There may indeed have been some whooping and shouting when this assignment came in. I knew immediately I wanted something small, delicate, floral, and incorporating heraldic display. A search through my saved MS links for 'heraldry' gave me BL MS Harley 7026 f. 9, which was basically exactly what I was looking for. I also wanted to make it extra special for a dear friend, and knew I wanted to use my vellum for it.
It turns out that I have one large piece of vellum (which I didn't want to cut in to) and one small side piece, from which I could only get a rectangle 9.3cm x 8cm. So that cut down the potential size!
I did this over the course of four evenings (~1.5-2 hours the first three, and 3 the final one). First evening was cutting down the parchment and blocking and sketching. The next I inked the design in; the third, I painted the base coats and put down the size. The last night, I did the white work and guilded, and then composed and calligraphed the text, which reads:
Per hanc chartulam Margaret de Mey fecit sociam ordonis Brigidae. Alexander et Eularia faciunt hoc, datum apud Flintheath .v. December .l. Signum princibus.
In translation it reads: "By this little charter Margaret de Mey has been made a companion of the order of Ffraid. Alexander and Eularia do this. Dated at Flintheath the 5th of December (a.s.) 50. Signed by the princes." The benefit of writing a text which uses a lot of period-style formulations is that I could find abbreviations for basically everything (except Flintheath and Eularia) in Cappelli. I am stinkin' pleased with how this came out.
© 2015, Sara L. Uckelman.
