My husband and I played for a short while in the ECS, Inc. where he served as the Laurel King of Arms.  This scroll was in honor of his appointment.  I entered it as a masterwork, but the peerage was unimpressed, calling it bland and boring.  The skill and concentration that it took me to achieve this scroll in the mediums which I had chosen was immense.  The research into period documents extensive.  No matter what was said about this scroll, I consider it to be my crowning achievement, a study in the simple elegance of period documents.  The flashed washed out the picture a bit, I'll try and get a better shot in the future.  Below you will find the main body of my documentation I presented for the piece.  It also contained 4 appendices all written by myself, which are not included here. 

Introduction

The heart of this project lay in creating a design that was pleasing to the patron, had the feel of a historical document, expressed the wide range of time and land covered by the Empire of Chivalry and Steel, and was still beautiful enough to be framed and displayed as a piece of art in his home. The technical difficulties in working with the materials that were chosen to convey the soul of the Laurel King of Arms Scroll’s visual design, make this piece a worthy accomplishment in calligraphy and illumination.

Throughout history, we have been left with a rich legacy of documents from the Middle Ages. Not only do we have the sumptuously illustrated and illuminated prayer books (books of hours) but we also have everything from personal letters and papal decrees, to the granting of manorial lordships and kingdom offices. The beauty and functionality of these letters and documents creates a whole new world of calligraphy and illumination entirely different from the common practice in today’s reenactment communities of the beautiful "books of hours" scrolls.

In stepping outside the "Book of Hours" approach to scroll production, I found a new set of rules that would apply to the execution of the Laurel King of Arms document. Gone were the typical floral framed border and almost typographical hand. Medieval documents of a more legal nature were often written in a hasty cursive script, and the illumination would need to be minimal to keep the essence of the piece true. The wealthiest of men could afford highly skilled secretaries who wrote their documents in magnificent scripts. The most notable of these is Flammel, secretary to Jean, Duc de Berry. Flammel not only created masterpieces out of the legal documents that he wrote, but his brilliance inspired an entire style of flourished writing referred to as "Cadel Lettering". For the Laurel King of Arms Scroll I wanted to create the feeling of a legal document of the Middle Ages.

This scroll would be in recognition of the creation of the new Laurel King of Arms of the Empire of Chivalry and Steel, which would historically have been a legal document. As such, the illumination was confined to the registered heraldic arms of the Empire and Kingdoms. Since this is an Imperial office, the Imperial device was centered in the middle of the piece, to serve as the main focal point, with the Arms of the three kingdoms across the bottom. The heraldic design not only serves to illuminate the scroll, but the three kingdoms arms act as ratifying seals for the kingdoms which the Laurel King of Arms watches over. Historically, the office of King of Arms held great importance within a Kingdom, and to amplify the implied stature of the patron I decided that the illumination should be done entirely in gilding and ink.

 

The Materials

 Foundation

Before the common use of paper as a writing surface, indigenous peoples of the world recorded information on genealogy, religion, divination, and government on many different natural substances such as rocks, leaves, and fabric. Long strips of tree bark, sometimes as long as thirty feet, were also used to record information. The first record of paper is in China circa 105 AD. However, recent archaeological investigations place the actual invention of papermaking some 200 years earlier.

"Early Chinese paper appears to have been made by from a suspension of hemp waste in water, washed, soaked, and beaten to a pulp with a wooden mallet. A paper mold, probably a sieve of coarsely woven cloth stretched in a four-sided bamboo frame, was used to dip up the fiber slurry from the vat and hold it for drying. Eventually, tree bark, bamboo, and other plant fibers were used in addition to hemp". (IPST website)

It took nearly 500 years for papermaking to travel from Asia to Europe, by way of what’s modernly referred to as the Middle East. Many Chinese papermaking materials, such as rice and bamboo, were not available to Middle Eastern papermakers, who substituted flax and other plant fibers instead. They also developed a human-powered trip-hammer to prepare the pulp.

Although the export of paper from the Middle East to Byzantium and other parts of Europe began in the 10th and 11th centuries, the craft was apparently not established in Spain and Italy until the 12th century. Early paper was disfavored by the Christian world as a manifestation of Moslem culture at first. Paper was so out of favor (being a product of Godless heathens) that, in 1221 the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II declared all official documents written on paper to be invalid. It is possible that this decision was made under the influence of wealthy sheep and cattle merchants, who feared losing the income from their parchment trading. (IPST website)

People typically think of medieval manuscripts as being vellum or parchment that was produced by the preparation of sheep, goat or calf hides. The truth of the matter is much different: wood-pulp paper was very uncommon in general use. However, by the thirteenth century paper was available for use in book production. Although it is considerably less durable than natural parchment, paper had, and still has today, one great advantage: it’s enormously more cost effective. By the fourteenth century, a variety of papers were readily available to anyone who needed them for a reasonable price. (Clement, 8)

For it’s beauty and durability, the Oath of Laurel King of Arms work has been rendered on natural, unbleached bark paper, which was made in a fashion similar to the period European paper that was made from linen rags.

To ensure ease of use, I finished the paper with a light dusting of a fixative called "pounce". Used frequently in period, pounce consists of finely ground pumice stone and gum sandarac. Pounce fills in minor imperfections in the writing surface. This helps the gilding compound adhere to the page and reduces feathering of the ink across the page. (Seligman, 18)

Gilding

All the tastes and purposes that medieval artisans served made the use of metals an integral part of the technique. Of all metals used in period illumination, gold was the most significant, not only for its ability to suggest power, richness and splendor, not only for its color, luster and permanence, but for all of them together. The term "illumination", in fact, comes from an older term meaning, "to decorate with gold". (Blackwolf) The medieval illuminator, along with his patrons, joined in an enthusiasm for this precious metal that resulted in some of the most charming effects in the painting of the Middle Ages.

The technique for gilding has changed little since the Middle Ages even though new and less expensive materials have been created for today’s society. This piece uses modern gilding foil, rather than 23k gold leaf and real silver leaf for a number of reasons. The time and cost constraints did not allow for the purchase the natural materials through mail order, and there is no local outlet for such things. Also, though silver gilding was used in period works, it tarnishes very badly in a relatively short time. This resulting in what we see on many period manuscripts pages today: large messy black masses corroding the page. So, in order to keep the aesthetic appeal of the document consistent, modern foil gilding was deemed to be the best option for the work.

Ink

Many recipes that can be found today for ink have their roots deep in the Middle Ages. Most forms of ink were obtained by suspending black pigments in another medium such as wine or egg whites and honey. Some black pigments included in these were charcoal and bone-black, which was obtained by burning bone in the absence of oxygen. Gall inks, which first go on a dark gray and richen in color with time, were also frequently used in period because of their permanence and dense black color . Because the bark paper absorbs such a large amount of the ink, for this work I used a modern India ink. India Ink is far 'blacker' than most of the early medieval inks (Leofwine), but better suited for the nature of this piece.

 

 Production

Text and Calligraphy

The text of this piece was derived from the Black Book of the Admiralty, which is one of the works selected to be part of the Rolls Series of primary sources for English History. Though slightly out of period amongst the pages of the Black Book can be found timeless Oaths of Office for Pursuivants, Heralds, and Kings of Arms. As many of the functions of office that applied in period, are not seen in the modern Empire, the period text was modified to fit the duties of the ECS office with changing as little of the original oath as possible. Laurel and I did our best to keep the spirit of the text while still tailoring it to the needs of the Empire. The text of the scroll reads as follows;

"All ye to whom these words come know that upon this the eighth day of April Anno Imperium X, the Imperial Estates does make Conchobar mac Gabhann O’Cuthbert a new King of Arms unto the Empire. Laurel shall swear by the oath which he received when he became a herald and by the faith that he owe the Empire whose arms he bear, that he shall truly keep such things that are compromised in the articles following.

1st, as Laurel you shall do your true duty to be every day more cunning than others in the office of Arms, so that as you may be better furnished to teach those under you, and execute with more wisdom and more eloquence such charges as the realm of any nobleman shall lay unto you by virtue of office.

2ndly, you shall do your diligence to have knowledge of all the nobles and gentlemen within the Empire, which should bear coats in the field in the service of the Empire, and them with their issue truly register, and such arms they bear, with the difference due in the arms to be given, and they hold any service by knight’s fee, whereby they should give their King service for defense of his land.

3rdly, you shall not be unwilling to teach pursuivants and heralds, nor to ease them in such doubts as they shall move to you, and if any pursuivant asks any doubt of you, you shall ask him first, whether he has desired any of the heralds to instruct him in the same, and, if he says you, you shall limit him one of them, or else ease him if you can.

In so as keeping with these terms of office Conchobar mac Gabhann O’Cuthbert shall hence forth take upon the crown of Laurel, King of Arms of the Empire until the time comes where as he must step down from his office by personal or Imperial persuasion".

Once the text was chosen, I picked a hand that I wanted to work in. The Littera Bastarda hand was developed in the mid-13^th century from the need for a more functional and readable script. There are many variations in this script, which makes it difficult to document. Often, one could find several different styles of this hand in the same city, mixed in with established hands of the earlier years, and expressive cursive elements from over the course of three centuries. Though commonly used for a considerable amount of the Gothic period, ultimately the difficulties of reading of Littera Bastarda left it to be abandoned for simpler Renaissance letters. I wanted this piece easily read, so I left out many of the ornamental qualities that this hand sometimes has and decided to keep a simpler easily read generic "blackletter" form.

I began this project with a quill but soon found that it wasn't easily used on this paper, because of the texture of the surface. Therefore, I switched to a steel nibbed dip pen to complete the calligraphy, and used a finer nib to draw out the heraldic devices. To add to the elegance of the calligraphy I used a final stroke on some of the letters that creates the curling adornments to the base. This curl is achieved by twisting and lifting the pen as you finish the stroke so that nothing but the very tip of the edge touches the paper. Though the letter adornment was very difficult to achieve upon the bark paper base, the finished effect was successfully rendered.

The Illumination

After completing the calligraphy, the first step in illumination of the piece was gilding. First, I painted the adhesive size in a flat layer with a #1 sable brush onto the page in every place that I wanted the foil to stick. After the size was dry, a sheet of foil is exposed from the package. Gently turning over the foil, it is exposed and then pressed onto the size. Finally the leaf is pat down on the surface with a soft brush and then finished to a shine with a piece of parachute silk.

After lying down the first layer of leafing, the process was repeated to cover any areas of inconsistent or inadequate coverage. The bark paper absorbed much of the gilding base, and most of the piece has three or more layers of the foil. The rough surface of the paper significantly affected the gilded finish, giving a textured appearance to it, even after multiple layers of the adhesive. As period gilding can be found in many forms other than the typical rounded leaves with a mirrored finish, I felt the way this texturing of the illumination played with light added a charming and interesting addition to the overall design.

 

Colophon

The scribes and secretaries of the Middle Ages left us a left us a detailed and often humorous reminder of their toils scribbled into the margins of pages in the form of the colophon. With comments on production ranging from the quality of the vellum, to the aches and pains in their backs, colophons give us a unique look at the mind of the medieval scribe, and what went into the production of their glorious pages.

With that I must say that I am thrilled at the striking beauty that is this finished scroll. The simple elegance of the gilded illumination set against the natural bark paper makes this piece a stunning highlight to my portfolio. Striking and bold, the piece is not only an exercise in fine calligraphy and illumination, but conveys the spirit of an ancient document. The goals that I set out to accomplish with it were not only met, but also far surpassed.