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.
From the Beinecke Rare book and Manuscript Library’s record:
La Sfera Creator: Dati, Gregorio, 1362-1436 Language: Italian Date: [between 1450 and 1500]Subjects: Astronomy, Medieval Italian poetry–15th century Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval Manuscripts, Medieval–Connecticut–New Haven Early maps Navigation–Early works to 1800 Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library Dati, Gregorio,–1362-1436
Incunabula are books that were printed in the early days of the printing press in Europe, from the 1450s to the end of the 15th century. Because this technological advancement came when books were still hand-copied and decorated (manuscripts) the typography and decoration was designed to mimic their more time-intensive predecessors. Because that’s what books looked like, you know?
The Dialogus creaturarum optime moralizatus (or, Dyalogus creaturarum moralizatus) is a collection of 122 fables in Latin and conversations of creatures. It was the first book ever printed in Sweden, in 1483 by Johann Snell. Five copies of the original printing survive today.
From Wikipedia: The fables are organised in sections according to the different kinds of protagonists: first the astronomical, then the elements, followed by living things. The fables tell of the interactions of various anthropomorphized animals and ends with a moral explanation. Common human problems are solved according to the teachings of the Bible, church fathers or classical Greek or Roman philosophy. The author is unknown, but surviving manuscripts suggest the fables may have been gathered and edited by either Mayno de Mayneri (Magninus Mediolanensis) or Nicolaus Pergamenus, both active in the 14th century. A number of the fables are from Aesop, such as The Lion’s Share, The Frog and the Ox and The Wolf and the Lamb.
The first English edition of Dialogus creaturarum was published in 1530.
Color digitization, from the Ghent University Library, Belguim: [Link]
English Translation: The dialoges of creatures moralysed: a critical edition, by G. C. Kratzmann and Elizabeth Gee (1988): [Worldcat] [AbeBooks]
Excerpts from English translation with original illustrations: [Wayback Machine]
And, because of the ones I have found in English so far, this is my favorite:
About the Monkey who wrote Books: Dialogue 97
Symea, a monkey, used to write the most beautiful of books; but he was never completely whole-hearted about what he was doing. He would rather talk with other people, or listen to what they were saying, and because of that he used to spoil his books by writing in them what he was saying, or what he heard the others say. But since he refused to improve himself, no-one would offer him any work, and from his poverty he said:
Nichil scriptor corde si non meditatur
– “Nothing the scribe writes will have its effect if it is not meditated in the heart.”
I made a thing that I think is ready to see the public eye.
I don’t know about you guys, but I am really bad sometimes about remembering to write down my bare-bones documentation for scribal stuff. That is, write it down somewhere other than on the back of the scroll that is leaving my possession. I would like to, at some point, have a portfolio of everything (or most things) that I have done along with write-ups. Writing scribal documentation for a single piece is a bit different than doing so for a portfolio type thing, but only by a little in my mind.
That being said, and in interest of promoting scribal stuff at the upcoming Northshield Kingdom Arts and Sciences Open Division and Triathlon, I made a template for scribal documentation. My hope is that if you have never written documentation before, that it will help you do so for your scribal work.
Even if you aren’t planning on submitting your work, this is a great way to keep a diary of your process, sources, etc. that you can look back on and see how you have improved. Also, writing about something you’ve done helps you learn more from it by learning more about yourself and how you think, process, and do – it’s a kind of meta-cognition.
Anyway, please feel free to use this. Remember, it’s just a template – open it up in Word and replace my guidance text with what you’re writing.
I’m open to constructive criticism about it too – if you have an idea for how I can make this better, please let me know.
YIS, Leah Jolifaunt of Schattentor Northshield Do-er of Things and SCA Reference Desk Librarian
Medieval book historian at Leiden University, The Netherlands. I post images from medieval books. More eye candy on Twitter (@erik_kwakkel) and longer blogs on medievalbooks.nl.
If you’re not already following him, you should.
Scribes, I’m looking at you. And plying you with pretty pictures.
It may be a cat, but it could SO EASILY become an otter. #justsayin
For the next time you need to do a scroll that features Death. Because of reasons.
Guillaume de Digulleville’s Le pèlerinage de la vie humaine, Death steps across body of Pilgrim on bed with Grace of God behind his head, Walters Manuscript W.141, fol. 92v
Ohmygosh tell me about it. Trompe-l’œil makes me cry. It’s beautiful, but I am a paste-eating child when I’m asked to attempt it. Tasty, tasty paste.
BTW, I’m totally doing the mental super-sekrit-scribal-handshake. Rock on, scribes! And welcome! (Also, bb!scribe makes me giggle. <3)
First of, Google is weird when it comes to finding specific images in illuminated manuscripts. My two absolute favorite resources are the British Library and the Bodleian Library. There are, of course, plenty of other libraries and institutions that have digitized cataloges that you can search, but BL and Bodl are my go-tos.
BableStone: 72 Views of the Tower of Babel – This blog has a cool run-down of various images of the Tower of Babel in manuscripts, along with citations (yea citations!) and links. If the links don’t work, use the shelf/manuscript number to search the collection (those links should work) and find it. (I’m having some issues with it, so if you run into problems, let me know and I will help you track down individual images.
I really like this one.
illustration by Michiel van der Borch to Jacob van Maerlant’s Rhimebible MMW, 10 B 21 folio 9v Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, Netherlands Netherlands (Utrecht), 1332
“Tower of Babel” or “Babel” would be good search terms to use in Bodley and BL. “Building” and “architecture” aren’t bad, but you will get less.
A lot of 12th and 13th century portraiture use architectural elements for framing, like this portrait of King Solomon:
Additional 11639 f. 116 Miscellany of biblical and other texts (‘The Northern French Miscellany’ or earlier ‘the British Museum Miscellany’): including the Pentateuch, Haftarot, Tiqqun Sofrim, Five Scrolls, prayer book for the entire year with Haggadah, legal texts, poetry, calendars, Book of Tobit in Hebrew, etc. France, N. 1277-1286 [Link]
The Visconti Hours also has some cool architectural elements to it, but it’s a later period. It’s not tromp, but it’s still more realistic than earlier stuff. It’s not fully digitized online, but you can pick up a facsimile copy (with notes) for fairly cheap.
LF 155, Visconti Hours – The Gates of Gaza National Library, Florence Facsimile to purchase: [Abebooks]Facsimile in libraries: [Worldcat]
I hope that helps! Let me know if you need more. 🙂
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]
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 🙂
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.
