22 July 2013
A Carolingian Masterpiece: the Moutier-Grandval Bible
On Christmas Day of the year 800, Charlemagne, King of the Franks, was crowned Europe’s first Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III. Many people, including Charlemagne himself, saw the empire he had established (called Carolingian in his honour) as a continuation of that of the Romans, and the Christmas ceremony in Rome confirmed this in the eyes of the world.
Charlemagne was committed to resurrecting the classical scholarship of Greece and Rome that many felt was lost during the so-called Dark Ages, and he gathered intellectuals from around Europe to his court in Aachen. One notable recruit was the English cleric Alcuin of York (c. 735 - 804), who joined Charlemagne's ambitious project around 781. Alcuin became the leading figure in the group of scholars and artists assembled to stimulate the cultural revival that became known as the 'Carolingian Renaissance'. This Renaissance was focused on Charlemagne’s Court at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) and monasteries such as Tours, where Alcuin was abbot.
The frontispiece to Genesis, depicting the Creation of Adam and Eve, their Temptation and Expulsion from the idealised landscape of Eden to labour on thorny soil, from the Moutier-Grandval Bible, France (Tours), c. 830 – c. 840, Add MS 10546, f. 5v
One of Alcuin's contributions was to produce an emended version of the Latin Vulgate Bible. Subsequently a number of single volume Bibles were produced by teams of scribes and artists at his abbey of Tours, for distribution around Charlemagne’s empire. We are delighted to announce that the one of the great products of that scriptorium, the Moutier-Grandval Bible, made under Abbot Adalhard (834-843), is now available online on the Library’s Digitised Manuscripts website.
Miniature of Christ in Majesty, surrounded by the Evangelists and their symbols, from the Moutier-Grandval Bible, France (Tours), c. 830 – c. 840, Add MS 10546, f. 352v
This immense pandect—it is an enormous 495 x 380 mm, and has 449 folios—is one of three surviving illustrated copies produced in Tours in the 9th century. The four full-page miniatures reveal this manuscript’s debt to classical art. The decorated initials are followed by square capitals and uncials which lead into the text script, which is a form of caroline minuscule, upgraded here by the introduction of some variant letter-forms such as 'a'. Some twenty different scribes worked on the manuscript, a signal of the scale of book production at Tours during this period.
Decorated initial ‘F’(rater Ambrosius) from the beginning of Jerome’s prologue to the Bible in the form of a letter to Paulinus, from the Moutier-Grandval Bible, France (Tours), c. 830 – c. 840, Add MS 10546, f. 2r
The manuscript takes its name from the monastery of Moutier-Grandval, in the canton of Berne, Switzerland, where it was housed from at least the 16th century until the 18th when it made its way into private hands. Little evidence exists concerning the Bible’s early history, but it is possible that it belonged to Moutier-Grandval from the very beginning, as the Tours scriptorium routinely produced manuscripts for use in other foundations.
Miniature of the book ‘sealed with seven seals’ on an altar, being opened by the Lamb and the Lion of Juda, with the symbols of the Evangelists; below, an enthroned figure holding a canopied cloth (the vault of the heaven?) and an angel blowing a trumpet, at the end of Revelation, from the Moutier-Grandval Bible, France (Tours), c. 830 – c. 840, Add MS 10546, f. 449r
The enormous size and weight of the Moutier-Grandval Bible, as well as the fragile state of its binding, made it a particular challenge for us to digitise. A special cradle was employed to safely house the manuscript during photography, and a team of experts from a number of departments in the British Library worked together to transport, tend, and watch over it during the days of filming – have a look at some of our behind-the-scenes photos below! And if there are any queries about our use (or rather, lack of use) of white gloves, please see our previous post on the subject.
Special thanks are due to Andrea Clarke, Kathleen Doyle, and Julian Harrison of the Medieval and Earlier Manuscript department, Ann Tomalak and Gavin Moorhead of the British Library Centre for Conservation, and Antony Grant, Senior Imaging Technician.
Sarah J Biggs
08 July 2013
A Remarkable Tale of Manuscript Sleuthing: the Ely Farming Memoranda
In a slim box in the manuscripts secure storage at The British Library are three parchment fragments, mounted side-by-side between two pieces of glass in a wooden frame. Two are about the length and width of a ruler, the other is almost the same length but twice as wide. On both sides of the parchment are notes in Old English, some damaged and partially erased, written by several different scribes in a reasonably neat Anglo-Saxon script of the early 11th century. Below the notes are a drawing of the head of a saint, or possibly Christ, in semi-profile, a number of pen-trials such as ‘omnium inimcorum suorum dominabit’ (a phrase copied by novice scribes to practise writing letters with minims like 'm', 'n', and 'u') and some jotted musical neums, very early examples of musical notation.
Verso of the three parchment strips, with a pen-drawing of a saint (or Christ), England (The Benedictine abbey of St Peter and St Etheldreda, Ely), c. 1007-1025, Add MS 61735, verso
The Old English notes are a detailed record of goods sent from the monastery at Ely in Cambridgeshire to Thorney Abbey. These goods include ships and fishing nets, farming tools, wagons, 80 swine and a swineherd (valued at 1 ½ pounds and ½ pound respectively!) along with money to buy land at Thetford mill, oxen, a dairymaid and clothes. In addition there are inventories of farms and livestock and records of rents payable in numbers of eels. So what we have here is a very early example of farming records, probably jotted down on the flyleaf of a liturgical book belonging to Ely Abbey. At a later stage the flyleaf was removed, possibly when the book was destroyed, and was torn into strips to be used in binding. The two narrow strips were used as sewing guards in an early printed book: Diophantus Arithmetica (Basel, 1575), which was rebound in the early 17th century and was owned by James Betton, scientist and Fellow of Queens’ College, Cambridge (1611-28). Betton donated his scientific library to the college in 1626, and the book remains there to this day (shelfmark D. 2. 7).
In 1902, Professor Skeat, the distinguished Anglo-Saxon philologist of Christ’s College, Cambridge, discovered the two binding fragments and published an article about them in the Cambridge Philological Society journal of that year. But it was not until twenty-three years later that a Professor Stenton, a historian of Reading University College, came across a third piece of the puzzle in the collection of a Lincolnshire gentleman, Captain W R Cragg of Threekingham. Cragg had assembled various manuscript fragments in an album, some of which he had apparently bought from a junk shop at Sleaford. A talented manuscript sleuth, Stenton noticed that one parchment strip ‘closely resembles certain old English fragments found in 1902 by the late Professor Skeat’. Once the three strips of parchment were placed side by side (the Cragg portion was later acquired by Queens’ College), their importance as a unique record of farming in Anglo-Saxon England was clear. In addition, the names of monks such as Aelfnoth of Thorney Abbey or that of Aethelflad, wife of King Edmund, are of interest to historians, and four words in Old English occur only in this document (for example, sige: ‘sow’ and baensaede: ‘beanseed’).
Rectoof the three parchment strips, England (The Benedictine abbey of St Peter and St
Etheldreda, Ely), c. 1007-1025, Add MS 61735, recto
The fragments were purchased by the British Library at auction in 1979, and are now part of the library’s important collection of Anglo-Saxon documents. The question is: how many other medieval fragments still remain hidden in old books on dusty shelves, yet to be discovered?
- Chantry Westwell
04 July 2013
Fancy a Giant List of Digitised Manuscript Hyperlinks?
One of the most common types of enquiry we in the Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts department receive is whether or not a particular manuscript has been uploaded to the Digitised Manuscripts site (second only in frequency to the question of how we have gotten to be so fabulous). This latter mystery has no simple explanation, but hopefully in future it will be easier to answer the 'Is it digitised yet?' question. We have put together a master list of all of the manuscripts that have been uploaded by our department, including hyperlinks to the digitised versions; you can download an Excel version of the file here: Download BL Medieval and Earlier Digitised Manuscripts Master List 04.07.13
Miniature of Jacob’s dream of the ladder, before Psalm 80, with a curtain above, and a bas-de-page image of cannibalistic grotesques pointing to our spreadsheet, from the Rutland Psalter, Add MS 62925, f. 83v
A few notes - this list covers only material from the Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts collections, mostly items digitised as part of the Greek, Harley Science, Royal, and Medieval Manuscripts projects. The spreadsheet is currently sorted by shelfmark, although of course you can do what you like with it. We will be updating this list every three months, and the newest versions will be posted on this blog.
Enjoy!
02 July 2013
A Calendar Page for July 2013
For more details on calendar pages or the Golf Book, please see the post for January 2013.
Calendar page for July with a miniature of a nobleman going hawking,
with haymakers behind him, from the Golf Book (Book of Hours, Use of
Rome), workshop of Simon Bening, Netherlands (Bruges), c. 1540, Additional MS 24098, f. 24v
Our glimpse into the summer pursuits of aristocrats continues in this miniature from the month of July. In the foreground, a nobleman is setting out on horseback to hunt with falcons; he is accompanied by two retainers carrying more birds of prey, along with two dogs who seem eager for the hunt. Behind him, a group of haymakers are at work mowing a field. In the bas-de-page, a group of men are trying, unsuccessfully it appears, to capture some outsized butterflies. On the following folio can be found the saints' days for July and a rather fierce-looking lion for Leo. Below we can see the conclusion of the haymakers' labours, as they head off into the distance with a horsecart laden with their harvest.
Calendar page for July with a bas-de-page scene of a haycart, from the Golf Book (Book of Hours, Use of
Rome), workshop of Simon Bening, Netherlands (Bruges), c. 1540, Additional MS 24098, f. 25r
01 July 2013
The Lindisfarne Gospels in Durham
The British Library is delighted to be a major lender to the exhibition The Lindisfarne Gospels in Durham, which runs from 1 July to 30 September 2013. No fewer than six of the Library's greatest Anglo-Saxon and medieval treasures are on display at Palace Green Library in Durham, among them the St Cuthbert Gospel, the Ceolfrith Bible and, of course, the magnificent Lindisfarne Gospels.
The Lindisfarne Gospels (London, British Library, MS Cotton Nero D IV, f. 11v).
The loan of these treasures marks the culmination of many years' planning and collaboration between the British Library, Durham University, Durham Cathedral and Durham County Council. It provides an outstanding opportunity for visitors to examine these books at close-hand, and in the context of other artefacts including objects from the Staffordshire Hoard and from the tomb of St Cuthbert.
The star object in this exhibition is undoubtedly the Lindisfarne Gospels, which (according to a colophon added on its final page) was made by Eadfrith, bishop of Lindisfarne (698-c. 721). The monastic community of Lindisfarne fled its home in response to Viking raids, carrying their books with them, settling temporarily at Chester-le-Street and finally at Durham. Every page of the Lindisfarne Gospels is witness to Anglo-Saxon artistic craftsmanship. Particularly noteworthy for art historians are its carpet pages, evangelist portraits and decorated initials; but the meticulous, half-uncial script is also of the highest calibre. The pages currently on display are from the canon tables which precede the four gospels (one of which is shown above). The Lindisfarne Gospels can be viewed in its entirety on the British Library's Digitised Manuscripts site, and can also normally be seen on display in our Treasures Gallery.
The St Cuthbert Gospel (London, British Library, MS Additional 89000, f. 28v).
Another manuscript to be seen in the Durham exhibition is the St Cuthbert Gospel, the oldest intact European book, still to be found it its original leather binding. This book was purchased for the nation in 2012 following the largest such fundraising campaign ever conducted by the British Library. Most scholars agree that it was made in around AD 698, at the time when Cuthbert's body was translated to a new tomb at Lindisfarne. The coffin was re-opened at Durham Cathedral in 1104, and the book (a copy of the Gospel of St John) found inside. Two of its text-pages can be seen at the Palace Green Library, one of which has a contemporary annotation, as also seen above. Once again, the entire manuscript can be viewed on our Digitised Manuscripts site.
The Ceolfrith Bible (London, British Library, MS Additional 45025, f. 15r).
An early Bible associated with Anglo-Saxon Northumbria has also been loaned by the British Library to Durham. The fragmentary Ceolfrith Bible (Additional MS 45025) was one of three great pandects (single-volume Bibles) commissioned by Abbot Ceolfrith of Wearmouth-Jarrow (690-716). This Bible seemingly left its home at a very early stage, perhaps as a gift to King Offa of Mercia (757-796), before arriving at Worcester Cathedral Library. After the Middle Ages it was broken up to be used as binding papers in a set of Nottinghamshire estate accounts, before a handful of leaves were subsequently rescued and purchased on behalf of the British Library. This manuscript was the subject of a recent blog-post, describing its fortuitous survival.
The Royal Athelstan Gospels (London, British Library, MS Royal 1 B VII, f. 15r).
As well as the Lindisfarne Gospels, a second Anglo-Saxon gospel-book has been loaned by the British Library to the Durham exhibition. This is the so-called "Royal Athelstan Gospels" (Royal MS 1 B VII), which was also shown at our own recent Royal Manuscripts exhibition, and is described in more detail in its accompanying catalogue. Made in Northumbria in the first half of the 8th century, this book contains an added manumission in Old English, stating that King Athelstan of Wessex (924-939) had freed a certain Eadhelm from slavery.
The Durham Liber Vitae (London, British Library, MS Cotton Domitian A VII, f. 7v).
The fifth British Library manuscript in the new exhibition is the Durham Liber Vitae or Book of Life (Cotton MS Domitian A VII). This book was made in the 9th century, written in gold and silver ink, and was continued by generations of monks until the Dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century. It contains the names of members of the monastic community, together with those of other religious and benefactors, including various Anglo-Saxon kings: you can read more about it in our post The Durham Book of Life Online.
Bede's prose Life of St Cuthbert (London, British Library, MS Yates Thompson 26, f. 11r).
Last, but definitely not least, the British Library's famous illustrated Life of St Cuthbert (Yates Thompson MS 26) forms part of the Durham exhibition. This book contains the text of Bede's prose Life of Cuthbert, accompanied by a series of exquisite full-page miniatures. It has been featured regularly on our blog, most notably in the post entitled A Menagerie of Miracles (who can forget the image of the otters washing Cuthbert's feet?).
Lending these manuscripts to Durham underlines the British Library's commitment to increase access to its world-famous collections, and to promote new research into medieval manuscript culture. To find out more about them, have a look at Digitised Manuscripts, where all six books can be examined in great detail. Lindisfarne Gospels Durham: One Amazing Book, One Incredible Journey is on show at Palace Green Library until 30 September 2013.
29 June 2013
Guess the Manuscript IV
It's time for another installment of everyone's favourite game - Guess the Manuscript! How quickly can you figure this one out? By now you know the rules: the manuscript is part of the British Library's collections, and can be found (somewhere) on on our Digitised Manuscripts site. Ready? Here we go...
In case not everyone reading this spends their working lives staring at flyleaves, here's another clue:
And that is how you would find the leaf in this manuscript. Best of luck!
We'll update with the correct answer shortly. You can see our previous Guess the Manuscript posts here, here, and here.
Updated: these spectacular flyleaves are part of the Rochester Bible, Royal MS 1 C VII. Thanks for playing along!
27 June 2013
Christine de Pizan and the Book of the Queen
We are thrilled to announce the recent upload of one of our best-loved (and most-requested) medieval manuscripts to our Digitised Manuscripts site; Christine de Pizan’s Book of the Queen (Harley MS 4431) is now online!
Detail of a miniature of Christine de Pizan in her study at the beginning of the ‘Cent balades’, Harley MS 4431, f. 4r
Christine de Pizan is widely regarded as one of Europe’s earliest female professional authors, and is certainly one of the most prolific. Born in Venice in 1365, she moved to Paris as a young child when her father was appointed the royal astrologer and alchemist to King Charles V of France. Christine took advantage of the intellectual atmosphere of the court, making use of the royal library to teach herself languages, history, and literature. Her writing career began at the age of 24, after her husband, a royal secretary, died suddenly, and she was faced with the necessity of providing for herself and her small children. She soon attracted the patronage of a number of nobles at court, and produced dozens of major works over the next three decades, along with hundreds of ballads and poems.
Detail of a miniature of Christine de Pizan presenting her manuscript to Queen Isabeau of Bavaria, France (Paris), c. 1410 – c. 1414, Harley MS 4431, f. 3r
The largest extant collection of her writing can be found in Harley MS 4431, a compilation, now in two volumes, produced for Isabeau (or Isabel) of Bavaria, the queen consort to Charles VI of France. This manuscript was written and decorated under Christine’s supervision, and it is possible that some of the passages are in her hand. The notable artists the Master of the Cité des Dames (see also Egerton MS 2709, Royal MS 19 E VI, and Royal MS 20 C IV) and the Master of the Duke of Bedford (see also Add MS 18850) were principally responsible for the illumination.
Harley MS 4431 was the subject of an AHRC-funded research project by the University of Edinburgh, in association with the British Library and the ATILF (Analyse et Traitement Informatique de la Langue Française), a unit of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique at the University of Nancy. The resulting website provides images, transcriptions of the texts, a glossary of Christine’s language, and an admirable collection of further research tools.
The British Library has plans to exhibit the Book of the Queen in the Sir John Ritblat Treasures Gallery, but until that time, please check out the glories of the fully-digitised version here, and several of our favourite illuminations below.
Detail of a miniature of Venus presiding over a group of men and women, who are presenting their hearts to her, from 'L'Épître Othéa', Harley MS 4431, f. 100r
Detail of a miniature of Queen Penthesilea with and her army of Amazons riding through the forest to aid the Trojan army, from 'L'Épître Othéa', Harley MS 4431, f. 103v
Detail of a miniature of Hercules slaying Cerberus, and Theseus and Pirithous battling demons, from 'L'Épître Othéa', Harley MS 4431, f. 108v
Detail of a miniature of Apollo killing Ganymede by piercing his eye, from 'L'Épître Othéa', Harley MS 4431, f. 119v
Detail of a miniature of the Judgement of Paris, from 'L'Épître Othéa', Harley MS 4431, f. 125v
Detail of a miniature of the Wheel of Fortune, from 'L'Épître Othéa', Harley MS 4431, f. 129r
Detail of a miniature of Hermaphroditus and the nymph Salmacis bathing in a lake, from 'L'Épître Othéa', Harley MS 4431, f. 132v
Detail of a miniature of ladies watching knights jousting, from 'Le Duc des vrais amants', Harley MS 4431, f. 150r
Detail of a miniature of Christine and the Sibyl standing in a sphere of the cosmos, with the moon, sun and stars surrounding them, from 'Le chemin de long estude', Harley MS 4431, f. 189v
Detail of a miniature of Christine de Pizan before the personifications of Rectitude, Reason, and Justice in her study, and helping another lady to build the 'Cité des dames', Harley MS 4431, f. 290r
For the latest news and updates from the Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts team, be sure to follow us on Twitter @blmedieval.
Sarah J Biggs
24 June 2013
Royal Manuscripts Launch the AHRC Image Gallery
Last week the Arts & Humanities Research Council announced the launch of its new Image Gallery, which will feature selected digital images from the many and varied projects which it supports. We are honoured that one of the British Library's recent projects has been chosen as the pilot 'virtual exhibition': thirteen manuscripts from last year's exhibition Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination can be seen in the gallery here.
As well as supporting initial research for the Royal exhibition, the AHRC awarded the British Library a further grant to fully digitise many of the manuscripts featured in it, as part of its Digital Tranformations in the Arts and Humanities programme. Details about these manuscripts and links to their digital surrogates can be found on our blog.
We are delighted to be featured in this way, and hope that the new Image Gallery facilitates research into the art, culture and history of the Middle Ages. Further updates about newly digitised manuscripts will be published here and communicated via our Twitter feed, @blmedieval.
Medieval manuscripts blog recent posts
- Chaucer’s works go online
- Births, births and (more) births
- 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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