“What beauty is, I know not, though it adheres to many things.” – Albrecht Dürer, 16th century Introduction: Hey, all! Are you curious about medieval art, workshops, or what life was like in the Middle Ages? As an SCA artisan, finding the right resources can make all the difference when recreating medieval art. Whether you’re…
Describe your life in an alternate universe. As a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, I have an alternative persona. In it, I’m Jehanne Bening, a 15th-century apprentice to the famous manuscript artisan Simon Bening. As it happens, I am working on the details of describing her daily life for a future blog series….
Hey there, fellow artisans and creatives in the SCA community! So, imagine you’ve been tasked with crafting an award scroll for someone in our midst. Now, if you know the person like the back of your hand, well, congratulations! You’re already halfway there. The Medieval vibe practically falls into place effortlessly. But, let’s say you’re…
Are you enjoying your Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) journey? I bet you are! And creating clothing, armor, and personal items along the way. Building your SCA portfolio might not be your top interest, but trust me, it’s a fantastic idea. And let me tell you why. Picture this: you’re out there, experiencing the wonders…
So, let me tell you about this little adventure I had with ChatGPT. You see, there’s this local group I’m part of called the Barony of the Lonely Tower, and we’re about to welcome a new Baron and Baroness. Exciting times, right? Well, they asked for some help in writing award texts for the honors…
Searching for pre-17th-century items to recreate is a big part of what we do in the SCA. It’s our thing, and it’s really exciting! Every item that inspires us to recreate something has a story behind it, and we love discovering those stories. We call this quest for information “research,” but it’s definitely not boring…
Research is more than Wikipedia. These five links give you tips to finding more out of what you see and read.
Making A Hebrew-English Scroll and what it took for me to create the Hebrew calligraphy.
Thoughts on how we look at information today and how we research it. Knowing how to seek information with old school and new school methods broadens your possibility to recreate what you want.
You’ve probably noticed how often the links in my posts are to a Wikipedia article. It’s like when you google and the search engine puts Wikipedia’s information in a fact box, or Apple’s Siri replies with it to answer your question. They’re an easy link to include to give you more information. I know it’s not the highest…
Again my internet surfing snared websites too good to keep from you. These turn up as I sleuth out information for blog posts. I’ve been saving them to post in one place. These popped up relating to life-long e-learning. And learning about Medieval history, its people and its things are what we do in the SCA….
Morgan M.456 Avis aus roys Folio 34v, 1340-1360 A.D., Paris, France Manuscript Miniatures is not exactly what you think it is from its name. It is a medieval armor research source with insight through illuminated manuscripts. The website’s intent is to make it easier to hunt for online digitized images from numerous manuscripts. A way to…
This may seem to you like cheating, but these are too good not to check out. Cutting from a University of Padua diploma c. 1465-79 They are the British Library‘s collection of blogs. A group of interesting, knowledgeable blogs all in one place. You could say they are its own “internet Round-Up”. One blog is perfect for…
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…
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…
Unidentified Pinterest Image You know those lovely illuminations you find on Pinterest when you search for scroll inspiration. Your perfect source but it has no manuscript information. There’s a way to find the source using the image. It’s called a “reverse image search.” This technique is called “a reverse image search.” It analyzes the image…
There’s something I neglected to include when I posted about searching the internet for illuminated manuscripts. I left out telling you how to exclude something you know you don’t want, like Pinterest or Wikipedia items. It’s simple. You can eliminate things from your search by putting a minus before the term of the things you don’t…
Scribe lettering. Recently I was asked to create text for an award scroll. It’s something I like doing and use to do often. The common awards are based on period charters and patents of arms. The period inspirations are not actual awards but often legal documents giving land or other rights. They sound very lawyerly because…
I’ve been hunting down my favorite online medieval sources. Some time since I composed my last text the Internet Medieval Sourcebook received a new look. In fact the whole Internet History Sourcebooks Project (IHSP) has been updated. It’s new and improved. As someone in the SCA, if you haven’t found the IHSP yet you are missing out on…
While waiting to leave for an appointment the other day I decided to see what funny and weird illuminated manuscript stuff I could find with Google. This is a fun time suck that must be used sparingly or it will make me late to my appointment. British Library’s Harley 7026 f. 16 These handmade devotional…