Les Enluminures

Medieval measurement developed as a bodily reference tool, often relying on an object’s relationship to the human body to determine its size, scale or weight. Today, measurement may seem like a natural part of our lives, but have you ever wondered how a unit of space or volume was developed? What made medieval measurement so different from the way we conceive of measurement today? And what made measurement sacred to medieval people? 

Short winter days are now upon us. Usually we don’t consider the actual day to be shortened, however. There may be less daylight, but the measure of the day does not change throughout the year. Why is this? The transition between seasons often makes us more aware of time and the absurd ways we choose to apportion time during the day. Why do we structure our days around dates and increments instead of around feasts and labor? How were days and hours understood in the medieval period? Was time measured differently durring the Middle Ages in comparison to contemporary, “equal” time standards? Find out today, and explore the illumination of a fabulous November calendar page from The Hours of Le Goux de La Berchère. 

Objects survive long after their original owners have passed away, living an extensive, dramatic, and often colorful life as they pass from owner to owner. This social life is often referred to as an object’s “biography.” Join us today to explore object biography and the life of a special book of hours this week in the Les Enluminures podcast. We will explore the history of a previously unknown and unpublished book of hours.  This manuscript is a discovery that comes to us from Lyons’ Golden Age, one of the most important centers for culture and industry in Europe at the time of its production. The workshop of one of the most important illuminators in the city at the time - the Master of the Entry of Francis I - produced this manuscript which has lived a rather sheltered and prestigious life. Indeed in its rich history it belonged to the great Southern bibliophile, Charles de Baschi, Marquis d’Aubaïs who contributed its elegant binding and armorial bookplates.

Resources

Book of Hours by the Workshop of the Master of the Entry of Francis I.

Life in the Medieval period was difficult, filled with spiritual and physical hardships. Medieval people coped with their often difficult situations through ritual and, sometimes, through magic! In this last episode of October, we return to our text manuscripts to examine charms. What are charms? How do we define them within the spectrum of verbal magic? What is the difference between a charm and an amulet? Find out on this episode of the Les Enluminures Podcast.

Resources:

Illustrated Textual Amulet TM797

Oratione devotissima (Devotional Prayers)

Amulet Rolls and female devotion in the late Middle Ages 

The Office of the Dead is a crucial inclusion in the Book of Hours, but it is often ignored when it comes to discussions of manuscript illumination. Today we discuss the use and history of the Office of the Dead. Why is the Office of the Dead included in Books of Hours? How is the office of the dead related to the rise of trick-or-treating on Halloween? And why did the Office of the Dead develop? Who used this prayer cycle, and why?  

Resources

The “Ideal Death” in a Book of Hours

Book of Hours with a Mass for the Dead illuminated

Job on the Dung Heap at the beginning of the Office of the Dead

Continuing our October season programming, today we examine a pectoral cross and the “Talisman” of Charlemagne. Just what was a medieval amulet? Did the church accept the use of talismans and charms? Who used and wore precious stones? What is the difference between a textual amulet and a material one? Find out the answers to these questions and many others in today's episode.

Resources:

Reliquary Pendant with Christ on the Cross

The Talisman of Charlemagne: New Historical and Gemological Discoveries

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Today, we kick off our October season programming by exploring Manuscript TM111:  Dell’idea del futuro, or On the idea of Future, an unpublished treatise on chiromancy. What is Chiromancy and how is it related to fortune telling? Can you read and use this manuscript yourself? How is Chiromancy related to Carl Jung? Find out in today’s episode. 

Resources:

Les Enluminures TM1111: Dell’idea del futuro (On the idea of Future; unpublished treatise on chiromancy) 

Britannica “Palmistry”

Scribes were key players in the recording and preservation of knowledge in the medieval period. But who were they? What did they do and how did they live? What distinguishes a scribe from an author, and what professions most closely resemble the role of the medieval scribe today? Find out this week on the Les Enluminures podcast. 

Books: 

At the core, a medieval manuscript is composed of bifolia sewn together and bound. But what materials were these pages made of and how does that affect the way you should treat your manuscripts today? Listen in as we discuss paper, parchment, papyrus, amate and wax tablet manufacture during the process of making a manuscript. We will provide some helpful tips on parchment preservation and suggest a few details to look for when trying to identify parchment or paper. 

Resources:

On holes and repairs in manuscripts at the Morgan Library & Museum: ​​https://www.themorgan.org/blog/holey-moly-historical-damage-and-repairs-medieval-manuscripts 

A blog on the parchment making process by Meliora di Curci:

https://scribes.lochac.sca.org/articles/parchment.htm 

Another excellent resource on parchment production:

http://web.ceu.hu/medstud/manual/MMM/frame3.html 

Laura Light, director and senior specialist, Text Manuscripts at Les Enluminures, takes a moment today to discuss Les Enluminure’s textmanuscripts.com. What is a text manuscript, and what makes them different from illuminated manuscripts with text? Who buys text manuscripts and how are they used now? Join Laura to discover the answers to these and many other questions. She also discusses the details of some of her favorite manuscripts currently offered for sale on the text manuscript site including an eleventh-century French Pontifical with a text detailing the reconsecration of a sacred space where blood has been spilled, two presentation booklets for Heinrich Conried that include neo-medieval illuminations of Parsifal’s grail and Salome’s veil, and a manuscript of Thomas Aquinas’ Commentary on the Ethics of Aristotle with illuminations by Leonardo Bellini, the most important Venetian illuminator working between 1460-80. 

Resources:

www.textmanuscripts.com

https://www.textmanuscripts.com/medieval/thomas-aquinas-sententia-60884 

https://www.textmanuscripts.com/medieval/conried-presentation-booklets-141379 

https://www.textmanuscripts.com/medieval/primitive-pontifical-manuscript-80108