Medieval bloggerI like to think this is what a medieval blogger would look like: a tired-looking ind
Medieval bloggerI like to think this is what a medieval blogger would look like: a tired-looking individual seated at an uncomfortable desk quilling down blogs - with his head stuck in a space helmet. Blogging may be a modern activity, the parallel with the medieval scribe is not that strange when you consider that he, too, wrote things he was passionate about. Also, while his reach was perhaps much smaller (relatively few people could read back then) he also aimed to captivate his audience. And he, too, made sure that the message looked attractive visually, as the decoration on this very medieval page shows. Remarkably, scribal portraits like this are usually found on the opening page of the book. It is as if the most important factor in a text’s existence was deliberately put up front: remember, dear reader, the joy you are about to have was paid for by my sweat and tears.This post celebrates the birth of my new blog, medievalbooks.nl.Pic: London, British Library, Arundel MS 173 (12th century). More about the manuscript here. Check out this great blog post for more scribal portraits. -- source link
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