pulltheotheroneithasbellson:

A while back, I asked the scareferencedesk for any illumination references with towers they knew of, and I promised to post them after they all got handed out. Well, it is definitely not in a timely manner, but they’ve all been handed out! I added some of the other designs I’ve done so it’s not so architecture heavy. I also added the Red Tower Rapier Champion scroll which was a group project. Mistress Adela did the calligraphy then curse because she left too much space (while the rest of us are laughing at how small she wrote), and then handed it to me and told me to draw a thing in the empty space. So, yay, weird little medieval person! I totally snagged the Knight Marshal on his way past the table and was like “SWORDS. HOW DOES THE HAND GUARD THINGY EVEN.” And luckily he spoke internet at 1am because he answered what I meant. The whole scroll totally was finished five minutes before evening Court, and we’re counting it as a major victory that it was dry. And then like a week later we had to ask if Wistric would send us pictures so we could keep track of the things we made. Veronica and I are still in the track our progress through photos of all the things we make stage.

Yay! So happy to see them! 😀 Also, Combat Scribing is awesome.

mediumaevum:

Beginner and veteran transcribers, this app is available for free, on both Android and iOS devices. Manuscript database, basic info on each of them, typography galore… 

The origins of this app lie in online exercises in palaeography developed for postgraduate students in the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds in West Yorkshire, U.K. The aim is to provide practice in the transcription of a wide range of medieval hands, from the twelfth to the late fifteenth century. 

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Truth be told, some of the pages might be in higher resolution, but still, it’s one of the best edu apps I’ve seen lately. 

medieval-women:

Medieval women artists painting self portraits, 15th century.

Top: Unknown Artist Marcia Painting Self-Portrait using Mirror (from Giovanni Boccaccio De claris mulieribus, Anonymous French Translantio, Le livre de femmes nobles et renomees, France c 1440 British Library Artiste faisant son autoportrait

Bottom: Unknown Artist from Giovanni Boccaccio De claris mulieribus, Anonymous French Translantio, Le livre de femmes nobles et renomees, France c 1440 British Library Autoportrait sur bois

You can see more here (with citations): http://bjws.blogspot.com/2014/02/illuminated-manuscripts-women-artists.html

Lindisfarne Gospels and Luttrell Psalter

The British Library has a lot of digitized manuscripts online, which is awesome for SCA Scribes. Two of their best known treasures haven’t yet made the move from their old site, “Digitized Manuscripts”, to the new one, “Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts” – the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Luttrell Psalter. That’s because the Lindisfarne is a Cotton manuscript and the Luttrell is an Additional, and both of these collections haven’t yet made the transition yet.

The old site (DM) is actually really cool – when you click “View Bindings,” you get a viewer that allows you to page through the digitized manuscript and zoom in on elements. The new site (CIM) only gives you one high-res image and one slightly smaller one (in additional to thumbnails). They do have some detail scans, but it’s not the same (as you can imagine).

Lindisfarne Gospels (Cotton MS Nero D.IV)

[Link]c. 700-3rd quarter 10th Century
Lindisfarne, Northumberland
Eadfirth, Bishop of Lindisfarne (690-721)

Luttrell Psalter (Add MS 42130)

[Link]1325-1340
for Sir Geoffrey Luttrell, Irnham, Lincolnshire

You can see the BL’s Access/Reuse/Copyright notes concerning images here: [Link]

Images used in this post are from Wikipedia.

44 Medieval Beasts That Cannot Even Handle it Right Now

graycloak:

The following list of “44 Medieval Beasts That Cannot Even Handle it Right Now” comes from [this] BuzzFeed post, and completely made me fall off my chair laughing this morning 🙂

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No less than four people (I lost count after awhile) wanted to make sure I saw this. Sharing here, because each has a lovely link to the source in the British Library’s collection.

Late period illuminated family trees.

So what do we consider late period? The latest I could find was late 16th century, but the majority was 14-15th.

For search terms (in the image description field of your favorite manuscript database, try “genealogy.” That seems to pull up the most results.

Here are some highlights:

King’s 395, ff. 32v-33: Genealogy of the kings of England
c. 1511, with additions before 1553

[Link]

image

Lansdowne 204, f. 196: Royal genealogy
c. 1440-1450
[Link]

image

image

Harley 7353: Genealogy of Edward IV
1460-c. 1470
[Link]

image

Harley 7026, f. 4 – Genealogy of the Holland family
between c.1400-c.1410
[Link]image

 

Harley 838, f. 12v-13 and 38
2nd half of the 15th century
[Link]

image

image

 

Harley 318, f. 6r: Genealogy of the Kings of England
3rd quarter of the 15th century, after 1445 and before 1461
[Link]

The Bodleian has a lot of great stuff too, which you can find here: [Link] The earliest looks like it is from the end of the 13th century.

Highlights from the Bodleian:

MS. Bodl. Rolls 5, view 36: Genealogy of the Kings of England to Richard III. Chronicle of the Percy Family to 1485.
c. 1485
[Link] – hopefully this will work. Linking to specific items in the Bodleian is always… interesting.
There are a lot of pages from this one. Totally cool.

image

 

MS. Ashmole 845, f. 074r. Genealogy of the Kings of England, from Edward I to Henry VIII.
16th century
[Link]

image

 

MS. e Mus. 42, fol. 031v-032r: Genealogy. Edward I to Edward IV
c. 1467-1469
[Link]

image

hey do you still have the link to that cool manuscript page where the callig is in the shape of a bird with the beak and the feet illuminated? I have a cygnus to do…

This one?

image

Harley 647, f. 5v
Illustration of the swan of the constellation Cygnus, with text or scholia within the figure of the constellation.
from Aratea, with extracts from Hyginus’s Astronomica in the constellation figures, 9th century France
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=26812