A while ago I took a Coursera course on medieval manuscripts, covering both their history and construction. It was super interesting! The (optional) assignments revolved around making your OWN medieval manuscript using whatever text you wanted. It seemed like my classmates picked poems or Bible chapters, but I obviously chose the lyrics to “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-A-Lot. It was my gut reaction when told to submit ideas, and I didn’t even question it. Here is a step-by-step look at the process.
Part 1: Making “parchment”
The first step was making our own “parchment” leaves by painting posterboard with a mixture of coffee, water, and vinegar. After drying, they were stained and kind of curly, sort of like the real treated skins would be:
We were also encouraged to “deface” them with holes, cuts, random vein lines etc because a lot of medieval parchment would have similar inconsistencies depending on the quality of the hide used.
I cut a big old hole in one
The way medieval manuscript makers dealt with such holes is pretty cool. Some incorporated them into the illustrations of their text like this rad illustrations of a dude looking through a telescope:
Or others would repair the hole with colorful embroidery thread:
I already know how to embroider so I was pumped to try this
Spoilers: my plans were for naught because I didn’t realize how I would need to fold and trim the parchment for use, so the holes I made never were in the middle of a page in the finish manuscript.
Part 2: Parchment to Quires
Next it was time to fold the parchment into quires. One big sheet makes what will be 8 leaves:
They alternate “hair” side vs. “flesh” side
The quires are kept together with chords (I used embroidery thread), and marked for the order they are to be used in faintly at the bottom:
Part 3: Mise-en-Page
Next a medieval copyist would have prepared the quires for writing by setting up margins, blocking off areas for text and illustrations, deciding how many columns of text to use etc. There are A LOT of different ways of doing this, depending on things like text length and parchment area, but also things like which mystical numbers were most favorable. I wanted to try out something called THE SECRET CANON, because obviously. It has a lot to do with Pythagorean ratios.
G E O M E T R Y
Like many monks of old, I used a compass to mark off the distance between lines of text:
A fancy compass
Part 4: THE MASTERPIECE
This is the shit you came here to see. Like a lot of medieval manuscripts, I started with what’s called a carpet page, designed to show off rich and expensive paint colors (often gold!). And an author portrait.
Yes I gave Sir Mix-A-Lot a halo. He deserves it
And here is the first page spread with what is called rinceaux decoration in the margin:
I’m also using a hierarchy of initials, where the first letter of the manuscript, paragraph, and lines are differentiated with decreasing order of fanciness. I was trying to do something like these particolored letters, but obviously less competently.
Second page spread has what’s called “drollery”, funny pictures that may or may not relate to the text. Snails are a pretty common motif in medieval manuscripts. And if you draw them back-to-back they look like butts so.
Third page spread has marginal illustrations taken from the text.
I FREEHAND COPIED THIS FROM A REAL MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPT OH MY GOD GUYS. Specifically this one. Usually I am bad at drawing people, but so was this medieval artist, so whatever.
This spread features what’s known as a panel illustration with a geometric background. It’s a Honda.
Probably the most important page in the manuscript. I was pretty tired after that, so the remaining pages are relatively plain:
Part 5: Binding the Masterpiece
Oh yeah, it’s not over. We gotta cover this manuscript so it will last unto the ages. I cut up a shoe box to make the front and back covers.
Just like the monks of old
Then I watched this video tutorial on coptic binding to learn how to sew the covers and quires together neatly.
I did it!
This also means I can now make my own journals! But will I? Probably not. Nobody wants a picture of a shoe on their medieval manuscript, so I covered it with some fancy craft paper
Basically exactly the same as covering a textbook
But that shoe was still poking through:
Shoe, you are not historically accurate, go away
So some more craft paper served as flyleaves:
Then I added some decoration to the front and the masterpiece was done!
Yay!
I will treasure it always
Amazing!!