Exemplars of Period Sources:

Anything underlined is linked and will open in a new window.

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• ArtStor can be a great resource if you have institutional access, or if your nearby college/university offers community access.

• British Library, Digitised Manuscripts: This is a searchable database of TONS of manuscripts and a go-to for many of our scribes!

• Vatican Library, Digitized Manuscripts: This is not at diverse as the British Library, and can be more difficult to navigate, but is still a great resource.

• Bodelian Library's LUNA interface: A broad list you can browse alphanumerically or by category (we suggest the latter!).

• DMMap: Digitized Medieval Manuscripts app which links to 300+ digital libraries and is home to 20k+ medieval manuscripts! It's easy to navigate and is constantly updated.

• Sexy Codicology: A great source specializing in medieval illuminated manuscripts.

• Discarding Images: There are lots of blogs/SM accounts that share images, but we tend to prefer the ones that are good at citng sources so that you can track down the whole page. This is one of them!

• Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library: Another searchable database, though not as intuitive as some of the others.

• Gallica: A good source for non-manuscript documents and art.

• Biblioteca Digital Hispánica: Another searchable library, though the original page is in spanish.

• Munich Digitization Center: This group handles the digitization and online publication of the cultural heritage preserved by the Bavarian State Library and by other institutions.

• World Digital Library: A very interesting resource that has full digitized manuscripts available for download. just search the manuscript in their search bar or search for manuscripts by region or even by charges or descriptive elements.

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Resources for Calligraphy:

 

• Harris's Art of Calligraphy: a free pdf of his book! This is a great crash course in broad edge calligraphy, and has color and stroke-by-stroke guide to period calligraphy scripts.

• Beinecke Scribal Pattern Book (c. 1510-1517)

• This Link is Mistress Mara's website, which has sections on "Beginning Calligraphy", "What script goes on that?", and many other handouts.

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Resources for Tracing

(in addition to being able to trace the period sources above, here are some places that specialize in giving you specific snipets to trace based off of period sources):

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• This is a great site, mostly for early (with some middle period) art. You can see the original, then click on the vector art and enlarge to trace (fuzzy, but better than paying for the vector art). However, make sure to paint it based on the original, not the vector art (the vector art totally messes with the pallet; remember your condiment colors: ketchup, mustard, and relish)! You can search by manuscript, period, initial letter, type of animal, etc.

• This is a fantastic crash course in how to build Bar & Ivy. It gives you tons of variants you can mix and match, as well as a basic design you can trace. Googling "Bar and Ivy Medieval Illumination" will give you TONS of examples as well.

• This is a pdf of line art taken from the Book of Kells, though the originals are not pictured.

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