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What is the Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta?
What is the Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta?
Fols 1-129 written 1561-1562; illumination added 1591-1596
Fols 1-129 written 1561-1562; illumination added 1591-1596
Joris Hoefnagel (Flemish/Hungarian, 1542-1600) and Gorg Bosckay (Hungarian, died 1575)
Joris Hoefnagel (Flemish/Hungarian, 1542-1600) and Gorg Bosckay (Hungarian, died 1575)
The Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta is a medieval manuscript created in the 1500s by Georg Bosckay, a court secretary to Emperor Ferdinand I as a way to demonstrate his technical mastery of the writing styles known to him. Bosckay was a master calligrapher, and had an impressive range of writing styles.
Thirty years later, Emperor Rudolph II, commissioned Jorge Hoefnagel to illuminate Bosckay's book where he added fruits, flowers and insects on every page. He designed his art to complement and balance the page's design. At the time, it was considered an unusual collaboration between a scribe and illuminator.
If you want to read more about it, you can click here to visit the Getty Museum's exhibition on this manual.
What is this and why am I doing this?
What is this and why am I doing this?
I'm doing this project for several reasons:
1. I decided to recreate this manual because I find this manual to be very beautiful, and it appeals to my aesthetic.
2. I personally identify as a calligrapher over an illuminator, and replicating the manual allows me to utilize a lot of my skills into one project.
3. The style of this manual fascinated me. The processes involved in making this manual are no different than how SCA scribes operate. Specifically, a calligrapher does the lettering and then an illuminator or a painter adds the illustrations afterwards.
4. One day, I hope to finish all these folio pages and hopefully someone will put my works together into a book too.
Project Details
Project Details
Unless specified on the individual page itself, each page will be:
Painted exclusively using water color, I will be using Winsor & Newton Cotmon Watercolor
The page will be calligraphed first then illumination will follow
All pages are legal sized 9 inch x 12 inch in either paper or vellum
India ink is preferred type of ink
All gold work will be shell gold, which is powdered metal flakes, mica powder and a binder, I will be using FineTech Pearlescent Colours
Folio 127- In progress, coming soon
Date: November 18
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