have you been to a scriptorium?

the scriptorium, this is the place to write

scribes often spent their entire life in an ill-lit scriptorium. the manuscript-writing was a laborious process that could damage one's health. this is a complained in the tenth century:

Only try to do it yourself and you will learn how arduous is the writer's task. It dims your eyes, makes your back ache, and knits your chest and belly together. It is a terrible ordeal for the whole body. 

the director of a monastic scriptorium was the armarius, who provided the scribes with their materials and supervised the copying process. the armarius also played the censor (not all books are permitted).

to break the monotony, scribes had the habit of drinking after a long and tedious session. they often drank piment. 

here's the recipe: 

it serves 12 to 16. 

2 litres or 3.5 pints or 8.75 cups of red wine

6oz of white sugar

1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon

0.75 tablespoon of ground ginger

1 teaspoon of ground cloves

1 teaspoon of marjoram (fresh is best)

1 teaspoon of ground cardamom

1 teaspoon of ground black pepper

a pinch of ground galingale (if available)

the original recipe calls for long pepper, grains of paradise and spikenard all of which are virtually unobtainable today but this recipe will produce a cheering and warming drink with a good spicy medieval flavor. 

warm the wine until just beginning to steam. add the sugar and allow to dissolve. mix all the spices and herbs together and stir HALF of this mixture into the wine. while you will probably need most if not all of this mixture, tastes vary and you should now taste the wine and add more of the mixture until the taste is to your liking. simmer the wine mixture gently for 10 minutes and then strain it through a jelly bag (this may take several hours). bottle the wine when it is cold and cork securely. drink within a week.

So we see that the entertainment value of graphic art (even in the Middle Ages) gained an audience

Casper von Regensburg, My heart Doth Small, 1485

how do you handle a "Book of Hours"?

Book of Hours, Paris, 1410

   
books of hours were devotional books of prayer used by individuals at home rather than in church. 

kind of our tik tok for gen Z.

These are very different times from today. The division of labor of the regular folk is 5am-7pm, with work and a little distraction in between. These books served as personal religious guides, with calendars of feast days, popular psalms, and, at their heart, a set of daily prayers to the Virgin tied to the hours of the day. 

The image of the Annunciation accompanies the psalms and prayers for terce, which were said at 9am. 

Some of these books were carried as such:

They often contained a very large number of illustrations -both because they were pleasing to look at, and also because their messages could be understood by children and those whose ability to read was limited. the images also provided an opportunity for spiritual reflection and prayer for salvation. 

above, the 1496 famous illustrations for the Dance of Death, showing that all classes of society were subject to the inevitable command to walk with death. other illustrations concern themselves with secular subjects, representing with realism the occupations and sports of everyday life. 

A general pragmatic literacy developed in the eleventh century. how? convents!

page from the codex ambrosianus

by the 11th century, the corpus of religious works comprised gospels, bibles, psalms, liturgical instruments and writing of the church fathers. 

the corpus of classical works comprised texts from history and philosophy, medicine, drama, poetry, drama and rhetoric.

people read much more, way more. how come? 

convents are houses of learning!

still for the most part this is confined to the learned class (they can afford to go to convents to study).  

Romanesque architecture (as a kind of typeface)

Above late romanesque, the Pisa cathedral (behind, the Pisa tower),

What do we see?

1. The exterior and interior elements focus on order, unity, readability, and monumentality.
2. The style reaches churches, monasteries, townhouses, farmhouses, and castles!
3. The material is masonry. Why? Fire prevention. wooden ceilings,

 santa maria cosmedin, rome, 9th century

4. Round arches are a significant hit & people loved them! 

 basilica st. procopius, Trebic

5. Archivolts which are arch moldings,

Now that you know the parts, look at this beauty:

 church of st. pierre moisac, 11th century

Sculptors competed to get a hand on these projects! The execution is amazing (and of course anonymous). 

6. parts to remember, from top to bottom of a Romanesque church: the tower, a few clustered columns, a parapet, then images of religious figures, some round arches, a tympanum with sculpture, and finally, a central entrance next to flanking side entrances.

Characteristics: 1. massive solidity and strength (as above). 

 2. Early Romanesque employed rubble walls, 

 

i.e., irregular stone facade, smaller windows and unvaulted roofs. late romanesque exhibits a refinement with increased use dressed stone and more elaborate vaults. 

3. romanesque uses barrel and groin vault. barrel vault goes back to eguypt and persia, but again, greece & rome). groin vaults are roman and disappeared until rescued again in caroligian architecture. why? they looked elegant & ponderous. 

                                                                (barrel) temple of jupiter, croacia,

 

                                                                   santa maria cremini, venice

4. capitals are late corinthian. 

why corinthian? the Corinthian capital is essentially round at the bottom (where it sits on a circular column) and square at the top, where it supports the wall or arch. it was achieved by cutting a rectangular block and taking the four lower corners off at an angle so that the block was square at the top, but octagonal at the bottom. this shape lent itself to a wide variety of superficial foliate treatments!

                                                                (groin) grande sauvy abbey, france

 

                                                            capitel from the Pisa tower, 

5. arches are nearly always semicircular, for openings such as doors and windows,

6. plan: most churches have the romanesque plan and were changed afterwards. 

Now, to typeface.

Is this half-uncial circa 9th century AD (the majuscule becomes -as it was- compressed by gravity) not sort of Romanesque?  

 

Doesn't this floor plan reminds you of a "T" plus the catedra?

The cathedral of Santiago de Compostela plan has an expansive appearance. 

Santiago was the most significant pilgrimage site in Europe. The narthex (antechamber to the entrance), the aisles (passage bet.rows), the large aisled transepts and numerous projecting chapels reflect this. The chancel (near the altar) is short and the altar set so as to provide clear view to a vast congregation simultaneously.

designing life in the middle ages (not as bad as we thought)

peter bruegel, 1540 

clothing

the aristocracy and wealthy merchants wore elaborate garments, which changed according to the dictates of fashion. towards the end of the middle ages, men of the wealthy classes sported hose and a jacket, often with pleating or skirting, or a tunic with a surcoat. 

women wore flowing gowns and elaborate headwear, ranging from headdresses shaped like hearts or butterflies to tall steeple caps and italian turbans. 

peasant men wore stockings or tunics, while women wore long gowns with sleeveless tunics and wimples to cover their hair. sheepskin cloaks, woolen hats, and mittens were worn in winter for protection from the cold and rain. leather boots were covered with wooden patens to keep the feet dry. 

the materials they used, by today's standards, are simply the best. 100% cotton, linen, wool, silk (if you could afford it).  

outer clothes were rarely laundered, but the linen underwear was regularly washed. 

anthropological detail: the smell of wood smoke permeated living quarters, including people's clothing. 

the smell acted as house deodorant! 

peasant women spun wool into the threads that were woven into the cloth for these garments. fur was often used to line the garments of the wealthy. 

anne of cleves, henry the eighth's wife

jewelry was lavish, much of it imported and often used as security against loans. if you've been to museums and wondered why gems exhibited look opaque? the reason is that gem cutting was not invented until the fifteenth century. 

the manor

houses

the homes of the rich were elaborate. floors were paved, as opposed to (in the case of peasants) being strewn with rushes and herbs and sometimes decorated with tiles. tapestries were hung on the walls, providing decoration and an extra layer of warmth!

fenestral windows, with lattice frames covered in a fabric soaked in resin and tallow, allowed in light, kept out drafts and could be removed in good weather. 

only the wealthy could afford panes of glass; sometimes, only churches and royal residences had glass windows.

vitrail, troyes cathedral, 14th century

stained glass (known in French as "vitrail") windows were the primary pictorial art form, particularly in northern France, Germany and England, where windows tended to be larger than in southern Europe.

the kitchen

the medieval kitchen consisted of a stone hearth in the center of the room. this was not only where the cooking took place, but also the source of central heating! 

a medieval kitchen like the one above can only be afforded today by the very rich 

in peasant families, the wife did the cooking and baking. peasant diet consisted of breads, vegetables from their own gardens, dairy products from their own sheep, goats, and cows, and pork from their own livestock. 

life in general

peasants worked the land and produced the goods needed in the manor. the exchange was not without hardship for the serfs. they were taxed and were required to relinquish much of what they harvested. the lords, in close association with the church, assumed the roles of judges in carrying out the laws of the manor. again, it was in the best interest of the lord to keep his serfs happy. some didn't and paid the price. don't forget that the wheel doesn't stop at the lord. they also contribute tithing to the king. 

women were largely in charge of household tasks such as cooking, baking bread (their bread was whole grain), sewing, weaving, and spinning (all manually, better fitted). however, they also hunted for food and fought in battles, learning to use weapons to defend their homes and castles.

not true that women didn't have a place in society outside the house. there were women blacksmiths, merchants, and apothecaries. 

how about a typeface project (with an in-class vernissage) for next week?

look at the borders of this 10th-century Canterbury manuscript 

dear class. the task is to design an illumined paragraph (a group of sentences in a block) in the style of illumined manuscripts. 

like this: 

with rubrication of an uncial (or capital) like this: 

please, observe the following guidelines: 

1. an 8 1/2 x 11-inch sheet of paper. lined or blank. if lined preferably soft lines. 

 

2. think of a script that embodies your own aesthetics, that is, the way you'd execute "print" if you had all the time in the world.  

3. design your capitals (uncials) and minuscules (lower case). this is the time to choose either serif or sans-serif. don't mix them!

3. once you design your types, follow them! remember the whole thing needs to be as homogeneous as possible! practice obtaining a FLAWLESS execution. 

4. use a pen. ink is the closest to incunabula. felt tip? gel? ballpoint? fountain? up to you. 

imagine the sort of trace you want: thick? thin? (not too thin; not a legible option). smooth? a bit scratchy? keep in mind the thickness of your mark!  

 

5. as you practice each letter (by repeating it) think of each of its parts: leg, belly, spur, stem, spine, belly, loop, ascender, and descender. every detail of this design must be deliberate.

6. decoration: this is the most beautiful part. REMEMBER you leave the rubrication for last. leave space for your decoration.  

7. inserts: if your uncial has a bowl: "b" or "p" or "q" or "o" you may insert a motif inside it. 

 type parts: 

8. your printed text should exhibit cohesion and counterpoint. for your design think of a template: 

 

9. you may want to use ligatures, fine, but be consistent, for instance:

DO NOT IMPROVISE.

10. now comes an essential routine of  typography: kerning/leading

* think of kerning/tracking, or the spacing in between letters. 

choose the best space between your letters. this is sort of safe space between humans (for example the safe space when we're inside an elevator).

* now, think of leading, or the suitable space between lines. 

typography has its own rules. the result is readability. you want each character to stand independently and at the same time be a part of a community. 

11. think of your choice of leading (i.e., the space between lines). when you show your piece, I will ask you about your choices.

(take a look at this helpful video to understand the difference between kerning, leading & tracking)

12. remember to leave space for your uncial or capital (this is the last element of your design).  

practice your rinceau (the leafy or flowery, geometric, abstract, historical, or anything else in between). the rinceau is extremely important as this was the scribe's contribution to the manuscript.  

go ahead you scribes!

Gutenberg's paper (when paper used to be really good)

most 15th-century paper is of a very high quality, as is the paper used for the Gutenberg Bible.

later the quality of paper declined - most disastrously in the 19th century when paper-makers began using wood pulp. the paper used in the Gutenberg Bible was imported from Caselle in Piedmont, northern Italy being one of the most important centers for paper-making in the 15th century.

it can be identified because its watermarks. about 70% of the paper has the watermark of an ox head, 20% show a bunch of grapes (in two versions),

its size is known as royal folio, already at that time a fairly standard size of paper, each sheet measuring about 43 x 62 cm, before being folded.

how is this paper made? take a look at this video.

Codex Sinaiticus

Above, the Codex Sinaiticus, with examples of Uncials and Speculum (see the curved back of the "e" and the strokes of the "m" as is the bowl of the "a." 

There is also the Gothic rotunda, associated for the humanistic study and used for classical as well as vernacular texts. 

Let's try to imagine how these small serifs "changes" take place. A scribe decides to make a different mark; beautify an "m" by bending its leg, or lengthen the "e"'s tail. Others scribes like it and may follow the trend. After many years, that anonymous monk's design eventually becomes standard "practice." 

As we see, including the design at this time is a social activity.

(One style of the rotunda is associated with the Italian poet Petrarch, and thus with the coming of vernacular literature).

what's vernacular? the speech of the common folk.

it is cool to make your own codex. here's how,

gothic script = gothic buttress

Missale Bellovacense, vellum leaf from France (late 13th Century). Transitional Gothic Script.

take a look at this missale from late 13th century. what do you see?

the mark of the script reminds one of the architecture of the epoch: 

pointed & angular. 

the ligatures become more frequent, it's a more efficient manner of writing, perhaps more elegant.

the letters aspire to move upward, into the spiritual heavenly realm. why? because during the 14th century, the "hands" and "feet" of the letters, as well as ascenders and descenders, become shorter and more robust. the Gothic counters this trend. 

think of the difference between Gothic and Romanic.

isn't this gothic buttress a form of typeface leg?

VIVA BASTARDA (the typeface of the German bourgeoisie)

french bastarda 15th century

bastarda means "lowborn." 

why? this is the writing of scholars. quick, almost calligraphic.

outside the church's scriptorium, and the palace, people write fast: business transactions, notes, the everyday affair, think of cheap editions. b-movies.

here's  star desginer jonathan barnbrook's own bastard typeface. 

colophon

a colophon refers to the note at the end of a book containing information such as the name of the work, author and printer, as well as the place of printing and the date. 

in texts before 1500, the colophon was the only area of reference for this information within the book. this is before the implementation of the title page. 

colophon of the diamond sutras, 

john fortescue, a learned commendation of the politique lawes of englande (1567)

colophon from the Birgitta, 1492

from canon ternionum, 1460