Happy new year #MedievalSky! Any late medieval/early modern paleographers out there? At the (absolutely brilliant!) Scottish Manuscripts conference in December, organised by @hdohertyharrison.bsky.social, @bryonycoombs.bsky.social and W. R. Pierce, we came across this lovely annotation: - ThreadSky

About ThreadSky

7sagesresearch.bsky.social • 55 days ago

Happy new year #MedievalSky! Any late medieval/early modern paleographers out there? At the (absolutely brilliant!) Scottish Manuscripts conference in December, organised by @hdohertyharrison.bsky.social, @bryonycoombs.bsky.social and W. R. Pierce, we came across this lovely annotation:

Comments

ejturnbull.bsky.social•55 days ago

As he counts off the points on his fingers! My guess is that Mgr. Cleophas is enumerating all the reasons why his liege can't tax his subjects any more than he's already doing. He looks very grim.

7sagesresearch.bsky.social•55 days ago

Such a pronounced frown, yes!

7sagesresearch.bsky.social•55 days ago

The text is a late 15th c. print of the Latin 'Historia Septem Sapientum', printed in Gouda by Gerard Leeu, found in the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Research Collections (listed in our database here: https://db.seven-sages-of-rome.org/Hisoria_septem_sapientum_Romae._Gouda:_Gerard_Leeu,_1479-1482).

7sagesresearch.bsky.social•55 days ago

It seems like the annotation is (charmingly!) a sort of speech bubble from the sage addressing the king, but my paleography is beyond rusty - any ideas?!

'My lord & kyng
this is the thinge
that d[...]ets my a[...] of[...]
& can[?...] [e?...h?...d] this bould[...]
form t[...]nge ys[?] would it'

7sagesresearch.bsky.social•55 days ago

Another woodcut page was also annotated in English ("and if it maye pleasse y[our?] g[re]ace"), also possibly from the perspective of the sage...?!