“My name is here presented more to be understood than to be read” said once a #Roman senator.
For my #EarlyMedievalPills, let’s explore what monograms can tell us about changes in political culture & social communication between late antiquity & #Carolingian times.
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@foxtosser It's probably best to ask @laBnF to send you a high resolution picture especially since they have to give you permission to include it in a publication. The manuscript is lat. 2400, f. 5r.
You can consult this page to know how to proceed:
➡️https://t.co/P4qasLcYBV
One of the weirdest things I've seen in a #manuscript:
➡️two lines traced in the margins that seem to be a module of measure to be multiplied in order to calculate the length of Christ's body.
"This line multiplied 10 (or 8) times corresponds to the length of the Lord's body"
@Pseudo_Isidore Thank you Charles for these nice tweets and for being there this morning ! So sorry we did not find time for a coffee 😤 hope we'll see each other soon 😊
Challenge accepted from @cmcurran21 to post my fave 7 decorated initials: no explanations, just initials. 1 initial/day for 1 week. Day 1/7 is an easy pick: Amiens, BM 18 (Corbie Psalter).
https://t.co/hPdzNMZZaY
#DecoratedInitialChallenge
The ivory panel set in the binding of the Latin Gospel Lectionary MS. Douce 176 is known as the Douce Ivory. It dates back to the 9th century court of Charlemagne, and was made for the nunnery of Chelles where Charlemagne's sister Gisela was abbess. Let's look at some details...
In any case, we have bishops who were also skilled scribes: Leodoin, bishop of Modena (ca. 869-896), knew how to expertly use a pen!
Such confidence certainly derives from his training and work in the chancery of Louis II of Italy.
#medieval#autographs
Autograph signature by one of the most prolific and learned authors in 10thC Italy showing that even learned churchmen did not necessarily handle a quill with great confidence ⤵️
@tabularius @DrLRoach well, in 996, Hugh of Tuscany was 46yrs old (more or less)... so not that old (although he died only 5 years later), but it's true we need to remind ourselves that they did not have eyeglasses for presbyopia, so that might explain the big letters of older scribes/subscribers ...
TFW you've learned all the theory, but it just hasn't prepared you for practice. (Hugh of Tuscany subscribes his donation to the canons of Vercelli, 4 Sept. 996: Vercelli, Archivio Capitolare, Diplomi, II Cartella, no. 2.)
#ForeverYoung#Roman faces frozen in time in these lovely #gold-glass portraits (probably commemorative gifts given on special occasions).
Here some remarkable portraits with equally remarkable inscriptions, e.g.
the #Greek toast "PIE ZESES" ("Drink that you may live!") 🥂🍾
So, en route from Milan Linate (Airport) to Vercelli, I diverted via Pavia, the old early medieval Italian capital. What follow are a few selected highlights...