The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
Created in England in the late twelfth century, this manuscript was intended to be a scientific textbook for monks. The manuscript is brief at nine folios, and was designed as a compendium of cosmographical knowledge drawn from early Christian writers such as Bede and Isidore, as well as the later Abbo of Fleury. Those writers, in turn, drew on classical sources such as Pliny the Elder for their knowledge but adapted it to be understood through the filter of Christianity. The twenty complex diagrams that accompany the texts in this pamphlet help illustrate them, and include visualizations of the heavens and earth, seasons, winds, tides, and the zodiac, as well as demonstrations of how these things relate to man. Most of the diagrams are rotae, or wheel-shaped schemata, favored throughout the Middle Ages for the presentation of scientific and cosmological ideas because they organized complex information in a clear, orderly fashion, making this material easier to apprehend, learn, and remember. Moreover, the circle, considered the most perfect shape and a symbol of God, was seen as conveying the cyclical nature of time and the Creation as well as the logic, order, and harmony of the created universe. England is especially notable for the production of illustrated scientific textbooks, with the earliest examples produced during the Carolingian period under the influence of the noted Benedictine scholar Abbo of Fleury, who taught at Ramsey Abbey for two years. Although the grouping of texts and diagrams here is unique, the manuscript is related to other scientific compilations from this era, such as British Library, Royal Ms. 13 A.XI, Cotton Ms. Tiberius E.IV, and Oxford, St. John's College, Ms. 17.
Scholastic book script, of Gothic origin
Principal cataloger: Smith, Kathryn
Cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Editor: Noel, William
Copy editor: Dibble, Charles
Contributor: Bockrath, Diane
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Houston, Daniel
Contributor: Kauffman, Nicholas
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Conservator: Owen, Linda
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
De Ricci, Seymour. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, p. 826, no. 412.
Edson, Evelyn. Mapping Time and Space: How Medieval Mapmakers Viewed Their World. London: British Library, 1997, p. 70.
Bober, Harry. "An Illustrated Medieval School-Book of Bede's 'De Natura Rerum'." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 19-20 (1957): pp. 64-97.
Destombes, Marcel. Mappemondes, A.D. 1200-1500: Catalogue préparé par la Commission des cartes anciennes de l'Union géographique internationale. Amsterdam: N. Israel, 1964, pp. 166-167, cat. no. 49.
Howard, Donald. The Idea of the Canterbury Tales. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976, p. 204, fig. 11 (fol. 1v); p. 206, n. 79; pp. 204, 206.
Caviness, Madeline. Images of Divine Order and the Third Mode of Seeing. Gesta 22, no. 2. (1983): pp. 99-120 (does not cite Ms. by number, but refers to Bober article, pp. 104, 117, n. 29).
Eastwood, Bruce S. and Gerd Grasshoff. Planetary Diagrams for Roman Astronomy in Medieval Europe, c. 800-1500. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 94, pt. 3. Philadelphia: American Philosophical , 2004, p. 11 n. 26.
Eastwood, Bruce. Latin Planetary Studies in the IXth and Xth Centuries. Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1996, fig. 11 (fol. 5v); p. 221.
Kline, Naomi Reed. Maps of Medieval Thought: The Hereford Paradigm. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2001, pp. 21-23 (fols. 1v, 2r, 8r).
Feltman, Jennifer M. "Inscribing Order: The Didactic Function of The Walters Art Museum Ms. 73." Athanor 25 (2007): pp. 7-16.
The Calendar and the Cloister: A Full Digital Facsimile of the St. John’s Computus, Oxford, St. John's College Ms. 17, with commentary, background essays, and other apparatus and material; http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/ms-17/index.htm.
Cleaver, Laura. "On the Nature of Things: The Content and Purpose of Walters W.73 and Decorated Treatises on Natural Philosophy in the Twelfth Century." Journal of the Walters Art Museum 68-69 (2010-2011): pp. 21-30, figs. 1 (fol. 1v), 4 (fols. 6v-7r).
Gerry, Kathryn. "A Medieval Scientific Book for Monastic Use." In Melanie Holcomb, Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009, pp. 108-110, no. 29.
Bede. 'On the Nature of Things' and 'On Times.' Trans. with introduction, notes, and commentary by Calvin B. Kendall and Faith Wallis, Translated Texts for Historians, vol. 56. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010, pp. 42, 45.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
England
Late 12th century CE
book
Non-original Binding
Bound in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century by Léon Gruel in Paris; brown calf over mill-board, scorched line border, gold fillet on board edges, three gold fillets on turn-ins; title scorched in spine "Cosmographia"
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.
Created in England, late twelfth century, for monastic use
Gruel and Englemann collection, Paris, no. 131, bookplate inside upper board
Acquired by Henry Walters from Léon Gruel, June 9, 1903
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
England
Late 12th century CE
book
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.
Created in England, late twelfth century, for monastic use
Gruel and Englemann collection, Paris, no. 131, bookplate inside upper board
Acquired by Henry Walters from Léon Gruel, June 9, 1903
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
Created in England in the late twelfth century, this manuscript was intended to be a scientific textbook for monks. The manuscript is brief at nine folios, and was designed as a compendium of cosmographical knowledge drawn from early Christian writers such as Bede and Isidore, as well as the later Abbo of Fleury. Those writers, in turn, drew on classical sources such as Pliny the Elder for their knowledge but adapted it to be understood through the filter of Christianity. The twenty complex diagrams that accompany the texts in this pamphlet help illustrate them, and include visualizations of the heavens and earth, seasons, winds, tides, and the zodiac, as well as demonstrations of how these things relate to man. Most of the diagrams are rotae, or wheel-shaped schemata, favored throughout the Middle Ages for the presentation of scientific and cosmological ideas because they organized complex information in a clear, orderly fashion, making this material easier to apprehend, learn, and remember. Moreover, the circle, considered the most perfect shape and a symbol of God, was seen as conveying the cyclical nature of time and the Creation as well as the logic, order, and harmony of the created universe. England is especially notable for the production of illustrated scientific textbooks, with the earliest examples produced during the Carolingian period under the influence of the noted Benedictine scholar Abbo of Fleury, who taught at Ramsey Abbey for two years. Although the grouping of texts and diagrams here is unique, the manuscript is related to other scientific compilations from this era, such as British Library, Royal Ms. 13 A.XI, Cotton Ms. Tiberius E.IV, and Oxford, St. John's College, Ms. 17.
Scholastic book script, of Gothic origin
Principal cataloger: Smith, Kathryn
Cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Editor: Noel, William
Copy editor: Dibble, Charles
Contributor: Bockrath, Diane
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Houston, Daniel
Contributor: Kauffman, Nicholas
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Conservator: Owen, Linda
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
De Ricci, Seymour. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, p. 826, no. 412.
Edson, Evelyn. Mapping Time and Space: How Medieval Mapmakers Viewed Their World. London: British Library, 1997, p. 70.
Bober, Harry. "An Illustrated Medieval School-Book of Bede's 'De Natura Rerum'." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 19-20 (1957): pp. 64-97.
Destombes, Marcel. Mappemondes, A.D. 1200-1500: Catalogue préparé par la Commission des cartes anciennes de l'Union géographique internationale. Amsterdam: N. Israel, 1964, pp. 166-167, cat. no. 49.
Howard, Donald. The Idea of the Canterbury Tales. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976, p. 204, fig. 11 (fol. 1v); p. 206, n. 79; pp. 204, 206.
Caviness, Madeline. Images of Divine Order and the Third Mode of Seeing. Gesta 22, no. 2. (1983): pp. 99-120 (does not cite Ms. by number, but refers to Bober article, pp. 104, 117, n. 29).
Eastwood, Bruce S. and Gerd Grasshoff. Planetary Diagrams for Roman Astronomy in Medieval Europe, c. 800-1500. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 94, pt. 3. Philadelphia: American Philosophical , 2004, p. 11 n. 26.
Eastwood, Bruce. Latin Planetary Studies in the IXth and Xth Centuries. Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1996, fig. 11 (fol. 5v); p. 221.
Kline, Naomi Reed. Maps of Medieval Thought: The Hereford Paradigm. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2001, pp. 21-23 (fols. 1v, 2r, 8r).
Feltman, Jennifer M. "Inscribing Order: The Didactic Function of The Walters Art Museum Ms. 73." Athanor 25 (2007): pp. 7-16.
The Calendar and the Cloister: A Full Digital Facsimile of the St. John’s Computus, Oxford, St. John's College Ms. 17, with commentary, background essays, and other apparatus and material; http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/ms-17/index.htm.
Cleaver, Laura. "On the Nature of Things: The Content and Purpose of Walters W.73 and Decorated Treatises on Natural Philosophy in the Twelfth Century." Journal of the Walters Art Museum 68-69 (2010-2011): pp. 21-30, figs. 1 (fol. 1v), 4 (fols. 6v-7r).
Gerry, Kathryn. "A Medieval Scientific Book for Monastic Use." In Melanie Holcomb, Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009, pp. 108-110, no. 29.
Bede. 'On the Nature of Things' and 'On Times.' Trans. with introduction, notes, and commentary by Calvin B. Kendall and Faith Wallis, Translated Texts for Historians, vol. 56. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010, pp. 42, 45.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
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