The Macclesfield Psalter scrolls

 Another facsimile which Mary had given me is of the Macclesfield Psalter, a wonderful example of early 14th century English illumination in the "bar-and-ivy" style.  I took a long time to get round to using it as an exemplar, but once I did so, I couldn't stop!

It illustrates a common issue with SCA scrolls.  There is a strong tradition (which I have no desire to break as it suits me well) that they are based on illuminated manuscripts.  Unless these are Grants of Arms (and in practice, few are), they are intended for very different uses to award scrolls.  The Macclesfield Psalter and similar (eg, Luttrell Psalter) evolved a style very specific to Psalters.  Since the psalms are all written in verses which fall into two halves, the "bar" extends into a decorated initial for the opening half of each verse, whilst a gap is left between each extension into which the the second half of each verse is written.  It doesn't really lend itself for use with the sort of texts used in award scrolls... but since my Macclesfield-inspired scrolls are always popular, I find ways to make them work!








Most of my Macclesfield scrolls are closely based on an original page, or combine elements from various pages.  This last one is a completely fresh creation of my own, inspired by the Macclesfield Psalter but not copied from it.  It was my response to the instruction that I should do a scroll to reward the recipient for their work in IT support for Insulae Draconis, without mentioning any computer language.  I included a number of visual puns, including "Web Master", "Home Page", "Mouse" and "Sir Kit Bawd" (= circuit board).



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