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SJLahey

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🇨🇦 Oschinsky Research Associate, Cambridge University Library & Fellow of Girton College, Cambridge · Cataloguer of #MedievalManuscripts for the rare books trade · #PhD: University of Victoria, 2021 · olim: University of Toronto, Universiteit Leiden, Université d’Ottawa · Research: #Codicology #Palaeography #BookHistory #Quantitative humanities, Statistics, Manuscript Science, #DigitalHumanities | tfr

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Visiting the Wren Library of Trinity College, Cambridge today, taking in (you guessed it) yet more Statuta Angliæ — including one which features this rather unhappy little fellow. 😕
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Detail of the lower left corner of a leaf in a medieval manuscript: folio 85 recto in Cambridge, Trinity College, manuscript O.7.27. 3 lines of French, followed by 2 larger heading lines of Latin, then 4 more lines of Latin, all copied in brown ink. The bottom-most 4 lines are indented to accommodate an enlarged decorative initial ‘C’ painted in pink atop a square blue background. Bars of pink, blue, green, and gold extend from the background to form a border around the text. Green and orange leaves spring from the bars. The initial ‘C’ is almost entirely infilled with a background of smoothly burnished, shining gold leaf. The non-gilded negative space forms the shape of a standing monk or friar, depicted in profile, his features and the draping of his robes drawn in with black ink. The tiny fellow gestures towards the adjacent text, gazing upon it morosely.
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    Decorated initials: notorious site of interspecies struggle since the 11th century. 😱
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    Detail of a medieval manuscript leaf: folio 56 recto in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Ff.3.9. The parchment page bears a 2 line Latin heading in red ink, followed by a dozen more lines of Latin in black ink. The red and first 8 black lines have been indented to accommodate a huge painted initial ‘Q’. The counter (or rounded space) of the letter is built up of entwined blue vines against a background of scarlet. Lush leaves of sage green, orange, and pink curl from the ends of the vines. Gambolling amidst the vines are small strange creatures: a green raptor with apricot wings; a rose and tangerine foxlike beast with olive–azure wings, legs, and tail; and a salmon-hued cat or rabbit with orange ears and sage-green face. At right, forming the tail of the ‘Q’, an indigo-coated wolf crouches between the lines of text. Grasping 1 of the cat–rabbit’s hind legs in its jaws, it strives to pull the scrabbling creature out from the vines. Hold on tight, critter!
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    Rub-a-dub-dub! Bath-time in a 15th-century copy of Régime du corps, a personal guide to home composed by the physician Aldobrandino of Siena in 1256.
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    Detail of a medieval manuscript leaf: folio 14 verso in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Ii.5.11, photographed on a slight angle from the lower left fore-edge. It shows 12 lines of medieval French text copied in a bold hand with black ink. Lines 4 to 8 are indented to make space for a rectangle of pink and white swirls bordered in gold leaf. Sprays of pink thistles and spiky ivy leaves, in gold, extend from the border into the page’s margin. Within the rectangle rests a decorated initial ‘P’, rendered in blue and gold. The initial is infilled with a tiny depiction of a long wooden tub under a scarlet canopy. Inside the tub sits a bathing man, facing us, hands resting on the tub’s side. Placed nearby is a small table draped with a white cloth, and bearing a bar of yellow soap and a small white cup. Immersed in the dark, placid water, the bathing man contemplates these items meditatively, perhaps deciding what to wash next.
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    Polka-dots in a lovely copy of Platearius from Cambridge University Library.
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    The top right corner of a parchment leaf in a medieval book: folio 68 recto in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Dd.3.51. 14 lines of Latin text arranged in 2 columns, showing only the final dozen letters of the left column, but the full width of the right column. The text is copied in black ink with majuscules heightened by thin strokes of red ink, on faintly buckling parchment. In the right column, lines 2 to 6 of the text have been indented to create space for addition of an enlarged decorative initial ‘C’. Elegantly formed, the letter is drawn in red ink, with a slender band, terminating in leafy forms, traced along the inside edge of its hollow bowl in deep plum verging on black. Within and around the tracery are scattered clusters of 3 tiny dots in vermilion and pistachio.
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    you’re overcome by the sheer horror of c.16 of the 1st Statute of Westminster (3 Edw 1) 😳.
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    The lower half of a leaf in a medieval manuscript: folio 16 recto in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Additional 732. Visible are 13 lines of medieval Law French copied in dark brown ink in a slightly rushed-looking hand. The text has been copied on indifferent parchment, and is punctuated with pilcrows, paragraph symbols, in red and blue (though only 1 red example is shown here). In the margin at right an early hand has added a note indicating c.16, highlighted with a blue pilcrow. Immediately above looms the head of a red-haired and red-bearded man wearing a lawyer’s coif. He gazes towards the text, eyes wide and round with alarm or even terror.
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    Back in Cambridge University Library today, taking in more medieval common .
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    Detail of a leaf in a medieval manuscript: folio 8 recto in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Ee.6.33. The photo is taken on a slight angle, looking up and across the page from towards the lower left corner. Visible are 5 lines of Latin copied in dark brown ink, followed by 2 lines copied in a larger display script and highlighted with dabs of red ink, then another 8 lines in dark brown ink. In this last section, the first 5 lines are indented to accommodate an enlarged initial ‘E’ for ‘Edwardus’. Rendered in red ink by a less expert hand, the initial is ornamented with an abstract pattern of squiggly red lines.
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    A stripy, ‘S’ from Cambridge University Library. 🌈
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    The top half of a leaf in a medieval manuscript: folio 66 verso in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Gg.5.34. The creamy parchment bears 17 lines of Latin copied in a clear, upright hand in dark brown ink. The first 12 lines are indented to half the width of the other lines to form a space for addition of a large, decorative initial ‘S’. The initial’s simple shape is drawn with a purplish black ink, and infilled with stripes of colour—dark teal green, rust red, pale saffron, and indigo purple—to form a sinuous rainbow.
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    On Thursday, I had the honour of introducing a Girton College student to Cambridge University Library and giving her a crash-course in handling . Here’s a highlight from one of them.
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    Detail of a leaf in a medieval manuscript: folio 3 recto in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Kk.1.23. Across the very top sprawls a 3 line annotation added by a modern hand in black ink. Below this, the original contents open with 3 lines of Latin copied in alternating red and green ink; following this are 9 lines of Latin copied in black ink. The first 7 black ink lines are indented to accommodate an enlarged decorative initial ‘T’ rendered in black, red, and green ink. The stylized initial takes the form of a demonic creature clad in human garb: a scarlet cape over a grass green tunic, with a scarlet headband. Although he has the body of a man, one of his feet is a ruminant’s hoof; the other, a bird’s foot. His head is that of a goat with long, faintly spiralling horns. Standing upright, he spreads his arms out at shoulder level, grasping a sword in one hand and a panic-stricken rabbit in the other, while sounding the hunting horn protruding from his grinning mouth.
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    A in one of the of Pembroke College, Cambridge (now held at Cambridge University Library).
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    Detail of a leaf in a medieval manuscript: folio 44 verso in Cambridge, Pembroke College manuscript 301. The gold-haloed head of an evangelist peeks up from the lower edge of the image. Above this curve 2 concentric arches linked together by a decorative rosette, all rendered in shiny gold leaf with burgundy, pine, and cobalt paints. In front of the arches, springing across the page, stretches a yellow lion sporting green and red wings and a glittering halo of burnished gold. Rearing up on hind legs, the beast grasps a golden book in its front paws, and throws back its head to sound the long blue trumpet extending from its mouth.
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    In which Georgi Parpulov explores the question “To Whom Do Belong?” https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/to-whom-do-manuscripts-belong/
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    in 31 May 1669: Citing poor eyesight, Samuel Pepys (1633 Feb 23–1703 May 26) makes his final diary entry.
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    Lovely portrait of a woman tucked away in a Statuta Angliæ manuscript from Cambridge University Library.
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    Detail of a leaf in a medieval manuscript: folio 243 verso in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Mm.5.19. At right, the beginning of 12 lines of French text copied in dark brown ink with the 1st 3 lines indented to create space for an added decorative initial ‘N’, skilfully drawn in dark brown ink. The initial is ornamented with very fine pen-work swirling out into the margin to form leaves and tendrils. Several of the lines extend up into the top margin where they coalesce into a small, line-drawn portrait of a woman in three-quarter profile with her hair coiffed.
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    Biblically-accurate ? 👀
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    Detail of a leaf in a medieval manuscript: folio 128 recto in Cambridge, University Library, Manuscript Ll.4.18. Visible is the start of 9 lines of Latin text copied in dark brown ink, the 1st and 8th lines opening with pilcrows or paragraph marks added in red ink, the 5th line opening with another pilcrow added in blue ink. Above all this, in the topmost margin of the leaf, someone has sketched a manicule—a pointing hand or glove typically used to draw attention to a passage—in black ink. This manicule takes the shape of a glove pointing down towards the text with thumb and index finger. The back of the glove is ornamented with a pattern probably intended to represent a flower, but resembling a cluster of 4 eyes.
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    @KarenStrickholm @bookhistodons @histodons It’s a leaf in a carefully-copied collection of medieval English common law texts. A reader added the manicule to mark a passage of interest. 😊

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    ‘M’ for the Merry Month of May in a Cambridge University Library statute book.
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    Detail of a medieval manuscript leaf: folio 61 recto in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Ll.4.17. Visible are 10 lines of Latin script copied in black ink. 2 of the lines are copied in slightly larger display letters and underlined with red ink. Below these, the next 3 lines of text are indented to accommodate an enlarged, decorative initial ‘M’. The initial is painted in blue and red, and infilled with an ornamental network of fine, scrolling pen-work lines in red ink. The pen-work spills out of the initial into the empty margin at the left of the page.
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    Are any of you at London Firsts tonight? If so, let’s meet up! (I’m here in the queue…) @bookhistodons

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    14 May 1761: The Halifax Gazette () ran the 1st advertisement of bookseller James Rivington (1724–1802) of London, UK, who had opened ’s 1st retail bookshop in Halifax “next Door to Mr. Manning nigh the [Grand] Parade”.
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    Some : French lawyer & author Marc Lescarbot (d.1641) (‘ML’) had a client involved in an expedition to Acadia, New France. He invited ML, who accepted. 1606 July: They reached Port Royal (now in )… with ML’s in tow: the 1st known library* in what is now .

    • Depending on your definition of ‘library’, of course. Let’s say, ‘Lescarbot’s books are regarded as the first known collection of European-style codices in what is now Canada’.
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    in 6 May 1236: Death of Roger of Wendover, Benedictine monk & 1st of a series of important chroniclers at St Albans. His best-known chronicle, Flores historiarum, survives in 2 —including the 1 shown in the 📷—& an edition in Matthew Paris’ (c.1200–1259) Chronica majora.
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    Detail of the upper left corner of a leaf in a medieval manuscript: folio 1 recto in Bodleian Library, manuscript Douce 207. 12 lines of handwritten Latin text copied in brown ink. The first 7 lines are indented to accommodate a decorative initial painted in blue and orange paint atop a background square of pink bordered with gold leaf. Within the initial sits a grey-haired, bearded scholar depicted side-on, gazing upwards. Clad in pink robes and cap, he grasps a stack of books with his left hand. Raising his right hand towards the heavens he points out a cluster of 7 blue stars twinkling just beyond the bounds of the initial in which he sits.
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    in : Happy birthday to the French publisher Louis Christophe François Hachette (1800 May 05–1864 Jul 31), founder of @HachetteLivre (estab. 1826). Initially called Brédif, the company became L. Hachette et Compagnie on 01 Jan 1846.

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    in : Death of Eleanor Sleath (1770 Oct 15–1847 May 05), best known for her 1798 novel The Orphan of the Rhine, listed as one of the 7 ‘horrid novels’ recommended by Isabella Thorpe in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey.
    (‘The Northanger Horrid Novels’ were believed to be of Austen’s own invention until Montague Summers began publishing on the seven, refuting the denial of their existence. Other scholars soon followed suit.)

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    For , selections from the Sankt Florian Psalter—St Florian being the patron saint of . (I love the ‘jewelled’ line-fillers in this codex).
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    A medieval manuscript leaf: folio 57 recto in Warsaw, National Library, Rps 8002 III. 2 columns of text in Polish, each of 26 lines, in black ink. Every 2nd or 3rd line opens with a slightly enlarged initial in gold leaf and colours: blue, red, and green. Whenever the text does not reach the end of a line, the empty space has been filled with an (aptly-named) ‘line-filler’, a decorative shape intended to complete the line. Usually line-fillers are formed of simple, abstract, pen-work. The examples on this page are more elaborate. Some are dense blocks of coloured ink, with intricate geometric patterns meticulously picked-out by leaving some areas uncoloured. Others consist of bars of burnished gold leaf adorned with repeating patterns of interlocking geometric windows, each filled-in with translucent pigments in emerald green or rose pink. The gold catches the light, making the golden initials and line-fillers appear to appear to spring up off the page.
    Detail from a medieval manuscript leaf: folio 51 verso in Warsaw, National Library, Rps 8002 III. 2 columns of medieval Polish, each with 17 lines of text in black ink. Every second or third line opens with a slightly enlarged decorated initial in gold and colours, mostly blue, red, and green. Whenever the text does not reach the end of a line, the empty space has been completed with a decorative ‘line-filler’. Most line-fillers are fairly simple, created of abstract pen-work, but most of the examples here are truly luxurious: bars of burnished gold leaf adorned with repeating patterns made of tiny, interlocking geometric forms. Each form is filled-in with translucent pigment in rich, vivid hues—deep cobalt blue, ruby red, jade green—and then highlighted with white, to create a 3-dimensional effect. The technique creates the illusion of line-fillers made from enamelled jewels, floating above the parchment.

    A splendid, luxuriously-ornamented page in a medieval manuscript: folio 3 recto in Warsaw, National Library, Rps 8002 III. 2 columns of medieval Polish in grey ink and gold leaf, with slightly enlarged capital letters in gold and colours. Column 2 has 26 lines of script; column 1, only 19 as it opens with an enormous initial ‘B’ formed of curling pink leaves and ribbons on a blue ground patterned with swirling golden vines. Within the B sits a bearded man, cross-legged, clad in voluminous robes. Extending from the B, spilling down the left margin and pooling in margin at the bottom of the page, is a dense, undulating wave of leaves and flowers painted in rich colours with splashes of gold. In the lower margin, life lurks amidst this foliage: a young woman sits, smiling, beneath a frond bearing a green parrot, and a stag reaches up to nibble at the leaves as 2 nude human figures frolic nearby: 1 dances with their back to us; the other blows a large horn.
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