Sunday, October 27, 2013

Some blanks for a new scribe

October 18. BL Royal 5 C IX f. 114

PBL MS Royal 5

October 21. BL Royal 4 B II f. 43v

PBL MS Royal 5

October 27. BL Harley 2957 f. 1

NBL Harley 2957

October 27. BL Harley 2878 f. 9

NBL Harley 2878

A new arrival in Drachenwald was looking to get started in calligraphy, so rather than send him plain perg, I said I'd send him some blanks. Given that Prothall and Cecilia will be ascending the throne in a few months, I figured some blank 'P's would be a good choice. And then I got tired of 'P' and decided to do a few puzzle initials in letters I hadn't done yet. The 'N' was done in two steps; first the red and blue, then the green and purple. It looked so nice after the red and blue was done, I almost needn't have continued on! Regarding the last one, it didn't turn out quite as nicely as the original, and I'm not sure why. I think the proportions of the extender are part of it; my page was simply too short for the height of the letter. However, I think with proper calligraphy and maybe some internal capitals, this could be spiffed up quite nicely.


© 2013, Sara L. Uckelman.

Monday, October 21, 2013

AoA for Cristina Erici

Cristina

I received the assignment on 9 Oct., and given the recipient's name I decided to do a Latin scroll text. I've got only one stock one for AoAs, and it begins with "A", so the next thing to do was choose the A. My list of "A's I want to do someday" is LONG, and there are so many amazing pretty options to choose from. I was able to narrow it down to 7 pretty quickly, but then I had to let them sit and simmer. With the help of Constanza, I decided on Codex San-Florianensis III, 5, fol. 93v. That night I sketched out the initial and the lines, and inked in the initial, and began painting the base coats (orange). I was away for the next few days, and returned to the painting on 15 Oct., completing the painting on the initial. I'm so pleased with how the grotesques turned out!

The next night (16 Oct.) was devoted to calligraphy. I started with my basic Latin text with a bit of an extra, which reads:

Audite verbis Sue- nonis Iohanneque regis regineque Drachenwalden- ses. Magnas et multas attestati- onis actionum subjecti nostrorum Cristina Erici audivimus, et placet nos. Scite quod his present- ibus agnoscimus virtutem dignitatemque supradicte Cristine. Altamus et assignamus ei ord- onis domine et jus tali armis prout de- feret cum Collegio Armorum. Posthac habebit ium solum proprium que prae se ferre illi insigne in hac nos trum Societatis. Fit manibus nostris in xxvi die Octobris anno societatis xlviii, apud Gotvik. Testare cujus nos hic nostrum manum ponimus sub hic.

About half-way through, I realized I needed about 6 more lines of text than I had, so I went to Caid's site and cribbed from their Latin AoA text. That still didn't make it long enough, so the next day I searched for more images from the same MS to see if I could find some flourishes to add to decorate the text, and found this I, which could be turned into horizontal sidebars.

I completed the calligraphy the night of 17 Oct. The text reads in translation:

Pay heed to the words of Sven and Siobhan, King and Queen of Drachenwald. Great and numerous attestations of the actions of our subject Cristina Erici have we heard, and it pleases us. Know that by these presents we recognize the worth and dignity of the aforesaid Cristina. We raise her to the rank of lady and award to her all rights to such arms as she shall register with the college of arms. She shall henceforth have the sole and exclusive right to bear these arms in this our Society. Done by our hands on the 26 day of October, in the year of the society 48. In witness whereof, we here set our hand below.

I also had time to sketch out and paint my space filler. The grotesque there turned out quite nicely too! Both of them seem happier than the ones I copied. The next evening, 18 Oct., Joel gave Gwen an early bath, which gave me the time to get the gold size down on the filler, and I completed the rest early enough to let it set long enough before starting the gilding, which unfortunately did not go well, and when I asked on FB, no one really seemed to know why:

gilding

Oct. 21 I tried putting down more size, rehydrating more, and putting gold down again, and whatever I ended up with would have to do, since the scroll has to go out in the next day's mail. Luckily, the re-gilding cleaned up most things, and re-outlining things helped with the ragged edges, and the end result is something very shiny, which is definitely the work of a beginner, but is also work I'm not ashamed of.


© 2013, Sara L. Uckelman.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

AoA for Haesel Berneslai

Haeselegerton

I received the assignment 08 Sep., and started thinking about designs. I like starting texts with the names of the granting nobles, which in this case would be either "D" or "E", and in my list of D's to use I found this one: Egerton 3271 f. 144v, which certainly has WOW factor. Being not entirely sure that I could do the inner border, I decided to omit it but retain the outer border. I sketched the layout and started painting the border on 13 Sep., and the since I had my paints out to do Beroharti's AoA, I painted some more on 18 Sep. The text reads:

Duncanus et Evelina, principes Insulenses, ad Hasela de Bernes lai, salutatem et gratiam. Inas much as by the ordination of the right of arms we have as cended the thrones of prince ly might, it is right that in our works we altogether rew ard those by whose gifts and deeds we are exalted. There fore we, desiring that ancient custom as well as solemn laws to remain in vigour, and endeavouring to recognise and elevate such persons as have contributed richly to our realm, as archer, as chan cellor of the exchequer, do wish to preserve to all persons what ever their rights, and do by our princely authority proclaim and affirm that the aforenamed Haesel is to be recognised as a lady, with all the rights, responsibilities, and privileges atten dant thereto, this act to be observed throughout all parts of our principality without let or hindrance from anyone, and for the recognition of which we charge the said lady Haesel to consult with our heralds and to devise suitable and unique arms. Datum apud Castellum de Caerphili, v Octoberis anno societatis xlviij.

The text was written 29 Sept., and based loosely on the opening paragraph of the Peace of the Land Established by Frederick Barbarossa Between 1152 and 1157 A.D. 30 Sept., I began by drawing out the lines (always my least favorite), and then did the calligraphy, liberally adding phrases as I went in order to get the text sufficiently long. I then got out the paints and did a bunch more of the red detailing. 1 Oct., after supper Joel played with Gwen (thank you, Joel!) allowing me to get started on the last of the painting right away. Took about 3.5 hours to complete -- only to find out at the very end that my planned method of conveyance of the scroll to the event won't work, because Thursday is a holiday here. Grrr! I ended up finding someone in England I could mail it to, at exorbitant cost. And then the recipient wasn't at the event and it wasn't given out until four months later. :(


© 2013, Sara L. Uckelman.