Patricia Lovett MBE
@patricialovett.bsky.social
Professional scribe and illuminator. Written 14 books and made a DVD on the subjects. Co-Director and Chief Judge of the Stanford Calligraphy Collection.
Reposted by Patricia Lovett MBE
If you teach the History of the Book, or Information Technologies, or the long history of Text and materiality, this might be the coursebook for you—Treharne and Willan—now with StanfordUP’s 40% off. Bargain!
www.sup.org/books/litera...
www.sup.org/books/litera...
December 4, 2025 at 9:36 PM
If you teach the History of the Book, or Information Technologies, or the long history of Text and materiality, this might be the coursebook for you—Treharne and Willan—now with StanfordUP’s 40% off. Bargain!
www.sup.org/books/litera...
www.sup.org/books/litera...
Amazing texture on that skin - could be goatskin? Wouldn’t like to have painted on such a bumpy surface! (But also - LOVE these blueskies! Thank you for doing them.)
blind, adj: blind, lacking or deprived of sight. (BLINND / ˈblɪnd)
Image: Decretals of Gregory IX (Smithfield Decretals); France (illuminated in England), 1330-1340; @britishlibrary.bsky.social Royal MS 10 E IV, f. 110r.
#OldEnglish #WOTD
Image: Decretals of Gregory IX (Smithfield Decretals); France (illuminated in England), 1330-1340; @britishlibrary.bsky.social Royal MS 10 E IV, f. 110r.
#OldEnglish #WOTD
November 29, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Amazing texture on that skin - could be goatskin? Wouldn’t like to have painted on such a bumpy surface! (But also - LOVE these blueskies! Thank you for doing them.)
Want to spend a day with me at the British Library learning how to deal with vellum and gold and paint a mediaeval animal? Link below - the courses fill up very quickly so don’t delay if youre interested.
events.bl.uk/events/illum...
events.bl.uk/events/illum...
Illumination Masterclass | British Library
Illuminated manuscripts are among the most dazzling and intriguing objects ever created, and our collection is one of the finest in the world.The most luxu
events.bl.uk
November 28, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Want to spend a day with me at the British Library learning how to deal with vellum and gold and paint a mediaeval animal? Link below - the courses fill up very quickly so don’t delay if youre interested.
events.bl.uk/events/illum...
events.bl.uk/events/illum...
I can’t believe how a letter cutter’s workshop can be so clean and tidy! I visited the Lida K again during a break in Covid lockdown for a @heritage-crafts.bsky.social Lettering Luminaries ‘in conversation’ and it’s almost all I could think of - BUT the fabulous work was amazing!
Wonderful visit to the Kindersley workshop in Cambridge this morning. Amazing place.
November 26, 2025 at 9:49 PM
I can’t believe how a letter cutter’s workshop can be so clean and tidy! I visited the Lida K again during a break in Covid lockdown for a @heritage-crafts.bsky.social Lettering Luminaries ‘in conversation’ and it’s almost all I could think of - BUT the fabulous work was amazing!
Coming out of a very special The King’s Foundation event at the White Tower in the Tower of London, the lights on Tower Bridge and the South Bank just glowed! Absolutely magical!
November 24, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Coming out of a very special The King’s Foundation event at the White Tower in the Tower of London, the lights on Tower Bridge and the South Bank just glowed! Absolutely magical!
I don’t usually post political but very well done to the great Sharon Hodgson MP who, after campaigning for years about ticket touts and sites selling tickets at hugely inflated prices, has managed to get a Private Members Bill through to stop this. What a benefit it will be to so many!
November 21, 2025 at 5:51 PM
I don’t usually post political but very well done to the great Sharon Hodgson MP who, after campaigning for years about ticket touts and sites selling tickets at hugely inflated prices, has managed to get a Private Members Bill through to stop this. What a benefit it will be to so many!
Looks like acidic oak gall ink - see how it’s eaten through the paper. Always best to work on vellum - even printing - just a tip!
i can literally see the “oh god oh god oh god” and the frantic attempts to try to minimize the damage which in the end only made it worse
And that's why you can't have ink in the reading room! Historic damage to a 1647 pamphlet on infant baptism by John Cotton #readers
November 19, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Looks like acidic oak gall ink - see how it’s eaten through the paper. Always best to work on vellum - even printing - just a tip!
I would forgive this scribe endless imperfectly removed errors for the fabulously crisp and sharp letters. I could look at them f o r e v e r!
This music scribe REEEEALLY loved himself a climacus. He had to erase six of them on this one leaf (selection in the photos)! What was he up to?! 🤔 (MSS 400, XOPF 400/40-4)
#midwestmss #medievalsky #medievalmss #manuscripts #medievalmusic
#midwestmss #medievalsky #medievalmss #manuscripts #medievalmusic
November 18, 2025 at 10:52 PM
I would forgive this scribe endless imperfectly removed errors for the fabulously crisp and sharp letters. I could look at them f o r e v e r!
Oh many congratulations! It’s a great read!
Absolutely thrilled that mine is among the @waterstones.bsky.social Best History Books of 2025 🎉🎉🎉 @hodderbooks.bsky.social
November 11, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Oh many congratulations! It’s a great read!
I love this so much as someone at a parish with a very similar spirit!
November 10, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Love the gravestones that look as if they’re propping one another up across a path - or are they kissing??
November 8, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Love the gravestones that look as if they’re propping one another up across a path - or are they kissing??
Reposted by Patricia Lovett MBE
The most incredible library in the world, @bodleian.ox.ac.uk opened to OTD 1602, through the energy, money & commitment of Sir Thomas Bodley. It began with 5k books, & now more than 22m, with 2m+reader visits a year, & multi-million online users across the globe. Privilged to be its 25th librarian!
November 8, 2025 at 7:20 AM
The most incredible library in the world, @bodleian.ox.ac.uk opened to OTD 1602, through the energy, money & commitment of Sir Thomas Bodley. It began with 5k books, & now more than 22m, with 2m+reader visits a year, & multi-million online users across the globe. Privilged to be its 25th librarian!
Wishing you well in what sounds like an exciting new venture.
Excited to start today in my new role as Collections and Archives Manager at @rialibrary.bsky.social! Looking forward to working with my colleagues and fun projects! 🤗📖🎉
November 3, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Wishing you well in what sounds like an exciting new venture.
Are the prickings along the top the relics of where a curtain would have been do you think? They’re too irregular for guidelines I would guess.
Today is the feast of Sylvia, mother of Gregory the Great. Here she is in w/her husband flanking their son in a 12c MS. What a rosy-cheeked family! I'm intrigued by those prickings across the top.
🧵 👇 with more MSS of John the Deacon's Life of Gregory, from the 9th century to the 15th. #medievalsky
🧵 👇 with more MSS of John the Deacon's Life of Gregory, from the 9th century to the 15th. #medievalsky
November 3, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Are the prickings along the top the relics of where a curtain would have been do you think? They’re too irregular for guidelines I would guess.
It’s still as beautiful as when I was there for three years at university. Such a glorious difference for a London suburbs girl to be between the mountains and the sea!
The glory that is my hometown—Aberystwyth. Wales’s first UNESCO City of Literature. Y peth gorau!
unesco.org.uk/news/wales-f...
unesco.org.uk/news/wales-f...
Wales’ first UNESCO City of Literature: Aberystwyth Ceredigion joins global network of Creative Cities | UNESCO in the UK
Today, 31 October 2025, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, has become Wales’ first UNESCO City of Literature…
unesco.org.uk
November 2, 2025 at 8:23 AM
It’s still as beautiful as when I was there for three years at university. Such a glorious difference for a London suburbs girl to be between the mountains and the sea!
I’m pretty sure that those chaps aren’t the swarthy fellas that they’re making out to be but in fact the highlights of white lead on their faces has deteriorated to grey.
Here's Audomar preaching to idolators. Look at those mustaches on the guy in the back!
November 2, 2025 at 8:00 AM
I’m pretty sure that those chaps aren’t the swarthy fellas that they’re making out to be but in fact the highlights of white lead on their faces has deteriorated to grey.
Oooh - that’s my lettering for the logo!
🗞️Newsletter alert🗞️
Issue 85 of the AMARC newsletter is en route to our members, which means Issue 84 is now available online - take a look!
amarcsite.wordpress.com/newsletters-...
Issue 85 of the AMARC newsletter is en route to our members, which means Issue 84 is now available online - take a look!
amarcsite.wordpress.com/newsletters-...
Newsletters 81-90
AMARC Newsletter No. 81: Newsletter81 AMARC Newsletter No. 82: Newsletter82 AMARC Newsletter No. 83: Newsletter83 AMARC Newsletter No. 84: Newsletter84
amarcsite.wordpress.com
October 30, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Oooh - that’s my lettering for the logo!
Has the ‘manuscript porer’ got a feather duster in their right hand, or is it one of those fun pens that has colourful feathers stuck in the non-writing end??
Eye glasses were the essential fashion accessorie whether thou passt the day poring o'er vseless bookes or striking a bargain with Mephistopheles!
#HowToDoWithGlassesInThePast
#HowToDoWithGlassesInThePast
![Woodcut: "Of Useless Books" from Stultifera Navis (Ship of Fools - Basel, 1498), Jacob Locher's Latin edition and translation of Sebastian Brant's original Das Narrenschiff (Basel, 1494) [University of Houston Digital Collections]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xlrcts5emjtu6bfa6fdejuis/bafkreigyff6wy6m6bc5usbydqxutgcdtya4fr2knzhtjjfumgrzusumlz4@jpeg)
October 29, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Has the ‘manuscript porer’ got a feather duster in their right hand, or is it one of those fun pens that has colourful feathers stuck in the non-writing end??
Also love the teacher cutting quills oblivious to the classroom chaos!
Let's dance in the #classroom. There is always this one child in every school class that needs more attention. Greetings to the boy dancing on the table with a big and bound paper book in his hand. Knowledge in motion in a classroom. A superb learning performance, well done little paper dancer.
11/
11/
October 29, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Also love the teacher cutting quills oblivious to the classroom chaos!
Reposted by Patricia Lovett MBE
A spooky church crawl today to see the amazing transi tomb of Alice Chaucer at St Mary the Virgin Church, Ewelme! ☠️🎃🍁
October 26, 2025 at 7:36 PM
A spooky church crawl today to see the amazing transi tomb of Alice Chaucer at St Mary the Virgin Church, Ewelme! ☠️🎃🍁
That is just a simply glorious page of celebration! Well done Master Hugo. Can anyone explain the man with a wooden leg try to trim the hair of a rabbit? What a start to a Sunday!
Compare and contrast with the exquisite initial 'F'(rater) at the beginning of Jerome's letter to Paulinus in 'The Bury Bible', which is the work of Master Hugo.
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 002I; The Bury Bible; 12th century; f.1v @parkerlibcccc.bsky.social @corpuscambridge.bsky.social
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 002I; The Bury Bible; 12th century; f.1v @parkerlibcccc.bsky.social @corpuscambridge.bsky.social
October 26, 2025 at 7:36 AM
That is just a simply glorious page of celebration! Well done Master Hugo. Can anyone explain the man with a wooden leg try to trim the hair of a rabbit? What a start to a Sunday!
Reposted by Patricia Lovett MBE
Good question! It turns out the Gothic Bodley MS is absolutely huge, 480 x 350 mm, with ruled space of 337 x 233. The Valenciennes MS is 295 x 260 mm, with no dimensions given for the ruled space, though it has minimal margins in the 2-column part of the codex and more lines per column.
October 26, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Good question! It turns out the Gothic Bodley MS is absolutely huge, 480 x 350 mm, with ruled space of 337 x 233. The Valenciennes MS is 295 x 260 mm, with no dimensions given for the ruled space, though it has minimal margins in the 2-column part of the codex and more lines per column.
That is absolutely fascinating! I would have expected the narrow upright Gothic script to take up much less room than the rounded open Caroline Minuscule. Is the length of the lines the same/similar?
Here's the opening of the text in a detail from both MSS. Against my expectations, the same amount of text takes up the same number of lines in both scripts, Caroline Minuscule at left, Gothic Textualis at right. The former should provide a good key to the latter...
#medievalsky
#medievalsky
October 25, 2025 at 9:50 PM
That is absolutely fascinating! I would have expected the narrow upright Gothic script to take up much less room than the rounded open Caroline Minuscule. Is the length of the lines the same/similar?
Photos sometimes show a good representation of what’s in front of the camera and sometimes not. The sun on these acers resulted in the most vibrant red leaves - real show stoppers - doesn’t look like that here but it really was stunning!
October 22, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Photos sometimes show a good representation of what’s in front of the camera and sometimes not. The sun on these acers resulted in the most vibrant red leaves - real show stoppers - doesn’t look like that here but it really was stunning!
I absolutely love the depiction of water in this miniature - it puts the wet streets of today in a completely different light!
On this mostly dark, wet, day here's one survival strategy. (Getty Museum)
October 20, 2025 at 9:49 AM
I absolutely love the depiction of water in this miniature - it puts the wet streets of today in a completely different light!