#rutland psalter

[maniculum]

Sample item from our current kickstarter project, a deck of 50 system-neutral magic items for TTRPGs, inspired by medieval texts, marginalia, and archaeology.

This one in particular is based on the stylish hat sported by this fellow in the marginalia of the Rutland Psalter (folio 82v, specifically):

As a bonus, here is a sketch from the margins of the included GM's Guide, illustrating how to wear this hat with Confidence:

You can back the kickstarter at the link below; it runs until the end of June.

[cuties-in-codices]

an improbable love story?

in the "Rutland Psalter", latin illuminated manuscript, england, ca. 1260

source: London, British Library, Add MS 62925, fol. 14v

[insidemyfavoritemanuscript]

Episode 9: Zoe and Mac from The Maniculum Podcast!

In Episode 9 of Inside My Favorite Manuscript, Lindsey and Dot chat with Zoe and Mac from the Maniculum podcast, where they suggest ways to adapt medieval texts for TTRPG’s (tabletop roleplaying games). We talk about marginalia, games, and Mac takes us for a dive into the Rutland Psalter. We also talk to Zoe about her storytelling for Pentiment, a medieval adventure video game by Obsidian Entertainment.

Listen here, or wherever you find your podcasts.

If you enjoyed this episode, you can listen to Dot and Lindsey over on The Maniculum Podcast! We talked about digital humanities, book history, and the secrets of women. Find links to listen here: https://www.themaniculumpodcast.com/episodes

Below the cut are page images and further reading from our conversation.

The Maniculum Podcast

The Maniculum Podcast on Tumblr

Pentiment

Book Historian Plays Pentiment! (Allie Alvis Pentiment play through)

Ludohistory Pentiment Playthrough Playlist on YouTube

Perna (oyster) - Der naturen bloeme - Jacob van Maerlant - KB KA 16 - 108v (via Wikimedia Commons)

Sebhat the Ethiopian scribe relates the story of Lazarus in Pentiment (via Obsidian on Twitter)

Saint George and the Dragon, UPenn LJS 102 f. 71r, early 20th century Ethiopian manuscript

British Library Add MS 62925, The Rutland Psalter

f. 14r

Close-up of bottom of 14r

Close-up of top of 14r

f. 57r

Close-up of bottom of f. 57r

f. 88v

Close-up of bottom of 88v

Betsy Chunko-Dominguez (2016) “Playing on Timbrels”: the margins of the Rutland Psalter, Word & Image, 32:1, 131-141, DOI: 10.1080/02666286.2016.1146540 (PDF here)

f. 67r

Close-up of bottom (heh) of f. 67r

f. 66v

Close-up of bottom of f. 66v

How the opening of ff. 66v-67r would approximately appear

The Luttrell Psalter on the BL Website

The Luttrell Psalter film, mentioned at this point in the podcast, is embedded at the end of this post.

Susan Kim and Asa Mittman, Inconceivable Beasts: The ‘Wonders of the East’ in the Beowulf Manuscript. ACMRS, 2013. (Download PDF here)

British Library blog post on Cotton Tiberius B v

Maniculum D23 posts

f. 87v

Close-up of bottom (heh) of f. 87v

f. 64r

Close-up of bottom of f. 64r

Close-up of top of f. 64r

The Book of Kells

f. 88r

Close-up of bottom of f. 88r

f. 16r

Close-up of bottom (heh) of 16r

(I promise I’m not doing this on purpose)

[Images in the 170s]

f. 5v, Calendar page for October

Close up of Scorpio zodiac sign

f. 3v, Calendar page for June

Close-up of Cancer Zodiac sign

f. 78v

Close-up of f. 78v.

f. 70v

Close-up of f. 70v

Further reading on The Rutland Psalter:

Chunko-Dominguez, Betsy. “‘Playing on Timbrels’: The Margins of the Rutland Psalter.” Word & Image (London. 1985), vol. 32, no. 1, 2016, pp. 131–41 (PDF)

Morgan, Nigel. “The Artists of the Rutland Psalter.” The British Library Journal, vol. 13, no. 2, 1987, pp. 159-185 (PDF)

Luttrell Psalter Film on YouTube:

[miieandering]

Babe wake up new olympic sport just dropped

From The Rutland Psalter (c.1260), British Library Add MS 62925. f 70v. Online access to manuscript unavailable.

[weantuniverse]

Marginal contortionist, The Rutland Psalter, England, about 1260 @britishlibraryimages-blog

(via Facebook)

[victusinveritas]

[Rutland Psalter, British Museum]

[dreemurr-skelememer]

☆bald more like . Balls ha gottem

☆have this medieval illustration (in the rutland psalter specifically) of a scorpion except the average illuminator from the 1260s didn't know what a scorpion looked like. He is delightful. he has 12 limbs.

i love medieval art, they just don't know what anything is

[canine-teethed-sheets]

☆im taking the opportunity to be autistic about medieval stuff all over your inbox. look at this little guy

☆this is from the rutland psalter (an illuminated manuscript from. I think the 1200s?) :3 This guy is supposed to be a scorpion except the average 13th century english illuminator did not know what scorpions looked like

☆he is delightful. enjoy him

HE IS!! delightful creature...... :0

[thegothicera]

King David playing the organ, accompanied by youths with bellows and a hurdy-gurdy, in the Rutland Psalter, English, ca. 1260

[maniculum]

It’s an illustration of one of Aesop’s fables!

Which is interesting because the fable is not related to the text. This is from the Rutland Psalter, which has my favorite collection of marginalia of any medieval manuscript. As the name suggests, it is a Psalter. The text is just Psalms. No Aesop. So the illustrator clearly thought that people would be able to recognize this image and draw meaning from it without the text of the fable being provided. Which is cool.

A bird eating stuff out of a vase while a fox licks it

Add MS 62925 f.34r

Source: British Library

[eadfrith]

Rutland Psalter f 29r,  Anointing and Crowning of King David

Add MS 62925  http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=add_ms_62925

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Miscellaneous Birds

So! This is the first in our six-week wind-down of Bestiaryposting, where we run through the Honorable Mentions that appear in the Aberdeen Bestiary but didn't get their own post here because the author of the Bestiary and I have different goals.

If you don't know what any of that means, you can find out at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

To see the entry our artists are working from, click here:

To see the entry people are drawing now, so that you can potentially join in, click here:

Art is below the cut, in roughly chronological order.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) decided to do Literally All of the birds. I am fascinated by the detail here; I particularly like the pose on the Hreakgleav, and the feathers on the Klethghrom. I would direct anyone trying to figure out which is which to the linked post, which contains a key and brief descriptions of each.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has also given us a tree full of birds. The explanation in the linked post of which is which and what they were inspired by is illuminating (pun not intended), so check that out. I especially enjoy the interpretations of the Klethghrom and the Lokfotreag. (And thank you for providing alt text.)

@wendievergreen (link to post here) has drawn three of the birds in their always-charming style. For explanations, close-ups, and individual treatments of each, please see the linked post. I really like the tail on the Hreakgleav and the... frankly insane look of the Klethghrom. (Also thank you for providing alt text.)

All right, we're going to identify these rapid-fire because there are a bunch of them and I'm not going to hand you a whole-ass essay here. Readers are encouraged to add their own commentary.

Tluftasong

The manuscript identifies this one as "night owl", but I've seen other sources refer to this entry as the "night heron". I'll leave that one to people who know birds more.

Lokfotreag

This is the hoopoe. Which, as listeners to the podcast know, you can trade to demons for perpetual access to great parties. The illustration is very cool, and seems to show the young birds rejuvenating their aging parent.

Hurrashbeg

Really love the Stylized Plant, of course. One of the things that really strikes me about medieval manuscript art is how particular things that Definitely Don't Exist keep cropping up in different manuscripts, looking pretty much the same. Like, unless this is by the same artist who did the Rutland Psalter, it shows an interestingly consistent artistic tradition -- I swear that's the exact same plant, and in a couple other places in the manuscript they have the exact same wyvern.

Anyway, those are clearly magpies. I don't know why they're being shot at.

Konchilkuk

This one didn't get an illustration, but it's the woodpecker.

Wobrahfmet

Yep, that sure is a raven. They actually have a really long entry, but it's mostly about what they symbolize.

Hrongnewit

This one is the kite. Yeah, that looks pretty believable.

Klomurgrae

This is... apparently the ibis. Also, from the context of the entry, I think it's intended to be standing on a snake. Neither of those look like the things they are supposed to be.

Zagsmenrok

This is the blackbird. I have no explanation for why it's brown. The illustrator clearly has access to black ink.

Hreakgleav

Yep, that's very clearly an owl.

Wahrembeag

It tickles me that these are right next to each other, because there's a moderately-well-known Middle English poem called "the Owl and the Nightingale". This is pure coincidence; they're not together in the bestiary, there are a few birds in between.

Oh yeah, this is the Nightingale.

Sarbrufeat

This is the heron. The illustration seems broadly correct, but do herons come in white? That's an egret, surely.

Keltrumram

This is the coot -- doesn't look like one to me, but maybe the artist and I are familiar with different species of coot. Readers may recall its cameo in the Eagle entry; its own is unfortunately rather shorter.

Grozfarwat

Meet the quail. I was initially confused, but apparently the plume thing I associate with quails is not actually common to all species of quail. So... yeah, good quail.

Mortelgeng

Very definitely a crow.

Burngraega

Also very identifiable, here's the swan. Head and beak seem a bit flatter and wider than I would expect, though.

Klethghrom

This was basically the poster child for "too obvious to get its own entry". Here's the peacock.

And that's it for this week, it's late. Talk amongst yourselves, or tell me what you think about all these birds.

[talesfromtheenchantedforest]

*breaking news* medieval chicken fight

in the margins of f. 70v the Rutland Psalter

[anotherconservator]

The Rutland Psalter

The Rutland Psalter was produced c. 1260 in England. Alongside the Psalms, the book contains a number of illustrations, full-page and partial-page miniatures, and historiated and illuminated initials. What is particularly striking about the manuscript, however, is the marginalia. Alongside the Psalms, the text contains images of men, women, animals, hybrids, dragons as well as scenes of daily life – albeit often influenced by Bestiaries.

The marginal image above depicts the wholly fictional creature, the web-footed sciopod, a tiny one-footed beast which could use its large foot as an umbrella. Creatures like the sciopod, which often had some human qualities, were thought to exist in foreign, unexplored lands.

[mary-tudor]

Queen Mary’s Psalter.

This document belonged firstly to Isabella, Queen of England, and it is likely it had been produced between the years of 1310-1320.

“The manuscript takes its name not from its original owner but from Queen Mary I (r. 1553–58), to whom it was presented in 1553 by a customs officer, Baldwin Smith, who had prevented its export from England.”¹

“The fourteenth-century volume belonged to Henry Manners, second Earl of Rutland. After his arrest for Protestant sympathies early in the reign of Mary Tudor, the manuscript was impounded and presented to the Queen. 

It was rebound in velvet embroidered with the pomegranate badge, which she had inherited from her mother, Catherine of Aragon. It had been added to the Spanish royal arms to symbolise the reconquest of Granada from the Moors in 1492 by Catherine's parents, Ferdinand and Isabella.”²

Link: https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-queen-mary-psalter¹

https://www.rct.uk/collection/1080356/queen-marys-psalter ²

[peashooter85]

Everyone was a wrastlin’

Mongolia, 7,000 BC

Tomb of Baquet, Egypt, 2,000 BC

Sumer, 2,000 BC

Greece, 500 BC

India, 5th Century AD

Detail from “The Rutland Psalter”, 1260.

“The Fight Book”, Hans Talhoffer, 1459.

Japan, Middle Ages

China, Middle Ages

King Henry VIII of England wrestling King Francis of France at tournament, 1520.

Statuette crafted by the Karaja People of the Amazon, Pre-Columbian

Abraham Lincoln, 1840′s

How the President (Theodore Roosvelt) is taught Jiu Jitsu, 1902

Edith Garrud, “The Jiu Jitsu Suffragist”, circa 1918

Judo school, Japan 1920

Farmer Burns, Catch Wrestling, 1913

US Army Combatives, World War I

Jeg Wrestling, Jola People, Guinea Bisau, 1930′s

German soldiers training Jiu Jitsu, World War II.

World War II combatives

Carlos Grace Jr and his BJJ school, unsure of date

US Army Rangers, 2010

Connor McGregor vs Khabib Nurmagomedov, 2018