lost and found

Medieval manuscript of the week is a stunningly bound manuscript from Flanders or France. It is one of the treasures of the Bodleian library, and currently on display in the new Treasures exhibition in the Weston Library.

I’d love to tell you more about the manuscript, but my computer isn’t cooperating tonight, so you’ll have to savour the photo of the luxurious binding and wait for more details later in the week!

Image source: Author’s own. Released into the public domain. The manuscript is Bodleian MS Auct D 4.2

Medieval manuscript of the week is a unicorn! This is an illustration from a late medieval (circa 1550-1560) manuscript produced in Paris. The text is Greek, and the book is rich with eighty illustrations of animals. This image seems to conjure a unicorn by combining a lion with a hint of goat! Isn’t it great?

Image source: British Library MS Burney 97; image in the public domain.

Medieval manuscript of the week is the beautiful Bentivoglio Bible, one of the treasures of the Walters Museum in Baltimore. This lovely manuscript dates from around 1220. I love the vividness of the colours, the elaborate historiated initials, and the lovely  marginal art. Look, a tiny dragon and a trumpeter!

Image source: Walters Museum MS W.151, 188v; Creative Commons 0 licensed.

Medieval manuscript of the week depicts Margaret of York, duchess of Burgundy kneeling at prayer before the resurrected Christ. At their feet is Margaret’s little dog, who looks to be a whippet or greyhound. This is an example of a ‘donor portrait’, depicting the person who commissioned and would use the manuscript. The book is a devotional text titled ‘Dialogue de la Duchesse de Bourgogne à Jésus Christ ’, which was written especially for Margaret. At the end of her life, she gifted the book to her lady in waiting Jeanne de Hallewin.

You can read more about this remarkable manuscript, and its remarkable owner, over here on the British Library website.

Image source: British Library, image in the public domain.

Medieval manuscript of the week is a memento mori, a full-page miniature from British Library MS Egerton 1070, the Hours of René d'Anjou' 

As we approach all hallows (aka halloween), this is macabre and appropriate. A page like this, a memento mori, reminds the owner of this manuscript of their own mortality. The depiction, of a rotting corpse wearing a crown, and clutching a scroll that unfolds to remind the reader that one day they too will return to dust. The illustration reminds the reader to be devout in their faith, and in their good deeds, because one day they would be judged.

Image source: British Library, image in the public domain.

Medieval manuscript of the week is  British Library MS Additional 11695  f. 6, a labyrinth, from a Spanish manuscript dating from the late eleventh century.

Image source: British Library, image in the public domain.

I’m returning to tumblr after a long break! Looking forward to bringing you more beautifully illuminated manuscripts, and celebrating treasures from the middle ages

Internship in the medieval manuscripts department.