Big Flourish, Small Capital
Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae Source: British Library Add ms 15603, f.55v.
Queen of Hearts
Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae Source: British Library Add ms 15603, f.93r.
Terrobolem
Two terrobolem stones, male and female, when brought close together, spontaneously ignite and create a raging fire. Bestiary Source: British Library Add …
Pin Pricked
Pinpricks allow the transfer of a drawing from one sheet of vellum to another. Bestiary Source: British Library Add ms 11283, f.6r.
Johah and the Whale
It looks to me like the great fish is in the water in the upper bowl of the capital letter E, while …
Paradysus
Saint-Omer, 1121. Source: Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent Liber Floridus Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent, HS. 92, fol. 52r.
Constellation Orion
Saint-Omer, 1121. Source: Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent Liber Floridus Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent, HS. 92, fol. 90v.
Cursus Solis Solsticialis
Here’s how you figure it out: Saint-Omer, 1121. Source: Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent Liber Floridus, HS. 92, fol. 25r.
Verba is the Word
I’m not sure what astonishes me more, the color palette, the unusual blend of motifs, or perhaps the casual stylistic insouciance in …
Creating the Heavens
The first part of the ‘Montpellier Bible’, containing the Book of Genesis to the Book of Malachi. Source: British Library Harley ms …
Decorative D
Paterius, Liber testimoniorum veteris testamenti Source: British Library Royal ms 7 f vi, fol. 45r. Paterius, Liber testimoniorum veteris testamenti Source: British …
Simply Elegant
Cue letter on the left. Paterius, Liber testimoniorum veteris testamenti Source: British Library Royal ms 7 f vi, fol. 133v.
Moses and the Serpents
Excerpt from St Jerome, De viris illustribus; Flavius Josephus, Antiquitates iudaicae (books 1-14) Source: British Library Royal ms 13 d vi, f.61v.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
Theological miscellany including Anonymous, Liber de Philosophia Salomonis; Extract from Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae; Fulgentius Mytographus, Expositio sermonum antiquorum; Pigments and alchemical …