The Macclesfield Psalter and a Good Boy at Pennsic

Macclesfield Psalter; script, justification, and compositional format
^^ Pdf link ^^

Last year at Pennsic, my family attended Baronial court, and our lovely and wise and very funny Baroness was finally able to catch up with me on scrolls and awards that I have tripped through my SCA career accumulating, but never actually physically obtaining because I never seem to make it to court.  My beautiful boy was well and truly asleep in his wagon (so I thought), but after a hilarious call-back and a new award that made me tear up a bit, my son announced that he too needed a scroll for being such a good boy, and it ought to have three cats, a blue one, a red one, and a white one.  Now this may seem a bit cheeky, but he was two closing in on three, and he was indeed a very Good Boy at Pennsic, and while it wasn't Silver Buccle level awesome kid stuff, I did think he deserved an award from his very tired parents for how wonderful he was. 

Dyryck Hastings did the wording for me as I was stumped, and then several more months went by with me pushing this project aside for official Kingdom assignments, and finally I finished it in time for the Pentathalon at The Festival of the Passing of the Ice Dragon in Buffalo, NY (Hamburg Fairgrounds, great site for this event).


I took my time, my son helped - including tossing a whole lot of real gold all over the floor & in dirty paint water that he had set right on the scroll, and dumped the entire bottle of gold dust in said water... oh dear... but it all turned out OK in the end and we all learned Very Important Things; me to put my gilding materials away every single time I leave my desk, and him not to touch gilding without assistance from Mamma.  I got a great deal on patent gold, he got his own special scribal supply box.  He helped gild for real, carefully following instructions (press here), and even got to paint some of the blue, so he has a hand in his own award.

This was also an opportunity for me to keep some of the artwork I make.  While it is his, I can borrow it back for shows, classes and demos.  This was the first format that I have made adjustments to based on key compositional elements.  While the overall composition is very similar to the original folios, I'm starting to get a good feel for when things ought to shift, and what motifs are used when.

The write-up is only three elements of the Macclesfield Psalter, and there is a lot more to explore.  I'm trying to develop a track of classes on this manuscript, and this format is helping me sift through what is important. I hope you enjoy the pdf. if there are any issues please let me know, hopefully I'll be able to get to comments, I've been locked out of my e-mail for a while.  If you can't get me there, look me up on FB and I do check my 'other' box.

Three little cats
Sitting in a row
Who will get the mouse?
No one can know.