Vellum or parchment is made from animal skins processed until they are smooth and thin enough for light to pass through. It’s been used for book-pages longer than has paper. You can find one of the oldest surviving books in the British Library, the Codex Sinaiticus. It was written on parchment in the fourth century and is over 1600 years old….
M. Giraude’s laurel scroll showing interlinear and filigree lines. For years I’ve fussed over painting straight lines on a scroll. I keep coming back to starting with a ruler and light pencil lines then painting over those lines. The problem is when you use light intensity paints like pink, white, or yellow you see the pencil line through…
I’m so excited. While I may be behind the times, I just found out I can now read free articles on JSTOR, Up to six a month. I use to only be able to afford this by driving to my local university library where I paid for an economical annual membership. But it was worth it…
14th century (1349-1351) Austria – Lilienfeld Cod. 151: Concordantiae caritatis fol. 244v There is no reason you’d want to include a prejudicial illumination like this in SCA art. But why? What do you see? This 14th-century illumination shows a man wearing a Jews hat having sex, then being mortally stabbed for it. But there’s more that’s perplexing. What’s up with his pointy…
One trick to learn when doing SCA research I call “Resource Mining”. It is more fun than saying you can “get resources from the Bibliography” of the book or article you’re reading. A bibliography is a list of books, articles, speeches, private records, diaries, websites, and other sources an author used when writing a paper. You may find…
Largess Display “Back In The Day” Calontir’s summer Coronation is just around the corner. it’s being hosted by the Barony of the Lonely Tower. I hope you’ll come. The event will include a largess display. “What’s that?” you say. In short “largess” are gifts given generously. In the SCA largess is given by Monarchs or the Baronage to show their…
My spare room being used for Lilies prep. Every year I go to Calontir Lilies War and this year is no different. What’s different is what I’ve realized from doing this annually. It is important you purge your hygiene and health products each year. When I started paying attention to dates on the personal products…
A scroll created to appear like a two page spread. Recently a beginning scribe asked me, “What’s the difference between a scroll and a period manuscript?” I thought you might also want to know. When you receive an SCA award you’re given a fancy commemorative document. We call these “scrolls”, even though they’re seldom rolled…