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Micheline's Blog

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Micheline's Blog

Tag Archives: incunabula

St Valentine’s Day: Posts on Love Celebrated

14 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in Feasts, Literature, Love

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

birds mating on February 14th, Ellesmere manuscript, enluminures, Geoffrey Chaucer, Gutenberg, incunabula, The Parlement of Foules, William Caxton

Geoffrey Chaucer from the Ellesmere Manusctipt (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Geoffrey Chaucer from the Ellesmere Manuscript (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is a compilation of my posts on Valentine’s Day—the first four posts—or posts related to Valentine’s Day. I would suggest you open Valentine’s Day: Martyrs & Birds first, particularly if you do not have the time to read more than one post. Originally these posts did not feature an embedded video.  I have now embedded my melodies.

A Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you!

On Geoffrey Chaucer and St Valentine’s Day

As we know, Valentine’s Day was not a romantic day until Chaucer made it so.  In The Parlement of Foules (1882), Chaucer wrote

For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.

[“For this was Saint Valentine’s Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.”]

The above illumination is from one of the 86 manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales, the Ellesmere Manuscript.  Included among these 86 manuscripts is William Caxton’s printing of the Tales, one of the earliest printed books: 1478.  Very early printed works, published between 1450 and 1501, are called incunables.

Johannes Gutenberg (1398 – February 3, 1468) is considered the first printer (c. 1439).  Early printers, printers of incunables, sometimes left blank spaces where enluminures or illuminations were inserted.  Historiated first letters are quite common in incunables.

Historiated Initial, click to enlarge

RELATED POSTS:

  • Valentine’s Day: Martyrs & Birds ←
  • From Lupercalia to Valentine’s Day
  • On Chaucer & St Valentine’s Day
  • Chaucer on Valentine’s Day & the Art of Antonio Canova
  • Le Roman de la Rose
  • A Tapestry: The Lady & the Unicorn
  • The Lady & the Unicorn: the Six Senses
  • Charles d’Orléans: Portrait of an Unlikely Poet
  • Pastorals: of Shepherds & Shepherdesses

—ooo—

John Dowland‘s “Goe from my window”

220px-Romaunt_rose_chaucer© Micheline Walker
14 February 2014
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On Chaucer & St Valentine’s Day

14 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Literature, Love, Music

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

birds mating on February 14th, Ellesmere manuscript, enluminures, Geoffrey Chaucer, Gutenberg, incunabula, The Parlement of Foules, William Caxton

Geoffrey Chaucer from the Ellesmere Manusctipt (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Geoffrey Chaucer from the Ellesmere Manuscript
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Geoffrey Chaucer and St Valentine’s Day.

As we know, Valentine’s Day was not a romantic day until Chaucer made it so. In The Parlement of Foules (1382), Chaucer wrote

For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.

[“For this was Saint Valentine’s Day when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.”]

The above illumination is from one of the 86 manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales, the Ellesmere manuscript. Included among these 86 manuscripts is William Caxton’s printing of the Tales, one of the earliest printed books: 1478. Very early printed works, published between 1450 to 1501, are called incunables.

Johannes Gutenberg (1398 – February 3, 1468) is considered the first printer (c. 1439).  Early printers, printers of incunables, sometimes left blank spaces where enluminures or illuminations were inserted. Historiated (see below) first letters are quite common in incunables. 

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 44716131cd26f1c56f30e4691d8715af.jpg 

John Dowland‘s “Goe from my window”
 
 

220px-Romaunt_rose_chaucer

© Micheline Walker
14 February 2012
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Jacques de Voragine & the Golden Legend

06 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Literature, Medieval Bestiary

≈ Comments Off on Jacques de Voragine & the Golden Legend

Tags

best seller, Dominican Order, Goden Legend, Guelfs and Ghibellines, hagiography, incunabula, Jacobus de Voragine, St George and the Dragon, Varraze, William Caxton

Jacques de Voragine‘s Golden Legend,

Compared to the various versions of our peripatetic Reynard the Fox, Jacques de Voragine’s Golden Legend, which contained the story of “St George and the Dragon,” has not endured or is currently dormant.  Yet, it was the bestseller of the Middle Ages, a period during which hagiographies, i.e. lives of saints, St George in our case, were very popular.

The Renaissance

In the sixteenth-century, Renaissance scholars such as Erasmus (28 October 1466 – 12 July 1536) and Georg Witzel (b. at Vacha, Province of Hesse, 1501; d. at Mainz, 16 February 1573) found the Golden Legend too fanciful.  It therefore went out of fashion. But times have changed.

St George and the Dragon: the Story

* Caxton showing the first specimen of his printing to King Edward IV and Queen Elizabeth at the Almonry, Westminster

The English Golden Legend

Among incunabula (an incunabulum is a work printed before 1500), the Legenda aurea was printed in more editions than the Bible. It was one of the first books William Caxton (ca. 1415~1422 – ca. March 1492) printed in the English language. Caxton’s version appeared in 1483 and his translation was reprinted, reaching a ninth edition in 1527.  In 1481, two years before he translated and published the Golden Legend, William Caxton had translated and printed Reynard the Fox.

Voragine: biographical notes

Voragine (Italian: Giacomo da Varazze, Jacopo da Varazze (c. 1230 – 13 or 16 July 1298) was archbishop of Genoa, a chronicler and, more importantly, the author of the Golden Legend also entitled Legenda aurea (Golden Legend and Lombardica historia).

Jacopo became a Dominican in 1244.  He was the prior at Como, Bologna and later in Asti.  But his reputation as preacher and theologian soon led to his appointment as provincial of Lombardy (1267–1278 and 1281–1286).  He represented his province at the council of Ferrara (1290) where he was one of four delegates who conveyed Nicholas IV‘s desire for the deposition of Munio de Zamora.  Muno was deposed on 12 April 1291.

He travelled to Rome the following year to be named bishop of Genoa by Nicholas IV.  When he reached Rome the pope had died, but Jacopo was nevertheless consecrated as Bishop of Genoa.  According to Wikipedia “[h]e distinguished himself by his efforts to appease the civil discords of Genoa among Guelfs (pro-papal) and Ghibellines (pro-imperial).”[i]  There is a story according to which Pope Boniface VIII threw ashes in his eyes on the first day on Lent, saying:

 Remember that thou art a Ghibelline, and with thy fellow Ghibellines wilt return to naught.

Jacopo died in 1298 or 1299 and was buried in the Dominican church at Genoa.  He was beatified by Pius VII in 1816.  His feast day in the Dominican order is July 16th.

The Golden Legend  includes “events in the lives of Christ and the Virgin Mary, information about holy days and Season the whole arrange as readings (Latin: legenda) for the Church year. Immensely popular in the Middle Ages, it was translated into all western European languages and gradually much enlarged.”[ii]  Voragine kept enlarging it until 1260.

Voragine’s works also include sermons on Gospel readings, saints’ days, and the Virgin Mary, as well as a chronicle of Genoa.

It appears that Petrus Comestor’s History of Scholasticism was also a favorite among Medieval readers.  But the Golden Legend was the bestseller.

Sources and Resources

The Golden Legend : Fordham University

Dragon in Heraldry

Jules Massenet: Pieces for piano (please click on title to hear)

______________________

[i] “Jacobus de Voragine.” Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobus_de_Voragine>. 

[ii] “Jacobus De Voragine.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 05 Feb. 2012. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/299131/Jacobus-de-Voragine>.

sans-titre

© Micheline Walker
6 February 2012
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