#Black death medieval manuscripts skin#
In order to clear the skin of flesh and hair, it was attached to a wooden frame, tight like a drum. Preparing parchment was a delicate business. The most common imperfections are holes produced by the knife of the parchment maker.
However, calves, sheep or goats that had given up their livelihood and skin for the sake of medieval readers were not always to blame-and neither were the scribes. Medieval craftsmen were well aware of the varying quality of animal skins, which they used as the basis for their books. Eastern France, the first third of the ninth century (Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, Msc.Nat. : “Through-view” of an animal head initial. Leiden, University Library, BUR MS Q 1, c. The hole contains some white hairs from the cow who “donated” his skin for the production of this book. : A cut, accidentally left there by the medieval parchment maker when he scraped the hairs off the processed skin.
This is because a defect tells a powerful story, shedding light on the book’s production and providing clues about its use and storage post-production.ĭetail showing hair follicles, the uneven edge of the animal skin and uneven coloring on the parchment from a book likely used in monastic education: Boethius, De institutione arithmetica, The Hague, Royal Library, MS 78 E 59, c. Unlike what you may have thought, looking at imperfect skin is far more interesting than studying its perfect counterpart. It is of uneven thickness, and shows staining and a variety of colors (image below). They feel like velvet and make a slight rustling sound when you turn the page-suspenseful whispers that teased the reader (image above). The best sheets have a deep-white color, with a hint of yellow. A scribe producing a book for his own library may be less attentive than one that worked in a monastic community. The quality of the page also had a lot to do with preparation. Paris Bible, The Hague, Royal Library, MS 132 F 21, mid 13th century Perfect SkinĪn example of high-quality parchment. We can still see these defects today, which appear as tiny holes, gaps or dark patches as we read Saint Jerome or Chaucer. Some cows loved to rub against trees while others were particularly prone to insect bites. Like people today, not all medieval creatures had perfect skin. The quality of parchment sheets varied considerably. Like a physician today, the book historian can make a diagnosis by observing it carefully. There is a lot you can tell from medieval skin. Parchment was introduced in late antiquity, when the codex (a book made of double leaves), was born and started to replace the papyrus scroll. The skin of animals (calves, goats, sheep) was turned into parchment, which was subsequently cut into sheets. What was frolicking in the meadow one month, may have been a page in a Bible the next. In this reappraisal, England's urban experiences can be seen to have been closely connected with those instances of urban planning after the Black Death occurring elsewhere in contemporary continental Europe.Parchment (the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly)Ĭonstantinus Africanus, Liber Pantegni, 11th century, parchment, The Hague, Royal Library, MS 73 J 6 Parchmentįor much of the Middle Ages dead cows were the main ingredient for books. These reveal evidence for the particular ‘agents of change’ involved in the planning and development process, such as surveyors, officials, patrons and architects, and also the role played by maps and drawn surveys. Using the conceptual approaches of urban morphologists in particular, the article demonstrates that not only did the foundation of new towns and creation of new suburbs characterize the period 1350–1530, but so too did the redevelopment of existing urban landscapes through civic improvements and public works. Here, instead, a case is made that after 1350 urban planning continued to influence towns and cities in England through the transformation of their townscapes. Conventional historical accounts have stressed the occurrence of urban ‘decay’ in the later fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This article offers a reconsideration of planning and development in English towns and cities after the Black Death (1348).
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