Sunday, November 27, 2016
A King James Bible from Plymouth
Happy Thanksgiving to anyone who peruses through here from time to time. I hope your holiday with family has been blessed. Now for a little bit of Bible history: The Geneva Bible has been grandly heralded as the 'Bible of the Pilgrims', which is very true. But - fun fact - the King James Version shown below also landed at Plymouth, owned by non-separatist Mayflower crewmember John Alden. This book now rests in Pilgrim Hall Museum in Massachusetts, alongside William Bradford's personal 1592 Geneva and several other Bibles. Pretty cool!
Monday, November 14, 2016
A Paris Pocket Bible
Compact Medieval books like the "Paris Pocket Bibles" have always fascinated me, and I hope to someday own a facsimile of one (though there are none currently, maybe I should make one...) In the meantime, I shall content myself with pleasant pictures, like the one the The Museum of the Bible posted today as their artifact of the day:
"An interesting little Artifact of the Day: English Pocket Bible from AD 1230-1250. Small “pocket” Bibles were one of the most important book production achievements in the 1200s. While Paris Pocket Bibles evolved in France, England was also an important center of production. English Pocket Bibles were much smaller, such as this one which measures just 4 ¾ inches in height. The start of each chapter has a blue initial, which is distinctively English, compared to others which use both blue and red. Errors found in this manuscript, such as Ezekiel ending imperfectly with the end of Daniel instead, suggests this Bible was copied by more than one scribe."
"An interesting little Artifact of the Day: English Pocket Bible from AD 1230-1250. Small “pocket” Bibles were one of the most important book production achievements in the 1200s. While Paris Pocket Bibles evolved in France, England was also an important center of production. English Pocket Bibles were much smaller, such as this one which measures just 4 ¾ inches in height. The start of each chapter has a blue initial, which is distinctively English, compared to others which use both blue and red. Errors found in this manuscript, such as Ezekiel ending imperfectly with the end of Daniel instead, suggests this Bible was copied by more than one scribe."
Sunday, October 23, 2016
Some Ancient Advertisements
Advertisements are something that effect us every single day, as our eyes and ears are constantly assaulted by ads on the internet, television, and radio. Some are worse than others (looking at you Carl's Jr., Go Daddy, and K-Love pledge drives), but give an ad a few hundred years and I will instantly devote my attention to it. Case in point, here are a couple Medieval/Renaissance era advertisements I've come across recently:
This 13th century bookstore advertisement would've been displayed outside the bookshop, with patrons looking over the various types of handwriting script available, in order to choose the one they wanted for the book they were ordering. (Similar to playing around with the fonts on Microsoft Word.) This sheet is from the shop of Herman Strepel in Munster, circa 1447.
Next we have an example of early 'spam', found on the last page of a privately owned manuscript. Here, a scribe named Herneis addresses the reader: "If someone else would like such a handsome book as this one, come and find me in Paris, across from Notre Dame cathedral." Scribal notes like these can frequently be found in texts towards the end of the Middle Ages, as book production became privatized - as opposed to being produced in monasteries and cloisters.
Lastly is the earliest known printed English book advertisement, at a business card-sized 80x146 mm. This was printed by England's first printer, William Caxton, and it proudly announced the availability of the freshly printed Sarum Ordinal. Where can a "spiritual" man purchase this "well and correct" liturgical manual? "Let him come to Westminster, in to the almonry at the Red Pale, and he shall have them good & cheap."
Most of these were found on the Tumblr of Erik Kwakkel, a Medieval book historian at Leiden University. You can see more of his terrific content at http://erikkwakkel.tumblr.com/
This 13th century bookstore advertisement would've been displayed outside the bookshop, with patrons looking over the various types of handwriting script available, in order to choose the one they wanted for the book they were ordering. (Similar to playing around with the fonts on Microsoft Word.) This sheet is from the shop of Herman Strepel in Munster, circa 1447.
Next we have an example of early 'spam', found on the last page of a privately owned manuscript. Here, a scribe named Herneis addresses the reader: "If someone else would like such a handsome book as this one, come and find me in Paris, across from Notre Dame cathedral." Scribal notes like these can frequently be found in texts towards the end of the Middle Ages, as book production became privatized - as opposed to being produced in monasteries and cloisters.
Lastly is the earliest known printed English book advertisement, at a business card-sized 80x146 mm. This was printed by England's first printer, William Caxton, and it proudly announced the availability of the freshly printed Sarum Ordinal. Where can a "spiritual" man purchase this "well and correct" liturgical manual? "Let him come to Westminster, in to the almonry at the Red Pale, and he shall have them good & cheap."
Most of these were found on the Tumblr of Erik Kwakkel, a Medieval book historian at Leiden University. You can see more of his terrific content at http://erikkwakkel.tumblr.com/
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Tempus Fugit
After a very long hiatus (of approximately 15+ months) I felt a longing to return to my blog. I've actually had numerous post ideas, and in fact have quite a few drafts sitting on the blog-burner. Unfortunately, whenever I got around to adding to them, I keep thinking "I could probably say what's in my head a better way tomorrow," and never went back to it. Time flies when you're a new husband! My wife and I have both had an extremely busy year, but God has richly blessed us in countless ways. In any case, I hope to start posting frequently - which honestly might only happen if I set a timer and agree that, after x amount of time, I will stop editing and just post what I wrote (since my personal editing process can be unending, as evidenced by several drafts that are more then two years old).
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