Siglum Calligraphy
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siglum.bsky.social
Siglum Calligraphy
@siglum.bsky.social
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Boston calligrapher, http://siglum-calligraphy.com, http://youtube.com/@siglum, He/him/his. Allyship is discipleship, Trans rights are human rights 🌈
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siglum.bsky.social
I should add that point 14 is referring specifically to calligraphy and MS culture in Western, Christian Europe, it very much does not apply to e.g. Chinese calligraphy.
12. I think the 4thC psalmodic movement, the rise of early monasticism, and the fact that psalms became central to monastic life and then became the liturgical core of the Divine Office (and therefore books of hours) also fits into the “universalization of monastic practice”. How psalms became the dominant method of both literacy education and Latin education, and also became the central part of the monastic schedule, and then increasingly spread beyond monastery walls along with literacy and book use in the form of books of hours. 13. Speaking of the Devotio Moderna, one aspect of scribal professionalization is that it’s very rarely lucrative. The Paston’s scribe had to beg them for firewood-money. The Devotio Moderna tried to make book-making a central pillar of their practice (economically as well as devotionally) and repeatedly discovered that book-making is really unprofitable. Probably also relevant to the “short careers” thing. 14. This might be after the intended period, but I think a piece of the “changing education” narrative would be the fact that “being good at calligraphy for its own sake” is an exclusively post-print phenomenon. Arrighi’s “Operina” has no medieval equivalent. Super-athletic feats a la Esther Inglis or the Mira Calligraphiae which exist *to* show off calligraphy are *exclusively* post-print.
November 30, 2025 at 10:09 PM
siglum.bsky.social
I think only one more after this, two max
8. Related to space saving: the ligaturization of minuscule over the gothic period, and sudden de-ligaturization of humanist scripts. This also has interesting interactions with professionalization (ligaturization and de-ligaturization were related to increasing professionalization and education, but in different ways) 9. Changes in education-from-memory to education-from-books. A good “before/after” illustration of this transition might be the Springmount bog tablets in early med. (an artifact of someone learning to write psalms that they’d presumably already memorized, b/c literacy=psalteracy), and a book of hours w/an alphabet for the kids to learn their letters from in the late med. Books are becoming a thing you use to *get* literate, rather than a thing you get to use *once* you are literate. 10. Relatedly, the appearance of scribal pattern books in the late med. period. Books are now enough of an educational object that they are educating you on how to do the physical act of writing. 11. You’re prolly already including this but I’m having fun now so I’ll write it here anyway for my own selfish satisfaction: there’s a sense in which book history parallels the universalization of monastic practice. Votive offices spin off of the Divine Office, get collected in books of hours, and become an increasingly large part of lay devotion following 4th Lat. council. This parallels laicization of literacy and scribal work. It also parallels the spread of “lay-monastic” movements like the Beguines and Devotio Moderna. Also universities, which are arguably just a different type of “lay monasticism.”
November 30, 2025 at 10:06 PM
siglum.bsky.social
BTW I've pasted the text into the alt-text, which might be a bit more readable than a picture of a google doc.
4. Social changes in work environment. Not just monastic—>lay, but also institutional consumers—>individual consumers, and “independent contractors who work in different buildings but sometimes collaborate a la grub street”—>”physical atelier where we all hang out.” Probably more could be said about this from the perspective of the rise of contracts and bureaucratization, but I don’t have the depth of knowledge to say it. 5. Not sure which category this would fall under (aesthetic? Intellectual? tech?) but the development of informational hierarchy and *esp.* the use of space. Very light mise-en-page of Carolingian giving way to “paint it black” levels of horor vacui and textualis. This had effects on how sections and subsections were visually marked: Carolingian hierarchy made much more use of space (e.g. multi-line filled majuscules) while gothic info hierarchy tended more towards space-conserving markers like rubrication, paraphs, small in-line majuscules, pied-de-mouche, and small variations in a single default minuscule script. This is also part of the “project management” narrative, in that a huge part of MS project management is getting the text to take up the exact right amount of space. 6. I feel like the “long-line—>columns” transition also fits in with this narrative, although I haven’t figured out how yet. 7. Guidelines! I know guidelines always get *mentioned* in paleographical works, but As A Calligrapher (™) I think it’s near-impossible to overemphasize the importance of ruling and how much it affects both workflow & mise-en-page. We spend so much time making guidelines. I’m not exactly sure how the switch from drypoint guidelines to graphite/leadpoint/inked guidelines in the protogothic period would fit in with broader narratives, but I think its significance to what scribes did every day is underemphasized in the literature. It’s not just useful to periodization, it’s evidence of a major change in how scribes spent their time!
November 30, 2025 at 10:04 PM
siglum.bsky.social
I apologize, I had too many thoughts and I wrote a lot of them quickly. Not sure if any will be helpful, per se, but if nothing else they are proof that your treatment of the subject can spur enthusiasm!
Hello, I have too many thoughts! They are disorganized, apologies in advance! I’m not an academic, so I’ll try not to stray too much from my lane, but here’s some scattered meta-narratives that might fit in well in your framework, and which I don’t remember being very much emphasized in established paleographical surveys like Bischoff and Graham & Clemens. And some scattered MS history thoughts in general, basically because I started writing and it was fun to write them. Probably most of these you’re already including in some form, but maybe some of them might be useful!  Anyway! 1 The “project management” narrative: how changes in book construction influenced workflow & management, and vice versa. Early med. trended more towards continuous writing and solo’d works like Lindisfarne. Late med. used more modular, assembly-line-ish methods (e.g. pecia, fascicular books of hours, the “modular method” thing from early 15thC that Kathryn Rudy talks about in “Piety in Pieces”) 2 Technological changes in architecture and scribes’ physical environment. Kells was probably written outside on lap desks (or just laps) b/c monks’ cells had no room for desks, and also no windows. Slow adoption of chairs with backs (instead of stools), along with that slightly tilted lectern-looking thingy in the high middle ages, and finally the absolute unit of the late med. writing desk, which is almost vertical. 3 Not really a meta-narrative but as long as I’m talking about ergonomics: writing a lot HURTS. Scribes seem to have had relatively short careers (ca. 10 years, according to “hands before our eyes”). We can’t know why, but RSI and related joint pains are almost certainly part of it. And writing on a lap desk w/ no back support v. much increases the likelihood of writing-related joint pain.
November 30, 2025 at 10:00 PM
siglum.bsky.social
And here it is on the big night!
A pumpkin carving of the cute looking smiling bat from the Harley manuscript, taken at night with candlelight showing through.
November 3, 2025 at 7:48 AM
siglum.bsky.social
I was pumpkinspired...
A pumpkin carving of the smiling bat from Harley MS 3244 f55v
November 1, 2025 at 9:41 PM
siglum.bsky.social
I made a little Halloween ornament of the top one!
A cardstock strip of paper with a picture of a medieval witch and the phrase "this is my hour!" Written in gothic secretary hand calligraphy. A cardstock strip of paper with a picture of a medieval witch and the phrase "this is my hour!" Written in gothic secretary hand calligraphy, hanging from a paper lantern
November 1, 2025 at 4:57 PM
siglum.bsky.social
It's *that* stage of the writing process...
An adobe acrobat error message reading: "There was an error opening this document. The maximum number of files are already open. No other files can be opened or printed until some are closed.
September 13, 2025 at 3:33 AM
siglum.bsky.social
"Hic Harold rex interfectus est"
an embroidery pattern for a teddy bear, sourced from embroidery.pages.dev/teddy-bear-embroidery. An extra line of thread runs out of the teddy bear's eye.
August 27, 2025 at 7:34 PM
siglum.bsky.social
A bit of practice for a bigger piece... #calligraphy #postyourpractice
A photo of an illuminated initial "W" in gold and gouache paint, followed by calligraphy of the first three lines of the hymn "His eye is on the sparrow"
July 9, 2025 at 9:18 PM
siglum.bsky.social
From #handsoff Boston today. A wonderful crowd—a bit too wonderful for me to see or hear any of the speakers, but that's a wonder of its own!
April 5, 2025 at 8:24 PM
siglum.bsky.social
Also, if social media had been a thing in the 14th century, I think this would have done numbers as a reaction image:
A bit of marginal decoration from Beinecke MS 223, folio 64v. A pen-drawn ribbon is emblazened with the phrase "take this remedy thou" in elegant textura calligraphy
February 11, 2025 at 7:15 PM
siglum.bsky.social
A card saying "Happy Birthday, Surprised Eel Historian!" in gothic textualils calligraphy with red highlights on the capitals. Beneath, is a line drawing of a surprised eel.
January 25, 2025 at 4:53 PM
siglum.bsky.social
Aha, and found one that's actually an Antiphon! www.google.com/books/editio...
Text that reads "Antiphona Terre fundator hominum deus adque redemptor. suscipe pro meritis. Albini martyris almi. / Que tib persolvit plebs anglica munera laudis. Psalmos domini est terra." from a Google books entry of "The musical Repertoire at St. Albans, England, in the Twelfth Century, v1" by Karl Drew Hartzell
January 21, 2025 at 3:35 PM
siglum.bsky.social
Could this be related? www.google.com/books/editio...
screenshot from a book that reads: "Oratio bona ad beatum hericum regen. O bone rex regum Nos protege ab hoste maligno Henrici meritis Vitam sine fine vivendo Cum rectis animis Letemur in ethere summo Et terre fundator Hominum deus atque redemptor
January 21, 2025 at 3:30 PM
siglum.bsky.social
Other highlights from Trinity B.1.146: there's two unicorns, on f121v and f123r. And several of the marginal decorations *speak*, with little dialogue ribbons that presumably relate to the main text (tho my Dutch isn't good enough to say how). Such a cool manuscript! (cont'd)
A white unicorn painted in the left margin of B.1.146, folio 121v, next to an ornate capital "G" A black unicorn painted in the bottom margin of B.1.146, folio 123r A painted animal (perhaps a dog?) in the left margin of B.1.146, folio 117v. There is a painted ribbon running around the dog, upon which is a dutch inscription.
January 7, 2025 at 7:23 AM
siglum.bsky.social
GET IT?? IT'S A PUN! Due to a scribal accident, it looked like the text said "Oeweliken," which kind of looks like the word "owl," and so THEY DREW AN OWL! (The word was "ule" in Middle Dutch, but probably spelled "oewel" sometimes b/c medieval spelling is like that). (cont'd)
The picture of the owl from the medieval manuscript Trinity B.1.46, f137r. The owl now has a speech bubble saying "I'M A PUN!"
January 7, 2025 at 7:13 AM
siglum.bsky.social
The first two words of the Tuesday section are "O Alre," BUT because it came at the bottom of the page, the big capital "O" got bumped up slightly. So the word that follows the capital "O" is actually the last word of the Monday section, "eweliken." So it *looks* like it reads "Oeweliken."(cont'd)
An excerpt of text from the manuscript Trinity B.1.46, page 137r. The text appears to read "Oeweliken."
January 7, 2025 at 7:05 AM
siglum.bsky.social
...and the previous (Monday) portion, ends with a Trinitarian formula (written in Middle Dutch, as is the whole Book of Hours): "de mitten vader ende mitten heilighen gees sijt gebenedijt eweliken" ("who with the Father and the Holy Gost is ever blessed," I think). Note that word "eweliken" (cont'd)
Excerpt from a Gothic medieval manuscript (Trinity B.1.46, folio 137r). An ornate majuscule "O" is surrounded by crisp, precise black and red calligraphy of a Dutch prayer practice.
January 7, 2025 at 6:58 AM
siglum.bsky.social
As usual, the painted capital and inhabited filigree borders aren't just there for show, they mark a section division. In this case, the "O" marks the beginning of the Tuesday portion of the Hundred Articles of the Passion of Jesus Christ, a weekly devotional by Henricus Suso... (cont'd)
Page 222 from "Piety in Practice and Print Essays on the Late Medieval Religious Landscape" by Koen Goudrian. The text on the page reads: "Another method of organizing the content of the life of Jesus is dividing it in 'points' or 'articles': short episodes excerpted from the continuous story of Christ's life and Passion in order to serve as focal points for meditation. This format, too, has a long prehistory. The classical examples are the Hundert Betrach- tungen und Begehrungen [Hundred Articles] in the third book of the Büchlein der ewigen Weisheit by Henricus Suso and the sixty-five points by Jordanus of Quedlinburg. Suso's Hundred Articles in particular enjoyed an enormous dissemination in manuscript in the Low Countries, not only in Latin but also in various vernacular versions." Two of the Dutch versions were considered worth to be printed. The Honderd Artikelen (version A) (1) have been identified as the Mid- dle Dutch translation of Suso's articles based in turn on the Latin version by Willem Jordaens. Van Aelst calls this version the 'weekly exercise', because the article structure has been fitted into a weekly pattern analogous to the hours. The Honderd artikelen (version B) (11), printed as the last text in an ordinary Book of..." (text ends)
January 7, 2025 at 6:49 AM
siglum.bsky.social
Here is the owl in its natural habitat, folio 137r. As you can see, the owl is directly below a majuscule "O," and surrounded by some really spectacular filigree. (cont'd)
A gothic medieval manuscript. There is a painted owl in the bottom margin, just beneath an ornate painted capital "O."
January 7, 2025 at 6:36 AM
siglum.bsky.social
Wait, no, I figured it out! The "L" is a huge majuscule that takes up the entire outer margin. I've drawn it with a more natural shape here. The "hooked" bit on the left of the majuscule has been bent down under "da michi."
Photo of a manuscript page, with a huge majuscule L taking up the entire left margin. Part of the L has been bent to fit it under the second line. A computer drawing of the outline of the un-bent "L" has been superimposed.
December 27, 2024 at 5:26 PM