The North French Miscellany is, perhaps, one of the most important Hebrew manuscripts in the British Library's collection with a long and interesting history. It demonstrates the art typical of French manuscripts of the time.
The Calligraphy
It is impossible to examine every aspect of the manuscript's superb calligraphy in a short article, so this writer has picked out a few samples that will be of special interest to calligraphers. The first is the enclosed text box on Folio 142v. Six lines of text are enlarged and heavily gilded to stress their importance. The box itself is red, encased in blue.
Another fascinating page is Folio 152v. This is a very complex page where the central lavishly decorated text is accompanied by text running both vertically and horizontally in a brick-like formation on the outer edge and the bottom of the page.
In thirteenth-century Gothic manuscripts, grotesques (strange creatures with animal or human heads) appeared frequently. For example, on Folio 355r there are several marginal decorations that serve not only to emphasise the important words in the text, but also to impart a sense of fun. See the close-up detail of Folio 355r where a strange creature has a human face and another creature wears a pointed hat.
There are hundreds of these minute decorations throughout the manuscript. On Folio 295r the text is announced by a very strange creature that appears to have a duck's beak on a dog's face, two bird's feet, four other legs and two horse legs at the rear plus a plumed tail! The text is so important that each word is enclosed within its own gilded box.
Making the Facsimile
Facsimile Editions London, world-class publishers have, after long negotiations with the British Library, been permitted to create a limited facsimile edition – only 360 copies – of the North French Miscellany.
British Library experts prepared the manuscript and each page was photographed individually. Great care was taken to ensure exact colour matching between the original and the facsimile. Up to ten colours are used in the lithographic process.
The facsimile is printed on uncoated, neutral pH vegetable parchment which was specially prepared so as to be identical in weight and thickness to the original skins.
The raised burnished gold and silver leaf of the original has been applied by hand to each page. After gilding each folio has been cut to match the original and aged where necessary. Any natural holes present on the original skins have also been reproduced.
The facsimile comes with a companion volume containing articles commissioned from the world's leading experts. They provide in-depth examinations and explanations of all the texts and many other vital facts relating to the manuscript's original creation. This is the most thorough study of the Miscellany undertaken to date.
With contents so numerous and varied perhaps the North French Miscellany should be regarded as a whole library rather than a single book. The fact that it survived at all is nothing short of a miracle, since it came from a period when hundreds of Jews were massacred and countless Jewish books were burnt. Perhaps this was due to its size. This little treasure, a tribute to High Gothic art, is only 16½ x 12½ cm (6½" x 5½") and maybe this allowed it to be secreted away.
Source:
- Thanks to Linda and Michael Falter at Facsimile Editions London, for their help and advice in the preparation of this article.
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