Aryanhwy's Calligraphy and Illumination: March 2013

Friday, March 29, 2013

AoA for Aaron von Turmstadt

The text was written Mar. 20, and on Mar. 21, I settled on using Codex Claustroneoburgensis 7 as my inspiration (the first initial A; the initial D; the second initial A; the beastie at the end). Unfortunately, it had no T's, so I had to rejigger the text a bit.

The text reads:

Alle true and noble people thise pre sent lettres seing or hering know the will of Tofa and Thorvaldr quene and kinge of alle the land of Drachenwald. It is soo that many persons been moeved of noble and gentile courage to exercise virtuous condiciones by the whiche they shall come to the perfeccion of grete honour and be rewarded for their merits by renown and that they may be in all places of great honour perpetually shinyng before others by certeyn signes and shows of honour and gentility. That is to say of blazon, helmet and crest in order that by their ensaumple others may the more endea- vor perseveringly to spend their days in feats of arms and other uirtuous deeds so as to attain renown of auncient gentility in their name, line and posteri- ty. Of which persones oone in espe- cial whos name is Aaron, of the Canton of Turmstadt, who has long borne himself valiantly in all his af fairs and conducted himself honourably so that he has deserved well and is well worthy that henceforth perpetually and for ever more he and his post- erity may be in all places honour- ably admitted, renowned, counted, numbered and received among the number and in the company of other and diverse ancient gentle and noble lords. And for the remembrance of this his gentility we hereby charge the said Aaron to devise suit- able and unique signs and markings, that is to say blazon helmet and crest, the blazon of which he is to register with the College of Arms to have and to hold alone and solely hence- forth and forevermore. In witness whereof we the abovenamed quene and kyng have caused the present charter to be drawn up which we haue signed be- low with owre owne hands, and geven in the said Canton of Turmstadt, on the xx day of Aprille in the year of the society xlvij, more commonly reckoned as mmxiij.

This is basically the same text I used here.

On Mar. 21 I also screwed up my courage and did something I have never done before: gilded! The result is very shiny, and this far outweighs any infelicities in technique. Shiny, shiny, shiny.... I started the calligraphy next, and of course Titivillus struck with a really egregious word omission. I hope I can fix the formatting in the second column to accommodate. Mar. 23 I did more calligraphy. Mar. 24 I did more calligraphy. There's lots of calligraphy. I took break after awhile, and painted in the majiscules on the first column, and some of the base coats of the first capital. And then I did more calligraphy. Then Gwen woke up. Mar. 25 I did...more calligraphy! I finished it, and then treated myself to painting in the rest of the majiscules. Mar. 26 I got to gild some more! I sketched in the second two initials and the grotesque, painted in the base colors, and then gilded. (Unlike Ari, I didn't have any problem with the gold sticking to the paint.) I had to take a break for a few days to do a new assignment for Crown, but was able to finish it up on Mar. 29.

Panache for Mylla O'Reilly

It is always such a pleasure when you get an assignment not only for a friend, but for someone you recommended! (The "suggested scribe" section on the DW award recommendation certainly helps this.) I received the assignment 10 days before the event, but functionally only 5, since I'm headed to Lisbon the Tuesday before Crown. I wanted something really special, but didn't have time to do something big, so I decided -- simple initial with gold leaf (loving my new gilding skills), and do it on sheep vellum. Yum!

Mar. 27 I picked the exemplar, Codex S 1399, fol. 133v, influenced by fol. 105v, too. and chose the text, which reads:

By Torvaldr and Tofa, the king and queen right worthy and well-beloved, to all the dukes, counts, barons, lords, and gentles of Drachenwald, greetings and salutations. Let it be known that we have not only by the testi- mony of many worthy and credible gentles but also by our own witness been informed, adver- tised, and acquainted with many reports of the skills in diverse arts and sciences, most especi- ally sewing, displayed by our subject Lady Mylla O'Reilly, and by her generosity and gifts of larg- esse. In recognition of this and all her numerous and manifest virtues we the above-named king and queen make the said Mylla a mem- ber of our ancient and honourable Order of the Panache, with all the rights, responsibili- ties, and privileges appertaining thereto, in- cluding the right to bear the badge of the order. So that none may lawfully contest this our will we have signed our names below on the vith day of apr. xlvii.

On that day I also started sketching the layout. Mar. 28 I drew in the rest of the lines and pencilled in the border, and did half the calligraphy. I completed the calligraphy Mar. 29, did the painted capitals and details in the text. Then Gwen went down for her afternoon nap, and I started in the rest: ALL the gilding; the base colors in the initial; then the decision to do the rest of the bordure with pen and ink, since I don't think I could get the gold paint to look right; and then the whitework, and about 1 minute after I finished the whitework, and about two hours after she went to sleep, I heard little noises from the bedroom. Perfect timing!

I'm very happy with this one, thrilled that in two days I was able to do justice to my exemplar and do such a neat little scroll for a friend.

For fun, compare with the Queen's Order of Courtesy I did for Saraswati, from the same MS.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

AoA for Rayne Archer of Annan

The scroll was done over the course of a week. On Mar. 5, I chose the exemplar, Codex Admontensis 58, fol. 87, and made all the changes to the Latin that I needed to personalize this for the submitter. I'm getting pretty good at Latin blazons, thanks to Introductio Ad Latinam Blasoniam, which Ursula pointed me to last week. I also sketched out the layout and the lines. On Mar. 6, I painted the initial. I knew there was no way I could recreate that pale yellow, so I decided not to try and substituted a pale green instead. I think the result still works. On Mar. 7, I started the calligraphy, getting through the end of the second sentence; unfortunately, I'd planned to curve the text around the D as it was in the exemplar, but since I didn't draw my lines that way, I forgot when I started the calligraphy, so they lines line up straight. It's time consuming having to look up the abbreviations to confirm my memory, but the result just looks so much better. Unabbreviated Latin just looks wrong. After I completed that day's calligraphy, I realized I had way more text than space, and so decided to fix this by putting the arms front and center, maybe adding another initial, and putting a gloss of the Latin text in in English. So Mar. 8, I sketched in the blank shield as a space saver, and then completed the Latin calligraphy (with impeccable line filling, if I say so myself). Since I then needed a second "D" from the same MS, I picked this one from fol. 6r, and then calligraphed the English. Mar. 10, I painted the arms, the crown, the final initial, and put dots around the capitals to match parts of the MS, and the results I'm quite happy with. I had expected this one to be rather plain, per my initial conception, but instead it's got lots of neat little bits.

The text is the standard Latin AoA scroll text for Caid, modified to correct the grammar ("Societas" is not a 1st declension feminine, people!) and reads:

Declara omnibus generosibus et nobilibus: Nos Sueno et Kolfinna, Rex et Regina Caidis salutamus. Optime placebamur per officia quae nostra civis nominatur Regina Sagittaria de Annan praestabat nostro regno donamus ei donum insignium armigerorum. Posthac habebit ium solum propriumque prae se ferre super scutum argentum, ii sagittae virides inversae in saltatario, inter iiij guttams azureas, in hac nostra Societate. Pro symbolo hujusque doni potest exhibare coronam auri cum spiculis iiij super scuto, ad diem xvii januarii Anno Domini ccix qui est xliii Anno Societatis Testare cujus Nos hic nostrum manum et signum ponimus.

I used abbreviations every single place I could, taking them primarily from Cappelli, though I paid no attention whatsoever to temporal consistency and blithely mixed centuries.

And here's the English gloss:

Declare to all nobles: We, Sven and Kolfinna, King and Queen of Caid, give you gree ting. Well pleased by the ser vice that Our subject, Rayne Archer of Annan by name, hath rendered unto Our Realm, We bestow upon her an Award of Arms. She shall henceforth have the sole right to bear the arms depicted above in this Our Society. As token of this award, she may display a gold crown above her shield, as of this xviii day of January, a.s. xlii.

Monday, March 4, 2013

AoA for Ysabel d'Outre-mer

I learned recently that Caid has a huge scroll back-log, so I volunteered to help out. Unlike when I was working on the Drachenwald backlog, though, I'm going to limit my angst about re-using text, and instead focus on simple, elegant designs with a practiced text that I know roughly how much space it takes. No one will hold it against me if I repeat my wordings.

The exemplar is Codex Mellicensis 353 (977), fol. 339. The text reads:

Gerhardt and Una, King and Queen of Caid, to the dukes, counts, earls, barons, and nobles of the realm: Greetings. By these presents let all know that following the will of our people and by our own wish and desire, and further more in recognition of the deeds she has done and the service she has rendered unto us, we are minded to elevate Ysabel d'Outre-mer to the rank of lady and award to her the sole and unique right to bear the arms Or, a cross fleury gules and on a chief vert, a crescent argent, which is depicted more plainly below, for her and her alone to bear in perpetuity. Done the xxv day of May, anno societatis xxxviii. in witness whereof we have signed our names below.

On the first day, Mar 2, I composed the text, chose the exemplar, sketched it out, lined the scroll, and sketched the arms. On the second day, Mar 3, I painted the base colors on the initial and the arms, and did the gold and white work on the initial. While I was mixing the brown for the initial, I complained to Ari about how difficult mixing brown is, and she pointed out that the original was probably entirely gold, and the dots tooling. Oh. In that case, I won't worry so much about mixing the brown to match the shade exactly. Oh well! I still think this looks cool as orange-blue-brown, though I'm sure orange-blue-gold would've been sharp. I did the calligraphy on Mar 4. Unfortunately, as I sat down to get started, I found that my favorite nib had bent, so I had to use a different one, and I struggled to get even flow the entire text. And then I smudged the gold paint on the crown, grrr. But then: then I did the detail work on the orange part of the G, and I am so, so happy with it. If you had told me three years ago, even a year or two ago, that I'd be able to paint something that has this leafy, three-D, shaded effect, I wouldn't have believed you. I'm still not sure I believe me. Go and check the exemplar and compare! So in the end, I'm pretty happy with this one!