The Golden Haggadah and the Sherborne Missal
The British Library has an amazing online exhibition called Turning the Pages, in which they have used Macromedia Flash to turn scans of rarest manuscripts into virtual books. These are really quite extraordinary: you can flip through DaVinci's sketchbook, an 8th century Chinese scroll, and a sultan's personal copy of the Qur'an.
Their reproduction of The Golden Haggadah should be of particular interest to us. We were briefly talking about the history of illuminated manuscripts, and how narratives in religious texts were often illustrated. If you take a look at my screenshot here, you'll see that the narrative from the Old Testament's books of Exodus and Genesis have been depicted in serial, visual panels:
(click to enlarge)
In addition to The Golden Haggadah, you'll also find The Sherborne Missal. What I find most striking about this missal is not only its kinship to other medieval illuminated texts, but also its hypertextual quality.
(click to enlarge)
If you look closely at this screenshot, the left page's text is mostly a historical narrative, deftly illustrated in the same custom that middle ages religious texts were often depicted. But on the right we find lyrics and accompanying music for the "Ordinary of the Mass," one of the central rituals associated with Christian practices celebrating the Eucharist. Some of the figures depicted in the page's illustrated border are bishops and clergy of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary's at Sherborne (Dorset, England); if you had attended services at this church in the 15th century, it's very likely that your congregation's bishop appeared on this page, as an obvious visual cue to your role in the mass.
Reactions?
I urge you to visit this website for yourself, as my screengrabs truly don't do it justice. To take full advantage of the British Library's website, you'll need a sound-enabled computer with Shockwave installed (if you don't have it installed, the website will prompt you and allow you to download it for free). And, as is with most things on the internet these days, a high-speed connection is preferred.
Their reproduction of The Golden Haggadah should be of particular interest to us. We were briefly talking about the history of illuminated manuscripts, and how narratives in religious texts were often illustrated. If you take a look at my screenshot here, you'll see that the narrative from the Old Testament's books of Exodus and Genesis have been depicted in serial, visual panels:
(click to enlarge)
In addition to The Golden Haggadah, you'll also find The Sherborne Missal. What I find most striking about this missal is not only its kinship to other medieval illuminated texts, but also its hypertextual quality.
(click to enlarge)
If you look closely at this screenshot, the left page's text is mostly a historical narrative, deftly illustrated in the same custom that middle ages religious texts were often depicted. But on the right we find lyrics and accompanying music for the "Ordinary of the Mass," one of the central rituals associated with Christian practices celebrating the Eucharist. Some of the figures depicted in the page's illustrated border are bishops and clergy of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary's at Sherborne (Dorset, England); if you had attended services at this church in the 15th century, it's very likely that your congregation's bishop appeared on this page, as an obvious visual cue to your role in the mass.
Reactions?
I urge you to visit this website for yourself, as my screengrabs truly don't do it justice. To take full advantage of the British Library's website, you'll need a sound-enabled computer with Shockwave installed (if you don't have it installed, the website will prompt you and allow you to download it for free). And, as is with most things on the internet these days, a high-speed connection is preferred.
posted by Trevor Dodge @ 10:51 AM
3 Comments:
At 5:54 PM,
Anonymous said…
Ashley here.
Reaction.
Yes. It's an amazing collection of books. They've improved the site since they first announced it. Works much better.
It's really fascinating to me how much we are coming to rely on the internet, the computer as a means for retreiving most of our knowledge.
I have researched books and bookarts quite a bit in the last five years and while I certainly enjoy technology new and old, have discovered the benefits of "old" technology. The books themselves. While on one hand it is important that we have an historical record of the works created before, what happens when the electricity goes out and we have no access to computers? I know that sounds very dooms day. Not trying to be a fatalist here.... just attempting to find balance. In this case, it may not be necessary. That is what I think about though. I think that while it is great we have access to all of this information, does this access create a lazier society? Maybe better left for another discussion, another class and another time.
Viewing the work is inspriational. The egg-washed letters with gold-leaf laid over, that have lasted all of these years/centuries. Absolutely lovely.
At 4:57 PM,
Anonymous said…
Laura Taylor here,
These books are absolutely amazing. I've never heard of this site before, which surprises me a great deal. The illustrations that I've been seeing really impress me. Hand-made books have always held a facination for me. My only wish is that everyone could experience them. I recently helped to prepare for an exhibition and lecture from the Woman's Studio Workshop at Cleveland Institute of Art. They specialize in handmade paper, printing and general book-making, and they sponsor female artists to come work with them. They turn out some amazing social commentary books, not just in regular book form, but also using new shapes, folding techniques and actual sculptural elements.
here's the address: http://www.wsworkshop.org
At 10:34 PM,
Anonymous said…
Zachary here,
When entering this website I immediately linked to the original Alice in wonderland written and illustrated by Lewis Carroll. It was great exprience to browse the original pages of this book via the internet.
For as much useless information and sensational outlets that the internet provides there are some real gems to explore. this website is one of them. This is in context with what McCloud describes in his follow up to Understanding Comics in Reinventing comics. I enjoyed looking at Carroll's simple but introspective illustrations he produced for his story and I'm curious to know if they have ever been reproduced and reformated for the text?
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