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In the Medieval period and areas the SCA covers, reading and writing was a
skill learned by few. The professions with the most readers and writers were the
priests and their counterparts the nuns. The next largest group was the scribes,
from which the college of heralds came. Many of the nobility did have some
training as it was wise for a noble to know what was written especially in
treaties or contracts. The scribes and nobles got their training from the
priests.
The limits on the learning to read and write were totally dependant on
the free time you would have. Those who were "tithed" to the church as
children, had the time to learn to read and write as it was necessary to
properly learn and study the Bible, the letters and writings of the church
fathers, as well as the writings of your founder and leaders of your
order. This was needed by the priests to properly administer the mass and other
sacraments. The nobilities' ability to read and write is evidenced by the
correspondence we use as research today into the lives of the medieval time
period, and by the Psalter and Book of Hours . This was a book that
allowed the laymen to read the Psalm for the day and pray the appropriate
prayers at the proper times of the day for meditation, penance, protection from
evil, safety while traveling, blessing on their work, etc.
It is the Psalter and Book of Hours, copies of the Bible, Haggadahs
and marriage contracts that give us our best examples of Illumination today.
Those from the 1300s and later are what have survived today, as parchment,
vellum and paper do not keep well. Only items of great personal value
would be taken care of in a manner to preserve them, and these items are in that
realm of importance. Marriage contracts are great examples as they reflect the
period and area they were written in illumination style. There are surviving
examples of these found back to 500 B.C. There are many non-sacred illuminated
manuscripts dating from later time periods as these survived the ravages of
time. An examples I have seen is a textbook for doctors showing which herbs to
use for different ailments when leeching does not work (the medieval equivalent
of take two aspirin and call me in the morning.)
An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented
by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature
illustrations. In the strictest definition of the term, an illuminated
manuscript only refers to manuscripts decorated with gold or silver. Most
illuminations use the basic colors of heraldry - red, green, yellow/gold,
blue, silver/white and black.
Calligraphy today is using traditional/contemporary alphabets or manuscripts
to generate a work of letter art for an important document. Altho there are
computer alphabets that replicate the traditional alphabets, these are generally
done by hand. There are many books and articles online about the manuscripts for
different time periods and cultures.
The tradition of using illumination and hand written documents continues
today in special documents such as in the forms of wedding and event
invitations, font design/ typography, original hand-lettered logo design,
religious art, various announcements/ graphic design/ commissioned calligraphic
art, cut stone inscriptions and memorial documents. (See http://www.saintjohnsbible.org/
for a modern illuminated hand written Bible being done.) The SCA continues this
tradition in the use of illuminated manuscripts for their awards. Examples of
these are below with links to more information in illumination in the SCA
following.
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For more information, contact our Chatelaine - Aliyah at chatelaine@weldlake.org
or click on the following links:
Middle
Kingdom Scribal College
Randy Asplund
Barony of Thescorre (in
Kingdom of AEthelmearc) Scribes
Leaves of Gold - Treasures of
Manuscript Illumination from Philadelphia Collections is a project of the
Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special
Collections Libraries.
Moleiro - Fine
Art, Rare Books, Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts, First
Editions, Maps and Atlases, Natural History, Masterpieces of Book Illumination,
Books of Hours, Medieval Medicine, Facsimile editions and Replicas, A.D. 500 –
1465.
The
Book of Hours -The Willamette University Archives and Special Collections
include this 15th century book of hours that can be viewed online.
Book
of Kells - The Book of Kells was written around the year 800 AD and is one
of the most beautifully illuminated manuscripts in the world. It contains the
four gospels, preceded by prefaces, summaries, and canon tables or concordances
of gospel passages. At Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
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2013.