Heraldry, Colophons and Writing

1. Heraldry, Colophons and Writing March 12, 2012 Alice Equestri alice.equestri@studenti.unipd.it

2. Part I Establishing the Provenance of a MS Heraldry

3. What is it? The science of creating and describing (blazoning) coats of arms = symbols (or “logos”) for military identification Developed from the 12thcentury onwards in the West Known also in antiquity but began to be used systematically only when feudalism was established. Coats of arms were sometimes found in MSS: great way to establish the possible ownership of the manuscript (unless the MS was a categorization of emblems in a specific historical period) Merchants had marks which they put on things they owned

4. The structure of a coat of arms • Different according to the rank • Never missing • Can be divided into 2/4 or more • Different shapes

5. Oxford Bodleian Library MS Arch. Selden. B. 10 1470-1480 fol. 198v Chronicle by John Hardyng Coat of arms of Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland, added after 1499

6. The look of arms • Sometimes they are so simple that the same arms can be applied to a number of people • 7 basic colours (of which 2 metals): white/silver, blue, red, yellow/gold, black, green, purple • The shield could have many different shapes • Sometimes the shape suggested the status of the person: e.g. a lozenge indicated a widow or an unmarried woman • Combination of families: split coat of arms. The right side (dexter) was occupied by the man’s coat of arms, while the left side (sinister) was occupied by that of the woman.

7. British Library MS Arundel 119 f. 4r Siege of Thebes by John Lydgate 2nd quarter 15th century Coat of arms of William de la Pole

8. Bodleian Library MS Arch. Selden B.10 f. 200r Extract from Lydgate’s Fall of Princes c. 1520 Coat of Arms of the Percy Family

9. Bodleian Library MS Digby 185 ff. 1r, 80r, 104r Brut Chronicle mid - 15thcentury Coat of Arms: Swillington and Rivers

10. And Chaucer? Not many examples of extant MSS displaying coats of arms: CanterburyTales, Fond Anglais 39, BibliothèqueNationale de France, Paris – Jean D’Angoulême Troilus and Criseyde, Campsall MS, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City – Henry V

11. Bodleian Library, MS Douce 323, f. 101v, mid – 15th century, Brut Chronicle Unidentified coat of arms. On the scroll “IohannesTubantisville”=John of Trumpington???

12. Part II Establishing the Provenance of a MS Colophons

13. Colophons • Virtually anything that came to the scribe’s mind when they finished writing. • name of the scribe • name of the owner of the MS • title of the work • date, place • piece of verse • prayers • words of thanks, good wishes • messed up sentences • Illuminations, coat of arms • etc. • Not always there • Recurring colophons: clue about the scribe

14. Corpus Christi College MS 61 f. 150r Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer Colophon: “Explicit Liber Troily”

15. Chaucer The Canterbury Tales f. 102v 1476 MS Hunter 197 Crossed out colophon: scribedid not realize he had not finishedcopying after all. Made by Geoffrey and Thomas Spirlengandfinished in 1476, probablyfortheirownuse

16. Huntington Library MS El 26 C 9 “Ellesmere Chaucer” The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer f. 232v 15th century “Heere is ended the book of the tales of Caunterbury Compiled by Geffrey Chaucer of whossouleJhesu Crist haue mercy Amen”

17. How did medieval and renaissance scribes write? Part III Writing

18. Why is it so hard to read a MS? • No standardization of the language. Same word=a number of different spellings. Standardization started slowly from the 17th century, brought about by printing and Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary (1755). Some common examples • Interchange of vowels: ‘believe’ – ‘beleave’ –’ beleife’ etc.; ‘cold’ – ‘could’; ‘fyrst’ – first; ‘hys’ – ‘his’ • Interchange of consonants: ‘public’ – ‘publick’ – ‘publike’ • Doubling or halving of vowels: ‘goone’ (gone); ‘gode’ (good) • Addition or omission of ‘es’: ‘com’ (comes); ‘mak’ (makes); ‘frendes’ (friends)

19. Why is it so hard to read a MS? • ‘i’ ‘j’ ‘m’ ‘n’ ‘u’ ‘v’ – very hard to distinguish because they were made up only by vertical strokes (minims), often with no linking stroke at the top or bottom • In vernacular documents: lots of abbreviations! Some common examples • Omission of ‘m’ or ‘n’: ‘cõmend’=commend; ‘ite=item • Contraction omitting the middle letters:lres=lettres; pñtes=presentes • Abbreviation for ‘er’ and ‘re’: vice=service; vant=servant; =sir • Superscript letters:Matie=Majestie; Lo=Lord/Lordship; yis=this • Latin Abbreviations:añodñi= anno domini; anno r.r.=anno regniregis/reginae ~ ~

20. Some Useful Tools • Lovett, Patricia, The British Library Companion to Calligraphy, Illumination and Heraldry, London: The British Library, 2000. • Manwaring, Norman, Shield and Crest: An Account of the Art and Science of Heraldry, London: Macgibbon & Kee, 1960. • Pearson, David, Provenance Research in Book History: A Handbook, London: The British Library, 1994. • Petti, Anthony G., English Literary Hands from Chaucer to Dryden, London: E. Arnold, 1977. • Roberts, Jane, Guide to Scripts used in English Writings Up to 1500, London: The British Library, 2005. • www.artstor.org (on campus access only or via UNIPD proxy) • http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/chaucer/works.html • http://www.medievalscribes.com/ • http://manuscripts.cmrs.ucla.edu/