Richard of Salesberie, Scribe and Illuminator

 Another piece produced in a hurry, this was the prize for the performance contest at our local event, the Mnydd Gwyn Eisteddfod.  (It was won by Maredydd ap Gwillim).  Part of the hurry was that I didn't start it because I couldn't get any inspiration.  Then, when visiting the Battle of Tewkesbury re-enactment, my wife and I visited Tewkesbury Abbey, and she pointed out, high above us on a ceiling boss, an angel playing a harp.  It seemed appropriate, so I used it as the basis of a scroll, with a suitable border based on a 14th century manuscript page I found on the internet.  The entire piece was done in three days, just in time for the event.

I was asked to produce this scroll with very little notice, so needed to keep it very simple, without any complex borders or decoration.  I decided to go for the something suggesting a Renaissance portrait, and managed to get hold of people who could supply me with suitable photos of the subject.  The final drawing is a composite, based on photos of Morales, his Renaissance doublet and jerkin, and a detail photo of the blackwork collar in construction.  The hat is entirely fictitious, but a bare head would have looked wrong! I was not present when the scroll was presented, but was fortunate that Libby Cripps photographed the moment, and posted it on Facebook.  

 My fourth illuminated poem.  Having written the last two about an accountant and an insurance salesman, it occurred to me that I had unintentionally written them about the two careers my children had recently started, so it seemed appropriate to see if I could write one about my wife's career.  She is an aircraft engineer, and aircraft were notably absent in the mediaeval period, but I was aware of one... that built by Eilmer of Malmesbury, an 11th century monk mentioned in the histories of William of Malmesbury, a later monk from the same abbey.   I tinkered with the story a bit... the real Eilmer broke his legs in his first flight and never flew again, whereas mine kept trying.  But in the end, my Eilmer was out-classed by flying nuns, in tribute to my wife who has succeeded as a woman in a very male-dominated sphere of work. Stylistically, the inspiration for the illuminations is the "Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry"

 The two scrolls shown here were a collaboration, in which my role was the calligraphy of the text, which the recipients had requested should be in Old Slavonic style.  The paintings were by Kay Ellis (SCA name, Agatha of Norwich), and the text, was composed by Fiona Scerri and translated into Ukrainian (preferable to Russian at present!) by Lesley McIntee.

 At last!  My third illuminated poem is finished. I had hoped to put them together as a video and narrate the story, as with the others, but the file size is too great.  So here are-low-resolution water-marked images.  As the intention is eventually to get the poems published, please do not copy them without consent. The poem was inspired by the claim of the Liverpool Victoria Insurance company to be 'The "Which?" insurance provider of the year". The style was inspired by speculation that Hieronymus Bosch may have begun his career as an illuminator.  If so, how might he have tackled my poem?

 Within about an hour of discovering that she was to be Queen, (which must have been 19th October 2019), Martha Liljuros (SCA name Jacquelyna de Bellmont) asked me if I would do a scroll for her when she became Countess (a rank which would be bestowed on her at the end of her reign, which began in January 2020 and should have ended in June 2020).  In the event, because of the impossibility of organising a tourney for her successors, her reign lasted until today, (January 8th 2022) and only today was she made Countess and the scroll presented. So I had a long time to work on it!  I was inspired by an illumination from a manuscript of "The Triumph of the Virtues" by Jean Thenaud, held in the National Library of France.  It featured a woman riding on a unicorn.  As Jacquelyna's SCA arms feature a unicorn's head, I decided to adapt the original picture for her.  As it is clearly an illustration to a story, I wrote a story about Jacquelyna's efforts to heal her ...

 It is common in the SCA for those seeking to improve their skills in arts and sciences to become "apprentice" to a member of the Laurel Order, and Dame Leonet de Covenham kindly agreed to become my Laurel Mistress.  The process of making this reality was long delayed by COVID, but Dame Leonet asked me in the meantime to write out an indenture scroll (two versions of the same text on one sheet of parchment, which are then cut apart in an irregular jagged line, so that in any case of dispute, the authenticity or otherwise of the document can be proved by matching it up to the other copy).  This I did, and the indenture was signed and cut apart at Yule Ball. Thanks to Tom McKinnell for the photos of the actual ceremony: