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).