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Manuscript Curiosities

100 newly digitized manuscripts online

There is no way we could have come up with a better title. The British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France have just digitized 100 manuscripts, all dated between 700CE and 1200CE, and made them available online! The news is so awesome that as soon as we saw it on Twitter we decided we would write this post.

100 pre-1200 manuscripts have been added to the British Library's Digitised Manuscripts site. Get the list at https://t.co/GZkK4TtD0m pic.twitter.com/FhrQrB19at

— Medieval Manuscripts (@BLMedieval) March 16, 2017

The Unique Petau - Rothschild Hours

Last year we received a message on our Facebook page; it was a request for help finding the name and information concerning a manuscript. On a late evening we went on a quest to do just that. What we discovered during the adventure was the Petau - Rothschild Hours. An incredible manuscript we had never seen before!Dated between 1500 and 1510, the “Peteau Hours” or “Petau - Rothschild Hours” consists of 44 sheets of vellum of 230 x 140 mm, containing 33 lines per the page on two columns. It is written in humanistic script in brown ink. The headings are written in green, while capital letters are red or blue; there are also some initials which are painted on a golden background. Petau - Rothschild Hours

The Adventures of Medieval Killer Bunny: A Musical Vacation

It's Xmas time! Christmas songs and carols everywhere! In this newest instalment of The Adventures of Medieval Killer Bunny we are going to look at what the medieval bunnies are planning for theholidays! Like everyone, also they sometimes need some relaxation and fun, and most importantly, a break from their killer jobs; and since we are sure you have heard "Jingle bells" and "Joy to the World" for the past month or so, it is only appropriate that in this post we will meet the Musical Killer Bunnies.

The Crusader Bible from the Morgan Library

The manuscript that we want to highlight for you today is the Morgan Library’s Crusader Bible. It is also known as the Morgan Picture Bible, the Maciejowski Bible or the Shah ‘Abbas Bible. The book is an Old Testament that was originally made with only miniatures to tell the stories. Later, inscriptions in Latin, Persian and Judeo-Persian were added. According to the Morgan Library, it is not only one of the most awesome and beautiful manuscripts they own, but also one of the highlights of French Gothic illumination. The Morgan Bible

Bodley 264: Two Worlds and Two Views

This morning a woke up to an email from my father. It was an article from the digital edition of his favorite Italian newspaper. The title of the article is: 'Il sovrano che Unì Est ed Ovest', or: The Sovereign that United East and West. Unfortunately the newspaper's app shares the article, but excludes the author's name from it, but it's dated 20/07/14. The article carefully explains how the three books contained in Oxford Bodley 264 (and a facsimile created byIstituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana) are connected. Bodley 264 Opening page, folio 1r

A Truly Illuminated Manuscript!

One of my most beautiful experiences as an MA student in the Netherlands was field trip I did with my colleagues to the deep south of the Netherlands. In an abbey we went through three different libraries searching for fragments in early modern books. What I ended up finding was a full-page pastedown of a manuscript written in Italy in the 13th century. What a beauty it was, still today I think about it...

The Holy Week in Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts

It has been a busy Easter here at Sexy Codicology. You have certainly seen our posts on our Facebook page (almost 4'000 Likes! Wohoo!), we also wanted to create a short video with miniatures from various books of hours representing the death and resurrection of Christ but, alas, time was to short and we didn't manage. Nonetheless, we saw fantastic illuminated manuscripts this week, especially from the Getty Museum's website (we reviewed it here). So, as a late Easter present, we have made a selection of the most beautiful scenes from the Getty Museum's digitized medieval manuscripts. All the images in this post are from the Devotional Books collection and cover most of the events celebrated during the Holy Week. As you may notice, most of the miniatures below come from Book of Hours from the 15th / 16th century. I truly recommend looking at Ms. Ludwig IX 19. The miniatures in this manuscript are particularly evocative and present all the events that are narrated in the Bible.