Perhaps no other relic of the European Middle Ages captures our imagination more than illuminated medieval manuscripts, or those documents decorated with images and colored pigments. Serving as windows unto a lost world of kings, ladies, faith, war, and culture, they communicate complex visual and textual narratives of Europe’s collective cultural heritage and patrimony. In this fashion, illuminated manuscripts are dynamic messages from our communal past that are still relevant today in fields like graphic design and typography. In this seven-week course, students will explore the material creation, content, and historical context of illuminated medieval European manuscripts. Students will acquire an introductory knowledge of their distinguishing characteristics, their cataloguing and periodization (when they were created), the methods utilized to produce them, and their historical context and value. Student achievement will be assessed using not only traditional multiple-choice quizzes, but more importantly will be evaluated based on individual student projects. In their final projects students will either (1) produce a board of commented images about medieval manuscripts or (2) prepare a physical manuscript using medieval methods. The best of these peer-evaluated projects will be posted on the Deciphering Secrets website, which is our collective citizen scholarship web presence that encourages and supports our global citizen scholars appreciation and contributions to transcription of medieval manuscripts. Finally, we wish to highlight that this course is an exciting international collaboration between the University of Colorado (USA) and Universidad Complutense Madrid (Spain).
2.4. Paper
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Deciphering Secrets: The Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval Europe
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MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN KINGDOMS (PART 1) AND WRITING SUPPORTS AND BOOK FORMATS
WEEK #2
Meet the Instructors
Dr. Roger Louis Martínez-DávilaAssociate Professor
History
Ana B. Sanchez-PrietoDr. in Medieval History, Dr. in Education Sciences
Historiographical Sciences and Techniques
[MUSIC]
Paper is the most conspicuous writing material as we speak.
Although in years to come,
its crown might be claimed by electronic devices such as tablets and ebook readers.
But precisely because paper is so common,
we don't think much about its origin or making process.
In this video, we will deal briefly with the itinerary of paper
from its invention in China to its arrival in the West.
And also how traditional paper is made and
which classes of paper can be found in medieval manuscripts.
Paper is a Chinese invention due, according to the tradition,
to Tsai Lun, a clerk in the service of Emperor Hai, and
ruler in the province of Hunan, in the year 105 AD.
Although the oldest paper fragments preserved are some letters from 137 AD.
In 751, after the Battle of Samarkand, among the prisoners the Arabs took,
there were some paper craftsmen and they were forced to reveal its secret.
And so paper started its route to the West through a double path along the northern
and southern shores of the Mediterranean, as can be seen in the map.
The main landmarks of the introduction of paper in Europe are the following.
Paper was already known in Spain in the 10th century.
We know of paper mills in Valencia in 1056,
in Toledo in 1085, and in Xativa in 1154.
Here, the oldest paper preserved comes from two codices written in the Monastery
of Cyrus, one of which is at present in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, and
a glossary that this is still in the abbey library.
In Italy, the oldest exemplar is a mandate of Countess Adelaida of 1109,
written in Greek and Arabic, which now is in the Archivo di Estato of Palermo.
The existence of a paper mill in Fabriano is documented already in 1276.
And since then, the name of this beautiful town has been associated to paper making.
The first Italian manuscript written on paper dates from 1270.
To France, paper came through a double way from Spain and from Italy.
Here, the first documented papers were produced in the region of Troyes and
in the valley around 1350.
In Germany, the first production center was established in Nuremberg in 1390,
with the collaboration of some Italian craftsmen.
To the low countries, paper came thanks to a Spaniard called Jon,
who established a workshop in Liege in 1405.
In the British Isles, paper was only known during the 15th century.
And even later in Scandinavia, in the 17th century.
Let's see now, if just briefly,
the manufacturing process of traditional paper.
Because this process requires a lot of water, the paper mills
are always placed in really idyllic landscapes close to a river.
There are still some of these artiliers where paper is still made in
the traditional manner.
We can mention, for example, Ambert in France and
Capellades in Spain, but there are many other museum mills all across Europe.
The raw material of the first Chinese papers was a sort of mulberry tree leaf,
but when the craft left the borders of its native country, this component had to
be substituted, since that variety of plant couldn't be found in other regions.
And therefore the recipes were simplified and as raw ingredients,
linen rags started to be used, and in a lesser proportion, flax.
The first step in the process was classifying the rags by color,
cutting them in relatively small pieces and
whitewashing them with a kind of bleach made out of wood hash.
These materials were then reduced to a paste in big vats,
where they were left to macerate in water until the pulp was homogeneous.
In the beginning, the operation was done by hand, and
later by animal powered mill stones.
Finally, during the 13th century, and probably in Italy, the mill stones were
substituted by heavy hammers activated by gears moved by running water.
The resulting paste was then poured in a metallic tub,
where it was kept at constant temperature.
The craftsman then takes a rectangular sieve, called a mould, and
introduces it in the top.
When the mould comes out of the top, it's covered with a layer of the paste,
the future paper leaf, that the craftsman lays on felt
to absorb the excessive water and start the drying process.
Then a certain amount of felts with their respective leaves were pressed in
order to eliminate even more water, and that also helped with the smoothing flat.
The following step was to hang the leaves and let them dry completely.
When the leaves were dry, they were submerged in glue and
again pressed and hung to dry.
And the finishing touch consisted in polishing and
smoothing the leaves, one by one, by hand.
Over this whole process,
the single element that developed more changes was the mould.
Three different types of mould are known, floating mould, oriental or
flexible mould, and occidental or rigid framed mould.
The oriental or flexible mould has no frame, and that implies that
the threads that make up the sieve will deform after a short period of use.
The occidental or rigid mould has a frame, and
it insures that the threads will keep in place for a very long time.
The mould framework leaves very characteristic marks on the paper leaf.
The lines that run longitudinally, very close to each other,
are called wire lines and the transverse ones chain supports.
Since the 13th century, occidental paper has been manufactured with a watermark.
This is a silhouette worked out with metallic threads in the mould so
that it leaves a mark in the paper leaves that could identify the manufacturer.
Together with a watermark, sometimes we find a secondary mark, or
countermark, of a smaller dimension,
most commonly some decorated in the shells placed in one of the corners of the leaf.
The purpose of this countermark was to distinguish between two manufacturers
that use the same watermark or watermarks very similar.
The types of paper used during the Middle Ages can be divided in
two wide classes, with and without watermark.
The paper without watermark is characteristic of the east, but
the papers made in the west previously to the invention of the watermark in
the 13th century fall as well within this category.
The paste in this sort of paper is normally well glued in starch, and
the surface is flat and of a yellowish color turned into dun.
As already explained, the mould of these papers is of the flexible sort.
And of course, they lack a watermark.
The formats can be very variable.
Watermark paper is characteristically European from the 13th century.
Besides the frame of the mould on the watermark, this sort of paper is
identified through its regular paste and rough surface of absorbent appearance.
The glue is of animal origin and the color light yellowish.
Of course, paper is a far less resilient material than parchment.
And because of that, its preservation is more difficult.
But even so, there are thousands of medieval manuscripts written on paper.
This deficiency of paper was very consciously perceived in medieval times.
And therefore, for a very long time,
paper was considered a sort of poor substitute for parchment.
And maybe because of that, the very first manuscripts copied on
paper have the outer bifolium of its quire of parchment.
Only towards the end of the Middle Ages will you start to find deluxe
manuscripts copied entirely on paper, as this book of Knight Zifar,
preserved in Paris, in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.
[MUSIC]
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