My Ear-Trumpet Has Been Struck By Lightning

jothelibrarian:

Pretty medieval manuscript of the day is the Tres riches heures du Jean Duc de Berry. I have wittered on at length about how much I love this manuscript. I can’t see how anyone wouldn’t. It’s amazing. One book containing so many stunning images, and such wonderful script. I can’t imagine how long it must have taken to produce, and the cost. It is spectacularly sumptuous.

This image is folio 71v, and is one half of a two-page illustration showing the procession of Saint Gregory. According to the lovely facsimile of the book I own:

This subject could not have been originally planned for the Tres Riches Heures since only one text column, not space enough for a large miniature, remained free between the end of the Penitential Psalms and the beginning of the Litanies of the Saints. However the Limbourgs ingeniously used this column to paint a large double-page miniature, which they placed at the beginning of the Litanies since the Procession of Saint Gregory was known as ‘The Great Litany’ or ‘The Great Supplication’.

If you look to the bottom left, you’ll see that some of those in the procession are looking a bit peaky. Some are dying. They are suffering from plague, a disease that struck Rome at the time of Gregory’s papacy. The procession depicted in this image shows Pope Gregory leading a religious procession around the city to ward it off. He was rewarded with a vision of an Angel, and an end to the crisis.

Despite the rather macabre imagery, I love this illustration. The architectural features are beautifully detailed, and (intentionally) reminiscent of the fashionable gothic church decoration which was the style of the time. The colours are lovely, from the sky and St Gregory’s golden vision of an angel, to the vestments of the procession.

It’s just fab. I could gaze at it for hours.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons.

klg19:

Henri de Ferrières, Les Livres du roy Modus et de la royne Ratio 346 by peacay on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
For background story and links, see: bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-time-of-hunt.html

mediumaevum:

Isidore of Seville [7th century CE] (Etymologies, Book 12, 3:7): The hedgehog is covered with quills, which it stiffens when threatened, and rolling itself into a ball is thus protected on all sides. After it cuts a bunch of grapes off a vine it rolls over them so it can carry the grapes to its young on its quills.

image: Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 764, Folio 52v

mildlyamused:

“Nature Forging a Baby, c.1490-1500”

Nature, wut r u doin’?

Nature

STAHP

http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=31943

jothelibrarian:

Pretty medieval manuscript of the day shows Christ appearing at Lake Tiberias, and making everyone jump… possibly because in this image he is a G-I-A-N-T…! This is an illustration from the De Brailes Hours, a book of hours produced c. 1250 in Oxford.

According to the Walters Museum:

“This page from Walters manuscript W.106 depicts a scene from the life of Christ. After the Resurrection of Christ, Simon Peter went fishing on Lake Tiberias with several other disciples, including John. They caught nothing that night, but just as day was breaking, Christ stood on the beach. They did not recognize him at first. He told them to cast their net on the right side of the boat. Suddenly, they could not haul in the net for all the fish they had caught. John then said to Simon Peter, “It is the Lord.” Simon Peter put on his clothes and sprang into the sea. The other disciples went to shore in the boat, because it was not far from land.”

Image source: Walters Museum MS W. 106. Creative Commons licensed.

jothelibrarian:

Pretty medieval manuscript of the day is another illustration of St Catherine, this time from the Wingfield Hours and Psalter, from the New York Public Library. I rather like the strange ostrich like creature in the margin, which seems to have the head of a unicorn!

Image source: Spencer Collection MS 003. Image believed to be in the public domain.

jothelibrarian:

Pretty medieval manuscript of the day is the weirdest yet! Here’s St Peter of Verona, with a cleaver in his head, nonchalantly carrying an enormous church. You have to hand it to medieval artists, they really went for it didn’t they! They weren’t shy with the gold leaf on this one either - the patron must have had serious money. Martyred in 1252, he was canonised a year later - not bad going! He is the patron saint of midwives.

This image is from a lavishly decorated fifteenth century book of hours from Italy. We’ll look at some of the other illustrations over the coming weeks.

Image source: Walters Museum MS 322. Creative Commons licensed.

madwhit:

mediumaevum:

Image from a 15th c. ms (Universitätsbibliothek Salzburg M III 36) depicting Theologia driven on a cart pulled by the seven liberal arts (i.e. the other university disciplines) and driven at the rear by Peter Lombard, author of the Liber Sententiarum, the basic textbook of the late mediaeval theological curriculum.

Talk about mnemonic devices!

jothelibrarian:

Pretty medieval manuscript of the day is Walters MS 188, a fifteenth century book of hours from the Netherlands. This is one of eighteen historiated initials by the magnificently named Masters of Zweder van Culemborg. This one shows the visitation.

Image source: Walters Museum MS 188, Walters Museum Baltimore. Creative Commons licensed via Flickr.

jothelibrarian:

Pretty medieval manuscript of the day is a striking depiction of the last supper. Almost cartoon-like, it also somehow manages to be quite realistic, especially in its use of perspective. Dating from 1480, it seems to bridge the middle ages with the Renaissance, heralding the dramatic changes in artistic styles that would come in the sixteenth century.

It is from an Italian breviary believed to have been illustrated by Benedetto Bordon.

Image source: Walters Museum W333. Image declared as public domain on Wikimedia Commons because its copyright has expired.