t fund scholarship scripsit - washington ......uggling the middle ages” focuses on a medieval tale...
TRANSCRIPT
IN THIS ISSUE
– Membership News – Salon Sisters
– Upcoming Classes– Juggling the Middle Ages
– Medieval Majestics– Gallery Space
NEW SCRIPSIT
By now, you should have received your latest Scripsit issue edited by Michael Clark, along with a poster celebrating the 40th anniversary of WCG. Enjoy!
Please note that the artwork on the bottom of page 24 is by Monica Cimino. It was misidentified. We apologize for the error.
d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 8 b u l l e t i n
— artwork by Marta Legeckis
HERMANN ZAPF EDUCATION FUND SCHOLARSHIPThe 26th of February of every year is the deadline for
applications for the Hermann Zapf Scholarship Fund. The Washington Calligraphers Guild has been fortunate that through the generosity and encouragement of Prof. Hermann Zapf and his wife, Gudrun Zapf von Hesse, we have had the opportunity to help serious students of calligraphy in their pursuit of further calligraphic studies.
To download the Guidelines for Application and an Application Form please visit our website at www.calligraphersguild.org. Please read the guidelines very carefully to see if you qualify.
After reading these, you may contact Marta Legeckis at [email protected] with any questions.
washington calligraphers guild— board of directors —
– officers –president: Derrick C. Tabor
[email protected] | 301-706-112304
vice president: can you help
treasurer: Barbara [email protected] | 703-255-4678
secretary: Gilda [email protected]
member-at-large: Virginia [email protected] | 410-215-6379
registered agent: Barbara [email protected] | 703-255-4678
– standing committees –audit: can you help?
budget & finance: Barbara [email protected] | 703-255-4678
bulletin liaison: Pamn [email protected] | 301-654-6049
education: Monica [email protected] | 301-926-6385
exhibits: can you help?
fundraising | calligrafest co-chairs: can you help?
instagram: Erin [email protected] | 793-863-5951
librarian | archivist: Lucinda Fitch [email protected]
mailings: Pat [email protected] 703-839-8337
membership: Lee Ann [email protected] | 410-415-5846
nominating: Patricia [email protected]
programs: Monica [email protected] | 301-926-6385
publicity: Felecia [email protected] | 703-892-6262
scholarship: Marta [email protected] | 301-493-8907
scripsit liaison: Gretchen [email protected] | 703-591-5482
website: Martin [email protected] | 202-295-7561
workshops: Kacie-Linn [email protected] | 434-981-8323
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The Bulletin of the Washington Calligraphers Guild is published four times per yearfrom September - May with a special workshops issue in January.
The deadline for submissions for the February/March issue is January 15, 2019. We welcome your contributions. Please send high quality digital files for text, photos and original
artwork (reflecting all levels, from beginner to advanced) to [email protected]. Your submissions will be interpreted as permission to use in the Bulletin, unless otherwise specified. We will use your
submissions on a space-available basis and may reduce your artwork to accommodate available space. Mention in the Bulletin does not constitute endorsement by the
Washington Calligraphers Guild.
The Washington Calligraphers Guild, Inc. is a Virginia non-profit corporation, with an IRS tax designation of 501(c)(3). The guild’s mailing address is
P.O. Box 3688, Merrifield, VA 22116-3688.
Membership renewals and inquiries can be sent to Lee Ann Clark, WCG Membership P.O. Box 425, Stevenson, MD 21153-0425
or visit our website at www.calligraphersguild.org.
A very warm welcome to our newest and renewing members. Beth Aten – Lewisburg, PennsylvaniaSusan Auerhan – Arlington, VirginiaHana Barker – Chelmsford, MassachusettsShelby Barrentine – Spokane, WashingtonPam Bennett – Uwchlan, PennsylvaniaJeff Berthold – Tigard, OregonTracy Blithe – Gaithersburg, MarylandAmelia Brelsford – Catonsville, MarylandStephen A. Bresett – Ogdensburg, New YorkNotta Brown – Virginia Beach, VirginiaJanice Carrigan – Manassas, VirginiaKathleen Carroll– Bethesda, MarylandStephanie Chao – Laguna Niguel, CaliforniaJanice Collins – Alexandria, VirginiaHolly Combs – Kennett, MissouriDidi DiVirgilio – Washington, DCLaurie Doctor – Prospect, KentuckyAnne Doyle – Baltimore, MarylandSusan R. Easton – Silver Spring, MarylandAbe Farsh – Rockville, MarylandFlorin Florea – Beclean BN RomaniaJulie Gray – Sandia Park, New MexicoMaryanne Grebenstein – Marblehead, MassachusettsCynthia Haggard – Washington, DCJohn Hand – Washington, DCKaren Helble – Round Hill, VirginiaClaire Hill – Ojai, CaliforniaDawn Hill – Washington, DCLaurie Holtan – Sykesville, MarylandJanis Jeffers – Falls Church, VirginiaKathleen M. Kappes – Fairfax, VirginiaJacqueline Kennedy – Mason Neck, VirginiaJoanne Kesten – Columbus, OhioMeredith Jane Klein – Albany, CaliforniaJanet H. Kubalak – Washington, DC
membership news
— artwork by Gerry Jackson Kerdok
The Study Group (aka Sunday Salon Sisters) sent these images of work they have done this past year. It is a variety of work including zentangle taught by Salon Sister Ginny Lockhart, versals taught by Lubna Zahid and some studies that they did on their own.
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Works of the Salon Sisters include: “Sunday Salon Sisters” and Versal “S” by Toni Alaimo; “Mom” by Mari Boyle; “Abby” ornament by Ginny Lockhart.
membership news cont’d...
Becky Larimer – McLean, VirginiaSandra Lumpkin – White Hall, MarylandJan Lynn – Severna Park, MarylandLiz Madden – Silver Spring, MarylandLaVerne J. Magarian – Potomac, MarylandJolene K. McNamara – Herndon, VirginiaJean Melvin-Martin – Burke, VirginiaNorma Morrow – Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaVivian Mungall – Orlando, FloridaGrace Ng – Derwood, MarylandNita Padamsee – Westwood, MassachusettsMaurice Palumbo – Greenbrae, CaliforniaJenny Paxton – Alexandria, VirginiaAneta Porzio – Charleston, South CarolinaSteve Racz – Pitman, New JerseyFrancisco Toscano Ramirez – Mexico City, MexicoReed Society for the Sacred Arts – Bethesda, MarylandStephanie Ricardo – Corte Madera, CaliforniaKelly Sanders – Cincinnati, OhioKaren Schoelkopf – Jarrettsville, MarylandPenny B. Schwan – Venice, FloridaBasma A. Seifeldin – Fairfax, VirginiaDavid E. Stenson – Harrisonburg, VirginiaSandra Stern – Glenwood, MarylandKatherine E. Teeple – Alexandria, VirginiaVictoria Torres – Alexandria, VirginiaMaria Turk – Hoschton, GeorgiaMurat Unver – Ashburn, VirginiaDiane von Arx – Otsego, MinnesotaDale Walker – Richmond, KentuckyWatson Sharon Haz Watson – Anacortes, WashingtonCatharina Widiarti – Arlington, VirginiaTammy Wiedenhaefer – Alexandria, Virginia
Our sincere thanks to the following members who have joined/renewed at the Sustaining, Patron and Supporting Levels. We truly appreciate your generosity.
salon sisters
PATRONCarlos Zarabozo – Washington, DC
SUPPORTING
Pam Bennett – Uwchlan, PennsylvaniaLee Ann Clark – Stevenson, MarylandLiz Madden – Silver Spring, MarylandLeslie Mark – Mission Hills, KansasJoan E. Pennington – Fairfax Station, VirginiaJim Riehl – Alexandria, VirginiaBetsy Rivers-Kennedy – Norfolk, VirginiaMohamed Zakariya – Arlington, Virginia
Carol DuBosch shares these studies of Neuland. See more on page 7.
Left: I used metallic gel pens to draw the adapted Neuland letters for the word Kindsight, with the month and day names written inside the letters.Below: When the weather turns chilly, I look for cozy things. I embossed the Neuland letters and stacked them with script writing floating in-between.
reston community centerBeautiful Botanicals In Watercolor | March 28-May 23
Easy Art Journaling in Pen and Watercolor | January 17-March 7
Loose and Beautiful Watercolor | January 17-March 7 & March 28-May 3
mclean community center Painting Animals in Watercolor | April 10-May 29
Painting People in Watercolor | April 10-May 29
The Art of Illumination in the Islamic Tradition | January 23-March 13
The Art of the Illuminated Letter | January 23-March 13
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upcoming classeswith Lubna Zahid
— artwork (top and bottom) by Marta Legeckis
a couple from carol
& two from marta
“Juggling the Middle Ages” focuses on a medieval tale known often as Le Jongleur de Notre Dame or Our Lady’s Tumbler. The exhibit follows the story from its rediscovery by scholars in the 1870s to its modern interpretations in children’s books. Through its exploration of the many incarnations of the tale, the exhibit encourages viewers to reflect on the role of the Middle Ages in the fashioning of modern European and American identities through architecture, art, music and other media.
The “Juggling the Middle Ages” exhibition is complemented by public lectures, a muscial performance and family-focused events such as readings by authors of children’s literature. For more information visit www.jugglingthemiddleages.com.
The exhibit includes a number of calligraphed manuscripts from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from France, England, and the United States, including loans from the Newberry Library and Houghton Library. For a sense of the exhibit, see https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2018/11/juggling-the-middle-ages or https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2018/11/pictures-of-an-exhibition.
Recently, renowned manuscript historian Christopher De Hamel authored a seminal book entitled “Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts.” He identifies 12 of the most important medieval manuscripts and takes the reader on journeys to their present locations, histories, and what it is like to handle and interview them. The book is truly a tome, consisting of 632 pages, including 225 photographics of calligraphic text and illustrations.
In his words, “the book is about important medieval manuscripts and what they tell us and why they matter.” Sadly, most of the greatest medieval manuscripts almost never are on public exhibition by reason of their fragility. De Hamel rectifies this for us, taking pains to write a very readable and understandable narrative, positioning the reader next to him as he conducts his examinations.
While comprehensive descriptions of the 12 manuscripts are beyond the reach of this article, a brief tour is useful as an introduction into the world that De Hamel’s treatise immerses us in.
The Gospels of St. AugustineLate 6th Century, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, UK
In the late 6th Century, Pope Gregory the Great (590-604 AD) sent Augustine to England as the first Archbishop of Canterbury and thereafter forwarded this manuscript. It contains the four
Gospels employing the Latin translation of St. Jerome from the Greek exemplar. The calligraphy is uncial, which was the formal handwriting of early Christianity. The manuscript is the oldest non-archaeological artefact in England, and it has been in continuous use in the enthronement of each Archbishop of Canterbury, since Augustine. The illustrations include multiple scenes from the Passion of Christ.
The Codex AmiatinusC 700, Florence Library
The manuscript is gargantuan, weighing 75.5 lbs. The calligraphy is uncial, and required 7-9 scribes to produce. Some 515 calves were needed to supply the vellum skins. It is the oldest surviving Latin Bible.
The Book of KellsLate 8th Century, Trinity College, Dublin
Perhaps the most widely known medieval manuscript, it is now a national monument in Ireland, and is displayed to the public. Over 520,000 visitors line up to see it every year. It was named after the town which once owned it and is a manuscript of the four Gospels. The calligraphy is insular majuscule and half uncial. Virtually every line is embellished with color and ornament. Oddly, it appears to have been made in Scotland.
The Leidon ArateaEarly 9th Century, Leiden University Library, NetherlandsA novel work, the manuscript is a poem of ancient astronomy drawing on an exemplar hundreds of years old. The calligraphy is rustic capilates typical of literary manuscripts in the Roman Empire. Essentially, it is a book depicting the constellations, with the text derived from the lore of an ancient Greek astronomer, translated into Latin.
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juggling the middle agesdumbarton oaks research library and collection
october 16, 2018 – february 28, 20191703 32nd street, nw • washington, dc
medieval majestics by john j. ryan
The Morgan BeatusMid-10th Century, Morgan Library Museum, New York
A 10th Century manuscript about the end of the world as told in the apocalypse. The graphic scenes of tumult and ruin, the expected last judgment and the destruction of civilization, are phenomenal. The text is an interpretation of the apocalypse gathered in Spain by the monk Beatus of Liebana, who quoted a previous writer going back to the fourth century. The calligraphy is visigothic minuscule, with 68 pages of huge full-scale pictures. De Hamel recounts the odyssey of its manuscript from Spain to New York, a noteworthy journey.
Hugo PictorLate 11th Century, Bodleian Library, Oxford, UK
Named after the scribe and artist Hugo Pictor, the manuscript is a copy of the commentary in Latin on the Old Testament Book of Isaiah by St. Jerome. The ornamental illustrations are “exceptionally luxurious.” The calligraphy is Romanesque. De Hamel notes that the ink is iron gall made by grating oak apples, the spherical growths like wooden marbles coming from gall wasp eggs, and mixing the mush with ferrous sulfate.
The Copenhagen Psalter 12th Century, Copenhagen Library
The manuscript is the finest illuminated manuscript in Denmark. As the name suggests, it is a book of the Psalms; the text is introduced by 16 full-page pictures, five copied by De Hamel. In the Middle Ages, the incarnation and life of Christ were understood to have been foretold in the Psalms, the work of David. Psalters were employed as a teaching tool for children of high status. This Psalter was prepared to teach six year old Prince Knud’s initiation into both kingship and literacy. The text of themanuscript was written by an English scribe, along with fourartists and might have been compiled in Paris.
The Hengwrt Chaucer14th Century, Aberystwyth Library, Wales
Purportedly written by Adam Pinkhurst, scribe to Geoffrey Chaucer, the manuscript is a compilation of various pamphlets we know as the Canterbury Tales: Twenty-nine pilgrims who chanced to meet each other on a journey from London to the shrine of Thomas Beckett in Canterbury. The Tales were unpublished and incomplete at the time of Chaucer’s death in 1400. De Hamel questions the Pinkhurst attribution in a cleverly devised “trial” and sheds light on the methods by which scribes, artists, and booksellers worked as a team in the high Middle Ages. The calligraphy is English bookhand.
The Visconti Semideus1438, St. Peterburg National LibraryA wonderfully illustrated practical treatise for princes on armaments and warfare, composed by Catene Sacco who presented it to Fillip Nisconti in 1438. The term “semideus” was intended to confer godlike qualities in a prince who spent most of his life occupied by warfare. Scribed in round gothic, the book is a Socratic dialogue between A, the ideal prince (Visconti), and his teacher (Sacco). The military campaign scenes are minutely detailed, complementing the war tactics text.
The Spinola Hours1515-1520, J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
A book of hours used in domestic settings, carried about the house, as an intimate personal possession. The complex illustrations depict the countryside of southern Netherland in early 1500s and discloses the everyday life of the time as well as the crucifixion and annunciation common to late medieval art. The
medieval majestics con’t... calligraphy is rounded gothic. The book is named after the Spinola family of Genoa who had acquired its manuscript. Unfortunately, the scribe is not identified and its original patron in not known.
Scribes and ArtistsA word about the development of manuscripts throughout the Middle Ages. De Hamel portrays the milieu where early manuscripts had no commercial value. Scribes were members of religious orders who worked without payments and produced their works for communal use without any resale value.
Eventually, professional scribes and artists were commissioned by wealthy patrons, and manuscripts became very costly. The invention of the printing press allowed the widespread production of books. However, the commissioned works retained their exclusivity.
The Dark AgesWe recall our history lessons as painting a picture of the Middle Ages as the “Dark Ages.” Certainly, the all too often events of disease, plagues, warfare, and poverty, short, often violent lives, church and secular oppression and scandal, cannot be ignored. Yet, as cogently related by De Hamel, the 12 manuscripts tell us much more about the Middle Ages. His prodigious research reveals that these manuscripts have things to tell us about the conversion of Europe to Christianity and Roman literacy, the migration of knowledge throughout Europe, the status of kings, the effects of warfare, the power of city guilds, the politics of Europe, and life in the country. The book is a unique and important work not only for the calligraphy and artistry but as instructive into the understanding of the Middle Ages.
Above: A collaborative artwork by Deanna Jay Chu Nim (artwork) and Barbara Close (calligraphy).
G A L L E RY S PAC E
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From top: a piece by Gloria Rosati; a piece by Deanna Jay Chu Nim; a piece by Linda Abrams.
Top: The three words in Neuland were drawn using a Wet Erase marker and then sprayed with water to encourage the ink to bleed out and have a texture that relates to the pointed pen text border.Center: Stacked Neuland written on Kraft paper with an Automatic pen and Sumi ink. Stacking the letters creates interesting negative spaces.Left: Combining pointed pen with Neuland was a challenge that seemed to work when I chose to cut the Neuland words out of marbled paper. The two scripts are so different.
moRE fRom CARoL duboSCh
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nonprofit org.u.s. postage
paidmerrifield vapermit no. 742
p.o. box 3688, merrifield, va 22116 • www.calligraphersguild.org
address service requested 12 / 2018
— artwork by Joanne Wasserman