Making a Medieval Manuscript Interactive Presentation

Have you ever wondered how a medieval manuscript was made?  Well, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England has put together an interactive presentation that takes you through the entire process, from making the parchment from animal skin to binding the folios.  There are also video clips for some of the more interesting processes (like painting initials).  It's pretty cool.  It's found on the museum's Pharos website, which also has interactive presentations for making a bronze sculpture, a 15th century panel painting, a Japanese print and how to conserve art (specifically a manuscript and vase restoration), as well as images from the museum's collection.  Note, you need Flash to watch the presentations (they include the download link if you need to install it).

Medieval Fragments

Literary Agent Janet Reid posted about this blog post on tweeting, by a medieval historian over at a site called Medieval Fragments.  Intrigued, after reading that post, I started reading others on the site.  And boy, are they fun.  They're on a range of interesting topics, from how scholars can sometimes read previous text on reused manuscript pages, to how manuscript liturgical music would sound when performed, to places manuscripts have been discovered.  And those are just the last three posts. :)

Their 'about us' page states:

This is the project blog of “Turning Over a New Leaf: Manuscript Innovation in the Twelfth Century” based at the Institute for Cultural Disciplines, Universiteit Leiden.  You can find out more about our research interests by clicking this link

Led by Erik Kwakkel, paleographer and intellectual historian at the Universiteit Leiden, the project brings together an international team of researchers  from the Netherlands, Ireland, Canada and America.  Erik is investigating how the physical appearance of the medieval manuscript evolved in the ‘long twelfth century’. Irene O’Daly, postdoc on the project, is looking at the use of classical manuscripts in medieval education. Jenny Weston, PhD student, is examining medieval reading practices. Julie Somers, PhD student, is researching medieval women scribes.

There are nice photos illustrating the blog posts and some fun information on offer.  Wish I'd found this site earlier.

Medieval Manuscripts On The Internet

I stumbled across this website a few weeks ago.  As a Medievalist, I think it's the coolest thing.  It's a website that lists all the Medieval manuscripts / collections / exhibits that have been digitized in North America and Europe! Basically, it's links to manuscript collections from around the world.  I've had the opportunities to visit several manuscript collections (though not actually sit down and 'read' any - my Latin sucks, so I'd just be looking at the illustrations anyway) and they're simply amazing.

For example, want to see what's in a Medieval Bestiary?  Here's one site that is an amalgamation of different manuscripts, with the pertinent information, in this site's case, translated into English.  You can see a gallery of images, which manuscripts mention which animals, etc.  So, you can read up on creatures you've probably never heard of, like Amphisbaena and Parandrus or supposedly common creatures, like pelicans and salamanders.

Pelican - Museum Meermanno, MMW, 10 B 25, Folio 32r

Other sites, like this one show images for an exhibit on Apocalyptic Literature by the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City.  I visited this exhibit the last time I was in NYC, and it's incredible.

Or this site, also from the Morgon Library, that allows you to scroll through one manuscript, the Black Hours (Belgium, Bruges, c. 1470 (MS M.493), a Book of Hours written and illuminated in silver and gold on parchment that was stained or painted black.

"Black Hours," for Rome use. Belgium, Bruges, c. 1470 (MS M.493).

Movie Review: Black Death

Director: Christopher Smith, 2010

IMDb listing

Pros: realistic medieval settings/costumes/ideas

Cons: witch finder is both worldly and naive, inauthentic execution methods

The bubonic plague is devastating England when news of an untouched village reaches the pope.  Convinced that the village is practicing black magic, a witch finder, Ulrich (Sean Bean), and several guards are sent to bring back the necromancer.  A young monk (Eddie Redmayne) who has had an indiscretion with a local woman, agrees to lead them to the remote village in hopes of reuniting with her along the way.

Black Death shows the middle ages in all its dirty, superstitious splendor.  The characters are surprisingly complex, given the way medieval historical films typically portray religion and superstition.

Despite having fantastic (and realistic) costumes and sets, the movie was ultimately disappointing.  The witch finder and his guards, quite worldly at the start of the film, are surprisingly naive when they reach the village, eating and drinking food prepared by people they know killed the previous witch finders who were sent.  

And the execution and torture methods used were... not typical for this time or place.  Witches were burned on the continent.  In England they tended to be hung.  Similarly, crucifixion was specifically Roman and, to the best of my knowledge, not used in England (a quick check of wikipedia varifies my belief but explains that crucifixion was used by more than just the Romans).

The ending was similarly disappointing.  I'm ok with films not having a happy ending, but at least give it an ending.  This seemed to peter off into nothing.

If you want a better - and more satisfying - medieval based movie, try The Name of the Rose.  There's an unnecessarily graphic love scene, but beyond that the film's pretty good.  Or, better yet, since the film messes with the ending, read Umberto Eco's book by the same name.

Author Interview: Anne Lyle

Novel: The Alchemist of Souls

Website: www.annelyle.com

> What is The Alchemist of Souls about?

The Alchemist of Souls is the story of Mal Catlyn, an impoverished Elizabethan swordsman who is plucked, almost literally, from the gutter and given a prestigious job as bodyguard to a foreign ambassador. Quite why he's been chosen, Mal can't fathom - and when he does find out, he wishes he hadn't!

To make matters worse, the ambassador in question is not human but a skrayling. These mysterious creatures have brought exotic trade goods from the Americas, but what is their true purpose in London? Are they the faerie folk of the New World, are they demons as the Puritans claim, or something else entirely?

Soon Mal finds himself up to his neck in intrigue and dark magics, and what he finds out about the skraylings and their unholy powers could lose Mal and his twin brother their lives - and their souls.

> What drew you to writing historical fantasy and why did you set your series in 16th Century Europe?

I've always been interested in history, especially the late medieval and early modern periods. That might be because they were the settings of many of the swashbuckling movies I loved as a kid. As I grew older I became interested in the political intrigue behind the names and dates we were taught in school, and also the everyday life of the period: clothes, architecture and so on.

The 16th century is an important era in English history, as it's when our national identity really emerged as separate from the rest of Christendom, and it was when we stepped onto the world stage by sending men to explore and colonise the New World. Of course the latter part of the century saw a great flourishing of the arts, particularly secular drama, and the explosion of the English language with new words and grammar. All in all it was a very vibrant period of our history, full of storytelling possibilities, but also not so very different from our own in many ways.

> What made you want to be a writer?

I was a voracious reader as a child and teenager, and it just seemed the natural next step to "join in the game", so to speak. Especially when I read books that weren't so great and thought "I can do better than that!".

> If you could, would you change places with any of your characters?

I'd love to change places with Coby, who's a tireman (costumier and dresser) with a London theatre company. My parents met through an amateur dramatics society and I always loved hanging out backstage. Her job is quite creative, though sometimes hard work - she lives disguised as a boy, so she's expected to help haul the chests of costumes around when the company goes on tour - but it would be worth it to see the plays of Shakespeare and Marlowe performed by real Elizabethan actors.

> What were your literary influences for The Alchemist of Souls?

I always loved swashbuckling movies as a kid, so when I got older I naturally gravitated towards historical novels such as "The Three Musketeers" and also swords-and-sorcery, particularly Fritz Lieber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series. Later on I discovered writers like Ellen Kushner and Tim Powers who were blending those two genres in a more sophisticated way.

I suppose those are the most direct influences, but I read quite widely - fantasy, science fiction, historical mysteries, classics like Jane Austen - and it all gets thrown into the mental melting-pot. That's probably why I'm not very good at sticking to a single genre in my books!

> What's the first novel (published or unpublished) that you wrote and how long did it take to write it?

The Alchemist of Souls is actually my first completed novel. Before that I'd made many stabs at novels but never managed to get more than a few chapters in before running out of steam. To break this pattern I did NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in 2006, and whilst the resulting draft was in no way publishable, it gave me a complete story and well-developed characters that I loved and couldn't walk away from.

After that it was just a matter of rewriting. And rewriting. The whole process, from that first draft to sending it out to agents and editors, took almost exactly four years.

> When and where do you write?

I write whenever and wherever I can grab a little time and privacy - I still have a day-job, like most writers, so I have to fit my writing in around that. Mostly that's at home with my laptop, but I've written in the library on the campus where I work, outside at lunchtime by an ornamental lake, in cafes, on buses, trains and planes...

> What’s the best/worst thing about writing?

The best thing is when the words are flowing from your fingertips as fast as you can write them down; the worst is when they won't come at all and you have to keep writing anyway just to push ahead with the story and hit your deadline. That's what sorts out the men from the boys, so to speak.

> What is something you didn’t know about the publishing industry before you had your first book published?

I used to be a non-fiction production editor (I would arrange for manuscripts to be proofread and then send them off to the printers), so I knew a lot more about the inner workings of publishing than most new authors. The one thing I've learned is that promoting your book is even harder work than writing it - I'm in awe of self-published authors who make a success of it without the advantage of a publishing team at their back!

> Do you have any advice for hopeful authors?

Write with passion. If you don't love what you're doing

a) it will lack that vital spark that gets agents interested, and

b) the path to publication is very tough - why go through that for something you don't care all that much about?

> Any tips against writers block?

I don't believe in writer's block. Sometimes you're genuinely too tired, stressed or unwell to write, or burned-out from having just finished a project, and your brain needs a break. That's fine. Chill out, do something else you enjoy, and come back to the writing when you feel better.

If you don't have a solid reason for having a problem writing, then you just need to sit down and get on with it. Don't stress about getting the words right the first time. Don't be afraid to write scenes that you know won't make it into the final draft, if that's what it takes to get back into the mood. Take your city-bred character on his first trip to the beach, or write a steamy sex scene between those two characters who hate one another - whatever it takes. Time spent writing is never wasted, ever.

> How do you discipline yourself to write?

I set myself goals appropriate to the stage of the draft I'm at. That might be "brainstorm five new scenes this weekend" or "edit three chapters this week" or whatever. When I'm on a deadline I'll actually mark up those milestones on a calendar by my desk and tick them off as I reach them (or make a note in red pen when I don't!).

I find that deadlines help hugely. Even before I had them imposed on me by a publishing contract, I set them for myself. For example, I decided I was going to have the manuscript of The Alchemist of Souls finished and submitted to agents in time for FantasyCon 2010 (a UK convention), so that I could relax and enjoy myself guilt-free. I hit that deadline, and my unexpected reward was that I was then able to pitch the novel to the editor at Angry Robot Books, whom I met at the convention.