Tea at Trianon: 800 Medieval Manuscripts

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, March 2, 2019

800 Medieval Manuscripts

Now online. From Aleteia:

A two-year project that drew together and digitized 800 manuscripts from the collections of the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France has been completed and is available for perusing online. The manuscripts, all dated between 700 and 1200, are being made available to the general public for the first time.

Historically, manuscripts from this time were reserved for the upper classes, who could read and write. The manuscripts were illuminated using vivid color pigments and gold leaf, which gave the hand-crafted books an artistic flair. An argument can be made that the popularity of manuscript illuminations paved the way for the great oil paintings of the Renaissance.

Now, this project, The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200, and similar efforts are making it possible for the general public to examine these documents, which never would have been available to them 1,000 years ago. Even 10 years ago, only scholars and art historians could view ancient and delicate texts.

For the project, the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France each chose 400 pieces from their collections to be digitized. The teams worked closely together to create a gallery which is viewable from each of their websites. The 800 manuscripts are available online and are organized by themes, authors, places and centuries.

The articles provided by the British library are invaluable to lay people who have little to no knowledge of medieval manuscripts. At the website one can learn of legal, medical, and musical texts, gain a greater understanding of the works of the Church fathers, and even learn how manuscripts were distributed in the Middle Ages. (Read more.)