Ffraid for Margaret de Mey

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.

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© 2015, Sara L. Uckelman.

Fox for Joel Ben Stuart

The exemplar is BL MS Harley 647 f. 13. As soon as I received the assignment, I knew I wanted to do something in this style, so I set about looking for words in the same of dogs. Because what makes a fox a fox? The fact that it is colored red. I did up a complete version on Nov. 27, and at the end did what I've rarely done: Decided there were enough mistakes that I was going to scrap it and completely start over. I would have had to scrape too many words, and I realized I'd missed one altogether, and the spacing on one of the legs wasn't quite right. I could do better. The recipient deserved better. And the first version took about an hour, so I knew the second one could be done better at least as quickly. I calligraphed the second version Nov. 29, and did the painting Nov. 30. This version was much better!

The text reads:

Alexander et Eularia divina providente clementia principes Insulenses Ioelo Beno Stuarto dilecti serventi et bellatori valenti. Swift as a fox and fully as wily your renown precedes you throughout the kingdom and yet it is in our dragon isles that you provide your constant shield and support. By these words we mark you as a true fox of our lands, as brave and as bold. Done six December A.S. fifty by our hands.

The Latin opening translates: Alexandre and Eularia by divine providing clemency insular princes to Joel Ben Stuart beloved servant and valient warrior. The "divina providente clementia [title]" bit comes from a charter of Rudolf III of Burgundy dating to 1014.

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© 2015, Sara L. Uckelman.

Ffraid for Antonio di Rienzo Ruspoli

The initials are taken from the Macclesfield Alphabet.

The text was composed Oct. 14 as a commentary on Bernardo Davanzati's Discourse Upon Coins and reads:

Incipit verbis Alexandri et Eularie principum Insulenses, liber commentarii de tractato super pecunia Bernardi Davanzati.

The Sun and Internal Heat do Separate, as it were by Distilla tion, the best juices in the Bowels of the Earth percolated and there congeal'd & ripen'd & made into Metals: the most rare and perfect of which are Gold and Silver

Service rendered freely and humbly is like the sun, for like the sun labors rendered unto princes and populace do separate out the dross of men from the precious metals whose measure of worth is beyond nature.

Now, Gold and Silver contribute very little in their own nature to our Lives, yet Men have agreed to make those Metals the Price and Measure of all. We may therefore call them the second Causes of a happy Life. These are likewise the reasons why many have made them their Gods, seeing them perform almost impossibilities. The known Fable of Jupiter's descending into Danae's Lap in a shower of Gold signifies nothing else, but the Miracles which Gold can work.

But our lives are built upon that which contributes all of itself by its own nature, and thus is more precious than either gold or silver. We may therefore call service the first cause of a happy life, and by such measure no man is more happy than our beloved cousin Baron Antonio di Rienzo Ruspoli, whose performance is more than impossible, liken'd unto the miracles worked by Jupiter:

Mighty loins & longsword carried high,

Preening proud & serving strong for hours,

Leaning with his leanly muscled thigh,

A prodigious younger Jove in bosky bowers.

We discourse on these matters not for your entertainment but for your instruction, & since example is the finest teacher, we set before all so that they may see the splendor of his deeds which outshines gold our worthful & golden cousin Antonio, whom we gild further as a member of our order of Ffraid on this day.

h

PER IPSUM PRINCIPEM PRO IPSIS PRINCIPIBUS &C.

The couplet is a quote from one of the most inestimable poets of our land, Madame Lyonet de Covenham.

I mostly finished the initial and the incipit on Oct. 16; on Oct. 18, I did the first two paragraphs of text and commentary, including initials, and did the shading on the main capital. I finished all but the final paragraph of text on Oct. 19. Finished the calligraphy on Oct. 21. Final finishes on Oct. 22.

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© 2015, Sara L. Uckelman.

Silver Martlet for Katherine of Great Chesterford

I received the assignment 19 August, and picked out an examplar the same day. Two days later, I changed my mind, having seen a British Library blog post featuring Harley MS 7026, f. 13r with the most fantastic little dragon and dragonfly combination. I knew I had to do it!

The sketching, inking, painting, and gilding took about 15 hours over the course of the next three weeks (slightly hampered by attending a conference during one of them; I brought my paints, brushes, and the scroll along thinking I might work on the white-work, but yeah, that didn't happen. So this left me last night with all the calligraphy and all the gilding (the actual putting down of the gold; I'd put the size on the night before) to do. Two hours for the gilding, two hours for the calligraphy made for a late night, but I'm really pleased with the outcome.

The text reads:

Omnibus fidelibus ad quos presentium noticia pervenerit, Alexander et Eularia, principes Insulsenses, in domino salutem.

In ancient days of old our noble ancestors of blessed memory did establish a company of artisans and scientists skilled in all manner of kenning and craft, to which it is our royal right and prerogative to add and augment with all such of our land who have distinguished themselves in like fashion, and one such whose talents with pen and brush brings her reknown throughout the land is Katherine of Great Chesterford. For the advancement of her and the glory of our lands we the aforesaid princes by these presents to create the said Katherine a member of the Order of the Silver Martlet. Actum apud Thamesreach, anno societatis l, datum per manum Arianhwie dicte Bone, xii Septembris ad festum beate nomine. Hic testamur.

The Latin phrases read in translation: "Alexander and Eularia, Insular princes, to all the faithful whose notice may come to these presents, greetings in the lord" and "Acted at Thamesreach, in the year of the society 50, dated by the hand of Aryanhwy called Good, the 12th of September on the feast of the blessed name. Here we witness.

For the last year or so I have been working extensively with Latin charters, in which I have found it is extremely common for the scribe who wrote the charter to be named explicitly, especially in royal or papal charters. I think this is something that we should actively promote in the SCA.

The recipient ended up leaving the event before court due to illness, so the award was pushed off for a later event. I amended the date to reflect this, by adding "confirmamus ix ian", nicely abbreviated.

Here are a variety of images during the process (click for larger versions):

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© 2015, Sara L. Uckelman.

AoA for Marx Rosenberg

Combat scroll for Marx Rosenberg. With the advent of a new Prince and Princess of ID, there were a few awards that needed scrolls on the day. I volunteered to help out Ari Mala, and she brought her big folder of blanks around for me to dig through. Lo and behold, what did I find? One I'd done myself. I figured it was appropriate to end up doing the calligraphy on it!

It's been nearly a year since I've done any scribing, which means I didn't get quite the right combination of nib size and line size, meaning I had much less space for writing than expected. I would've loved to have put the full blazon in, since Marx had arms registered already, but instead decided to paint in his arms and then refer to them. Drawing the arms was a bit of a revelation, in that I did it entirely freehand (albeit with the image up on my phone so I had something to look at while drawing.) Years ago, I would never have believed anyone who told me someday I'd be able to draw freehand. I'm quite happy with how the arms came out.

The text reads:

We, Alexandre and Eularia, prince and princess of Insula Draconis, to our right-trusty and well-beloved servant Marx Rosenberg, greetings. Know that in consequence of the many good reports we have received, we by our royal right do award you full rights to the arms depicted plainly below. Dat. viij aug. a.s. xxxxx.

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© 2015, Sara L. Uckelman.