The members of the Society for Creative Anachronism undertake many of the arts and sciences practiced by Medieval people. The arts that I have begun practicing are Calligraphy and Illumination, the arts of the scribe. I have been interested in calligraphy for years but have only been illuminating since Spring of 2000. In the Middle Ages, scribes were often persons with a religious vocation, monks copying religious works for the Church in a day when the printing press did not yet exist. In our Current Middle Ages of the SCA, the scribal arts are used to produce scrolls for the awards that our Monarchs favor their subjects with. Here in my scriptorium you can see some of my work; click on any of the scrolls below for a larger view and for more information about it.

New: Illumination, Step-by-Step

Learn about the process of creating an illuminated document with step-by-step pictures!

Award Scrolls

Cal Urso's AOA - Feb 2001Purple Fret - June 2000Order of the Red Company - 2000Order of the Maunche - October 2001

Bhakaili Champion of Fence - February 2002Bhakaili Baronial Champion - May 2002Lord Olrik Van Lubbeke's AOA - June 2002EK Rapier Tournament Scroll, August 2002

Bhakail's Champion of Arts & Sciences, December 2002 Eleanora the Tilemaker's AOA - January 2003 Queen's Honor of Distinction - February 2003 Philadelphia Brown's OSC, March 2003

Bhakail Rapier Champion 2003 - June 2003 Cellach ingen Chernaig's Salamander - July 2003 Jeannette of Bhakail's AOA - August 2003

Letter of Marque - October 2003 Abbott Frantz Tragen Sie Jager's backlog AOA - October 2003

Other work

Psalm 23 - 2001 Wedding Invitation - July 2001


Currently on the drawing board:

• The beginnings of my Breviary project (finally!)

I most often use Arches 140 lb. hot press watercolor paper for my scrolls; this paper has apparently been in production in France since 1492 and is wonderful stuff. My paint is mostly Windsor and Newton's gouache with the occasional period ground pigment in binder, and my ink is Higgins Black Magic. I use Brause nibs mostly, with occasional forays into Mitchell, and I have a small slew of feathers awaiting cutting into quills. I also use 24K gold leaf on a variety of grounds, including traditional leaded gesso, PVA, gum ammoniac, garlic, glair, etc.

Thanks for visiting my Scriptorium! If you would like to comment on anything you see here, my email address is: cbogs@pobox.upenn.edu.

Scribal Links

I have had a few people ask me recently to teach them how to do calligraphy and illumination. I will be putting together materials for a class, which I will post here when I have them done, but for now here are some links which I have found helpful.

Instructional Links
Primary Sources

http://www.rencentral.com/GSS/index.shtml -- an excellent site for learning about basic illumination. This is where I learned the "winding acanthus" thing I used on the Fencing Champion's scroll above.

http://www.byu.edu/~hurlbut/dscriptorium/ - pictures from medieval manuscripts

http://baronmorgan.gallowglass.org/ - Baron Adhemar de Villarquemada's scriptorium - great instructional links!

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/browse.htm - the site from which I get most of my inspiration

http://www.niagara.com/~barons/Signet/links.html - lots of good scribal links

http://www.bnf.fr/enluminures/aaccueil.htm - a thousand 14th c. examples

http://hem.fyristorg.com/owly/crafts/scribe.htm - tons more links

http://www.gutenbergdigital.de/gudi/eframes/index.htm - imaged copy of the Göttingen Model book and images from the Gutenberg Bible (back when printed books had style!)

http://moas.atlantia.sca.org/topics/call.htm - look, even MORE links!

http://www.nls.uk/digitallibrary/murthly/index.htm - digital copy of the Murthly Hours, made in Paris in the 1280's. A beautiful manuscript from the National Library of Scotland.

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/jessa/kingdoms.html - An overview of each Kingdom's awards, with pictures of the badges -- indispensable information for award scrolls

http://www.christusrex.org/www2/berry/ - images from Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, a Flemish-wrought Book of Hours which can make even the best scribes of today feel terribly outclassed.
Mailing List

http://library.willamette.edu:85/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/specialcol&CISOPTR=236&REC=1 - digital copy of a mid-15th century Book of Hours. Unlike the Très Riches Heures, the illuminations here will make you realize that you don't have to be photo-realistic to be period!

There is a popular, moderate-volume SCA Scribes mailing list which can offer all sorts of information to its subscribers. The list maintainers are trying for "security through obscurity" which is an unfortunate way to run a listserv, so I won't post the subscription instructions here -- but do email me if you're interested in subscribing and I'll give you instructions!

http://www.nls.uk/digitallibrary/murthly/ - The Murthly Hours is another Book of Hours in the English and Parisian styles, and is one of Scotland's great Medieval treasures.

 
http://www.keesn.nl/mac/mac_en.htm - The Maciejowski Bible is a wonderfully illuminated manuscript from the mid 1200's. Wonderful stuff, finally online!
 

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last modifed Monday, April 21, 2008 6:47 PM