medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Bob Peckham <[log in to unmask]>
> Christopher: Aside from folios missing,
?
>some unrelated insertions,
?
>and a folio reversal in the physical text,
?
>did they skip any pages in facsimile execution?
i don't believe so --it certainly seems complete and is the work of C.R.
Dodwell and Peter Clemoes, two of the finest ms. scholars of their
generation.
their introduction is quite thorough (60+ pages in the "elephant folio" format
dictated by the size of the ms. --i can send a .doc copy of it to anyone who
wishes one).
Dodwell was, in addition, an art historian of very broad interest (though he
specialized in Anglo-Saxon art); so, for the illuminations, also of interest
is this contemporary study by Dodwell, expanding the context a bit, but based
primarily on a close examination of the OEH ms.:
C.R. Dodwell,“Techniques of Manuscript Painting in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts,
in _Artigianato e tecnica nella società nell’ alto medioevo occidentale.
Settim. studio Centro ital. Studi alto medioevo_, XVIII, Spoleto, 1971, II,
pp. 643-683. Reprinted in his _Aspects of art of the eleventh and twelfth
centuries_ (London: Pindar Press, 1996), pp. 33-62.
> Thanks so much for answering me.
thanks for the occasion.
> You know for three years after R-MC, I was a high-school coach.
that's funny, for three years after R-MC i was at Vanderbilt (still stuck in
the class of '66, JB) --not quite as productive a line of work as yours.
> TennesseeBob (living where a manusvcript is graffitti on a water tower)
just think of them as a "château de l'eau" and the graffitti as "art" and
consider yourself Blessed.
From: Rochelle Altman <[log in to unmask]>
> Thank you for the url.
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Cotton_MS_Claudius_B_IV
don't thank me --that's straight from TBob. all the mss. he listed have urls
> The Hexateuch is the MS where on f. 125v I found the handwriting of
what had to be a youngster writing her pre-Rashi Hebrew alphabet. It
was a female, all right. She signed her name 3 times, Elizabeth,
spelled correctly in Hebrew -- with an Ayin.
as i said, my interest is (entirely) in the style of the illuminations, but,
given that, nothing much that might be discovered in that fantastic ms. would
surprise me, even a "pre-Rashi Hebrew" signature.
>Back in 1992, DRH
?
>thought it was a grown woman; however, while the the fact that the letters
are uneven in size is not a sure indication of age, the writing is very much
that of someone who had not yet learned to hold a straight line. Someone who
was already writing OE or Latin would keep a line, if not yet well-practiced
in this new alphabet. It smacks of a child doing a "so there; I do know the
alphabet." All that lovely white space in the bottom margin to write on.....
an interesting idea.
Pre-Rashi Hebrew, written by a child.
i have occasionally come across examples of "romanesque" sculpture which i
suspected were done by somewhat aging sculptors --the images are
conceptualized with great Complexity and considerable Clarity, but lack a
certain level of Competence in the execution (or Realization in stone).
the only thing that i could think of which might account for this disparity
might be some degree of physical impairment which came with old age.
> Bob, it has been so many years, I really don't know what is missing.
> I do know that the huge dragon-boat Noah's ark illumination is not
there. I looked for it. Then, there are also incomplete illuminations
towards the back that I did not see.... but Chris did note that not
all of them are on-line.
Chris certainly did not mean to imply that "not all of them are on-line" at
the BL site
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Cotton_MS_Claudius_B_IV
since there are a paltry 8 leaves there --3 of which contain only text, the
other 5 with illuminations which, while polychromed, are not at all among the
best to be found in this magnificent ms., which has over 150 leaves (i.e.,
it's *huge*, both in format and in content --clearly, a De Lux project).
the majority of the illuminations are adorned with one to six scenes pen (or
brush) drawings, most of them finished, quite a few polychromed; but some
unfinished or, perhaps, partially finished in another hand.
i'm certainly not a manuscript fellow, but i know of no other pre-1200 ms.
which was conceived --and, mostly, executed-- on such a *vast* scale.
ah..., Chris did not realize that the whole ms. is available for viewing
(though not for downloading) if one clicks on one of the thumbnails, which
opens a new window. from there one can access any leaf by the menu box in the
upper right hand corner.
for instance, Rochelle, here --in an expandable view-- is your "childish"
Hebrew interpolation on f. 125v:
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=cotton_ms_claudius_b_iv_f125v
and here's one of the more lovely leaves, from the point of view of style and
execution
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=cotton_ms_claudius_b_iv_f003r
of interaction of the Hapless Couple with their Creator
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=cotton_ms_claudius_b_iv_f007v
your Noah's arc
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=cotton_ms_claudius_b_iv_f015v
and his rainbow
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=cotton_ms_claudius_b_iv_f016v
c
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