“Adam Naming the Animals,” from the Northumberland Bestiary, at the Getty Museum, in the exhibition “Gothic Grandeur: Manuscript Illumination, 1200–1350.”
Stunning early 10th-century Qu’ran folio: gold leaf, silver, and ink on indigo-dyed parchment; in the “Byzantium and Islam” exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, courtesy of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
2012. Year of the Dragon.
Illustration by Ulisse Aldrovandi, from his opus magnus Historia serpentum et draconum (1640)
(via wallacegardens)
A caladrius bird turns away from a doomed patient, in a 12th-century bestiary.
Look at that elegant transitional Gothic hand! Wow. Remarkably readable, and with nice abbreviations.
This is also from UNC’s MacKinney Collection of Medieval Medical Illustrations. What a fun digital collection!
From Henri de Mondeville’s Chirurgia, 1314.
In the MacKinney Collection of Medieval Medical Illustrations at UNC.
Fires of Hell, from Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry; 15th century, with illuminations by the Dutch Limbourg Brothers.
Cookery, from the “Tacuinum Sanitatis,” 14th century, Lombardy
An unusual image of the devil from the 13th-century Codex Gigas, made at the Podlažice monastery (O.S.B.) in Bohemia and currently at the National Library of Sweden.
The Codex Gigas is the largest known book created in the Middle Ages: over 36 inches high and nearly 20 inches wide. It is the work of a single author, known as Herman the Recluse.
Browse the entire digitized manuscript here: the initials are particularly lovely.
David, the Musician: from the 8th-century Cassiodorus Commentary on the Psalms, held at Durham Cathedral.
I have actually held this 1200-year-old book in my hands, on a visit to Durham in 1991. The image above, and the one below, are the only two illuminations in the book: David the King and David the Psalmist. I was able to look at the reverse of the page and see the pinprick where the illuminator stuck his compass, in order to form the circle of the haloes.
From the Codex Vigilanus: three Visigothic and three Christian monarchs, plus the authors of the manuscript (the monk Vigila and his collaborators, Sarracino and García).
Compiled in the 10th century, at the monastery of San Martín de Albelda, Spain.
Found here.
Jacob, wrestling with the angel; in a manuscript from Navarra in Spain, in a Visigothic script (ca. 950 CE).
Found here.
Searching Google for that Aratea manuscript folio, I came across this stunning image: Perseus (with a dripping Medusa head) in a 9th-century French manuscript of Cicero’s translation of the Aratea.
The dots on Perseus’ body indicate the placement of the stars in the Perseus constellation. His body itself is made up of the text of the Aratea, a design motif that is not uncommon in manuscripts of this era. The text is written in scriptura continua, continuous letters without word breaks, and in what looks like the rustic capitals common in late-Roman scribal hands.
Here’s the page with MY constellation, Sagittarius:
What a glorious folio! Look at that stunning hand: those tall “a”s, the lightning bolt-like suspension bars, the ligatures! Oh, that is just beautiful.
The text is the Aratea, or Germanicus’ Latin translation of Aratus’ Phaenomena: “Post canis igitur magni caudam secundum stellarum ordinem navis constituta est…” (After the tail of the Great Dog, therefore, the Ship is established following the order of the stars…)
Those colors make me think the manuscript is Iberian, but I’m not sure. The hand looks more like 11th-century English.
This portion of the book is an inventory of constellations; on this page, Aratus is saying that the constellation shown here, the Ship, follows behind that of Canis Major. And, indeed, there was a constellation once, called Argo Navis, that was divided into three: Carina (the hull), Puppis (the poop deck), and Vela (the sails), and which was located next to Canis Major.
The orange dots on this ship indicate the positions of the stars that make up Navis.
I can’t find the image on my own in Google; I’d love to know what manuscript it’s from!
Dragonship
