23 January 2014
Sex and Death in the Roman de la Rose
Where can one go to witness the pursuit of the opposite sex, music and dancing, violence and beatings, and gratuitous nudity? No, not a British town centre on a Friday night, but in the Roman de la Rose, obviously!
An exquisite copy of this important medieval verse romance – Harley MS 4425 – has now been digitised and is available for you to browse in its entirety on the BL’s Digitised Manuscripts website. The Roman de la Rose was written in Old French by Guillaume de Lorris from the late 1220s up until his death in 1278, and completed some forty years later by Jean de Meun. This manuscript was made for Count Engelbert of Nassau (1451-1504), a wealthy courtier and leader of the Duke of Burgundy’s Privy Council. The artist to whom the decoration is attributed is known as the Master of the Prayer Books, and he and his studio were active around 1500. He portrayed the author in one of the column miniatures: he is shown sat at a writing desk with his book before him, in the act of composition (see below for an image which will be familiar to those of you who follow us on Twitter @BLMedieval). Note how the artist has set out the text in the author’s book in two columns, with spaces left for illustrations, exactly resembling this manuscript in a conceit that emphasises the figure’s status as author.
Detail of a miniature of Jean de Meun writing his book, from the Roman de la Rose, Netherlands (Bruges), c. 1490 – c. 1500, Harley MS 4425, f. 133r
The Roman de la Rose is an allegorical poem about courtship, love and a gentleman’s pursuit of ideal love (represented by the rose), experienced in a dream by the narrator. However, just in case you thought it was all ‘paddling palms and pinching fingers’, the miniatures that accompany the text reveal some darker elements to the story.
Running alongside all the displays of sophisticated, wealthy, aristocratic life, are rather more violent images, relating to stories and events in the text. For example, there is quite a lot of fighting in the Roman de la Rose – a virtual panoply of brawls and murders (and it isn’t just the men slugging it out!):
Detail of a miniature of Franchise fighting Danger, Harley MS 4425, f. 134v
Detail of a miniature of a jealous husband beating his wife, while neighbours look on, Harley MS 4425, f. 85r
Detail of a miniature of Beaute (‘Beauty’) and Laideur (‘Ugliness’) beating Chastete (‘Chastity’), now sadly damaged, Harley MS 4425, f. 81v
Detail of a miniature of the Lover being beaten by Honte (‘Shame’), Peur (‘Fear’) and Dangier (‘Danger’), Harley MS 4425, f. 131v
Below we can see two characters, Abstinence Contrainte (‘Forced Abstinence’) and Faux Semblant (‘False Seeming’) travelling in disguise: one as a Beguine nun (medieval cross-dressing!) and the other as a Franciscan friar.
Detail of a miniature of Abstinence Contrainte (‘Forced Abstinence’) and Faux Semblant (‘False Seeming’) travelling in disguise, Harley MS 4425, f. 108r
Detail of a miniature of Abstinence Contrainte (‘Forced Abstinence’) and Faux Semblant (‘False Seeming’) killing Malebouche (Evil Tongue), and cutting out his tongue, Harley MS 4425, f. 111r
These two are on a mission to kill off Malebouche (‘Evil Tongue’, literally ‘Bad Mouth’) and, appropriately, cutting out his tongue before slitting his throat (above).
Detail of a miniature of Virginius beheading his daughter Virginia, Harley MS 4425, f. 54v
In another scene (above), we see a story relating to Appius Claudius Crassus, a member of the decemviri (a council of ten men established to institute new laws) of the Roman Republic around 451 BC. In a tale originally related by Livy, Appius lusted after Virginia. However, since the girl was thoroughly repulsed by his lechery, Appius had one of his men claim that she was his slave, in the very court over which Appius himself presided. Predictably, Appius upheld the claims (which would allow him to then buy the girl and have his wicked way with her) – but her father, to defend her liberty and protect her from this sorry fate, decided it would be better to kill her, and so chopped off her head without further ado…which all seems a bit rough for poor, young Virginia!
Detail of a miniature of Nero watching while his mother Agrippina is dissected, Harley MS 4425, f. 59r
Elsewhere, we see the grisly fate of Agrippina the Younger. Having failed to murder his mother by means of a ship deliberately designed to sink, Nero pursued his matricidal ambitions by ordering Anicetus (Nero’s boyhood tutor and commander of the fleet at Misenum) and his men to murder her in person. According to Tacitus, before she was stabbed to death, and realising her son was responsible, Agrippina cried, ‘Smite my womb!’. The image here shows Anicetus or one of the others rummaging around in Agrippina’s viscera, while Nero looks on. Tacitus noted that some accounts related that Nero wished to see the place where he had been conceived, and also looked upon his mother after her death and praised her beauty. Those Roman emperors didn’t really go in for filial devotion.
Detail of a miniature of Seneca committing suicide as Nero watches, Harley MS 4425, f. 59v
The verso of this folio depicts Seneca’s suicide (above). Having charged Seneca with involvement in the Pisonian plot to assassinate him, Nero ordered Seneca to kill himself, which he did by opening his veins whilst in a bath. The inclusion of Nero in the image may be derived from the account of his presence at Seneca’s death in the Golden Legend.
Other suicides – people literally falling on their swords – are shown as well:
Detail of a miniature of Nero committing suicide, Harley MS 4425, f. 61r
Detail of a miniature of Lucretia committing suicide in front of her family (and an attentive dog), Harley MS 4425, f. 79r
Detail of a miniature of Dido committing suicide as Aeneas sails away, Harley MS 4425, f. 117v
There’s also some nudity thrown in for good measure:
Detail of a miniature the painter Zeuxis painting nude models, Harley MS 4425, f. 142r
Detail of a miniature of Pygmalion and the statue, Harley MS 4425, f. 177v
Perhaps after the reading the Roman de la Rose – what with all the courting and wooing, birds and bees, flowers and fruit trees, and the like – you find yourself with a few questions about the procreative act. Well, the Medieval Manuscripts Blog brings you Sex Education, Medieval-Style.
Q. How are babies made?
A. By Nature, with a hammer, on an anvil.
Detail of a miniature of Nature forging a baby, Harley MS 4425, f. 140r [see our post Royal Babies and Celebrated Infants for more on this miniature]
And there’s another depiction of people being created elsewhere in the manuscript…can you find it?
This manuscript also contains a number of extraordinary images of medieval dress and clothing styles, as well as a variety of depictions of the social classes. Check out the blog next Tuesday for a post on these subjects, and still more from the magnificent Roman de la Rose.
- James Freeman
18 January 2014
A Map at the End of the World
Now fully digitised on our Digitised Manuscripts site, and currently on loan to the National Library of Australia for the Mapping Our World exhibition, Royal MS 14 C IX is one of the British Library’s copies of Ranulph Higden’s Polychronicon, and one of numerous manuscripts in our collection containing medieval maps of the world.
Higden coined the name Historia Polychronicon – meaning ‘a history of many ages’ – to encapsulate the universal scope of his chronicle, which encompassed not only the history of the entire world from Creation to his own era of the fourteenth century, but also its geography as well.
Map of the world from Ranulph Higden’s Polychronicon, England, c. 1350, Royal MS 14 C IX, ff. 1v-2
This marrying of history and geography can be seen with particular clarity in the large mappa mundi at the beginning of Royal MS 14 C IX, unique among the nearly 150 surviving copies of the Polychronicon in containing two maps (see above). Unlike their modern counterparts, medieval maps were not concerned solely with landmasses, mountains, rivers, borders and cities, nor with ‘to-scale’ representation. They were conceptual objects, upon which time as well as space were plotted, with historical events shown alongside visual or prose descriptions of the topography and people of the world.
Detail of Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, from Ranulph Higden’s Polychronicon, England, c. 1350, Royal MS 14 C IX, f. 1v
Following a pattern laid down by earlier maps, this one divides the world into the three known continents: Asia in the upper half (f. 1v), Africa stretched along the right and Europe in the lower left-hand corner (f. 2r), with England coloured in red.
Detail of England, from Ranulph Higden’s Polychronicon, England, c. 1350, Royal MS 14 C IX, f. 1v
All is surrounded by green ocean, and buffeted by the winds, which are represented by twelve heads, each huffing and puffing. Major rivers are shown: the Euphrates and the Tigris enclosing Mesopotamia (which means ‘between two rivers’; see above), the Nile snaking its way across Africa, the Rhine coming down from the Alps, and even the Thames meandering past Oxford and London. Many of the descriptive labels are excerpted from the text of the Polychronicon, indicating that its creator was familiar with Higden’s book, and perhaps used this very copy to annotate the map.
Detail of the Garden of Eden, from Ranulph Higden’s Polychronicon, England, c. 1350, Royal MS 14 C IX, f. 2v
The map also charts the flow of Christian history. The blank panel at the top is intended to feature a drawing of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (as seen on the other map in this Polychronicon on f. 2v; see above). Babylon and the Tower of Babel are beneath it, followed by a rather charming sketch of Noah in his ark with a ram, a lion and a stag.
Detail of Noah in the ark with a ram, lion, and a stag, from Ranulph Higden’s Polychronicon, England, c. 1350, Royal MS 14 C IX, f. 1v
Jerusalem is given particular prominence, but most remarkable is possibly the tiniest representation of the Crucifixion in a manuscript in the British Library.
Detail of the city of Jerusalem and the Crucifixion, from Ranulph Higden’s Polychronicon, England, c. 1350, Royal MS 14 C IX, f. 1v
Beneath the label ‘Mons Caluarie’ (Mount Calvary), we see Christ on the cross, the nails in his hands and feet and the wound in his side all clearly visible, accompanied by two figures, presumably the Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist.
Important sites in subsequent Christian history are marked in the lower half of the map: Rome and St. Peter’s as the centre of the Catholic Church, and Santiago de Compostela as the last stage in the Christianization of Europe.
Detail of the pilgrimage trail ending in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, from Ranulph Higden’s Polychronicon, England, c. 1350, Royal MS 14 C IX, f. 1v
In Genesis, there are six days of Creation, followed by a seventh day of rest. St Augustine interpreted this as a prefiguration of the course of human existence, dividing history into six ‘ages of the world’ and proposing that the Last Judgement would occur at the end of the sixth age. Although Higden divided the historical books of the Polychronicon along different lines, nevertheless he retained the sixfold structure that had been a common feature of universal history since Orosius’s Historia aduersos paganos. Higden wove together universal and insular historical divisions of time, concentrating the first five ages in the first two historical books of the Polychronicon, and dividing the remaining four according to successive invasions – Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Viking, and Norman – which had long been depicted in history books as divine punishment for people’s sinfulness. God was immanent in the medieval world and his intervention in human history in the sixth age an imminent possibility. The reader of this copy of the Polychronicon found themselves at the end of the world in more ways than one.
- James Freeman
16 January 2014
The Three Living and the Three Dead
Inspired by the massive success of our recent Knight v Snail post, we thought it might be interesting to have a look at some other tropes of medieval art which feature in many of our manuscripts. One such is that of the Three Living and the Three Dead.
Miniature of the Three Living and the Three Dead, with the Anglo-Norman poem 'Le dit des trios morts et trios vifs' below, from the De Lisle Psalter, England (East Anglia), c. 1308 – c. 1340, Arundel MS 83, f. 127v
The precise origins of the Three Living and the Three Dead are still somewhat mysterious, but there are many versions of the tale dating back to the 13th century, with the best-known coming from England and France. The basic version of the story goes like this: three young noblemen are out hunting when they suddenly come across three corpses, which are in varying states of decay, but nonetheless still animated. Unsurprisingly, the young men express shock and dismay at the sight, while the three corpses admonish them to consider the transience of life and to improve their behaviour before it is too late.
Detail of a miniature of the Three Living and the Three Dead, from the De Lisle Psalter, England (East Anglia), c. 1308 – c. 1340, Arundel MS 83, f. 127v
The dialogue between the two groups is sometimes explicit, as in the relatively early example above from the early 14th century De Lisle Psalter (Arundel MS 83). Beneath a miniature of three kings encountering three corpses is an abridged version of the Anglo-Norman poem Le dit des trios morts et trios vifs which describes the ensuing conversation. Interestingly, above this double-register miniature is a series of inscriptions in the English vernacular, giving additional voice to the characters. The Three Living cry out: ‘I am afraid’ (Ich am afert), ‘Lo, what I see!’ (Lo whet ich se), and ‘Methinks these be devils three’ (Me þinkes hit bey develes þre). And the Three Dead reply: ‘I was well fair’ (Ich wes wel fair), ‘Such shall you be’ (Such schel tou be), and ‘For God’s love, beware by me’ (For godes love bewer by me).
Detail of bas-de-page miniatures of the Three Living and the Three Dead, from the Taymouth Hours, England, 2nd quarter of the 14th century, Yates Thompson MS 13, ff. 179v-180r
Similar rubrics can be found in the illustrations of this scene in the mid-14th century Taymouth Hours (Yates Thompson MS 13; see our previous post about this magnificent manuscript). The Three Living can be found in the bas-de-page of f. 179v, confronting the Three Dead on the following folio (f. 180r). One of the Living cries out that he is aghast at the spectacle (Ich am agast), while the others recoil in horror. The Dead respond in almost identical fashion to those in the De Lisle Psalter, exhorting the Living to take their message to heart and change their ways.
These bas-de-page scenes can be found in the Taymouth Hours towards the end of the Office of the Dead, a set of prayers for the dead and dying that were included in virtually every medieval Book of Hours. In some later medieval Hours, the visual motif of the Three Living and the Three Dead was ‘promoted’ to the leading role, prefacing the text of the Office proper. One interesting example comes from Add MS 35313, a manuscript variously called the ‘London Rothschild Hours’ or the ‘Hours of Joanna I of Castile’, which was produced, probably in Ghent, about the year 1500. It was almost certainly created for a female patron, possibly Joanna I of Castile, who was often called Joanna the Mad (for more information about Joanna and her manuscripts, see also The Mystery of the Hours of Joanna the Mad, A Medieval Menagerie, and our calendar series for 2012).
Detail of a miniature of the Three Living and the Three Dead at the beginning of the Office of the Dead, from the Hours of Joanna I of Castile, southern Netherlands (Ghent?), c. 1500, Add MS 35313, f. 158v
The Office of the Dead in Add MS 35313 opens with a scene of the Three Living encountering the Three Dead while out hawking, and is unusual in including a woman among the hunting party. This miniature may be a copy of a similar scene in a Book of Hours that belonged to Mary of Burgundy, who was the mother-in-law of Joanna I of Castile; these hours are now in Berlin (Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett MS 78 B 12, f. 220v). There are no rubrics or explanatory text associated with this miniature, which implies that these sorts of images were widespread enough to be instantly recognisable to a reader. The Three Dead, however, appear much more threatening here than in earlier versions, going so far as to chase after the escaping riders with arrows in hand.
Miniature of the Raising of Lazarus and a scene of the Three Living and the Three Dead, from the Stuart de Rothesay Hours, Italy (Padua? And Perugia), c. 1508 – c. 1538, Add MS 20927, f. 119v
Another group of ominous Dead appear in the Stuart de Rothesay Hours, produced in Italy c. 1508 – c. 1538. Beneath a miniature of the Raising of Lazarus is a small panel of the Three Dead, who appear to be attacking the Three Living; note the terrified horses and hunting dogs circling the scene (see detail below). Rather than exhorting the living to change their ways, the dead are here presented as a danger in themselves.
Detail of the Three Living and the Three Dead, from the Stuart de Rothesay Hours, Italy (Padua? And Perugia), c. 1508 – c. 1538, Add MS 20927, f. 119v
Several more images from our collections are below. As always, please let us know what you think; you can leave a comment below, or contact us on Twitter at @BLMedieval.
Bas-de-page scenes of the Three Living and the Three Dead on facing folios, from the Smithfield Decretals, southern France (probably Toulouse), c. 1300, with illuminations added in England (London), c. 1340, Royal MS 10 E IV, ff. 258v-259r [for more on this manuscript, see Finishing the Smithfield Decretals]
Detail of a miniature of the Three Living (a pope, an emperor, and a king) and the Three Dead (wearing matching crowns), at the beginning of thee Office of the Dead, from a Book of Hours, France (Paris), c. 1480 – c. 1490, Harley MS 2917, f. 119r
Miniature of the Three Living and the Three Dead on a tipped-in leaf, from a Psalter, Germany (Augsburg?), first half of the 16th century, Harley MS 2953, f. 19v
Sarah J Biggs
14 January 2014
Yet Another Giant List of Digitised Manuscript Hyperlinks
A new year, a newly-updated list of digitised manuscript hyperlinks! This master list contains everything that has been digitised up to this point by the Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts department, complete with hyperlinks to each record on our Digitised Manuscripts site. We'll have another list for you in three months; you can download the current version here: Download BL Medieval and Earlier Digitised Manuscripts Master List 14.01.13. Have fun!
Diagram of a cherubim, based on Alanus ab Insula (Alain of Lille)'s De sex alia cherubim, from the De Lisle Psalter, England, c. 1308 - c. 1340, Arundel MS 83, f. 5v
- Sarah J Biggs
09 January 2014
An Even Older View of the New World
Our recent blog post An Old World View of the New got us thinking about other sources of New World images from within our medieval collections. One excellent example, currently on exhibition in Australia (more below), can be found in Harley MS 2772, which we’ve recently fully-digitised and uploaded to our Digitised Manuscripts site. This manuscript is a collection of fragments of Latin texts, including Macrobius’ Commentary on Cicero's Somnium Scipionis (The Dream of Scipio). Included in the commentary on the ocean is one of the earliest maps ever produced. It is a round diagram of the earth showing the known and unknown lands and oceans, including Italy and the Caspian Sea.
Diagram of the earth and oceans, Harley MS 2772, Germany 11th century, f. 70v
Although this is an eleventh-century copy, the map was first created in the early 5th century, when Macrobius originally wrote his commentary. Most of the maps made at this time focused on the known world of the Roman Empire, but Macrobius was interested in the idea that other parts of the earth might be inhabited. Starting with a commentary on Cicero’s work, in which Scipio views the earth from the heavens in a dream, he writes at length on the nature of the planet and its peoples. He argues against the biblical world-view that Noah’s three sons populated Asia, Europe and Africa, and that, as he had no other son, the remainder of the earth must be uninhabited.
Detail of a diagram of the earth and oceans, Harley MS 2772, Germany 11th century, f. 70v
This diagram divides the earth into five zones, the extreme north and south which are labelled ‘INHABITABILIS’ (uninhabitable), the torrid zone at the Equator with its boiling hot sea, ‘RUBRUM MARE’ (red sea) and in between the two temperate zones. The one in the north is ‘TEMPERATA NOSTRA’ (our temperate zone), with Italy at the centre and bordered by the Caspian Sea and the Orkney Islands (‘ORCADES’). To the south is ‘TEMPERATA ANTETORUM’, which probably means something like ‘outside temperate zone’, i.e. outside the known world an area which is not designated as unpopulated.
So could this be the earliest map of the antipodes? The Australians certainly think so! A current exhibition in The National Library of Australia in Canberra entitled Mapping our World: Terra Incognita to Australia features this manuscript from the British Library.
Other medieval maps on loan for the exhibition are:
The Anglo-Saxon World Map, one of the earliest surviving maps from Western Europe, which shows nothing further south than Ethiopia, and after that there are only monsters.
Anglo-Saxon world map, England (Canterbury) 2nd quarter of the 11th century, Cotton MS Tiberius B V, f. 56v
The Psalter World Map, a very small but detailed depiction of the earth with Jerusalem at the centre in a book containing a collection of psalms and prayers, made in south-east England in the mid-13th century. As this is a religious work, God and the angels preside over the earth.
Psalter World Map, England, c. 1265, Additional MS 28681, f. 9r
And finally, the map from Higden’s Polychronicon (or universal history) from Ramsay Abbey focuses on England (in red), but contains details of provinces and towns in Europe, Asia and Africa.
Map of the World from the Polychronicon, England, c. 1350, Royal MS 14 C IX, ff. 1v-2
Of course, Australia does not appear on any of the above, and it is not until the 16th century that an unknown southern continent ‘Terra Australis’ or perhaps even the ‘Londe of Java’, as depicted in Henry VIII’s Boke of Idrography can be found.
Jean Rotz, Map of the Two Hemispheres, France and England, 1542, Royal 20 E IX, ff. 29v-30
The exhibition catalogue contains these and many more gorgeous reproductions of maps of the world and Australia, including coastal maps and diagrams by the early settlers. Please have a look at Mapping our World: Terra Incognita to Australia (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2013), and as always, you can follow us on Twitter @BLMedieval.
- Chantry Westwell
01 January 2014
A Calendar Page for January 2014
Over the past few years, we have highlighted a series of calendars from medieval manuscripts, including the Isabella Breviary (see this post for more details on calendars in medieval manuscripts), the Hours of Joanna of Castile (Joanna the Mad) and the Golf Book. This year we have chosen a spectacular Flemish Book of Hours, the Huth Hours (Add MS 38126). This manuscript, which takes its name from a later owner, Henry Huth, was produced in Ghent or Bruges c. 1480.
Miniature of the Pentecost, from the Huth Hours, Netherlands (Bruges or Ghent?), c. 1480, Add MS 38126, f. 45v
It is not known for whom the Huth Hours was created, although the initials ‘MY’ and ‘YM’ can be found on one of the calendar pages for November (f. 12r), a possible clue to the identity of the original patron. Added to the end of the manuscript is a group of prayers in French in a late 15th century hand, which has led some scholars to suggest that the manuscript was created for a French patron, or one connected to the Flemish Hapsburg court at that time. Other scholars have argued for a German origin, citing the inclusion of a number of German saints in the calendar.
Miniature of the Visitation, from the Huth Hours, Netherlands (Bruges or Ghent?), c. 1480, Add MS 38126, f. 66v
Many of the miniatures in the manuscript were painted by the noted artist Simon Marmion and his workshop, who worked on the Hours in collaboration with the Master of the Houghton Miniatures, the Master of the Dresden Prayer Book, and possibly the enigmatically-named Ghent Associates. These miniatures are noteworthy for their beautifully-rendered landscapes, a feature of Flemish art in this period. This interest is reflected in the calendar as well, which incorporates small roundels containing miniatures of the labours of the month and the signs of the zodiac.
Miniature of the St Jerome in the desert, from the Huth Hours, Netherlands (Bruges or Ghent?), c. 1480, Add MS 38126, f. 227v
The manuscript opens with the calendar page for January (see below). Set against a trompe l’oeil strew border is a miniature of a two noblemen warming themselves before a fire in what appears to be a well-appointed bedroom. A table laden with food and a silver service sits nearby, as well as a small gray cat (it is unclear whether the cat is more interested in the fire or the potential for dinner scraps). The following folio continues the listing of saints’ days and feasts for January; below is a roundel with a painting of a nude man pouring water from two jugs (for the zodiac sign Aquarius), above a wintry landscape.
Calendar page for January, with a roundel miniature of two men warming themselves before a fire, from the Huth Hours, Netherlands (Bruges or Ghent?), c. 1480, Add MS 38126, f. 1v
Calendar page for January, with a roundel miniature of Aquarius and a man in a wintry landscape, from the Huth Hours, Netherlands (Bruges or Ghent?), c. 1480, Add MS 38126, f. 2r
Happy New Year!
- Sarah J Biggs
30 December 2013
Papyrus Unbound
While we have very many fragments of papyrus codices, and of early medieval parchment codices, it is not quite so common for late antique or early medieval bindings to survive. The most famous bindings of papyrus codices are undoubtedly those from Nag Hammadi, dating from the third or fourth centuries. Of course, the best-known early binding in the British Library’s possession is the St Cuthbert Gospel!
The digitisation of Papyrus 1442 (P. Lond. IV 1419) means that one of these early bindings, from a tax register written at Aphrodito in Egypt in 716-717, can now be viewed in great detail online. The binding is a limp leather covering, lined with papyrus.
Exterior of the binding, Papyrus 1442
It retains its flap, which would probably have had a leather wrapping band attached, to keep the codex closed. These early leather bindings were formed from the hide of a sheep or goat, and it was often the case that skin from the animal’s neck would be used to form the flap. One point where this binding seems to differ from those of the earlier Nag Hammadi codices is in the shape of the flap: the Nag Hammadi flaps are generally simple triangles or rectangles. Here, however, the flap has a bit more of a stylised shape (which seems to be intentional, and not simply a result of later damage to the binding).
Detail of the exterior of the binding, enhanced to show decoration detail, Papyrus 1442
The cover has a decoration which is fairly typical of Coptic decoration. In the centre, there is a circle around a six-pointed star, with additional interlaced and undulating patterns around the border. The decoration is drawn on with ink or paint (see above).
A look at the inside of the cover will give a better sense of how the codex itself was constructed.
Interior of the binding, Papyrus 1442
It is clear from the single line of holes in the spine that this was a 'single quire' codex, that is, it was constructed by laying all the unfolded sheets one above another on top of the binding, piercing the sheets in the middle, and folding them. At some point, the binding came loose, and a number of leaves had already been lost from the book by the time it arrived at the British Museum. Some of these are now in Berlin (P. Berol. inv. 25006).
- Cillian O'Hogan
27 December 2013
Your Favourite Manuscript: The Results
Recently we asked the loyal readers of our blog and our Twitter followers (@BLMedieval) to name their favourite manuscript. We were chuffed to receive so many responses, and here is a small selection of your favourites. Some people did nominate books and manuscripts in Cambridge, Oxford, Paris and elsewhere (shame!), but we're going to restrict this list to medieval manuscripts in the British Library's collections. Well, we would, wouldn't we? Nobody went for Beowulf, interestingly -- we're assuming that's a massive oversight on your part. But they're all great choices, we think you'll find, and impossible to pick a winner!
The Theodore Psalter (Add MS 19352), nominated by Gretchen McKay, and shown below
The Caligula Troper (Cotton MS Caligula A XIV), nominated by James Aitcheson
The De Brailes Hours (Add MS 49999), nominated by @mediumaevum and Jennifer Lyons, and shown below
Gregory the Great (Cotton MS Tiberius B XI), nominated by Kevin Jackson
The Bristol Psalter (Add MS 40731), nominated by Robert Miller
A Dutch chronicle (Cotton MS Vitellius E VI), nominated by Sjoerd Levelt
A burnt Royal manuscript (Royal MS 9 C X), nominated by Andrew Prescott, and shown below
Leonardo da Vinci (Arundel MS 263), nominated by @maxinthebox
The New Minster Liber Vitae (Stowe MS 944), nominated by @saxonbowman, and shown below
Thomas Hoccleve's Regiment of Princes (Arundel MS 38), nominated by @melibeus1
The Huth Hours (Add MS 38126), nominated by @bxknits, and shown below
An Icelandic manuscript (Add MS 4860), nominated by @SMcDWer
The Luttrell Psalter (Add MS 42130), nominated by Damien Kempf, and shown below
The Travels of John Mandeville (Add MS 24189), nominated by David Jupe, whose wife, Barbara, plumped for the Luttrell Psalter.
Julian Harrison
Medieval manuscripts blog recent posts
- Chaucer’s works go online
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- An illustrated Old English Herbal
- A Calendar Page for December 2016
- A Calendar Page for November 2016
- A Calendar Page for October 2016
- A Calendar Page for September 2016
- A Calendar Page for August 2016
- Manuscript the Tube
- A Calendar Page for July 2016
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