The scene stealer in the centre of the photo with Scarlett Johansson is her little sister Fenan.She was adopted two years ago by the movie star's mother Melanie Sloan (right) from Ethiopia when she was 20 months old.As the family, including grandma Dorothy Sloan, gathered to celebrate Scarlett's star on the Walk of Fame she took pride of place.Despite 18 years behind her in the business, the actress doesn't take her success for granted and was delighted with the honour."No matter what happens from here on out, I made my mark, I'm here to stay, and my family for generations to come will always be able to visit me right here," said the 27-year-old.
In 1555 Christophe Plantin (ca 1520-1589) established in Antwerp one
of the most successful printing and publishing businesses of all time.
Still in family hands, the Plantin Press continued operating until 1867.
Still standing, the company's former premises now comprise the Museum
Plantin-Moretus.Although he professed himself a devout Catholic, Plantin came
under the suspicion of heresy during his lifetime and it is now thought
that he was probably a member of a heretical sect known as the Family
of Love. Born near the city of Tours, he worked in his younger years as a
bookbinder in Paris. In the first half of the sixteenth century the
French capital was a dangerous place for anyone in the book trade
suspected of disseminating literature tinged with Reformation ideas.
This might have prompted Plantin to move to the more liberal atmosphere
of Antwerp in 1549.
Here is a collection of medieval clipart culled from various period sources, most notably woodcuts of the 15th & 16th centuries. These pictures are all in .JPG format. In many cases the sizes of the pictures are rather large; this has been done to keep image quality at a maximum. Those who wish to reduce or alter these images for their own use are welcome to do so. They can be made into wonderful transparent .GIF's, as can be seen below.Non-commercial use of these images is encouraged. As a courtesy, it would be appreciated that any website which uses pictures featured in the Medieval Woodcuts Clipart Collection include a link back to this site. Sites which use these images should contact the webmaster for a reciprocal link from this site, which will be listed here.There is some kind of connection between the harp and the culture of the Celtic peoples, or so it seems, to many of us; is this connection due to the fact that the triangular frame harp was invented, or at least more fully developed by the Irish (or by the Scots, as it has been claimed)? The answer to this question has yet to be settled; what is certain, though, is that the harp has had a connection to Celtic lands and stories in the imaginations of Europeans for centuries, a connection extending back before the Irish Literary Renaissance, before O'Carolan and the itinerant and court harpers of Ireland and Scotland. We cannot know when the great harping traditions of the Celts first began-do they extend all the way back to the "stringed instruments" played by the ancient bards, as the Latin and Greek authors recorded? We can say with certainty, however, that in European culture of the Middle Ages there was already a strong notion that the masters of the harp and its music were the Celtic peoples.
The Tacuinum (sometimes Taccuinum) Sanitatis is a medieval handbook on health and wellbeing, based on the Taqwim al‑sihha تقويم الصحة ("Maintenance of Health"), an eleventh-century Arab medical treatise by Ibn Butlan of Baghdad.[1] Aimed at a cultured lay audience, the text exists in several variant Latin versions, the manuscripts of which are characteristically so profusely illustrated that one student called the Taccuinum "a trecento picture book," only "nominally a medical text".[2] Though describing in detail the beneficial and harmful properties of foods and plants, it is far more than a herbal: listing its contents organically rather than alphabetically, it sets forth the six essential elements for well-being:sufficient food and drink in moderation,fresh air,alternations of activity and rest,alternations of sleep and wakefulness,
secretions and excretions of humours, and finally the effects of states of mind.
Illnesses result from imbalance of these elements, therefore a healthy life is lived in harmony.
The term codicology is of recent vintage, there being some argument as to who invented it, the classical philologist Alphonse Dain or the historian Charles Samaran. It seems likely that Samaran invented _codicography_, based on _paleography_, and that Dain invented _codicology_, based on this. It is unimportant at any rate, the thing having existed long before the name (res ante nominum, to calque a phrase). See J. P. Gumbert, "Ebert's Codicology a Hundred and Fifty Years Old," Quaerendo 5 (1975), 336- 39. In German, one spoke long ago of Handschriftenkunde, Buchwesen and such things, and the term `archaeology of the book' has been bandied about. Codicology seems handy, though it must be extended to include scroll, roll, and other writing materials and modes of gathering. Codicology (from Latin cōdex, genitive cōdicis, "notebook, book"; and Greek -λογία, -logia) is the study of books as physical objects, especially manuscripts written on parchment (or paper) in codex form. It is often referred to as 'the archaeology of the book', concerning itself with the materials (parchment, sometimes referred to as membrane or vellum, paper, pigments, inks and so on), and techniques used to make books, including their binding.There are no clear-cut definitions: some codicologists say that their field encompasses palaeography, the study of handwriting, while some palaeographers say that their field encompasses codicology. The study of written features such as marginalia, glosses, ownership inscriptions, etc. falls in both camps, as does the study of the physical aspects of decoration, which otherwise belongs to art history.
The medieval Book of Hours evolved out of the monastic cycle of prayer which divided the day into eight segments, or "hours": Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, Nones, Compline, and Vespers. By the early fifteenth century, the format of the Book of Hours had developed to satisfy the demands of private, as opposed to communal, devotion. These portable books are smaller in format than their monastic forebears, designed for use by individuals, with a liturgical system somewhat less complicated than monastic liturgy and more "user-friendly." A Book of Hours invariably begins with a liturgical calendar, listing feast days in chronological order along with a complicated method of calculating the date of Easter. The seven Penitential Psalms are usually included as well, and additional prayers (devoted to particular saints or personal issues) according to the desires and needs of the owner.
The "Making Illuminated Medieval Books: An Exhibit of Technology and Application" exhibit by Artist and Medieval Book Arts researcher Randy Asplund is a display of the various tools, raw materials, and techniques of the complex process of making medieval books and illuminated manuscript pages. In these cases you will find the tools and materials used to make parchment, inks, paints, to gild, to write, to illustrate, and to bind medieval books. The tools are reproductions made by the artist. The raw materials include minerals, plants, rare insects like Kermes, and alchemical types such as lead colors and verdigris. On the walls behind these objects are photographs of the artist at work making all of these things. There are also single page works of art, and two full books, including a 15th c. style Gothic bound 3" high "Life of Jeanne d'Arc" and a 14th-16th c. type Limp Leather bound book.
All of these materials and photographs are part of the vast amount of material Randy Asplund has been assembling for inclusion in the book he is writing about how Medieval Illuminated Books were made.
