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Let's make a medieval book, shall we? And a scribe and an illuminator can show us how it's done in their own quill and brush!
Bamberger Schreiberbild (Msc. Patr. 5), a 12th C. ms showing most stages of medieval book production. #medieval #manuscripts https://bit.ly/3dVsZQF
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Bamberger Schreiberbild (Msc. Patr. 5), a 12th C. ms showing most stages of medieval book production. #medieval #manuscripts https://bit.ly/3dVsZQF
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We need parchment! If we are in a monastery, like the creators of Msc. Patr. 5, we might do parchment production on site. An animal skin is stretched on a wooden frame and scraped with a half-moon shaped knife known as lunellum. 2/
The parchment after preparation and cutting has to be ruled with a drypoint so that we keep our lines straight and not go all over the page. It also helps us to plan the distribution of the text in the manuscript. 3/
Awesome, w have prepared parchment but we have no text to copy! We need to make a draft on a wax table that can be easily erased and reused if we need to. We might be composing something knew or, as in the case of Msc. Patr. 5 copying Ambrosius. 4/
No writing can be done without a sharp quill! 5/
And now we can sit down and do the copying! We have the exemplar on one side, a knife to scrape mistakes if we make them and our sharpened quill. (Some scholars interpret this vignette as depicting proofreading of the text - note that it is the knife which is in action here) 6/
We also need to illuminate our manuscript. In a great meta turn the illuminator depicted himself painting the page. 7/
After everything is written and illuminated and the parchment folded, we can gather the quires together and sew them together on a special frame. 8/
This one is a bit tricky but it probably depicts cutting the wooden boards for the cover to size. 9/
And here the metal elements of the cover are made. 10/
When the book is ready we can proudly present it... 11/
...and use it in teaching! The next generation of monks eagerly awaits to use our book! 12/
The team applauds!
(They actually pray to archangel Michael, but they surely appreciate our efforts) 13/
(They actually pray to archangel Michael, but they surely appreciate our efforts) 13/
The illustration from the Bamberg manuscript omits some steps (like cutting the parchment, preparing inks - follow @joumajnouna on this, or rubricating) it is nevertheless an amazing example of contemporary depiction of bookmaking (a bit... impressionistic if you will) 14/
There seems to be a strong emphasis on the bookbinding part of the process in this depiction which is actually very fascinating. You can have a look at some medieval book covers in the Bamberg collections here:
https://www.staatsbibliothek-bamberg.de/historische-sammlungen/einbaende/ 15/
https://www.staatsbibliothek-bamberg.de/historische-sammlungen/einbaende/ 15/
If you want to see some medieval-style bookbinding in action you can see me making a fool of myself trying to learn some at #IMC2019:
https://twitter.com/Calthalas/status/1145303328026451968?s=20 16/
https://twitter.com/Calthalas/status/1145303328026451968?s=20 16/
And if you want to know more on why you would normally *not* write in an already bound codex have a look at this thread by @StephanieLahey:
https://twitter.com/StephanieLahey/status/1131028100752429056?s=20 17/
https://twitter.com/StephanieLahey/status/1131028100752429056?s=20 17/
