Coursera: Medieval Manuscript Class - Week 4
So this time, to make sure that my peers would properly grade my assignment, I broke down everything according to the grading criteria and it was through this method I was finally able to get full marks. So should you take this class, keep this in mind when working on your assignments.
This time I left the links to my pinterest intact. If you want to see this with images, go to My Black Hours Book tab for a revised edition.
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Rubric One - Source
First thing I did was take the FOUR sources of inspiration I have been using to determine the methods used for them.
MSS ONE
First I examined my favorite, the Morgan Black Book of Hours. Looking at this I discovered that the points of the text box did not match up where they should have using the secret canon so I checked the golden triangle method. And those too did not match up correctly. So, I looked further into all the pages and if you look through all the pages in the pinned group you will see that the lines to determine the text boxes were drawn entire through the entire page (recto and verso). This leads me to believe that the secret canon was indeed used, but either the full page is not in the digitization or the book as been trimmed at some point in the past.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843721370/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843721384/
https://www.pinterest.com/georgemenke/the-black-book-of-hours/
MMS TWO
Here I tested the Charles Black Hours with the secret canon and again it was close, but the points did not match up where they should have been. It was a little harder to test this one as I only had a half page to work with, but should have gotten a close result which would be indicated with the green lines, however it does match closer to the style that I intend to use which is represented here in the yellow lines.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799449/
MMS THREE
This manuscript is of the Maria Black Hours and testing it with the secret canon it, it does match with the correct points (or at least VERY close), which is in the green box. The white boxes formed is the method that I wish to do for my manuscript as it will allow me to have more margin area for illumination.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799455/
MSS FOUR
This manuscript is a song book in Brussels. All of the source digitized pictures show only one side of the pages. So I went ahead and tried the secret cannon on the one page, but formed one text area rather than two. The yellow box is the text area of the manuscript which does not match up where it should. With my method, the area shown in green would be my text box. This manuscript looks like it could have been just two perfect squares connected.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799460/
Rubric Two - Mise-en-page
I decided for this part of the project to design my own mise-en-page but not with proportional rectangle but by modifying the secret canon method slightly as shown below. Using the secret canon method precisely, the text area of each page would be the green area plus the blue area. I am going to want more space for illuminated borders on the pages, so I reduced the space slightly and will only be using the blue box. I have shown the comparison with the above referenced manuscripts and so long as I remain consistent in my method, the text area will not be in the middle of the page, but displaced inwards and upwards – meeting the first requirement.
So working with black “parchment” I did not want to have pencil marks all over my pages and have to worry if an eraser will damage the effect I have worked to get. So what I did first was make myself a “stylus” by sharpening the end of a wooden dowl.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799155/
Now, using my stylus and ruler, I scored the secret cannon on to each page of two quires (later went on to do all 10). When you look at the result in person, they are a lot easier to see than what the camera can pick up, but if you zoom in, it should be better. Here are two examples of how the result was.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799164/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799172/
After this, I began to line the lay out of the mise-en-page with a silver pen. I also got a gold pen for future work on this project.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799222/
Now, going over the lines made by the stylus can be very difficult as they can be hard to see. It took a lot of focus and leaning down real close sometimes in order to see where I used my stylus to dry point all the lines from the secret canon method. (Two column examples will be shown a bit later.)
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799206/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799211/
If you see a blank page, this is where I intend to put a full page illumination. This meant I had to plan out all 10 quires which I did as best as possible at this point in time, and had nine leaves at the end that are not used yet. Maybe between now and when I am finished I will think of something for them.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799152/
In part one I experimented digitally with three different methods of making rectangles for this project, but when it came to the hands on portion I stuck with my own version of the secret canon as I preferred this method and wanted consistency with this project as it will be given away as a gift.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843721384/
Rubric Three – Pricking and Ruling.
First, being at work is when I have the most time to work on this stuff so I have to be creative and scrounge around for materials that I can work with. For my pricking tool I was able to find a small screw driver.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799192/
As for pricking the pages, I did both half inch and quarter inch pricks and decided I preferred the quarter inch ones more. I also test where I preferred to prick them. I did a few in-text and a few on the margins, and it was the marginal method that I preferred. They are a little hard to see, but zooming in on the picture will help.
Marginal - https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799203/
In-text - https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843814722/
Now I was skeptical at first of this pricking method, but it was very helpful when it came to working on this black medium. I can see when working on a light parchment, a led pencil could be easier, but with this black it was a life saver. I used my stylus to dry line the lines before using a ruler and my silver pen and after a while found that with the prick marks, it was no longer needed.
Half inch - https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843814706/
Quarter inch - https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843814716/
And here is the result of the two column attempt, which will actually work well out for a few pages that I will be making some lists. Since I was using lines at a quarter of an inch, I decided to put the same quarter of an inch of a spacer between the columns. I found the center of the rectangle and made a mark for it with my stylus. Then it was a matter of marking an eight of an inch on either side of that and ruling through the entire text area so I knew when to stop my lining.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843814718/
And here are a few more shots of two of the ten quires.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799228/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799231/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799234/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799240/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799243/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799249/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799255/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799260/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464011567843799261/