Sydney
sparkled on a sunny winter’s day as seven members made their way to the Australian
National Maritime Museum’s Library at Wharf 7, Darling Harbour to see the Mary Rose
Scroll. The scroll is the work of four
calligraphers from the Australian Society of Calligraphers and/or Calligraphy
Southscribes, and was produced during the 1994 Mary Rose exhibition. The Mary Rose was one of Henry VIII’s
warships which sank in 1545 and was salvaged in 1982.
Calligraphers
Rod Byatt, Loretta Casaceli, Judi Dong and Joy Marden worked in shifts on the
scroll for a month, with visitors to the exhibition watching on. When the scroll was completed it was put on
display for the duration of the exhibition, after which it was packed away. However, earlier this year it was
resurrected, much like the Mary Rose, and placed on display in the Museum’s
library.
The large
work consists of three distinct sections. The first gives the history of the Tudor
succession to the throne and is written in an Italic hand in black ink; the second
section, outlining the life of Henry VIII, is written in a Batard script in
green gouache, while the third describes the fate of the Mary Rose, written in
a Gothicised Italic in black ink.
Artwork on the scroll ranges from subtle columns of Tudor roses and
other flora to bold heraldic and other symbols of the Tudors and Henry’s six
wives. The colours are still vibrant and
only the gilding is showing minor deterioration.
We marvelled
at the amount of work that must have gone into this striking work. The library staff was happy to let us spend
as much time as we wished studying the scroll and assured us that if the
library ever moves from its current premises the scroll will be going with
them.
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