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Memento Mori

Much like a baby is in awe of its habitat and examines it by literally shoving everything in its mouth, we make sense of our environment through an exploration of our surrounding, starting with ourselves. We remember ourselves through the physical, and this is precisely the theoretical function of the memento mori – a remembrance of our physicality, and more importantly, our mortality.

The concept started in the Middle Ages, and was perpetuated throughout artwork of the period where earthly vanity was juxtaposed with not only the remembrance of death, but the memory of life and consequently that it must end. Through our vanity and joys in life the image of death becomes more pronounced.

Memento mori these days becomes synonymous with images of skulls or grim keepers, harbingers of death existing in corners of paintings to overtly remind those looking of the omnipresence of their mortality. However, my first encounter with the concept was in an undergrad Milton course where the professor took an interdisciplinary approach and began introducing us to contemporary art pieces while outlining the various concepts. I distinctly remember the  lecture on the memento mori that was delivered in conjunction with reading Lycidas in which he showed us Diego Velazquez’s 1656 “Las Meninas.”

Velasquez_Las_Meninas_1656

I have never forgotten this painting. However, despite the various oddities portrayed for the young girl in the middle who is apparently in great need of entertainment, the most memorable is the couple in the mirror – the king and queen. They are perhaps the most notable and important in the room – those of highest standing – whose reflections are barely visible in the mirror. While they rule the entirety of Spain and wield unfathomable power, they are here reduced not to mere mortals, but practically indiscernible images in a fuzzy mirror, much like the rest of us under the same circumstances. They are not the larger than life images we expect of a king and queen in flowing gowns and unimaginable shows of wealth in elaborate and larger than life dress, but rather shadows of themselves, awaiting to be replaced by the young princess in the center of the painting (here is  a more detailed description of the mathematical properties governing this painting).

It is almost as if the couple is receding from the face of existence, slowly disappearing into the backdrop. I have always found this sort of reminder to be more potent than that of the overt skull, or strategically placed object that screams its message of encroaching doom. Yes, we will all at one point or another die, but the subtly of it is far more stunning. Despite worldly wealth or vanity, in the end the king and queen are no different from peasants, and their reflections are unintelligible from another.

Dissertation Problems – All or Nothing…

For those of you who know me, my dissertation is becoming an unwieldy problem. Namely, I can’t get anyone to supervise it so I keep plugging away independently at an institution that doesn’t have a medieval program. The joke is on me I suppose. I mean, I did get myself into this.

Except there are only three people in Southern California who would be able to advise this, and after meeting with a medieval professor the other day, I realize one is unfortunately no longer able to for health reasons, and that leaves two. And both of them are at the same university. While this may sound fantastic, it is also makes the entire process much more high stakes – it’s all or nothing.

I have been meeting with several professors over the course of the last few months finalizing plans for my “big move” while simultaneously continuing forth with my research. Unfortunately, outside of offering editing advice, none of these professors can really help me with the actual content. The earliest any of them can go is the 16th century, and I am working with the 8th to 13 centuries, specifically 1274 – and looking at Anglo-Norman, Anglo-Saxon, and French texts (with an emphasis on paleography and philology within scribal culture).

While this may sound like a done deal, it is far from it. I still need the other university to accept me, and at least one of the professors to agree to supervise me. According to my current professors my methods are fine, and I am doing all the right things. My scores are very good, and I have been literally working around the clock to produce quality material for several purposes (publications, conferences, lectures, etc.). However, I have a few drawbacks, which don’t sound like drawbacks, but they are. I have an MA already (hence all the teaching I do). I was under the impression this was a good thing and I could get straight to work, but I have numerous times been told this is actually not to my benefit since I am denying my perspective institution the opportunity to “mold” me. I don’t think I am doing any such thing – I am very flexible!

Which brings me to my next two points. I may be flexible, but from the sounds of my dissertation topic, I don’t sound like it. As I am editing my proposal for the umpteenth time I am teetering between explicitly stating my interests, and sounding just vague enough to where I leave room to be guided. Since I have been working on this project without supervision I would think there is plenty of room for someone with expertise in the field to shift my perspective. Even though I have written portions of it and completed  loads of research I am pretty sure a lot of it will get discarded and much of my research was simply done for familiarity purposes. One of my professors once advised me that I need to learn to “kill my babies” when it comes to my writing – a process I had quite some difficulty with in my first semester of the MA. I have since learned what it means, and am prepared to do just that – it is part of the writing process, and good writing requires a few good red slashes.

So I am torn – do I tell them “this is what I want to do” or do I leave it ambiguous enough for them to insert their own meaning? What if they superimpose a meaning I never intended and I end up in the same predicament I am in now? I applied to a PhD program as a medievalist. I have been a medievalist since before I could even formally specialize. And now I find myself among other people’s periods…. all lovely in their own right, but not mine as I am scouring libraries at adjacent campuses to find adequate materials on topics of my century, and relying on friends at distant universities for assistance. They have all been unbelievably helpful and generous with their time, but this is not how dissertations are written, and mine needs to find a home.

So I am about to do what graduate students never think they are going to have to do twice, and jump ship because I didn’t do it right the first time. If it wasn’t overwhelming the first time around, this time it is downright frightening. Again… all or nothing. My only consolation is that I am only applying to one place. There is no point playing the “let’s see where I can go” game again, because last time I lost. Don’t get me wrong, I have had an amazing education with just as amazing professors, and I am a firm believer that education is what you make of it. Even when not handed the exact materials because there were no medieval courses offered, I was given the tools to cull out the material myself, and I used them. Unfortunately that only got me so far, and to get to the next level I can’t solely rely on myself.

That is the second problem. I am at times (most of the time) extremely self reliant. I have a hard time asking others for help. Doctoral programs and beyond rely on this time of personality that can self motivate, however, at times you have to admit you need help. This has become such a time for me, and I enlisted several professors to help me. I am extremely grateful at the extent of their willingness and have been terribly diligent at following their advice. After all, I did it my way last time… and well…

There is one point however, where no one can agree. I have had different advice from several of these professors, and from other friends who have successfully completed their doctorate.  Since I am very much gearing towards a rather specific project at a single university, would it be wise to contact the professors I wish to work with and simply ask if it is feasible? I don’t know. Some professors think that is a good approach that would provide me with useful information, while others believe it will harm my chances. I want to know. I want to get excited again. But I don’t want to be, as one professor put it, “inappropriate.” And I honestly don’t know if it is inappropriate or not, but I most certainly do not want to offend people I have unbelievable respect for and whose work I admire and wish to learn from. So once again I find myself walking the fine line between just enough and too much.

How much do I tell them about my project? How many questions do I ask, if any? Do I contact them? Do I not contact them? Do I just submit my material, close my eyes, and hope for the best? I just don’t know, and as the deadline looms closer… well… this is it. All or nothing.

The Female Scribe IV

Thus far my female scribe research is still concerned with nunneries and their capacities for scribal activity (Should you wish to visit the previous posts in this series: Part I, Part II, and Part III). My most recent find was another book by Michelle Brown in line with her previous one, but illuminating another piece of female agency within scriptoria. Consequently this lead me down a whole new path of research. The primary focus relied on excavations where numerous whole and fragmented styli were found in Anglo-Saxon nunneries. While the best indication of manuscript creation is typically the manuscripts themselves, tools for such endeavors often survive just as long and can in some cases be even more indicative – a manuscript may not always have a clear, paleographically traceable provenance, whereas the tools were there for a distinct purpose.

I want to digress for a moment just so we can look at these writing instruments and better understand what they were for. This will probably not aid in the overall scope of this project, but the historical value associated with these tools is just too exciting to pass up.

Syli were used for purposes such as pricking, ruling leaves, hard point annotating, and underdrawing. These instruments were generally made of iron or bone, but sometimes of other alloy metals and even  silver (a significant point that will be addressed later).

stylus

This is an early medieval stylus found in North Yorkshire dated to be from around 900-1000 AD. The elaborate design on the handle tells us it was either meant as a gift, and probably belonged to a member of the upper class  or a high ranking member of the clergy (or perhaps all of these things are true, and it could have been a gift for someone high in the clergy who also happened to belong to the upper class). However, not very much is known about this particular one, especially whether it belonged to a male or female. The material is primarily a copper alloy.

LIN2011-1141

Here is a stylus that dates from around 700-800 AD that is also made from copper alloy which was found near Lincolnshire. This one is obviously far more simplistic and by all appearances had a very utilitarian purpose. Of the styli found from this period (of which there are not as many as you would think), most of them resembled this rather than previous or the following one.

2011_T677

 

2014_T88a

 

The top piece is a broken shaft from a stylus found in Lincolnshire that has been dated to about 800 AD. The bottom picture is what is thought to be the head to the stylus which was found in the same location several years later. It may appear like this is a very large piece of the two fragments would be connected, but combined the stylus would only be about 12 cm. long – smaller than the average pen these days. Both pieces are made from silver, and the head has quite some detail on it. Here is a close-up of the end:

stylus1

There appears to be an animal’s head engraved into it, but due to corrosion the animal cannot be identified. This was however, a rather common practice in the Anglo-Saxon culture where elaborate engravings served to denote another kind of literacy – a cultural one where such symbols and puzzles were read for a meaning we don’t quite as easily grasp in modern times. The animal depicted here appears to either have its tongue out, or is biting something. While I have not done any studies on styli before this, I have studied jewelry and brooches from the period, and this style that developed around 600 AD used these sort of representations of animals biting or eating each other to remark on the natural order of the world. It was also believed that different animals had proprietary characteristics that would be transferred to the objects they decorated. However, since this animal here is undecipherable, I wouldn’t even know where to begin with that. (And here is an amazing article about Anglo-Saxon pins by Anna Gannon).

This last silver ornamental stylus could quite possibly resemble the one gifted by Boniface’s successor to Abbess Eadburga who educated Boniface’s relative, Lioba, who in turn went on to become abbess of Bischofsheim. The relationship between Eadburga and Boniface, however, is not restricted to this particular incident and extends to mutually beneficial transcription activities where Boniface would visit Eadburga’s Minster-in-Thanet to have highly detailed and ornamental manuscripts copied.

Of the many books copied under her supervision, perhaps the most famous is the Selden manuscript of the Acts of the Apostles that have “EADB” scratched with a stylus at the end. Conjectures have bee made that this particular manuscript may have not just been supervised by Eadburga, but actually coping in her hand. Further, this particular manuscript contains numerous female pronouns leading to further inferences about the intended audience. While the female pronouns, just like the one found in the Lancelot manuscript (that I discuss in previous segments of this project) indicate a female author, these pronouns do not necessarily imply a female audience – and such a conclusion would require quite a leap in logic. Unfortunately the Boldleian does not have any pictures online of the Selden MS Supra 30. If anyone has seen it, I would love to hear impressions on it.

In the meantime, I would like to further explore nunneries and female scribal activities in general. But at the moment I probably should run off and teach my undergrads about John Keats…

Sources:

Blackhouse, J and Webster L. The making of England: Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture.

finds.org.uk

McKitterick, Rosamond. “Nuns’ Scriptoria in England and Francia in the Eighth Century.” 

Parkes, M.B. “A Fragment of an Early Tenth-Century Manuscript and Its Significance.”

The Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe. ed.  Rosamond McKitterick. 

Wilson, D.M.  Anglo-Saxon Art