Grade 11, Age 16 Tewksbury Memorial High School Tewksbury, MA Silver Key – Poetry Conner Bourgoin, Educator
Presented by The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts Sponsored by the Boston Globe Foundation
Grade 12, Age 18 Hopkinton High School Hopkinton, MA Gold Key – Art Portfolio Gold Key – Drawing & Illustration Yuanan Cheng, Educator
Presented by The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts
October 1, 2020 – Volvelle in “Noui annuli astronomici”
Tufts University. Tisch Library. Special Collections
Tonight will be the full moon. Volvelles are paper or parchment devices - movable charts - used to make calculations, usually of the movements of the sun and moon. This one is in “Noui annuli astronomici,” by Ioannes Dryander, printed at Marburg in 1536.
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October 12, 2020 – Facsimile of Shigisan-engi,
Professor Ikumi Kaminishi of Art History & Architecture teaches with this facsimile of Shigisan-engi, a splendid reproduction of the 12th century scroll, which relates the miracles attributed to Myoren, a monk who lived on Mount Shigi, in Japan, during the 9th century. Among these legends is that of the Flying Storehouse: the monk’s alms bowl takes command of a frugal farmer’s granary, and whisks it off to the monastery, with astonished villagers in pursuit.
October 13, 2020 – Julia O’Gara's and Dr. Rossi's Projects
Dr. Anne R. Rossi, double Jumbo and former faculty member at the School of Medicine, examines a physician’s almanac made by Julia O’Gara ‘19 (BFA, BS, pre-med) in FAH 92: Medieval Books. When Dr. Rossi retired from her medical practice, she returned to Medford to study art history. Ms. O’Gara’s project explored a form of medieval reference book, made to hang from a doctor’s belt, which contained biological and astrological knowledge necessary to formulate treatments. Also shown is Dr. Rossi’s project, a text taken from “Alice in Wonderland,” for which she drew a series of figures, many of them grotesques and visual jokes inspired by medieval manuscripts we studied in class. She included a scribal portrait of author Lewis Carroll, pen name of mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.
October 14, 2020 – The Bayeaux Embroidery
Tufts University. Tisch Library. Special Collectiond
October 14 is the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 CE. An invading force led by William of Normandy, claimant to the English throne, defeated an army led by King Harold II. The closely fought battle lasted from dawn to dusk, ending when Harold was slain. He was the last Anglo-Saxon king of England. The Bayeaux Embroidery (commonly, but erroneously called “Tapestry”) depicts the Battle of Hastings and the events leading up to it, from the death of Harold’s predecessor on the throne, and William’s cousin, Edward the Confessor. This important work of Romanesque art, which dates to ca. 1070-79 CE, may have been commissioned by the Bishop Odo, William’s half brother. The embroidery is first mentioned in a 1476 inventory of the Bayeaux Cathedral. The embroidery techniques are regarded as characteristically Anglo-Saxon, not Norman, which has led some scholars to search for encoded subversive messages, while others reject the notion. The embroidery measures 70 meters by 50 cm. This facsimile on paper, based upon superb photographic rendering of the original’s textures, is 60% of the original’s size. The Bayeaux Embroidery is thought to have been displayed hanging from walls or specially made framework. The physical act of walking through the narrative - in effect, walking through time - would have been part of the viewing experience. The facsimile, placed inside a cabinet, in effect remixing the Embroidery as a scroll, introduces other, interesting aspects to how we view the art & narrative.
For the penultimate entry in this series, Elettra Conoly ‘21 and Megan Szostak ‘22 post about their research on music in Tufts Univ. MS 24, a Dominican miscellany from Northern Italy. This manuscript is a collection of writings and chants, with the first 225 folios being copied during the 15th century, and the following fifty folios copied in the late 13th or 14th century. MS 24 is categorized as a Dominican Miscellany for a number of reasons. It contains several writings by Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican friar, as well as two musical sequences often associated with the Dominican order. The first musical sequence, with the incipit (beginning words) ‘Ave virgo virginum’ (image 1), was copied in Northern Italy in the late 13th or early 14th century. It precedes another sequence, ‘Tibi cordis in altari’ (1,2), which was copied at the same time. Both texts and melodies most likely are of Dominican origin. 1. ‘Ave virgo virginum’ sequence, followed by ‘Tibi cordis in altari,’ which begins about halfway down the second folio with the majuscule “T.” 2. Continuation of ‘Tibi cordis.’ The facing page includes a decorated initial “P.” 3. Sixth book of the ‘Compendiae theologicae veritatis’ by Hugo Ripelin, a Dominican theologian from Strasbourg. 4. 15th century binding of MS 24. 5. Transcription of the beginning of ‘Ave virgo virginum’ melody, notated using GregorioTeX, along with an approximation of the melody and rhythm of the first phrase.
Tufts University, Tisch Library, Special Collections
Thanks to all who have followed iPhone in the Vault. Today we invite you to make a beautiful book of your own, a pamphlet, using an easy technique seen in our 18th & 19th century pamphlets. If you make one, please consider posting a photo and tagging @tischlibrary With a few minutes of cutting & folding, plus a few stitches, you can make a notebook to write, draw, doodle; to record the best quotes from your reading, or your impressions of this peculiar year. “Books win in the end." - Franco Maria Ricci (1937-2020) Materials: an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of paper, or a few sheets of smaller letter stationery; a piece of fancy paper, such as from Papersource in Porter Square, light cardstock, or grocery bag paper (the vegan counterpart to a parchment cover); needle and thread, or a stapler; letter opener or a dull knife; pencil, ruler, scissors; bone folder, or the barrel of a pen, to make sharp folds. 1. More paper than you need, in order to show different possibilities. 2. The directions. 3-9. You don’t even need to know how to sew on a button to do this. Multiplied by a dozen or more, this is how books were bound by hand, for centuries (but at that scale, more complicated than sewing a button). 10. Voila. You have made a sewn pamphlet.
In the 16th century guild regulations forbade women to train as printers or start presses, but they could inherit and run printing houses as widows. Charlotte Guillard (d. 1557) worked at the important Soleil d’Or press in Paris from 1502 until her death, running it through two periods of widowhood, the second lasting the final twenty years of her life. In an age when copyright was weak or non-existent, and pirated editions were commonplace, the printer’s mark asserted identity, authenticity, and authority. These are from the 15th through early 17th centuries. 1. Charlotte Guillard’s mark 2. Scholar-printer Aldus Manutius, among whose innovations were the Italic font and the first practicable Greek font. 3. Henri Estienne (Stephanus), whose 1578 edition of Plato’s works established the system of reference and organization used to this day. 4. Ottaviano Scoto 5. Ioannes Maire 6. Paolo Meietti 7. Alessandro Bindoni 8. Giunti family 9. Andreas Torresanus & Bartolomaeus de Blavis 10. Bartlomeo de gli Alberti