Medieval Life, Personages, Celtic Art, Calligraphy and Illuminated Manuscripts
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Posts from — March 2012

The Medieval Scriptorium is on Twitter

I’m not sure that’s a good thing but I was encouraged to do this. I’m going to tweet things that I think are interesting but don’t rate a full post on the blog. The link to the feed is at the bottom of the left sidebar of this page and here. Today’s tweet is a retweet of a link to the crazy things monks wrote in the margins of the books they were copying.

March 22, 2012   Comments Off on The Medieval Scriptorium is on Twitter

The Joy of Illuminated Writing and Your Favorite Fictional Monks


I came across two news stories this morning about some of my favorite things. The first is, of course, about illuminated writing and an exhibition at the Ghetty in southern California. I’m always feel a little sad that I never made it to the Ghetty while I lived in San Diego but it was a very long and tedious drive. Danna Staff has a wonderful post in her physics blog titled The Caligrapher’s Golden Touch. I think she captures the joy and excitement that we feel as admirers of illuminated writing.

I was not a gum-chewing child–but I was an amateur calligrapher, in addition to being infatuated with illuminated manuscripts. After looking at Ingmire’s series at the Getty, I thought, “Maybe I’ll try this when I get home!”

The second news item is from the Guardian: Force of habit: who are your favourite fictional monks? I vote for Brother Cadfael. I love that series and I have it all on DVD. Who is your favorite fictional monk?

March 21, 2012   2 Comments