding my move to Cambridge from London, “Milly is coming!”

Well I remember the telephone call, trans-Atlantic, one of many, as I was walking in my sunlit garden, and telling Vivien about the newly incorporated state of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (in 1999) as a nonprofit educational corporation in the United States, to which the Research Group had moved its principal base in 1994 after years in Cambridge. Vivien had been an Associate of the Research Group since soon after its formation at Corpus Christi College. In Cambridge, she contributed to our classes as well as our seminars on the Evidence of Manuscripts, during our work on a major research project on its Anglo-Saxon and Related Manuscripts. Her guidance for those classes, for directions of the Research Group activities over the years, and for all the grammatical and glossarial manuscripts in the Illustrated Catalogue, remains vivid in memory.

On that telephone call, I asked Vivien, as I had promised, if she would be willing to become a Trustee for the nonprofit educational corporation, founded in November 1999. She replied that, with the new diagnosis (which would, some years thence, carry her away), she was systematically shedding the commitments to various organisations, but, because she believed in our organisation and its mission, she accepted with alacrity and pleasure.

Over the next few years, I joined Vivien on her last visit to Montréal, intended as a deliberate form of leave-taking of the place where she had fondly attended school and college. On a couple of return trips to Cambridge, I would stay with Vivien and Nick, with treasured conversations at breakfast, Sunday lunch, and other moments.

It was another Trans-Atlantic telephone call, that Nick took care to telephone and report that she had died the day before. I moved outside to sit in the same garden, to watch the trees and sky as we talked about her, her death, and her life. A few months later, the Research Group accomplished its co-sponsored Colloquium at The British Museum (7–9 March 2002) on Form and Order in the Anglo-Saxon World. I dedicated my presentation to the memory of Vivien and another beloved teacher and friend, Helen Maguire Müller.

Vivien Law in her Garden in Cambridge, England,June 1996 Photograph © Mildred Budny

*****

Respectfully we remember those who have gone before us. It is an honor and a duty to remember them. So it must be. So it should be.

We thank you.

*****

Tags: Manuscript Illumination, Memorials, Passage of Time, People, Recollections, Remembrance
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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

The Bouquet List: A Gathering of Books

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

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.

The 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.

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.

*****

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.

*****

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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2014 Symposium on “Recollections of the Past”

July 15, 2014 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Bembino, Conference Announcement, Events

Recollections of the Past:
Editorial & Artistic Workshops
from Late Antiquity to Early Modernity & Beyond

Friday & Saturday 16 & 17 May 2014
138 Lewis Library
Princeton University

Save the Date Announcement for Symposium on "Recollections of the Past" (May 2015) in its completed version with border

“Save the Date” Announcement (complete)

RGME Symposium 2014 Program & Abstracts Page 1 with border

Symposium Program Page 1

Poster for "Recollections of the Past" Symposium (May 2014) with border

Symposium Poster

[First published on 15 July 2014, with updates. And now with the corrected Program Booklet:
RGME Symposium 2014 Program & abstracts corrected]

The “Save the Date” Announcement (Save the Date 16-17 May 2014) set the stage by describing the intentions and scope of the subject. To sum up:

This symposium explored the workings of workshops, as revealed through the traces of artists, craftsmen, scribes, authors, editors, printers, and patrons, across a wide range of subjects, regions, and materials, in transitions from classical antiquity and early Christianity through the long Middle Ages and thence to the early modern period and beyond. We seek to discern how these editorial agents of whatever kind shaped and reshaped materials — tangible and intangible — in transmitting the legacy of the past, often in the process to form works which perhaps seemed more viable in changing times, expectations, and systems of belief. Memory may hold a significant place among the materials, processes, and forces at work in the processes of collecting, shaping, and, in many cases, transforming complex bodies of evidence in a robust or precarious voyage from the past.

The Research Group on Manuscript Evidence warmly thank the Sponsors, Donors, and Contributors to the Symposium, which formed part of the celebrations for our 2014 Anniversary Year. Other celebrations have included our Sessions at the 2014 International Congress on Medieval Studies in May, along with an Anniversary Reception. Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: bokes of antiquity, Books of Hours, Caroline Lybbe Powys, Carolingian Studies, Church History, Codex Amiatinus, Courtly Love Ivories, Department of Art & Archaeology, Domestic Grand Tour, Early Modern Studies, Editorial Practices, erasable notebooks, Eusebian Canon Tables, History of Cambridge University, History of Workshops, Iconoclasm studies, Index of Christian Art, John Caius, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript studies, Matthew Parker, Medieval Studies, Monkwearmouth-Jarrow, periodization of history, Princeton University, Qal'at Sim'an, Romanesque Sculpture, Saint-Sernin of Toulouse, Syriac Cave of Treasures
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2014 Congress Report

June 25, 2014 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Bembino, Conference Announcement, ICMS, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo

49th International Congress on Medieval Studies
An Anniversary Year

8-11 May 2014

[Published on 25 June 2014, with updates]

David Sorenson and Donncha MacGabhann examine manuscript materials

Photography by Mildred Budny

Our sessions at the 2014 Congress formed part of the celebrations for our anniversary year. 2014 marks our 15th anniversary as a nonprofit educational organization and our 25th anniversary as an international scholarly society. At the Congress, we both sponsored sessions and co-sponsored sessions, as before, with the Societas Magica, in the eighth year of this co-sponsorship, and, for the first time, with the Center for the Study of Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Florida. As is our practice, various of our Trustees, Officers, and Associates participated in these and other sessions at the Congress.

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Tags: Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, Assenids, Book of Kells, Carolingian Manuscripts, Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Florida, Datini Archives, Early Ottoman Empire, Ethiopic Manuscripts, Gems, History of Canon Law, History of Magic, History of Paper, House Style, Individual Style, Islamic Manuscripts, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript studies, Medieval manuscripts, Medieval Music, Medieval Writing Materials, Palaeography, Second Bulgarian Empire, Societas Magica, Talismans
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Lead the People Forward: The Contemporaneity of the Medieval Iberian Haggadah

Zoey Kambour, MA

15 February, 2022

“Lead the People Forward”

Notes

Acknowledgments

Biography

Bibliography

Figures

“From Cover to Cover”

Activities Devoted to Manuscripts, Early Printed Books & Beyond From Collecting & Cataloguing to Deciphering & Beholding

2020 Spring Symposium of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Princeton University Friday & Saturday 13–14 March 2020

What We Planned

Sponsors

On the Road

Cover Story

Speakers and Moderators (in alphabetical order)

The Aim

The Plan

Day 1

Friday 13 March: Classes, Workshops, Discussion, and a Reception

1) 12:00–1:00, 12:00–1:30, or 12:00–2:00pm (By Invitation) Seminar Room of the Index of Medieval Art

2–3) 1:00–2:45 pm or 3:00–4:45 pm Classes on Site at Firestone Library (Registration Required and Space Limited)

4) Session 3:00–5:00 pm 106 McCormick Hall

5) Reception

Day 2

Saturday 14 March: Sessions, Refreshments, and Reception

106 McCormick Hall and its Lobby

6) 10:00 am – 5:30 pm

7) Reception (5:30–7:00 pm)

The Schedule

Registration

Maps and Directions

Revisiting Beloved Ground

A New Look

#turnedthepages

Center Stage

Revisiting the Territory

A Part of the Office of the Dead

A single leaf, trimmed down in spoliation to produce a decorated tidbit on its own Circa 135 mm × 100 mm < written area circa 66 × 50 mm > Single column of 17 lines

Text and Layout

Remembering

Vivien A. Law

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”

Recollections of the Past: Editorial & Artistic Workshops from Late Antiquity to Early Modernity & Beyond

Friday & Saturday 16 & 17 May 2014 138 Lewis Library Princeton University

49th International Congress on Medieval Studies An Anniversary Year

8-11 May 2014

Lead the People Forward:
The Contemporaneity
of the Medieval Iberian Haggadah

Activities Devoted to Manuscripts, Early Printed Books & Beyond
From Collecting & Cataloguing to Deciphering & Beholding

2020 Spring Symposium
of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Princeton University
Friday & Saturday 13–14 March 2020

1) 12:00–1:00, 12:00–1:30, or 12:00–2:00pm (By Invitation)
Seminar Room of the Index of Medieval Art

2–3) 1:00–2:45 pm or 3:00–4:45 pm
Classes on Site at Firestone Library (Registration Required and Space Limited)

4) Session 3:00–5:00 pm
106 McCormick Hall

A single leaf, trimmed down in spoliation
to produce a decorated tidbit on its own
Circa 135 mm × 100 mm
< written area circa 66 × 50 mm >
Single column of 17 lines

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

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

The Aim
“Settled Dust Could Give Clarity of Vision”

Recollections of the Past:
Editorial & Artistic Workshops
from Late Antiquity to Early Modernity & Beyond

Friday & Saturday 16 & 17 May 2014
138 Lewis Library
Princeton University

49th International Congress on Medieval Studies
An Anniversary Year