From: owner-scribes@castle.org (scribes digest) To: scribes-digest@castle.org Subject: scribes digest V5 #74 Reply-To: Sender: owner-scribes@castle.org Errors-To: owner-scribes@castle.org Precedence: bulk scribes digest Sunday, March 11 2001 Volume 05 : Number 074 ======================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list, send email to with unsubscribe scribes-digets in the body of the message. Leave the subject line blank. Do not include any additional text. [scribes]: My Day at the Newberry Library ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 16:34:21 -0500 From: "Helen Schultz" Subject: [scribes]: My Day at the Newberry Library Greetings to the SCA Scribes from Meisterin Katarina Helene von Schoenborn (KHvS). Yesterday, I visited the Newberry Library (their first annual Associates Day) and found out two rather interesting items. The first was (and I bet RanthulfR already knew this and told me about it, but it just didn't sink into my brain) that often white lead turned dark gray or even black on manuscript pages. So, even some stuff that many of us were saying was just tarnished silver leaf might very well have actually been white lead paint. I keep thinking of those ugly black clouds the angels stand on in the Duke de Berry's Grand Hours. I always assumed they were just tarnished silver leaf, but perhaps they are actually "blackened" white lead. The second was a new Medieval manuscript the Newberry has acquired. It is a mid-17th century model book by a monk of Italian decorated initials. There were two initials per page, done on a lovely laid paper. The initials were about the size of a 3.5" floppy disk. They were beautifully executed, and you could tell when he used silver leaf, as it had turned to a lavenderish gray. The two initials we first saw were both leafed, one with silver and the other with gold. The gold was still nice and "gold," the silver was as I just described. The book itself was about 8"x 11", with the binding on the 8" length. I didn't get to look at the binding to see if it was the original, as it was out for display for the day, but as soon as I can get back up to Chicago, I plan to do so. One of the other sessions at the Newberry yesterday was about a future exhibit they are planning. It will be held in October 2003 (yes, a long way off, but they have to do their planning now to get grants and make arrangements for loans) and will coincide with Queen Elizabeth I's death (I think that was what they said). They are going to be loaned one of the large portraits of QE1 from the British Royal Library!! But, what was really nice, was they had out a couple Italian Madrigal books from the period (which will go into the exhibit) and I fully intend to look at them more, as they were illuminated, too. They had out only two of the four they own (the fifth one is at another library/museum), but my interests were surely piqued. These books were about the same size as the model book I just described. The shell gold and gilding on the pages were a wonder to view. So, now, I am all exited about going back to view their "goodies." Another book they had on display (but I didn't get to look at much), was one done in Germany in the 14th century (I think that was the timeframe). KHvS =================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list, send email to with a blank Subject: line and unsubscribe scribes in the body of the message. Do not include any additional text in the body. ------------------------------ End of scribes digest V5 #74 ****************************