These manuscripts ain't gonna illuminate themselves

September 12, 2014 8:40 AM

Model books, examples for medieval scribes to copy from and adapt in their work, are like illuminated manuscripts in concentrated form. A post from medieval historian Erik Kwakkel's excellent new blog, a longform complement to his excellent Tumblr (previously).
posted by Horace Rumpole (2 comments total)

This is great. I work for a sculptor that takes designs from illuminated manuscripts. He'd be interested in seeing this.

Thanks!
posted by Jalliah at 9:07 AM on September 12, 2014

So pretty! I sort of want a font based on Giovannino de Grassi's alphabet book, but somehow it feels self indulgent to be able to so casually reproduce illustrations from a 14th century model book. Mind you, I get the same guilty feeling just from being able to read the articles. The 21st century is weird sometimes.
posted by langtonsant at 2:41 AM on September 13, 2014