Richard of Salesberie, Scribe and Illuminator

 This article appeared in the May 2021 edition of "Baelfyr", Insulae Draconis' in-house publication.  The work it describes is still ongoing.  Videos of the poems being read can be seen elsewhere on this blog:  Illustrated Poem: Dragon Sanitation. (richardofsalesberie.blogspot.com)  and  lllustrated poem: Robin Hood's Accountant. (richardofsalesberie.blogspot.com)

 This scroll was commissioned at the beginning of 2020.  You can guess the rest.  By the time I had completed it, it was apparent it wasn't going to be presented any time soon, so I finished it without adding the date, which I was finally able to add a month ago, and the scroll was presented yesterday.  So far my record for the longest delay between my doing a scroll and it being presented, but I have another one still awaiting presentation which will beat that record!

 This was given as one of the Mynydd Gwyn "Learned Discourses" in August 2021... it tied in with "Raglisn't Fair", the event which replaced the usual Raglan Fair, impossible to arrange in the COVID situation applying at the time. Raglan Castle has a special place in the hearts of many in Insulae Draconis and beyond as a venue for our activities, but it is also site of particular historical interest.  So absorbed are we by our tourneys, camping and classes, that we may perhaps have failed to pick up on that history.  Or maybe not… in which case you probably don’t need to listen to this talk. Perhaps the first thing that makes Raglan unusual is that it is a Welsh castle. For proof, see this picture!  “What?”, say you, “Castles in Wales are two-a-penny.” And you would be right.  Wales had about 400 to 600 castles (depending which source you believe), of which about 100 are still standing today, albeit in various states of ruination.  It is the highest concentr...

   This talk was done for a seminar on the War of the Roses ("To uncrown a King") done online.  I was asked to contribute a talk by Guy de Dinan, the organiser the event, and thought that as somebody best known in the SCA for my work with mediaeval manuscripts, this might give an interesting twist to the subject matter. My personal interest in this subject is practical, in that the books commissioned by Edward IV are in a consistent style, one which I chose initially as my model when I was looking to illustrate a poem of my own as a spoof mediaeval manuscript.  In the event, my own illustrations branched out a bit and I drew upon other Flemish manuscripts from the 1470s, but the books collected by Edward IV were my own starting point. The claim of Edward IV to be the founder of the Old Royal Library needs a certain amount of qualification and explanation.  Certainly, kings and queens before him had owned books!  But he was the first to systematically assemb...