The Making of Medieval Manuscripts: Analyzing the Materials and Methods of Scribes, Compilers, and Artists
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
Organizer Name
Sarah J. Biggs
Organizer Affiliation
British Library/Courtauld Institute of Art
Presider Name
Mildred Budny
Presider Affiliation
Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
Paper Title 1
Peter of Blois's Letters and the Manipulus florum: Editorial Agency in Thomas of Ireland's Reception of Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS latin 16714
Presenter 1 Name
Chris L. Nighman
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Wilfrid Laurier Univ.
Paper Title 2
Through Artists’ Recipe Books: Knowledge in and Transmission of Late Medieval Illuminators’ Recipe Books
Presenter 2 Name
Sylvie Neven
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Univ. de Liège/Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte
Paper Title 3
Pigment Analysis on a Low Budget: Low Tech / High Yields with a Digital Camera
Presenter 3 Name
Deidre Jackson
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Fitzwilliam Museum
Paper Title 4
Precious Gold: Medieval Orpiment and the Search for a Divine Yellow
Presenter 4 Name
Sarah J. Biggs
Start Date
11-5-2013 10:00 AM
Session Location
Schneider 1280
Description
Our session addresses the complex interface between the study of medieval manuscripts and the course of transmission of knowledge for, and the application in practice of, medieval techniques for preparing their materials, texts, compilations, and illuminations. The reports offer an interlinked focus integrating recent work on pigments and related materials in manuscripts with the close textual study of the transmission of knowledge (then and now) for the materials and methods of shaping — or reshaping — medieval manuscripts, compilations, and illuminations. The combination addresses broad and focused groups of manuscripts integrating the evidence of textual as well as material features with techniques of analysis, both time-honored and newly evolving.
The papers report advances in manuscript studies through enhanced digital-imaging techniques, particularly at The British Library and The Fitzwilliam Museum. This rapidly developing field of research offers significant non-destructive analysis of pigments, their composition, and their methods of application. The results offer wide-ranging implications for the study of medieval manuscript illuminations and embellishments of many kinds. Case-studies reported here include a feasible, relatively low-cost, and effective method of digital imaging (as applied to a Book of Hours by the Rohan Masters) and a reconsideration of the widespread medieval use — despite multiple cautions against — the potentially destructive pigment orpiment, as found, for example, in the Lindisfarne Gospels, some Paris Bibles, and various Persian and Icelandic codices.
Our session also reports a close systematic examination of the corpus of recipe manuscripts dating from about 1300 to 1500 (produced mostly in Northern Europe), so as to evaluate the written transmission of craft knowledge for medieval illuminators, embracing the preparation of pigments, inks, glues, gilding, and imitations thereof. With focus upon the “Strasbourg Tradition” within the corpus, it is possible to check the correspondence (or otherwise) between the written tradition and contemporary practices through the technical and analytical examination of certain Alsatian illuminated manuscripts.
Highlighting other methods of analysis for medieval manuscript study, the general editor of the online critical edition of the influential Manipulus florum complied by Thomas of Ireland provides a philological and historical analysis of Thomas’s own copy of the florilegium of the letters of Peter of Blois (now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France). The study considers the detailed evidence for his methods of editorial manipulation in shaping this copy, as revealed by close comparison with his source manuscript for the text, which also survives.
Mildred Budny
The Making of Medieval Manuscripts: Analyzing the Materials and Methods of Scribes, Compilers, and Artists
Schneider 1280
Our session addresses the complex interface between the study of medieval manuscripts and the course of transmission of knowledge for, and the application in practice of, medieval techniques for preparing their materials, texts, compilations, and illuminations. The reports offer an interlinked focus integrating recent work on pigments and related materials in manuscripts with the close textual study of the transmission of knowledge (then and now) for the materials and methods of shaping — or reshaping — medieval manuscripts, compilations, and illuminations. The combination addresses broad and focused groups of manuscripts integrating the evidence of textual as well as material features with techniques of analysis, both time-honored and newly evolving.
The papers report advances in manuscript studies through enhanced digital-imaging techniques, particularly at The British Library and The Fitzwilliam Museum. This rapidly developing field of research offers significant non-destructive analysis of pigments, their composition, and their methods of application. The results offer wide-ranging implications for the study of medieval manuscript illuminations and embellishments of many kinds. Case-studies reported here include a feasible, relatively low-cost, and effective method of digital imaging (as applied to a Book of Hours by the Rohan Masters) and a reconsideration of the widespread medieval use — despite multiple cautions against — the potentially destructive pigment orpiment, as found, for example, in the Lindisfarne Gospels, some Paris Bibles, and various Persian and Icelandic codices.
Our session also reports a close systematic examination of the corpus of recipe manuscripts dating from about 1300 to 1500 (produced mostly in Northern Europe), so as to evaluate the written transmission of craft knowledge for medieval illuminators, embracing the preparation of pigments, inks, glues, gilding, and imitations thereof. With focus upon the “Strasbourg Tradition” within the corpus, it is possible to check the correspondence (or otherwise) between the written tradition and contemporary practices through the technical and analytical examination of certain Alsatian illuminated manuscripts.
Highlighting other methods of analysis for medieval manuscript study, the general editor of the online critical edition of the influential Manipulus florum complied by Thomas of Ireland provides a philological and historical analysis of Thomas’s own copy of the florilegium of the letters of Peter of Blois (now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France). The study considers the detailed evidence for his methods of editorial manipulation in shaping this copy, as revealed by close comparison with his source manuscript for the text, which also survives.
Mildred Budny