[Scriptoris] Period Display of Scrolls?

[Diane Rudin]

--- Joseph Percer/Jayme of Seawinds wrote:

> I am curious as to if there is some period way of displaying our award
> scrolls?

Folded up, and either stuck on a desk shelf or locked in a strongbox, just like
a modern person's birth certificate, marriage license, property deed, car
title, etc., and for exactly the same reasons.  That's one of the reasons they
weren't usually plastered with illumination; it would be wrecked.  (The
principal reason is the same reason one's class notes and exams aren't works of
art--there's a lot of work to do, and no time to mess with making it very
pretty.)

Anne of Cleves's divorce settlement from Henry VIII is in the form of a book,
because it was too long to have on a single folded sheet.  The seal is attached
to & hangs down from the spine of the binding.  It has some illumination.  Some
plea rolls have an illuminated initial at the top of the roll.  

The key difference between their view of these things and ours is that they
recognized them as the legal documents they were and treated them accordingly,
from production to storage.  We view them as artworks, and treat them
accordingly, both the ones still surviving from that era and the ones we today
create for our purposes.  The fact that these documents are the best proof of
receipt of an award rarely, if ever, enters our consideration.

Illuminated pages were in books, which rested on shelves, closed, except when
being read.  (There are a number of illuminator's pigments that are unsuitable
for use outside books for the exact reason that they are light-fugitive. 
Because books are closed most of the time, such pigments are safe from the
light in books.)  I can't recall any evidence for publicly displaying them,
other than when used for liturgical purposes (the display of the Gospels during
Mass, or the giant choral service books).  The nobility who commissioned books
of hours would have shown them off to their noble friends, but wouldn't have
dreamed of displaying them to the peasants.

Travelling clerks would post an example sheet of work in the town square, with
small samples of the different scripts they could do all crammed together on a
single broadside.  (I seem to recall that there is a picture of one of these in
Drogin, but since I don't have it right now, I can't check.)  This practice is
from the late medieval period onward.

One might think to look at booksellers' shops, but that wouldn't help much,
since we don't produce books.

Therefore, from the evidence available to me, I have to conclude that this
(document display) is one of those areas where there is almost no possible
reconciliation between period practice and SCA practice.  

--Serena

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