Tuesday, June 1, 2010

when in doubt scribble


or, when you haven't really worked very hard on learning a particular style, scribble. somehow the juxtaposition of scribbling and blackletter amuses me. And to add to the joke, the stamp is about education.

if i could time travel, i would be tempted to go to a monastery or convent and hang with some scribes and see if i could get them to scribble. imagine a time before scratch pads...when paper or parchment was so precious the thought of doodling did not exist. and yet...maybe they did. historical rumor: i have heard that while we only think of rooms full of scribes being men, there were also convents full of scribes and there were women who were admitted to the guilds of scribes. maybe someone will research this for me and put some comments into the comment section.

4 comments:

  1. I would recommend Jasper Fforde's Eyre Affair series as the standard text on time travel. I sure wish he'd write something about medieval women scribes who somehow manage to learn 21st century calligraphy. . .

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  2. ya'qui 'n yeen, i really like that series too, who could not like a character named tuesday next.
    re female scribes, i went to google scholar and found this book link:
    women as scribes: book production and monastic reform in twelfth-century bavaria by alison i, beach
    qu'ati

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  4. Jean,
    It is always a pleasure to visit and revisit these envelopes. They are starting to feel like old friends :-)

    Rex S.

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