My entries in Atlantia's Pentathlon in Persona, March 2006
PAGES UPDATED March 9, 2006
Persona Description
These entries are all related to my primary SCA persona, Lady Kateryn Rous. Born in 1530, Kateryn is a member of the Norfolk gentry, both the daughter and wife of wealthy landowners (knightly rank) repeatedly elected to Parliament. As a teenager she served in the household of Mary Howard, Duchess of Richmond (sister of the poet Henry Howard, earl of Surrey ) where she was encouraged to continue reading humanist literature. Her [entirely fictional] husband has a law degree and serves as a justice of the peace, and they own a townhouse in Norwich (especially useful when assize sessions are held in the city). Thus she is securely positioned among the social and economic elite of East Anglia . Like most of the Howard family and it's supporters, Kateryn is a recusant (a Catholic in the now protestant England ), although her husband and most of her neighbors are not.
The full bibliography appears below.
ITEM 1, verdigris pigment , is something Kateryn would have purchased or caused to be made for household uses such as mixing green ink, making green sealing wax, or dyeing wool. She would also own items already painted or colored using verdigris (such as portraits, wall paintings, illuminated books, knife handles, etc.)
ITEM 2, a canvaswork pin pillow , is both a useful and a luxury item she could have made for herself or received as a gift.
ITEM 3, Tudor lip balm , is a purely practical item she would have made (or had a servant make) for use in her own household.
ITEM 4, a dyed silk scarf , a luxury item she would have purchased and worn during the 1580s.
ITEM 5, a research entry "A Guide to Writing the Secretary Hand utilizing William Panke's 1591 A most reefe, easie and plaine receite for faire writing...", focuses on learning to read and write the secretary hand. My pentathlon entries for 2005 established that Kateryn learned to use the secretary hand despite its being considered too difficult for women to bother with.
(For some reason, pages 20/21 are currently missing.)
Primary Sources
Anon. (1541). A boke of the properties of herbes . London : Elisabeth Redman.
Anon. (14 th C). Innsbrook Manuscript. Translation by Drea Leed. http://costume.dm.net/dyes/innsbruck/
Anon. (1585). A New booke of copies. S.L.: T. Vautrollier? (The location and identity of the printer is uncertain)
Anon. (1561-1562; 1577-1578; 1578-1579; 1588-1589; 1599-1600) New Year's Gifts to Queen Elizabeth, transcribed by Karen Larsdattir from The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, http://geocities.com/karen_larsdatter/gifts/
Anon. (15th Century). Segreti per Colori . English translation by Mary Merrifield, originally published in Original Treatises on the Arts of Painting, 1846, and available online at http://costume.dm.net/dyes/segreti.htm.
Anon (1596). A very proper treatise where is briefly set forth the art of Limming. London : Thomas Purfot.
Androse, Richard, translator (1578). A verye excellent and profitable Booke conteyning sixe hundred four score and odd experienced Medicines. Long practysed of…Mayster Alexis… London : John Wyght.
Askam, Anthony (MDL) A little herbal of the property of herbes… London .
Bale, Peter (1590). The writing schholemaster. London: Thomas Orwin.
Boorde, Andrew (1598). The Breviarie of health… London : Thomas Este.
Cennini, Cennino d'Andrea . The Craftsman's Handbook “Il Libro dell' Arte.” Translated by Daniel V. Thompson Jr. New York : Dover Press.
Chesne, John de Beau (1571, 1590, 1592). A booke containing divers sortes of hands, as well the English as the French secretarie with the Italian, Roman, Chancelry & court hands. London.
Clement, Francis (1587). The petie schole with an English orthography... London: Thomas Vautrollier.
Coote, Edmund (1596). The English Schoole-maister. London: Widow Orwin for Ralph Jackson and Robert Dexter.
Dioscorides. De material medica , modern English translation by T.A. Osbaldeston. Johannesburg : IBIDIS Press. Book one is available in pdf at http://www.cancerlynx.com/BOOKONEAROMATICS.PDF
Dodoens, Rembert (1578). A nievve herbal…now translated out of French into English by Henry Lyte Esquyer. London : Gerard Dewes.
Edelstein, Sidney M. (1964). “The Allerley Matkel (1532): Facsimile Text, Translation, and Critical Study of the Earliest Printed Book on Spot Removing and Dyeing.” Technology and Culture , 5(3), 297-321.
Emmison, F.G. (1978). Elizabethan Life: Wills of Essex Gentry and Merchants, Proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. Chelmsford , UK : Essex County Council.
Gabelkuer, Oswald (1599). The boock of Physicke… translated from Dutch by A.M., Dorle: Isaac Green.
Harrison, William (1587). “The description of England ,” published as part of Raphael Holinshed's The First and Second volumes of Chronicles… , London.
Kempe, William (1588). The Education of children... London: Thomas Orwin for John Porter and Thomas Gubbin.
Panke, William (1591). A most breefe, easie and plaine receite for faire writing. London: Printed by E.A. for John Perin.
Partridge, John (1588). The Widowes treasure, plentifully furnished with sundry precious and approved secretes in Phisicke, and Chirugery for the health and pleasure of mankinde. London : Edward Alde for Edward White.
Philip, William (1596). A Booke of Secrets . London: Adam Islip for Edward White.
Pliny the Elder (1 st C). The Natural History. Translated by John Bostock and H.T. Riley. Available online at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.+Nat.+toc .
Rosetti, Gioanventura (1548). The Plictho of Gioanventura Rosetti: Instructions in the Art of the Dyers which Teaches the Dyeing of Woolen Cloths, Linens, Cottons, and Silk by the Great Art as Well as by the Common. S. M. Edelstein and HC Borghettym, trans. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1969.
Salazar, Kim Brody (1995). The New Carolingian Modelbook: Counted Embroidery Patterns from Before 1600 . Albuquerque : Outlaw Press.
Smith, Cyril S and John G. Hawthorne, eds. (1974) Mappae Clavicula: A Little Key to the World of Medieval Techniques . Philadelphia : Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, volume 64, part 4.
Stubbes, Phillip (1583) The anatomie of abuses… London : By [John Kingston for] Richard Iones.
Theophilus, Trans. by John G. Hawthorne and Cyril S. Smith (1963, 1979). On Divers Arts. New York : Dover Publications.
Thompson, Daniel Varney Jr. (1926). “Liber de Coloribus Illuminatorum Siue Pictorum from Sloane MS. No. 1754.” Speculum , 1(3), 280-307.
Warde, William, translator (1562). The Secrets of the reverend Maister Alexis of Piemont… London : Rouland Hall for Nycolas England .
Warde, William, translator (1563). The seconde parte of the Secrets of maister Alexis of Piemont… London : Rouland Hall for Nicholas Englande.
Warde, William (1580). The seconde parte of the Secrets of maister Alexis of Piemont… London : Henry Bynneman for Iohn Wyght.
Secondary Sources
Arnold, Janet (1988). Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd. Leeds [England] : Maney.
Beck, Thomasina (1995). The Embroiderer's Story: Needlework from the Renaissance to the Present Day. Newton Abbott, Devon , England .
Benhamou, Reed (1984). “Verdigris and the entrepreneuse.” Technology and Culture , 25(2), 171-181.
Benhamou, Reed (1990). “The verdigris industry in eighteenth century Languedoc : Women's work, women's art.” French Historical Studies , 6(3), 560-575.
Brown, Michelle P. (1998). The British Library Guide to Writing and Scripts: History and Techniques. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Brunello, Franco (1973). The Art of Dyeing in the History of Mankind. English translation by Pheonix Dyeworks, Cleveland, Ohio.
Byrne, Muriel St. Clare (1925). "Elizabethan handwriting for beginners." Review of English Studies, 1(2): 198-209.
Chaplin, Tracey D., et al (2005). “The Gutenberg bibles: Analysis of the illuminations and inks using Raman spectroscopy.” Analytical Chemistry , 77:3611-3622.
Cressy, David (1977). "The levels of illiteracy in England, 1530-1730." Historical Journal, 20(1): 1-23.
Crews, Patricia Cox (1982). “The influence of mordant on the lightfastness of yellow natural dyes.” Journal of the American Institute for Conservation , 21(2): 43-58.
Dawson, Giles and Laetitia Kennedy-Skipton (1966). Elizabethan Handwriting 1500-1650: A Manual. New York: WW Norton & Co.
Dean, Jenny (1999). Wild Color: The Complete Guide to Making and Using Natural Dyes . New York : Watson-Guptill Publications.
Digby, George Winfield (1963). Elizabethan Embroidery. London: Faber & Faber.
Drogin, Marc.(1989). Medieval Calligraphy. Its History and Techniques. New York: Dover.
Green, Juana (2000). "The Sempster's Wares: Merchandising and Marrying in the Fair Maid of Exchange (1607)," Renaissance Quarterly , 53(4), 1084-1118.
Hackenbroch, Yvonne (1960). English and Other Needlework, Tapestries and Textiles in the Irwin Untermyer Collection. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Harris, David (2003). The Calligrapher's Bible. New York: Quarto.
Hearn, Karen, ed. (1995). Dynasties: Painting in Tudor & Jacobean England. New York : Rizzoli.
Ison, Alf (1982, 2000). Secretary Hand ABC Book. London: Federation of Family History Societies.
King, Donald and Santina Levey (1993). Embroidery in Britain from 1200 to 1750. London: V&A Publications.
King, Donald (1956). "Textiles" in The Tudor Period 1500-1603. London: The Connoisseur, 101-112.
Kuhn, Hermann (1970). “Verdigris and copper resinate.” Studies in Conservation , 15, 12-36.
Levey, Santina (1998). Elizabethan Treasures: The Hardwick Hall Textiles. New York: Harry N. Abrams.
Liles, JN (1990). The Art and Craft of Natural Dyeing: Traditional Recipes for Modern Use. Knoxville : University of Tennessee Press.
McKerrow, R.B. (1927). "The capital letters in Elizabethan handwriting." Review of English Studies, 3(9): 28-36.
Nevinson, J.L. (1938). Catalogue of English Domestic Embroidery of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. London: Victoria & Albert Museum.
O'Day, Rosemary (1982). Education and Society, 1500-1800: The social foundations of education in early modern Britain. New York: Longman.
Orna, Mary Virginia, M.J.D. Low and Norbert S. Baer (1980). “Synthetic blue pigments: Ninth to sixteenth centuries. I. Literature.” Studies in Conservation , 25(2): 53-63.
Parry, Linda (1987). A Practical Guide to Canvas Work from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Pittstown: Main Street Press. Introduction by Santina Levey.
Privat-Savigny, Maria-Anne (2003). Quand les princesses d'Europe brodaient : broderie au petit point, 1570-1610. Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux
Rhodes, Mary (1983). The Batsford Book of Canvas Work. London: BT Batsford LTD.
Robinson, Stuart (1969). A History of Dyed Textiles. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Schulz, Herbert C. (1943). "The teaching of handwriting in Tudor and Stuart times." Huntington Library Quarterly, 6(4): 381-425.
Thompson, Daniel V. (1936, 1956). The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting . New York : Dover Publications.
Internet Resources not listed above
British Library, http://www.bl.uk/
Early English Books Online, http://eebo.chadwyck.com/home
Historic Needlework Resources, http://medieval.webcon.net.au/ .
Manchester Art Gallery ( UK ), http://www.manchestergalleries.org/ .
Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), http://www.mfa.org.
Online modern ‘how to' instructions for wax based lip balms:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5596_make-beeswax-lip.html
http://healthyherbs.about.com/c/ht/00/12/How_Lip_Balm0976403226.htm
Oxford English Dictionary online, http://dictionary.oed.com/entrance.dtl
Sources of scarf illustrations:
Braun and Hogenberg (1572-1617) Civitates Orbis Terrarum , images from Nonesuch Palace & Norwich are online at http://needleprayse.webcon.net.au/research/middle_class_elizabethan_clothing.html
De Bruyn, Abraham (before 1587). Omnium pene Europae, Asiae, Aphricae atque Americae Genitum Habitus . LACMA, AC1997.164 1a-bbb, available for viewing online at http://www.lacma.org.
Hasleton, Richard (1595). Strange and wonderful things. London . (Via Early English Books Online)
Victoria & Albert Museum, http://www.vam.ac.uk.