Beinecke Library Visit 1

I saw (and held!) original illuminated manuscripts and high quality facsimiles.  There are so many things that could only be seen in person-- wine stains, ink bleeding through paper, gold leaf fading and revealing red (glue?) underneath, etc.  I also saw some cyanotype documents.
Below, are most of the manuscripts I saw.  All images were taken of manuscripts in the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Psalms, Job, Proverbs

Florence, 1467

This was small and beautifully detailed...

I was inspired by the calligraphic designs around headings.  The designs were balanced, yet were also very expressive.  No two were the same.

Links to hi-res images:

http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/brbldl_getrec.asp?fld=img&id=1002985

http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/brbldl_getrec.asp?fld=img&id=1002984

Shiviti Plaque, Morocco, 19th Century

The Washington Haggadah (facsimile), 1478:

Illustrated by Joel ben Simeon who was forced to move from Germany to Italy because of persecution and expulsions.  His later illuminations are a combination of German and Italian styles.
A link with excellent reproductions: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/features/haggadah/
Notice the layering of text because of the ink bleeding...

Haggadah, Mainz, 1726

Wine and matzo stains!

North French Hebrew Miscellany, 1278 (facsimile 2003):

Gorgeous calligraphy and micrography.  I took photos, but unfortunately don't think I could post because of copyrights.  Here is a link:

http://www.facsimile-editions.com/en/nf/

Shavuot Manuscript, Kashan, Persia, 1883:

worm holes!

Cyanotypes:

I discovered new ways that cyanotypes were used (legal, maps, anthropology?, instruction, general printing), and it was instructive to see the scale of the images.

Letters relating to the Peter Pan Gold Mining Company, including cyanotype map of Montezuma, Women's Rights and Women's Rights Fraction mining claims (1910-1911)

The cyanotype was done on standard sized paper-- probably to fit with the legal sized papers of the document.  It's an interesting map-- looks more like a diagram.

FYI:  Apparently there are mathematical reasons for standard paper sizes, but they don't hold up for book pages.  Also the ratios that work for the paper size, do not work for font sizes.  More info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size

Photographs of Indian children (ca. 1900)

These were very small and invited closer intimate looking.  Notice the key for scale.  Also, a link with higher res: http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/brbldl/oneITEM.asp?pid=2010717&iid=1049734&srchtype=CNO

Album de Corbeilles et Mosaïques Florales: Eté Hiver (ca. 1907) 

"Album of Flower Baskets and Mosaics: Summer and Winter"

This looked like a tutorial for making floral designs and drawing fruits.  It also included charts on different fruits and garden plans.  This was a wonderful discovery.

For artistic reasons, I have already begun to include "designs" in my cyanotypes, and here cyanotypes were used to create designs for seemingly practical printing purposes.  It reinforced my desire to incorporate illuminated manuscript elements into my cyanotypes.