Miniature of 'The Spanish Dance'; from Códice de trajes, Germany, 1547, BNE MS Res 285, ff. 2v-3r.

2012 was a milestone year for the Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE), the National Library of Spain: throughout the year, the library celebrated the 300th anniversary of its foundation in 1712, by King Felipe V.  In this initial incarnation it was the Biblioteca Pública de Palacio, the Palace Public Library, and in 1836 was transferred from ownership by the crown to the Ministerio de la Gobernación (Ministry of Governance).  Today, it is Spain's largest library, with collections stretching to 15 million printed books and tens of thousands of manuscripts.

In honour of these 300 years of history and letters, today's featured manuscript is not from the collections of the British Library, but from those of the BNE, as we are excited to contribute here our own 'virtual exhibition' to a series of joint exhibition projects that have been taking place throughout Spain.  Works from the BNE's collections -- including manuscripts, drawings, prints, paintings, maps, photographs, and books -- are being displayed in important museums and cultural institutions across Spain. They will thus reach new publics, be seen in fresh contexts, and inspire different viewpoints, as well as establish a dialogue with works from the collections of more than thirty Spanish institutions. The intention of the BNE and of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) is to ensure that even those who cannot visit the Library in Madrid can still participate in an event that marks 300 years of a shared cultural history, and the British Library is eager to take part, bringing this cultural exchange to cyberspace!

Detail of a miniature of women 'in England'; from Códice de trajes, Germany, 1547, BNE MS Res 285, f. 34v.

The focus of today's 'exhibition' is a recently acquired mid-sixteenth-century manuscript, called a códice de trajes, or 'costume book', made in Germany by an anonymous artist.  This is an example of a type of book that – while it may seem strange to us today, in our culturally interconnected world – was quite popular in the sixteenth century.  It is a collection of pictures of clothing worn by people from different countries and different walks of life, celebrating the diversity of national costumes.  Books like these are extremely valuable to us today, allowing us to recreate the dress of people who are far removed from us, not by space, but by centuries of time.

Miniature of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, surrounded by seven of his principal electors; from Códice de trajes, Germany, 1547, BNE MS Res 285, ff. 35v-36r.

In addition to pictures of people, grouped together on an empty ground as a kind of pictorial fashion-show, the manuscript also has an interest in ceremonial, depicting some of the important events of the period, along with the people who took part and, most importantly, the clothing they wore.  We can see here, therefore, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, enthroned between seven of his electors, identified by coats of arms and carrying imperial regalia.  Charles V is depicted as an older man – as he would have been at the time of the manuscript's production in 1547.  His portrait, like the depictions of costumes throughout the manuscript, is copied from other sources rather than taken from life, but the images still provide a beautiful and detailed glimpse into the colour and pomp of the sixteenth century.

Miniature of Englishwomen, being (left to right) the wife of a citizen of London, the wife of a wealthy citizen of London, his young daughter, and 'a country-woman as they go nowadays'; from Lucas de Heere, A Description of England, Scotland, and Ireland, England, 1573-1575, Add. MS 28330, f. 33r.

One of the advantages of electronic media is the ability to bring together objects that, physically, may be very far apart.  It is wonderful, therefore, to be able to compare side-by-side the pictures from this BNE manuscript with illustrations from a book in the British Library's own collection.  A Description of England, Scotland, and Ireland, produced in Germany only a few decades later, contains beautiful coloured drawings by the painter Lucas de Heere, which clearly partake in the same tradition of descriptive portrayal of costume.  The group of Englishwomen shown above demonstrate the differences in city and country fashions, the three middle-class and wealthy Londoners on the left presenting a sharp contrast with the country-dweller on the right.  And perhaps the older among them might recognize in the Englishwomen of the BNE manuscript the fashions of their youth!

A shared interest in the appearance and costume of the monarch: detail of a miniature of Queen Elizabeth I, from Lucas de Heere, A Description of England, Scotland, and Ireland, England, 1573-1575, Add. MS 28330, f. 4r.

We have been delighted to produce this 'virtual exhibition' with the assistance of the Biblioteca Nacional de España, who have generously contributed images from their collection to appear in this post.  Happy Birthday, BNE!

 

Machaon and Podalirius butterflies, from Butterfly and Moth Paintings by Elizabeth Dennis Denyer ('Drawings of Lepidopterous Insects'), England, 1800, Additional MS 6895, f. 8r

As the forthcoming panels at Leeds sponsored by the British Library's Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts Section will demonstrate, the reading room at the British Library is often the place where exciting discoveries are made (see here and here for our sessions at the 2013 Leeds International Medieval Congress).  These discoveries encompass a broad range of topics, from new scribal attributions and previously unknown historical events, to hidden words in illuminations.

It is a pleasure to announce that lepidopterology (the study of butterflies and moths) can now be added to this list.

 

Iris butterflies, from Butterfly and Moth Paintings by Elizabeth Dennis Denyer ('Drawings of Lepidopterous Insects'), England, 1800, Additional MS 6895, f. 34r

While conducting research last year on Elizabeth Denyer, an eighteenth-century restorer of medieval manuscripts and early printed books, I came across a book of butterfly paintings which she based on specimens in the collection of her Chelsea neighbour, the renowned entomologist William Jones. After contacting Dick Vane-Wright, I realised that this book has remained unknown since it was bequeathed to the British Museum by Elizabeth, and that further it has much to tell us about the early history of entomology.

 

Detail of a vignette of John Denyer and Martha Denyer (parents of the artist Elizabeth Denyer) in profile and in silhouette, made on a separate piece of paper and mounted on the page, from Butterfly and Moth Paintings by Elizabeth Dennis Denyer ('Drawings of Lepidopterous Insects'), England, 1800, Additional MS 6895, f. 54r

 

Our initial findings were recently published in Antenna: the Bulletin of the Royal Entomological Society, and we are delighted to be able to share them with the public. Click Download Antenna 36(4) 239-246 for a PDF of the article.

We are very grateful to the British Library, and our thanks to the Royal Entomological Society for permission to make our article freely available on the internet. (The text is copyright of the RES, Sonja Drimmer and R.I. Vane-Wright. Copyright of the images is noted against each image in the article.)

While lepidopterology only originated as a field of scientific enquiry in the 17th century, the beauty of butterflies was not lost on our medieval forebears. Previous posts on this blog have featured manuscript illuminations showing a monstrously large butterfly supervising (?) the plowing of a field, as well as an ape hunting a butterfly in the margins of a manuscript of the Estoire del Saint Graal.

Chaucer, however, seems to have held the multicolored insects in somewhat lower esteem. Disappointed with the depressing tales told by the Monk, the Canterbury Host exclaims, 'Youre tale anoyeth al this compaigne / Swich talkyng is nat worth a boterflye.'

We hope you find them worth a whole lot more!

 

Sonja Drimmer

Lecturer, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University

 

Follow us on Twitter: @blmedieval

On 29 January, 2013, Julian Harrison (Curator of Pre-1600 Historical Manuscripts) will be speaking at a workshop at the Institute of Historical Research, London, entitled Developing an effective social media presence. This event will explore ways in which organisations such as the British Library promote their collections, and how we use social media to engage with a diverse audience.

Following a panel session also featuring Laura Cowdrey (The National Archives) and Isabel Holowaty (University of Oxford), participants will join a discussion on how to develop and manage a social media presence. Registration is free, but places are limited so please book early.

The Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts section at the British Library is responsible for maintaining this blog, which has already exceeded 250,000 page views in 2012 alone. We also try to stay in touch with our users via Twitter -- the blog and Twitter together are a great platform for announcing new acquisitions, events and exhibitions, and the latest on our various digitisation projects. We're always excited to hear from you too -- and hopefully some of you may be able to attend the London social media workshop on 29 January.

Miniature of Christ in glory holding a globe and blessing the Virgin (on the following page); miniature of the Virgin kneeling (towards Christ on the previous page), from the Address in verse to Robert of Anjou, King of Naples, from the town of Prato in Tuscany (the Carmina regia), illuminated by Pacino di Buonaguida, central Italy (Tuscany), c. 1335 - c. 1340, Royal MS 6 E. ix, ff. 4v-5r.

An exciting new exhibition has just opened at the Getty Center in Los Angeles: Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance: Painting and Illumination, 1300-1350.  Please see here for a fabulous review of the Getty exhibition.

An important British Library manuscript, the Carmina regia, an address by the city of Prato to Robert of Anjou (Royal MS 6 E. ix) is featured in the exhibition (see here for an earlier blog post abot the Carmina).  This manuscript was also showcased in the Library’s recent Royal Manuscripts exhibition, but visitors to the Los Angeles exhibition will be able to see a different image, that of Christ Enthroned (f. 4v, see above, and at the bottom for a version of the image used to promote the exhibition).

The Carmina regia is now also available to be viewed in full on the Digitised Manuscripts website (see here).

 

Miniature of Agnes enthroned flanked by two musician angels, with scenes from her life below. Beneath the miniature is a single four-line red stave, musical notation and a single line of text in gold capitals 'Sancta Agnese da dio'.  Illuminated by Pacino di Buonaguida, Italy (Florence), c. 1340, Additional 18196, f. 1

 

The Library has also lent two leaves to the exhibition, which were both originally part of a single manuscript: Additional 18196, f. 1, with scenes from the life of St Agnes (see above), and Additional 35254B, with part of a hymn to St Michael. These leaves have been reunited in the exhibition with others from the same book of songs (or laudario) made for the Compagnia di Sant'Agnese, which was based at the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence.  28 leaves or fragments of this book survive, and 25 of them are featured in the exhibition.

 

Miniature of the Apparition of Michael.  Beneath the miniature is a single four-line red stave, musical notation and a single line of text in gold capitals 'Exultando in Gesu'. Illuminated by Pacino di Buonaguida, Italy (Florence), c. 1340, Additional 35254B

 

The curator of the exhibition, Christine Sciacca, explains that this book was originally 'the most spectacular Florentine manuscript commission' from the first half of the 14th century.  (Christine Sciacca, 'Reconstructing the Laudario of Sant-Agnese', in Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance, ed by Christine Sciacca (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2012), pp. 219-35 (p. 219)).

All three loaned works were painted by Pacino di Buonaguida, who was active in Florence in the first half of the 14th century.

- Kathleen Doyle

 

Following on the success of our recent Royal workshop in Durham, Illuminated Manuscripts and Their Users, we are pleased to announce that we will offer another, this time in London.  This workshop will take place at the British Library on 9 November, from 10:30 - 13:00, and will focus on the issues and opportunities surrounding our recent digitisation efforts.  The workshop will allow the participants to interact with a selection of manuscripts from the Royal collection, as well as their newly-created digital surrogates.

The session will open with a brief overview of our recent digitisation efforts by project supervisor Dr Kathleen Doyle, called 'Digitised Manuscripts at the British Library.'  Dr Joanna Fronska and Sarah J Biggs will then speak about the variety of challenges (and opportunities) that have arisen in the course of the complicated Royal digitisation programme.

This will be followed by three presentations on the various aspects of research made possible (or significantly easier!) by the existence of digital surrogates; these surrogates will be examined in detail alongside the manuscripts themselves.

Joanna Fronska: 'The Making of the Coronation Book of Charles V (Cotton MS Tiberius B. viii, ff. 35-80)'

Sarah J Biggs:  'A Closer Look at the Iconography of the Bohun Psalter and Hours (Egerton MS 3277)'

Nicole Eddy: 'Interoffice Memos: Instructions to Illustrators and Rubricators'

This workshop is designed primarily for MA and PhD students of manuscript studies, but it is also open to any member of the public with a particular interest in the subject.  If you would like to attend, please email Royal-Manuscripts-Digitization [at] bl.uk by 5 November at the latest.  Spaces are limited to a maximum of 15 participants, so an early response is encouraged.  There is, however, a possibility of holding additional sessions in future, so please do get in touch if you would like to attend.

Detail of a headpiece of the Gospel of Matthew: roundel portrait of the Evangelist, with five smaller roundels arranged around him, depicting ‘the ancient of days’ (top), two six-winged cherubim, Abraham (lower left), and Isaac (lower right), from the Gospels of Ivan Alexander, Bulgaria, 1355-1356,  Add MS 39627, f. 6r

 

On Wednesday, 5 September, the Bulgarian Embassy and His Excellency Mr Konstantin Dimitrov, the Ambassador of the Republic of Bulgaria to the United Kingdom, hosted a private view of the display of two Bulgarian manuscripts that are now on display in the Library’s Sir John Ritblat Treasures gallery.

At the reception Caroline Brazier, Head of the British Library’s Scholarship and Collections directorate, announced that the whole of the Gospels of Ivan Alexander may now be viewed on the Library’s Digitised Manuscripts website (click here for the fully-digitised Gospels). На тази електронна страница можете да разгледате Четириевангелието на цар Иван Александър, най-богато украсеният средновековен български ръкопис.

The Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander (Additional MS 39627) is the most celebrated surviving example of Bulgarian medieval art.  Written over 650 years ago, in the middle of the fourteenth century, the manuscript contains the Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  It was copied by a monk named Simeon, whose identity we know from a long inscription that he appended to the biblical text. Accompanying and fully integrated into the text are no fewer than 366 illustrations – one for each day of the year – that illustrate an extensive range of events from the narrative of the four Evangelists.  Every opening of the book thus sparkles with colour and visual interest. However, as Simeon himself makes clear in his account of the making of the volume, the Gospel book was created 'not simply for the outward beauty of its decoration, of colours, gold, precious stones and diamonds, but primarily to express the inner Divine Word, the revelation and the sacred vision'.

 

Royal portraits: f. 2v: Constantine, the son-in-law of Ivan Alexander, flanked by three daughters of the tsar: Kerathamar (Constantine's wife), Keratsa and Desislava; f. 3r:  Ivan Alexander in imperial garb, accompanied by his wife Theodora, his son Ivan Shishnan in imperial garb, and another son Ivan Asen. Above, two hands emerge from a cloud, making gestures of blessing over the Tsar and his wife, from the Gospels of Ivan Alexander, Bulgaria, 1355-1356,  Add MS 39627, ff. 2v-3r

 

At the front of the volume is the most famous image painted in the Gospels (above).  Here we meet face-to-face the ruler of the Bulgarian empire and the person who ordered the book to be made, Tsar Ivan Alexander.  Also shown is the Tsar’s then wife, as well as his two sons by her, his three daughters by his first wife, and lastly his son-in-law.  

On display in the Treasures gallery is one of the five other portraits of the Tsar included in the manuscript. In this miniature Ivan Alexander is depicted, not with his earthly family, but in Paradise between Abraham and the Virgin Mary, and within the overall context of a magnificent depiction of the Last Judgement. The starting point for this large illumination is Mark's account of Jesus's prophecy of the end of time. The end result is perhaps the finest of what the volume’s scribe, Simeon, called its 'life-giving images'.

 

Miniature of the Last Judgement, with Tsar Ivan Alexander in conversation with the Virgin Mary, from the Gospels of Ivan Alexander, Bulgaria, 1355-1356,  Add MS 39627, f. 124r

 

The manuscript is a remarkable survival.  Within forty years of the completion of the Gospels of Ivan Alexander, its patron was dead and his empire destroyed.  Unlike many other artistic treasures of this remarkable period in Bulgarian history, the Gospels escaped destruction, finding its way north across the Danube.  Here it came into the possession of the ruler of Moldavia, also called Ivan Alexander.  For several centuries the history of the Gospels is unclear. By the 17th century, however, it appears to have reached the monastery of St Paul on Mount Athos. There it remained until its presentation in 1837 by the abbot of St Paul's to the young English traveller the Honourable Robert Curzon. Brought by Curzon to England, it was later presented to the British Library by his daughter.

The other manuscript on display beside the Gospels of Ivan Alexander is a fitting companion: the Vidin Gospels (Additional 39625). This important copy of the Gospels was also made in Bulgaria during the reign of Tsar Ivan Alexander. It was produced at Vidin and for the Metropolitan of that city, Daniel. Later in its history it too was presented to Curzon on Mount Athos, this time at the monastery of Caracalla, and subsequently by his daughter to the Library.

 

The large banner from the British Library’s Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination exhibition has had a dramatic reuse as part of the Purbeck Art Weeks Festival 2012, held from 26 May to 10 June.

Photo by Mike Gale, courtesy of PURBECK! Journal

The second Dick Odgers Memorial Lecture on 8 June was delivered at the Purbeck School, Wareham, by the author and presenter, Melvyn Bragg. Bragg’s lecture discussed the impact of the King James Bible: The Book of Books: the radical impact of the King James Bible 1611-2011. 

The stunning image of God the Creator from a French Bible historiale was therefore an appropriate backdrop for the event. One of the PAWs trustees commented that ‘Melvyn was of course great and his talk was thoroughly enjoyed by the many people who packed into the Purbeck School hall to hear and see him.’

And that’s not all—the banner may go on tour again as part of an exciting new exhibition to be curated by Turner Prize winning artist, Mark Leckey: 

15 February – 14 April 2013, The Bluecoat, Liverpool

27 April – 30 June 2013, Nottingham Contemporary

12 July – 20 October 2013, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea

Miniature of a black sun (sol niger) setting on the outskirts of a city, from Salomon Trismosin's Splendor Solis, Germany, 1582, Harley 3469, f. 30v

 

It's Call-for-Papers week here at the British Library's Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts department! We are pleased to announce that we will be inviting contributions for several sponsored sessions at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds 2013.  The Congress will take place from 1-4 July 2013, and will focus on the theme of 'Pleasure' (for more information on the 2013 Congress, please click here).  

In keeping with this ‘Pleasure’ theme, we would like to invite papers in the following two categories:

 

1. Books of Pleasure / The Pleasure of Books:

The book was a source of pleasure throughout the Middle Ages, from Augustine’s ‘book of the heart’ to Richard de Bury’s Philobiblon. The very nature of pleasure—what it entailed and whence it derived—was not uniform, and artists, authors and readers all expressed their pleasure in a variety of forms. This session seeks papers that address the pleasure given (and taken) from books. Topics to be addressed might include (but are not limited to) any of the following:

-          visual or narrative depictions of leisure and pleasure / the iconography of pleasure

-          the complexities and contradictions of writing about or illustrating pleasure

-          explorations of the pleasure of books: creating, illuminating, owning, or reading

 

2. The Pleasure of Discovery: Recent Research and New Perspectives on British Library Manuscripts:

The Manuscripts Reading Room in the British Library is often privileged to witness new discoveries and the birth of fresh perspectives on objects in our collections. The pleasure in the moment of discovery and the urge to shout ‘Eureka!’ is, however, often muted out of respect for fellow researchers and the necessity of keeping quiet in a place of work. In the spirit of this conference theme, we invite papers that give full expression to the pleasures of discovery.

We are particularly interested in any recent research, new assessments, or (as yet) unpublished discoveries within the medieval manuscripts in the British Library’s collections and encourage participants to re-live their initial jubilation in the moment of discovery.

 

Papers accepted for inclusion in the British Library’s sponsored sessions may be submitted for peer-review for special publication in the Electronic British Library Journal (the eBLJ).  The British Library will also make available any extant manuscript photography for participants for use in their presentations.

Please email your abstract of about 100 words (per 20 minute paper) to Sarah J Biggs (sarah-j.biggs [at] bl [dot] uk) no later than 17 September 2012.  Please feel free to contact us with any questions.

Bursaries are available from the IMC to help defray the cost of accommodation and registration; please click here for the online form.