thebeautifulbook

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CROATIAN TALES OF LONG AGO by Iv. Berlić-Mažuranić. (New York: Stokes, 1922). Cover art by M.M. Williams. Illustrated by Vladimir Kirin. Translated by F.S. Copeland.

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COSSACK FAIRY TALES AND FOLK TALES edited by R. Nisbet Bain (London: Harrap, 1916). Illustrated by Noel L. Nisbet.

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EUROPEAN FOLK AND FAIRY TALES edited by Joseph Jacobs. (New York: Putnam, c.1916) Illustrated by John Dickson Batten.

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ALPENBLUMENMÄRCHEN [aka ALPINE FLOWERS FAIRY TALE] written and illustrated by Ernst Kreidolf (Erlenbach-Zürich: Rotapfelverlag, 1922)

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THE MOON PRINCESS: A Fairy Tale by Edith Ogden Harrison. (Chicago: McClurg, 1905) Illustrated by Lucy Fitch Perkins.

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THE LITTLE STRAWMAN by Cora Work Hunter (Chicago/New York: Rand McNally, 1914).

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CHINESE WONDER BOOK edited by Norman Hinsdale Pitman (New York: Dutton, c.1919) Illustrated by Zhutang Li.

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THE WHITE ELEPHANT; or, The Hunters of Ava and the King of the Golden Foot by William Dalton. (New York: Lovell, 1881). Illustrated by Harrison Weir.

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STORIES OF HINDU GODS (India: 1720)

Includes 9 full-pages of painted miniatures, showing Persian influence although the manuscript is probably of Indian origin.

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[thebeautifulbook]

THE WHITE ELEPHANT by Charles Reade (New York: Gibson & King, [c.1884]]

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CHILD-LAND: picture pages for the little ones by Oscar Pletsch. (London: Partridge, [1873]). Gift book containing 200 designs by Oscar Pletsch, M. Richter, et al.

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[thebeautifulbook]

Medieval book transport

You are looking at two ‘wraps’ (top), the outside and inside of a box (middle), and a leather satchel (bottom). What they share is not just their old age (they are all medieval), but also the purpose for which they were made: to transport a book from A to B. The actual reason for transporting books in these objects varied considerably. The wraps are late-medieval girdle books, which were hanged from the owner’s belt by the knot. The text inside - which was often of legal or religious nature - could be consulted quickly and easily: just unwrap it and read. The box (and the ninth-century book inside) had a more exotic use: the package functioned as a charm for good luck on the battlefield, where it was carried in front of the troops by a monk. The satchel, which also dates from the ninth century, was just a bag to transport a book while on the go - it was popular among monks. Read more about these fascinating devices in my blog post “Medieval Books on the Go” (here).  

Pics -  Wrap at top: Stockholm, Royal Library (16th century, source); Wrap below it: Yale, Beinecke Library, MS 84 (15th century, source); Box: Dublin, Royal, Irish Academy, D ii 3 (8th/9th century, source); Satchel: Dublin, Trinity, College, MS 52 (Book of Armagh, 9th century, source).

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[thebeautifulbook]

Dreamy eyes

Heart-shaped books from medieval times frequently make their rounds on social media (here is a really nice post devoted to them). For good reason, of course, because they are as unusual as they are pretty. Dating exclusively from the 15th and 16th century, they commonly contain songs, poetry and other short texts devoted to Love. As much as I love actual surviving books, this depiction in a painting from c. 1480 speaks to me because of the context it provides - lacking when you hold the real medieval book in your hand. There he is, the reader, walking around town, holding the heart-shaped pages with love poetry in his hand. He looks dreamy, as if contemplating his love, lost or waiting at home. It’s an unusual snapshot of how those heart-shaped books were used for real - or at least how I would like them to be. 

Pic: Metropolitan Museum, Accession nr. 50.145.25 (Young Man Holding a Book, anonymous, c. 1480). More info here, as well as a Hi-Res image.

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[thebeautifulbook]

BOOK OF HOURS for use in Rome. (France, c.1555) A liturgy in Latin made c. 1555 for King Henry II of France.

The pages of this Book of Hours appropriately resemble Fleurs-de-Lis, a symbol for French royalty. It was made for King Henry II of France contained prayers and other short texts, which were read at set times during the day. Not only does the very shape of the pages testify to the object’s royal patron, so too does the high quality of the decoration. The manuscript measures only 182×80 mm and has 129 leaves.

‘Written by hand, medieval manuscripts are very different from printed books, which started to appear after Gutenberg’s mid-fifteenth-century invention of moving type. One difference in particular is important for our understanding of manuscripts. While printed books were produced in batches of a thousand or more, handwritten copies were made one at the time. In fact, medieval books, especially those made commercially, came to be after a detailed conversation between scribe and reader, a talk that covered all aspects of the manuscript’s production. This is the only way the scribe could ensure the expensive product he was about to make was in sync with what the reader wanted. Consequently, while printed books were shaped generically and according to the printer’s perception of what the (anonymous) “market” preferred, the medieval scribe designed a book according to the explicit instructions of its user. ’—Erik Kwakkel on medievalbooks.nl (2014)

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FLEUR DE LYS-SHAPED BOOK OF HOURS, in Latin, use of Rome (Paris, c. 1553). Illuminated manuscript on paper.

180 x 80mm. i + 117 leaves, each page with 24 lines written in a 'roman' hand in black ink within a liquid gold border in the shape of a half fleur de lys, spaces infilled with liquid gold fronds on blue or red grounds, line-fillers and one- and two-line initials of the same colours, eleven lobe-shaped miniatures. Nineteenth-century brown morocco gilt, semé with fleur de lys, doublures of red morocco gilt, edges gauffered and gilt (upper cover detached). [Christies Auction House, 2006 catalog]

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17th Century Armenian book cover. Tooled leather.

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The silver cover of this manuscript was commissioned in 1675 by Minas Vardapet. The silversmith was Khachatourian Yakop in Tokat.

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