Introduction

Following the rise of universities around 1200, the growth in both secular production and consumer demand led to increased specialization and commercialization in book production. A group of middlemen, known as stationers, emerged. Stationers supplied materials to craftsmen and received and subcontracted commissions from patrons, often with formal recognition of the universities. This decentralization stimulated new techniques of book production, such as the systematic marking up of leaves and quires for assembly by the stationer and the provision of instruction. (Brown,118)

The stationers, both men and women, were usually lay members of society, although many were clerics in minor orders. The growth of European cities in the Gothic age (13th to 15th century) enabled illuminators to form guilds. Scribes, illuminators, stationers, and parchmenters often lived in the same urban neighborhood and worked together on individual projects, or more regularly, as part of a workshop. (Brown, 116)

By the mid-1500’s, books had become cheaper and more widely available all across Europe and stationers took on a new role. To reduce the risk of adversaries printing politically dangerous books, the royal government of England granted a publishing monopoly to a group of book publishers, who all belonged to a guild called the Stationers’ Company. (Encarta)

The Red Winged Lion Patron came to me as stationer, scribe and illuminator, looking for a way to pay homage to his feudal Lord. We discussed the function of the commission, what type of design he wanted, materials that would be used in production, the time and cost constraints of the project. The patron wished a way to subtly honor his SCA Duke while maintaining an authentic medieval appearance to the manuscript page. As the Duke’s household is known as the "House of the Red Winged Lion" we decided that a bestiary page might be the most appropriate tribute. I presented the patron with several examples of medieval bestiary pages, and we decided that the style of the Aberdeen Bestiary would be most appropriate.

Introduction to Medieval Bestiary

Popular throughout the Middle Ages, bestiaries were purported to describe all the animals in Creation, real or imaginary, and the human traits they exemplify. Medieval bestiaries were the source of stories about animals, both real and fantastic, used as Christian allegories for moral and religious instruction. The unicorn and phoenix could often be found right along side of such mundane creatures as the dog or crow. Bestiary tales, often lavishly illustrated, inspired the animal symbolism used by medieval architects, painters, and sculptors. (Encarta) Although it deals with the natural world, the bestiary was never meant to be a scientific text and should not be read as such. While some observations may be quite truly amazing, the authors give them the same weight as accurate accounts.

 The bestiary appeared in its present form in England in the twelfth century. It was a compilation of many earlier sources, primarily an anonymous mid-2nd-century Greek work, Physiologus, which had been translated into many European languages.(Aberdeen Project) A great deal of its charm comes from the humor and imagination of the illustrations, painted partly for pleasure but justified as a didactic tool "to improve the minds of ordinary people, in such a way that the soul will at least perceive physically things which it has difficulty grasping mentally: that what they have difficulty comprehending with their ears, they will perceive with their eyes". (Aberdeen MS 24, f25v)

Materials 

During the consultation, the patron and I decided that, with the recipients love of all things medieval, the piece should be rendered as period as possible and that expense was not an issue. Given this leave I, began to gather my materials for the bestiary page as follows:

 In Europe, parchment was the common material available for use in book construction prior to the 13^th century. (Clement) Parchment has traditionally been made from sheepskin, and vellum from calfskin, the later being a thinner, finer product. In today’s market though there is much controversy over what constitutes "vellum" as the term means different things to a variety of experts.(Cavasin) For the purpose of this paper I shall use the more general term of "parchment". I first contacted a parchment maker to contract a sheet of 8 x 11 manuscript parchment to be made. Because of the quality of this manufacturer’s work, there was little additional preparation that needed to be done. To ensure ease of use, I gave the skin a light dusting of a fixative called "pounce". Used frequently in period pounce consists of finely ground pumice stone and gum sandarac. Pounce helps the paint adhere to the page and prevents feathering of the ink.(Seligman, 18)

 Next came the time to choose my pigments. Shaffer’s Jet Black ink was used for the calligraphy and lining of the illumination. The paints that I used were a more difficult choice. Luckily, the project called for a limited number of colors. I chose to use modern commercial watercolor rather than the period Azurite, Vermilion and Lead White due to my small workspace and the highly toxic nature of most period pigments. Great care was taken to match the colors as closely as possible with the watercolors that I had available.

Creating the Page

" The lion is the mightiest of the beasts, he will quail at the approach of none. Their brow and tail show their mettle; their resolution in their head. Like a pelican in the wilderness it is devoted to it’s young. The lion takes pride in that of it’s nature. Thus Duke Sir Dagan du Darregonne, a spiritual lion."

Once my text was chosen, I picked a hand that I wanted to work in. Since the text was being done in Latin, I didn't feel that it was necessary to execute the calligraphy in a way that would be easily read by the modern eye, and was able to keep a more authentic feel to the work. Gothic Littera Bastarda or Lowborn Gothic Letters is what the patron and I finally decided upon. 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.

Despite the wide range of hands that this script encompasses, and the difficulties in documenting it, there are several identifying marks to Gothic Littera Bastarda, some of which I tried to emulate in this piece. Conjoined letters such as the ½ "R", were used extensively in this style. The ½ "R" conjoin takes place where the lower case "R" is proceeded by a letter with a right side bow such as "b". Dramatic ascenders and decenders are also prevalent in this hand. The next variation that I used was the long "S". This variation of the lower case "S" is found in stylized hands throughout the gothic period and looks much like a lowercase "F" without the cross hash.

Finally, I had to consider the punctuation in the piece. By this time in history, most all modern letters and punctuation were in use, so to add to the overall flavor and presentation, I raised the punctuation to mid-minimum height. (Drogin, 164)

I laid out the text on the computer in a rough Gothic font and printed off the copy to work from. I then highlighted the areas that needed to be changed and noted the differences in the period hand from what I had on the page.

The illumination was sketched out according to the examples that I had done on paper. Using the base of the Pard from Aberdeen, I incorporated a curly mane for the lion, which is mentioned in the manuscript text, and added a wing such as can be found on the manuscript’s Pelican and Eagle illuminations. Once it was sketched out lightly in pencil I went over the lines with black ink.

After my calligraphy was completed, the first step in illumination of the piece was gilding. My personal gilding preference is for flat gilding, not raised, so that is the manner in which this was completed. To begin I painted on the adhesive size in a flat layer with a #1 sable brush every place that the gold leaf should stick. After the size was dry, I exposed a sheet of leaf from the package. Gently turning over the leaf, I pulled the bottom tissue back and touch the exposed leaf to the size. The next step was to pat down the leaf on the surface with a soft brush. Repeating the process of laying the leaf, I used a fresh sheet of for patching areas with an inconsistent cover. Once the layers of gold were down I placed a sheet of glassine paper over the top of them, and applying gentle pressure went over the area making small circles with a burnisher. When I had completed burnishing, I removed the glassine, and lightly went back over the gold with a piece of parachute silk to finish the shine.

Next I laid in the colors starting with the lion and working out. After letting it dry thoroughly I shaded the lion outlining the highlighted areas with white and blending them, then doing the same with black. Finally I put in the white work around the lion and then the "D" with a small brush.

Bibliography

"Bestiary", British Royal Library Royal C XIX folio 6

Brown, Michelle P.; "Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts", J.Paul Getty Muesum, Los Angeles, 1994

Buziak, Cari; "Gilding", http://www.aon-celtic.com/cgilding.html

Cavasin, Rick; "Hand made Parchment and Vellum", http://www.niagara.com/~acavasin/rick/rcav.html, 1995-8

Clement, Richard W.; "Manuscript Books", Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies

http://orb.rhodes.edu/encyclop/culture/books/medbook1.html

Drogin, Marc; "Medieval Calligraphy: Its History and Technique", Dover Publications Inc., New York, 1980

Seligman, Patricia; "The Illuminated Alphabet", A Quatro Book, Running Press, London, 1994

Thompson, Daniel V.; "The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting", Dover Publications, New York, 1956

"Writing Implements," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2000, Microsoft Corporation,1993-1999