Fox for Catlin le Mareschal

The exemplar is Codex Altenburgensis AB 13 C 4,f. 134r , and I picked it out Jul. 14. I decided the next evening I wanted to do an unusual shape, to accent the "F", and luckily had a long narrow piece of perg on hand which was just right. So on Jul. 15 I started sketching everything out, and even was able to begin painting in the initial, completing the vermillion and most of the blue lake. The evening of Jul. 16 I mixed up the pale peach and painted it in. On Jul. 22, I completed the rest of the base coats and some of the whitework. A mistake in painting the inside of the initial settled the matter as to whether I'd do gold paint or gold leaf. The night of Jul. 24, I sketched out the lines for the calligraphy, and put down the size. While waiting for the size to set, I did some of the blackwork and whitework, and even managed to put down about half of the gold before bed time. I completed the goldwork on Jul. 25; curiously, the bit where I had to put down two coats of size to make sure all the blue got covered up worked just fine, but the other bit I had problems with. I tried to put down more size and then gild again, but it didn't really work so well. So I decided not to push it. I also finished the white work.

On Ju. 29, I realized I needed to draw out more lines before I could calligraph. Grr.

I wrote the text on Jul. 14 and Jul. 29, taking full advantage of Ari Mala's help finding more words beginning with "f". It reads:

Full fleet and fast fares the fox fort wily and sly. Far fleeter and fairer is the vixen with the blade Catlin le mareschale. Fain are we, faithful princes of the isles, to fulfill our free and royal right to make fabled vixen into a true fox. Witness ourselves at Ffair Raglen and dated below:

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© 2014, Sara L. Uckelman.

Dragons Pride for Angelica of Guildford

I received permission from TRM to go ahead with my proposed idea for something extra in the scroll text on Jul. 11, and began sketching out the structure that evening. I knew from as soon as I'd gotten the assignment that I wanted to do something from the Macclesfield Alphabet book, but didn't decide on which alphabet until that evening as well. I decided to go with one of the simple ones where I could then, hopefully do every initial in that style, which I thought would look cool. I managed to sketch out the first L before it was time to head to bed.

On Jul. 23, I inked and calligraphed from the beginning up to (but not including) the third initial. Jul. 25 I calligraphed from D through to the end of the next line, but it was Too Hot to do any more. On Jul. 27, I calligraphed through the initial "A" during Gwen's nap and while she painted, and then after she went to bed got all the way up through the final capital. I finished the calligraphy on Jul. 28, working my usual magic to get the text to end at JUST the right place.

The text was composed on the fly and reads:

Leif and Morrigan, king and queen of Drachenwald, to our princes, dukes, bishops, and most especially to the members of our most ancient and honorable order of the dragons pride: who throughout our land serve as examples to all that skill in arts and sciences does not respect age and that even amongst our youth may our teachers be found, greetings and salutations. It is our right and royal prerogative and privilege to increase the members of the orders of our kingdom in accordance with law and custom, and further to recognize and give special mark to those who have distinguished themselves in deed and word above the rank of their peers and one such person is Lady Angelica of Guildford, damoiselle de Covenham, companion of the dragons jewel and champion archer of the court of Paul and Aryanhwy, who has long and diligently striven to reach the heights of heraldic excellence, who has made a name for herself throughout our lands and whose service to our persons at our coronation we deeply and joyfully wish to reward and recognize and so do we the abovenamed king and queen do hereby enlist, enroll, account, and create the said Angelica abovementioned in the foresaid Order of the Dragons Pride, with all rights, responsibilities, and privileges appertaining thereto: inlcuding the rights of bearing the badge of the order and styling herself in all places as a member of the said order: We hereby further assign to the same damoiselle the privilege to be held by herself a lone for so long as we sit the dragon thrones to serve as the herald of the order and to be known in all our lands as Dragon Prides Pursuivant: Witness ourselves in our court at castle Raglan on viiij august anno societatis xlix.

I'm quite pleased with this one.

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© 2014, Sara L. Uckelman.

Lindquistringes for Cassandra della Corona

This was done on a blank illuminated by Herrin Elysant Walters. I received the blank from her over the weekend of Jul. 12-13, and wrote the text and calligraphed it on the night of Jul. 14

The text is derived from Rotuli litterarum patentium in Turri Londinensi, derived from the "miscellaneous letters patent" from the time of KingJohn in the introduction. It reads:

The King and Queen of Drachenwald to Signora Cassandra della Corona, seneschale in our western lands, greetings. Know ye, that by these present letters we have elected you to the status of member of the ancient and honourable Orden des Lindquistringes, with all appertaining rights and responsibilities, witnessed ourselves at Castle Raglan, on the 9th day of August, anno societatis xlix.

I tried a new hand of calligraphy -- trying to get something along the lines of an elegant Italian secretary, and it wasn't entirely succesful. The perg wouldn't stay flat, and my ink kept glooping. However, I did get the letter forms basically uniform, and the spicing is good, so I'm not too unhappy.

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© 2014, Sara L. Uckelman.