Today is the feast of St. Victor of Arcis, who was maybe 7th century? We know pretty nothing about him, but Bernard of Clairvaux was asked to write about him by the Abbey of Montiéramey. I have a 12th-c. MS for you with a letter and two sermons on Victor by Bernard. More details... 🧵 #medievalsky - ThreadSky

carinr.bsky.social • 2 days ago

Today is the feast of St. Victor of Arcis, who was maybe 7th century? We know pretty nothing about him, but Bernard of Clairvaux was asked to write about him by the Abbey of Montiéramey. I have a 12th-c. MS for you with a letter and two sermons on Victor by Bernard. More details... 🧵 #medievalsky

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carinr.bsky.social•2 days ago

This manuscript is Bruges, Bibliothèque du Grand Séminaire, Ms. 22/41. Online here: https://sharedcanvas.be/IIIF/viewer/mirador/B_GS_MS022-041
It has lovely, consistently-alternating red and green initials and decoration. Here's one of the pages from the list of contents, and the opening page of the vol. with a nice big S.

carinr.bsky.social•2 days ago

The table of contents is super-clearly organized, even if it does require a lot of virtual page-flipping to find particular texts. The number of the item is at left (this will help you find it in the MS), then the title, then the incipit for each item at right.

carinr.bsky.social•2 days ago

In the post above are the listings in the contents for Bernard's letter to Abbot Guy and the monks, then sermon 1 and sermon 2 on St. Victor. Here's the opening of the first Victor sermon on fol. 153v. The script is protogothic, a mix of Caroline and Gothic features, but I want to dig in a bit.

carinr.bsky.social•2 days ago

Let's start as we always do when dxing the Caroline-Gothic transition by looking at layout features. The writing starts above the top ruled line—a Caroline feature—and unlike in the later Gothic MS we looked at a couple of days ago, the interlinear space is ≥ minim height, which keeps the page airy.

carinr.bsky.social•2 days ago

The large initials are thinking about joining the rectangles of the main texts, but they're definitely still hanging out halfway in the margin.

The script shows a real mix of features. Let's take a look. (There are several scribes in this MS, so their practices may vary.)

carinr.bsky.social•2 days ago

This scribe has both forms of d, the upright Caroline one (first line) and the Uncial-style Gothic one (second line).

mappermundi.bsky.social•2 days ago

I'm kind of surprised to see that color green from that part of France!

carinr.bsky.social•2 days ago

It's a great green! And I would love to know more about green pigments and their temporal and geographical distribution. Anything I should be reading on that?

mappermundi.bsky.social•2 days ago

I'm only speaking from anecdata, I think! I tend to associate a deep green with an Anglo-Norman context (Mediterranean greens look a bit more blue to me?), but I think the deeper green is somewhat common in specifically _Cistercian_ French mss that I've seen?

carinr.bsky.social•2 days ago

This could well be a Cistercian manuscript, since it's a collection of texts by Bernard. I don't know enough about Cistercian manuscripts to spot them on sight, but I will be keeping an eye out for greens as I happen upon them.

carinr.bsky.social•2 days ago

To clarify what I wrote at the top of the thread: the texts about Victor were commissioned by the Abbey of Montiéramey, but there's no reason to think this manuscript is from there. It's clearly a later compilation of Bernard's letters and sermons.

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