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Pretty medieval manuscript of the day is Noah and his ark, and all the animals. It is another glorious illumination from the Bedford Hours.* I love this illustration. It is so rich with detail, and so...

Hours of Catherine of Cleves, in Latin, Illuminated by the Master of Catherine of Cleves, The Netherlands, Utrecht, ca. 1440, MS M.917/945, pp. 12-13

Pdf cross stitch pattern – Medieval Illuminated Manuscript XI Last photo shows how it looks like the finished piece With your purchase you will receive: A Pdf pattern with black and white symbols A Pdf pattern with colored symbols A JPG picture of the painting A Symbol Key page in DMC floss code Stitches: 256 x 400 Size (on 14 count Aida fabric): 18.29 x 28.57 inches 46.45 x 72.57 cm THERE ARE OTHER SIZES AVAILABLE IF YOU WANT A DIFFERENT SIZE, PLEASE CONTACT ME I will send your pattern by email within 24 hours after the payment Any question or comment, do not hesitate to contact me Happy stitching!!! Thanks for your visit :)

This highly decorated Gospel Book was made in Armenia in the early seventeenth century. An extensive colophon reveals that it was commissioned by a woman named Napat' as a memorial for herself and her family, and the book was consequently given by her to the Church of Saint Sargis in Amida. The artist, Hovannes, and the scribe, Melk'on, are known collaborators on a number of of other manuscripts, and this book is an excellent example of their skill. Richly painted Evangelist portraits and intricate canon tables are complimented by simpler marginal illuminations that often connects to the Gospel passages they adorn. Related manuscripts by this artist and scribe team include Erevan, Matenadaran, no. 1245, and London, British Museum, Add. Ms. 27, 301. To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.

Missel

Plate 7 is another experiment in shading using a drollery image. This one is from Les Heures de Croy (the Croy Hours) currently in the collection of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna. I found a wonderful art blog which had posted a number of drollery images from the Croy hours (http://www.spamula.net/blog/2004/08/drolleries.html). The blog author had scanned the drollery’s from a book, Codices Illustres. As I have been having trouble to properly trace the previous drollery back to its manuscript I thought I’d try one of these instead (Figure 2). I picked this one for two simple reasons: I wanted to use blue (needing to take home the glaze for a different project) and I wanted to use some of the remaining yellow/brown from the previous drollery. This little guy seemed perfect. Figure 1: The vines used as inspiration. (San Marino, Huntington Library, HM 1100, f. 13, John on Patmos) As the intent of this piece is to practice shading in different colours with the glazes I coloured in the back of the image with a 6B greylead and then traced the image onto the plate. Happily, the greylead burns off in the kiln. This meant I could maintain the proportions of the original image rather than having to freehand it like the last drollery. Having completed the drollery I decided the plate needed spiffing up a little. Though I sort of consider plate 6 and 7 to be a set, I didn’t want to do the same vines as I’d get board very quickly. So I cruised some images of illumination and found the perfect thing (Figure 1) and freehanded in onto the plate. In the before firing shot you can see the mess of greylead I left behind trying to get it right. At a loss for how to complete it, I took an idea from one of the Deruta plates and repeated the face of the drollery at the top of the page. Figure 2: The Croy drollery Figure 3: My attempt Figure 4: The plate – pre firing. The greylead is visible Figure 5: After firing. The colours become stronger and shading more evident.

MS M.709, fol. 3r, Gospel book, England, probably Canterbury, ca. 1065

Welcome to the wondrous and bizarre collection of medieval doodles that feature fantastical things like a tiny frog playing the piano, a frail skeleton drinking wine, or a monk and his cat reading together.

Voyages (Jean de Mandeville)

This is a finely illuminated and iconographically rich Book of Hours, made in England at the end of the thirteenth century. The manuscript is incomplete and misbound. Its main artist can also be found at work in a Bible, Oxford, Bodleian Library Ms. Auct. D.3.2, and a Psalter, Cambridge, Trinity College Cambridge Ms. O.4.16. The manuscript contains a number of unusual texts including the Hours of Jesus Crucified, and the Office of St. Catherine. The patron of the manuscript is not clear: a woman is depicted as praying in many of the initials, but rubrics in the Office of the Dead mention "freres". The imagery is marvellously inventive, and the Hours of Christ Crucified are graced with images depicting the Funeral of Reynard the Fox in its margins. In the absence of a Calendar, it is not possible to locate the origin of the manuscript precisely. To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.

Selected pages from the Spätgotisches Musterbuch des Stephan Schriber, a manuscript which appears to be some kind of sketchbook, belonging to a fifteenth-century monk working in South-West Germany, where ideas and layouts for illuminated manuscripts were tried out and skills developed.

Shy lion on top of the text Verdun, Bibliotheque Municipale 0107 - Bréviaire de Renaud de Bar (ca. 1302-1304) (Blancefleur blogging for Sexy Codicology) Sexy Codicology...

This Book of Hours was created in Zwolle, Netherlands, ca. 1470. It belongs to the group of “Sarijs manuscripts,” which was named after the erroneous citation in most works that identifies the manuscripts as belonging to the same group of “Sarijs” instead of “Marijs” on January 19 of their calendars (also found in W. 918). In a study of this group by Lydia Wierda, the author suggests that these manuscripts were copied by students at the school of the Brethren of the Common Life in Zwolle and also decorated and illustrated in that city (although possibly by professional illuminators) during the period ca. 1470-90 (see Wierda, De Sarijs-handschriften). All of the principal decorative schemes and motifs in W.918, as well as the compositions of its miniatures, have close counterparts in other manuscripts belonging to the group. To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.

This Gospel book is believed to come from the Abbey of St. Peters in Reichenau, on the basis of its script, its illumination, and the fact that it contains a dedication image, in which a book is being handed to St Peter. The decoration of the manuscript places it in the so-called Luithar school of Reichenau. Its ornamental motifs compare very closely with those in Munich, Clm. 4453, and its palette is nearly identical to that in the Reichenau manuscripts of the Bamberg Cathedral Treasury. Gold uncials begin each paragraph as well as the introductory words of each chapter, and are a distinct mark of Reichenau manufacture. Its text is written in Caroline minuscule, and it is paleographically related to Bamberg Mss, Bibl. 76 and 22, and also Munich Clm. 4454. As a whole, it is an excellent example of Ottonian book illumination. To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.