Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Medieval Script/Mittelalterliche Schrift

I'm about to return the books Jonathan used to study Medieval script, but thought I would mention them here first.  There are many wonderful picture books that describe the process of how books were made in the Middle Ages.  Our favorite was Marguerite Makes A Book.  You can find all the steps of making a book in here seen through the eyes of Marguerite, the daughter of a famous copyist in medieval Paris.  A book that is for slightly older readers about the same topic is Bibles and Bestiaries: A Guide to Illuminated Manuscripts.

A book giving a glimpse of scribes working in a monastery is The Ink Garden.  The famous monastery of Iona and St. Columba comes to life in Across a Dark and Wild Sea.  The Sailor Who Captured the Sea is a children's book about the Book of Kells.

Bevor ich die Bilderbücher in die Bücherei zurückbringe, die Jonathan gelesen hat, um etwas über mittelalterliche Schriftkunst und die Buchherstellung zu lernen, wollte ich sie hier noch einmal vorstellen, auch wenn sie leider alle auf Englisch sind.  Unser Lieblingsbuch war Marguerite Makes a Book, ein Buch über ein junges Mädchen im mittelalterlichen Paris, welches ihrem Vater bei der Herstellung eines Stundenbuches hilft.  Ein Buch, welches für ältere Leser gedacht ist und auch die Buchherstellung mit vielen Beispielen von echten mittelalterlichen Manuskripten bespricht, ist Bibles and Bestiaries.  Die Arbeit eines Schreibers im Kloster lernt man in dem Buch The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane kennen.  Den heiligen Columban und seine Verdienste in der Buchkunst trifft man in Across a Dark and Wild Sea.  The Sailor Who Captured the Sea führt Kinder in das Buch von Kells ein.




Jonathan also tried his hand at writing in a Medieval script.  He used an early one called uncial.  A great inspiration for any type of calligraphy is the book The Calligrapher's Bible by David Harris.  Apfelkuchen, Cosinus und Farbenpracht from Switzerland mentioned that author.  Thank you!


Jonathan hat auch probiert, im mittelalterlichen Stil (Unciale) zu schreiben.  Eine tolle Hilfe bietet der Autor David Harris.  Wir haben dieses Buch von ihm benutzt.  Ein großes Dankeschön an Apfelkuchen, Cosinus und Farbenpracht in die Schweiz für einen Hinweis auf diesen Autor!

Jonathan chose to write the first verse of the Gregorian chant Vexilla Regis.  He made a mistake and turned the mistake into a funny picture, exactly how a monk would have "corrected" a mistake.

Jonathan hat eine Strophe des Gregorianischen Gesanges Vexilla regis abgeschrieben.  Er hat einen Fehler gemacht und den Fehler mit einem lustigen Bild verbessert, also genauso, wie es ein Mönch im Mittelalter gemacht hätte.


You can listen to it here: Hier kann man das Lied hören:



We have had very strange weather today:  It snowed all morning, it rained in the afternoon, and now there is a thunderstorm!  I wonder what we'll get tomorrow . . .

Heute gab es ein echtes Aprilwetter:  Es hat den ganzen Morgen geschneit, dann am Nachmittag geregnet und jetzt donnert es draußen!  Mal sehen, was der neue Tag so bringt . . . 


10 comments:

  1. Well done to Jonathan for the beautiful manuscript writing and the sewing project.

    Our internal speaker on the computer is kaput so I'll get Dave to rig up the external ones so I can listen to Flora singing.

    As always you do amazing things with your kids, they are very blessed to have you as their mum and teacher.

    The sun is shining here today so we'll hopefully be out later to capture some light and vitamin D!!

    Love to you all

    San xx

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    1. Thanks so much, San! We also got your little surprise in the mail. That brightened our day, especially with all the snow/rain we are getting. So nice you thought of us!

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    2. Glad the package arrived. I've been admiring your linked pictures under your postings, can you tell this techno dinosaur the trick on getting this to work?!!

      San xx

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    3. You need to sign up here. It's quite simple.

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  2. this would be a good opportunity to let him listen to Carmina Burana by Carl Orff and tell him about it.

    "Kraemer gip die warve mir, die min waengel roete..."

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    1. Oh Marlis, what a great idea! I will see if we have that at home, otherwise our college music library will have it. Thanks so much!

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  3. I love these books! Great choices! There are some wonderful medieval versions of the Stabat Mater on youtube as well...for a Lenten piece... :)

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    1. Thanks for the kind words, Alecia.

      Good idea to include Stabat Mater, we sang it in English in church on Tuesday during a Lenten benediction, but not in Latin.

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  4. Nice medieval script! I was always fascinated with illuminated manuscripts. I think if I were a man in medieval times, I'd have been a monk copying books.

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    1. Thank you, Alexandra. Yes, aren't some of those amazing and so pretty! Maybe you should become one of those people restoring old manuscripts :).

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