This scroll was created for Lady Damiana Almodóvar de Sevilla's Award of Arms. It's always so refreshing to do an AOA for someone whose device is already registered! The overall look of the page was based on Bodlean MS. Span. c. 13., a manuscript from Spain written sometime after 1366. The calligraphy is my first attempt at a vaguely Spanish rotunda hand; I need a lot more work on that! The miniatures were my own ideas; the H is inhabited by a miniature of Lady Damiana holding an abacus and standing over sacks of money marked with the salamander that is our Barony's sigil, and the G is a picture of the lady with a bow. She has obviously been taking pot-shots at the squirrel in the lower right, who has chewed his way into the scroll and is eating a piece of chocolate cake.
I wrote the text in English and then put out a call for translations; I was helped by Don Xavier Ordonnez de Astorga, a former Bhakaili dancemaster now living in Meridies, who gave me the translation used here. The English translation is:
Gaufred, King of the East, and his splendid Queen Geneviere, to all princes, barons, magistrates and to all to whom these words come:
Let it be known that Our servant Damiana Almodóvar de Sevilla has through great labour gained Our royal favour. She has accounted for the coffers of Our Barony of Bhakail with exactitude and discretion, and her prowess with the bow continues to improve, adding to the might of Our Realm. For all this we have seen fit to award her these Arms: Or, a tower triple towered sable within a bordure gules semy of hearts argent, with all the rights, priveleges and responsibilities attached thereunto.
Done by Our hand this twenty-fourth day of July, A.S. 39, at Southern Region War Camp in Our Shire of Eisental.
You can also see how this scroll was constructed on my Illumination Step-by-Step page!
