Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘Edward’s household at Ludlow numbered around fifty and included esquires, ushers and clerical staff, in addition to an almoner, two chaplains and a group of boy choristers who sing in the prince’s chapel (as well as at the start of meals). All this was to be paid for by moneys collected from the Duchy of Cornwall, the Principality of Wales and the Earldom of Chester and Flint’

‘It is generally possible to date most manuscripts fairly precisely by style alone. The constant evolution of script and fashions of book illumination, especially in a metropolitan centre like late-medieval London, allow us to assign likely dates to most manuscripts to within a decade or so, sometimes to even within a few years.‘

‘kind of composite text is what is known as a ‘Book of Hours’, a term which goes back to the Middle Ages. The precise contents vary from one manuscript to another, but the defining features are the distinctive cycles of prayers and psalms to be recited at each of the eight ‘hours’ which divided up the medieval religious day – the hours of Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline.’

‘Although the pictures are all finely drawn and are of the same general date as the script, it is fairly clear that they were afterthoughts in a manuscript not originally designed to be illustrated at all. They fall at odd places in the text, sometimes at the very end of the groups of poems on the theme depicted. That is not normal in a medieval manuscript.’

‘wear white gloves in the reading-room is that by now they had become really dirty, having evidently picked up 800 years’ worth of dust clinging to the pages, even though I was extremely careful to touch only the corners of the margins. Far from me soiling the manuscript with my hand, the transference of dirt was actually the other way round. In turn, blackened gloves surely themselves become a hazard’

‘The twelfth century is the period from which we begin to have considerable amounts of information and yet sometimes we know absolutely nothing.’

So very true!

‘that turning-point in the history of books when literacy was passing out of the monopoly of the monasteries, when itinerant secular artists were edging into the business but had not yet settled in permanent workshops, and when manuscripts crossed the great divide from inalienable possessions of the Church into luxurious and purchasable artefacts for the laity, with a definable cost and a commercial value.’

‘Tanner and Wright concluded from their examination that all sorts of bones, including animal bones, had found their way into the urn. Mixed in with these were the incomplete remains of two children, the older 4ft 10in tall and, according to dental records, around 12 or 13 years old (which is commensurate with Edward Plantagenet’s age and probable height at the time of the accession of Richard III)’

‘In contrast to Edward, whose permanent household from the age of 3 was on the Welsh borders and who travelled extensively around Southeast England and the Midlands, Richard of Shrewsbury’s upbringing seems to have mainly confined him to London, and specifically to the Palace of Westminster.’

‘Though the new king was firmly on the ‘other side’, Henry VI’s royal council nonetheless allocated funds for the royal birth taking place in its midst. Elizabeth Greystoke, Lady Scrope, was paid £20 to assist at the birth, during which she worked alongside Marjory (or Margaret) Cobb, the sanctuary midwife. The new arrival - named Edward, after his father - was baptised in Cheyneygates‘

What an odd book, it is like a mix of historical fiction and fiction. It is a story of the everyday life of a medieval woman and goes into such detail.

‘In examining manuscripts and wondering about their patrons, I have a self-formulated rule that if you are not sure whether a book is royal, it isn’t; for when manuscripts were commissioned for medieval kings or emperors, the luxury and gratuitous displays of wealth are overwhelming and unambiguous.’

‘Founded by Archbishop Lanfranc in 1084 for the care of the lame, weak and infirm, the hospital still undertakes this same duty. St John’s is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, almshouse in the country.‘

‘From the previous five centuries of Christianity and monastic endeavour in the British Isles, between the arrival of Saint Augustine and 1066, even fragments of manuscripts are rare. For the period of sixty-four years between the Conquest and 1130, however, almost a thousand extant books are recorded. From then to the end of the twelfth century, there are too many for anyone to have attempted to count.‘

‘Most famous for being murdered during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, Sudbury was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1375 until his death. While he was archbishop, he part-funded Westgate. Built at a time when hostilities with the French were at the forefront of the nation’s concerns, construction of the gate was overseen by Henry Yvele, the king’s master mason.’

‘The cathedral is a major tourist attraction. One of the top fifty sites in the country, it had nearly 900,000 visitors in 2017. An entry charge has been introduced for admittance into Cathedral Close, which is to help maintain the upkeep of the cathedral, a cost estimated as amounting to £18,000 per day.’

‘Stare at an impenetrable page of Visigothic minuscule in despair, struggle letter by letter, and by late afternoon, usually just as the library is about to close, it becomes at last surprisingly legible; next morning it is quite unreadable once more. This might explain partly why Beatus had such limited circulation outside early-medieval Spain.’

‘Rustic capitals are beautifully graceful and calligraphic, still easy to read, and they were preferred by the later Romans for secular texts, as distinct from rounded uncial, which became the more sophisticated script of early Christian writings such as the Gospels of Saint Augustine and the Codex Amiatinus.‘

‘Every medieval manuscript, unless it was the author’s first autograph draft of the text, was necessarily a copy of something else. Scribes reproduced manuscripts which already existed, and they learned to copy as carefully and as conscientiously as they could. Illuminators would base their illustrations on those of their predecessors. The transcripts themselves could then become exemplars in turn’

‘The text pages of the Book of Kells, however, are far finer and more exquisite than I ever expected. The writing, in huge insular majuscule script, is flawless in its regularity and utter control. One can only marvel at the penmanship. It is calligraphic and as exact as printing, and yet it flows and shapes itself into the space available. It sometimes swells and seems to take breath at the ends of lines.‘

‘The Book of Kells is so precious and so immediately recognizable that Bernard explained that it would be inappropriate to allow it into the reading-room... The Book of Kells risks being mobbed, like a pop star or a head of state. The security arrangements around it are necessarily as complex as presidential protection undertaken by the secret services of a great nation.’

‘eastern end of the library at Trinity College in Dublin, and over 520,000 visitors queue to see it every year, buying coloured and numbered admission tickets to the Book of Kells exhibition. More than 10,000,000 people filed past the glass cases in the first two decades after the opening of the present display in 1992. The daily lines of visitors waiting to witness a mere Latin manuscript are almost incredible’

‘Parchment for manuscripts as large and as extensive as entire pandects would have required skins of a huge number of animals. No more than a single pair of leaves could have been prepared from each pelt. The 1,030 leaves of the Codex Amiatinus would have utilized skins of 515 calves or young cattle. For all three pandects commissioned by Ceolfrith, this must be multiplied by three.’

‘From the sounds of things, Anna and Katheryn got along just fine. It is an extraordinary scenario. When the three were dining, Henry gave Katheryn a present of a ring and two small dogs, which she passed over to Anna. Anna accepted the gifts with good grace.‘

‘Henry gave Anna the manors of Bletchingley and Richmond as part of her settlement. The manors included parks and houses. Anna received a gift of 8,000 nobles and was promised more money to sustain her household until she could appreciate income from her new properties. A good deal of pearls, jewels, plate, furniture, and hangings were provided, too.’

I really do hate when books don’t have footnotes, especially when it is obvious that a lot of research has gone into this. It really undermines its credibility, quoting from many sources but not giving us the exact details.

‘This set a dangerous precedent. If someone, in this instance Henry, unwillingly entered into an agreement or treaty despite all outward appearances, it could later be invalidated. Henry learned from the annulments of his marriages to Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn that it was best not to give Anna a chance for formal protest.’

‘Henry says that he disliked Anna from the time he first laid eyes on her at Rochester. This, of course, conflicts with German reports from around 6 January 1540, which relayed that he stayed overnight not far from Anna, then came again in the morning to dine with her and spend time with her.’

‘Because the book is usually kept tightly closed in a vault in conditions of optimum temperature and humidity, its release into a room warm enough to be comfortable to humans causes the parchment to absorb moisture rapidly from the air and, unless checked, the pages begin to curl up alarmingly under our eyes, as if they were alive’

‘In MS 286 the words are laid out in the pattern which was called ‘per cola et commata’, meaning something like ‘by clauses and pauses’, in which the first line of each sentence fills the width of the column and any second or subsequent lines are written in shorter length.. Each unit is probably what a person would read and speak aloud in a single breath.’