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      • Adelaide Bennett Hagens
    • Activities
      • Events
      • Congress Activities
        • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
          • Panels at the M-MLA Convention
        • Co-sponsored Conference Sessions (2006‒)
    • History
      • Seals, Matrices & Documents
      • Genealogies & Archives
  • Bembino
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  • Congress
    • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
    • Co-sponsored Conference Sessions (2006‒)
    • Abstracts of Congress Papers
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      • 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
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    • Business Meetings
    • Photographic Exhibitions & Master Classes
    • Events Archive
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    • Journal Description
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      • “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
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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
2022 Autumn Symposium on “Supports for Knowledge”
How to Be Tarzan in the Catalog, Or, Tarzan-Moves of the Mind
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2023 Pre-Symposium Call for Papers: Intrepid Borders Lightning Talks

January 9, 2023 in Announcements, Manuscript Studies, RGME Symposia

Call for Papers

Intrepid Borders:
Marginalia in Medieval and Early Modern Books

A Virtual Lightning Talks / Half-Day Symposium
of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Proposals due by Sunday, 12 February 2023

The Research Group on Manuscript Evidence seeks proposals for lightning talks (between 15–18 minutes each) for a half-day virtual symposium to be held on the afternoon of Friday, 24 March 2023.

This exploratory event about book marginalia and borders (including drolleries, glosses, inscriptions, and annotations) will kick off the Research Group’s virtual Spring Symposium to be held the next day on Saturday, March 25th. As part of the RGME’s Theme for the Year 2023, “Materials & Access”, the pair of 2023 Spring and Autumn Symposia considers interlinked areas “From the Ground Up” (Spring) and “Between Earth and Sky” (Autumn).

The set of Sessions on “Intrepid Borders” for the afternoon Pre-Symposium leading to the Spring Symposium are co-organized by Katharine Chandler, Jennifer Larson, and Jessica L. Savage.

Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, MS. W.148, folio 33v. Detail: Bottom, with fighting creatures. Image via Creative Commons.

Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, MS. W.148, folio 33v. Detail: Bottom, with fighting creatures. Image via Creative Commons.

Vision for the Lightning Talks

The borders of books are usually narrow places where reader-viewers of manuscripts touched, turned, and lingered on pages. As a space to develop writing and decoration, marginalia, or “things in the margin,” might be integral to the design of a manuscript, or their marks could be extraneous additions to the page.

Papers might explore the interaction of readers with texts through annotations and glosses, and investigate the many varied inscriptions and their purposeful inclusion in book borders. Papers might also zero in on the iconographic programs and decorative surrounds in manuscripts, which evolved over the late Middle Ages and into the early modern period, and which contain compelling visual evidence of the whimsical and fantastic.

Proposals for Talks

We seek short abstracts (~200–250 words) detailing your title and topic as it fits with the above parameters, to reach us by the end of Sunday, 12 February 2023. Speakers will be notified in the following week of their acceptance.

Research works-in-progress and work from emerging scholars in manuscript studies are especially encouraged to submit their ideas for inclusion in the program.

Please send your abstracts through the linked Call for Papers Google Form.

More information about the 2023 Spring and Autumn Symposia can be found at: 2023 Spring and Autumn Symposia.

We look forward to your proposals.

*****

Fantastic fighters in the lower margin, Douce–Walters Homiliary, Walters Art Museum, MS. W.148, folio 33v.  On the manuscript, see The Digital Walters.

Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, MS. W.148, folio 33v. Opening of Sermon of St. Augustine on Easter, with Crucifixion illustration and border imagery. 14th-century German Homiliary. Image via Creative Commons.

Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, MS. W.148, folio 33v. Opening of Sermon of St. Augustine on Easter, with Crucifixion illustration and border imagery. 14th-century German Homiliary. Image via Creative Commons.

*****

Tags: Borders, Lightning Talks, Manuscript Illumination, Marginalia, Medieval manuscripts, RGME Symposia
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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]
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Program for 2022 Autumn Symposium on “Supports for Knowledge”

October 6, 2022 in Announcements, Conference Announcement, Manuscript Studies, Uncategorized

2022 RGME Spring and Autumn Symposia
on “Structured Knowledge”

© British Library Board, London, British Library, Add. MS 1546, folio 262v, detail. Opening of the Book of Sapientia (“Wisdom”).

2 of 2: 2022 Autumn Symposium
“Supports for Knowledge”
Saturday, 15 October 2022

Symposium Program
9:00 am – 5:30 pm EDT
Online via Zoom

Sessions with Presentations and Discussion (“Q&A”)
Breaks for Coffee, Lunch, and Tea
Closing Keynote Presentation and Concluding Remarks

For Registration see below

[Posted on 5 October, with updates]

On the pair of Symposia, see 2022 Spring and Autumn Symposia
On Part 1 of this pair, see 2022 Spring Symposium on “Structures of Knowledge”
On Part 2, see 2022 Autumn Symposium on “Supports for Knowledge”

Here we present the Program for Part 2 on “Supports for Knowledge”, held on Saturday 15 October 2022 by Zoom
— Registration is required, with a limited number of places (see below).

The Program Booklet (in preparation) will present the Program and Abstracts of the Presentations and Responses, with multiple Illustrations.  In accordance with our tradition of Program Booklets for our Symposia and some other events (see our Publications, it will be issued in printed form as well as digital form, with a downloadable pdf.

Timetable

Session 1.    9:00–10:30 am EDT
Brief Introduction to the Symposium and Welcome
“Teaching with (and through) Manuscripts, Part II”
Q&A

Break.          10:30–10:45 am

Session 2.   10:45 am – 12:15 pm
“Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases, Continued (Part III)”
Q&A

Lunch Break.   12:15–1:15 pm

–– During the Break.  12:30–12:50 pm

Presentation (at the time when the Speaker could attend)

David W. Sorenson (Allen Berman, Numismatist)
“A Jain Manuscript of the Seventeenth Century on Imported Watermarked Paper: An Early, Dated, Witness to Imported Paper Stocks in Indian Manuscripts”
As a contribution to our series on the “History and Uses of Paper”

Session 3.    1:15–2:45 pm
“The Living Library (Part II)”
Q&A

Break.          2:45–3:00 pm

Session 4.   3:00–4:30 pm
“Hybrid Books (Part I)”
Q&A

Break.         4:30–4:45 pm

Session 5.   4:45–5:30 pm EDT
“Books and Their Structures”
Closing Keynote Presentation and Concluding Remarks

*****

Sessions

Session 1.  “Teaching with (and through) Manuscripts, Part II”
— continuing the series begun at the Spring Symposium on “Structures of Knowledge”

Presider

David Porreca (Department of Classical Studies, University of Waterloo)

Speakers

Caley McCarthy (Research Associate and Project Manager, Environments of Change, University of Waterloo)
and
Andrew Moore (Research Fellow, Environments of Change, and Associate Director, DRAGEN Lab, University of Waterloo)
“Collaborative Pedagogy with Medieval Manuscripts in a Digital Lab”

William H. Campbell (Director, Center for the Digital Text, University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg)
Amber McAlister (Assistant Professor, History & Architecture, University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg)
and
Connor Chinoy (Student at the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg and member of the “History of the Book” class)
“Books in the Flesh: An Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Class with Medieval Manuscripts”

Q&A

*****

Mid-Morning Break

*****

Session 2.  “Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases, Continued (Part III)”
— continuing our series
This is Part III in our series on these subjects, building upon Parts I and II, and leading to further Parts in 2023

  • our Roundtable in February on Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases, Part I and
  • the Session on “Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases, Part II” in the Spring Symposium

See the Links of Interest (Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases: A Handlist of Links)
— for which suggestions and additions are welcome.

Presider

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

Speakers

Jessica L. Savage
“Cataloguing Manuscript Iconography between Digital Covers at the Index of Medieval Art”

Barbara Williams Ellertson (The BASIRA Project and Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)
“A Painter, a Printer, and a Search for Shared Exemplars”

Katharine C. Chandler (Special Collections and Serials Cataloger, University of Arkansas Libraries)
“Manuscripts from Print: The Schwenkfelders and their Dangerous Books”

Respondent

David Porreca (Department of Classics, University of Waterloo)
“My $0.02 Worth”

Moderator for the Questions-and-Answers

Derek Shank (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)

Q&A

*****

Lunch Break

Perhaps — TBD — during part of the Break
Presentation (from about 12:15–12:35 pm), if the Speaker might attend, depending on short-notice work timetables:

David W. Sorenson (Allan Berman, Numismatist)
“A Jain MS of the Seventeenth Century on Imported Watermarked Paper:  An Early, Dated, Witness to Imported Paper Stocks in Indian Manuscripts”

*****

Session 3.  “The Living Library (Part II)”

— continuing the series begun at the Spring Symposium on “Structures of Knowledge”

Presider

Jaclyn Reed (Department of English and Writing Studies, University of Western Ontario)

Speakers

Christine E. Bachman (Department of Art & Art History, University of Colorado at Boulder)
“Unbound, Dispersed, Resewn:  The Flexible Codex in Eighth-Century Northwestern Europe”

Zoey Kambour (Post Graduate Fellow in European & American Art at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon)
“Textual Interaction Through Artistic Expression:  The Marginal Drawings in the Decretales Libri V of Pope Gregory IX (University of Oregon MS 027)”

David Porreca (Department of Classical Studies, University of Waterloo)
“The Warburg Institute Library:   Where Idiosyncracy Meets User-Friendliness”

Respondent

Thomas E Hill (Art Librarian, Vassar College)
“Some Early Background to Warburg’s Project in Post-Wunderkammer Systematic Catalogues of the European Baroque and Enlightenment Periods”

Le Parc Abbey, Theological Volume, Part B and added Part-Leaf between folios 103–104 (or folios "7"–"8").

Private Collection, Le Parc Abbey, Theological Volume, Part B and added Part-Leaf (or Bookmark) between folios 103–104. Photography Mildred Budny.

Q&A

*****

Mid-Afternoon Break

*****

Session 4.  “Hybrid Books (Part I)”

— beginning a series for which more sessions are planned

Presider

Justin Hastings (University of Delaware)

Speakers

Hannah Goeselt (Library and Information Science (MS): Cultural Heritage Informatics, Simmons University, Boston)
“Structures of Art and Scripture in Otto Ege’s ‘Cambridge Bible’ (Ege Manuscript 6)”

Jennifer Larson (Department of Classics, Kent State University)
“Printed and Scribed:  A Collector’s View of Hybrid Books”

Linde M. Brocato (Cataloging & Metadata Librarian, University of Miami Libraries)
“Paths of Access and Horizons of Expectation, II:  From Book-In-Hand to Catalog(ues)”

N. Kıvılcım Yavuz (Lecturer in Medieval Studies and Digital Humanities, School of History, University of Leeds)
“Bound With:  Towards a Typology of Hybrid Codices”

Q&A

*****

Tea Break

*****

Session 5. “Books and Their Structures”

Presider

Mildred Budny (Director, Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)

Closing Keynote Presentation

Linde M. Brocato (Cataloging & Metadata Librarian, University of Miami Libraries)
“Hybrid Books: Fragments and Compilatio, Structure and Heuristic in Richard Twiss’s Farrago”

Discussion & Brief Concluding Remarks

Mildred Budny
“Structured Knowledge, Structures of Knowledge, and Supports for Knowledge:  A Framework for the Year”

*****

Closing Keynote Presentation

“Hybrid Books:
Fragments and Compilatio, Structure and Heuristic in
Richard Twiss’ Farrago“

In the group of artists’ books from the Ruth and Marvin Shackner Archive of Concrete Poetry purchased by the University of Miami Special Collections, there is an extraordinary volume, sold by a vendor as late 19th century, anonymous, and an artist’s book avant la lettre.  Careful analysis for bibliographical cataloging revealed the error in all these assertions.

In this presentation, I will lay out both the process of that analysis, and its results, along with reflections on hybrid books of various kinds.  My reflections will encompass the kinds of structured information that make their way into databases, and structuring codes of cataloging and bibliography, all of which are necessary but not sufficient for our understanding and convivencia with books, which are always already hybrid.  In these reflections, I will bring together many of the strands of thinking we have all worked to weave together in the symposium.

Richard Twiss, Farrago, held in the Unversity of Miami Special Collections, Artists’ Books Collection. Sidelong View. Photograph Linde M. Brocato.

Glimpses of the volume comprising Farrago compiled by the writer, traveler, chess-player, and would-be paper manufacturer Richard Twiss (1749–1821) can be seen in our blogpost called “I Was Here”, with photographs by Linde M. Brocato.

Concluding Remarks

Mildred Budny
“Structured Knowledge, Structures of Knowledge, and Supports for Knowledge: A Framework for the Year”

© British Library Board, London, British Library, Cotton MS Cleopatra C. viii, folio 36r, top: Sapientia in her Temple. Prudentius, Psychomachia, in a Canterbury copy of the late tenth or early eleventh century.

*****

To register for the Symposium, visit 2022 Autumn Symposium Registration. Places are limited.

Questions? Contact director@manuscriptevidence.org.

*****

Suggestion Box

Do you have suggestions for subjects for our events, or offers to participate? Please let us know.

If you wish to join our events, please contact director@manuscriptevidence.org.

For updates, watch this space, and visit:

  • 2022 Spring and Autumn Symposia
  • The Research Group Speaks: The Series;
  • our FaceBook Page and
  • our Twitter Feed (@rgme_mss).

Please leave your Comments below, Contact Us, and visit our FaceBook Page and Twitter Feed (@rgme_mss).  We look forward to hearing from you

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

  • Contributions and Donations .

Floral Motif as Lower Border in a Book of Hours. Photography Mildred Budny.

*****

 

Tags: Catalogs & Metadata & Databases, Decretals of Pope Gregory IX, DRAGEN Lab, Fragmentology, History of Paper, Hybrid Books, Index of Medieval Art, Jain Manuscripts, Les Enluminures, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Medieval manuscripts, Miniature Books, Otto Ege Manuscript 8, Otto Ege Manuscripts, RGME Symposia, Richard Twiss's Farrago, Schwenkfelder Books, Structured Knowledge, Teaching with and through Knowledge, Teaching with Manuscripts, The Living Library, University of Oregon MS 027, Warburg Institute Library, Watermarked Paper, Watermarks
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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.

Read the rest of this entry →

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.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: History of the Psalms, Late-Medieval Breviary, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Medieval manuscripts
4 Comments »

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.

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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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