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    • Manuscript Studies
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    • International Congress on Medieval Studies
      • Abstracts of Congress Papers
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      • Mildred Budny — Her Page
      • Adelaide Bennett Hagens
    • Activities
      • Events
      • Congress Activities
        • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
          • Panels at the M-MLA Convention
        • Co-sponsored Conference Sessions (2006‒)
    • History
      • Seals, Matrices & Documents
      • Genealogies & Archives
  • Bembino
    • Multi-Lingual Bembino
  • Congress
    • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
    • Co-sponsored Conference Sessions (2006‒)
    • Abstracts of Congress Papers
      • Abstracts Listed by Author
      • Abstracts Listed by Year
    • Kalamazoo Archive
    • Panels at the M-MLA Convention
      • Abstracts of Papers for the M-MLA Convention
  • Events
    • The Research Group Speaks: The Series
    • Seminars, Workshops, Colloquia & Symposia (1989–)
      • Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
      • Symposia on ‘The Transmission of the Bible’
      • The New Series
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Program: The Roads Taken
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Registration
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Registration Open
    • Abstracts of Papers for Events
      • Abstracts of Papers for Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
      • Abstracts of Papers for Symposia, Workshops & Colloquia
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    • Business Meetings
    • Photographic Exhibitions & Master Classes
    • Events Archive
  • ShelfLife
    • 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
  • Galleries
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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.

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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.

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

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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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The Bouquet List: A Gathering of Books

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

 

"The Bouquet List: A Gathering of Books", a review by Mildred Budny with motto: "A Rose by Another Name is a Bouquet of n Circles" (Anonymous)

The first in a series of reviews by Mildred Budny

This review celebrates research by and partly by Trustees and Associates of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (RGME) by showcasing some recent publications in print and online.  The title alludes to the widespread medieval genre of florilegia (“gatherings of flowers”), which collect selected extracts of texts from a larger body or bodies of work. Such compilations, also called “Commonplace Books” or “Miscellanies” — whether deliberate, haphazard, or serendipitous in their assembly — have figured in various RGME workshops and publications, and continue to offer challenges for examination.  The title also takes inspiration from the term bouquet in mathematics, wherein, according to some definitions, a “rose”, also known as a “bouquet of n circles”, yields a “topological space” by “gluing” together a collection of circles (which might take various shapes such as loops) along a single point (Bouquet of circles).  The mathematical term ‘Rose’ is defined at Wolfram MathWorld. Figural examples appear here:  Bouquet of n circles via Tikz.

roses croppedThe group of flowering works selected here represent a sampling of our collective and individual interests, which converge and overlap to various extents.

First I salute the most recent publications in the long series issuing from conferences held by the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University.  This University, through its Departments and Programs, including the Department of Art and Archaeology, the Index, and the Program in Medieval Studies, has been the most frequent host and co-sponsor for symposia of the RGME since our arrival in Princeton in 1994.  The publications are edited by our Honorary Trustee Colum Hourihane, with contributions by some of our Trustees, Officers, and Associates.  They are:

  • Patronage:  Power & Agency in Medieval Art (Princeton, 2013, ISBN 978-0-9837537-4-2), issuing from the 2012 conference celebrating the 95th anniversary of the foundation of the Index, and
  • Index of Christian Art Online Publications (generously available without subscription), starting with the first two, which record the annual conference proceedings devoted to The Digital World of Art History
    [originally [I] (July 12th, 2012), now here] (July 12th, 2012) and
    [originally II: Theory and Practice, now here] (June 26th, 2013).

The fourteen papers in the Patronage volume consider diverse materials, regions, dynamics of creation/commission, patterns of patronage, and issues of interpretation.  Cases poised upon textual evidence — occurring in manuscript, documentary, and monumental forms — are plentiful.  They include Elizabeth Carson Pastan’s nuanced assessment of “The Bayeux Embroidery [not a Tapestry!] & Its Interpretative History” particularly within the sphere of its original creators and audience; Nigel Morgan’s reading of “Patrons & Their Scrolls in Fifteenth-Century English Art” through text- or speech-scrolls in manuscripts, stained glass windows, and monumental brasses; Lucy Freeman Sandler’s sensitive assessment of “The Bohun Women & Manuscript Patronage in Fourteenth-Century England”, as revealed through the stages of “commissioning, conceiving, executing, receiving, and bequeathing”, and our Trustee Adelaide Bennett’s reconsideration of “Issues of Female Patronage: French Books of Hours, 1220–1320”, with an instructive analysis of the traces of women’s reading habits and instruction.  The ensemble offers a series of explorations into both charted and hitherto uncharted waters in the vast ocean of medieval materials which came into being through the aid, impediments, guidance, inspiration, and vision of patronage in many forms.

Among the multiple worthy subjects considered in the two e-volumes of The Digital World of Art History (with twenty-two papers), several are firmly central to RGME research activities.  For example, jointly Maria Oldal, Elizabeth O’Keefe, and William Voelkle (Volume I, chapter 4 = I.4) present a guide to the Corsair database of the Pierpont Morgan Library, which freely provides “unified access to over 250,000 records for medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, rare and reference books, literary and historical manuscripts, music scores, ancient seals and tablets, drawings, prints, and other art objects”.  Gretchen Wagner offers a trenchant survey of the challenges and possible solutions facing the issues of “Copyright and Scholarship in the Arts” (I.5) in a fast-changing world.  In “The ‘Art’ of Digital Art History” (II.7), focusing upon her experiences in assembling a major report on Transitioning to a Digital World for the Kress Foundation, Diane Zorich reflects as a consultant on the nature and potential of digital strategies and issues involving cultural heritage in cultural and educational institutions, principally major museums.  Members of the Staff of the Index of Christian Art – Judith Golden, Jessica Savage, our Associate Henry Schilb, Beatrice Raddan Keefe, and Jon Niola – contribute reports (in I.10–14) of its iconographic and bibliographic work, its collaborative projects accomplished or in preparation, and its other resources.

Kandice Rawlings (II.4) describes the varied history and development of the Oxford Art Online encyclopedia — available through subscription — about anything and everything connected with art, also said to provide “access to the most authoritative, inclusive, and easily searchable online art resources available today”.  As a contributor to the original printed form, that is, the Grove Dictionary of Art (1996), I find the story of this enterprise instructive as a vigorous case of transfer from an earlier age of publication, in book form, to the present internet industry of cumulative and composite forces able and willing to overtake, update, expand, and gain, while offering valuable research resources to privileged subscribers.

ShelfMarks 1 as booklet 23 Oct LJF page 3 really with images as a pair

Anglo-Saxon double-sided seal-matrix of the thegn Godwin (front) and the nun Godgytha (back), made of walrus-ivory in the first half of the 11th century C.E.  The front of the handle depicts the Trinity resting upon a prone human figure.  The coin-like roundels on obverse and reverse depict the part-length male and female figures identified by Latin inscriptions, ready for sealing wax.  Photographs © Genevra Kornbluth, reproduced by permission.  A detail appears here, with more information here.  Original: London, British Museum, M&ME 1881,4-4,1.

The report by our Associate Genevra Kornbluth on “Kornbluth Photography: From Private Research to Private Archive” (II.4) describes the creation, many years in the making, of her expert photographic archive, now available, with honorable copyright conditions, on her website.  Its “Historical Archive” gathers images of objects or monuments arranged by multiple indexes (culture/period, chronology, iconography, medium, object type, location, and artist), including text-based works such as manuscripts, charters, seals and matrices, relic labels, book covers, and inscriptions.

I first met Genevra years ago, when she was conducting research for her Ph.D. dissertation, published as Engraved Gems of the Carolingian Empire (Penn State University Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0-271-01426-5), and I have followed the progress of her work with care, so that I have long been aware of the beauty of her detailed photographs of carved rock-crystal gemstones and many other objects of complexity.  Like her, I have devoted much time to photographing original source materials — in my case mostly manuscripts and other written works — not only for my own study, but also for that of others, already in the age before digital methods paved the way for widespread access, now at least on screen and often in high-definition.

As a practitioner, I can attest that the active photographic process (not only as product) of close study of the works themselves – including manuscripts and other written works – might reveal features otherwise unsuspected.  For the gems, the microscopic traces of carving methods, with tools of distinctly differing points, allowed Genevra to distinguish between Byzantine and Carolingian works, in a valuable contribution to knowledge of their identifying characteristics, with photographs recording the features for all to see.  While Genevra’s contribution to the Index volume freely provides a sampling of her photographs we may illustrate other examples from her website here, generously with her permission.  Thus it can be possible to look through, as it were, the eyes of the expert examining the sources directly and closely.

ShelfMarks 1 page 4 really images as a pair

Rock crystal (quartz stone) intaglio, mid-to-late 9th century, seen from the smooth front and the engraved, incised back of the stone.  The upright, cross-bearing “St. Paul the Apostle”, is identified by Latin inscription.  Photographs © Genevra Kornbluth, reproduced by permission.  An oblique view appears here.  Original: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Cabinet des Médailles, H3416.

Now, to the bouquet I respectfully add the final publications by our RGME Associate Malcolm B. Parkes, who died in 2013 at the age of eighty-three.  A memorial by our Trustee David Ganz appears here:  Malcolm B. Parkes., Palaeographer (1930‒2013.  A collection of Malcolm’s essays in 2012 (complementing an earlier collection in 1991) has now followed the printed version in 2008 of his Lyell Lectures.

  • 3) M. B. Parkes, Their Hands Before Our Eyes:  A Closer Look at Scribes.  The Lyell Lectures Delivered in the University of Oxford, 1999 (Ashgate Publishing, 2008, [formerly “http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754663379” but now] ISBN 978-0-7546-6337-9).
  • 4) M. B. Parkes, Pages from the Past:  Medieval Writing Skills and Manuscript Books, edited by P. R. Robinson and Rivkah Zim (Ashgate Publishing, 2012, [formerly “http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409438069” but now ISBN 978-1-4094-3806-9).

These works record and preserve multiple fundamental, often ground-breaking, insights into the nature of scripts in relation to the process of writing, the minds at work, and the voices of the languages, authors, and speakers which the scripts transmit.  The plates offer examples for study and instruction.  We are grateful for their presence, while we lament the passing of their author, a kind friend and teacher.

This requirement calls forth the wistful reflection that some florilegia transmitted from the past may represent cherished recollections of previous living voices and vivid moments of instruction — of which only parts of the originally full representations may yet endure, both in memory and in “print”.  We treasure these traces.

For the next issues of the Newsletter, the RGME invites suggestions and donations for books to review.  While this first “Bouquet” centers upon publications by, or with contributions by, contributors to the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, we welcome works by others too.

GenEld_1

Genoels–Elderen openwork ivory diptych made circa 800 C.E. — perhaps formerly the paired covers for a sacred book or a writing tablet.  Framed within geometric and interlace borders and accompanied by Latin inscriptions, the cross-bearing Christ, flanked by angels, stands upon the Beasts (with Bird in the form of Rooster), while His mother Mary experiences both the Annunciation with Gabriel and the Visitation with Elizabeth, all with attendants.   Photograph © Genevra Kornbluth, reproduced by permission.   More views and details here: Genoels Elderen.   Original: Brussels, Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Musée du Cinquantenaire, no. 1474.

Roses according to n=6, n=7, and n=8, laid out by Mildred Budny

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This review forms part of the first issue of the Research Group Newsletter, ShelfMarks.
An e-version of this issue, with ShelfTags for ShelfMarks and some extra images, appears here.
The full issue appears here: ShelfMarks, Volume 1, Number 1 (PDF).
You might Subscribe here.

Masthead for ShelfMarks, the newsletter of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, laid out in RGME Bembino

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Tags: Florilegia, Index of Christian Art, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript Photography, Manuscript studies, Palaeography, Photography of Works of Art, Roses in Mathematics
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2014 Congress Report

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

49th International Congress on Medieval Studies
An Anniversary Year

8-11 May 2014

[Published on 25 June 2014, with updates]

David Sorenson and Donncha MacGabhann examine manuscript materials

Photography by Mildred Budny

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

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Tags: Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, Assenids, Book of Kells, Carolingian Manuscripts, Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Florida, Datini Archives, Early Ottoman Empire, Ethiopic Manuscripts, Gems, History of Canon Law, History of Magic, History of Paper, House Style, Individual Style, Islamic Manuscripts, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript studies, Medieval manuscripts, Medieval Music, Medieval Writing Materials, Palaeography, Second Bulgarian Empire, Societas Magica, Talismans
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2014 Congress Announced

January 8, 2014 in Anniversary, Conference Announcement, ICMS, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo

49th International Congress on Medieval Studies

8-11 May 2014

[Published on our first website on 8 January 2014, with updates there and here]

We announce the program for our sponsored and co-sponsored sessions at the next International Congress on Medieval Studies, when we will celebrate our anniversary year, along with that of one of our co-sponsors, the Societas Magica.  2014 marks the 20th anniversary of the Societas Magica.  For the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, it marks our 15th anniversary as a nonprofit educational organization and our 25th anniversary as an international scholarly society.  This is the ninth year of our co-sponsorship with the Societas Magica, and the first year of co-sponsorship with the Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Florida.  The Events at this Congress celebrate these shared accomplishments.

This year, with the transition to our second, updated website (begun in 2014 and completed in 2015), we began to issue the announcements for a given Congress in a series of blogposts, rather than overwriting its statements, which had left only the final state in view.  Here we offer the Congress Announced, with more to come.

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Tags: Abba Gärima Gospels, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, Archaeology, Barberini Gospels, Biblical Studies, Book of Kells, Bulgarian Studies, Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Florida, City of Tărnovo, Corpus Christi College MS 197B, Datini Archives, Early Medieval Art, Early Ottoman Empire, Ethiopic Manuscripts, Gems, Half-Uncial Script, History of Canon Law, History of Catholicism, History of Magic, History of Music, History of Paper, History of Style, History of the Assenids, History of Watermarks, House Style, Individual Style, Insular Manuscripts, Islamic Manuscripts, Legal History, Manuscript Illumination, McGill University MS MCG 117, Medieval manuscripts, Medieval Studies, Mediterranean Trade, Orthodox Christianity, Palaeography, Polygraphism, Renaissance Studies, Renaissance Visual Culture, Second Bulgarian Empire, Silistra, Societas Magica, South-East European History, Talismans, Uncial Script, Workshop Practices, Writing materials
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2013 Congress

January 1, 2014 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Bembino, Conference Announcement, ICMS, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo

48th International Congress on Medieval Studies

9-12 May 2013

[First published on our first website on *6 December 2012, with updates there and here]

Posters for our Sessions displayed at the 2014 CongressWith its mission to “apply an integrated, holistic approach to manuscripts and texts in all forms,” at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in 2013, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence held sponsored and co-sponsored sessions examining the material culture, production, and purposes of written records in Western Europe and beyond, and the dispersal, recovery, and study of those works in various forms and widespread locations.  Besides these interlinked subjects, the year’s highlighted genres were astrology, the material technology of magic, and the symbolism of water in the Middle Ages.

As before, we co-sponsored sessions with the Societas Magica and King Alfred’s Notebook LLC (respectively in the eighth and second years of this co-sponsorship). Also, three of our Trustees and many of our Officers, and Associates presented papers at the Congress in a variety of sessions.

Here we report the Programs for our Sessions, publish the Abstracts of their Papers, and illustrate the Posters for the Sessions.  For the first time, we designed Posters for all of our Sessions at the Congress, Sponsored and Co-Sponsored.  At the 2011 Congress we had one Poster, and two Posters at this 2013 Congress for our Sponsored Sessions, all with images courtesy of David W. Sorenson, whose donation of images inspired their creation. The series of Posters now stand exhibited in our Gallery of Posters on Display.  The Posters are set in our own multi-lingual digital font Bembino, available for download for FREE here.

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Tags: 'Huntingdonshire Scribe', Adam Pinkhurst, Artists' Recipe Books, Astrology, Bibliothèque nationale de France Ms Latin 16714, British Library Cotton MS Faustina C i, Datini Archive, Digital Imaging, Ducal Charters, History of Paper, Islamic Paper, Late Medieval English Scribes Project, Manipulus Florum, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript studies, Medieval Manuscript Collecting, Medieval manuscripts, Medieval Music, Medieval Writing Materials, Middle English, Orpiment Pigment, Palaeography, Peter of Blois, Picatrix, Pigment Analysis, Popular Magic, Rhygyfarch ap Sulien, Scribe B - Pynkhurst Debate, Sigillum Dei, Silesia, Societas Magica, Textual Amulet, Thomas of Ireland, Welsh-Latin Poetry
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Seminars on “The Evidence of Manuscripts” (1989‒1995)

January 1, 2014 in Events, Manuscript Studies, Seminars on Manuscript Evidence

Logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence in Monochrome VersionResearch Group Seminars,
Workshops, and Symposia:
The Early Years

Since 1990, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence has held Seminars, Workshops, and Symposia (organized or co-organized by Mildred Budny) variously at the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and at other centers in England, Japan, and the United States.  In England, many of these sessions belonged to the series of Research Group Seminars on “The Evidence of Manuscripts.”  At libraries, the sessions have taken place over relevant manuscripts in the collection, supplemented by photographs.  Elsewhere, the sessions have usually been accompanied by displays or exhibitions of photographs (mostly by Mildred Budny).

View Toward the Chapel of Corpus Christi College in mid-September 1994 photography © Mildred Budny

View Toward the Chapel, Upon Entering Corpus Christi College, in mid-September 1994 photography © Mildred Budny

View Toward the Entrance to the Parker Library in mid-1989 photograph © Mildred Budny

View Toward the Entrance to the Parker Library in mid-1989. Photograph © Mildred Budny.

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Tags: Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, Aoyama Gakuin University, British Library, Budny's Illustrated Catalogue, Calligraphy, Canterbury Manuscripts, Chuo University, Corpus Christi College Cambridge, Corpus Christi College Ms 139, Corpus Christi College MS 201, Corpus Christi College MS 223, Corpus Christi College MS 23, Corpus Christi College MS 383, Corpus Christi College MS 41, Corpus Christi College MS 44, Cotton MS Tiberius A III, Early Modern Studies, Japan Society for Medieval English Studies, King Alfred, Library History, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript Marginalia, Manuscript studies, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Medieval Pigments, Old English Studies, Palaeographical and Textual Handbook, Palaeography, Parker Library, Pembroke College Oxford, Seminars on Manuscript Evidence, Symposia on 'The Transmission of the Bible", University of Tokyo
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