On New Year’s Day 2013, I shared with you that I’d been given permission by Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum to reproduce images from the exquisite medieval illuminated manuscript, The Macclesfield Psalter on my blog.

Over the Christmas break, I poured over facsimile images of the psalter from the Fitzwilliam’s cd/pdf, trying to decide which folios and images to share with you.  As far as I’m aware, the illustrations on the psalter have not been indexed. So as well as marvelling over each image, I also had to painstaking go through the psalter folio by folio writing up descriptions of each image.  I felt like a child running around a shop full of the shiniest and sparkliest sweeties with them all shouting ‘pick me, pick me’!  There are so many images – animals, men, women – along with strange hybrid grotesque creatures and bizarre Monty Python-sque scenes.

I couldn’t resist showing you the image below.  A giant skate (beautifully drawn) attacks a scared man whilst a rat-like creature but with a beak and webbed duck-like feet looks on with menacing glee.   Note also the crowned man in a circle above the skate attack – who is he? Click on the image to open a new window where you can use your browser’s zoom to see the illustration in its full glory (300-400% works best for me).

Giant Skate attacks a man (fo.68r) from The Macclesfield Psalter,
probably produced at Gorleston, East Anglia circa 1330
Gold & tempera on vellum, 17cm x 10.8cm,
© The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

All digital images from the Macclesfield Psalter appear by courtesy of The Fitzwilliam Museum and may not be reproduced (© The Fitzwilliam Museum).

Further reading
Stella Panayotova The Macclesfield Psalter: A Complete Facsimile (2008)
Stella Panayotova The Macclesfield Psalter Book (Cambridge, 2005)
Stella Panayotova The Macclesfield Psalter (PDF format on CD)(Cambridge, 2005)

If you want to read more  from my blog about The Macclesfield Psalter or about a life in a Tudor Essex town, please do subscribe either by using the ‘Subscribe via Email’ button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do ‘Like’ it with the Facebook button below.

You may also be interested in the following
– Images from the British Library’s online images from the early modern period
– Images from the medieval illuminated manuscripts
– The Macclesfield Psalter

© Essex Voices Past 2012-2013.

Detail of a medieval plough (folio 77v) from The Macclesfield Psalter,
probably produced at Gorleston, East Anglia circa 1330
Gold & tempera on vellum, 17cm x 10.8cm,
© The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

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Today, the first Monday after the Christian feast of Epiphany, was traditionally the day of another money-raising celebration in the lives and times of our Catholic Medieval ancestors: Plough Monday.  My posts, Christmas in a Tudor Town, told the story of how the people of the North Essex parish of Great Dunmow celebrated Christmas with a Lord of Misrule who ‘reigned’ throughout the Twelve Days of Christmas, collecting money for the church.  In 1538 (or 1539), Great Dunmow’s churchwardens’ accounts show that the Lord of Misrule possibly also collected money for the yearly Plough-Feast.

1538 (or 1539) In primo receyvyd of the lord of mysserowell & for the plowgh ffest – xls [40s] (folio 29r).  This entry is ambiguous – did the Christmas Lord of Misrule also collect money for the plough-feast?  Or have the churchwardens simply lumped the two events together in one entry?  As the two events have not been recorded as separate sums of money, it is more likely the former.

In Medieval times, many rural towns and villages of England celebrated the first Monday after the Feast of Epiphany as the start of the agricultural year.  Ancient customs and religious practices were used to protect and safeguard the plough which was so vital for the coming year’s crops. ‘Plough lights’ were kept burning in the parish church and feasts were held to celebrate the plough.  Sums of money received from Great Dunmow’s plough-feast activities were recorded throughout the churchwardens’ accounts for the reign of Henry VIII.   As the accounts were only the financial records of the church, once again the accounts do not explicitly state what occurred during the Plough-Feast.  However, it is likely that the young men of the town dragged a highly decorated plough from door to door of the richest households in the parish collecting money. If people did not hand-over money, then a trick would have been played on the unlucky house-holder (an event similar to today’s Halloween Trick or Treating). This trick was likely to have involved the young men ploughing a furrow across the offender’s land. So that the house-holders could not identify them, the lads probably had their faces blackened with soot. The young lads were often accompanied by someone playing the Fool – in Great Dunmow’s case, this person could possibly have been the Christmas Lord of Misrule (I have made this assumption because of the way the entries in the accounts have been written.)

The accounts do not state what happened to the money raised but possibly the money was used to maintain a special candle (the plough-light) to constantly burn within the church. Henry VIII banned the practice of plough-lights in 1538 – along with other traditional lights maintained in churches.  However Great Dunmow’s plough-feast still continued for a further few years -the final plough-feast occurring during one of the years between 1539 and 1541.

Item Reseyvyd of the lorde of mysrowle at thys Crystmas last wt [with] the plowfest mony at the town declard to the chyrche & all thyngs dyschargyd – xxxviijs jd [38s 1d] (folio 30v, sometime between 1539-1541)

The forty shillings (£2) raised in 1538 and the final 38s 1d  were considerable amounts of money in Tudor times.  According to Great Dunmow’s accounts paid out to various labourers for a day’s work during the 1520s, the average daily pay was 4d.  Therefore, the collection for the Lord of Misrule and the Plough Feast was roughly equivalent to 114 to 120 days labour.

It is interesting to note that the above two entries on this blog post have nameless Lords of Misrule.  Other ‘Lords’ were explicitly named in the churchwardens’ accounts – see my post here.  I think that this is unwitting testimony that only the Lords who were amongst the middling sort or the elite of Great Dunmow’s social hierarchy were named.  Those Lords of the common sorts were too unimportant and lowly to have their names recorded in the magnificent churchwardens’ accounts!

It is possible that the modern day practice of Molly Dancing derives from the ancient practices of plough-Monday.   My post The Catholic Ritual Year has photographs my son took of Molly Dancers in Maldon on New Year’s Day 2012.

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Notes
Great Dunmow’s original churchwarden accounts (1526-1621) are in Essex Record Office (E.R.O.), Chelmsford, Essex, D/P 11/5/1.  All digital images of the accounts within this blog appear by courtesy of Essex Record Office and may not be reproduced.  Examining these records from this Essex parish gives the modern reader a remarkable view  into the lives and times of some of Henry VIII’s subjects and provides an interpretation into the local history of Tudor Great Dunmow.

All digital images from the Macclesfield Psalter appear by courtesy of The Fitzwilliam Museum and may not be reproduced (© The Fitzwilliam Museum).

You may also be interested in the following
– Images from the British Library’s online images from the early modern period
– Images from the medieval illuminated manuscripts
– The Macclesfield Psalter
– Christmas in a Tudor town
– Medieval Christmas Stories
– Medieval Catholic Ritual Year

To cheer you up on a cold, wet Friday in winter, here are images of British costumes during the reign of Henry VII (born 1457, died 1509) and his son, Henry VIII (born 1491, died 1547).

Cigarette cards printed and published by cigarette manufacturer, Ogdens.  Title of set is ‘British Costumes 100BC to 1904′ and printed circa 1905.  The selection of cards below are costumes from the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII.

Time of Henry VII – 1488                                                                Time of Henry VIII – 1510

Time of Henry VIII – 1530                                                            Time of Henry VIII – 1540

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe either by using the Subscribe via Email button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in the following posts
– Prince Arthur, Prince of Wales
– History Howlers – Henry VIII
– Tudor Coronations
– Images of Tudor people

© Essex Voices Past 2012-2013.

I am delighted to be able to share with you that the Keeper of Manuscripts and Printed Books at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, has given me permission to publish images of the Macclesfield Psalter on this blog.

The modern day story of this beautiful medieval illuminated manuscript is just as remarkable as the manuscript itself. Unknown and undiscovered, the book lay for centuries on the shelves of the library at Shirburn Castle, the seat of the Earl of Macclesfield. It was only discovered when the Earl’s library was dispersed and auctioned in 2004. The resulting Sotheby’s auction of the library saw the psalter being sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum in America. Correctly understanding that this was a work of great British national importance, the British Government’s Arts Minister placed a temporary export bar on it until early 2005 so to give British organisations the chance to buy it  – with the recommendation that it should by kept by public institution within Britain. The Fitzwilliam Museum (part of Cambridge University) recognised both the national importance of the psalter and the East Anglian connection. A public campaign was started, and, in the Fitzwilliams’ own words:

‘This was a campaign in which no contribution was too small. The support of the public was truly astounding and cannot be measured in figures. If listed in full, the names of donors would fill up a book larger than the Macclesfield Psalter.’

Macclesfield Psalter – Discovery and Acquisition

Fortunately, the public campaign was successful – the Macclesfield Psalter arrived in the Fitzwilliam Museum in February 2005 – where it still remains.  I am one of those fortunate enough to have seen it in ‘real life’ – although admittedly only under the glass case of its display cabinet.  The story of the Macclesfield Psalter and its patron, provenance, and East Anglian context is divulged here.

Over the coming weeks and months, I look forward to showing you folios  from this wonderful Psalter and exploring together the exquisite images of a lost age. Today, New Year’s Day, we start with the medieval calendar for January – containing the lists of the important feasts for Christ, the Virgin Mary and that’s month’s saints.  Click on the image to open a new window where you can use your browser’s zoom to see the illustration in its full glory (400% works best for me).

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‘January’ folio 2r from The Macclesfield Psalter,
probably produced at Gorleston, East Anglia circa 1330
Gold & tempera on vellum, 17cm x 10.8cm,
© The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

If you want to read more about The Macclesfield Psalter from my blog, please do subscribe either by using the ‘Subscribe via Email’ button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do ‘Like’ it with the Facebook button below.

All digital images from the Macclesfield Psalter appear by courtesy of The Fitzwilliam Museum and may not be reproduced (© The Fitzwilliam Museum).

Further reading
Stella Panayotova The Macclesfield Psalter: A Complete Facsimile (2008)
Stella Panayotova The Macclesfield Psalter Book (Cambridge, 2005)
Stella Panayotova The Macclesfield Psalter (PDF format on CD)(Cambridge, 2005)

Katherine Meikle Walker, Medieval Cats, (London, 2011).
Katherine Meikle Walker, Medieval Pets, (London, 2012).

You may also be interested in the following
– Images from the British Library’s online images from the early modern period
– Images from the medieval illuminated manuscripts
– The Macclesfield Psalter

© Essex Voices Past 2012-2013.

On the final day of the old year, I wish you a peaceful and happy New Year.

If you have read my stories of Christmas in a Tudor town and Medieval Christmas Stories, you would be forgiven for thinking that I am a Christian.  I am not.  I am just someone who is fascinated by history and captivated by traditions, ancient stories and powerful evocative words.  And someone who studies the past to escape from a chaotic present.

My Christmas has been spent as per the Louis Wain postcard below – or rather I went nowhere, but my lovely, lively family visited me.  Stay-over visitors included a terrapin – complete with tank and his (or her – how can you tell?) own personal entourage of fishes, one vivacious daughter, a calming soon-to-be son-in-law, an ancient Italian mother-in-law with the onset of dementia, and a hyperactive profoundly mentally retarded brother-in-law.  They added to the permanent residents of 3 cats (one who is elderly, virtually toothless, and selectively incontinent), 3 fish, an ADHD/dyslexic/dyspraxic 9 year old son, an energetic teenage daughter and a vague/absent-minded very loud Italian/Polish/British husband!

I wouldn’t change any of them for the world.

Paying Visits postcard by Louis Wain (1860-1939)

Postcard by Maurice Boulanger

Postcard by Maurice Boulanger

Postcard by Maurice Boulanger

Postcard by Maurice Boulanger

PS The terrapin will be going home minus one of his fishy entourage. We’re not quite sure who was the culprit but ‘someone’ enjoyed an extra special Christmas treat!

Today, 28th December, in medieval and pre-Reformation England was traditionally celebrated as the Feast Day of the Massacre of the Holy Innocents – the day when Herod the Great, hearing of Jesus’s birth, ordered the execution of all Bethlehem’s young male children.  My post today is Medieval/early modern England words and pictures of that biblical event.

Flight into Egypt and the Slaughter of the Innocents from Prayer
(England, S. E. (St Albans), c.1240) shelfmark Arundel 157 f.5.

Herod, with half-drawn sword, sitting amidst the Massacre of the Innocents
from The Queen Mary Psalter (England (London/Westminster or East Anglia?),
between 1310 and 1320) shelfmark Royal 2 B VII f.132.

Four miniatures: 1. the Annunciation to the Shepherds; 2. the Adoration of the Magi;
3. the Massacre of the Innocents; 4. the Presentation in the Temple
from Omne Bonum (Absolucio-Circumcisio)
(England, S. E. (London), c. 1360-c. 1375) shelfmark Royal 6 E VI f.8.

Herod overseeing the massacre of the innocents by knights, with a partial bar border including a dancing, hooded grotesque, at the reading for the feast of Holy Innocents
on 28 December from The Stowe Breviary
(England, E. (Norwich), between 1322 and 1325) shelfmark Stowe 12 f.25v.

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The Coventry Carol
Lullay, Thou little tiny Child,
By, by, lully, lullay.
Lullay, Thou little tiny Child.
By, by, lully, lullay.

O sisters, too, how may we do,
For to preserve this day;
This poor Youngling for whom we sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.

Herod the King, in his raging,
Charged he hath this day;
His men of might, in his own sight,
All children young, to slay.

Then woe is me, poor Child, for Thee,
And ever mourn and say;
For Thy parting, nor say nor sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.

Words originally written by Robert Croo in 1534

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All images are from the British Library’s collection of Medieval Manuscripts and are marked as being Public Domain Images and therefore free of all copyright restrictions in accordance with the British Library’s Reuse Guidance Notes for the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts.

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe either by using the Subscribe via Email button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in the following posts
– Christmas in a Tudor town
– Medieval Christmas Stories
– Images from the British Library’s online images from the early modern period
– Images from the medieval illuminated manuscripts

© Essex Voices Past 2012-2013.

If you are out and about today, visiting relatives, watching sport, or are crazy enough to be braving the madness and mayhem of the High Street sales, here are some words and images to help calm you down through the pandemonium of a 21st Century Boxing Day.

Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gath’ring winter fuel

‘Hither, page, and stand by me
If thou know’st it, telling
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?’
‘Sire, he lives a good league hence
Underneath the mountain
Right against the forest fence
By Saint Agnes’ fountain.’

‘Bring me flesh and bring me wine
Bring me pine logs hither
Thou and I will see him dine
When we bear him thither.’
Page and monarch forth they went
Forth they went together
Through the rude wind’s wild lament
And the bitter weather

‘Sire, the night is darker now
And the wind blows stronger
Fails my heart, I know not how,
I can go no longer.’
‘Mark my footsteps, my good page
Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter’s rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly.’

In his master’s steps he trod
Where the snow lay dinted
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing

Words written by John Mason Neale (1816-1866) and published in 1853.
Christmas stamps from 1973 – designed by David Gentleman.

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Stephen preaching before three others from The Queen Mary Psalter
(England (London/Westminster or East Anglia?), between 1310 and 1320)
Shelfmark Royal 2 B VII f.233v.

The martyrdom of Stephen from The Queen Mary Psalter
(England (London/Westminster or East Anglia?), between 1310 and 1320)
Shelfmark Royal 2 B VII f.234.

Eight saints (martyrs), four in the upper register and four in the lower register,
with or without emblems, including St. Stephen (stones in a napkin)
and St. Clement the pope (an anchor) from The Queen Mary Psalter (England (London/Westminster or East Anglia?), between 1310 and 1320)
shelfmark Royal 2 B VII f.306v.

The images of St Stephen are from the British Library’s collection of Medieval Manuscripts and are marked as being Public Domain Images and therefore free of all copyright restrictions in accordance with the British Library’s Reuse Guidance Notes for the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts.

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For myself, I will be spending Boxing Day with my family and cats,
snuggled by the roaring log fire.

Happy Boxing Day

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe either by using the Subscribe via Email button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in the following posts
– Christmas in a Tudor town
– Medieval Christmas Stories
– Images from the British Library’s online images from the early modern period
– Images from the medieval illuminated manuscripts

© Essex Voices Past 2012-2013.

Happy Christmas 2012 to all my readers.

The Nativity of Christ from Prayers (Netherlands or England, c. 1490-c. 1510)
shelfmark Harley 1892 f.8v.

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe either by using the Subscribe via Email button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in the following posts
– Christmas in a Tudor town
– Medieval Christmas Stories
– Images from the British Library’s online images from the early modern period
– Images from the medieval illuminated manuscripts

© Essex Voices Past 2012-2013.

Annunciation to the Shepherds from The De Lisle Psalter (England, c.1310-c1320) shelfmark Arundel 83 f.124.
Annunciation to the Shepherds from Prayers (England, S. E. (St Albans), c1240) shelfmark Arundel 157 f.3v.
Annunciation to the Shepherds from Sir John Mandeville Travels (England, E. (East Anglia) , 2nd quarter of the 15th century ) shelfmark Harley 3954 f.14.
Adoration of the Shepherds from The Lovell Lectionary (England, S. (probably Glastonbury , between c. 1400 and c. 1410 ) shelfmark Harley 7026 f.6.
Annunciation to the Shepherds from Psalter (England, Central (Oxford), 1st quarter of the 13th century, before 1220) shelfmark Royal 1 D X f.1v.
Miniature of the Annunciation to the Shepherds in the upper register and the Adoration of the Magi in the lower register from Psalter and Canticles (England, S. (St Albans), c. 1246-c. 1260) shelfmark Royal 2 B VI f.8v.
Annunciation to the shepherds from The Queen Mary Psalter (England (London/Westminster or East Anglia?) , between 1310 and 1320) shelfmark Royal 2 B VII f.112.

All images above are English drawings from the British Library’s collection of Medieval Manuscripts and are marked as being Public Domain Images and therefore free of all copyright restrictions in accordance with the British Library’s Reuse Guidance Notes for the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts.

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While shepherds watched their flocks by night,
All seated on the ground,
The angel of the Lord came down,
And glory shone around.

Fear not, said he for mighty dread
Had seized their troubled minds;
Glad tidings of great joy I bring
To you, and all mankind.

To you in David’s town this day
Is born of David’s line,
The Savior who is Christ the Lord;
And this shall be the sign:

The heavenly babe, you there shall find
To human view displayed,
All meanly wrapped in swathing bands,
And in a manger laid.

Thus spake the seraph, and forthwith
Appeared a shining throng
Of angels, praising God, who thus
Addressed their joyful song:

All glory be to God on high,
And to the earth be peace;
Goodwill, henceforth from heaven to men
Begin and never cease.

Words by Nahum Tate (1652-1715)
written c1700

While Shepherds washed their socks by night
Whilst watching ITV
The Angel of the Lord came down,
And switched to BBC.

Alternative words remembered from my childhood – author unknown.  I was delighted to see the BBC2 programme ‘Rev.‘ preforming a rendition of this version in its full glory.

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe either by using the Subscribe via Email button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in the following posts
– Christmas in a Tudor town
– Medieval Christmas Stories
– Images from the British Library’s online images from the early modern period
– Images from the medieval illuminated manuscripts

© Essex Voices Past 2012-2013.