Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Manuscript Decoration

Spanish Calligraphy - Caso quadrado para principios


Spanish Calligraphy - Caso quadrado para principios (detail)


Spanish scriptorium manual - T. de tracos


16th century typography - Menor letra de copistas


Spanish calligraphy manual - punto letra el mismo tamano


letra de aldo


punto quadrado (minimas) - 16th century musical illumination


menor letra redonda cortada - illumination techniques


letra de copistas - manuscript illumination examples


Spanish calligraphy - casos quadrados - Plimpton MS 296


Spanish calligraphy - casos quadrados - Plimpton MS 296 (detail)


medieval calligraphy - letra de junto


casos prelongados - Spanish calligraphy


casos prelongados - Spanish calligraphy (detail)


Plimpton MS 296 from the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University (part of the Digital Scriptorium).

This Spanish parchment manual for calligraphers/copyists was made between 1500 and 1515. Unfortunately, that is all the information available. Twelve of the thirty one pages have been digitised (eleven are shown above).

While looking around fruitlessly for further information, I came across a site put together by the Department of Medieval Studies at Central European University in Budapest - Medieval Manuscript Manual (available in four languages). It's a basic overview of manuscript production (types, techniques, inks, typology etc) aimed at a non-professional audience and includes a useful glossary.
Posted by peacay at

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous08 August, 2007 08:59

    Gorgeous! I can't believe how thin the thin line on the e in the Domine is.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fernando José Ladislao08 August, 2007 09:42

    I can't cease to repeat to anyone I know this is one of the best blogs I've seen because of this kind of posts.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Lone Beader®08 August, 2007 22:24

    I love this lettering. It must have taken a long time to write something using this type of 'calligraphy'.

    ReplyDelete
  4. gl.10 August, 2007 05:38

    have you heard the term "horror vaccui"? mark stone used it to describe the manuscript decoration style of this period. i love that term. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. peacay10 August, 2007 10:44

    Thanks.

    Thanks gl, 'horror vacuii' is sooo much better than 'dislike of leaving empty space' (and I confess that I had to look it up, although I'm pretty sure I've seen it before).

    ReplyDelete

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