Aryanhwy's Calligraphy and Illumination

Friday, July 19, 2013

Nobelesse Largesse: two recipes cards.

I recently participated in an A&S "secret swap" gift exchange, Nobelese Largesse. My recipient had a Provençal persona and was interested in cooking, so my first thought was "nougat!". Unfortunately, I didn't want to trust actual nougat to the postal service, so the next best thing was to give her the recipe, in both the original Catalan and the English translation provided in The Book of Sent Soví.

I also made a pouch to put the recipe in; pictures of it can be seen here.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

AoA for Anjuli Longship

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.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

A blank used.

Back in February I did three blanks for ID based on Manesse Codex pages. Ari recently calligraphed one of them for Klakavirki's "Revel in the Midnight Sun":

Always nice to see a blank completed.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Lindquistringes for Gabriele of Turmstadt

The illuminated letter, based on Codex S 318, was done by Lady Ælfwynn Leoflæde dohtor. I composed most of the text on Jun. 14, drawing on a number of texts in the Avalon Project (The Gelnhausen Charter; April 13, 1180 A.D.; Laws of Richard I (Coeur de Lion) Concerning Crusaders Who Were to Go by Sea. 1189 A.D.; Magna Carta 1215; Peace of the Land Established by Frederick Barbarossa Between 1152 and 1157 A.D.; and The Establishment of the Duchy of Austria; September 17, 1156.). It reads:

In the name of all that is worthy and just. Sven and Siobhan, by favour of right of arms, royal kings of the Drachenwalders, to the princes, dukes, earls, barons, justiciaries, foresters, sheriffs, stewards, and to all bailiffs and liege subjects, greetings. Since human memory is short and does not suffice for a crowd of things, the authority of those who preceded us has decreed that those things were to be written down which the progress of fleeting time generally re moves from the knowledge of men. Inasmuch as we ascend the thrones of the royal majesty, it is right that in our actions we altogether celebrate those by whose gifts we are exalted. Therefore we, desiring the laws of the realm to remain in vigor, and endeavouring to exalt those persons who have served us well, do wish to preserve to all persons whatever their rights. Wherefore let the generality of the present as well as the future subjects of our kingdom know that Gabriele of Turmstadt, for the reason that she has gravely and soberly served our realm and on acco unt of the common counsel of many upright men, is hereby confirmed as a member of our ancient and honorable Orden des Lindquistringes, which we do upon the 20th anniversary of the founding of our kingdom, in the year of the Society 48. We further decree that no per son, small or great, may presume to constrain the same Gabriele in the displaying of the signs of the said order without the consent or permission of herself. By our hands witnessed:

That same evening, I sketched out the lines and did the calligraphy, only to find (after about two hours), that I still needed 2 1/3 lines of text. But my fingers were beginning to hurt, so I called it a day. Jun. 15 we went to Karlsruhe to go art-store shopping, so completing the text and calligraphing the rest of it had to wait until Jun. 16.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Lindquistringes for Steven Llanymynech

The illuminated letter, based on Codex S 318, was done by Lady Apollonia Grü.nenzwig. The text was composed Jun. 14. It is based on the Golden Bull of Emperor Charles IV from 1356 and reads:

Sven the Fifth and Siobhan the Second, by the right of arms king and queen of the Drachenwalders, always august, and Emperors of Frank mark; as a perpetual memorial of this matter. Inasmuch as we, through the office by which we possess the regnal dignity, are bound to put for ward and elevate those amongst our subjects who are worthy of renown: Now in our solemn court at Burg Ludwigstein, in session with our princes and barons, and amid a numerous multitude of other dukes, counts, magnates, nobles and citizens; after mature deliberation, from the fullness of our regnal power; sitting on the thrones of our regnal majesty, adorned with the regnal bands, insignia and diadem; in the year of our Society 48, on the 20th anniversary of the founding of our kingdom: We de cree by the present regnal and ever valid edict that Steven Llanymynech is now made a member of our Orden des Lindquistringes. We decree further that all princes holding fiefs from our hands who shall re fuse to give witness of this doing, shall, by the act itself, incur such pun ishment as we see fit to inflict on each person according to his rank.

Gwen, still sick, took an epic nap, so I was able to calligraph the scroll the same day, in one sitting, in about 2.5 hours.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Panache for Robyn of Rye

I received the assignment 21 May, and very quickly chose my exemplar, Harley 2748 f. 3. It reminds me of fireworks! All fired up (hah) with inspiration, I drew out the margins/framing and some of the border that same evening. May 28 I finished sketching the framework of the illumination, and inked it. May 29 I really finished sketching the illumination, and painted all the red, green, and brown, and part of the blue. May 30 I completed painting the blue, and painted the gold, black, and grey, and did all the gilding. Shiny!! And then, since Gwen has having an epic nap, I did all the whitework too.

Other 20 Year preparation kept me busy for awhile, until Jun. 11 when I composed the text, which is based loosely on the creation of the Duchy of Austria and reads:

Et haec sunt verba Torualdi regis et Tove regine Drachenwaldenses. Although the awarding of arms may remain valid from the actual act of performing such award, and those things which are lawfully possessed can not be wrested away by any act of force: it is, however, the duty of our regnal authority to re- affirm such stature by the enrollment of nobles in our ancient and hon- orable companies so that there can be no doubt of the transaction. Be it known, therefore, to the present age and to future generations, that we have, in the general court of Frankmark which was held on the 20th anniversary of the founding of our kingdom, in the presence of our princes and barons have advanced the name and standard of Lady Robyn of Rye, and it has been done in this way: that she henceforth be admitted into the number and company of the Order of the Panache: for the rest, in order that this our regnal decree may, for all ages, remain valid and unshaken, we have ordered the present charter to be written and have signed it with the signs of our hands.

The plan for Jun. 12 had been to draw out the lines for the calligraphy and hopefully do all of it, but instead I spent most of the day nursing a wee sick poor little baby; I got about 1/3 of the calligraphy done. Jun. 13, Gwen took a long enough nap that I was able to complete the rest. Whee!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Menu cards for Drachenwald 20 Year

The head cook for Drachenwald's 20 Year Celebration wanted hand-made menu cards for the attending royalty. I did one in German and two in English, calligraphed over the course of a couple evenings in early June.