In the Style of the Cuthbert Gospels...

 This piece wasn't a scroll, it was a chance to get seriously authentic. 

For the Silver Brooch Gift Exchange, I was given a woman who write poetry and loves the Cuthbert Gospels. So, I decided to have one of her poems translated into Latin, and to write it on vellum so she'd have a special copy of it for her own that looked like a page out of her favorite manuscript. My gratitude to Aelia Fortunata for the translation. 

The poem was written for Countess Fortune on the occasion of her Coronation by Isabel del Oakes, the recipient of this piece. 

Lining was done in pencil following the period exemplar. I used a modern Mitchell nib and handle, and modern ink. This piece is on goat skin vellum. 

Silver Tyger for a 13th Century Crusader

This project was a special one, as it gave me a chance to work with a central figure which is not something I usually do, as well as work with an excellent wordsmith, Baroness Anastasia Guta. 

This piece is based off
Royal MS 20 a ii 
f. 6r

gouache and Pelican ink on pergamenata

Pages of color and gold - King and Queen's Arts and Science competition

As part of my decision to delve further into the world of Scribal Arts, I decided to enter the Kingdom Arts and Science competition at this past Mudthaw. This was my first Kingdom competition, and my second competition ever.

my original scroll            Ms. Ludwig IX 18, fol. 269 - Getty Museum

I expanded on a work I started for the Laurel Prize challenge in Carolingia - the creation of a 16th century Flemish page, in the "squashed bug" style. My original is Belgian, c 1510. The color, the realism of the flora and fauna, the delicate nature of the page - all this intrigues me and I felt driven to know more about the style.

This is a style we see often in SCA scrolls, as it truly captures the "wow" factor for the "Court reveal"... the background for those scrolls are often done in gold. The question I set out to answer was - is the background actually gold? My theory was that it wasn't simply a gold background - the material cost was too dear. My theory was that it was, in fact, a yellow base with shell gold overtop.

It turns out I was right.

Physical Research:
To determine what the color was, I started with only a scan from the Getty and printed from my laser printer at home. Most likely the worst version of reproduction and very likely not color accurate to the original. I spent many, many hours matching the yellow and blue you see in the background, and managed to match them very closely. It was then possible to create this page using no gold whatsoever and produce a look very close to the original.

This was not correct though, as these pages are, 90% of the time, gold. When photographed flat, shell gold doesn't always glitter. In fact, from what I've found, it almost always presents as a flat area of color. Through talking to other scribes who have viewed these books in person, my own research at the Houghton Library at Harvard and at the Morgan Library in NYC it was obvious that the area is usually gold.

The goal then was to find an example of a color background under shell gold. I found this at Brandeis University archives - a small illuminated book from the late 1400's where a yellow color was laid down in a wide stripe around the inside of a capital letter, and a thinner line of shell gold is laid on top of that. The gold is rough and spare in places, showing the yellow paint behind it.

Text Research:
I looked to texts on practice to find details of the background colors for gold. Much is said about the ground of gold leaf - it is often a rose or red color to deepen the color of the gold. Not much is said about the ground of shell gold, other than it is useful to have one.

Testing:
My first tests were only color matching:


Then were layout 1 and 2


The differences here subtle but distinct. 

------ 

This project wasn't a bust, the research was a good start but ultimately I lost interest in it completely. My documentation for this piece was weak, as rightfully pointed out by my judges, and I thank them for their excellent feedback and guidance. 

A Silver Wheel in a Japanese Style

This was my first Japanese scroll and I leaned heavily on two experienced scribes for my research here: I have to thank Mistress Michel Almond de Champagne for her help in the source research, Baroness Audrey Beneyt for her resource of a translator, and to Ambrose in Atenveldt for working with me on this project.

I wrote the words following the guidance I learned from Nicol, and came up with the following:
It is no small thing
to feed a Tyger People
till sated and happy
with sweets that delight many
and rich dishes to please all

This and more has Our
faithful Nagashima Ichiro Ujimichi
done in happy service
for radiant Margarita
glorious Queen of the East

Her herald calls out
Stand Order of the Silver Wheel
greet a new member
for Uji is named Companion
and is Awarded Arms today

And so in Ostgard
on this Twelfth Night
Margarita smiled warmly
and hung a medal upon Uji’s chest
that all might know of his honor

This was done on white pergamenata with Windsor Newton Ivory Black gouache and a #2 long round brush, the pencil is graphite. No other tools or pigments were used.

Benedicta vita arma... A scroll for a Deed

For the third time I was asked to create a scroll for the winner of a pas d'armes, and was honored to be asked. I greatly enjoy watching Deeds of Arms and being able to create something to add to the splendor of the day is a wonderful feeling.

Each Deed scroll I've done reflects something of the day itself, either the scenarios the fighters will be participating in, or the talents and strengths of the winner, or just the process of traveling far to reach the tournament itself. None of these paths to create a scroll for the Deed are even remotely period though.

See, winners of Deeds usually received goods and money for their wins. They were given passports by the noble of the region. Often the prize was that they lived. We know of these things from written accounts of these deeds:

• Monstrelet, Enguerrand de, The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet. trans.Thomas Johnes, two vols., (London, 1877), Book II, Chapter cclxix-cclxxi
• Cripps-Day, Appendix II. xiiii, giving Memoires de M. de Peiresc as source.
• Landsdowne Ms. 285(John Paston's copy of the Grete Booke) fo. 15b, reproduced in Cripps-Day, F.H. The History of the Tournament (London, 1918; reprint New York, 1982). Appendix, p.xxxv

Each of these retells the people involved, what they fought with and how, and who oversaw the deeds so as to determine the winner. 

Some of these deeds were recorded in illuminated manuscripts, but the images were not usually so accurate to what happened, but were allegory (Diana loosing an arrow on a stag in a temple with a group of men watching) rather than the battles themselves. The scrolls I'm creating are exceedingly anachronistic.  

In the past the words for the scrolls have been provided to me as well. For this scroll I had license to use my own words, and so went to a period source for them. 

First, I used the opening from The Pas d'Armes of Charlemagne's Tree, 1443 and the ending from Challenge of Arms of Piers de Masse, 1438 to create the following text: 

Before the Tourney of the Fallen Stag, several gentlemen, with Their Majesties permission, and for Their amusement, had proclaimed throughout the East, and other realms, that if there were any men of name desirous of gaining honour and renown by deeds of arms, there were gentlemen of Caer Adamant, whose names shall be presently declared, who offered to receive and furnish them with arms suitable for the enterprise. 

And that they be appointed for to do and accomplish these said arms on foot before these excellent nobles of the Gallery of the which Their Majesties of good grace hath appointed will be the judges that same day. 

These be the arms that ___________ did accomplish within the Shire, in the year of our Society 54, done the 28th day of September, during the first reign of Ozurr and Fortune. 

The calligraphy was done with Pelican ink and a Mitchell #5 nib. The gold is patent gold leaf, and the gouache is Holbein and Windsor-Newton. 

The image is from Psalter-Hours MS M.729 at the Morgan Library f. 289v, and the text is from the same book, f. 96r. Total size is roughly 1:1 for the original manuscript, painted on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of pergamenata. 

I left the shields blank completely, with the thought that the winner could chose what arms I should paint there (household, kingdom, etc) but due to the extreme humidity of the day, I was unable to paint anything, let alone calligraph the winner's name onto the scroll. It went home with her, to Ansteorra, for the scribes there to complete. 

In past Deeds, all the combatants and members of the Gallery were asked to sign the scroll. We did not do that at this event. 

I am going to continue my research on manuscripts that contain descriptions of Deeds, and I hope to find something more historically accurate for future deed scrolls. 

A Sagittarius for a Sailor and Archer

This was a fun assignment, as it finally gave me a good reason to paint water and a boat - something I haven't actually done yet.

Early English persona meant I could use one of my favorite sources: Yates Thompson MS 26

The exemplar:




















And my finished piece:

In technical terms, I know where I went wrong. My red paint was not thin enough and so I had streaking left by brush strokes. I am very happy with my gold, and happier with my calligraphy than on past pieces.

This piece is 1:1 for the original, although there is much more room around the outside than there is in the exemplar. I did that for ease of framing - the finished size is 8x10.

A page from i.33 for a Silver Rapier

When I got this assignment I read it over, and sent my acceptance email back to Kingdom. Then I flagged it to come back to later when I had more time, as I always do. 

Once I actually sat down to read it carefully I was overjoyed to find out I was painting for someone I actually knew, and had the opportunity to create for him as he'd created for me. Izzo is the one who made my Silver Brooch medallion. (it's actual a brooch, pin and all, and is perfect for my time period. I love that medallion so much!) 

Nataliia kindly sent me a link to the manuscript he was studying at the time and it was clear this was the perfect source for the scroll. Some poking around the internet found me fragments of the original manuscript, as well as all the bits a scribe needs to work from it - like size ;) 

Then came words. I have SO MUCH I could have said about Izzo, he's an excellent artist and the words of the recommendation sang with praise for his martial skill. However, the manuscript was not particularly verbose... in fact, some pages had only a short sentence or two. 

I took a page that I liked and the word layout from a separate page, and set out to create a scroll in that style. It was a no brainer that two of the four figures on the page would be him, and thanks to the book of Face I even had an image of his buckler to use. 

And thus, this scroll came to be: 

The scroll reads: 

Depicted here is a fighter in excellent stance, showing a strong guard and a balanced blade. It is said that swordsmanship is the ordering of diverse blows, but the kernel of the art resides in the langort in which all actions of the sword find their conclusion. 

Regard Lord John Ysseaux as he presents to Their Majesties, Ozzur and Fortune, and is commended to the Order of the Silver Rapier and joins their ranks in the halls of Great Northeastern War on the XIII day of July, AS LVII in the Province of Malagentia. 

R.

R. 

This scroll was done on pergamenata with modern gouaches and ink made in a period style by a scribe of Drachenwald. The manuscript can be found here: http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/i33/i33.htm 

I admit that my technique with the color was heavier than in the original, but I don't think the piece suffers for it, I simply note that I need more practice in that style. I enjoyed adding the ruling lines as in the original, and I feel the piece would not have looked the same without them.