Ari had lots of assignments for Raglan, and I just received some beautiful blanks from Saraswati, so I said I could take on a fourth scroll for the event. The blank is from an MS from Paris, 1480, so I found another 15th C Parisian MS, BL Egerton 619 f.3, on which to base my hand. I drew the lines for the text, and composed the text, on 12 Jul. Since the illumination and the calligraphy are from the 15th C, I adapted a 15th C text, The Letters Patents of King Henry the Seventh Granted unto Iohn Cabot and his Three Sonnes. The text reads:
Vitus and Isabel, princes of Insula Draconis, lords of all the lands from Klakavirki to Harpelstane and the southern channel, to all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting. Be it knowen that for her many years' comportment with all the dispositions and accoutrements of a gentilwoman, we haue giuen and awarded to our welbeloued Anjuli Longship full and free authority, power, and leaue to style herself as a lady in all parts, countreys, and seas of the east, the west, the north, the south: and likewise we haue giuen her licence to set vp banners and ensignes decorated with such arms as she shall register with the College of Arms in euery village, towns, castle, isle, or maine land whereuer she shall trauel. In witnesse whereof we haue wit- nessed this our charter giuen at Raglan, þe x day of þe vii month of our reigne.
I did about 2/3 of the calligraphy the same night; the hand doesn't look much at all like the exemplar (not surprising since it was my first attempt), but is at least internally consistent so it doesn't look too bad. I finished up the calligraphy, having had to trunctate the text some, on July 14. For the decorative capitals in the text, I remembered that Saraswati had actually done another piece in a similar style, and wrote about it in her blog, so I found the exemplar she used, and extrapolated from there.
© 2013, Sara L. Uckelman.
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