He must have made much more, but at least 90 percent of Norwegian medieval books have disappeared without trace. What can we learn about this scribe from the preserved manuscript material? First of all, he must have been very productive, since we have evidence of four books from his hand. Nearly a decade ago Michael Gullick pointed out that all ‘hands’ were actually those of one person, and now there is general agreement that he is right. At this point the Homily book scribe’s hand was considered to be that of five scribes: four in the Homily book and a fifth one in the liturgical fragments.
The fragments from an antiphoner and a missal were first linked to the Homily book in 1968 by the liturgist Lilli Gjerløw, but the significance of her identification was at first not recognized. The latter was founded by Archbishop Øystein Erlendsson himself, and given that both he and his successors had connections to France, it would not be surprising if these connections are reflected in the number of surviving musical manuscripts. It is tempting to speculate that these fragments are related to the town’s religious institutions, more specifically the cathedral chapter and the convent of Elgeseter. The group of fragments from graduals and antiphoners with a Trondheim provenance largely date to the second half of the 12 th century. This was also a time when several Norwegian religious institutions were either founded or expanded – among them the convent of Elgeseter in Trondheim, as well as the cathedral of Nidaros itself. 1196), who, like Eirik, became a canon of St Victor. 1214) – are known to have spent time at the famous Parisian Abbey of St Victor, as did Bishop Tore of Hamar (d. Three archbishops in succession – Øystein Erlendsson (d. Please take a closer look at our selection of virtual manuscripts, and leaf through some of the pages!įrom the middle of the 12 th century and onwards, historical evidence shows that Norwegians regularly travelled to France.
To reconnect pieces from medieval manuscripts is one element of the research project ‘From manuscript fragments to book history’. But through digital reproductions we can once again leaf through some of the manuscripts from Norwegian book chests – however fragmentary they may be. We cannot get away from the fact that most of the manuscript is gone. The fact that the binding is gone and the fragments are kept in separate envelopes and boxes, or even still wrapped around paper booklets, is no longer an issue in itself. In a digital format it is easier to visualize the book which once existed. The fragments form a giant book puzzle containing ca 6500 single pieces.įor more than a century scholars have been connecting pieces from the old manuscripts, and the work is still ongoing. Today, the National Archives and other collections hold fragments from about a thousand ‘recycled’ manuscripts. You can also search illuminated page descriptions in our medieval manuscripts collection guide.In the sixteenth and seventeenth century thousands of Norway's medieval manuscripts disappeared or were reduced to fragments. She explores the distribution of the manuscripts across three collections and provides new insight into the provenances, detailing the geographic origins, ownerships and creators of the illustrations. The significant provenances of individual manuscripts are described by Dr Katja Monier, former Manuscripts Librarian in Special Collections. Over 5000 images have been created so far with relevant descriptive detail added to the catalogue.Įach of the digitised manuscripts can be viewed, detail can be magnified and the descriptions of illuminated pages can be browsed.
#ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT PROJECT FULL#
We have digitised each page as part of an ongoing project to produce full digital surrogates of each of our medieval manuscripts to sit alongside catalogue records. The illuminations include miniatures, historiated initials and decorated borders. We have showcased significant examples of illumination in 27 medieval manuscripts selected from three areas of our collections. Medieval illuminated manuscripts provide unique opportunities for scholarship. Find out more about the history of the manuscripts, and how they came to Leeds University Library. Use this resource to explore digitised images of manuscript illumination from the University of Leeds Special Collections.
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