Wednesday, 11 September 2019
PGC 2019 Solvi's Sprang Class
On August 18th, Solvi taught a class on making Sprang to members of the Fibre Guild, and some curious Vikings.
Thursday, 29 August 2019
PGC2019 Mistress katherine kerr's, small amulet
I have a small amulet to bring me luck and protect me from evil. It holds some little charms I
have collected - pilgrim tokens, an elf-arrow, a petal from the first rose my consort won for
me - as well as prayers and my favourite saints names. The priests, neither of the Old Faith
nor the new Kirk, do not like these, so it stays hidden in a coffer, rather than worn around my
neck as of old.
Amulets, talismans and charms -- yes they are different things -- have a
very long history, it
seems back as far as we can recognise humankind. In 16th-century Europe religious reforms
and fervour had not succeeded in stamping out such practices.
One form which remained popular (versions can be found to this day) is that of the breverl,
breve, or brevu relating to the short text and reminders it contained (surviving in this useage
in the legal term brief). They typically consist of a couple of pages of folded written or printed
text accompanied by woodcuts of saints or the Holy Family and a selection of tiny charms
such as crosses, pilgrim tokens, pebbles or gems and the like. These were carefully folded
together and housed in small bags of leather, silk or metal; later pasteboard slipcovers
became common and Cellini drew designs for jewelled versions.
The text contained prayers, written charms or magic words aimed at protecting the wearer,
initially from plague, but just as much from temptation and sin, and also from more mundane
concerns like cramp or lightning strikes. Sometimes a small roll of paper or parchment would
contain a list of saints or intercessionary prayers.
St Thomas Aquinas approved of some types of amulets and the witch-hunting tome Malleus
Maleficarum recommended that the inquisitor wear one to protect against the spells of
witches (Skemer, pg 66). Perhaps not surprisingly, Martin Luther railed against the practice in
the late 1530s, saying it was "a frightful misuse and a piece of witchery to write the words In
principio erat verbum on a slip of paper..as a charm against thunder and storm" (Skemer, pg
67).
Although the Church in all its forms came to frown upon these, they remained a staple of
religious markets, predominantly popular in Garmany, Italy and Austria. I was pleased to find
a Scottish reference to their use, with John Ruthven (he of the Gowrie Conspiracy) wearing
one, though it clearly didn't aid him in his attack on James VI (Skemer, pg 134, footnote).
There is mention of ensuring that the amulets were locked like letters to retain their ju-ju
(Skemer, pg 145). Once opened, their divine powers were said to vanish; one rare extant
version was opened to find the magic text page was blank!
Oddly enough, the text in these contain mnemonics for various prayers/devotions -- it's hard
to see how useful they could be if the amulets weren't actually consulted....
My textual amulet (to use the technical academic term) contains inspirational quotes I like,
the Baronial Oath, a list of virtues as well as some Biblical verses and prayers. For the Scots
touch there are conversion units for money, weights and measures, and an extract from a
1541 church dedication record for Andrew Ker of Fernihirst (12 pounds donated to St
Catherine's altar!).
The woodcut of the saints is a 1488 one by Domenec showing at top the 15 mysteries of the
rosary and Christ's life; in the bottom half is (left) St Dominic, St Thomas Aquinas, and St
Catherine of Alexandria, surrounding the Madonna and Child. The extant versions were
backed with printed art papers which looked a little modern to my eye so I backed mine with
some parchmenty paper.
The list of saints starts with ones that katherine venerates: St Jerome, St Barbara, St
Katherine, St Dominic and St Thomas, along with others of interest. It also includes a
reminder of the Hours.
The charms include a collection of event tokens: a St Thomas clover leaf from the
Coronation I co-stewarded; a St Katherine wheel from an Ildhafn event; an Alan
Garner-inspired flower-owl from one of the first quests I ever ran; and a lion from a
Canterbury Faire feast, for St Jerome and my lord-husband Bartholomew. Also a milagros
cross, a broken Kingdom award (Prix Jongleur), a flint arrowhead, some amber chips and a
set of my Kingdom triple gems, a gold wooden tower crafted by my son Pippin when he was
a wee lad. All these are backed by dried rose petals from the May Crown Rose Tourney
where Sir Radbot fought for me. As with the extant examples, they have been glued to a card
with four saints' names and scrap fabric in red and green across the corners.
The extant versions I have been able to track down thus far are from the 1650s-1720s.
Period references mention silk or leather bags, rather than the pasteboard slip-cover of the
later versions. I intend to make a small taffetta bag in "katherine green" to hold my amulet,
but in the meantime I have tucked it together in a letter-locked style to hold things in place.
Let's hope it brings me luck!
Skemer, Don C: Binding Words: Textual Amulets in the Middle Ages; Pennsylvania State
University Press, 2006
Amulets - "Breverl.", Entry 2, pg 3
Breverl 1690-1710
Breverl: folding paper amulet, 1650-1726:
Video of folding:
Monday, 12 August 2019
PGC2019 Mistress katherine kerr's headroll, veil, and earrings
My mother Caterina Mocenigo was from a well-regarded Venetian family, and her wedding cassone houses a number of lovely items once hers. She wore this headware in honour of the Queen of Cyprus, whose funeral procession was one of the largest ever seen in La Serenissima.
I wanted to make a small head roll and veil, but I wasn't inspired until I saw a Bellini painting (ca 1500) of Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus. Rather than a plain roll, Caterina sports a black, white and gold one, variously described as brocade or damask or embroidered. The roll is securely shoved down over a closely fitted cap made up of what looks to me like alternating bands of lace, or possibly lacis in net. (Partridge, in the Art of Renaissance Venice, pg 96, describes it as damask, so take your pick!) A coronet crowns the whole ensemble. Underneath it all are two very fine gossamer black veils.
I liked the idea of a decorated roll, and of multiple parts to the headwear allowing different looks. Another, unattributed, painting of Caterina appears to show a similar roll (or possibly a cap?) worn much further back on her head with a different veil beneath. (One thing I learned when researching this was the assertion that women wore their ears covered by veils to maintain chastity, this being the route the Holy Ghost took to impregnate the Blessed Virgin Mary!)
My head roll is in Sir Radbot's colours, being part of a consort ensemble of a black coat, tabbed bodice and Venetian brocade skirt. The black ribbon and pearl earrings I'm wearing are modelled off the ones worn by the Lady with Squirrel by Montemezzano. The roll bears one of our favour pins at centre. The remaining decorations came from long-stashed stuff; the wool was scored at one of Southron Gaard's beggar markets.
The accompanying veil is silk chiffon, chosen for its sheerness and drape. The edges were stabilised with starch; Master William de Wyk demonstrated how to extract starch by heavily kneading a flour and water dough, then washing the starch out of it; that makes a clearer solution than the common approach of boiling cornflour and water. Ironing a starch-dampened edge onto brown paper made it a lot easier to cut a straight line and to press a fold into this most uncooperative fabric.
Caterina Cornaro paintings:
https://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-caterina-cornaro-the-last-queen-of-cyprus-108495
Another Bellini depiction of Caterina (far left) wearing the same roll:
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PGC2019 Mistress katherine kerr's bracelets
My father spent much of his life in Europe, as a member of the Scots Guard at the French court, then as a hired soldier and engineer-trader in Italy. I found this string of Baltic amber chips in his coffer after he died and had them made into bracelets.
I had a very long string of Baltic amber chips waiting for a suitable project. I don't play Viking so didn't expect to use them, but a mention of amber bracelets in Shakespeare has inspired me into action. So I have strung on silk groups of the chips interspersed with freshwater pearls; this is a common style for the 16C in both Venice and Scotland. Bracelets were generally worn in matching sets, so I made two for me; an additional one was a tad long so it has been donated to Baronial largesse.
PGC2019 Mistress katherine kerr's bond of manrent, and amendments
The Bond of Manrent between Sir Radbot and me has been extended with an addendum to hold force unto May Crown ASLV. I have been recording Sir Radbot's tournament wins and losses at both Crown events and the Baronial monthly wappenshaws. To that I have attached some momentos of the Rose Tourneys he has entered.
The on-going record of Sir Radbot's tournament standings, and any subsequent honours, is being recorded in the form of an Elizabethan-style jousting cheque, partially in Latin. The script is a secretary hand with sepia (squid-derived) ink using a dip pen.
I had surmised that period contracts would have extensions and assumed these would be cut and sealed onto the originals or sewn together; I have seen examples of manorial accounts and correspondence tied together for archving. More recently I came across an example of parchment and paper amendments sewn to an original indentured deed of conveyance concerning the sale of land in Stratford in 1611.
Bargain and sale deed:
PGC2019 Mistress katherine kerr's pennants
It is important, when taking to the field in a tournament for the Crown, that people know who is contesting. These pennants identify my contract with Sir Radbot von Borg, bearing our arms and a shared sigil.
Matching heraldic pennants for tourney display have been upgraded from the vinyl stick-on rats we used at May Crown! Painted flags and pennants were commissionable items, as Cennini mentions in The Craftsman's Handbook. The cats are modelled on the 12-14C manuscript marginalia we used on our large tourney banner; the rat-chasing-cat-chasing-rat motif comes from a 1610 emblem book by Sebastián de Covarrubias Horozco, representing a world turned topsy-turvey:
Anda agora el mundo tal
que no se cual va tras cual
It’s upside-down!
Now, who can say
Who’s the chaser
And who the prey?
I prefer to think of a contemporaneous adage which warned that "when the cat and the rat join forces, the farmer should beware!"
PGC2019: Mistress katherine kerr's gifts to her consort
I have promised to be a generous consort to Sir Radbot von Borg and, on learning that he lacked suitable items to bring to table, I have begun work to rectify that.
I made a ratbag and ratkerchief, to go with a feast kit set (rat-marked market wallet, trencher, cutlery roll, bag and napkin) I presented to Sir Radbot at Coronation. The kerchief is of linen with a simple lace edging; the bag is linen with ties in his livery colours. Both bear an embroidered rat as a charge from Sir Radbot's arms.
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