From: owner-scribes@castle.org (scribes digest) To: scribes-digest@castle.org Subject: scribes digest V2 #1159 Reply-To: Sender: owner-scribes@castle.org Errors-To: owner-scribes@castle.org Precedence: bulk scribes digest Monday, October 25 1999 Volume 02 : Number 1159 In this issue: [scribes]: A book on Cyrillic calligraphy Re: [scribes]: Carpal and tendonitis Re: [scribes]: Carpal and tendonitis Re: [scribes]: Carpal and tendonitis [scribes]: Regarding pendant seals 700 - 900 AD Re: [scribes]: Re:My Glair is just gross Re: [scribes]: Carpal and tendonitis [scribes]: British Medieval Seals [scribes]: Re: scribes digest V2 #1157 [scribes]: Medieval Seals Re: [scribes]: Re:My Glair is just gross ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 17:45:44 +0400 From: "Nickolay Belostotsky" Subject: [scribes]: A book on Cyrillic calligraphy Hi all! Good news, leodas! I have visited the store today, and voila! they had renewed their stock. When I was there, there were about 10 books on the shelf. I've taken three... :-) So. The one goes to the person I have long promised it (not on this list); the other to Brandy (Lady Brandwyn Alston of the Rift); and the third to Yana (Ilyana Barsova). If anyone wants the book too, e-mail me. /Do it quick/: there are only 5,000 copies printed, and I'm not sure if the books'll be in the store ever again. By the way, there may be some provlems with our Governments' Department of Culture. Hope there won't be any. Any way, if there be, we all will be first to know :-( Brandy and Yana: meneeds you mailing addresses for some obvious (mehopes) reason. Thanks, --Koly ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 12:08:26 +0500 From: David Nolan Subject: Re: [scribes]: Carpal and tendonitis - -=>Teresa le Marchant mka Teresa McCartney, OTR (Occupational Therapist) - -=>here, putting on her professional hat. - -=>I'd like to add to Aidan's excellent suggestions. - -=>*Build up the handle of your pen or brush, so that your fingers don't have - -=>to hold - -=>a narrow object for a long period of time. This can be done by obtaining a - -=>"pencil - -=>pillow" or some such at a stationery supply store, or by getting hollow core - -=>foam - -=>or a foam hair roller to slide over the pen or brush. (Or by getting a - -=>thermoplastic - -=>and molding yourself a built-up handle...) If I may offer a suggestion here...Model Magic by Crayola. It's a lightweight air-dry clay, and available just about everywhere. Chiara da Ravenna Stonemarche, East ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 12:55:53 -0400 From: "Judith Kirk" Subject: Re: [scribes]: Carpal and tendonitis I have also sometimes moved my pen or brush (I'm right-handed) to between my second and middle fingers, and I use my thumb and those two fingers to hold the pen/brush/pencil. Little awkward, but works, and it seems to shift the pressure a bit. At my office, we're BIG on ergonomics, and they're buying us these larger pens (instead of the typical Bic pens) that have a softer grip with a more ergonomic shape. Before that there were those rubber/plastic thingamabobs you could put over your pen or pencil. I used to crouch in a beanbag chair over a low glasstop table with a bare light bulb underneath it to trace my celtic borders. God did my back, shoulders and hips hurt. I'm glad I now have a light table. M. Siobhan Midrealm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 10:24:01 -0700 From: "Teresa McCartney" Subject: Re: [scribes]: Carpal and tendonitis Didn't think of that stuff! Perfect! :-) (and I should have, too - my kids have some...) Teresa le Marchant > -=>and molding yourself a built-up handle...) > > If I may offer a suggestion here...Model Magic by Crayola. It's a lightweight > > air-dry clay, and available just about everywhere. > > Chiara da Ravenna > Stonemarche, East > ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 14:09:06 -0500 From: Dawn Vukson-Van Beek Subject: [scribes]: Regarding pendant seals 700 - 900 AD Cindy, Regarding pendant seals and attachments 700 - 900 AD - England from A Guide to British Medieval Seals, P.D.A. Harvey & Andrew McGuinness, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 0-8020-0867-4, pp. 1-4: "In medieval Britain sealing was for some three hundred years the way almost all documents were authenticated. Before the late eleventh century, however, the most solemn grants of land and rights in England bore no seal but proclaimed their authority through their stately script and format and the names of the numerous eminent witnesses, each accompanied by the sign of the cross - some ecclesiastical documents still took this form throughout twelfth century. The crosses, were held to have sacred significance, invoking divine authority and protection for the transaction, whereas a seal might be seen as having only secular, legal, standing; some early-twelfth-century charters bore both and later in the century a chronicler at Ramsey Abbey contrasted the duplicity of his own age, which he used seals, with the open honesty of the tenth century did not. 1" "The earliest English documents known to be authenticated by attached seals are writs- letters- of Edward the Confessor (1042-66) and this may well have been his own innovation in royal administrative practice, perhaps, in moving away from the documents with crosses, marking a new secular approach;8 the earliest known from Scotland bears the seal of Duncan II in 1093-4. But this is not to say there were no seals in Anglo-Saxon England, though how many people owned them and how they were used is not at all clear. Five seal-dies survive before the Norman Conquest; the earliest belonged to Bishop Aethelwold, probably the East Anglican Bishop of the mid-ninth century, and they are all alike in making a circular impression, less than 5 centimetres across, and in the owner's name. A similar seal used by Wilton Abbey down to its dissolution, bore the name of its founder, Edith, who died in 984, and seals in the same style that were used by six other monasteries in the twelfth century may also be of pre-Conquest Origin.9 King Alfred in the late ninth century wrote of the authority implied by a lord's letter and seal, and in early-eleventh-century dialogue for teaching Latin a pilgrim going to Rome ask some senior person for assistance in the form of 'a seal engraved with your name and letter, so that in your name we may be helped and sustained by all'; the reply was that 'you ought to have my seal with a letter - I will not refuse you'. These passages imply that the seal an authority independent of the letter, and it may be that it was not attached but carried separately to authenticate not the letter so much as bearer. This occurred on the Continent and a double-sided leaden seal of Cenwulf, king of Mercia (796-821), may have served this purpose, for it has been suggested that it was never attached to a document.10" "The sealed writs that were first meet in Edward the Confessor's reign may or may not have introduced to England permanent authentication by sealing. Certainly they were entirely new in bringing together elements from diverse sources. The seal's design, the king enthroned, is the same as the seals of contemporary German kings. These, however, were attached to the face of the document; the English royal seal was pendent, hanging on a cord or tag like the lead seals - bullae - used to authenticate letters by the popes and the Byzantine emperors. And like the bullae and like coins, but unlike any other contemporary seals, the English king's seal was two-sided, impressed with a design not only on the front, or obverse, but also on the back, the reverse- again the king enthroned, but with different regalia." 1 M.T. Clanchy, From memory to Written Record (2nd edition, Oxford, 1993) p. 311; W. D. Macray (ed.), Chronicon abbatiae Ramesiensis (Rolls Series; 1886), p. 65. 8 B. Bedos-Rezak, 'The King Enthroned, a New Theme in Anglo-Saxon Royal Iconography', in J.T. Rosenthal (ed.), Kings and Kingship (Binghamton, 1986) pp. 61-2 9 T.A. Heslop, "English Seals from the Mid Ninth Century to 1100" Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 133 (1980), pp. 2-7 10 P. Chaplais, 'The Anglo-Saxon Chancery: from the Diploma to the Writ' Journal of the Society of Archivists, 3, no. 4 (1966) pp. 167-169; W.H. Stevenson (ed.), Early Scholastic Colliquies (Anecdota Oxoniesnsia, Medieval and Modern Series, 15; 1929) p. 26 At Service, to Crown, Coronet and Scholarship, Clare de Saint Denis, Barony of Northshield, Principality of the Northshield, Middle Kingdom modernly known as Dawn Vukson-Van Beek, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States -----Original Message----- From: Cindy Baker [mailto:cebaker@ilstu.edu] Sent: Friday, October 22, 1999 11:02 AM To: dawnv@gryph.com Subject: historical documents This is a fascinating web site. Thanks for posting it to the SCA lists so we could all get a look. I have made scrolls for SCA use, and am working on a couple of projects now. I am considering implementing a few changes in the style of work I do, for instance incorporating the pendant seals. Since you have had so much more exposure to these types of documents, is it your perception that this type of pendant seal is common throughout earlier periods as well? Say 700 to 900 AD? Are the knotted cords attaching the seal to the vellum a particularly English style or was this type of attachment used in continental Europe as well? (The two-toned cords are particularly attractive.) I'll be making a trip to the library for some of the references in your bibliography, just wondered if you had some overall view of how this style of document might be incorporated into SCA use for other time-periods and locations. Thank you again for the great site. I'm looking forward to future updates. Cindy ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 15:10:05 EDT From: Aralyn67@aol.com Subject: Re: [scribes]: Re:My Glair is just gross In a message dated 10/25/99 9:49:12 AM Eastern Daylight Time, RenScribe@aol.com writes: > I wasn't kidding when I said it smelled *BAD* ;-) > > Mine doesn't stink up my scribes box at all. I keep it in one of the glass > bottles with the screw on lids. It is quite ... odoriferous......smelly is > too mild of a term ;-) .... when I open the bottle. I'll have to switch it out of the film canisters and to a jar. And I'll try the incense thing. Thanks. :-) Aralyn ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 19:56:50 GMT From: "Russell Husted" Subject: Re: [scribes]: Carpal and tendonitis >I find that holding the brush for any amount of time gets painful< I do not know if this will help, but hold your brush, not with your for-finger and thumb, but between your for-fingure and middle finger. This allows your hand to remain in a relaxed position. Use as little actual force as possible, and let the natural reistance of the two fingures hold it. It works better with larger shafts. mahee ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 15:32:19 -0500 From: Dawn Vukson-Van Beek Subject: [scribes]: British Medieval Seals I have added a page on British Medieval Seals to my Historical Documents Website. http://www.gryph.com/documents/seals.htm At Service, to Crown, Coronet and Scholarship, Clare de Saint Denis, Barony of Northshield, Principality of the Northshield, Middle Kingdom modernly known as Dawn Vukson-Van Beek, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 16:55:40 -0500 From: jennifer guyton Subject: [scribes]: Re: scribes digest V2 #1157 Hi Everyone... I think I emailed this before, but no one wrote about it and I didnt see it. Can anyone tell me if there is a version of the East Kingdom Scribal Handbook online and if so, where is it? Or..does anyone have a version or a copy they can send me? Please let me know...Thanks.. Lady Caitlyn MacKenzie ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 23:59:08 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?=C5ke?= Eldberg Subject: [scribes]: Medieval Seals One item which we often miss in the SCA is a seal stamp. One can imagine the cost of ordering such a thing from a professional craftsman -- $$$! To remedy this lack, I set myself to find out more about medieval seals and seal stamps. In my ignorance, I imagined that seal stamps were engraved. Engraving means you carefully cut away metal with a small, sharp tool. This turned out to be mostly wrong. Engravings are usually very shallow, not at all the high relief patterns one finds on medieval seals. I was also told that engraving is extremely difficult and takes years of practise. Well, I've heard that one before, and I was not daunted. But it still seemed that engraving might be the wrong method. A silversmith and metal conserver told me that he thought medieval seals had been chiselled. So he set himself to teach me how to chisel. In order to do this, you need a semicircular metal bowl, filled with a mixture of ship's pitch (also known as ”pay”) and English red, a pigment. This forms a semi-hard surface. You heat the bowl until the mix gets sticky, and put a piece of metal plate on it. When it has cooled, you beat the metal with metal stamps and punches to acheive the desired pattern. If you want a deeper form, you must heat the pitch, detach the plate and heat it until it's red hot, every now and then -- otherwise it will break from the strain and metal fatigue. You may also need to work on it from both sides, so the procedure is quite arduous. The result can be magnificent though. My silversmith friend thought that this was how medieval seal stamps were made: the finished plate would be welded to a ring, and its interior filled with lead or pewter to make it heavy. The a handle would be affixed on the top side. Next, I talked to a conserver at the State Museum of History in Stockholm, and to a curate at the State Archives. They had a different opinion. Medieval seal stamps were rough cast and then finished with a combination of engraving and chiseling. Anyone tried? William ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 11:27:51 -0400 From: Dorinda E Courtine-White Subject: Re: [scribes]: Re:My Glair is just gross Ok, folks, not to sound ignorant, but what do you like about glair? We held a little period pigments workshop where the blind led the blind, and we played with period pigments doing the gum arabic, glair and tempera thing. The gum arabic worked fine, and the tempera had a distinct look that was certainly worth reproducing, but our little group didn't see much with the glair (over the gum arabic) that caused us to be very excited. Why do you put up with the smell of rotten glair? Does anyone want to talk about different techniques they use with these different binders? How do you approach white work and shading? How is this different from working with guauche? My apologies if you have covered all this a million times, but I have been a bit out of things for a while! Dorinda, AEthelmearc RenScribe@aol.com on 10/25/99 09:34:32 AM To: scribes@castle.org cc: (bcc: Dorinda E Courtine-White/Auto/Cummins) Subject: [scribes]: Re:My Glair is just gross I wasn't kidding when I said it smelled *BAD* ;-) Mine doesn't stink up my scribes box at all. I keep it in one of the glass bottles with the screw on lids. It is quite ... odoriferous......smelly is too mild of a term ;-) .... when I open the bottle. I'm not sure if the smell goes away when I use it, or if I just get used to it after a while. I've heard of folks using incense or scented candles when they use glair. It won't make the smell go away, but it will help mask it. I'm willing to put up with the smell. I like the results I've been getting with rotten glair as opposed to the fresh stuff. The paint just handles better. In reverence of chivalry and honor... I remain, Eibhlin ni Chaoimh AEthelmearc Ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito. Do not yield to misfortunes but advance the more boldly against them. ------------------------------ End of scribes digest V2 #1159 ******************************