Court Barony - Simona

I've been on a nominal scribal hiatus since the early fall when I was asked to be the award scheduler for Ozurr and Fortune.  I basically coordinate awards TRM would like to give out with the Signet and staff so I see ever single award that is going to go out.  This one came across my desk and I recalled a one-off comment from the recipient that she would eventually like a scroll from me.  I don't know why I remember these things, but I do.  I had a solid 3 months or so to get this done and of course I spend the majority of it on practice.

I'm going to work backwards a little bit and show you the piece Gun∂ormr brought up to me when he suggested I use it for the assignment.  I gave him the parameters of "later period Italian" with a "humanist hand".

This is considerably "more" than what I had been doing previously with my scrolls.

I said no.  Then I said no again.  And then the damn page wouldn't get out of my head and I went to my wise honest Laurel who said "Okay... so do it!".  So....I did it.

I spent most of the summer intermittently practicing a generic humanist and the humanist hand from my go-to source.  After getting home from Pennsic, both Eva and Thyra went over the specifics of the exemplar calligraphy to make my hand look more like the original.  Most noticeably, the A's were my stand out troublemakers.

The paper I used is a burgundy colored bristol equivalent that was purchased at Play Time in Arlington, MA.  I opted for two sheets of the paper in case I screwed anything up.  With Thyra's help, we scaled up my scroll to be double the original and worked out the line spacing.

This is hands down the most math I've done for a scroll.  Scroll side is doubled, then we accounted for the margins.

Spacing for the lines ended up being ~ 3.3mm for text and ~6.6mm for spacing.  The Latin text for the scroll was condensed down using Latin abbreviations (taught in Gun∂ormr's class at one of Quintavia's Scribal Moots) and the text was blocked out.  It's a few lines longer than the original but still looks proportional.

The Latin text was graciously provided by Gun∂ormr and Aelia Fortunata based on Psalm #2.

Scale practice text.  Top is using my normal Pelikan ink.  Bottom is watered down schmincke gold watercolor.

By this point I now have a good feel on the hand.  My condensed sexy looking text.  And one full week to try to get everything finished.  I called in the big guns and invited myself over Thyra's house and said please don't let me leave until I get the calligraphy done.  Everything was lined up, taped to my board, and completely in the wrong layout (landscape vs portrait).  Thyra's glee at breaking out the clamps was something I was not expecting.  See below...

Thyra: "Are you ready for Laurel-level solutions?"
Narrator:  Feilinn was in fact not prepared.

That's my drafting board clamped to Thyra's solid wood easel with my text taped to the side.  Some "Ikea magic" lighting rounded out the set up.

This is where my evening took a turn for the worse.  The thinned out gold FOUGHT ME the entire night.  The silver was really no better.  In all my practice runs it was fine, but nope! Not tonight.  I had Thyra do the silver S of Simona and the other capital S's and the capitol M.  I felt a little bit better when she reported back that the paint was fighting her too.  Honestly it was for the best I was "trapped" in a supportive environment instead of at home or I would have trashed the piece many times over which I couldn't afford to do.  The self imposed "I can't leave until the calligraphy us done" turned out to be the best thing I could have done.  By 11:30pm, calligraphy was all done.

One thing I hate and noticed later is that the left margin of my text bowed inward. Grrr. Next time.

Next came two solid days of illumination.  The first day was tracing the exemplar and trying to line up where the illuminated capital's box would be.  The Capital N was free-handed.  The border florals of the illumination were traced using a graphite transfer paper since the burgundy paper was too opaque to use a light box.  There was some fudging of the design to account for the longer text block as well.

The first coat of paint was a light and very thin gold or silver.  There were some spots where if you zoom in you can see I was a little impatient and there is some heavy handed shading initially.  The next night, I went back for another thicker layer of paint to add the depth to the metallics and added in the colors.  I chose to keep a simpler color pallet than the original to make it more cohesive.  I omited the green and changed that to the blue.  The blue here is all the same batch of watered down ultramarine green shade gouache even though some sections appear darker.

I was a jerk and sent a close up of the N to Simona with my hand rest paper over the text and asked her opinion.  She knew I was working on a CB because I had mentioned it and thought it was for another friend.

I am the biggest jerk. ;)

Recipient: Simona bat Leon
Award: Court Barony
Words and translation: Gunðormr Dengir and Aelia Fortunata so

Word source: http://www.drbo.org/drl/chapter/21002.htm

Calligraphy and Illumination: Aesa feilinn Jossursdottir (me), guest capitals by Thyra Eiriksdottir
Materials: gouache, schminke watercolor, bristol (?)
Scroll source: Vatican Library Vat.lat.9490, folio 19r (https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.lat.9490/0043)

Close up of the illumination so you can really see the shading.

Text:

Latin - 
Quaere afferet nostra Simona bat Leon, et res miras meditata est?

Reges Orientalis astiterunt, et monarchae pariter pronuntiant Dominae Honorae et suo operi

"Ponamus diadema in capite eo, sex margaritae in collo."

"Si rogabis Nostrum, Offerebamus praedium suum populis, allodium suum nationibus.

Comminuere potest ea macia ferrea, res figuli potest effringere"
Narrem me decreti: Maiestates Ozurris et Fortuna ei aiunt "Baronessa es Nostrae cors, haec deferimus hodie."
Kalends Septembribus Anno Sociatatis quinquaginta quattuor in Stonemarche

English-
Why does our Simona assemble the nations and plot wonderful things;

Rulers of the East take their stand and regents proclaim together for the Honorable Lady and for her works

“Let us put a coronet upon her head, six pearls upon her brow”

If you ask it of us, we will make your domain from the people, your estate from nations

You can smash them with an iron mace, shatter them like potter’s ware.”

Let me tell of the decree: Their majesties said to her “You are a baroness of our court, this we have granted you on the Kalends September AS 54 in our Barony of Stonemarche ”