In conjunction with Known Word Heralds and Scribes Symposium being held this weekend, there will be a Virtual Heralds Point! See below for signups to join in and consult on names and arms for gentles From across the Known World!
Cheers, Brandubh, Silver Buccle
The SCA College of Arms will be hosting a Virtual Heralds Point for three weeks beginning on Sunday, Jan 24th. Whether you’ve been meaning to get something registered for a while but can’t find your local herald, or you’re a herald looking for a little more consulting work, this is a great opportunity to get something moving. Links to the sign-up forms can be found at http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldspoint/.
The best part of this consulting table is that we’ll be taking electronic payments via Paypal for submissions. So if you’ve been putting off submitting, this is the time to do it! The hope is that it will be very flexible, a submitter can enter their ideas and preferred forms of contact, and a herald will get in touch and try to help them through the process, either slowly by email over the course of a number of days, or in one hit over a zoom meeting, whatever it takes. Sign up today over at http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldspoint/.
Welcome to a new feature of the Æthelmearc Gazette: SCA Shop Talk!
With gift-giving holidays coming and the pandemic making it hard for small businesses to survive, we thought it would be great to help support our merchants by getting the word out about their shops. We’ll post interviews with SCA merchants where we ask them about their businesses and the goods they sell.
If you are an SCA merchant and would like to be featured in a future column, please write to us at aethgazette@gmail.com.
Our first merchant is Lady Nichola Beese, of the Barony-Marche of the Debatable Lands.
What’s the name of your shop?
Lady Nichola Beese
Bee & Elephant
How long have you been in business (online or at events)?
Since June of 2019.
What website do you use? What do you like/dislike about selling through that venue?
I find the software intuitive and user-friendly, which is a major consideration. And Square makes card readers and hardware that are very useful for in-person sales. The major downside is that they don’t take Paypal, which means tracking those transactions separately.
What kinds of goods are you selling?
Handmade parchment, inks, and hide glue. Custom sewing, fabric painting, and embroidery, everything from Birka caps to ornate livery coats to shirts for ten man teams. Handmade pottery, jewelry, scribal tools and supplies, animal bones and hides, and the odd vintage piece that catches my eye. I’m currently working on establishing a partnership with a local potter for some exclusive pieces, and am very excited to have a source for handmade girdle books.
What are your most popular products?
The parchment is by far our most popular item, I think because it is a consumable item. We also have a very popular scribal pigment kit for folks wanting to experiment with making their own paints, and our first original product, the leather-cover needle book, continues to be popular.
Are you also the artisan as well as the seller?
For a number of things, yes. All the parchment, glue, and inks are my work, and so is the custom sewing and embroidery, to this point.
Do any other artisans sell through your shop?
Least Weasel Weaving provides our narrow goods, and I am working on a new pottery line with Terru Ceramics.
Do you offer any kinds of discounts or special offers? If so, what?
We offer periodic, and rather random sales, generally on our entire catalog.
How has business been since the pandemic, and has the pandemic made it harder or easier to make items to sell?
The pandemic, coupled with personal circumstances, made me really focus on parchmenting and establishing the business online the past six months or so.
I’m home more often, which is good for production, but so are the children, which is definitely not!
Is there anything else you’d like prospective customers to know?
I never thought I could be one of those people who turned a hobby into a job, but I really enjoy my work and creating things for the community to use. I love working with people on custom projects, especially the challenge of making reality match up with their dream.
There will be a Known World Heralds and Scribes Symposium held in January of 2021. The event will be a three day online event running January 22 to the 24th 2021. More details will be coming soon for attendees and class registration.
As the term of our Our office will conclude in April 2021, we are seeking letters!
It is time to call for Letters of Intent from the Sylvan Signets office. This position requires a highly organized individual with excellent communication skills both in writing and in person, strong interpersonal skills and the ability to maintain composure under stressful circumstances. It also requires familiarity with platforms such as google docs, spreadsheets, both in google and Excel, as well as being available via phone, text, IM and email on a daily basis. This position needs an average of 20 hours a week, sometimes more for upcoming events such as Pennsic, War Practice and 12th Nights. This position does involve significant travel, as the Signet’s presence is important at Royal progress events, ideally 2 or more Royal Progress events per month.
To this end, we wish to offer an outline of some of the work that is done by the Signet’s office:
Coordinate the assigning of scrolls- including, but not limited to coordinating illuminators, wordsmiths and calligraphers and the transition of the scroll to its final destination.
Keep detailed records of assignments, both current and backlogs.
Providing physical and digital copies of the docket to Their Majesties, their Jewel Herald, substitute Heralds and the Silver Buccle Herald.
Assign, coordinate and monitor assignments provided to deputies. Deputy roles include: Drop-dead, Education, Backlog, Regional, Website, Fundraising, Special projects and the Scribal Retreat.
Teach and mentor scribes through personal contact, retreats, classes, contests, and community building.
Function as a presence and as an administrator for the Scribal Facebook page as well as provide content for the Signet’s web page
Curia reports/attendance
Ordering vellum for each reign and assigning the County and Ducal scrolls
Organize and attend the Scribal Tea at Pennsic
Administer the scribal track at Pennsic through the Education Deputy
If you have any questions about the position, please don’t hesitate to contact us at AEsignet@gmail.com or through IM. If you would like to be considered for the position, please submit your resume and a letter of interest detailing your current involvement in the scribal community and plans of action to further enrich the scribal community through your 2 year term of office. Deadline for letters is December 1, 2020. Letters of intent and resume are to be submitted to the following: ae.king@aethelmearc.org, ae.queen@aethelmearc.org, ae.seneschal@aethelmearc.org.
Thank you,
Co-Signets of Æthelmearc
Mistress Antoinette de la Croix OL OP
THL Shirin of Susa
Today’s article in our series on the Kingdom’s Virtual Queen’s Prize Tourney is about a beautiful entry titled Italian Humanism: White-Vine Illumination on Vellum, made by artisan Serena Milani. As we do not have the ability to converse with our entrants face to face, the Virtual Queen’s Prize Tourney now offers the opportunity to drool over images and read the documentation right there on the Kingdom Ministry of Arts & Sciences website – even to leave feedback! And to learn a little more about the artisan and their thoughts behind their entry, the organizers decided to broaden our traditional entry of object and documentation with personal interviews.
The scroll is a recreated Italian white-vine illumination that is gilded and painted with homemade pigments on a sheet of sheep vellum. It was created for a Fleur d’Aethelmearc recipient with collaboration from Nichola Beese who created and provided the sheep vellum, from Jehan LeBlanc who provided the words, and Magdalena Txoperena for doing the beautiful calligraphy.
Serena’s scroll is a recreated Italian white-vine illumination that is gilded and painted with homemade pigments on a sheet of sheep vellum. The scroll was created for a Fleur d’Aethelmearc recipient. The 11” by 14” sheep vellum is crafted by Nichola Beese. The homemade pigments (ultramarine blue, red ochre, bohemian green earth, and zinc white), gilding (with 24k gold) and illumination, done in the Italian white-vine style, is created by Serena Milani. Later on, words, created by Jehan LeBlanc, were calligraphed by Magdalena Txoperena.
Could you tell me a little about you, your persona.
My persona, Serena Milani, is influenced by the real-life female artist known as Artemisia Gentileschi. During the renaissance, in the area modernly known as Italy, the arts flourished and trade with foreign cultures was prosperous. There my persona lives…
Serena Milani is an aspiring scribe and painter from Milan who moved to Florence to study art. During her time there, she is learning how to make her own paints, gild, and paint beautiful works of art. Recently, she was commissioned to create a scroll for the noble and most honorable Lady Fede di Fiore with calligraphy assistance from Magdalena Txoperena. The scroll was completed and presented on time and the recipient is pleased with the piece.
What inspired you to make your entry?
When I found out that THL Fede di Fiore was to receive her Fleur d’Aethelmearc, I was thrilled to do the illumination. I asked Nichola Beese for sheep vellum, Jehan LeBlanc for words, and for Magdalena Txoperena to do the calligraphy. THL Fede di Fiore was one of the first individuals in the SCA to welcome me and to teach me sewing. She taught and assisted me with creating a beautiful Tudor dress to wear for my first Æthelmearc 12th night in the shire of Abhainn Ciach Ghlais. It was a dream come true! Fede’s skills as a seamstress are remarkable and her art is magnificent. I am very honored to illuminate her Fleur d’Aethelmearc scroll.
THL Fede di Fiore (on the right) assisted me with creating a beautiful Tudor dress to wear for my first Æthelmearc 12th night in the shire of Abhainn Ciach Ghlais. It was a dream come true!
What is your intention with your entry?
My intention with this piece was to create it as historically as possible, in a safe manner. It is based off of Italian humanism: white-vine illumination. THL Fede di Fiore’s persona is Italian, so this style fits her persona perfectly. I created my own pigments and paints. Those were ultramarine blue, red ochre, green earth, and zinc white. I gilded the sheep vellum using homemade gesso and 24k gold leaf. Once the scroll was calligraphed by Magdalena Txoperena, it was framed and then presented to THL Fede di Fiore in person during the virtual Æthelmearc Æcademy Court on 7/11/2020.
Did the entry throw up any unexpected issues?
Overall, this project went very smoothly and came together in a timely fashion. The most challenging aspect of the illumination was designing and creating the knotwork in the Italian white-vine. Knotwork can be tricky. After practicing and drafting, the knotwork turned out lovely. It is fun to follow the vines with your eye.
Did you learn something specific, something you would do differently, or would recommend others to do again?
I really enjoy gilding. I love the aesthetics of gold. I want to continue improving my gilding skills. Furthermore, if I could, I would have loved to use the historical pigments of vermilion and lead white. However, crafting those pigments are dangerous and not safe because of the mercury in cinnabar, which is used to make the pigment vermilion, and lead in lead white. Additionally, I do not live in an environment in which I could safely paint with those pigments.
What motivated you to enter the Virtual Queen’s Prize Tourney?
I entered the Virtual Queen’s Prize Tourney to share my love of the scribal arts. I also want to demonstrate my progress as an artist and receive feedback. I am honored if anyone is inspired by me to create their own historical scribal pieces. Furthermore, the timing worked out well in my favor.
Anything else you would like to share?
I would like to thank Nichola Beese for creating and providing the sheep vellum, Jehan LeBlanc for the words, Magdalena Txoperena for doing the beautiful calligraphy and painting the device and badges at the bottom of the calligraphy and the scribal college for being supportive and teaching me illumination. Ultimately, I want to thank THL Fede di Fiore for being a wonderful teacher, enabling me in the arts and for her friendship.
The proud recipient of her Fleur d’Æthelmearc scroll.
Thank you, Serena Milani, for sharing your wonderful work with our Kingdom’s artisans and populace!
If you would like to see Serena’s entry, follow this link. And if you liked her work, have a question to ask, or a tip to share – please leave your comments with her entry! You can “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of the entry’s page. Their Majesties announced the winners in Virtual Court at the Æthelmearc Æcademy on July the 11th, and the winners are listed in the Virtual Queen’s Prize Tourney website.
From Mistress Antoinette de la Croix and Baroness Shirin of Susa, Kingdom Signets:
We were SUPER busy selecting the winners for the contest, packing up for shipment all the gorgeous backlog scrolls that our talented scribes created and photographing the lot. The category and the winner(s) are listed below. Where there is more than one winner, they are ordered alphabetically.
30 scribes participated in the contest, 28 backlog scrolls were created and another 36 blanks scrolls were submitted for a total of 64 scrolls! Our scribes are the BEST!
Thank you EVERYONE for participating, this has been a blast and has made lots of recipients very very happy!
The Plague – Mistress Luceta DiCosimo
Roman/Greek – Lady Aurelie of Nithgaard
Byzantine – Lady Aurelie of Nithgaard
Tetralogical/Novgorod/Russ – Baroness Bubba Blackhammer, Lady Aurelie of Nithgaard
Miscellaneous – Lady Kolfinna Jodisardottir
Glorious Goldwork – THLady Phelippe “Pippi” Ulfsdottir, Lady Serena Milani
14 Century Acanthus – Sir Ardan Scott
French Quilts – THLady Edith of Winterton, THLady Vivienne of Yardley, THLord Owen Tegg
Wondrous Whitework – Master Caleb Reynolds
Romanesque – Sir Ardan Scott
Psalters – Mistress Abigail Kelhogge, Sir Murdoch Bayne
Squashed Bugs/Flowers – Lady Allesandra Serena Renda of Gibellina
Celtic/Knotwork – Lady Judith Krahe von Schwarzwald
Zoomorphic – Lady Aine ingen Ui Briain
Italian Renaissance – Lady Fede di Fiore
French Renaissance – Lady Nichola Beese
All ink, all day – Lady Eilionora inghean Bhaird, Lady Alianora Bronhulle, THLady Ceindrech ferch Elidir, THL Zosia Kowalewska
Black and white – Lady Arsalan Egesig
Non Traditional – Lady Nichola Beese
Oldest Backlog – Lady Tierrany Rose Orre (AS33)
Most personalized backlog – Lady Grainne Ruadh
Peerages – Baroness Bubba Blackhammer, Lady Fede di Fiore, Mistress Fredeburg von Katzenellenbogen, Lady Nichola Beese, Baroness Shirin of Susa
Visconti Lover – Lady Kadlin Sigvaldakona (we added this category AFTER because Antoinette was so impressed with the THREE Visconti blanks she submitted)
NO entries for Scroll with largest number of scribes working on it
NO entries for marvelous minuscules
Video slide shows of the entries are available at the links below:
Another fine artisan to participate in our Kingdom’s Virtual Queens Prize Tourney is Master Caleb Reynolds, who entered with a wonderful illumination. His entry “Axeman vs Centaur” sure sounds intriguing, and of course we all want to know more! As we do not have the ability to converse with our entrants face to face, the Virtual Queens Prize Tourney offers the opportunity to fawn over images and read the documentation right there on the Kingdom Ministry of Arts & Sciences website – even to leave feedback! And to learn a little more about the artisan and their thoughts behind their entry, the organizers decided to broaden our traditional entry of object and documentation with personal interviews.
Two reproductions of an inhabited initial from the Hunterian Psalter, by Caleb Reynolds.
Could you tell us a little about you, your persona?
I am Caleb Reynolds. I joined the SCA in November 1984 after seeing an armored combat demonstration at the Texas Renaissance Festival. I tracked down my local chapter (Barony of the Stargate) by looking up Richard Lionheart’s number in the phone book. My persona is a late 11th century Norman in occupied Saxon England. My piece is based on the Hunterian Psalter, which was produced in York around 1170, about a century after William’s conquest. While my persona would not have lived long enough to have seen this book, he might have been familiar with similar psalters, particularly as he rose in the ranks of landed nobility.
What inspired you to make your entry?
I like the image. I enjoy the elegant simplicity of the Hunterian Psalter artwork. There is such a diverse variety of images that it is one of my “go to” sources for inspiration. I had no actual assignment in mind for the large image, planning on holding onto the blank until the next assignment I received relating to thrown weapons (the image contains an axe and a spear). I had completed the large image when the Shelter-in-place Scribal War was announced. And since I already had a high-res image of the source material, as well as my version of it, I asked to do the ‘A’ for AEthelmearc’s challenge and, as the first one to respond, I was given that honor.
What is your intention for your entry?
The smaller image, essentially a miniature scroll blank, was sent in for the Shelter-in-place Scribal War. The larger version might be used for the thrown weapons tourney at Summer’s End this year, if normal returns to town. Otherwise, it will be used next year.
Did the entry throw up any unexpected issues?
The larger image gave me the usual anxieties: What am I doing? Why did I pick these colors? I’m going to ruin it. I am satisfied with the end result, but, looking at the scan, my eyes are automatically drawn to the flaws. The smaller piece; that was a completely different set of hurdles. The same second guessing, but this time on actual vellum, which I’ve never worked on, before. For non-scribes, gouache soaks into paper (the larger image was done on 100% cotton paper), and since it soaks in, it stays put as long as you don’t put too much paint on at once. Vellum doesn’t behave that way: the paint floats on top of the material and can move to places you don’t want it, particularly if you tip the paper. Pergamenata (a plant-based vellum substitute) is the same way. My method of dealing with this issue was to apply a thin, thin coat of pigment in each area, to act as a primer. Once the primer coat was dry, subsequent layers of pigment bonded to the primer and was less likely to run to other areas. As small as the vellum piece is, 3×2 inches, I used four or five layers of gouache in order to get the depth of the shadows and the shading.
Did you learn something specific, something you would do differently, or would recommend others to do again?
I might not have chosen this image for the Scribal War. I had thought that it was going to be easy; I had already made a larger version of the image, and a smaller image meant that I would use less paint. The thing that I didn’t take into account was that this is a detailed image, even for a 12th century manuscript. Other entrants used the majority of the vellum, while I made a tiny, tiny scroll blank. I needed to wear off-the-shelf reading glasses in order to see what I was doing. I did make a number of small mistakes that I worked around because I have zero experience with scraping paint off of vellum: I did not want to damage the fragment. It certainly challenged me.
What motivated you to enter the Virtual Queens Prize Tourney?
I hope that I can inspire others to try their hand at illumination. I certainly do not consider myself to be one of the Kingdom’s top illuminators: I can’t do perspective; I can’t get gold leaf to stick to anything other than my hands; my “calligraphy” is basically me trying to print neatly. I am envious of my fellow scribes and their skills. But, I have heard from tons of people over the years that they couldn’t make a scroll as good as {INSERT THE NAME OF YOUR FAVORITE SCRIBE HERE}. I’ve said it, myself. We have magnificent scribes who can make scrolls as good as the Duc de Berry’s book of hours, or Catherine of Cleves’. But some people are under the impression that unless they can scribe at that level, their work won’t be wanted; so they don’t try. It’s like saying, “I will never be as good of a fighter as Sir Maynard, so there’s no point in putting on armor and learning.”
Our Kingdom does not promote this idea (some Kingdoms do, but they aren’t as nice as Æthelmearc), but it’s a mental road block for people. “I can’t do that, so I won’t even try.” I do early period designs, where my artistic skill is no better or worse than the scribe from a 1,000 years ago. I enjoy showing people that if they can color between the lines, and practice some very basic techniques, they can make wonderful work. Both of these scrolls are just 7 colors: Red, dark blue, light blue, green, brown, gold, and a little bit of white. If I can inspire new scribes to try their hands on the early period work, perhaps they will gain the confidence and skills to do the more complicated, later period pieces.
Thank you, Master Caleb Reynolds, for sharing your wonderful work with our Kingdom’s artisans and populace!
If you would like to see Caleb’s entry, follow this link. And if you liked his work, have a question to ask, or a tip to share – please leave your comments with his entry! You can “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of the entry’s page. We have four more weeks to peruse, enjoy and interact with the entrants. Make use of the opportunity, if you can!
All of the black manuscripts that we know about were made during the time of Philip the Good and Charles the Bold from Burgundy, but only seven survive today; among them are the Morgan Black Hours, the Black Hours in the Hispanic Society in NY, the Black Hours of Galeazzo Maria Sforza in the Austrian National Library in Vienna, and select pages in the Hours of Mary of Burgundy in the Austrian National Library. The Morgan Black Hours (MS M. 493) was made in Bruges, then part of Burgundy, (modern day Belgium), in 1475-80 by an Anon. artist in the circle of Willem Vrelant. The book measures 17×12 cm (approx. 6 ¾ x 4 ¾ in.) and has 242 pages with 14 full page miniatures. It is written in gold and silver ink with opaque pigments that stand out from the black parchment.
The black dye process makes the parchment unstable. Instead of lasting for two thousand years, most black parchment will only last for a fraction of that; an estimated 50-600 years and considering that half of the surviving manuscripts are in poor condition that is an accurate estimate. The Morgan Black Hours are currently undergoing conservation to see if the paint can be stabilized as the parchment has become brittle.
The Morgan Library says that this vellum (1) is smooth and shiny. Looking at the digital images, you can see some cracking on the paint, and flaking or uneven uptake of the black on the parchment. Some of this may be due to wear and tear, but I think most of it is original and reflects the natural textures of the surface. Facsimile Finder and Wikipedia both claim that the parchment was dipped or soaked in an iron-copper solution, which is possible as that follows some black leather dye recipes of the time, but judging by the look of the finished product, I would say this was painted on in layers as per Cennini’s instructions.
Dipping can be a problematic process at best, and disastrous at worst; other parchmenters have tried dipping without much success and it is not recommended as it creates a big mess, uses a large amount of dye/ink, and leaves the parchment with a bad texture that is difficult to work on.
Below are Cennino d-Andrea Cennini’s instructions from Il Libro del Arte (translated by Daniel V. Thompson Jr.), written in the late 1300’s, and rearranged by me for process clarity.
“When you want to tint kid parchment, you should first soak it in spring or well water until it gets all wet and soft. Then, stretching it over a board, like a drumskin, fasten it down with big-headed nails, and apply the tints to it in due course, as described above” (below).
(He gives instructions on how to mix colored ink). “Then take a large paint pot, big enough for these ground colours, and put in enough of this size to make it flow freely from the brush. And choose a good-sized soft bristle brush. Then take that paper of yours which you wish to tint; lay some of this tint evenly over the ground of your paper, running your hand lightly, with the brush about half dry, first in one direction and then in the other. And put on three or four coats of it in this way or five, until you see that the paper is tinted evenly. And wait long enough between one coat and the next for each coat to dry. And if you see that it gets shriveled from your tinting, or horny from the tinting mixture, it is a sign that the tempera is too strong; and so, while you are laying the first coat, remedy this. How? –Put in some clear warm water. When it is dry and done, take a penknife, and rub lightly over the tinted sheet with the blade, so as to remove any little roughness that there may be on it.
If it should come about that the paper or parchment is not smooth enough to suit you, take this paper, and lay it on a walnut board, or on a flat, smooth slab; then put a sheet of good clean paper over the one which you have tinted; and, with the stone for burnishing and working gold, burnish with considerable strength of hand; and so, in this way, [p. 10] it will get soft and smooth.”
Using Cennini’s method for coloring a piece of parchment (black), I did a test swatch on sheep with iron gall ink, front and back. It worked well, so I decided to try an entire piece of parchment.
Process:
I received the hide of a downed sheep (that means it died in the field), and it was filthy. The hide was full of holes and discolored on the flesh side. I fleshed (2) and dried it, then soaked it in water for a week to remove as much dirt as possible (at which point it froze, and fortunately absorbed the tannin (3) that would become necessary to make good black parchment – I did not know this at the time). Then I prepared the parchment as per Theophilus’ instructions.
Theophilus, a 12th Century scholar offers a set of instructions:
“Take goat skins and stand them in water for a day and a night. Take them and wash them until the water runs clear. Take an entirely new bath and place therein old lime and water mixing well to form a thick cloudy liquor. Place the skins in this, folding them on the flesh side. Move them with a pole two or three times each day, leaving them for eight days (and twice as long in winter). Next you must withdraw the skins and unhair them. Pour off the contents of the bath and repeat the process using the same quantities, placing the skins in the lime liquor and moving them once each day over eight days as before. Then take them out and wash well until the water runs quite clean. Place them in another bath with clean water and leave them there for two days. Then take them out, attach cords and tie them to the circular frame. Dry, then shave them with a sharp knife after which leave them for two days out of the sun. Moisten with water and rub the flesh side with powdered pumice. After two days wet it again by sprinkling with a little water and fully clean the flesh side with pumice so as to make it quite wet again. Then tighten up the cords, equalize the tension so that the sheet will become permanent. Once the sheets are dry, nothing further remains to be done.” (Reed, 1975, p. 74).
I rinsed it as well as I could and tried a second fleshing on the beam to remove the stains from the flesh side. They did not come out. The finished parchment felt lovely, so I decided to dye it.
Ceninni emphasizes how important it is to use a dry brush. He is working on pre-cut sheets, re-stretched tight like watercolor paper. I left the parchment on the original stretcher rather than waste materials re-stretching and re-cutting.
I used a softer hog bristle brush and iron gall ink as I had a lot on hand. I brushed the ink on both sides in one direction quickly, letting it dry flat on each side. Then I repeated perpendicular to the first application and let each side dry again. I applied the final coat on the diagonal and let everything dry overnight.
It was critically important to keep the ink coats light and dry, because too much moisture caused softening and a permanent gasoline-like stain where I accidentally dripped, even after trying to sop it up. In subsequent experiments with other inks & dyes this has held true, so this is why I doubt the dipping theory – too much liquid is a recipe for disaster on parchment.
I cut the black parchment off the frame and made it into 8×10 sheets. I made the mistake of using a metal ruler, which left silver-point lines on the parchment. I used the offcuts to patch holes with a small amount of commercial hide glue; some patches were more successful than others. This is one of the most even pieces of parchment I’ve made to date (March 2019).
Several people have worked on this black parchment with varying degrees of success. It has a slightly chalky texture, which creates a bit of drag on brushes & pigments, but it seems to be relatively user-friendly. The gold watercolor took beautifully; the cobalt blue watercolor needed titanium white to show. I will definitely try again, though with more purposeful use of tannin next time. Test swatches show that the uptake is not as good without the mordant. (4)
You can read some historic information about the surviving black hours on Facsimile Finder.
Cennino D’ Andrea Cennini. The Craftsman’s Handbook. The Italian “Il Libro dell’ Arte.” Translated by Daniel V. Thompson, Jr. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1933, by Yale University Press.
Ceninni’s instructions for tinting paper and parchment for drawing
(1) I will refer to this as parchment from here on out because all vellum is parchment but not all parchment is vellum; vellum being from calf exclusively.
(2) Fleshing is the process of removing any remaining tissue from the inside of a hide or pelt. Once that is done the hide can be frozen, salted, dried, or moved on to the next stage.
(3) Tannin is used as a mordant to help iron-based dyes adhere to fabric and leather. I inadvertently mordanted this hide, which allowed the iron to chemically bond to the tannin, creating a near-perfect black substrate.
(4) A mordant is a chemical treatment to fiber (in this case skin) that allows a molecular bond between the dye and the fiber. It “fixes” the color in place. Without tannin, the iron does not bond as easily to the parchment.
PART II: The Material Science and Execution of the Gough Map
by THL Máirghréad Stíobhard inghean uí Choinne
The map was created in three phases starting in 1360 c.: first, the outline of Great Britain/ Scotland, second – other towns, and lastly London.
Recent Useful Learnings about The Gough Map – Materials and Non-destructive Tools
What is “digital restoration”? It is a rapidly growing group of techniques employed since the mid-1990’s by universities / museums to restore and study manuscripts / historical documents damaged by fading, fire, water or creation of a “palimpsest”. A palimpsest is when original text / illumination is removed mechanically from the media (i.e. parchment/papyrus) and overwritten with new text / illustration.
The Gough Map has been digitally surveyed by laser, Raman spectroscopy and most recently hyperspectroscopy and fluorescence by the R.I.T. team. Hyperspectral imaging entails hundreds of colors of light as opposed to the red/blue/green light that your digital/phone camera employs and sophisticated mathematics while consulting with the greater team determining the materials of the map in specific areas (see image of Pigment analysis tool for hyperspectral images). The University of Rochester R.I.T. team traveled to the Bodleian Library at Oxford in 2015 and 2019.
The hyperspectral analysis determined that Hadrian’s Wall is not composed of the same material as the red place name text writing. Both contained vermilion but in different amounts. Five unique red pigments were identified in use on the map. Pigments also appear different on the various substrates such as sheepskin vs. lambskin parchment. Five unique green pigments were identified by the R.I.T. team for the open waterways and five more fore inland waterways. Were they used to denote tides? Crossing spots? River depths? The answers to these questions remain unknown today.
One green pigment was shown to be a mixture of indigo (woad) and a yellow pigment. Analysis showed it to not be orpiment but an organic. It was not believed to be saffron due to the expense but possibly buckthorn yellow. Further analysis discovered verdigris (copper-based green) pigment. Similar analysis will also be used to determine which map areas employ iron gall and carbon inks. I will exclusively use iron gall ink.
A typical system is the University of Rochester (R.I.T.) multispectral system. The R.I.T. hyperspectral system has an enhanced light source subsystem (see difference between images of text from Rediscovering text in the Yale Martellus Map, Spectral imaging and the new cartography). Multispectral imaging is used to recover lost text in damaged and illegible manuscripts. Researchers photograph the object under several different wavelengths of light. The images, when processed and combined, allow the researchers to see material undetectable by the naked eye (see image Illuminating the Past). They are portable and have been brought to many international locations: university libraries, museums, monasteries, and archives to name a few.
Recreating the ‘London Vignette’ from The Gough Map What/Why: My desire to recreate a portion of the Gough Map using period materials, techniques and tools resolved into choosing the London Vignette “Plus” (LVP). London is a well know place in Britain including gold leaf (the name “London”, palace spires) and silver leaf (round windows, battlements) adding to the complexity. The palace roof, appearing green, was originally blue woad. Recreating this portion using the latest scientific research, allowed sharing the exciting new field of digital restoration.
To fully use the piece of parchment donated, I enlarged the London Vignette (LV) from the image on the website to the slightly larger image calling this “The London Vignette Plus”.
Parchment: Gail Kelloge Hope (Mistress Abigail, my parchment mentor) donated the 5 by 7-inch sheep parchment she prepared to this project. I have participated in workshops preparing it as well.
Stylus: According to the British Library and Portable Antiquities Scheme, solid lead styli were used for ruling lines/sketching in the medieval / post-medieval periods. A holder called a ‘plummet’ may have been used to hold the stylus. Images are in Christopher de Hamel’s “Scribes and Illuminators (Medieval Craftsmen). Carbon graphite was not used before the seventeenth century. Due to health hazards, a graphite pencil stylus was used.
Templates: An inquiry was made to The Manuscripts Reference Team at the British Library, Randy Asplund (Master Ranthlfr) and via social media A&S site to Mark Calderwood, noted calligraphy expert, regarding images of templates used. The BL and Mark Calderwood directed me to model books. However, knowing the model books existed did not explain exactly how the models were transferred to the parchment. This is explained in “Introduction to Manuscript Studies” by Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham. As early as the eleventh century, “pouncing” (not pouncing for preparing parchment) was used. A copy from a model book was selected. Another piece of parchment was placed beneath the original. Pricks with a knife point/needles penetrated both pieces of parchment outlining the figure. The parchment underneath was removed, placed over new parchment and rubbing with a cloth bag filled with chalk/ powdered pigment. A sketchy outline was left on the parchment below. Simply connecting the dots completed the duplicate model. Since the single buildings on the Gough Map only have four pricks, lines were most likely hand-drawn to complete the building. I developed a parchment template for use with a bag of pigment/needles to reproduce the repeating single buildings.
Binders/Mordants for Metal Leaf and Calligraphy: Reflectance FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Analysis) and hyperspectral analysis has been unable to determine the difference between egg white glair and gum arabic in period samples/modern control samples. In the areas identified by the R.I.T. team as using a binder, I used gum arabic for both gouache and ink. Cennini’s classic recipe for gesso mordant for metal leaf may very well have been used on the Gough Map as it was certainly in use during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Without the mordant identified, Cennini’s slaked plaster recipe was used which is a combination of honey, slaked plaster, hide glue, Armenian bole pigment and water. It was prepared by my Laurel, Roberta McMoreland (Pam McDermott) and me.
Gold Leaf: The gold leaf used for the gold elements is 24 carats as was used in period. Shell gold I prepared in the medieval manner was used to touch up to the edges of gold leaf in the medieval manner as described in my paper “Preparing Shell Gold”. (image Gilding before cleaning – photo by author) Silver Leaf: The silver leaf used on elements such as the battlements about the London palace or “castle” tarnished with age. This is a well-known phenomenon for silver gilding. It will not appear tarnished in the reproduction – at least not initially.
Pigments: A table included in the full paper was devised showing how many pigments were identified by scientific analysis by the R.I. T. team, which pigments were identified in the LVP, their modern substitutes if used, binder used, and some additional notes. A nominal ratio of 1:10 with enough water to make a preparation roughly like melted ice cream was used for gouaches. Some pigments must be mulled with water using a glass muller against marble before use as was the case with the woad (indigo) pigment.
Preparing to mull the woad (indigo) pigment and gum arabic with glass muller against marble slab. (Photo by author)
Pigments: mixed into gouache with gum arabic with burnisher. (Photo by author) Note that disposable gloves and a disposable mask were used when preparing the vermilion and for post-drying handling due to toxicity.
Pens/Ink: Undoubtedly quills were used to prepare the map which was attached to a stretcher when being worked. I am using goose/crow/turkey quills prepared by Robert Meyer (THL Robert L’Etourdi) or myself. I am also using oak gall ink prepared also by Robert Meyer since the complete study of the inks used on the map is incomplete. However oak gall ink is one of the inks common to the era. “Vermilion” red ink was prepared by mixing gum arabic with vermilion pigment in about a 1:20 ratio then with 30 parts of water. As discussed by Christopher de Hamel in “Illuminators and Scribes”, since making quills was such a common and oft used skill in the middle ages, no known primary source documentation is known describing the process.
Burnisher: When burnishing the gilding, I used a dogtooth burnisher with an agate tip – very hard and smooth and shaped like a dog’s tooth with wooden handle. This approximates the tool used in period except the burnishing tip was actually a dog’s or a cow’s tooth.
Calligraphy Hands: T. M. Smallwood noticed that the revisor scribe of the map uses Secretary letter forms. He made this part of his argument for a new, later date of the map. The Secretary letter forms do show up only in the revised part of the map and not in the text in the original scribe’s hand. They do not appear in place-names in Scotland for example. The LVP is from the part of the Gough Map that included revisions. The Anglicana script was used by the first scribe/calligrapher. The place names that are on the LVP were all overwritten by the revisor and have letters characteristic of the Secretary hand such as the “R” in Reigate.
Parchment: Needlework as determined from inquiries to the Bodleain, the library took possession of the map when the material joining the lambskin and sheepskin was already missing. The seam is not part of the LVP. Using the “Ask a Librarian” at Bodleian Library to find out about the seam-joining material and the exact size of “The London Vignette (LV)”. I interacted with Drs Nick Millea, Oxford Map Librarian at Bodleian Library, renowned expert on the Gough Map and author of The Gough Map: The Earliest Road Map of Great Britain and Marinita Stiglitz, Head of Paper Conservation at the Bodleian to determine this information. Unfortunately, they did not have the dimensions of the LV, so I interpolated the size using a poster from the Bodleain.
What Went Well and Not So Well
Well
• Drawing on the sheepskin parchment went smoothly. Once the parchment was pounced with gum sandarac, it accepted pencil, quill ink and gouache most readily. Pencil and ink were easily removed by scraping.
• Initial mixing and testing of the vermilion ink were successful when used with the quills but the ink was unstable.
• Finding the place names using the interactive map was successful but time-consuming. Understanding that you could search on part of a medieval place name i.e. “gate”, and the map would display all the locations including those letters in the name place on the map, I was able to identify the places in the LVP thus making sense of the calligraphy identifying familiar locations such as Rochester Cathedral. When a place name could not be located, it was omitted for future addition. Place names used are included in the full documentation.
• Mixing the pigments with dry gum arabic and water went very well. Mulling the woad (indigo) pigment with gum arabic using a glass muller against marble slab resulted in much finer pigment particles. The vermilion pigment required a drop of isopropyl alcohol to reduce the surface tension allowing particles to mix with water.
Not so well
• Drawing small figures with quills being left-handed and not yet having perfected beveling was a challenge. Blotting ink in roof corners for example was corrected by scraping excess ink and burnishing the parchment laying the nap flat.
• Although initial mixing of the vermilion ink tested successfully, overnight, the ink settled. Perhaps additional gum arabic /egg glair or a drop of isopropyl alcohol would have helped. In the future I would experiment with formulations and vermilion hues to match the color better perhaps using spectral data from the actual map analyses.
• Gilding in low humidity conditions is always a challenge and with period style a greater challenge. The gold leaf adhered better than the silver leaf despite attempts to increase the humidity in the room using steam. Given the dry, cold weather and impending snow, this was not unexpected. If time allowed, I could have scraped the gesso off, added a drop or two of honey to it and started over.
• Knowing how much sap green to mix with the woad (indigo) to achieve the green for the hills was a challenge. I matched the color as best I could to the poster in tests, but that does not mean it reproduces what was originally used. Controlled tests of various mixtures submitted to simulated aging might be able to spectrally find the original mixture. An inquiry to Dr. Messinger regarding the green pigment analysis was not answered until after completion.
Conclusion
The Reproduction:
Image: My reproduction of the Gough Map London Vignette Plus (Photo by author).
Further Developmental Studies
There are years of analysis and discovery to be done on the map and other historical documents including: minimizing imaging light exposure to avoid possible long term damage, spectrally “unmixing” pigments, recovering text and damaged areas using fluorescence, automating identification of pigments and creating an affordable imaging system (the R.I.T. systems cost about $50,000 – the goal is $2,000 each).
Rochester, N.Y., located in the Barony of Thescorre, is establishing itself as the world center for recovery of historical documents – whether they have been damaged by age, smoke, water or are palimpsests. The R-CHIVE (Rochester Cultural Heritage Imaging, Visualization and Education) group centered in Rochester meets (also online) alternately at R.I.T. and the University of Rochester and is a collaboration of university researchers, volunteers and students from across the globe. They have held conferences for the past three years in Rochester.
A UNESCO UK Memory of the World Treasure
Cultural heritage imaging is increasing in importance each year. The Gough Map is an excellent example. On 5/23/2011, the Gough Map was added to the UNESCO United Kingdom “Memory of the World Treasures” register. “The UK Memory of the World Programme is part of a worldwide initiative established in 1992 to ‘guard against collective amnesia, calling upon the preservation of the valuable archive holdings and library collections all over the world ensuring their wide dissemination.’.”19
Future Opportunities for Me with the Gough Map
This project was about the journey through using period tools, methods and materials augmented by modern scientific analysis of the materials not about the appearance of the finished map segment. I do hope to at sometime in the future reproduce the entire Gough Map including delightful elements such as the ship off the Orkneys. Not only does the reproduction improve my cartography/illumination skills, but the associated research broadens my understanding of the history, paleography and codicology of the exemplar, its preparers and users.
I continue my volunteer opportunities with R-CHIVE which assists me in accessing information on recent discoveries. Last year I was able to engage Dr.’s Messinger and Easton with personnel at my company, L3Harris Technologies, to discuss beginning enhancements for this use to the ENVI ™ software my company produces. This software is used to “stitch” all the images together for the non-invasive analyses. My dream is after training at the 2020 conference that R-CHIVE will host, to be able to assist in a hands-on fashion in addition to my current discussions as a volunteer with R-CHIVE for future analyses.
Interactive Website
The Gough Map Project developed a wonderful interactive website where users can explore physical aspects of the map itself as well as access papers, presentations, articles and links to other research material about the map. During the A&S competition, I shared access allowing judges/visitors to experience the interactive site onsite.
Image: The Gough Map Decoded entry at Kingdom A&S Championship by THL Máirghréad Stíobhard inghean uí Choinne, member of the AEthelmearc Parchmenters’ Guild.
This article is an abbreviated version. The full documentation, including the full bibliography, can be downloaded from here.
Abbreviated Bibliography
1. Bai, Di; Messinger, David; Howell, David, A Hyperspectral Image Spectral Unmixing and Classification Approach to Pigment Mapping in Historical Artifacts, Journal of the American Institute of Conservation (JAIC), pp. – (March 10, 2019)
2. Cennini, Cennino D’ Andrea. Il Libro dell’ Arte (The Craftsman’s Handbook. Trans. Daniel V. Thompson, Jr. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1933.
3. Delano-Smith, Catherine,Understanding the Gough Map: an application of physics, chemistry and history, accessed 9/24/19
4. Easton, Roger L.; Sacca, Kevin; Heyworth, Gregory; Boydston, Kenneth; Van Duzer, Chet; Phelps, Michael, Rediscovering text in the Yale Martellus Map, Spectral imaging and the new cartography, 7th IEEE International Workshop on Information Forensics and Security, Rome, Nov. 19, 2015
5. Kelloge Hope, Gail, Parchment – Making Basic Instructions, 10/2019
6. Messinger, David, Hyperspectral Image Analysis of the Gough Map of Britain (1410): Who? What? Where/ When? Why? And How?, Chester Carl Center for Imaging Science Lecture, R.I.T., 1/23/2019
7. Illuminating the Past, Rochester Review March–April 2017, Vol. 79, No. 4
8. A pigment analysis tool for hyperspectral images of cultural heritage.
9. Vetter, Wilfried, Latini, Irene, Schreiner, Manfred, “Azurite in medieval illuminated manuscripts: a reflection-FTIR study concerning the characterization of binding media” Heritage Science volume 7, Article number: 21 (2019)
10. Wilcox, Margaret, “Preparing Shell Gold”, Class Handout College of Three Ravens 2010; Fall Academy 2010; Pen V. Sword 2014, Summer Academy 2014; 2/15
As the term of our Our office will conclude in April 2021, we are seeking letters!
The hyperspectral analysis determined that Hadrian’s Wall is not composed of the same material as the red place name text writing. Both contained vermilion but in different amounts. Five unique red pigments were identified in use on the map. Pigments also appear different on the various substrates such as sheepskin vs. lambskin parchment. Five unique green pigments were identified by the R.I.T. team for the open waterways and five more fore inland waterways. Were they used to denote tides? Crossing spots? River depths? The answers to these questions remain unknown today.
