10 June 2021
Lewis of Caerleon’s eclipse tables in the spotlight
On the morning of 10 June, large parts of the Northern Hemisphere will see a total or partial solar eclipse, when the shadow of the Moon obscures the Sun. Nowadays we can easily find details about eclipses online, but medieval astronomers had to make complicated calculations. An impressive gathering of eclipse calculations survives in the most complete collection of the works of Lewis of Caerleon (d. in or after 1495), a Welsh physician and astronomer. The manuscript, made under his close supervision between 1485 and 1495, is dedicated largely to predicting future lunar and solar eclipses. The British Library acquired the manuscript for the nation in 2020, and has since digitised it in full (Add MS 89442).
The opening of Lewis of Caerleon’s work on eclipses (England, c. 1485–95): Add MS 89442, p. 39
Lewis of Caerleon made his eclipse tables in the 1480s. They are based on complicated mathematical exercises and provide exact details on the magnitude and duration of eclipses.
Lewis of Caerleon’s calculations for solar eclipses made in 1482: Add MS 89442, p. 41
What makes Lewis’s eclipse calculations remarkable is that he made some while incarcerated in the Tower of London. He had been personal physician to Elizabeth Woodville (c. 1437–1492), Queen of England, and to Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443–1509) and her son, the future King Henry VII (r. 1485–1509). In 1484, his loyalty to the Tudors caused King Richard III (r. 1483–1485) to order his arrest. Lewis remained imprisoned at the Tower until 1485. In his volume of collected works, he explains that his original eclipse calculations were lost when he was in prison, but that he composed new tables at the Tower. His new computations resulted in new values for his eclipse tables.
In a note at the foot of this page, Lewis Caerleon refers to eclipse tables that were taken from him at his arrest in 1484, and new ones that he made while he was incarcerated at the Tower of London: Add MS 89442, p. 65
At the Tower, Lewis probably had access to scientific books, enabling him to consult pre-existing eclipse tables and to expand upon these with his own computations. He was also able to measure the accuracy of his calculations. According to another manuscript of his works (Royal MS 12 G I), he observed an eclipse from the Tower of London on the afternoon of 16 March 1485. His collected works (Add MS 89442) contain detailed calculations for this solar eclipse. In observing it, Lewis may have been able to measure its different phases by using a simple stick, if the weather was not too cloudy.
Lewis of Caerleon’s calculations for a solar eclipse on 16 March 1485: Add MS 89442, p. 71
Solar and lunar eclipses were considered important events in the Middle Ages. They were commonly believed to have an effect on people’s health and fortune, and to anticipate major world events. However, Lewis of Caerleon did not attach any astrological significance to eclipses. His main interest, it seems, was the study and computation of the ‘mechanics’ of the universe. He donated other copies of his eclipse tables to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and he provided detailed instructions to his readers on how they could calculate eclipses for themselves.
Lewis of Caerleon explains how to make eclipse tables using the diameter of the Sun and Moon: Add MS 89442, p. 42
Lewis of Caerleon was not the first British astronomer to calculate future eclipses. In 1380, John Somer, a Franciscan friar of Bridgwater, made predictions about the times of future eclipses in his Kalendarium. He produced this work for his Provincial Minister, Thomas Kingsbury, at the request in turn of Joan of Kent (1326/1327–1385), mother of King Richard II.
Predictions for solar eclipses in the years 1431, 1433 and 1436 in a physician's folding almanac based on John Somer's Kalendarium (England, c. 1430–1431): Harley MS 937, f. 8r
In 1386, Nicholas of Lynn, a Carmelite friar, composed his own Kalendarium, at the request of John of Gaunt (1340–1399), Duke of Lancaster.
Figures of solar eclipses from Nicholas of Lynn’s Kalendarium (England, 1387–15th century): Harley MS 1811, f. 30v
Similarly, another English astronomer known for his eclipse calculations is Richard of Thorpe, an Augustinian friar of York. Richard used the works of John Somer and Nicholas of Lynn for making a calendar for the Use of York for the years 1387–1462.
Calendar, Use of York, with astronomical tables by Richard of Thorpe (England, c. 1430): Add MS 82946, f. 28v
Lewis of Caerleon was clearly familiar with the works of previous astronomers. He made clear that his calculations were based on those of leading English astronomers such as Simon Bredon (d. 1372), fellow of Merton College, Oxford, Richard of Wallingford (d. 1336), Abbot of St Albans, and John Holbroke (d. 1437), proctor and chancellor of the University of Cambridge. He also drew upon the works of Arabic astronomers such as Al-Battānī (c. 858–929), and Jabir ibn Aflah (c. 1100–c. 1160).
Tables for solar eclipses by Richard of Wallingford and expanded by Lewis of Caerleon: Add MS 89442, p. 67
Add MS 89442 is witness to the importance attributed to eclipses in the Middle Ages, as well as to the great skill of Lewis of Caerleon in making precise predictions of these events. The manuscript was acquired with the generous support of the Shaw Fund, the T. S. Blakeney Fund, the Bernard H. Breslauer Fund of the American Trust for the British Library, the British Library Collections Trust, the Friends of the National Libraries, and those who wish to remain anonymous.
We would like to thank Dr Laure Miolo, Munby Fellow in Bibliography, Cambridge University Library, for discussing her research with us. You can read more about Lewis of Caerleon’s manuscripts in her two-part blogpost (Part 1 and Part 2).
Clarck Drieshen
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06 June 2021
Caption competition time
It's time to put on your thinking caps again. What do you imagine is happening here?
This scene is found in a manuscript of Les Grandes chroniques de France, made in Paris sometime between 1332 and 1350 (Royal MS 16 G VI, f. 17r). We know that it was made for John the Good, duke of Normandy (1332–1350) and subsequently King John II of France (1350–1364), probably before his accession to the French throne.
You can make your suggestions in the comments box below or via Twitter to @BLMedieval. We will publish or retweet the best ones.
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20 May 2021
Thomas Becket: manuscripts showing the making of a saint
Having seen all of the five-star reviews, like many of you we are looking forward to seeing the new exhibition at the British Museum, Thomas Becket: Murder and the Making of a Saint, which opens on 20 May for three months to 22 August. If you visit, you’ll see five British Library manuscripts in various sections (these are some five-star items too!). In the words of Naomi Speakman, co-curator of the exhibition: ‘The British Library manuscripts are some of the highlights of the exhibition, and help to illuminate the Becket story’.
Thomas Becket (1120–1170) was an archbishop of Canterbury who came into conflict with King Henry II of England over the rights of the Church. In The Rise and Fall of Thomas Becket section, a 14th-century English manuscript depicts Becket, wearing his bishop’s mitre and holding the staff of office, in conversation with King Henry II, above a genealogical table. In the caption, Henry is called ‘the son of Queen Matilda’, indicating his right to the throne through his mother.
On 29 December 1170, a group of Henry’s knights murdered Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, causing great outrage across Europe. For more on why they were there, and whether they were acting on the King’s orders, read the British Museum’s blogpost: Who killed Thomas Becket? After his death, Becket was honoured as a saint and Canterbury became a major pilgrimage centre.
One of the most famous images of the murder itself is featured in the Murder in the Cathedral section of the exhibition. In a 12th-century collection of Becket’s letters, the story of Becket’s murder is told in four scenes, beginning with a messenger announcing the knights’ arrival while Becket is at table, with the knights conversing outside. In the register below is the murder itself, with one of the knights slicing through the bishop’s skull with his sword. A bear on this knight’s shield may indicate that this is Reginald Fitzurse (ursus is ‘bear’ in Latin). Finally pilgrims kneel before Becket’s shrine, seeking to get as close to the saint as possible. This image accompanies a letter of John of Salisbury (d. 1180), who was one of the eye-witnesses to the murder.
This manuscript was digitised recently as part of the Polonsky Foundation England and France 700-1200 project, and you can read more about it on the project website.
Another well-known image features in the Making of a Saint section, in which Becket is laid in his tomb. It is one of five full-page miniatures (another is a scene of his murder) inserted into a Latin Psalter, to which a translation in Anglo-Norman French was added above the Latin to the first part of the Psalms. In the exhibition, the pages on display show the entombment of Becket opposite the beginning of Psalm 18, with the French added above the text.
The 14th-century Stowe Breviary, a service book adapted for use in Norwich, is also displayed in this section. The Sanctorale section of the book includes images of saints next to their relevant feasts. It is imperfect, so the feast of Becket’s martyrdom on 29 December is lacking, but the feast celebrating the translation (or transfer) of Becket’s body to the new Trinity Chapel in July 1220 is illustrated with monks lowering his body into the new shrine.
However, Becket’s cult was eventually suppressed by King Henry VIII of England. A Royal Proclamation of 16 November 1538 issued jointly by Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell denied that Becket was a saint and ordered that his images should be removed from churches, that his feast should not be observed, and that his name should be ‘rased and put out of all [of] the books’. This proclamation has been applied to the text (but not the image) of the July feast in the Stowe Breviary, with the name of the saint ‘Thomas’ erased in the red rubric right next to the initial and throughout the text, although it is still visible as light brown letters.
The fifth British Library manuscript reflects this edict even more vividly, appearing in the Becket and the Tudors section. In this 15th-century Book of Hours, the full-page image of Becket has survived, but the facing prayers to the saint have been more than erased, and instead were cut out completely to remove them from the book.
Together, these manuscripts show how Becket rose to prominence as a major saint during the Middle Ages and then fell from favour during the reforms of the Tudor period. You can view them in full on our Digitised Manuscripts website. If you can make it to London, we hope you enjoy the wonderful exhibition!
Kathleen Doyle
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19 May 2021
The Master of Edward IV
The British Library continues to acquire medieval manuscripts with important research potential to enhance the national collection. You may have seen that last year we announced the acquisition of the Lucas Psalter (Add MS 89428), a fascinating late medieval Psalter made in Bruges for an English patron, which contains the added arms of Thomas Houchon Lucas (1460-1539) of Suffolk, the secretary to Jasper Tudor, and Solicitor General under Henry VII. Now that the Library has reopened, we have digitised the manuscript which you can view in full on our Digitised Manuscripts site.
The Psalter includes eight large finely painted initials that are hitherto unknown examples of the work of an artist known as the Master of Edward IV. The Master of Edward IV was first identified by art historian Friedrich Winkler in 1915 and named by him after two volumes of a Bible historiale produced for Edward IV in 1479, now in the British Library (Royal MS 18 D ix and Royal MS 18 D x). Subsequently, the Master of Edward IV was credited with the illustration of many other manuscripts ranging in date from the 1470s to 1500. A study by Bodo Brinkmann in 1997 attributed forty-seven manuscripts and twenty separate leaves to him.
The large majority of these works are illustrations of vernacular and often historical texts. The Master of Edward IV is known for his finely painted figures and landscapes, and his talent for compositional invention and concise narrative. His work is clearly identifiable in the Lucas Psalter, in the distinctive carefully executed figures in groups and in a wide range of poses. His figures typically have well-defined faces, with full red lips, rouged cheeks, and distinctive, somewhat messy or unkempt hair, even on royal figures. In the Psalter, for example, these facial features and hairstyles are apparent in the figure of King David and even of God the Father.
The Master’s characteristic and relatively narrow palette of salmon pink, green lake, grey-blue, and a fully saturated azure is also apparent throughout the miniatures. These colours often are supplemented by brown highlighted in gold, to imitate gold cloth or in backgrounds. Most colours were applied with prominent brushstrokes that add texture and bulk to the forms.
Moreover, even though the miniatures are typically only six lines long, they are delicately and precisely executed, with attention to interior architectural features in atmospheric perspective. The landscape background of Psalm 68 is particularly fine, with a supplicant figure immersed in water, illustrating the Psalm text, ‘Save me, O God: for the waters are come in even unto my soul’. Here we see the artist’s mastery of mirror-like water, distinctive rocks in the path, and bushes with subtle gold highlights.
The composition and subject of these initials often are innovative and unusual. For example, the Beatus initial of Psalm 1 features God the Father with a grey beard and wearing a papal tiara in heaven being worshipped by standing angels, with finely painted red cherubim surrounding a golden background.
A much more common subject for this Psalm is David with his harp in prayer before God, reflecting an interpretation of the Blessed Man as David, or David as the author of the Psalms. This is the image that appears in a contemporaneous Hours, also made in Bruges for an English patron, painted by the Master of Anthony of Burgundy (Philadelphia, Free Library, Lewis MS E 182, f. 7r).
Similarly, the depiction of David in the water clothed and without a crown at Psalm 68 is unusual, and may allow the reader to imagine himself as the supplicant praying for deliverance (see image above).
As in Psalm 1, the image illustrating Psalm 109 pictures God the Father, here with Christ, but against a shimmering gold background rather than in the more common micro-architectural setting (as in the Lewis Psalter, above), indicating that this is an otherworldly image of heaven.
Now that the Lucas Psalter is in the collection of the British Library and fully digitised online, it is possible to admire and compare the works of the Master of Edward IV as never before. We hope that this will inspire new research into this fascinating artist in the future.
The Lucas Psalter was purchased by the British Library with generous support from Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation), the Bernard H. Breslauer Fund of the American Trust for the British Library and the British Library Collections Trust.
For the most recent discussion of this Master’s work, we recommend Scot McKendrick’s article ‘Contextualising the art and innovations of the Master of Edward IV in the Blackburn Hours (Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, Hart MS 20884)’, in A British Book Collector: Rare Books and Manuscripts in the R.E. Hart Collection, ed. by Cynthia Johnston (London: University of London, 2021), and his earlier exhibition catalogue with Thomas Kren, Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe, ed. by Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2003), pp. 295-305, which is freely available from the Getty Publications Virtual Library.
Kathleen Doyle
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14 May 2021
Hot off the press
Today sees the publication of Manuscripts in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Cultures and Connections. This new book brings together 14 essays based on papers delivered at the British Library conference held in December 2018, in conjunction with the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms exhibition.
All the essays in the book focus on manuscripts produced between the 7th and the 11th centuries. Like the exhibition, they explore the artistic, literary and historical connections between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and their neighbours, and the scribal and artistic networks that developed across Britain, Ireland and much of early medieval Europe.
A striking feature of several papers at the conference was the use of multispectral imaging to enhance texts and images damaged by fire or the use of reagents in the past. This imaging was undertaken by the Library’s imaging scientist, Christina Duffy, and the results feature in three essays which span the artistic, literary and historical themes of the conference and exhibition.
Bernard Meehan’s essay on ‘The Royal-Otho-Corpus / Cambridge-London / Parker-Cotton-Wolsey Gospels’ includes new multispectral imaging of Cotton MS Otho C V, which was badly damaged in the Cotton Library fire of 1731. This image shows the lion – the evangelist symbol for St Mark – as it appears to the naked eye:
Multispectral imaging reveals significant new details in this black and white image:
And the psychedelic colours of this enhanced multispectral image show the dotting on the lion’s lower front legs and paws:
Jonathan Wilcox’s essay, ‘The Wolf at work: uncovering Wulfstan’s compositional method’, draws on multispectral imaging of two pages in Add MS 38651 which have been treated with blue reagent in the past:
The multispectral imaging reveals texts by Archbishop Wulfstan which Jonathan uses as new evidence to explore Wulftan’s compositional method:
Winfried Rudolf, who has an essay in the book on the Italian provenance of the Vercelli Book, has also been working on these images in parallel, to publish an edition and commentary of the newly revealed texts.
And Simon Keynes draws on several further multispectral images in his essay, ‘The “Canterbury letter-book”: Alcuin and after’. His essay includes this page from the letter-book, Cotton MS Tiberius A XV, before and after multispectral imaging:
The imaging published today adds to Christina Duffy’s earlier multispectral imaging of erased additions to the Bodmin Gospels (Add MS 9381). The imaging of these erasures, which record the freeing of slaves in early medieval Cornwall, was shown on a video in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms exhibition, next to the manuscript itself.
All of these examples show the power of multispectral imaging to recover evidence previously obscured by the effects of fire-damage, the use of reagents and erasure. You can read more about the new imaging in the book, as well as the eleven other essays by Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Richard Gameson, Larry Nees, Joanna Story, Rosamond McKitterick, David Johnson, Tessa Webber, Winfried Rudolf, Francesca Tinti, Susan Rankin and Michael Gullick.
We are grateful to the Leverhulme Trust for funding the Insular Manuscripts: Networks of Knowledge international research network, which ran from 2016 to 2019 and supported research opportunities for Bernard Meehan, Dáibhí Ó Cróinín and Joanna Story. We also thank the British Library Collections Trust for their generous subvention towards this publication, Martin Fanning at Four Courts Press, Christina Duffy for her multispectral imaging, Ellie Jackson for all her editorial support and Jessica Hodgkinson for compiling the indices. And I would especially like to thank Joanna Story for her tireless collaboration over the last five years in preparing for the exhibition and the conference, and for co-editing the exhibition catalogue and this new book of conference essays with me.
Manuscripts in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Cultures and Connections is available through the Four Courts Press website, and the publisher is offering a 20% discount until Tuesday 18 May.
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03 May 2021
Food scribes, food lives online event
Are you hungry for some culinary history? Join us for the free online event, Food Scribes, Food Lives, on Tuesday 11 May 2021, 17:30–18:30 (BST), as part of the British Library Food Season. We are going to be uncovering food manuscripts from the British Library’s medieval, modern and Turkic collections, and examining what these items can tell us about cooking, diet and attitudes to food across time and place.
The event will feature a panel of three expert manuscript curators from the British Library who will be talking about their favourite historical food manuscripts. Michael Erdman will be looking the Turkish and Turkic collections, Jessica Gregory will be examining the modern collections, and Eleanor Jackson will be exploring our medieval manuscript collections.
You might know Ellie’s impressive medieval cookery skills from our Great Medieval Bake Off blogposts (the original medieval bake off, Christmas bake off and Lent bake off).
You can sign up for this free online event on the British Library website. Bookers will be sent a link in advance giving access and will be able to watch at any time for 48 hours after the start time.
We also recommend taking a look at the mouth-watering menu of digital events for the British Library Food Season, featuring an array of chefs, historians and food writers for a series of live conversations that you can tune into wherever you are.
Bon Appétit!
Food Season is supported by:
01 May 2021
Caption this
Have you missed our caption competitions? In that case, you're in for a treat today. The rules are simple. Come up with a witty caption for the image below, and send it via the comments section at the foot of this blogpost or on Twitter to @BLMedieval. There are no prizes, only the kudos of showing off your incredible wit/imagination/creativity.
The page in question is found in the spectacular Maastricht Hours (Stowe MS 17, f. 273r), made in Liège in the 14th century. You can explore the entire manuscript for yourself on the British Library's Digitised Manuscripts site.
Good luck!
Marginal miniature of the king of love sitting in a tree with two musicians, aiming his arrows at a couple sitting below: Stowe MS 17, f. 273r
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20 April 2021
‘Frenssh’ as it was ‘spak’ in medieval England
In the prologue to the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer’s prioress is accused of speaking an inferior version of French learned in Stratford rather than in Paris:
Frenssh she spak ful faire and fetisly,
After the scole of Stratford atte Bowe,
For Frenssh of Parys was to hire unknowe.(And she spoke French fluently and elegantly,
After the school of Stratford-at-Bow,
For French of Paris was to her unknown.)
In the same vein, there are examples of French medieval commentators criticising the way French was spoken in England as it evolved from being the mother tongue of royalty and the nobles who crossed the Channel after the Norman Conquest to being an acquired status symbol, as it was for Chaucer’s prioress. A separate dialect known as Anglo-Norman diverged from the French used in mainland France during this period. Spelling, pronunciation and vocabulary were influenced by the Norman French spoken by William the Conqueror and his followers, and by the existing vernacular, Old English, still used by much of the local population.
French was one of the languages of both spoken and written communication in England for an extended period from 1066 onwards and it was still used in some legal contexts up to the end of the 17th century. The fact that French was widely used is evident in the quantity of word-pairs in modern English – where two words exist with same meaning, one derived from an Old English root word and the other from a French one (e.g., thoughtful/pensive; kingdom/realm; enough/sufficient, walk/march). Such examples show how large numbers of French words were adopted during the Middle Ages, hugely enriching the vocabulary of English and changing the language fundamentally.
One of the earliest surviving manuscripts in Anglo-Norman French contains two texts, the Computus and the Bestiary adapted from Latin works by the earliest named French author, Philippe de Thaon, in the 12th century. The latter was dedicated to Adeliza of Louvain (d. 1151), wife of King Henry I of England. On line 4 of the page pictured below de Thaon confirms that he has written en franceise raisun (in the French language).
During the reign of Henry II (r. 1154–1189) and Eleanor of Aquitaine, literature in French flourished at the English royal court, though surviving manuscripts from this period contain mostly devotional texts, such as the Psalter in French verse below. Latin remained an important written language, particularly in the Church, and so the corresponding text in Latin is written in red in the margins.
Written legends, chronicles and other literary texts in Anglo Norman survive in greater numbers from the 13th century onwards, when romances surrounding heroes like King Arthur were popular. It is not always possible to establish if surviving manuscripts were produced in England or in Normandy, as many nobles and English royalty held territory on both sides of the channel.
Guy of Warwick, a now almost forgotten hero but quite the superstar in medieval England, is the subject of an early written romance in Anglo-Norman pictured below. Beginning life as a humble page to the Earl of Warwick, Guy becomes a knight and performs numerous chivalric deeds throughout Europe and the East in order to win the hand of the earl’s daughter, his beloved Felice. But he has no sooner married than he abandons his wife and renounces the wealth and power he has gained to become a hermit, devoting his life to God.
Though the 13th-century text above is not illustrated, an episode from Guy’s legend is pictured in the lower margins of the Taymouth Hours, which includes some prayers in Anglo-Norman French. Across several pages are a series of graphic, comic-strip style illustrations of one of Guy’s many swashbuckling adventures. Fighting on the side of the Emperor of Constantinople, he meets a lion that is being pursued by a ferocious dragon. Taking up his sword, he kills the dragon with one blow, and so the lion becomes his faithful follower, never leaving his side and even lying at the foot of his bed each night. The story must have been familiar enough to medieval audiences to require little explanation as only the caption, ‘Gwi de Warwik’, accompanies the action (beneath the images on ff. 14r and v). The spelling ‘Gwi’ instead of French Gui (for Guy) features the English letter ‘w’, not used in French.
Tales of the early kings of Britain were also popular among French-speaking nobility and royalty in both England and France, judged by the manuscripts that survive. An illustrated copy of the Roman de Brut, an Anglo-Norman verse chronicle of Britain that includes legendary characters like King Arthur and Merlin, survives from the mid-14th century. At the end is an update to the reign of Edward III (r. 1327-77), containing the following words:
‘Apres li regne sun fiz qe or est Ke dieu li garde se il plest Edward le noble conqueror ki fort et pruz est’
(After him [Edward II] reigned his son - may God keep him if he pleases - Edward the noble conqueror who is strong and brave).
Here the scribe uses ‘ke’ alternating with ‘qe’ for the French que (that), and variant spellings, including ‘sun’ for French son (his) and ‘pruz’ for preux (brave), which provide evidence that vowels were pronounced differently in Anglo-Norman and Continental French by this time.
As English regained its position as the dominant written language in England, literature in French was replaced by the works of authors like Chaucer, Gower and Lydgate who wrote in Middle English. Nevertheless, French continued to be used in some contexts including the law courts for a considerable period.
A number of 12th-century manuscripts containing Anglo-Norman French were digitised as part of the Polonsky Medieval England and France 700-1200 project. You can read more about the use of French on both sides of the Channel before 1200 in our article on the Polonsky project site.
Chantry Westwell
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Part of the Polonsky Digitisation Project
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