![]() With the oak gall, I hoped to confirm a hypothesis formed when Henry first showed me a selection of rubbed-out manuscript images, in which the pigments had been displaced, but the outlines remained. I then set the outline in indelible oak gall ink, made by hand with foraged materials in 2017. ![]() Next, I transferred the design with a powder pigment, dusted onto the reverse of a thin sheet of paper and pressed firmly onto the vellum with a sharp point (how we did things before the advent of tracing paper). Having not touched the folio of the manuscript I was replicating, I cannot be sure that this was the most authentic choice, but the quality of illumination on hair vs flesh sides would certainly be a worthwhile topic for future experimental investigations. Here, I chose a firm, thin piece with a smooth flesh side, as the gold would adhere best to this. I usually work on a very small scale, so I tend to use vellum offcuts. The first step was choosing an appropriate piece of vellum: sufficiently high quality so as not to undulate wildly on contact with paint, but not so precious as to be a terrible waste, given its intended fate. ![]() Having established what I would need, I began the process of replicating the miniature. Of course, this approach can never be a substitute for pigment analysis, which is the only way to know for sure what you have in front of you, but in cases where analysis proves too expensive, laborious, and even damaging, informed observation can still play a valuable role. Deep experiential familiarity with these materials makes it far easier to recognise and identify what is on a manuscript page for instance, I could be fairly confident that this miniature used gesso as a mordant underlaying gold leaf, and visually distinctive pigments such as minium (a lead oxide) and lamp black (soot and ash mixed with vegetable oil). One of the most useful skills my illumination training has given me is in fact that of observation. I spent some time studying our chosen miniature (on fol.238va of Boulogne, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 142) to establish how best to create a faithful replica with the materials I had. Faced with the obvious problem of not being able to test Henry’s hypotheses on actual medieval manuscripts, we decided to put my illumination training to experimental and destructive use, and create a mock-up miniature to rub out. Henry’s work explores the evidence of tactile interactions between readers and their books, and, in particular, instances in which images have been visibly (and often forcibly) erased. I was recently able to take part in a similar collaboration with postdoctoral researcher, Henry Ravenhall, but in our case, with a focus on gold, ink, and pigment in manuscript miniatures. There have been two wonderful collaborations that use the practices of modern working scribes as tools for historical research: that of Patricia Lovett and Michelle Brown, and of Patrick Conner and Cheryl Jacobsen, both of which focus primarily on palaeography and script. I am now academically trained as a medievalist working with manuscripts on a regular basis, I thus bridge two seemingly overlapping but still quite distinct fields.Įxperiential and artistic knowledge of the processes and materials of illumination is very rarely applied to formal academic study. It therefore seemed a natural step to learn more about the practical side of the production and decoration of medieval books. My undergraduate studies had already inspired a keen interest in the medieval material text, and it was always the illuminated manuscripts that would catch my eye, with their ability to capture and manipulate the subtle interactions between light, metal, and parchment. I now work primarily with gold on vellum, coupled with traditional pigments and foraged inks, to create both reproductions of medieval designs and original pieces. Over the course of a year, I took practical courses in gilding, pigment-making, and Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, and later medieval styles of illumination at the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts in London. What can we learn from practice-led approaches to medieval codicology? Before pursuing my graduate studies in medieval literature, I trained as an illuminator.
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