• News
    • News & Views
    • Reviews
    • Highlights
  • Blogs
    • Manuscript Studies
      • Manuscript Studies: Contents List
    • International Congress on Medieval Studies
      • Abstracts of Congress Papers
        • Abstracts of Papers Listed by Author
        • Abstracts of Papers Listed by Year
  • About
    • Mission
    • People
      • Mildred Budny — Her Page
      • Adelaide Bennett Hagens
    • Activities
      • Events
      • Congress Activities
        • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
          • Panels at the M-MLA Convention
        • Co-sponsored Conference Sessions (2006‒)
    • History
      • Seals, Matrices & Documents
      • Genealogies & Archives
    • Contact Us
    • RGME Privacy Policy Statement
  • Bembino
    • Multi-Lingual Bembino
  • Congress
    • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
    • Co-sponsored Conference Sessions (2006‒)
    • Abstracts of Congress Papers
      • Abstracts Listed by Author
      • Abstracts Listed by Year
    • Kalamazoo Archive
    • Panels at the M-MLA Convention
      • Abstracts of Papers for the M-MLA Convention
  • Events
    • The Research Group Speaks: The Series
    • Seminars, Workshops, Colloquia & Symposia (1989–)
      • Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
      • Symposia on ‘The Transmission of the Bible’
      • The New Series
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Program: The Roads Taken
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Registration
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Registration Open
    • Abstracts of Papers for Events
      • Abstracts of Papers for Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
      • Abstracts of Papers for Symposia, Workshops & Colloquia
    • Receptions & Parties
    • Business Meetings
    • Photographic Exhibitions & Master Classes
    • Events Archive
  • ShelfLife
    • Journal Description
    • ShelfMarks: The RGME-Newsletter
    • Publications
      • “Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge” (1997)
        • Mildred Budny, ‘Catalogue’
        • The Illustrated Catalogue (1997)
      • The Illustrated Handlist
      • Semi-Official Counterfeiting in France 1380-1422
      • No Snap Decisions: Challenges of Manuscript Photography
    • History and Design of Our Website
  • Galleries
    • Watermarks & the History of Paper
    • Galleries: Contents List
    • Scripts on Parade
    • Texts on Parade
      • Latin Documents & Cartularies
      • New Testament Leaves in Old Armenian
    • Posters on Display
    • Layout Designs
  • Donations and Contributions
    • 2019 Anniversary Appeal
    • Orders
  • Links
    • Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases: A Handlist of Links
    • Manuscripts & Rare Books
    • Maps, Plans & Drawings
    • Seals, Seal-Matrices & Documents

  • News
    • News & Views
    • Reviews
    • Highlights
  • Blogs
    • Manuscript Studies
      • Manuscript Studies: Contents List
    • International Congress on Medieval Studies
      • Abstracts of Congress Papers
        • Abstracts of Papers Listed by Author
        • Abstracts of Papers Listed by Year
  • About
    • Mission
    • People
      • Mildred Budny — Her Page
      • Adelaide Bennett Hagens
    • Activities
      • Events
      • Congress Activities
        • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
          • Panels at the M-MLA Convention
        • Co-sponsored Conference Sessions (2006‒)
    • History
      • Seals, Matrices & Documents
      • Genealogies & Archives
    • Contact Us
    • RGME Privacy Policy Statement
  • Bembino
    • Multi-Lingual Bembino
  • Congress
    • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
    • Co-sponsored Conference Sessions (2006‒)
    • Abstracts of Congress Papers
      • Abstracts Listed by Author
      • Abstracts Listed by Year
    • Kalamazoo Archive
    • Panels at the M-MLA Convention
      • Abstracts of Papers for the M-MLA Convention
  • Events
    • The Research Group Speaks: The Series
    • Seminars, Workshops, Colloquia & Symposia (1989–)
      • Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
      • Symposia on ‘The Transmission of the Bible’
      • The New Series
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Program: The Roads Taken
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Registration
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Registration Open
    • Abstracts of Papers for Events
      • Abstracts of Papers for Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
      • Abstracts of Papers for Symposia, Workshops & Colloquia
    • Receptions & Parties
    • Business Meetings
    • Photographic Exhibitions & Master Classes
    • Events Archive
  • ShelfLife
    • Journal Description
    • ShelfMarks: The RGME-Newsletter
    • Publications
      • “Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge” (1997)
        • Mildred Budny, ‘Catalogue’
        • The Illustrated Catalogue (1997)
      • The Illustrated Handlist
      • Semi-Official Counterfeiting in France 1380-1422
      • No Snap Decisions: Challenges of Manuscript Photography
    • History and Design of Our Website
  • Galleries
    • Watermarks & the History of Paper
    • Galleries: Contents List
    • Scripts on Parade
    • Texts on Parade
      • Latin Documents & Cartularies
      • New Testament Leaves in Old Armenian
    • Posters on Display
    • Layout Designs
  • Donations and Contributions
    • 2019 Anniversary Appeal
    • Orders
  • Links
    • Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases: A Handlist of Links
    • Manuscripts & Rare Books
    • Maps, Plans & Drawings
    • Seals, Seal-Matrices & Documents

Log in

Archives

Featured Posts

"Centered". Photograph Ⓒ 2014 Mildred Budny. Image of Dew at the center of Sedum.
2023 Autumn Symposium “Between Earth and Sky”
“Bridges” for our 2024 Anniversary Year, with a Call for Papers for the 2024 IMC at Leeds
Episode 13: Bridget Whearty on “Digital Codicology”
Berlin, Gemäldegalerie. Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/1498 - 1543), oil on oak wood. Portrait of the merchant George Gisze, 1532. Image via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.
2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Call for Papers
2024 International Medieval Congress at Leeds: Call for Papers
Martin, Slovakia, Slovak National Library, Fragment of the Picatrix, circa 1400 CE. Image Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Episode 12: Vajra Regan on Engraved Magic and Astrological Images
Rhythmomachy Simulation (Player 1's turn). Image © 2023 Michael A. Conrad.
Episode 11: Michael Allman Conrad on “Gamified Numbers”
Façade of the Celsus library, in Ephesus, near Selçuk, west Turkey. Photograph (1910): Benh LIEU SONG, via Creative Commons.
2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program
Photograph of the stems and white blooms of Snowdrops emerging from a patch of bare ground in the sunlight. Photograph Ⓒ Mildred Budny.
2023 Spring Symposium: “From the Ground Up”
2023 Pre-Symposium on “Intrepid Borders” before the Spring Symposium
Barbara Heritage on Charlotte Brontë’s Fair Copy of “Shirley”
ShelfMarks Issue 2 (Volume 2, Number 1 for Winter 2022–2023)
Two Pages from a Roman Breviary in Gothic Script
Donncha MacGabhann at work on his close study of letter forms in the Book of Kells. Photograph via his publisher, Sidestone Press (Leiden 2022)
Donncha MacGabhann on the Making of “The Book of Kells”
2022 Autumn Symposium Program Booklet
The Weber Leaf from “The Warburg Missal” (Otto Ege Manuscript 22)
Folio 4 with Latin Blessings for Holy Water and an Exorcism for Salt
Portfolio 93 of Ege’s “Famous Books in Eight Centuries” in the Collection of Richard Weber
Two Ege Leaves and Two Ege Labels in the Collection of Birgitt G. Lopez

You are browsing the Blog for Manuscript Photography

Donncha MacGabhann on the Making of “The Book of Kells”

November 1, 2022 in Announcements, Manuscript Studies, Research Group Speaks (The Series)

The Research Group Speaks
Episode 9
Saturday 19 November 2022 online

“The Book of Kells:  A Masterwork Revealed”

Donncha MacGabhann at work on his close study of letter forms in the Book of Kells. Photograph via his publisher, Sidestone Press (Leiden 2022)

Donncha MacGabhann at work on his close study of letter forms in the Book of Kells. Photograph via his publisher, Sidestone Press (Leiden 2022)

– An informal Interview/Conversation with Donncha MacGabhann, Associate of the RGME, about his newly published book

[Posted on 31 October 2022 by Mildred Budny, with updates]

For Episode 9 in the online series of The Research Group Speaks, we present an informal Conversation or Interview with the author about his new book on The Book of Kells:  The Making of a Masterwork (Leiden, 2022).

The Book has emerged from Donncha’s detailed study for the Ph. D. dissertation (London, 2016), as well as his own experience as an artist.  For our Episode, he will tell us about the making of his Book on the making of the Book of Kells . . .

To Register for the event, see Below.

The Book of Kells

One of the chief treasures of the Library of Trinity College Dublin (since at least 1661), and the subject of widespread fame, the Book of Kells might need no introduction.

The Long Room of the Old Library, Trinity College Dublin, seen from the entrance (2015). Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC BY-SA 3.0.

  • Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS A. I. [58], the Codex Cennanensis, now comprising 340 vellum folios, bound (since 1953) in four volumes, one for each Gospel.

The online Library catalogue offers concise descriptions.  About the contents, for example, some essential facts:

The Book of Kells (Leabhar Cheanannais, Trinity College Dublin MS 58) contains the four Gospels in Latin based on the Vulgate text which St Jerome [circa 342 – circa 347 – 30 September 420] completed in 384AD, intermixed with readings from the earlier Old Latin translation. The gospel texts are prefaced by other texts, including “canon tables”, or concordances of gospel passages common to two or more the Evangelists; summaries of the gospel narratives (Breves causae); and prefaces characterizing the Evangelists (Argumenta).

A different approach can be found, for example, in a concise guide for the curious:

  • Ten Things You Should Know about the Book of Kells, or the Book of Columba
    — along with, say, 10 Things You Should Know About The Gutenberg Bible.

Have a Look:

  • The Book itself, in online facsimile: Book of Kells. IE TCD MS 58
  • Its introduction: Book of Kells

For my part, one of the principal highlights — not the only one — of my long study of early medieval manuscripts from the British Isles, their companions, and their contexts (for example, British Library, Manuscript Royal 1 E. vi: The Anatomy of an Anglo-Saxon Bible Fragment and Deciphering the Art of Interlace), was the opportunity to examine directly, turning the pages, two volumes of the Book of Kells. That experience, over some days, augmented and amplified the observations of the volumes on display, along with other treasures, in the imposing Long Hall of the Library. The opportunity, with permission, to look at the Book itself took place in the Director’s office, with the clear light of natural light during an unusually dry summer with cloudless skies. Memorable indeed.  #turnedthepages.

A few years later, while part of the Book came on tour among the travelling Treasures of Ireland (1982 and 1983), I could see part of it again, in museums in Paris and in New York, under subdued light and behind the glass case. Different views, same astonishing monument.

Very, very many people can say that they have seen the Book of Kells.  Attracted by its fame, visitors to the Library, where it has been displayed since the nineteenth century, number on average some 500,000 each year.  On her visit, Queen Victoria (1819–1901) was encouraged to sign it — as an extraordinary form of ‘Visitors’ Book’.

Over the centuries, many have commented upon the Book of Kells.  They include scholars, historians, palaeographers, art historians, authors, artists, and others.  Some observers have taken inspiration from it in multiple ways, verbal and visual, to form creative works of their own, ranging from, say, Finnegans Wake (1939) to The Secret of Kells (2009).

Donncha MacGabhann’s long-term study, considering detail after detail of script and ornament, of the original Book of Kells as a whole brings fresh views of its process of creation, as the scribes worked their way across the pages and into an accomplishment truly worthy of curiosity, admiration, and wonder.  Aware of Donncha’s study for some years, I have looked forward to his book revealing the results of his research.

Donncha MacGabhann’s Book on Kells

About Donncha, see, for example,

  • Donncha MacGabhann Curriculum Vitae
  • Curriculum Vitae.

His Book, just about to appear in print, examines

  • The Book of Kells. A Masterwork Revealed: Creators, Collaboration, and Campaigns
    (Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2022).
    Paperback ISBN: 9789464261226 | Hardback ISBN: 9789464261233 |
    Ebook only (pdf) and Ebook (read online for free)Format: 210x280mm | 324 pp. | Language: English | 11 illus. (bw) | 109 illus. (fc) |
    Keywords: Book of Kells; insular manuscripts; insular art; palaeography; Early Medieval gospel books; Early Medieval Christianity; art history; calligraphy |

 

From the publisher comes this description:

Front Cover of Donncha MacGabhann, “The Book of Kells: A Masterwork Revealed” (2022).

Sublime calligraphy, marvelous art, and amazing initials, have charmed and captivated the audience of the Book of Kells for over twelve hundred years. This remarkable illuminated Gospel book attracts the attention of scholars as well as those more generally interested in the fabulous artifacts of the past.

Everybody knows it was made by an extensive team of scribes and artists. Donncha MacGabhann knew that too. However, he was certain that a thorough examination could clearly identify the various contributions of its creators.

His life and work as an artist and teacher inspired the belief that a close visual study could solve some of its enduring puzzles. The deeper he delved, the more he was convinced that Kells is entirely the work of two individuals. This evolved into a novel paradigm through which he came to know and understand the manuscript. Following years of meticulous research, this book tells the story of Kells’ two Masters and their collaboration to create a Gospel book of unprecedented magnificence. Most poignantly, it reveals the struggle of the lone survivor of the two-man team to attempt the completion of their magnum opus.

The most important outcomes of this book go far beyond the simple attribution of work to different hands. Much more significantly, it affords insights into the imagination which inspired its creators, especially the unique vision of Kells’ great Scribe-Artist. Collectively, these new perspectives reveal a previously unknown ‘Book of Kells, ‘ one which, as it were, has remained hidden in plain sight.

Descriptions of Donncha’s book and its contents, approach, discoveries, and significance appear among various booksellers, as with

  • https://www.bookdepository.com/Book-Kells-Donncha-MacGabhann/9789464261226

The Process of Research and Discovery

In Donncha’s own words, as the research unfolded:

Dublin, Trinity College, MS A. 1 (58), folio 34r. Chi-Rho Initial Page (Matthew 1:18). Image via Wikimedia Commons; Public Domain in the US.

Key research interests include Insular palaeography and illumination. My current focus is to extend and develop the research which was the basis for my PhD (2016). My thesis investigation was concentrated on the makers and the making of The Book of Kells. This provides the first in-depth and comprehensive analysis of both the illumination and the scribal work in the manuscript.

My research was significantly informed by the experience gained in my career as an Artist and Art-Teacher. Complementary to the more traditional modes of academic enquiry this enabled me to draw on a skill-set which was integral to the development of my research methodology. This methodology of close visual analysis was central to my approach.

My immediate aim is communicate, through publication, the results of my doctoral research to the scholarly community. It is also my intention to extend the application of the methodology developed in my thesis to a number of other Insular manuscripts and to consider the implications of the revision of hands in the material culture of the Insular world more broadly. (Donncha MacGabhann)

Donncha’s Ph.D. dissertation is freely available for download:

  • The making of the Book of Kells: two Masters and two Campaigns (Doctoral thesis, University of London, 2016)  https://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/6920/ (via Creative Commons)

Its Abstract:

This thesis investigates the number of individuals involved in the making of the Book of Kells. It demonstrates that only two individuals, identified as the Scribe-Artist and the Master-Artist, were involved in its creation. It also demonstrates that the script is the work of a single individual – the Scribe-Artist. More specific questions are answered regarding the working relationships between the book’s creators and the sequence of production. This thesis also demonstrates that the manuscript was created over two separate campaigns of work. The comprehensive nature of this study focuses on all aspects of the manuscript including, script, initials, display-lettering, decoration and illumination.

Detail from Front Cover of Donncha MacGabhann, “The Book of Kells: A Masterwork Revealed” (2022): Black-and-white reproduction by the author of the ornamented center of the Chi-Rho Initial Page (Dublin, Trinity College, MS 58, folio 34r).

Previews

We met Donncha when he spoke for the RMGE about a facet of the Ph.D. research on the manuscript for one of our Sessions at the 49th International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 2014).  The Session considered “Individual Style or House Style?  Assessing Scribal Contributions, Artistic Production, and Creative Achievements”.

Donncha’s paper examined the scribal uses of two forms or grades of late-antique and early-medieval script, Half-Uncial and Uncial, for the letter a at line-endings, where options for compression and variation could call for choice and artistic expression.

Half-Uncial a and Uncial a at Line-Ends:
The Division of Hands in the Book of Kells
and an Insight
into the ‘Calligraphic Imagination’ Evident in the Script

The abstract for Donncha’s paper appears on our website: MacGabhann 2014 Congress.

At the Congress, although we had corresponded earlier, we could meet Donncha, learn about his careful studies, his approaches to the creation and understanding of forms of the written word, and his observations about the original materials, in manuscript and in print, offered for display at some of our sessions.

David Sorenson and Donncha MacGabhann examine manuscript materials

David Sorenson and Donnach MacGabhann examine manuscript materials after the RGME Writing Materials Session at the 2014 Congress. Photography by Mildred Budny.

Several papers published in the course of the research spell out the methodological approach.  For example,

Palaeographer Erika Eisenlohr has stated that ‘the similarity or dissimilarity of hands in Kells has so far mainly been based on more general impressions of the scripts’ (1994). My research attempts a more comprehensive investigation of the evidence including illuminated pages, script and illumination of the canon tables, mise-en-page, punctuation, display script, decorated initials, regular script and elaborations to the script.

— Donncha MacGabhann, Abstract for “The et-ligature in the Book of Kells (Revealing the ‘calligraphic imagination’ of its great scribe)” (2017), in Conor Newman, Mags Manion, and Fiona Gavin, eds., Islands in a Global Context. Proceedings of the seventh Conference on Insular Art, held at the National University of Ireland, Galway, 16–20 July, 2014 (Dublin, 2017), pp. 138–48.

The Script(s) of Kells

Discussion of the varieties of script, ornamented letter forms, and other forms of ornament in the Book of Kells continues in its own right over time.  It also forms, or should form, an integral part in an ongoing consideration of many features of the book, both individually and in combination.  That is:  the various texts (Gospel texts, their companion texts including prefaces, summaries, and canon tables with numerals and titles, as well as added texts such as Irish charters), illustrations, canon arcades and frameworks, scribal characteristics, writing materials (animal skins, inks, pigments, their binding agents, traces of layout marks, and so on), layers of accretion, condition, sewing patterns, binding history, library history, layout, design, artistry, and more.

Many features figure, to varying degrees, in assessments of the likely place and date of production of the manuscript.  Those assessments may remain open to exploration and refinement, as research advances, methods of exploration expand, attitudes may direct, and discoveries emerge.

Reproductions, Photographic and Pre-Photographic

Poster for lecture on 'Manuscripts versus Photography: Image and "Imago" in a Digital Age' by Mildred Budny at Princeton University on 19 November 2010. Photograph by Mildred Budny of MS 10, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Bibliothèque des Annonciades,reproduced by permission.

Poster, designed by the RGME, for a lecture on 19 November 2020. Image: Photograph by Mildred Budny of Boulogne-sur-mer, Bibliothèque des Annonciades, MS 11, reproduced by permission.

With restricted access nowadays to the treasured original, and with the proliferation of digital means of reproduction and dissemination, close study of the multiple features of the manuscript would mostly rest upon consultation of such reproductions, however high in quality or ‘fidelity’.  That those reproductive materials would, in no small measure, determine, affect, or direct the nature of the forms of study — as well as, it may be, the interpretations of that (indirect) evidence — should be evident.

Such factors in the study of manuscripts under current, prevailing, conditions in the age of photographic reproduction and the age of the internet remain a subject of considerable interest for the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence.  For example:

  • Mildred Budny, “No Snap Decisions:  Challenges of Manuscript Photography”.  Paper delivered at the Session on “Imaging Manuscripts for the Twenty-First Century:  Photographs and Beyond” (1994), sponsored by the RGME at the 1994 International Congress on Medieval Studies.
    Published, with its Abstract, Text, and Images, here.
  • “Manuscripts versus Photography:  Image and Imago in a Digital Age”.  Lecture for the Program in Medieval Studies, Princeton University (19 November 2010).

Our events continue to consider such factors of manuscript studies, whether as, perhaps, part-and-parcel, bread-and-butter, or meat-and-potatoes.  That is, as Food for Thought.

As always, our interest in the processes of production and the people behind the books, keenly explored in cases of the medieval objects, extends also to the processes which underpin, sustain, and shape the studies themselves of those materials.  These interests are manifest in many RGME activities, as with continuing explorations of relationships between “Manuscripts and Photography” in Seminars, Workshops, Conference Sessions, and Symposia; and in Episodes of our series wherein The Research Group Speaks.  On such occasions, we might have opportunity to hear the authors of close studies of manuscripts or other materials speak about the origins, progress, and processes of their research, as well as its results.  Such is the case for this Episode with Donncha MacGabhann, as his new book, long in the making, reaches publication.

Drawings of elements in the Book of Kells — as appear among Donncha’s figures — belong to a venerable tradition which reaches back to pre-photographic means of reproduction.  Notable examples in that tradition include images from the manuscript carefully prepared by the observant entymologist and antiquarian John Obadiah Westwood (1805–1893).  Examples appear in these of Westwood’s publications:

  • Palaeographia sacra pictoria: Being a series of illustrations of the ancient versions of the Bible, copied from illuminated manuscripts, executed between the fourth and sixteenth centuries (London, 1845)
  • Facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon and Irish Manuscripts (London, 1868)
    Also, in excerpts: Facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon and Irish Manuscripts (London, 1868)

Close examination fostered by line-by-line reproduction, from one surface to another, may develop a keen awareness of specific details, in much the same way that detailed verbal descriptions can do, as with a catalogue or ‘inventory’ of features within a manuscript (or other monument).  I myself learned the lasting value of preparing such descriptions — from the originals, aided by my photographic reproductions including macro-photography — for features of manuscripts in the Illustrated Catalogue, one of the co-publications of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence.

From observations of the evidence, by various means and methods, the interpretations may follow, redirect, or revise.

In the new book, the choice of methodology of palaeographical examination, centered upon photographic reproductions and drawings, focuses upon excerpts of specimen letters and initials.  Arrayed on these pages (printed or digital) in groups or rows of related letter-forms, the specimens stand removed or isolated from the ebb-and-flow of their naturally-occurring lines and columns of running texts upon their pages, and their openings, across the unfolding of the original book as a whole.

Mostly at a distance perforce from that original (even when viewed through the glass case of its exhibited pages), and very exceptionally in a direct encounter, we might find ways variously to imagine, to ‘reconstruct’, or to recollect, the process of turning its very pages and sensing the feel of the width of its leaves as their edges are turned.

Donncha’s Book on The Book of Kells
in our Episode for 19 November 2022

The publication of Donncha MacGabhann’s book is expected on 31 October 2022.  The book can be ordered in print and pdf forms from the publisher and other booksellers.  From the publisher’s website, it can be read online free of charge.  See:

  • The Book of Kells. A Masterwork Revealed: Creators, Collaboration, and Campaigns

Episode 9 in the online series of “The Research Group Speaks” is planned for Saturday 19 November 2022, via Zoom, at 12 pm EST (GMT – 5) for about 1 1/2 hours, with discussion and Q&A.  You are welcome to join us.

Registration for the Episode

If you wish to attend, please register here:

  • The Research Group Speaks, 9: Donncha MacGabhann on Making the Book of Kells

If you have questions or issues with the registration process, please contact director@manuscriptevidence.org.

Future Episodes

Future Episodes are planned.  See

  • “The Research Group Speaks”: The Series.

Suggestion Box

Please leave your Comments or questions here, Contact Us, or visit

  • our FaceBook Page
  • our Twitter Feed (@rgme_mss)
  • our Blog on Manuscript Studies and its Contents List

Donations and contributions, in funds or in kind, are welcome and easy to give.  See Contributions and Donations.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Lisbon, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga: The mid 15th-century Saint Vincent Panels, attributed to Nuno Gonçalves. Image (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Nuno_Gon%C3%A7alves._Paineis_de_S%C3%A3o_Vicente_de_Fora.jpg) via Creative Commons.

*****

Front Cover of Donncha MacGabhann, “The Book of Kells: A Masterwork Revealed” (2022).

*****

Tags: Book of Kells, Donncha MacGabhann, Early Medieval Gospel Books, early medieval manuscripts, Finnegans Wake, Manuscript Photography, Manuscript studies, Medieval manuscripts, Palaeography, The Research Group Speaks, The Secret of Kells, Trinity College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin MS A 1 [58]
No Comments »

2022 Spring and Autumn Symposia

March 2, 2022 in International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Manuscript Studies, Research Group Speaks (The Series), Uncategorized

Spring and Autumn Symposia 2022
2 April and 15 October

2020 Symposium "From Cover to Cover" Poster 2

2020 Symposium Poster 2

The Research Group prepares a pair of Symposia in 2022. In this way, we return to our series of Symposia (formerly held in person). The series underwent an interruption with the cancelled 2020 Spring Symposium. That Symposium was planned for subjects extending From Cover to Cover:  Activities Dedicated to Manuscripts, Early Printed Materials & Beyond, From Collecting & Cataloguing to Deciphering & Beholding.  It has its record in the illustrated Program Booklet, with Abstracts of the planned presentations and workshops.  Its core and its promise inspire this renewal.

This year, each Symposium in the pair is designed as a one-day event, with sessions and workshops of about 1 and 1/2 hours, giving scope for discussion. The dates are set for Saturday 2 April and Saturday 15 October (The “Sweetest Day”). The Spring Symposium will be held online by Zoom. The Autumn Symposium would be held online, but, conditions permitting, it might be hybrid, that is, partly in person, as well as online.

These events, by request, flow in addition to — and partly from — our other activities during the year:

1) Continuing Episodes in the online series of The Research Group Speaks (2021–)

  • https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/the-research-group-speaks-the-series/

2) Our four sponsored and c0-sponsored Congress Sessions at the 57th International Congress on Medieval Studies (online) in May

  • https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2022-international-congress-on-medieval-studies-program
    (Abstracts of the Papers are included).

“Structures of Knowledge” (Spring)
and “Supports for Knowledge” (Autumn)

The interlinked pair of Spring and Autumn Symposia examine themes of Structured Knowledge.

Some proposed presentations at these Symposia offer refreshed materials which had been planned for the cancelled 2020 Spring Symposium.

  • See https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2020-spring-symposium-save-the-date, with a published Program Booklet including illustrations and Abstracts.
Sessions under consideration include approaches to databases and library catalogs; specific case studies and projects; issues relating to reproductions and display, research and teaching, and more.

A Monk Reflects Upon the Text. Eugene, Oregon, University of Oregon, Knight Library, MS 027, folio 34v, detail. Latin Decretals of Pope Gregory IX. Rome, 1290, folio 34v.

For example:

  • “Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases, Continued (Parts II and III)”
    — building upon our Roundtable in February on Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases, Part I.
  • “The Living Library”
  • “History and Uses of Paper”
  • “Hybrid Books, I and II”
  • “Manuscripts, Works of Art, Photography, and Facsimiles, I and II”
  • “Teaching with Manuscripts”
  • “Pattern in and on Books”
  • Etc.

Spring Symposium
(2 April 2022 online)

[Now see 2022 Spring Symposium on “Structures of Knowledge”]

Speakers and respondents for the Spring Symposium include Phillip Bernhardt-House, Linde M. Brocato, Mildred Budny, Katharine C. Chandler, Barbara Williams Ellertson, Howard German, Hannah Goeselt, Thomas E. Hill, Eric J. Johnson, Zoey Kambour, David Porreca, Jessica L. Savage, Ronald Smeltzer, and David W. Sorenson.
Presentations examine such subjects as:
  • “The Warburg Institute Library: Where Idiosyncracy Meets User-Friendliness”
  • “Psyche’s Library:  Reading the Library as a Text Illuminated by the Cupid and Psyche Tapestries in the Frederick Thompson Memorial Library at Vassar College“
  • a collector’s view of a series of limited-edition fine-printed publications in mixed media on esoteric subjects, with accompanying amulets and related materials
  • medieval scribes’ and readers’ responses to the text in a copy of the Latin Decretals of Pope Gregory IX (University of Oregon, Knight Library, MS 027), formerly owned by the Abbey of San Bartolomeo di Azzano d’Asti
  • experiences in “Teaching Cataloging Today”, with an Update on the DACT (Digital Analysis of Chant Transmission) Fragments Campaign (https://dact-chant.ca/ ) and Controlled Vocabularies for the Fragmentarium (https://fragmentarium.ms/ ) and CANTUS Chant (https://cantus.uwaterloo.ca) databases.
  • Cover Page for Sorenson (2020 Spring Symposium Paper as a Draft For Comment), with an array of illustrations and the title "Introduction to Indian Manuscripts"

    Cover Page for Sorenson (2020 as Draft for Comment).

    a discussion about the published “Draft for Feedback” from David W. Sorenson’s planned 2020 Spring Symposium paper on An Introduction to Indian Manuscripts for the NonSpecialist: Draft for Feedback, with updates

Suggestions for Reading and Browsing

  • Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases: A Handlist of Links.
  • David W. Sorenson, An Introduction to Indian Manuscripts for the NonSpecialist: Draft for Feedback (2020).
  • _____, Paper-Moulds and Paper Traditions: Draft for Comment (2020).
  • [Mildred Budny and David Sorenson,] Watermarks and the History of Paper (2020–).

Vassar College, Frederick Thompson Memorial Library, Entry, Ceiling and Gobelin Tapestry Series.

Autumn Symposium
(15 October online or hybrid)

Plans for the Autumn Symposium develop some of these themes, and add more.

See 2022 Autumn Symposium on Supports for Knowledge.

Watch this space.

And There Is More . . .

Workshops, Webinars, Interviews, etc.

Subjects for episodes for The Research Group Speaks include, by request, a workshop to follow up the episode on How to be Indiana Jones in the Catalog (December 2021), with a demonstration by Linde M. Brocato:
  • “How to be Tarzan in the Catalog” (with audience requests invited ahead of time).

A Pointer to the Text. Eugene, Oregon, University of Oregon, MS 027, Latin Decretals of Pope Gregory IX, folio 3r, detail: manicle with an extended forefinger and flounced cuff.

RGME at the 2022 ICMS

Note that the RGME activities (4 Sessions and our Open Business Meeting) at the Kalamazoo Congress (online in May 2022) will provide more ways to announce the Autumn Symposium and the series of “The Research Group Speaks”, to plan further activities, and to gather their audiences.

  • See https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2022-international-congress-on-medieval-studies-program
    (Abstracts of the Papers are included).

Pre-Congress Business Meeting

Like 2021, before the online Congress in May, the RGME will precede its Open Business Meeting online at the Congress with a Pre-Congress Business Meeting, likewise online.  Thus it may gather participants from within Congress-goers and beyond, so as to prepare for the planning in the Congress Business Meeting, for example about which Sessions the RGME might wish to propose for its sponsorship and co-sponsorship at the 2023 Congress.

More details about events will follow. Watch this space.

Woodcut Illustration for the First Sunday of Advent in "Postilla" (Lyons, 1527). Photograph by Mildred Budny

Creation. Woodcut Illustration for the First Sunday of Advent (Postilla, 1527). Photograph Mildred Budny.

*****

Do you have suggestions for subjects? Please let us know.

Would you like to help with organizing the events, presenting contributions to them, preparing our publications, engaging in our research projects, and volunteering as interns?

Would you like to donate to our mission and activities, in funds and/or in kind? Suggestions about methods, causes, and purposes are described for Donations and Contributions.

Please leave your Comments below, Contact Us, and visit our FaceBook Page. We look forward to hearing from you.

*****

 

Tags: Catalogues & Metadata & Databases, Manuscript Photography, Pattern in and on Books, RGME Symposia, Structured Knowledge, Structures of Knowledge, Supports for Knowledge, Teaching with Manuscripts, The Living Library, Warburg Institute Library
No Comments »

Say Cheese

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

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

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

[First published on 21 May 2017, with updates]

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

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

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

Face Front

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

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

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

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

Face of the document.

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

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

1530 document from Vienne. Reproduced by permission

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

Closer Up

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

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

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

Now the right-hand half:

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

Right-hand Half. Reproduced by permission.

What Up?

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

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

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

Way to Go

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

Piece of Cake?  Piece of Cheese?

Slice of Brie. Photograph by Coyau via Wikipedia Commons.

Slice of Brie. Photograph by Coyau via Wikipedia Commons.

Over to you.  Please let us know your comments.

*****

Next stop:  More Manuscripts, Of Course.

Keep sight of the Contents List for this Blog.

*****

Update July 2020

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

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

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

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

*****

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

Seminar on the Evidence of Manuscripts (September 1990)

October 4, 2016 in Seminars on Manuscript Evidence

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

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

Invitation Letter for 28 September 1990

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

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

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

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

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

*****

The Subject

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Logistics

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

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

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

*****

Participants

Invitations were, in the first instance, sent to:

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

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

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

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Binding Stitching Patterns, Budny's Illustrated Catalogue, Composite Manuscripts, Corpus Christi College Ms 139, Historia Regum, manuscript facsimiles, Manuscript Photography, Parker Library, Sawley Abbey, Seminars on Manuscript Evidence, Symeon of Durham, Technical Drawings
No Comments »

Seminar on the Evidence of Manuscripts (November 1991)

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

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

MS 383 Seminar Invitation 16 November 1991

16 November 1991

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

Invitation in pdf.

The previous Seminar in the Series considered:

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

*****

The Subject

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

Read the rest of this entry →

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

Manuscript Groupies

August 2, 2015 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Preview:

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

Conservation, Photography, Research, and Descriptions

by Mildred Budny

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

Bookish

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

[Update:  And here is the Illustrated Handlist.]

Jest for Fun

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

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

Photography by Mildred Budny

The Best Side

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

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

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

Take Two

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

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

Which would you prefer?

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

Group Portrait, Take 1

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

Group Portrait, Take 2

Seeing the Bright

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

All That Glitters Might Be Gold

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

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

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

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

Roll Credits

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to Front

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to the Future

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

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

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

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

Hug Shots

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

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

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

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

Lost-and-Foundling Hospitality

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

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

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

*****

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

Photography © Mildred Budny

Tags: Book of Ezekiel, Budny's Illustrated Catalogue, Hours of the Virgin, manuscript fragments, Manuscript Photography, Mass of Gregory the Great, Mass of Saint Gregory, Office of the Dead, Otto Ege MS 61, Otto Ege MS 8, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Pocket Bible, Style Manifesto, The Illustrated Handlist, Wilton Processional
No Comments »

2015 Congress Report

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

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

14–17 May

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

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

Photography by Ilya V. Sverdlov

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

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

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

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

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: ancient and biblical models for medieval kings, Carolingian Studies, Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Florida, Dream Books, Dream Interpretation Manuals, Early Medieval Art, Germanic folk prayers, Index of Christian Art at Princeton University, Lydgate, Manuscript Photography, Medieval astrological songs, medieval charms, medieval counterfeiting, Medieval Dream Interpretation, medieval forgery, Medieval Kingship, medieval princes in Central Europe, merovingian chronicles, Power of Words, pre-photographic reproduction, Reginald Scot, Saint Erkenwald, Saints Edmund and Fremund, Semi-Official Counterfeiting, Societas Magica, Solomonic Magic, Somniale Danielis, Songs of the Zodiac
No Comments »

Style Manifesto

May 8, 2015 in Bembino

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

A New, Illustrated Version with Our Font Bembino

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

Opening Page in the New Version (May 2015)

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

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

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

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

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Bembino, Budny's Illustrated Catalogue, Corpus Christi College MS 326, design layout, Manuscript Photography, Mass of Saint Gregory, publication guidelines, RGME Program Booklets, ShelfLife: Bulletin of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, ShelfMarks: RGMEnewsletter, Style Manifesto
No Comments »

The Mass of Saint Gregory, Illustrated

April 7, 2015 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

A Solitary Leaf, Detached

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

Detail of the head of Christ. Photography © Mildred Budny

Christ’s Head, with Crown of Thorns

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

Veronica’s Veil

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

The Image

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

The Mass of Saint Gregory

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

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

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

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

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

The Instruments and Individuals

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Leaf

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 The Front and Back, Revealed

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

Recto

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

Verso

 

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

Gregory Leaf on Black cropped to top of cross reduced

The Titulus

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

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

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

Clues

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

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

Orange pigment offsets from the (lost) preceding verso

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pricking holes lower on the frame

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

Pricking holes for the frame

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

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

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

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

Layers of pigment, including powdered gold

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

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

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

Gold Leaf partly lifted. Photography © Mildred Budny

The Fragility and Tenacity of Gold Leaf

*****

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

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

*****

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: Archaeology of Manuscripts, Budny Handlist, Instruments of Christ's Passion, Manuscript Photography, Mass of Saint Gregory, Medieval Manuscript Fragments
No Comments »

2014 Seminar on “Manuscripts & Their Photographs”

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

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

Photography © Mildred Budny

Close Up & Up Close

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

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

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

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Book of Hours, Index of Christian Art, manuscript fragments, Manuscript Photography, manuscripts reused in bindings, medieval seal, Philip II Count of Savoy, Vitae Patrum
2 Comments »

« Older Entries
  • Top


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