From: owner-scribes@castle.org (scribes digest) To: scribes-digest@castle.org Subject: scribes digest V2 #1469 Reply-To: Sender: owner-scribes@castle.org Errors-To: owner-scribes@castle.org Precedence: bulk scribes digest Tuesday, March 14 2000 Volume 02 : Number 1469 In this issue: [scribes]: Manuscripts at the Getty [scribes]: TI article Re: [scribes]: TI article Re: [scribes]: TI article ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 18:30:18 -0800 (PST) From: Brian Willard Subject: [scribes]: Manuscripts at the Getty Fellow Scribes: Yesterday I went to see the exhibit on illuminated manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum, and wish to offer a few highlights: 1. The Pieces were from the early 1400s and late 1300 and were mostly psalters and one book of hours (I think). CALLIGRAPHY 2. Roughly half of the pieces had calligraphy which was a very-dark brown which was sometimes a bit transparent, suggesting oak gall ink. 3. A few pieces had both red and black ink, where the red was deep and rich. 4. What struck me most about the calligraphy was that the letters were not picture-perfect, but were 100% consistent. This tells me a bit about the priorities the scribes had, valuing readability and consistency. ILLUMINATION 5. Some of the shading was transparent; a departure from the whitework approach. 6. A few of the pieces from Italy suggested an Islamic influence, having lots of little black "swirlies" and gold leaf dots. 7. Some whitework lines were so fine that one can imaging a scribe laying down pigment with an individual hair. 8. One scene had a harp with strings of shell gold that were so fine that they could not be seen from more than a few feet away. 9. In addition to acanthus leaves, there were quite a variety of botanical forms which were twisted, turned, and shaded in a photo-realistic fashion.(!) GILDING 10. Lots of excellent raised gold in versals and initials. 11. One particularly impressive piece had a scene with a very narrow gilded border around it that PRECISELY the same width all the way around. 12. There were several instances of painting over gold, with one gold region about 6" x 6" with a scene painted on it, and looking like the gold was a single leaf. 13. There was one particularly intriguing piece where a twisting scroll ran through the scene, where the scroll was gold with calligraphy on it. It looked like carbon ink, but may have been oak gall ink, which certainly would not have reacted with gold the way it would have with paper. I hope one or more scribes finds this useful, and that others are able to see the exhibit and perhaps add their own report. The Getty must surely be the crown jewel of Caid. Im Dienst zum Traum, (In Service to the Dream) Gunther von Sachsenhausen __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 14:02:58 +1100 From: Mark Calderwood Subject: [scribes]: TI article Hi everyone, A while ago, as a result of the discussions on scribal appreciation and lack thereof, I volunteered to write an article fot TI detailing precisely what went into constructing a scroll. I've had a few stabs at it, but have run up against a very basic problem: how best to educate the public as to our craft in the most effective manner. A letter to the TI editor seemed to me a bit of whinge.A better approach might be to work up an article describing a scrolls creation step by step, but this has various drawbacks; firstly the differing procedures in differing kingdoms; secondly, using photographs of a scroll at every stage of construction such an article could take up to a year or more to produce; thirdly, Master Ranthulfr did something quite similar to this which appeared in TI less than year ago. So, where do I go from here? Comments, ideas, and feedback would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks Giles Mark Calderwood Calligraphy Artist (02) 4759 1879 http://illuminare.virtualave.net - -------------------------------- "The foolish reject what they see and not what they think; The wise reject what they think and not what they see." Huang Po ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 22:31:15 -0500 From: Sally Burnell Subject: Re: [scribes]: TI article At 02:02 PM 03/14/2000 +1100, Mark Calderwood wrote: >A while ago, as a result of the discussions on scribal appreciation and >lack thereof, I volunteered to write an article fot TI detailing precisely >what went into constructing a scroll. > >I've had a few stabs at it, but have run up against a very basic problem: >how best to educate the public as to our craft in the most effective >manner. A letter to the TI editor seemed to me a bit of whinge.A better >approach might be to work up an article describing a scrolls creation step >by step, but this has various drawbacks; firstly the differing procedures >in differing kingdoms; secondly, using photographs of a scroll at every >stage of construction such an article could take up to a year or more to >produce; thirdly, Master Ranthulfr did something quite similar to this >which appeared in TI less than year ago. > >So, where do I go from here? Comments, ideas, and feedback would be greatly >appreciated. Greetings! Well, now, an interesting question! I've often found myself just verbally describing, at demos, how I make my scrolls, how I first envision a design, then go through books looking for exemplars for ideas to use in my design, then how I will sometimes do preliminary sketches in my sketch book to see if the design ideas will work, then how once I am satisfied, how I draw it out on the scroll, in paper, then ink it in and erase all of my pencil lines, then put down the base colours and then lay on all the other stuff on top, like shading, whitework, etc. Of course, this is *after* I have already laid out and done all of the calligraphy, which in itself is a very time consuming process, to make all of the text fit properly. I try to impress on people how this is nothing that can be whacked out in one evening, how even a simple scroll can run me a good 20-25 hours (four or five hours a night) of work and a more elaborate one can sometimes take weeks, depending on size and elaborateness of design. You say that the procedure for completing a scroll varies Kingdom to Kingdom. Well, perhaps this could be an article done by various scribes from various Kingdoms, describing how they do their scrolls where they live, so others outside of their Kingdoms may see how others do it. Here in the Midrealm, even AoA recipients get a completely hand done and original piece of artwork for a scroll. We've always done it that way. But in other Kingdoms, things are done differently. Perhaps it would behoove the Knowne World to see how scribes throughout the SCA ply their craft and why they should be more appreciated for what they do. Just my idea, anyway................anyone else? Lady Saradwen Ariandalen Marche of Gwyntarian (Akron/Kent, OH) Midrealm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 23:03:46 EST From: CarynvnK@aol.com Subject: Re: [scribes]: TI article Greetings: Mark Calderwood asked for input on the TI article to inform the populace about scribal process. I am in the process of assisting at the creation of an all-new scribes handbook for Artemisia. One of our most loyal and productive scribes (take a bow, Osondrea!) wrote the first draft and I have been adding to it. The sections I have written (beyond a big-pats-on-the-back, Laurel type introduction) are: Why There Are Scrolls Creating Scroll Texts Designing Scroll Layouts Beginner or Budget Toolbox Advanced or Expensive Toolbox The handbook will also contain an annotated bibliography, which I have been compiling with contributions from other artists. BTW, especially on the toolbox parts, I owe a lot to the good folk on this list--THANK YOU. So far this material has not been published, though I hope it will be in the foreseeable future. But if what I have written could be of assistance to you, Mark, or someone else who wants to do the article, I would be happy to share. Just let me know and I'll e-mail it--it's a little too long to post to the list. On the other hand, if anyone feels there is something that absolutely should not be left out of a scribes handbook, we welcome all suggestions. I have looked at the Meridian and Western on-line handbooks. They're wonderful. We want to do that too. Best regards, Vsc. Caryn von Katzenberg Artemisia ------------------------------ End of scribes digest V2 #1469 ******************************