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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-14th 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-14th 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-14th 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-14th 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-14th 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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Two Vellum Leaves from a Large-Format Latin Breviary in Gothic Script

October 2, 2021 in Manuscript Studies

Private Collection, MS 1, Fol. 1 (‘137’)r, Initial I (for Inclina). Photography Mildred Budny. Reproduced by permission.

A Pair of Non-Consecutive Leaves
from a Large-Format
Latin Breviary
in Gothic Script on Vellum

Circa 590 mm × 447 mm
< written area circa 397 × 307 mm>
Single column of 15 lines
in Gothic Script
with rubrications, embellished initials,
and reiterated medieval and modern ‘folio’ numbers

Folio 1 (‘130’)
Vulgate Psalms (Septuagint Translation) 83:11 – 84:12 (Veri-[tas])

and

Folio 2 (‘137’)
Within Friday Matins:
Hymn Tu Trinitatis Unitas ([ . . . Ne corpus /] assit sordidum . . . Pater piissime)
Antiphon Inclina Domine, and Psalm 86 1:1–12 (Con-[fitebor])

14th or 15th Century, perhaps Italian or Spanish

Private Collection, MS 1, Fol. 130r, initials B and R. Photography Mildred Budny. Reproduced by permission.

Continuing to examine manuscripts and fragments in our blog on Manuscript Studies (see its Contents List), we turn to a pair of large, single leaves which arrived in a Private Collection several years ago, as a gift from another Private Collection.  About this pair of leaves, we might exclaim:  What beauties!

For the current owner, with an interest in manuscript studies, especially medieval manuscripts, these leaves comprise the first in the library (mostly printed books about books).  Hence the assigned number, “MS 1”, with two detached leaves (Folios ‘1’ and ‘2’ in the set) from the same original manuscript.

The identity and origin of that manuscript remain, for now, unknown.  Perhaps this blogpost, presenting the detached leaves to wider view through their photographs and related information, might bring to light more information about them and their travels across time and place.

The pair came on their own, safely packaged with mats in a large shipping box, but without any accompanying information.  That is, apart from the former owner’s recollection relayed in conversation and email.

These two large leaves would have come as a purchase some years ago, in the late 1980s or early 1990s, at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, a repeated venue for some other purchases for the same collection.

“The two large ones are German and quite late, if I remember rightly.  I bought them from a German dealer at the NY Antiquarian Book Fair.  No, I don’t recall his name.  It was a looong [sic] time ago.  I suspect the two smaller ones [= MS 2, in another shipping] were purchased at the same venue, though different dealer.”

On their own, the two leaves must or can speak for itself.  We bring to the table the willingness to examine them closely, to admire their resonant beauty, and to see what they can say.  Their story resides not only in the text, which can be deciphered, abbreviations and all, but also in the features of layout, script, decoration, rubrications, annotations, the animal skins for the writing surfaces, the traces of a former binding, and other forms of material evidence.

Leaves 1 and 2 (or ‘130’ and ‘137’ according to numbers on their pages)

Private Collection, MS 1, Fol. 137r with guide. Photography Mildred Budny. Reproduced by permission.

Private Collection, MS 1, Fol. 130r with guide. Photography Mildred Budny. Reproduced by permission.

Made on vellum (probably calf- or cow-skin), the leaves originally belonged to a single large-format manuscript bearing liturgical texts in stately, upright Gothic script, with rounded features.  Enlarged and expertly embellished initials in blue and red pigment open sections (or verses) of the text.  Those sections run together, as paragraphs.

The text is Latin, laid out in single columns of 15 lines on the page.  The written area of the column measures circa 397 × 307 mm, defined by a ladder-like grid of narrow parallel horizontal lines drawn in black ink.

The main text is written in formal Gothic script with rounded features.  The bodies of the letters — the ‘lower-case’ minims (i, n, m, u) and such letters as a standard a, c, e, etc. — stand between those horizontal hair-line rulings, which provide the grid to guide the script within the column and within the lines.  This positioning conforms with a known shift in scribal practice which took place principally in the second quarter of the thirteenth century (to judge by surviving manuscripts), from “above top line to below top line” for writing the first line of text on a page within the ruled framework. This shift was memorably observed and described by N. R. Ker (“From ‘Above Top Line’ to ‘Below Top Line’ “ and ditto).

The openings of individual sections or verses are highlighted by enlarged initials, painted and “built-up” mostly in red or blue pigment in a rhythmically alternating sequence.  They are provided with pen-line embellishment in the contrasting color, such that blue initial has red embellishment, and vice versa. One initial (the B on Folio 130r) also has elements in green pigment filling parts of the background, within both the initial and the right-hand side of the frame.

The ornamental scheme is simple, yet effective, without reaching higher realms with costlier pigments.  Perhaps such levels were afforded by major openings of the text, or the volume itself.

Inset within the text, the initials stand embedded in outlined rectangular frames which contain fillings of geometric and foliate ornament rendered expertly in pen-lines.  Their effect resembles delicate filigree ornament.  The pen-line frames and fillings are made in the contrasting color, to amplify the alternation, applying decoration in blue pen-lines to enclose the red initials, and red pen-lines to enclose the blue initials.

With their frames, the ‘lesser’ initials, opening sections or verses, usually extend the full height of the ruled line and the interlines above and below it.  Some initials encroach upon the lines of text in ink.  The overlap of the ink letters over the colored pigments shows that the bichrome embellishment preceded the writing of the lines of text.

Two major initials open passages of text, in each case individual Psalms.  They appear midway down each recto at the right-hand side: B (for Benedixisti) on Leaf 1, and I (for Inclina) on Leaf 2.

The initials stand within the areas inset for them within the lines of text.  The B stands 2-lines high; the I stands 3-lines high.  Both are blue, with red ornament.  Whereas the bodies of all other painted initials are solid, the B has four inset patterns of diamond-shaped motifs left ‘in reserve’, or unpainted.  They stand at top and bottom of the stem of the letter, and at the outer curve of each of its bows.

One side of each leaf carries a ‘duplicate’ or reiterated set of arabic numbers in the lower outer corner, either 130 or 137.  That side is the hair side of the animal skin on one leaf (Folio ‘1’ or 130), whereas the hair side is turned to the verso on the other leaf (Foli0 ‘2’ or 137).

The side with those numbers must be the recto of the leaf, as confirmed also by the stitching line of the inner margin, which stands at the inside of the leaf — that is, the left-hand side as we face that side, or page.

Private Collection, MS 1, Fol. 130v. Photography Mildred Budny. Reproduced by permission.

Private Collection, MS 1, Fol. 137v. Photography Mildred Budny. Reproduced by permission.

Turning the leaf over, to view the next page (the verso), we can observe the unbroken continuation of the text from the recto, in the same layout, script, and style of decoration.  In addition, there are faint, or discreet, entries in pencil in the lower margin.

That the recto of each leaf in each case carries a more prominent decorated initial may have directed the decision to place the modern pencil entries on the verso. At the bottom of each verso there appear two entries, spaced at left and right.

A seller’s code in a long string of letters (upper and lower case) and arabic numerals stands at the left.  The price in US dollars stands at the right.  For one leaf, the price was “$135.00”, and for the other “$155.00”.

     Folio 130:  5896nn4C13h5/45ST      $135—
Folio 137:  5896qq4C13h5/45ST       $155—

Entered by the same hand apparently at a single time, presumably after the leaves had been removed from their book, these entries evidently pertain to a single stage in the history of the manuscript.  The style of coding might be familiar to others acquainted with specific sellers of manuscript or other fragments in North American markets in the past half-century or so.  If so, the authorship and the meaning of the different elements in the code might be revealed more clearly.  Does, for example, the element C13 here designate a 13th-century date or conjecture?

The seller’s codes might lead to information about when (and whence?) the leaves entered the inventory, and, by extension or inference, when that stock was sold, where, and to whom.  As yet, those identities remain unknown.  Might you have further information?

We examine the leaves one by one.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: History of the Psalms, Late-Medieval Breviary, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Medieval manuscripts
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2019 International Congress on Medieval Studies Report

September 14, 2019 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Anniversary, Announcements, Bembino, Business Meeting, Conference, Events, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, POMONA, Reception, Reports, Societas Magica, Uncategorized

Report:  Events Sponsored and Co-Sponsored
by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
at the 54th International Congress on Medieval Studies
9–12 May 2019

[Published on 2 June 2019. With the achievement of our Activities at the 2019 Congress, we offer this Report (Abstracts of Papers Included), while we advance with preparations for the 2020 Congress. For updates, as they evolve, please watch this space and our Facebook Page.]

Central Rock Garden at WMU International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo May 2019. Photograph Mildred Budny.

Central Rock Garden. Photograph Mildred Budny.

In 2019, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence celebrates its 20th year as a nonprofit educational corporation and its 30th year as an international scholarly organization. Accordingly, we hold both customary and extra-special events, both at the Congress and elsewhere. For example, shortly before the 2019 Congress, we

We have a tradition of celebrating landmark Anniversaries, both for our organization, with organizations which which we share anniversaries, and for other events. As described, for example, in our 2014 Anniversary Reflections. For 2019, our events aim to represent, to explore, to promote, to celebrate, and to advance aspects of our shared range of interests, fields of study, subject matter, and collaboration between younger and established scholars, teachers, and others, in multiple centers.

Now we Report the successful accomplishment of our Activities at the 2019 Congress.

Who, What, Why Not

Logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (colour version)As in recent years, we co-sponsored Sessions with the Societas Magica (2 Sessions). It is the 14th year of this co-sponsorship, and the first year of co-sponsorship with the newly-founded organization Polytheism-Oriented Medievalists of North America (P.-O.M.O.N.A).

Also, like the 2015–2018 Congresses, we held

  • an Open Business Meeting, with a convenient downloadable 2019 Agenda, and
  • a co-sponsored Reception.

As usual, we publish the Program for the accepted Papers, as their Authors permit. Abstracts for previous Congresses appear in our Congress Abstracts, conveniently Indexed both by Year and by Author.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Animals in Celtic Magical Texts, Beinecke Takamiya MS 23, Business Meeting, Celtic Magical Texts, Classical Deities, Classical Deities in Medieval Northern European Contexts, Dionysus, Ecstasy Defense, Grettisfærsla, Hêliand, History of Magic, Lapidaries, Mary Moody Emerson, Medieval manuscripts, Medieval Studies, P.-O.M.o.N.A., Reception, Societas Magica
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2019 M-MLA Call for Papers

March 3, 2019 in Announcements, Conference, Conference Announcement, Events, M-MLA, Manuscript Studies, Midwest Modern Language Association

Call for Papers

“Duality and Manuscript Evidence”

2019 Theme for the

Permanent Panels sponsored by the
Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
at the
Midwest Modern Language Association (M-MLA)

2019 Convention
Chicago, Illinois
November 14–17, 2019

[Posted on 2 March 2019]

Poster announcing the Call for Papers for the Permanent Panels sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, to be held at the 2019 MMLA Convention in Chicago in November. Poster set in RGME Bembino and designed by Justin Hastings.

Poster designed by Justin Hastings

The Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, in keeping with the MMLA conference’s theme of “Duality, Doubles, and Doppelgängers” for the 2019 Convention in Chicago, is sponsoring panels on duality in manuscripts broadly conceived.

Information about the conference appears on the MMLA website: MMLA Convention.

For our panels, possible senses of duality include, strictly by way of example, textual variants, recensions, and copies.  It also includes more figurative senses of duality, like the dialectic between text and marginal glosses.

We invite all approaches — including hermeneutical, textual, art historical, codicological, and paleographical — as well as all time periods. Despite the RGME’s traditional medieval focus, which has expanded, not least through these panels at the MMLA, we declare that all proposals considering the material evidence contained in handwritten documents are warmly welcomed.

Interested panelists should send brief abstracts of no more than 300 words to

jhastings@luc.edu by Monday, 01 April 2019.

*****

Thanks to the expert initiatives by our Associate Justin Hastings, this will be the 4th year that the Research Group sponsors Permanent Panels at the Annual Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association.

It is a special pleasure that our panels at the 2019 Convention form part of our anniversary celebrations.  2019 marks the 20th anniversary of our nonprofit educational corporation based in Princeton, New Jersey, and the 30th anniversary of our international scholarly society founded at the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

  • 2018 M-MLA Panel on “Consuming Cultures and Manuscript Evidence”
  • 2017 M-MLA Panel on “Artists, Activists, and Manuscript Evidence”
    2017 M-MLA Panel Report
  • “Marginalia in Manuscripts and Books” for the 2018 M-MLA
    2016 M-MLA Report

As customary for our Sessions at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, we publish the Abstracts of the Papers for our Panels at the M-MLA Convention in our Panel Announcements and Reports.

Poster for CFP RGME Sponsored Panels for 2017 M-MLA Convention*****

The continuation of the tradition of Permanent Panels at the M-MLA Convention is most welcome, and we thank our organizer, Justin Hastings, and the Midwest Modern Language Association.  We congratulate Justin for his expert organizational skills and outstanding collegiality, and we applaud his willingness to continue to organize the panels for the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence.

*****

Further information about the Convention and the Call for Papers for Permanent Panels can be found on the M-MLA website:

  • M-MLA Convention
  • M-MLA Convention Permanent Section Call for Papers .

Please Contact Us with your questions and suggestions.  See you there!

*****

Tags: Manuscript studies, Medieval manuscripts, Midwest Modern Language Association
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2019 International Congress on Medieval Studies Program Details

January 31, 2019 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Anniversary, Announcements, Bembino, Business Meeting, Conference, Conference Announcement, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Societas Magica

Events
Sponsored and Co-Sponsored
by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
at the 54th International Congress on Medieval Studies
9–12 May 2019

[Published on 24 September 2019, with updates. With the achievement of our Activities at the 2018 Congress, we offered the 2018 Congress Report, and advance with preparations for the 2019 Congress. Now we announce the 2019 Congress Program, also with information about time-and-room assignments, as well as Abstracts for the Papers and Responses.  For updates, please watch this space and our Facebook Page.

Update: Now see our 2019 International Congress on Medieval Studies Report]

In 2019, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence celebrates its 20th year as a nonprofit educational corporation and its 30th year as an international scholarly organization. Accordingly, we aim to hold both customary and extra-special events, both at the Congress and elsewhere.

We have a tradition of celebrating landmark Anniversaries, both for our organization, with organizations which which we share anniversaries, and for other events. As described, for example, in our 2014 Anniversary Reflections. For 2019, our events aim to represent, to explore, to promote, to celebrate, and to advance aspects of our shared range of interests, fields of study, subject matter, and collaboration between younger and established scholars, teachers, and others, in multiple centers.

Now we announce the Programs for our Sessions, as well as our other Events planned for the Congress.  Soon, as is our custom, we will publish the Abstracts for the Papers.  We look forward to seeing you at the Congress and our other Anniversary Year events.

Who, What, Why Not

Logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (colour version)As in recent years, we co-sponsor Sessions with the Societas Magica (2 Sessions). It will be the 14th year of this co-sponsorship. It will be the first year of co-sponsorship with the newly-founded organization Polytheism-Oriented Medievalists of North America (POMONA).

Also, like the 2015–2018 Congresses, we plan for

  • an Open Business Meeting and
  • a Reception.

As usual, we aim to publish the Program for the accepted Papers, as their Authors permit. Abstracts for previous Congresses appear in our Congress Abstracts, conveniently Indexed both by Year and by Author.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Anniversary, Dionysos, Extasy Defence, Grettisfærsla, Hêliand, History of Magic, Lapidaries, manuscript fragments, Manuscript Lacunae, Manuscript studies, Mary Moody Emerson, Medieval manuscripts, P.-O.M.o.N.A., Societas Magica, Takamiya MS 23
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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

Gold stamp on blue cloth of the logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence. Detail from the front cover of Volume II of 'The Illustrated Catalogue'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.

Front Covers for Volumes I & II of 'Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge: An Illustrated Catalogue' by Mildred Budny, with the title of the publication and the gold-stamped logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, co-publisher of the volumes

 

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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Another Witness to the Cistercian Statutes of 1257

December 2, 2016 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Detail of the top of the verso of the fragmentary leaf from a 13th-century copy of Statutes for the Cistercian Order. Reproduced by permission.Part-Leaf from a Dismembered Witness
to the 1257 Codification of the Statutes
for the Cistercian Order

A Part-Leaf, now on its own, carries parts of the Chapter De Conversis (“On the Lay Brothers”)
from Distinctio (“Section”) XIV (out of XV in total)
in the Codification of 1257 of Statutes for the Cistercian Order

This installment of our blog on Manuscript Studies identifies a fragmentary 13th-century leaf on vellum with monastic rules in Latin.  Now reduced to a single column of its original double columns of text, the fragment carries parts of the Statutes of the Cistercian Order, in a mid-–13th-century version — or, rather, extension — of those Statutes.  That extended version appears in full in a few other extant manuscripts.  Mildred Budny describes the fragment and its testimony.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: British Library Additional MS 11294, Cistercian Statutes, Cistercian Statutes of 1257-1258, Fontanay Abbey, Manuscript studies, Medieval manuscripts
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Seminar on the Evidence of Manuscripts (20 June 1992)

August 28, 2016 in Photographic Exhibition, Seminars on Manuscript Evidence, Uncategorized

“Research on Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Cambridge and Oxford”
20 June 1992

Anglo-Saxon MSS in Cambridge & Oxford Invitation 20 June 1992 Page 1 with border

Invitation Page 1

Invitation to 'Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Cambridge and Oxford' Seminar Invitation 20 June 1992 Page 2

Invitation Page 2

In the Series of Seminars on the Evidence of Manuscripts
Mostly at the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
20 June 1992

Invitation in pdf.

The previous Seminar in the series considered

“Corpus Christi College MSS 23 and 223:  The Corpus Prudentius and the Saint-Bertin Prudentius”
Parker Library, 5 June 1992

For the first time, the Seminar met in Oxford University. And not for the only time. Two more such Seminars followed in Oxford, before the close of the Series.  They took place March 1993 and in April 1994.

Photographic Exhibition Included

Each time, the Oxford meetings of the Series had a travelling exhibition of photographs from manuscripts and other materials, mostly from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, home of the Research Group. This first Seminar at Oxford established the custom, which extended to the Research Group’s visit to Japan several months later, in November and December 1992, and to its activities at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in both 1993 and 1994, of bringing the manuscripts, at least in the form of photographic reproductions, to the people.

Sign for Photographic Exhibitions of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, laid out in Adobe Garamond, with the Research Group logo in monochrome, and crediting the 'Photography by Mildred Budny'*****

Entrance to Pembroke College. Photo by Jakob Leimgruber (JREL) via Wikipedia Commons

Entrance to Pembroke College in Pembroke Square. Photo by Jakob Leimgruber (JREL) via Wikipedia Commons.

Plan

With the subject of “research on Anglo-Saxon manuscripts in Cambridge and Oxford” — and with the characteristics of the venue as well as the willing assembly of interests and expertise — the Invitation Letter describes the aims and elements of the meeting.

We will consider current work at the Parker Library and explore links with Oxford.  In the morning the Cambridge members of the Research Group will describe work on Corpus and related material.  In the afternoon speakers from Oxford will talk on their current research on manuscripts.

Ray Page will begin by surveying how the Parker Library project came into being and how it now feeds into work elsewhere.  He will address the importance of detailed study of primary material, focusing on letters, word division, punctuation and layout in manuscripts (with examples from Gerefa and Brunanburh in Corpus MSS 383 and MS 173A and elsewhere).

Catherine Hall will discuss how evidence derived from archival materials can cast light on manuscript contexts:  for example, Matthew Parker’s working habits in manuscripts and papers alike, his signature as it changed according to his office (as in Misc. Doc. 25 and MS 44) and his lists of his predecessors in office (as in MSS 108, MS 183 and MS 232).

Tim Graham will report on how detailed examination has yielded discoveries and recoveries of unknown, or only partially deciphered, texts and glosses:  notably the faded rubricated titles in MS 422B and many unsuspected drypoint glosses in MS 173B.  He will also report on identifying hands of early modern and modern readers in Corpus manuscripts, including Abraham Whelock and William Stanley.

Leslie French will consider connections between fields of the arts and sciences.  He will examine approaches to recording manuscript features, from letters to layout, in transcriptions, editions and other forms; and report on his study of MS 352 (Boethius’ De Arithmetica).

Milly Budny will survey results of the Group’s integrated approach to manuscript studies.  Examples include collaborative monograph studies (MSS 197B and 383), a new catalogue of Anglo-Saxon and related manuscripts at Corpus, a palaeographical and textual handbook, colour facsimiles of manuscripts (as with MSS 23A and 173 A+B) and research on material shared between Cambridge and Oxford (as with Corpus MS 389 and St John’s College, MS 28; and Corpus MS 23 and Junius 11).

In the afternoon Malcolm Parkes will discuss the evidence of manuscripts for the reading of texts, and Patrick Wormald will talk about MS Hatton 42.

Images of Originals

The Letter points to the presence of photographic reproductions as part of the proceedings.

Slides will illustrate features in the manuscripts and other materials.  Cases of linked material, such as books annotated by the ‘Tremulous Worcester Hand’ and books handled by Parker and his circle, and problems particular to Oxford material will be considered in the afternoon.  We hope that participants will contribute to the discussion from their own experience with the sources and areas of interest.

Also, an exhibition of photographs mounted on foamboards travelled to Oxford for the purpose.  The Research Group Archives for this Seminar retain the set of printouts used for the captions for the display boards and a set of snapshots of the layout of the display on this occasion.

Sign for Photographic Exhibitions of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, laid out in Adobe Garamond, with the Research Group logo in monochrome, and crediting the 'Photography by Mildred Budny'Place, Time, People, Lunch

The meeting will take place in Lecture Room 8 at Pembroke College.  Coffee will be served from 10:30.  The seminar will begin promptly at 11.  A buffet lunch will be provided at Pembroke, and we will continue until about 4:30 p.m.  To let us know whom we may expect, please fill out the enclosed form and return it to me as soon as possible.

Invitations sent to:

R.I. Page, Mildred Budny, Tim Graham, Catherine Hall, Leslie French, Nicholas Hadgraft, Nigel Wilkins, Patrick Wormald, Malcolm Godden, Andrew Watson, Malcolm Parkes, Bruce Mitchell, Martin Kauffmann, Nigel Ramsay, Terry Hoad, John Blair, Jeremy Griffiths, David Howlet, Henry Mayr–Harting, Richard Gameson, Marilyn Deegan, Stuart Lee, Joy Jenkyns, Richard Sharpe, Chris Fell, Carole Hough, Richard Buck, Katie Cubitt, Marlene van Arkel, Elizabeth Tyler, Fiona Gameson and Rohinie Jayatilaka.

It was agreed that the experience of a Seminar in the Series was worth repeating at Oxford.  The generous hospitality which Professor Godden, his wife Julia, and others extended to the whole travelling band of the Research Group for the visit and its overnight stay deserves long-term thanks.

Entrance to Pembroke College. Photo by Jakob Leimgruber (JREL) via Wikipedia Commons

Entrance to Pembroke College. Photo by Jakob Leimgruber (JREL) via Wikipedia Commons.

*****

The next set of Seminars, Workshops, or Sessions in the Series took place in Japan.  Similarly accompanied by photographic exhibitions, they considered:

  • “The Research Group on Manuscript Evidence and Its Work”
    November 1992
  • “Aspects of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence”
    December 1992
  • “The Integrated Approach to Manuscript Studies”
    December 1992

The next Seminar in England considered:

  • “Corpus Christi College MS 44:  The Corpus Canterbury Pontifical”
    Parker Library, 27 February 1993

Before long, the Seminar revisited Oxford:

  • “Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts from Worcester”
    Pembroke College, 13 March 1993

*****

The design and layout, as well as some of the images, of the exhibition of photographs which the Research Group brought to this first Seminar in Oxford in mid-1992 served as the template for its exhibitions in Japan in November–December and then in the United States in both May 1993 and May 1994, respectively for the 27th and 28th International Congress on Medieval Studies. For the latter Congress, the exhibition accompanied the opening of a new center for Anglo-Saxon Manuscript Studies, modeled in part upon the work of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence.

*****

Some Publications Arising

Gold-stamped logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence on Red fabric ground on the Front Cover of Volume I (Text) of 'Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at CorpusChristi College, Cambridge' by Mildred BudnyBesides the other publications which emanated from some presentations at this Seminar — for example, from within the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, Timothy Graham‘s careful work on the drypoint glosses and the annotating habits of Wheelock and Stanley — some of the manuscripts considered and exhibited photographically figure in one or more of the Research Group publications or planned publications.  From the beginning, we understood the importance of reproducing, insofar as possible, photographic reproductions (preferrably high-quality) of the material evidence of the manuscripts.

And so, much of our energies were dedicated to photographic work, guided by scholarly interests and expertise, and to the preparations to disseminate its results to the wider world of scholars, students, and others interested in the transmission of learning, language, history, literature, and many other elements of human experience across time and space.  That other challenges, some practical, some not, interfered with the accomplishment of all those plans (published facsimiles included, despite the completion of the photographic work for them) may be partly due to the conditions of a dedicated and talented research project subjected to insufficient resources and contextual support, given the nature of the world at large in a crucial transitional period in the history of scholarship and research in the British Isles and elsewhere.

Those reflections may deserve another forum.  Here, let us celebrate the collaborative activities between centers and fields of study, and the forms of publications which did emerge, in the welcome for the integrated approach to manuscript studies, Anglo-Saxon manuscripts included, in Cambridge and Oxford (and elsewhere), which the Series of Seminars on “The Evidence of Manuscript” was able to find, to enjoy, and to extend, even into other parts of the world.

“Matthew Parker in Cambridge” Exhibition & Booklet

Catherine Hall’s examination of scripts and documents relating to “Matthew Parker in Cambridge” turned into an exhibition at the Parker Library itself, as well as a Catalogue Booklet, with Mildred Budny’s photographs. The exhibition extended from October 1993 to February 1994. Its booklet was reprinted as an Appendix to an issue of the Old English Newsletter (Volume 27:1) for Fall 1993, and now it is available online with the digitization of the Old English Newsletter Archives. Its plates reproduce part of Misc. Doc. 25 (Catalogue Item 5) demonstrated in her presentation for the Seminar at Pembroke College.

The Palaeographical and Textual Handbook
and the Illustrated Catalogue

Cover for "Selected Pages from Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Palaeographical and Textual Handbook" by Mildred Budny, Leslie French et al.Title Page for "Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge" (1997)Besides the photographs painstakingly prepared for many of the Corpus manuscripts, and intended for analogue facsimiles (remember, this was before digital photography came to dominate as more-or-less viable, let alone admirable, methods of communicating images), some of them found places in the prototype of the Palaeographical and Textual Handbook (previewed in an early Seminar in the series).  A larger group of them reached print at last in the 2-volume Illustrated Catalogue of Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge co-published by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (2 volumes, 1997).

In both cases, the photographs are accompanied by, and intended to illustrate, it may be to confirm, detailed observation and analysis.

Front Covers for Volumes I & II of 'Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge: An Illustrated Catalogue' by Mildred Budny, with the title of the publication and the gold-stamped logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, co-publisher of the volumesThe Illustrated Catalogue (2 volumes, 1997) emanated from the long-term, integrated research work on selected Anglo-Saxon and related manuscripts at The Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The stages of the research work are recorded, for example, in the Annual Reports to the Leverhulme Trust, described in our Publications. Many of the catalogue entries, as noted therein, report the results of discoveries and discussions emerging in our series of Seminars, including this one.

The manuscripts in the Catalogue which we examined, at a distance, in the first Oxford Seminar are:

  • MS 23, Part I = Budny Number 24 (The Corpus Prudentius)
  • MS 44 = Budny Number 46 (The Corpus Canterbury Pontifical)
  • MS 144 = Budny Number 6 (The Corpus Glossary)
  • MS 173, Part I [or A] = Budny Number 11 (Parker Chronicle and Laws)
  • MS 173, Part II [or B] = Budny Number 4 (The Corpus Sedulius)
  • MS MS 183 = Budny Number 12 (King Athelstan’s Presentation Copy of Bede’s Vita Sancti Cuthberti and Other Texts)
  • MS 197, Part I [or B] = Budny Number 3 (The Cambridge Portion of the Cambridge–London Gospels)
  • MS 352 = Budny Number 20 (Boethius’s De Instituione Arithemetica)
  • MS 389 = Budny Number 23 (The Vitae of Saints Paul and Guthlac by Saint Jerome and Felix)

Also, specimens from all of these manuscripts were selected for the Palaeographical and Textual Handbook, along with MS 383.

*****

Tags: 'Matthew Parker in Cambridge', Abraham Whelock, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, Budny's Illustrated Catalogue, Corpus Christi College Ms 108, Corpus Christi College MS 173, Corpus Christi College MS 183, Corpus Christi College MS 23, Corpus Christi College Ms 232, Corpus Christi College MS 352, Corpus Christi College MS 383, Corpus Christi College MS 389, Corpus Christi College MS 422, Corpus Christi College MS 44, Hatton MS 20, Junius MS 11, Manuscript studies, Matthew Parker, Medieval manuscripts, Old English Newsletter, Palaeographical and Textual Handbook, Parker Library, Pembroke College Oxford, Tremulous Worcester Hand, William Stanley
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Workshop on Medieval Manuscripts (October 1991)

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

“The Production, Make-Up and Handling
of Medieval Manuscripts:
A Workshop”

5 October 1991

MS Production & Handling Workshop Invitation 5 Oct 1991 with border

5 October 1991 Prospectus

Invitation Cover Letter for Research Group Workshop on 'The Production, Make-Up and Handling of Medieval Manuscripts' on 5 October 1991 at the Parker Library

Cover Letter for 5 October 1991

Accompanying the Series of Seminars on the Evidence of Manuscripts
The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Invitation in pdf in 3 pages with Cover Letter, Prospectus, and RSVP Form.

The previous Seminar in the series considered
“Technical Literature and its Form and Layout in Early Medieval Manuscripts”
(Parker Library, July 1991).

[First published on 26 August 2016]

Issued on Research Group letterhead, the 1-page description of the workshop (the “Prospectus”) accompanying the 1-page Invitation Letter, dated 14 September 1991, describes the plan.  The Invitation Letter lays the ground work.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Alexander R. Rumble, Binding History, Douglas Cockerell, History of Bookbinding, Medieval Bindings, Medieval manuscripts, Medieval Studies, Nicholas Hadgraft, Parker Library, Roger Powell, Sandy Cockerell, Sewing Structures for Bookbinding
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Cover-Up

June 17, 2016 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

The Medieval-Psalter-Covered French Notebook in course of photography, archivally-sensitive equipment in place. Vire from the front cover, with untied ties. Photography © Mildred Budny. Reproduced by permission.

Photography © Mildred Budny

A Medieval Bifolium
From a Medium-Format Vulgate Latin Psalter
Reused as the Cover
of the Binding
of an 18th-Century Paper Notebook
With Receipts in French

Budny Handlist 5

 

Continuing our reports of discoveries about manuscripts and written materials in our blog on Manuscript Studies,
Mildred Budny examines a reused medieval fragment in its reused state, still attached to its modern notebook containing many receipts in French. Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Breviary, Dijon, French Notebooks, French Revolution, Fructidor, Manuscript Fragments Reused in Bindings, Medieval manuscripts, Napoleonic Wars, Psalter Manuscripts
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