Rosanne
Kwaw linked a calendar in another thread. Calendars fascinate me as do Almanacs, Book of Hours, and Psalters for their medieval illustrations. I also believe there was a strong connection to Tarot images- and maybe even the sequence of the 22 majors.http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=82036 post #6
Here is something from Bridget Henisch, that is interesting...
When a medieval artist was told to illustrate a calendar, he knew exactly what he was expected to provide. It made no difference whether he was working in wood or in stone, tracing the design for a stained-glass window, or brushing gold onto a sheet of vellum. He reached into his store of patterns and pulled out not twelve scenes, or emblems, one for each month of the year, but twenty-four. One illustration showed a characteristic occupation for the month, and the other displayed the month’s dominant zodiac sign. The artist then proceeded to group his pictures in any number of configurations, of which the simplest and most straightforward was the matched pair, as can be seen in Color Plate 1-1, an example from a fifteenth-century French manuscript that offers a crude and cheerful representation of July, with a man cutting wheat in one compartment, and Leo the Lion flourishing his tail among the stars next door.
They also included Saint days(most dead catholics of note were called Saints, even if not canonised) and liturgical events- like Easter Sunday. This brings me to the Calendar I linked.The medieval calendar served as a map of the Church year. While following the method of the Roman calendar in determining dates, it also listed saints' days and other religious feasts and recorded the phases of the moon. Many calendars also featured related illustrations of saints, feasts, monthly labors, leisure activities, and signs of the zodiac.
I cannot find Easter marked on this calendar- I can see Pentecost which is 50 days after Easter Sunday; but nothing is marked for Easter Sunday. There looks like the old sign for the Sun -dot within circle but it is in at the wrong time for easter I think- Can anyone see Easter? ~Rosanne
Here is something from Bridget Henisch, that is interesting...
When a medieval artist was told to illustrate a calendar, he knew exactly what he was expected to provide. It made no difference whether he was working in wood or in stone, tracing the design for a stained-glass window, or brushing gold onto a sheet of vellum. He reached into his store of patterns and pulled out not twelve scenes, or emblems, one for each month of the year, but twenty-four. One illustration showed a characteristic occupation for the month, and the other displayed the month’s dominant zodiac sign. The artist then proceeded to group his pictures in any number of configurations, of which the simplest and most straightforward was the matched pair, as can be seen in Color Plate 1-1, an example from a fifteenth-century French manuscript that offers a crude and cheerful representation of July, with a man cutting wheat in one compartment, and Leo the Lion flourishing his tail among the stars next door.
They also included Saint days(most dead catholics of note were called Saints, even if not canonised) and liturgical events- like Easter Sunday. This brings me to the Calendar I linked.The medieval calendar served as a map of the Church year. While following the method of the Roman calendar in determining dates, it also listed saints' days and other religious feasts and recorded the phases of the moon. Many calendars also featured related illustrations of saints, feasts, monthly labors, leisure activities, and signs of the zodiac.
I cannot find Easter marked on this calendar- I can see Pentecost which is 50 days after Easter Sunday; but nothing is marked for Easter Sunday. There looks like the old sign for the Sun -dot within circle but it is in at the wrong time for easter I think- Can anyone see Easter? ~Rosanne
~Rosanne