State Library New South Wales and Carrying Tradition in a Digital World with Denis Brown

Dear Members and Followers,

If you are in Sydney this should be interesting.


http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/events/carrying-tradition-digital-world-denis-brown

Calligraphy Southscribes at NSW Heritage Festival

Dear Members and Followers,

Calligraphy Southscribes will have a display on 29 March 2014 to tie in with the N.S.W. Heritage Festival. See details below.

Patricia Lovett – Professional Calligrapher and Illuminator – State Library of New South Wales – 6th January 2014 - Part 2

We then viewed William de Brailes’ de Brailes Hours (Book of Hours) c1240 it is reputed to be the oldest book of hours. Patricia explained that saints’ name days were written in red (thus giving us the term red letter days). Also by William de Brailes is the Last Judgment.

Following this were pictures of the Sherborne Missal and works by David Aubert, a French calligrapher who produced works for the court of the Duke of Burgundy, as well as illuminations at Bruges and other centres for the Dukes Philip the Good and Charles the Bold and the Duchess Margaret of York.

Patricia then spoke about the materials used:

Skin Treatment: Skins were soaked in vats of lime, then stretched out to be scraped, they were then left to dry and were scraped again. Once this had been completed the skins were cut, lines ruled and paintings or illustrations were completed. To remind us, Vellum is calf skin and parchment is sheep skin.

Writing Tools: Quills were made from the first five flight feathers, as these are strongest. In the 19^th century the feathers were exported from Russia (St. Petersburg) and Canada as they were of the highest quality.

For our general knowledge, Patricia told us Queen Victoria’s favourite pen was a swan feather and Edward VII’s was from a Hudson Bay goose. A quill knife was a curved blade and thus pen knives have rounded blades.

Ink: In ancient times, carbon wasn’t substantial enough for a Caudex, and then later came walnut ink.

We were then presented with more brilliant pictures to illustrate this fascinating talk. The Book of St. Cuthbert, 698AD was found in the coffin of St Cuthbert, illustrations showed the Coptic binding used at the time.

Ceolfrith’s Bibles; Ceolfrith, was abbot of the monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow in Northumbria from 690 to 716. Ceolfrith commissioned three large bibles from his own scriptoria, one for Wearmouth, one for Jarrow and one for Pope Gregory II. Realising he was close to death, he resigned his abbacy and set out for Rome however he died en-route and the bible made its way to the monastery of Monte Amiata in Florence. It is the only one of the three bibles to survive intact and is the oldest surviving full copy of the bible in Latin. The British Library MS Additional 45025 is thought to be part of one of the two other bibles commissioned by Ceolfrith. Only ten leaves and a fragment of an eleventh survive.

Further illustrations to the talk included; the Utrecht Psalter, the Harley Psalter and works by Nicolaus Bertschi (artist).

Lines were marked on all pages of the manuscript from the beginning, then the scripts were completed and then finally the art work was completed, over the lines. It would be too difficult to decide where not to rule lines so the artwork was completed over them.

We were then shown Johann von Hagen’s writing sheets.

Some more information for you – the word miniature comes from minima; the red of the design and shell gold is derived from gold being sold in muscle shells, thus shell gold!

There were some final slides of the Gottingen Model Book; the Vespasian Psalter (British Library) – Capital Letter – Historian is the first recorded and finally the Stockholm Codex Aureus.

This report goes nowhere near representing the in-depth and beautifully illustrated talk by Patricia. I can only recommend that you view her website and blog; and research some of the magnificent manuscripts mentioned by viewing them on the web.

Cathy

patricialovett.com

Patricia Lovett – Professional Calligrapher and Illuminator – State Library of New South Wales – 6th January 2014 - part 1

Patricia works from her studio in Kent, England and has been awarded an MBE for her services to heritage crafts and calligraphy. She has written a number of books on calligraphy and illumination, and teaches and lectures all over the world. Australia, in particular Sydney, was lucky enough to have the good fortune to be able to hear Patricia speak at the State Library of New South Wales and a number of the members of Calligraphy Southscribes attended.

Here are a few jottings from that talk, Gold on Parchment, 1000 years of manuscripts.

(This talk was quite extensive and you should be aware that the notes taken were at speed and may not fully represent what Patricia was presenting. Confirmation of spelling was taken from credible websites).

The reasons we moved from scrolls to books –

Scrolls were difficult to control; Christians required identifiable alternatives to secular scripts and Jewish scripts.

In the painting – Paquio Proculo you can see both the scroll and the Caudex, a block of wood where the middle was hollowed out for wax, and a stylus used to write with.

Patricia then went on to illustrate the early examples of books; pictures of the Springmount blog tablets, Dublin; British Library Papyrus 782, Egypt 3^rd Century – reputed to be the earliest codex – John 1 to 20; Codex Sinaiticus, this work was adapted from the scroll and contained 4 columns of text and the Codex Harleians (Harley Gospels) which shows the use of dense script.

The next picture in the talk was that of St Augustine’s Gospel, reputed to have been brought to England from Rome by St Augustine in 597. It is used at each of the enthronements of the new Archbishops of Canterbury.

Gregory the Great, seated at a writing desk with a dove whispering in his ear. It is said that when he was dictating his homilies on Ezechiel, a curtain was drawn between his secretary and himself. As Gregory remained silent for long periods of time, the servant made a hole in the curtain and looking through saw the dove with his beak in Gregory’s ear. When the dove withdrew his beak Gregory spoke and the secretary took down the words, when he was silent again the dove had replaced his beak in Gregory’s ear.

Cathy.

Talk - Painted Portals

Dear Members and Followers,

Painted Portals: Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts, their Makers and Readers

Presented by National Library of Australia

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Event Details

Where

Conference Room
Level 4
National Library of Australia
Parkes Place
Canberra
ACT 2600

When

Monday 2 Dec 2013 from 6:00pm to 7:00pm (Australia/Canberra)

Closing date

Monday 2 Dec 2013 6:00pm (Australia/Canberra) 

 https://register.eventarc.com/view/18820/talk-painted-portals-medieval-illuminated-manuscripts-their-makers-and-readers