I announced my bestiary project on June 2nd, 2023. Now I’d like to post the first update on the progress I’ve made so far. Below you’ll find a video of the first quire that I’ve finished. In this blog post I’ll describe the steps I’ve taken to create it. You’ll read about topics such as the folding, pricking, ruling and writing of the parchment. At the end of this article, I conclude with a post-face that describes my general opinion of the project so far.
Preparing the bestiary for writing
Folding
A medieval scribe probably started his work by cutting the sheets of vellum to size. Mine were delivered at the ordered size, meaning I could immediately start folding the pages. Therefore, I first fold the sheets of vellum into bifolia (which is how a folded sheet of vellum is called, when folded once into four pages). Aside from creating the pages of the book, it also helps aligning the template for pricking (described later) and ensure the guidelines will be straight with the edges of the page.
In the video you’ll see me using a tool that assists with folding the parchment. It is a hand-made bone folder from Bikkel & Been, which is really helpfull as it allows for precision. Also, in case you hadn’t noticed, in the video you can see me align certain sides of the parchment with each other. I’m doing that to adhere to a medieval tradition wherein the ‘flesh’ and ‘hair’ sides of the vellum face each other (e.g. flesh-flesh and hair-hair).
The exact purpose of this tradition isn’t entirely clear to researchers.
The exact purpose of this tradition isn’t entirely clear to researchers. It is generally believed that it may have been done for aesthetic reasons. Only Irish scribes appear to have eschewed this practices. From personal experience, I believe that might be true: both sides of the parchment react slightly different when worked with. Aligning the pages then not only ensures facing pages look the same, but also respond in the same way when worked on.
Pricking
The next step is pricking the folded parchment in preparation of ruling. During this step, small prick holes mark the positions of the guidelines that I will later write on. For accurate placement, I use a pricking template that I align to the top of the parchment. Having folded both the template and the pages, it makes it easy to align both. Then I simply prick holes through the template itself, which is demonstrated in the video below.
The holes are created using a pricking tool. This one, too, was made by Bikkel & Been. Though the tool is called a “parchment pricker,” scientists have started doubting that they’re exclusively used for this purpose. Due to the amount of them being found in archaeological digs, researchers have come to think they are simply domestic tools which might’ve been used for the purpose of pricking parchment:
Margeson […] pointed out that many surviving manuscripts are pricked with a knife, leaving long slits, rather than a pin-like implement; and that the large quantity of these objects, as well as their findspots, suggests a domestic use, perhaps in embroidery, instead (or as well as) a literary use.
Styli, pencils and parchment-prickers (Retrieved 2022, October 3)
Whatever the case might be, the parchment pricker is an unmistakably useful tool in the toolbox of a scribe.
Ruling
Now that the folded parchment is pricked, I can rule the parchment and create the guidelines for writing. For this, I use a lead plummet and a wooden ruler (which, in my case, is an old piece of wood). Using the previously made pricking holes, I draw lines that create a grid on the page. I’ve got to rule the parchment eight times, once for each side of the parchment, to rule the complete quire of pages. You can observe me doing this in the video below.
The lead plummet I use in the video is, more accurately, lead-tin stylus consisting of approximately 60% lead and 40% tin. This specific stylus is made using modern techniques, as well as being wrapped with an outer layer of plastic. Being quite hard, I’ve got to sharpen it by hammering the tip into shape upon an anvil. This appears to be historically accurate, as Cennini Cennino writes:
“You may also draw, without any bone, on this parchment with a style of lead; that is, a style made of two parts lead and one part tin, well beaten with a hammer.”
Cennini, Cennino. The Craftsman’s Handbook (Dover Art Instruction) . Dover Publications. Kindle Edition.
Despite being made of a soft metal, I’ve found modern plastic rulers ‘saw’ into the tip as their edges are, somehow, quite sharp themselves. I’ve resolved this issue by using a straight piece of wood as a ruler, which appears to cause much less abrasion of the point. The metal itself has to be hammer quite often to retain the sharp lines for ruling, and I’ve found myself hammering it back into shape at minimum every other page.
I haven’t been able to find any written information about how these styluses might historically have been made. However, I’ve discussed this topic with a tinsmith on a medieval fair. It is very likely the styli would’ve been made similar to other objects made purely of tin: a mold would’ve been cut out of soapstone, in which the molten alloy could then be poured. After cooling down, it is simply a matter of sharpening the tip and it’d be ready for use.
Writing
Having performed the necessary preparations of folding, pricking and ruling the parchment, the material is finally ready to receive the text. Or that’s what you’d think. But that’s not the case for this first quire. The reason being that this medieval bestiary starts with a ‘Genesis cycle’, detailing the creation of Earth and its animals. And in this cycle, each day possesses its own page. As such, all the text has to fit on that single page allocated to that specific day in the cycle. You can probably see where this is going…
The fact I’m using an English translation doesn’t make it any easier, too, as it is longer in length than the original Latin text would be. Nevertheless, even medieval scribes had problems fitting it all onto their pages. In the image shown above, you can see the text for the third day of creation. Looking closely, you can see the final lines are heavily abbreviated to make it fit. Considering I intended to avoid any and all abbreviations, it meant I had to trial the text first. As such, I’ve wrote each page twice: once to practice, once on the parchment itself.
Despite the longer English text, practicing them beforehand ensured that everything fit. I’ve avoided any major issues, this way, except for the final page of the quire. The story of Adam naming the animals was still too long for the page it was destined.
I solved this issue as a medieval scribe might..
Therefore, I solved this issue as a medieval scribe might: by adding two extra lines of text below the intended text area. Not the greatest solution, but it’s definitively effective. But I’ve got to confess that, when it still didn’t fit, I omitted the last parts of the text. 🤷♂️
Anyway, after approximately six weeks I finished writing the first quire containing the Genesis cycle. Since the decorations are missing, it looks rather boring. But when these are added in, this creation cycle will become the most impressive part of the manuscript. To get a glimpse of how it’ll look in the future, you can see the genesis cycle upon which it’ll be based online in the Ashmole bestiary here.
Ink bleed
Considering these blog posts are intended as a journal, I’m not shying away from discussing some of the issues I’ll be facing during this project. Already, we’ve looked at an issue with the text above. Now, I’d like to write about a major issue I’ve faced. Today, I’m covering a situation surrounding ink bleeding onto the page.
The start of my project hasn’t gone entirely according to plan…
The start of my project hasn’t gone entirely according to plan, when ink started blooming on the parchment. This is in due to my decision to switch to oak gall ink at the last minute. My intention: to use a more ‘historically correct’ ink that would simultaneously be waterproof. But, already on the second or third page, this ink started bleeding excessively and caused blooming of the letters. This is simply an unacceptable result:
Now, I’ve prepared the vellum according to instructions from fellow artists. However, the bleed kept occurring despite additional application of a special powder mixture intended to prevent this. That mixture consists of ⅓ parts sandarac gum and ⅔ parts lime from cuttlefish bone. I’ve discarded the affected folio and will be experimenting more later. Other solutions, such as thickening the ink, additional scraping of the parchment or adjusting the writing angle didn’t produce noticeable results.
I’ve discarded the affected folio…
I have come to believe the culprit might be the parchment itself, based on the fact almost all of them look, feel and work just fine. However, some of them do have an apparent roughness to them, a velvety feel, as if it hasn’t been properly scrapes in places. Unfortunately, lacking any experience with vellum, as well as being stuck with the material I have, I reverted to my tried and tested black carbon ink from Winsor & Newton. This ink, as can be seen in the image above, doesn’t appear to bleed at all when compared to the iron gall ink.
Black carbon ink was historically available, but as far as I know virtually unused in manuscript production. But it’s not without its own drawbacks, however. It isn’t waterproof, appears to dry rather slowly. and doesn’t really penetrate the parchment as much as iron gall ink, too. This means the writing is likely to be more susceptible to abrasion from the simple act of turning the pages.
However, lacking any better options, I consider the iron gall ink preferable to the risk of discarding whole sheets of parchment due to the risk of ink bleed. Compared to paper, the material is quite expensive and its properties will differ between each sheet. Therefore, it’s an acceptable compromise compared to the constant looming disaster of ink bleed.
Post-face
I’m happy with my progress so far…
It’s been only six weeks since I’ve started on this bestiary. Therefore, there’s a long way to go. I’m happy with my progress so far, however. Aside from the problem with the ink bleed, I’ve not encountered any other major issues so far. However, from past experience I know that I won’t have to expect much trouble aside from the occasional writing mistake. This means that until the moment I start painting, it is simply a matter of perseverance in face of the amount of text I’ll be writing.