Tea at Trianon: Rare Medieval Scroll Discovered in York’s Bar Convent

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

Friday, March 21, 2025

Rare Medieval Scroll Discovered in York’s Bar Convent

From Murrey and Blue:

An extremely rare medieval scroll has been found in York’s Bar Convent. Dr Hannah Thomas discovered the 15th-Century Arma Christi as she was cataloging the collection. It was rolled up in a shoebox, but once unrolled, Dr Thomas knew she had found something unique.

The scroll shows hand-drawn figures and calligraphy, and Dr Thomas considers it to be, itself, a work of art. Only eleven copies of it have survived, each handmade by skilled craftsmen.

The Bar Convent Arma Christi is thought to be one of the last examples produced and is one of the best-preserved ever found. It dates back to around 1475. The manuscript will be the centrepiece of an exhibition at the Bar Convent on Saturday 5 April. (Read more.)