Blog posts of '2016' 'February'

The manuscripts and codices which survive from the late 15th century are often large and lavish affairs and usually conform to certain norms in terms of shape. But this curious and unusual little gem, which takes its name 'Codex Rotundus' from its unique shape, measures just over 9 centimeters across and is circular.  Its 266 pages are bound along a spine just 3cm long, so small that three clasps are needed to help keep it closed.  Thought to have been rebound in the 17th century, the original clasps which help hold the tiny codex together, were reused. As so many of the manuscripts from this period, it is a devotional text -a lavishly illuminated Book of Hours in Latin and French. Remnants of a coat of arms, which a subsequent owner appears seems to have tried to obliterate, in the first initial 'D' suggests that it was created for Adolf of Cleves and Mark (1425-92). Adolf was a wealthy and well-connected aristocrat, the nephew of Philip the Good and cousin to Charles the Bold, successive Dukes of Burgundy.  The clasps are monogrammed and these too link the codex to Adolf: the same stylised decorations appear in another Book of Hours known to have been his and now held by the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore.  Despite the codex's royal and courtly associations, its size and portability suggest that it was intended for private devotional use, for the owner to carry with him to church or on long journeys away from home. The shape is certainly a bibliographic gimmick - the Cambridge History of the Book refers to it as 'bizarre' - but it is also thought to suggest the perfection of circle and sphere and thus symbolise the (Christian) world. The illuminations - 3 full-page miniatures and some 30 decorated initials - show scenes from the Bible, episodes in the life of Christ and pictures of saints.  The artist is not identified, known only to history as 'the painter of the codex rotundus' but according to the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at the University of Ohio (which acquired an exquisite facsimile copy a few years ago) certain stylistic traits indicate that it was made around 1480 in a Bruges workshop often associated with the books of the Burgundian court. The original Codex Rotundus is held by the Dombibliothek Hildesheim (Hs728) in Germany. All the images which appear here are of a facsimile of the original Codex Rotundus.    

[Subsequent comments from helpful souls on Twitter suggest that my original tentative identification of these uniforms as City of London police is not right -  see update II below - I'm hugely grateful.  Any further info v gratefully received.]

---

Finding the things that others have tucked and forgotten between the leaves of old books is one of the joys of a secondhand bookseller.  This afternoon I came across these two intriguing pictures which had been slipped inside a 1901 US edition of George Ade's Forty Modern Fables. [gallery ids="eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==" type="rectangular"] The pictures have been roughly clipped from an old printed newsletter or newspaper and are about the size of a modern passport photos.  They appear to show the same policeman, sporting an majesterial mustache,  but some time apart as in the second picture he has acquired a sergeant's stripes - and perhaps a little sergeant's spread as well. I think these are the uniforms that would have been worn by policemen in the City of London in about the 1890s.  The date at least is consistent with the printing style and paper quality.  On the back of the clippings is a part of a printed story about a heroic police officer who seems to have rescued a woman who had 'slipped down under the footboard of an oncoming excursion train at Baghill Station, Pontefract', in 1897.  'The [sergeant] threw himself down on the platform a great personal risk'. Unfortunately there's only a small part of the story on the reverse of the clipping, so we don't know if the woman or the officer survived; and there's no way to tell if the story relates to the fellow in the photos at all. (See updates below.) Do you know who this is? Is he part of your family history? Did you forget that the photos were tucked in the book when you gave it away? If so, do get in touch as I'd love to reunited the photos with their owners or the police officer's family.  I bought the book second hand in January 2016 in Wimbledon, South West London. [caption id="attachment_1576" align="alignnone" width="647"] Old copy George Ade's Forty Modern Fables [New York: Harpers, 1901] in which the clippings were found.[/caption] 

---

Update (13 February 2016) I have just found this account of a police officer receiving an award in the Church  Weekly from London from July 1898, which seems to relate to the same incident at Baghill Station.

Thomas Whincup (Superintendent, West Riding Constabulary, Pontefract), bronze medal awarded for conspicuous presence of mind displayed on July 15, 1897, in rescuing a woman who had slipped down under the footboard of an incoming excursion train at Baghill Station, Pontefract. The superintendent threw himself down on the platform, and, at great personal risk, held the woman clear of the rails till the train stopped. He was severely bruised by the passing train.

It would seem then that the story does not relate to the photos at all as Thomas Whincup belonged to the West Riding Constabulary, not the City of London police force.

---

Update II (15 February 2016) Subsequent comments from Twitter pals suggests that I was wrong to think these are City of London Police uniforms - based on the shape of helmets and badges.  Pertinent tweets embedded below. https://twitter.com/squaremileplod/status/698608123859304448 https://twitter.com/squaremileplod/status/698608486620532736

[caption id="attachment_1542" align="aligncenter" width="529"] The Lady of the Lake[/caption] From 1st-5th February 2016, guardians of rare and beautiful books on both sides of the Atlantic invited colourers and crayonists to colour some of the wonderful illustrations and decorations they care for. It's rare (has it happened before?) for curators and librarians to encourage people to take their crayons to precious, unique pages.  We're more used to strict injunctions for 'pencils only' in the reading room, bag inspectors guarding against fountain pens and sharp objects and the dubious habit of handing with white gloves.  Colour Our Collections steps away from such limiting, albeit necessary, constraints and actively encourages fulfillment of rainbow imaginings by applying crayons, brushes and pastels to historic pictures. [caption id="attachment_1541" align="alignleft" width="211"] The Political House that Jack Built[/caption] Over the course of the week, various institutions, including the Smithsonian in Washington, the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the National Library of Wales and the University of Minnesota, prepared PDFs of some of their most attractive holdings for keen colourists of any age to download and colour.  Congratulations to those involved for finding a novel, and fun, way of opening up their collections and offering a wholly new - practical and personal -  way of experiencing the joy that fine illustrations can bring.  Colourists can then share their coloured works on social media using the hashtag #colorourcollections (or #colourourcollections). Never one to be slow to get the crayons out, I choose three images from The Special Collections and Rare Books Department at the University of Missouri Libraries to colour during the week.  And here are my coloured versions. Aubrey Beardsley's illustration of the Lady of the Lake appeared in a 1909 edition of Sir Thomas Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur [Edinburgh: Printed by Turnbull & Spears, 1909].  The soldier image is from an engraving by William Cruikshank which appeared in William Hone's The Political House that Jack Built [London: Printed by and for William Hone, 1820]. And the final one, below, is an image from  The Poems & Sonnets of Henry Constable [[London): [Printed at the Ballantyne Press], [1897].   [caption id="attachment_1540" align="aligncenter" width="187"] Poems & Sonnets of Henry Constable[/caption] Although ColourOurCollections week is over for this year, it's not too late to have a go yourself.  Many of the images and PDF colouring books produced for the week are still available for download.  Have a look at some of these: Colour Our Collections at

• Wangensteen Historical Library at the University of Minnesota 
• National Library of Wales
• Smithsonian Libraries
• New York Public Libraries
• The Bodleian Library
• The Folger Library
• The Huntington Library