The LION & the CARDINAL

HANS FILSHOVER and his ELEPHANT

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:48:12 -0600

In 1483 and 1484, a man named Hans Filshover toured the Rhineland and Holland with a live African elephant, to great profit. The beast drowned in a canal near Muiden, en route to Utrecht.

Presumably, the sight of this elephant or a description of it inspired the Master of Bellaert's illustration in De Proprietatibus Reurum, published in 1485. Martin Schongauer's famous engraving was also issued that year.

Martin's brother Ludwig issued a print of an elephant about that same time.

IVAN BILIBIN ~ SET & COSTUME DESIGNS for a 1907 PRODUCTION of RUTEBEUF'S MIRACLE of THEOPHILUS

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:59:54 -0600

BOOK of BALLYMOTE

Sat, 18 May 2013 11:23:53 -0600

Jones' Celtic Encyclopedia:

Written on vellum, probably around 1391, the Book of Ballymote was produced by the scribes Manus O'Duignan, Solomon O'Droma, and Robert McSheedy, for Tonnaltagh McDonagh, whose clan kept the manuscript until the early 16th century, when it came into the hands of the O'Donnell clan. In 1620 it was given to Trinity College, Dublin, but was stolen from the library, only to be returned to the Royal Irish Academy in 1785. It is in relatively good condition, no doubt do to the treasured status it had in the McDonagh clan.

The first page of the work contains a drawing of Noah's Ark as conceived by the scribe. The first written page is missing and the second opens with a description of the ages of the world. It then contains a history of the Jews; a life of Saint Patrick; a copy of the Book of Invasions, the Instructions of King Cormac, as well as other stories of King Cormac Mac Airt, stories of Fionn Mac Cumhail and Brian Borumha, genealogies of various clans and kings, and two very important tracts: the Book of Rights, and Auraicept na n-Éces - the Ogham Treatis, about which so much has been made. The end of the book is a collection of Greek and Latin works on the fall of Troy, with a bit of the Aeneid thrown in.

A complete facsimile can be seen here.

DESCENT of the HOLY GHOST

Sat, 18 May 2013 11:27:53 -0600

Its significance, explained in the Golden Legend of James of Voragine, as Englished by William Caxton.

Sequence by Adam of St. Victor:

Lux jucunda, lux insignis,
Qua de throno missus ignis
In Christi discipulos
Corda replet, linguas ditat,
Ad concordes nos invitat
Lingue cordis modulos.

Christus misit quod promisit
Pignus sponse, quam revisit
Die quinquagesima;
Post dulcorem melleum
Petra fudit oleum,
Petra jam firmissima.

In tabellis saxeis,
Non in linguis igneis
Lex de monte populo;
Paucis cordis novitas
Et linguarum unitas
Datur in cenaculo.

O quam felix, quam festiva
Dies, in qua primitiva
Fundatur ecclesia!
Vive sunt primitie
Nascentis ecclesie,
Tria primum millia.

Panes legis primitivi
Sub una sunt adoptivi
Fide duo populi:
Se duobus interjecit
Sicque duos unum fecit
Lapis, caput anguli.

Utres novi, non vetusti,
Sunt capaces novi musti;
Vasa parat vidua;
Liquorem dat Eliseus;
Nobis sacrum rorem Deus,
Si corda sunt congrua.

Non hoc musto vel liquore,
Non hoc sumus digni rore,
Si discordes moribus.
In obscuris vel divisis
Non potest hec Paraclisis
Habitare cordibus.

Consolator alme, veni;
Linguas rege, corda leni;
Nihil fellis aut veneni
Sub tua presentia.
Nil jocundum, nil amenum,
Nil salubre, nil serenum,
Nihil dulce, nihil plenum,
Nisi tua gratia.

Tu lumen es et unguentum,
Tu celeste condimentum
Aque ditans elementum
Virtute mysterii.
Nova facti creatura,
Te laudamus mente pura,
Gratie nunc, sed natura
Prius ire filii.

Tu qui dator es et donum,
Tu qui condis omne bonum,
Cor ad laudem redde pronum,
Nostre lingue formans sonum
In tua preconia.
Tu nos purga a peccatis,
Auctor ipse puritatis,
Et in Christo renovatis
Da perfecte novitatis
Plena nobis gaudia. Amen.

Englished by Digby S. Wrangham:

Day delightful! day most noted!
When o'er Christ's disciples floated
Fire sent from the throne on high,
Filling hearts and tongues endowing,
And on hearts and tongues bestowing
Words and thoughts in harmony!

Christ, as once His word had spoken,
Sent his spouse a pledge and token,
Coming back the fiftieth day.
After streams of honey sweet
Oil that rock poured forth from it,
Which is now man's firmest stay.

From the mount to Jewry came
God's law, not in tongues of flame,
But on tables wrought from stone:
In a furnished upper room,
Given but to few, there come
Hearts renewed, and tongues as one.

O the joy and jubilation
Of that day, when first foundation
Of the early Church was laid:
When the Church, then first begun,
Should three hundred to it won,
Lively first-fruits of it made.

Thus one faith binds earth's two nations,
Like the early dispensation's
Twofold offering of bread:
The Head Corner-stone two races
By his presence interlaces,
And thus one the two are made.

In new bottles, not in olden,
Must the new-made wine be holden:
Brings the widow but the cruse;
Oil is by Elijah given:
So doth God for dew from heaven
Hearts, if fitting vessels, use.

Of this wine or oil before Thee,
Of this dew, are we unworthy,
If we have not peace within:
Not in hearts 'gainst God rebelling,
Can this Comforter be dwelling,
Nor in those made dark through sin.

Come, Thou Comforter benignest!
Rule our hearts and tongues, Divinest!
Gall or poison, where Thou shinest,
May not any more be found:
There is not a joy or pleasure,
Health and rest are not a treasure,
Nought is sweet, all scant in measure,
Where Thy grace doth not abound.

Thou, for light and unction given,
A sweet savour sent from heaven,
Fillest simple water even
With a new mysterious power:
We, re-made by Thy creation,
Give Thee, with pure hearts, laudation;
Sons of grace, by generation
Sons of wrath who were before.

Thou, Who art both gift and giver,
Helping every good endeavour,
Cause our hearts to praise Thee ever,
And our lips, O let us never
But in blessing Thee employ:
Wash out every evil passion,
Who alone canst purge transgression!
And in Christ our souls refashion,
That we may, in full possession,
Our new nature's bliss enjoy! Amen.

KELMSCOTT PRESS ~ TITLE PAGES

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:01:00 -0600

EARLY WALLPAPER

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:29:22 -0600

Historic Wallpaper by Chazz:

The earliest known record of wallpaper in the Western world dates to 1481, when King Louis XI of France commissioned Jean Bourdichon to paint 50 rolls of paper with angels on a blue background so that he could take his wall decorations with him as he moved from one castle to another. Unfortunately, none of that paper itself has survived.

The earliest known wallpaper that still exists was discovered in 1911 on the beams at Christ's College in Cambridge, England. It dates to 1509 and features an Italian pomegranate design printed by woodcut on the back of a proclamation issued by Henry VIII. At the same time, across the English Channel, French craftsmen were producing single sheets of decorated papers for the middle-class market. However, these served more as pictures that covered cracks in the wall than a wall treatment or major element of home decor.

COPE DESIGNED by LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:52:50 -0600

Metropolitan Museum of Art:

Few of Tiffany's ecclesiastical textiles have survived. This highly detailed presentation drawing depicts a cope intended for the Reverend Edward McCurdy, a priest of Saint Augustine's Church in Brooklyn from 1876 to 1925. The embroidery, a complex pattern of interlocking gold strapwork and stylized ivy vines, is reminiscent of thirteenth-century ornament. The finished work would have been a sumptuously ornamented vestment to be worn for processions and holy days.

SS. NEREUS and ACHILLEUS

Wed, 8 May 2013 13:32:36 -0600

Their lives, according to the Golden Legend of James of Voragine, as Englished by William Caxton.

Sequence by Adam of St. Victor:

Celebramus victoriam
Nerei et Achillei,
Quos ad perhennem gloriam
Provexit ardor fidei!

Hi Domitille virginis
Conservabant cubiculum,
Cultores veri numinis
Et puritatis speculum.

Tincti fonte baptismatis
Per Petri ministerium,
Puelle sacri dogmatis
Impendunt magisterium.

Horum salubri monitu
Rugam cavens et maculam,
Toto refutat spiritu
Mortalis sponsi copulam.

Clementis sacris manibus
Tecta sacro velamine,
Totis flagrat visceribus,
Audito Christi nomine.

Aurelianus igitur
Domitillam prosequitur;
Punire jam deliberat
Quam prius desponsaverat.

Succensus ire stimulis,
Ad Pontianam insulam
Cum duobus vernaculis
Christi relegat famulam.

Ibi Priscus et Furius
Simonis Magi complices
Avertebant attentius
A sana fide simplices.

Refragantur mendacio
Nereus et Achilleus;
Veritatis preconio
Homo cedit erroneus.

Torquetur in equuleo
Nereus cum Achilleo,
Nec extorquet Christicolis
Lictor, ut litent idolis.

Cesi flammis sunt traditi
Precisisque capitibus
Suo junguntur capiti
Quod regnat in coelestibus.

Horum juvemur meritis
Ac prece saluberrima,
Ut in compage capitis
Membra simus vel ultima.

Nos Domitilla Flavia
Pari juvet instantia,
Que viris par victoria
Pari congaudet gloria! Amen.

Englished by Digby S. Wrangham:

The triumph let us celebrate
Of Nereus and Achilleus now,
Whom faith's bright ardour did translate
To endless glory from below.

Grooms of the bedchamber they both
To virgin Domitilla were,
True servants of the God of truth,
Mirrors of purity most rare.

By Peter's ministry were they
To the pure font of baptism brought,
And to the maiden they display
The precious truths that Christ had taught.

Led by the arguments they use
Of spot or wrinkle to be ware,
With her whole soul doth she refuse
The couch of mortal spouse to share.

By Clement's sacred hands arrayed
In sacred robes, within is stirred
With fire of holy zeal this maid,
Whene'er the name of Christ is heard.

Therefore Aurelian's vengeful wrath
'Gainst Domitilla breaketh forth,
And her he would before have wed
He plans to punish now instead.

As, roused by anger's sting, he raves,
Christ's handmaid off by him is sent,
Together with these two, her slaves.
To Pontia's isle in banishment.

Priscus and Furius, who were there,
In Simon Magus' footsteps trod;
Perverting with too zealous care
The simple from sound faith in God.

Then Nereus and Achilleus both
With arguments gainsay their lies;
And at the preaching of the truth
The pervert from his error flies.

With torture, to the horse-rack borne.
Is Nereus with Achilleus torn;
But not a whit the lictor stirs
Christ's to be idol-worshippers.

Flames with their mangled limbs are fed,
And they, beheaded here, again
Are re-united with their Head,

Who doth in heavenly places reign.

Grant through their merits, and their prayer
In efficacy unsurpassed,
Of that one Head's one body there
We members be, though least and last.

May Domitilla Flavia be
Our help to a like constancy,
Who, like to men in victory,
Can boast their glory equally! Amen.

DEVONSHIRE HUNTING TAPESTRIES

Fri, 10 May 2013 10:15:53 -0600

UPSIDE-DOWN FACES by GIUSEPPE ARCIMBOLDO

Wed, 8 May 2013 13:36:02 -0600

Click on the images to see them turned upside-down: