24 November 2017
Gifts for manuscripts lovers
Books make great presents — just ask Charlemagne, Alcuin, Anne of Burgundy, Henry VI, Henry VIII or Elizabeth I, all of whom gave or received manuscripts for Christmas or New Year. So, now that the Christmas shopping season is upon us, we would like to recommend some of our colleagues' wonderful recent publications as gifts for the historian/art-lover/calligrapher/bibliophile in your life.
This year saw the publication of Andrea Clarke’s fantastic Tudor Monarchs: Lives in Letters. This book contains transcriptions and translations, images and discussions of dozens of original documents. These include letters from Wolsey to Cromwell, a letter jointly written by Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn to Wolsey, and the draft of Elizabeth I’s Tilbury speech (‘I have the heart and stomach of a king ...’). For everyone who is interested in the Tudors, this beautifully written book is a wonderful way to get to know the people behind the portraits. It is an indispensable guide to some of the most significant surviving documents from the Tudor period, and you can buy it here.
For art lovers, there is Kathleen Doyle’s and Scot McKendrick’s The Art of the Bible. This gorgeously illustrated book explores 1,000 years of history. It examines the diverse ways in which scribes and artists from Iraq to Northumbria to Ethiopia have presented sacred texts. Each page is breath-taking. This book is also available in French, German, Dutch and Italian. Buy it here.
Our other recent publications are the books associated with the exhibition Harry Potter: A History of Magic. One of these is intended for children (Harry Potter: A Journey Through the History of Magic) and the other for a general audience (Harry Potter: A History of Magic). Buy them here.
And don’t just take our word for it — the Guardian has recommended Harry Potter: A History of Magic as one of the top 10 books to buy this holiday season. Harry Potter: A History of Magic is currently the best-selling item in the British Library shop, so order it soon!
A range of other books relating to medieval manuscripts and magic are available in the British Library shop, including Sophie Page’s Magic in Medieval Manuscripts and Astrology in Medieval Manuscripts. There are also postcards and even Oyster Card holders featuring medieval manuscripts in the British Library's shop. So whether you are transfixed by the Tudors, enthralled by illuminations or fascinated by phoenixes, there is something for everyone this Christmas.
21 November 2017
The original Hermione
Bushy hair, writing furiously — why, it must be Hermione! But this is not an early image of Hermione Granger. This is the Hermione of Greek mythology. She features in Greek and Latin writings about the Trojan War, from Homer’s Odyssey to the plays of Euripides and the poems of Ovid.
Hermione writing a letter, from a copy of a French translation of Ovid’s Heroides, made in Paris at the end of the 15th century: Harley MS 4867, f. 60v
In classical mythology, Hermione was said to be the daughter and only child of Helen of Troy and Menelaus, king of Sparta. She was only a young girl when her mother ran off with (or was kidnapped by) Paris, starting the Trojan War. Hermione’s love life became just as complicated as her mother’s. She was initially engaged to Orestes, the son of Agamemnon. In some versions of the story she even secretly married him. However, Hermione’s oblivious father married her to Achilles’s son, Neoptolemus, also known as Pyrrhus. This wedding is one of the first events in Homer’s Odyssey. Odysseus’s son Telemachus travels to Sparta to ask Menelaus if he has heard any news about the missing Odysseus and
found [Menelaus] in his own house, feasting with his many clansmen in honour of the wedding of his son, and also of his daughter, whom he was marrying to the son of that valiant warrior Achilles … [Menelaus’s] son, Megapenthes, was born to him of a bondwoman, for heaven vouchsafed Helen no more children after she had borne Hermione, who was fair as golden Venus herself (translated by Samuel Butler).
Beginning of Book IV in a 15th-century copy of Homer’s Odyssey: Harley MS 6325, f. 26r
There is magic in some of the stories about the mythological Hermione. After the sack of Troy, Hermione’s husband Neoptolemus/Pyrrhus was given Andromache, the widow of Hector, as a concubine. In Euripides’s play Andromache, Hermione accuses Andromache of putting a spell on her so she is unable to bear children. She tries to persuade her father, Menelaus, to kill Andromache and her child while her husband is away, but Andromache is protected by Neoptolemus's grandfather, Peleus.
Epitomes of Euripedes's Andromache and other works, Egypt, c. 100-125 AD: Papyrus 3040
Meanwhile, Hermione's ex-fiancé Orestes arrives. He has killed Neoptolemus. Orestes declares that he is still in love with Hermione and takes her back to his kingdom.
Andromache flees with her child while Hermione talks to Pyrrhus, from a copy of Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César, made in Naples, c. 1330–1340: Royal MS 20 D I, f. 187r
The love of Orestes and Hermione also inspired the Roman writer Ovid. She is one of the heroines of Ovid’s poems known as the Heroides. These 15 poems take the form of letters written by mythological heroines to the men in their lives who have let them down. Ovid portrayed Hermione as a woman who, against her will, had been dragged off by Neoptolemus/Pyrrhus. She writes to Orestes, begging him to come and rescue her.
Pyrrhus … holds me
prisoner here, contrary to the laws of both gods and men ...
Deafer to [my pleas] than the sea, he dragged me into his palace,
as I tore my hair in grief and shouted your name …
When the Greeks won the war and set wealthy Troy on fire,
they didn’t maltreat Andromache as badly as this ...
Follow my father’s example of claiming back an abducted wife …
[But] don’t muster a thousand ships with swelling sails
Or an army of Greek warriors — come yourself!’
(Ovid’s Heroides translated by Paul Murgatroyd, Bridget Reeves and Sarah Parker, pp. 89–90).
The sense of these verses is similar in the later medieval French translation, see in the first image in this post. This translation was made by Octavien de Saint-Gelais for King Charles VIII between 1490 and 1493.
Paris and Helen writing to each other, from a copy of a French translation of Ovid’s Heroides, made in Paris at the end of the 15th century: Harley MS 4867, f. 115r
In Ovid’s poem, Hermione then wonders whether the women in her family have been struck with a curse ‘that makes all us female descendants of Tantalus ripe for the ravishing’, citing the examples of her mother Helen and her grandmother Leda. Ovid’s Hermione is not entirely sympathetic to her mother, however. Part-way through the letter, Hermione addresses her mother directly, allowing Ovid to give a haunting, child’s eye-view of the start of the Trojan War:
‘I tore my girlishly short hair and kept on shouting:
“Are you going away without me, mother?” …
I went to meet you when you came home, and — honestly —
I didn’t know what my mother’s face looked like.
I realized you were Helen because you were so beautiful.’
(Ovid’s Heroides translated by Paul Murgatroyd, Bridget Reeves and Sarah Parker, p. 92).
Hermione was a fascinating character who continued to inspire writers, musicians and artists in the Middle Ages and beyond, as Greek and Latin texts were recopied, rewritten and reintepreted. The manuscripts featured here are only a small sample of the books that feature the original Hermione.
Alison Hudson
Follow us on Twitter @BLMedieval
19 November 2017
Happy birthday, Statute of Marlborough!
Earlier this month, we celebrated the 800th anniversary of the Forest Charter, Magna Carta’s little sibling. It inspired a new Tree Charter, with accompanying events ranging from bike rides to pole launches. Today, we commemorate the Statute of Marlborough. At 750 years old, issued on 19 November 1267, it’s one of the the oldest pieces of legislation in England still in force today.
The Statute of Marlborough almost didn’t make it to this day. Only four of its twenty-nine sections are still in force. In 2014, the Law Commission made plans to scrap it altogether. The surviving sections are now known as the Distress Act and the Waste Act. The Distress Act states that anyone seeking reimbursement for damages must do so through the courts, while the Waste Act ensures that the tenants do not lay waste, sell or ruin their lands and other resources without special permission. This is still a concern in modern agriculture:
Fermors, during their Terms, shall not make Waste, Sale, nor Exile of House, Woods, Men, nor of any Thing belonging to the Tenements that they have to ferm, without special Licence had by Writing of Covenant, making mention that they may do it; which thing if they do, and thereof be convict, they shall yield full Damage, and shall be punished by Amerciament grievously.
There are eight pieces of English legislation from the 13th century that have not been repealed. One of those is Magna Carta, which was originally issued by King John in 1215; the earliest versions were repealed, with the version now in force dating from 1297.
One of the two sources for the official Latin text of the Statute of Marlborough is held at the British Library (Cotton MS Claudius D II). It forms part of a book collecting English laws — the medieval version of legislation.gov.uk, you might say. You can see the Cotton manuscript of the Statute of Marlborough right now in our free Treasures Gallery, alongside a copy of the Forest Charter that was narrowly saved from destruction and a plan of the waterworks at Waltham Abbey.
The plan of the waterworks at Waltham Abbey is further evidence of how the environment shaped the medieval world. Medieval monasteries aimed to be self-reliant, and water was key to this. This plan of a conduit built in 1220–22 at Waltham Abbey is one of the earliest surviving English maps. The water flows from three round sources at the top, through a filtration system, and into a pipe towards the abbey. It is found in a cartulary made for the abbey, a collection of charters copied into a single volume for reference and preservation. The agreements in this book show that the monks had to negotiate with several different landlords to build across their land.
14 November 2017
Canon tables in the Lindisfarne Gospels now on display
As a text, the canon tables are ubiquitous and fundamental to Christian copies of scripture. Over many centuries copies of the Gospels in Latin, Greek, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Gothic, Syriac, Georgian or Slavonic begin with these tables. Devised and created in Greek by the early Church Father Eusebius (d. 340), bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, these tables formed a unifying gateway to the fundamental, but multiple narratives of the Evangelists Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. As Eusebius explained in a prefatory letter to his friend Carpianus, he compiled the ten tables (or canons, in Greek) to help the reader ‘know where each of the Evangelists was led by the love of truth to speak about the same things’.
Canon 1 lists passages common to all four Gospels, Canons 2-9 different combinations of two or three Gospels and Canon 10 those passages found only in one Gospel. Building on a system of dividing up the text of the Gospels into verses that he attributed to Ammonius of Alexandria, Eusebius assigned consecutive numbers to sections in each Gospel and used these numbers within his tables to correlate related passages. By this means he adduced the unity of the four narratives without attempting to harmonise them into a single text.
Codex Sinaiticus, the folio currently on display at the British Library: Add MS 43725, f. 201r
The earliest known evidence for the use of the tables occurs in Codex Sinaiticus, an extraordinary 4th-century Greek manuscript that is also the earliest surviving complete New Testament. In Codex Sinaiticus the tables themselves do not survive, but the Ammonian section numbers are included throughout the Gospels. These can be seen in the Gospel of St Matthew currently on display in the British Library’s Sir John Ritblat Treasures Gallery, or viewed in detail on our Digitised Manuscripts website. In Codex Sinaiticus, the section numbers (in Greek characters) are added on the left-hand side of each column in red ink, with the number of the canon table that needs to be consulted for parallel texts of that section.
Section 16, canon 5: a note in the Gospel of St Matthew, a detail from Codex Sinaiticus (Add MS 43725, f. 201r column 2)
For example, in the right-hand page on display in the Gallery, the third number in the second column (in the account of one of Christ’s temptations) is marked as section 16, in Canon 5. Further information about the manuscript is available on the Codex Sinaiticus website, including a full transcription and translation, and in this previous blogpost.
The Golden Canon tables, Constantinople, 6th–7th century (Add MS 5111/1)
One of most splendid illuminated examples of the Canon Tables in Greek are the leaves now known as the Golden Canon Tables, because they are written on parchment previously painted entirely with gold. Made in Constantinople in the 6th or 7th century, the tables are now fragmentary but nevertheless betray a very sophisticated artistic style. They are a rare witness of an early version of these tables.
The pages of the Lindisfarne Gospels currently on display at the British Library: Cotton MS Nero D IV, ff. 14v–15r
Canon tables are also included in the Latin copy of the Gospels known as the Lindisfarne Gospels, which was probably made on the island of Lindisfarne in Northumbria in around 700. The fifth canon, which lists texts that are common in the two Gospels of St Matthew and St Luke, is now on display in the British Library's Treasures Gallery. This is the same canon as that referred to in Codex Sinaiticus, several centuries earlier. The canons in the Lindisfarne Gospels are surrounded by intricately designed micro-architectural decoration, with wonderful intertwined biting birds. You can view them in more detail with the zoom function on the Digitised Manuscripts website, or visit the Treasures Gallery in the coming months.
07 November 2017
Illumination study day at the British Library
A couple of weeks ago we held a very successful study day for the University of the Third Age, with the British Library Learning Centre auditorium filled to capacity. We thought it might be helpful to provide a list of the British Library manuscripts and suggestions for further reading, for those who would like to look at the manuscripts again in more detail.
Dr Alixe Bovey (Head of Research at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London) discussed 'The World in Illuminated Manuscripts'.
Harley MS 7182, ff. 58v–59r, a depiction of the world based on Ptolemy’s Geography
Harley MS 3667, f. 8v, an Isidoran ‘T-O’ map of the world, Annals of Peterborough Abbey
Harley MS 2772, f. 70v, Macrobius, Commentary of Cicero’s Dream of Scipio
Egerton MS 2781, ff. 1v, 48r, 190r, the Neville of Hornby Hours: f.1v: diagram of the cosmos; f. 48r: the seasons; f. 190r: possible depiction of the manuscript’s owner
Harley MS 4940, f. 28r, Matfre Ermengau, Breviari d’amor, angels cranking the universe
Harley MS 4431, f. 187v, the Book of the Queen, a sibyl shows Christine de Pizan the firmament
Harley MS 3647, f. 32r, an astronomical miscellany
Royal MS 1 E VII, f. 1v, the Creation, in a Bible made at Canterbury
Add MS 18719, f. 1r, a Bible moralisée, Creation scenes
Royal MS 2 B VII, f. 1v, the Queen Mary Psalter, God and Lucifer
Add MS 18856, ff. 5v and 7v, a Bible historiale: f. 5v: creation of sun and moon; f. 7v: God resting
Harley MS 616, f. 1r, a Bible, Creation scenes
Royal MS 14 C IX, ff. 1v–2r, Ranulf Higden, Polychronicon, map
Harley MS 2633, f. 53v, commentary on Cicero's De somno Scipionis, mappa mundi
Sloane MS 2435, f. 1r, Aldobrandino of Siena, Le Régime du corps, Creation scene
Miniature of God holding a compass with angels and cherubins, and Lucifer with fallen angels and devils: Royal MS 2 B VII, f. 1v
Scribe and illuminator Patricia Lovett MBE gave us a calligrapher’s view on parchment, the preparation of pens, ink and pigments, and the writing and illumination process. Her recent publication includes lots of examples and discussion: The Art and History of Calligraphy (British Library, 2017).
Dr Kathleen Doyle (Lead Curator, Illuminated Manuscripts, The British Library) focused on the different types of illustration in English Psalters.
Add MS 89250, the Mostyn Psalter
Add MS 42130, the Luttrell Psalter
Cotton MS Vespasian A I, the Vespasian Psalter
Cotton MS Tiberius C VI, the Tiberius Psalter
Cotton MS Nero C IV, the Winchester Psalter
Royal MS 2 B VII, the Queen Mary Psalter
Royal MS 2 A XVI, the Psalter of Henry VIII
Arundel MS 83, the Howard Psalter
Add MS 62925, the Rutland Psalter
Arundel MS 157, a Psalter
Illuminated initial 'Q'(uam) at the beginning of Psalm 83 (84), with a partial foliate border inhabited by a human-headed hybrid creature and geometric line fillers. In the lower margin are two naked wrestlers, one purple and one brown, engaged in a game of foot-wrestling: Add MS 42130, f. 152v
In the afternoon, Dr Mara Hofmann (Sotheby’s) gave us a whistle-stop tour of the highlights of French illuminated manuscripts. Mara has written a detailed guide with lots of examples, as part of the British Library’s online digital Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts virtual exhibition, available here.
The programme closed with Dr Scot McKendrick (Head of Western Heritage Collections at the British Library), who similarly illustrated the richness of Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts.
Add MS 34294, f. 133v, Gerard Horenbout, Virgin and Child in Glory, in the Hours of Bona Sforza
Add MS 18855, ff. 109r, 108v, Simon Bening, June, December
Royal MS 2 A XVIII, f. 11v, Master of Beaufort Saints, St Christopher, in the Beaufort/Beauchamp Hours
Add MS 89066/2, ff. 69v–70r, Loyset Liédet, Coronation of the Emperor Galba, in Vengeance de Nostre Seigneur
Harley MS 4418, f. 99r, Créquy Master, Christians fighting Saracens, in the Roman de Mélusine
Cotton MS Vespasian B I, f. 15r, Master of the Harley Froissart, Presentation to Philip the Good
Royal MS 14 E V, f. 29r, Master of the Getty Froissart, Fortune appearing to Boccaccio, in Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes
Add MS 71117, ff. C, J, Simon Marmion, St Matthew and David in Prayer, from the Hours of Ladislas IV Vasa
Add MS 38126, ff. 102v–103r, ff. 240v–241r, Simon Marmion, Virgin and Christ; Virgin and dead Christ, in the Huth Hours
Add MS 18851, ff. 41r, 437r, Gerard David, Adoration of the Kings, Coronation of the Virgin, in the Breviary of Isabella of Castile
Add MS 18852, ff. 411v–412r, St James the Greater, in the Hours of Joanna of Castile
Add MS 54782, f. 230r, Hastings Hours
Add MS 35313, ff. 89v–90r, Master of James IV of Scotland, Nativity and Augustus and the Tiburtine Sibyl, in the Rothschild Hours
Add MS 17280, ff. 24v–25r, Master of the Dresden Prayer Book, Trinity and Monday Hours, in the so-called Hours of Philip the Fair
Add MS 18852, ff. 14v-15r, Fall of Man and Mirror of Conscience, in the Hours of Joanna of Castile
Add MS 24098, f. 18v, Simon Bening, Month of December, in the Golf Book
Egerton MS 1147, f. 229r, Simon Bening (?), Agony in the Garden and Arrest of Christ
Add MS 12531, f. 4r, Portuguese Royal Genealogies
Royal MS 16 F II, f. 89r, Poems of Charles of Orleans
Royal MS 8 G VII, f. 2v, Collection of motets
Miniature with Christ praying on the Mount of Olives, accompanied by a full border with the Betrayal, at the beginning of the Passion of Christ: Egerton MS 1147, f. 229r
Further reading
Christopher de Hamel, Bibles: An Illustrated History from Papyrus to Print (Bodleian Library, 2011)
M. Kauffmann, Biblical Imagery in Medieval England 700-1500 (London, 2003)
Patricia Lovett, The Art and History of Calligraphy (British Library, 2017)
Scot McKendrick, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts 1400-1550 (London: British Library, 2003)
Scot McKendrick & Kathleen Doyle, Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture (London, 2007)
Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, The Art of the Bible: Illuminated Manuscripts from the Medieval World (London, Thames & Hudson, and the British Library, 2016)
The New Cambridge History of the Bible, 4 vols (Cambridge, 2012- )
Kathleen Doyle
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02 November 2017
How many horns does a unicorn have?
How many horns does a unicorn have? It's the kind of trick question you might encounter when watching the British television series QI. One, I hear you say — everyone knows that. Unicorns only have ONE horn (the clue is in the name). And that's what I used to think too, but it seems we’ve all been duped. Sometimes a unicorn can have TWO horns. I know, right? Whatever next?
A lion-like unicorn: British Library Burney MS 97, f. 18r
I first came across the infamous two-horned unicorn when selecting the objects for the British Library's new exhibition, Harry Potter: A History of Magic (#BLHarryPotter). The printed book illustrated below, on show in the show, has a diagram featuring five different species of unicorn. It was published in Paris in 1694 and is the work of Pierre Pomet, a French pharmacist. Apart from realising that you discover something new every day — it's incredible to learn that so many species of unicorn have been identified — your eye is also drawn to the beast in the lower, left-hand corner. It clearly has a pair of horns. That's cheating, surely?
Five species of unicorn, in Pierre Pomet, Histoire générale des Drogues, traitant des plantes, des animaux et des mineraux (Paris, 1694): British Library 37.h.7., part 2, p. 9
On closer inspection, I learned that the mysterious unicorn in question is known as a pirassoipi. We might be inclined to call it a bicorn. Delving deeper, we learn that it was described as being as large as a mule and as hairy as a bear. But our story then takes a rather distressing turn. Pomet noted that unicorn horn was ‘well used, on account of the great properties attributed to it, principally against poisons’. Unicorns, in other words, were valued for their body parts. The rather grisly image below, taken from a study of the unicorn by Ambroise Paré, published in 1582, depicts in the background the killing and skinning of a pirassoipi. Paré was surgeon to the French Crown and he had a keen interest in strange phenomena (his book also contains chapters on mummies and poisons). In his commentary, he admitted uncertainty whether the body parts of the unicorn would have any medicinal effectiveness.
An Italian unicorn, in Discours d’Ambroise Paré, Conseiller et Premier Chirurgien du Roy. Asçavoir, de la mumie, de la licorne, des venins, et de la peste (Paris, 1582): British Library 461.b.11.(1.), f. 27r
Let's have another look at the unusual unicorn illustrated at the beginning of this blogpost. It's found in a 16th-century Greek manuscript, accompanying a poem by Manuel Philes called On the properties of animals. According to the poem, the unicorn was a wild beast with a dangerous bite: it had the tail of a boar and the mouth of a lion. Distinctly un-unicorn-like, isn't it?
The unicorn with the tail of a boar and the mouth of a lion: Burney MS 97, f. 18r
The unicorn is not the only beast illustrated in this manuscript. Its pages are filled with drawings of herons and pelicans, a wolf and a porcupine, and even a cuttlefish. One of my favourites is the illustration of the mythical centaur: it has a pair of over-extended human arms serving as its front legs. The scribe of this manuscript is named as Angelos Vergekios, a Cypriot who had made his home in France, and the illustrator is said to have been his daughter. Here is a selection of those images to whet your appetite. (A few years ago we completed the digitisation of all the British Library's Greek manuscripts thanks to the generosity of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation: the whole manuscript can be viewed on our Digitised Manuscripts site.) We'd love you to take a look at all of them and to tell us your favourites (please use Twitter or the comments form below).
A heron: Burney MS 97, f. 4r
Owls: Burney MS 97, f. 10r
A lioness: Burney MS 97, f. 16v
A centaur: Burney MS 97, f. 19v
A porcupine: Burney MS 97, f. 26v
Is is safe to go back into the water? A swordfish, narwhal, hammerhead shark and whale: Burney MS 97, f. 31v
An upside-down octopus: Burney MS 97, f. 40r
A cuttlefish: Burney MS 97, f. 41v
And this returns us neatly to the theme introduced at the beginning of this blogpost. It is a central premise of our exhibition, Harry Potter: A History of Magic, that there are lots of things about the real world that we don't properly understand or don't even know about. When the curators started their research a couple of years ago, I could never have imagined that we would have encountered a unicorn with two horns, and that our journey would introduce us at the same time to such a beautifully illustrated manuscript. And now you can show off to your friends too, whenever someone asks "how many horns does a unicorn have?".
Harry Potter: A History of Magic is on display at the British Library in London until 28 February 2018.
Julian Harrison, Lead Curator Harry Potter: A History of Magic and Medieval Historical Manuscripts
We'd love you to follow us on Twitter @BLMedieval.
If you tweet about the exhibition, don't forget to use the hashtag #BLHarryPotter.
01 November 2017
A calendar page for November 2017
Ah, November – the days are shorter and it’s getting colder! Let’s dive into the 11th month as shown in Add MS 36684. If you’d like to know more about this fascinating Book of Hours, see January’s post, and for more on medieval calendars, check out our calendar post from 2011.
Calendar pages for November, from a Book of Hours, St Omer or Théouranne, c. 1320, Add MS 36684, ff. 11v–12r
The first page of November’s calendar is a riot of colour and decoration. Crowning the page is a lizard-bird hybrid creature, with a green head, lurid red lips, red feet and a long, feathered tail.
Detail of lizard creature, Add MS 36684, f. 11v
The right margin – known in medieval manuscript parlance as the ‘gutter’, because it falls between the two bound pages – includes the intriguing combination of a tonsured male head stuck between two long legs. Above him stands a stork-like figure with bright orange, spindly legs and a long, pointed beak.
Right margin, Add MS 36684, f. 11v
November’s labour of the month is arguably the creepiest scene we’ve had in this calendar, but how was it perceived by contemporary audiences? Our labourer wields an enormous axe. The animal in a box next to him is likely a hunting dog used to help capture the boar depicted at the labourer’s feet. The boar is about to be stunned with the back of the axe, before being slaughtered. This method is called ‘poleaxing’ and is the origin of the modern term. A poleaxe is a butcher’s axe with a hammer as well as a blade.
Slaughtering a boar: the labour of the month for November, Add MS 36684, f. 11v
A similar scene of slaughter for the month of December appears in the Bedford Hours (f. 12r), except the figure holds a giant mallet.
Slaughtering livestock at the beginning of winter ensured the animals were killed before they began to lose the weight gained over summer and autumn. Rural communities could then feast on the fresh meat and preserve as much as possible for the year’s meanest months. In fact, Blotmonath (blood month) was the Anglo-Saxon name for November. This may seem sinister to us now, but for them it must have held a promise of winter feasts and nourishment when food was scarce.
November’s calendar finishes on the second page with the zodiac figure of Capricorn, shown as a goat. As we discussed in August’s post, the artist is ahead of himself with zodiac figures; Capricorn is normally shown in December, as its period is December-January.
Capricorn, Add MS 36684, f. 12r
Please do go and browse all of the wonderful Add MS 36684 in high definition on our Digitised Manuscripts site.
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31 October 2017
An excellent day for an exorcism
To celebrate Halloween we are taking a look at the subject of exorcisms. As part of the ongoing England and France 700-1200 joint project with the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the British Library has digitised a 12th-century psalter and collection of prayers (now Harley MS 2928), which includes an interesting exorcism performed in a traditional Christian rite.
Exorcism of salt in a prayer for baptism, from Harley MS 2928, f. 10r
There are several accounts of exorcisms in the Gospels, and from the early Middle Ages, the practice of exorcism has been closely linked to the Christian rite of baptism. Evidence suggests that exorcisms were first performed during baptismal services as early as the 3rd century, in ceremonies to convert pagans to Christianity, and exorcism remained popular in works of liturgy which outlined the services and prayers followed in medieval Christian worship.
Exorcisms were performed on people, but could also be used on animals and even objects. Baptism involved the use of salt and water by a priest to bless a person, symbolising their purity as they were admitted to the Christian faith. As the salt and water were tools of purification, these also needed to be pure themselves to prevent demons from entering the person being baptised. A 12th-century baptism prayer in Harley MS 2928 contains an exorcism for salt and water (ff. 10r–11r) to rid them of any demons that might be lurking within. Below is an extract in Latin from the exorcism of salt, followed by an English translation. The + sign represents when the sign of the cross was made during the ritual:
Exorcizo te, creatura salis, per Deum + vivum, per Deum + verum, per Deum + sanctum, per Deum, qui te per Eliseum Prophetam in aquam mitti jussit
‘I exorcise thee, creature of salt, by the living God +, by the true God +, by the Holy God +, by the God who by the prophet Eliseus commanded thee to be cast into the water’
Full-page miniature of the Baptism of Christ, from Harley MS 2928, f. 16r
The manuscript features later 13th-century illuminations attributed to an anonymous artist known as the 1285 Master, and these miniatures depict biblical scenes including the Baptism of Christ showing him being immersed into blessed water. Several medieval manuscripts contain illuminations depicting exorcisms being performed, such as the Tsar Ivan Alexander Gospels (Add MS 39627). Composed in 14th-century Bulgaria, the Gospels are accompanied by decorated scenes of Christ expelling demons from men. One colourful image depicts a scene from Scripture in which Christ expels demons from a man, which then enter a herd of pigs. The now-possessed pigs rush to a nearby lake and are drowned.
Christ exorcising demons from a man which enter a herd of swine, from the Tsar Ivan Alexander Gospels, Add MS 39627, f. 162v
Exorcisms were just one practice performed in the Christian Church to protect its followers from harm. The collection of prayers in Harley MS 2928 includes three prayers for the absolution of penitents (ff. 12r–v), used by priests to forgive those who may have committed sins. The sinner could confess their misdeeds, and if they wished to be forgiven, the priest would absolve them with prayer. Absolution was an important rite, as having received forgiveness for wrong-doing, that person’s soul could now enter Paradise after death.
Text containing three prayers of absolution for penitents, from Harley MS 2928, f. 12r
The exorcism of salt and water shows that this ritual could be used as a positive force to protect the faithful. Yet, dark rituals did occur outside the authority of the Christian Church. One magical charm survives from the late 4th century (now Papyrus 123) that could be used to summon demons against others and depicts two demons that have been invoked by the charm.
Depiction of demons, from a magical incantation, Egypt, Papyrus 123
It is small wonder then, that exorcisms survive in many forms from the medieval period to protect oneself, one’s animals and objects from demonic possession. The Anderson Pontifical (Add MS 57337) produced in 11th-century England even features an exorcism of bread and cheese.
Happy Halloween!
Prayer to exorcise bread and cheese beginning ‘Incipit exorcismus panis’, from the Anderson Pontifical, Add MS 57337, f. 80v
Alison Ray
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