Carpathian Gothic exhibition

 In Cracow (where I happen to be quite often) recently there was an exhibition "Gothic in Carpathian Mountains". There were works from Slovakia and Hungary, although most exhibits were from Polish museums. Some had some Gothic writing on them. Actually I have seen some of the pictures earlier in some other museum in Cracow (for example "Dapifer Cracoviensis"). But some I have not seen before and I reproduce them here.

I realise that an exhibition will not be there forever, but still I found it interesting and I decided to publish it here. I am sure when the exibition is not there anymore, you can find those pictures (and the frames, where the wrting is) in other Polish museums, very likely in Cracow. The pictures are:

Epitaph of Jan of Ujazd, painted around 1450

Madonna Konopków, painted in the 15^th century,

Triptich from Opatówek, painted around 1460

Christchurch

 In Christchurch (the British one) there is a big mediaeval church with pictures dating from the time when it was not advisable to have pictures in a church (which was much later than the church was built). These are prayers written in Antiqua calligraphy, framed like pictures and some of them hanged at angle. 

Nowadays there are bigger cities – Bournemouth and Poole – next to it, in fact there is no green area between them, so the three cities form just one agglomeration.

Sevenoaks

Anglican churches in England differ very much from their Catholic counterparts on the continent of Europe. Whereas Baroque Catholic churches are full of figures and paintings, Anglican churches are stark, no figures, no paintings, no reredos. In some churches calligraphy appears as decoration, sometimes on walls (like in Cerne Abbas) and sometimes framed as pictures (like in the Temple church in London or Chichester Cathedral). Sevenoaks parish church is one example of the latter. There are main prayers there hanged as pictures on walls. They are written in Antigua script, but some words in the beginning are written in a script I call the English Fraktur. They are initials similar to Ludwig Neudorfer style, but not quite the same.  

Siena exihibition in London National Gallery

 Earlier this year there was an exhibition of painting from Siena that led the way to Renaissance. At least one picture had writing in Lombardic capitals. Can't be seen anymore (at least in London), but I reproduce it here.

Santiago de Compostela

 When walking the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage, you end up in the church of Santiago. There is some interesting calligraphy in the church. One which seems to me Renaissance is incrusted, which means somebody must have written the letters by hand, but later they have been cut out in stone. Seems quite a lot of work. The other is dated 1715, and is engraved in stone.

Archivo de las Indias in Seville

 The Archivo de las Indias in Seville is a bit like the British Library: it is free to enter and you can see some of the most interesting documents there. Of course all the documents are post-Columbus, as “las Indias” really means America here. The documents are hand-written, one can see the delelopement of document hand. The earliest, like the treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, are written basically in style of mediaeval documents, later documents (some of which are dated) show the developments of later styles.

There are no Neudorfer-style fraktur initials, but in some documents we see clearly Baroque flourishes.

The treaty of Tordesillas

The treaty of Tordesillas

Charge against Hernan Cortes, 1533 

Charge against Hernan Cortes, 1533

Charge against Hernan Cortes, 1533

Charge against Hernan Cortes, 1533

Charge against Hernan Cortes, 1533

Document of 1663

Document of 1663

Document of 1665

Document of 1665

Document of 1665

Warning about English pirates, 1683

Document of 1744