Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts by Christopher de Hamel ****

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts by Christopher de Hamel is a massive tome of over 600 pages, 200 color illustrations, and weighing more than two pounds (1 kg). It is part memoir, travelogue, history, and mystery. It chronicles European illuminated manuscripts from the earliest (6th century) to end (16th century) caused by Gutenberg’s invention in the mid-15th century.

While not a history of everyday life (https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/15826.Everyday_Life_in_History), this European medieval history, pays minimal attention to wars or politics. If you are interested in Medieval history or art, this is a unique opportunity to visit the period from a different point of view.

England
For one reason or another England figures prominently in these histories, even if we ignore the inclusion of the Canterbury Tales. For example, the oldest complete Latin Bible (The Codex Amiatinus, circa 700, Florence) was created in England. This is doubly surprising because England was not a center of Christian literature. For much of the period of this book, Europe was intellectually monolingual (Latin).

The Copenhagen Psalter (12th century) was also created in England.

Detective work – frustration expressed with a joke
Paleographer gets to heaven after a lifetime of matching hands (handwriting) to scribes, meets a famous scribe, and eagerly asks, “Was I right? Was it you?”

The scribe replies, “Do you know, it was a long time ago and I really can’t remember.”

A military manuscript refers to tormentis, fundibulis, and scorpiis, but the Latin dictionary simply says catapult for each word.

One Book of Hours (daily devotion prayer book) included names of both Spanish and German saints, so the paleographer concludes this was consistent with “a daughter of a Holy Roman Emperor and widow of the heir of Spain. Every little detail is considered to solve the source and ownership of these manuscripts.

Archeology
In recent times, archeologists have decided that restorations should be obviously different from the original. Whereas in earlier centuries, restorations blended in, now they stand out as obvious modern additions. The same is now true for manuscript restorations. Old parchment pages are now repaired with “very visible” white thread and parchment to differentiate modern restorations from historical repairs.

Just as some ruins have ancient graffiti and I-was-here markings, the same is true for manuscripts. The book of Kells is signed by 19th-century royal visitors. The political implication of British royalty signing (defacing) a treasured Irish manuscript is certainly fraught.

Science
“Ours is probably the first generation for tens of thousands of years not to recognize the constellations.”

The Leiden Aratea (9th century) shows a geocentric model of the solar system, as might be expected so many years before Copernicus (1473-1543) and Galileo (1564-1642). However, the diagram clearly shows Mercury and Venus orbiting the Sun, even though the Sun is shown orbiting the Earth.

Our paper sizes come from parchment sizes. Papyrus is necessarily square as the reeds are layered horizontally and vertically. Parchment is trimmed from animal skins which produces a rectangular shape.

A medieval naval weapon was asps in glass jars which are thrown onto enemy ships where the jars break and the snakes attack.

Hey, diddle, diddle, The cat and the fiddle
“As he began to play the [rebec, medieval stringed instrument] after supper, our cat rushed in at the sound, as if drawn by a magnet, rolling on the floor in ecstasy, eyes rolling, feet in the air, mouth open, as punch drunk as a dervish, and hilarious to witness. Doubtless, medieval cats responded the same way…and the comic association stuck”

Auctions
“When the high price for a manuscript was £90,000, The Spinola Hours (16th century) went up for auction, H. P. Kraus “sat glumly, raised his hand in a desultory way to about £60,000, and then very visibly shook his head. Somehow, the bidding went on climbing up and up… At £370,00 the hammer fell. H. P. Kraus… He had arranged with the auctioneer that, no matter what he said or did…he was nevertheless still bidding on the manuscript as long as he was wearing his glasses.”

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

Contents
Gospels of Saint Augustine (6th) 10
The Codex Amiatinus 54 (~700) 54
The Book of Kells (8th) 96
*The Leiden Aratea (9th) Astronomy 140
The Morgan Beatus (10th) Apocalypse 188
Hugo Pictor (11th) 232
The Copenhagen Psalter (12th) 280
*The Carmina Burana (13th) Poems and songs (some ribald) 330
The Hours of Jeanne de Navarre (14th) 376
*The Hengwrt Chaucer (~1400) Chaucer 426
*The Visconti Semideus (15th) Military 466
The Spinola Hours (16th) 508

* Not religious