Arthur Westwell
@arthurwestwell.bsky.social
Medieval historian. Liturgical manuscripts. Romanesque churches.
Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at the Universität Regensburg.
Picture: Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, cod.lat.958 and Tours, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 184
Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at the Universität Regensburg.
Picture: Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, cod.lat.958 and Tours, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 184
Two Norman Romanesque fonts of Cornwall. Left in Saint Nonna's Church in Altarnun. Right in Saint Petroc's in Bodmin.
May 28, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Two Norman Romanesque fonts of Cornwall. Left in Saint Nonna's Church in Altarnun. Right in Saint Petroc's in Bodmin.
3) More unassuming but probably the oldest surviving medieval manuscript still in Greece is the Great Meteoron's cod. 591. It is a copy of John Chrysostom's commentary written in 861 or 862 by the monk Eustathius.
April 30, 2025 at 1:02 PM
3) More unassuming but probably the oldest surviving medieval manuscript still in Greece is the Great Meteoron's cod. 591. It is a copy of John Chrysostom's commentary written in 861 or 862 by the monk Eustathius.
Manuscripts on display in the soaring monasteries of Meteora. Here in the Great Meteoron museum are:
1) Cod. 106. A 16th century liturgical book into which a miniature of an evangelist from the ninth century is incorporated.
2) Cod. 969. A copy of the Ladder of Divine Ascent from the 11th century
1) Cod. 106. A 16th century liturgical book into which a miniature of an evangelist from the ninth century is incorporated.
2) Cod. 969. A copy of the Ladder of Divine Ascent from the 11th century
April 30, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Manuscripts on display in the soaring monasteries of Meteora. Here in the Great Meteoron museum are:
1) Cod. 106. A 16th century liturgical book into which a miniature of an evangelist from the ninth century is incorporated.
2) Cod. 969. A copy of the Ladder of Divine Ascent from the 11th century
1) Cod. 106. A 16th century liturgical book into which a miniature of an evangelist from the ninth century is incorporated.
2) Cod. 969. A copy of the Ladder of Divine Ascent from the 11th century
Just speaking as a liturgist, the ceremony is assumed ubiquitously by a lot of baptismal ordines into the 9th century (in the scrutiny) and even still in the 10th century sacramentary of Fulda (See screenshot). But it's not in insular context, so the insular gospel books aren't the place to look.
April 27, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Just speaking as a liturgist, the ceremony is assumed ubiquitously by a lot of baptismal ordines into the 9th century (in the scrutiny) and even still in the 10th century sacramentary of Fulda (See screenshot). But it's not in insular context, so the insular gospel books aren't the place to look.
I saw a twelfth century Corfiot Gospel Book manuscript in the museum of the monastery of Panagia Theotokos in Palaiokastrista. It is one of the oldest monasteries on Corfu, though entirely rebuilt in the eighteenth century. Perhaps this lovely manuscript dates from the founding period.
April 26, 2025 at 7:53 AM
I saw a twelfth century Corfiot Gospel Book manuscript in the museum of the monastery of Panagia Theotokos in Palaiokastrista. It is one of the oldest monasteries on Corfu, though entirely rebuilt in the eighteenth century. Perhaps this lovely manuscript dates from the founding period.
Nearby are the ruins of the Paleochristian basilica of old Palaiopolis, a magnificent structure in its day, which fell victim to successive invasions. It was first built in the fifth century, renewed in the eleventh but finally much destroyed by bombing during the Second World War.
April 23, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Nearby are the ruins of the Paleochristian basilica of old Palaiopolis, a magnificent structure in its day, which fell victim to successive invasions. It was first built in the fifth century, renewed in the eleventh but finally much destroyed by bombing during the Second World War.
The middle Byzantine church of Saints Justin and Sosipater is the oldest church on Corfu, dating to around 1000 and dedicated to two saints named in the Pauline Epistles and Acts who came to evangelize the island in their later years.
April 23, 2025 at 3:30 PM
The middle Byzantine church of Saints Justin and Sosipater is the oldest church on Corfu, dating to around 1000 and dedicated to two saints named in the Pauline Epistles and Acts who came to evangelize the island in their later years.
This not so tasteful monument commemorates that the monastery held the manuscript of the Weesobrunner Gebet, an old high German hymn or poem of creation written down in the early ninth century. Today it's in Munich as Clm 22053.
April 12, 2025 at 4:40 PM
This not so tasteful monument commemorates that the monastery held the manuscript of the Weesobrunner Gebet, an old high German hymn or poem of creation written down in the early ninth century. Today it's in Munich as Clm 22053.
The secularisation of Bavaria in 1803 destroyed many great monasteries. Wessobrunn is one of the tragic cases, there's a Romanesque tower (called the Römerturm or Grauer Herzog) and some rococo corridors, all that remains of a place that claimed to be founded by Tassilo in the 8th century.
April 12, 2025 at 4:37 PM
The secularisation of Bavaria in 1803 destroyed many great monasteries. Wessobrunn is one of the tragic cases, there's a Romanesque tower (called the Römerturm or Grauer Herzog) and some rococo corridors, all that remains of a place that claimed to be founded by Tassilo in the 8th century.
Kloster Seeon was founded at the end of the tenth century and received the special status of a Reichsabtei, directly under the Emperor, soon afterwards. The monks here produced some of the most brilliant manuscripts of Ottonian times it passed to the Bavarian state with the 1803 secularisation.
April 6, 2025 at 7:52 AM
Kloster Seeon was founded at the end of the tenth century and received the special status of a Reichsabtei, directly under the Emperor, soon afterwards. The monks here produced some of the most brilliant manuscripts of Ottonian times it passed to the Bavarian state with the 1803 secularisation.
Lovely to see that the @bsbmuenchen.bsky.social have gone all out for the new exhibit on Japanese wood cuts: "Farben Japans". Here until 6th July.
March 28, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Lovely to see that the @bsbmuenchen.bsky.social have gone all out for the new exhibit on Japanese wood cuts: "Farben Japans". Here until 6th July.
In the Füssen Stadtmuseum now in the monastery buildings is exhibited this Carolingian bronze plate, showing Christ in a mandorla, discovered during excavations of the crypt. Probably originally covering a book, it can be dated to around the middle of the ninth century.
March 9, 2025 at 1:25 PM
In the Füssen Stadtmuseum now in the monastery buildings is exhibited this Carolingian bronze plate, showing Christ in a mandorla, discovered during excavations of the crypt. Probably originally covering a book, it can be dated to around the middle of the ninth century.
The fresco of Saints Gallus and Magnus in the crypt of the monastery of St Mang in Füssen shows the two peripatetic monks and monastery founders on a journey together. Dating to around 1000, it lay hidden in the Romanesque crypt under the baroque church until 1950.
March 9, 2025 at 1:18 PM
The fresco of Saints Gallus and Magnus in the crypt of the monastery of St Mang in Füssen shows the two peripatetic monks and monastery founders on a journey together. Dating to around 1000, it lay hidden in the Romanesque crypt under the baroque church until 1950.
This amazingly intricate glass cup was made in Syria or Egypt in the eleventh century. It was a relic for two female saints who were said to have possessed it, Hedwig of Andechs and Elisabeth of Thuringia. Later, we know it was in the hands of Martin Luther. It is now in the Veste Coburg.
February 16, 2025 at 8:44 AM
This amazingly intricate glass cup was made in Syria or Egypt in the eleventh century. It was a relic for two female saints who were said to have possessed it, Hedwig of Andechs and Elisabeth of Thuringia. Later, we know it was in the hands of Martin Luther. It is now in the Veste Coburg.
Also I saw the marvellous ivory cover of the Gandersheim Evangeliar, a luxurious gospel book created in Metz under Louis the Pious. It came to England where it was noted in the possession of King Athelstan, here called Rex angulsaxorum er mercianorum. Now in the Kunstsammlung at the Veste Coburg
February 15, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Also I saw the marvellous ivory cover of the Gandersheim Evangeliar, a luxurious gospel book created in Metz under Louis the Pious. It came to England where it was noted in the possession of King Athelstan, here called Rex angulsaxorum er mercianorum. Now in the Kunstsammlung at the Veste Coburg
The real stars were the fabulous black chickens wandering the grounds though...
February 15, 2025 at 10:41 AM
The real stars were the fabulous black chickens wandering the grounds though...
The ruins of the Premonstratensian Abbey, Kloster Veßra, in Thüringen. Founded in 1131 as family monastery of the Henneberg Counts. Though badly damaged by the fire only in 1939, it's still a wonderful example of the architecture of reformed monasticism.
February 15, 2025 at 10:40 AM
The ruins of the Premonstratensian Abbey, Kloster Veßra, in Thüringen. Founded in 1131 as family monastery of the Henneberg Counts. Though badly damaged by the fire only in 1939, it's still a wonderful example of the architecture of reformed monasticism.
The three living and the three dead is a common motif of gothic art, recalling the transience of earthly life. In the church of Maria Himmelfahrt in Chammünster is a fine Bavarian example, dating to the second half of the fifteenth century.
February 8, 2025 at 10:41 AM
The three living and the three dead is a common motif of gothic art, recalling the transience of earthly life. In the church of Maria Himmelfahrt in Chammünster is a fine Bavarian example, dating to the second half of the fifteenth century.
The overwhelming baroque church of Kloster Waldsassen has the bodies of no less than 10 catacomb saints, martyrs dug up in Rome and acquired over the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They are honoured on the 1st August in a special "Heilige-Leiber-Fest".
February 2, 2025 at 12:04 PM
The overwhelming baroque church of Kloster Waldsassen has the bodies of no less than 10 catacomb saints, martyrs dug up in Rome and acquired over the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They are honoured on the 1st August in a special "Heilige-Leiber-Fest".
Visiting Cheb in Bohemia (German Eger) and found that the city museum has this wonderful antependium, made by the Poor Clares of the city by embroidering hundred of tiny beads, coral and pearls. It dates around 1300 and I've never seen anything quite like it.
February 1, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Visiting Cheb in Bohemia (German Eger) and found that the city museum has this wonderful antependium, made by the Poor Clares of the city by embroidering hundred of tiny beads, coral and pearls. It dates around 1300 and I've never seen anything quite like it.
Thus, looking to the margins of manuscripts, we find evidence that places prognostication within an erudite Christian milieu, avidly discussed and collected at the heart of the Frankish Empire. They were a way people made sense of the world, an impulse that is definitely undestandable today. (fin
January 31, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Thus, looking to the margins of manuscripts, we find evidence that places prognostication within an erudite Christian milieu, avidly discussed and collected at the heart of the Frankish Empire. They were a way people made sense of the world, an impulse that is definitely undestandable today. (fin
But they are here paired with high classical and Christian knowledge, querying assumptions I had about them. Pliny is cited to validate divination, but most interestingly, an unknown commentary quoting Macrobius and Vigil discusses how to tell true dreams from false (sadly very faint). (4
January 31, 2025 at 8:00 AM
But they are here paired with high classical and Christian knowledge, querying assumptions I had about them. Pliny is cited to validate divination, but most interestingly, an unknown commentary quoting Macrobius and Vigil discusses how to tell true dreams from false (sadly very faint). (4
But these texts of natural science are paired with no less than nine different texts for prognostication, telling the future. They use very varied methods (the shape of the moon, the location of thunder, the day a child is born). The one below is a popular text for dreams, listed alphabetically. (3
January 31, 2025 at 7:55 AM
But these texts of natural science are paired with no less than nine different texts for prognostication, telling the future. They use very varied methods (the shape of the moon, the location of thunder, the day a child is born). The one below is a popular text for dreams, listed alphabetically. (3
Firstly, there are some local annals, recording disasters, deaths and donors in a clerical community that I argue were the cathedral canons of Sens. But there are also numerous citations of classical and anonymous knowledge, around calculating of time (Vatican Library, Reg. lat. 567, fol.19r). (2
January 31, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Firstly, there are some local annals, recording disasters, deaths and donors in a clerical community that I argue were the cathedral canons of Sens. But there are also numerous citations of classical and anonymous knowledge, around calculating of time (Vatican Library, Reg. lat. 567, fol.19r). (2
This is wonderful news, as the Leiden MSS were pretty inaccessible. Among them are these beautiful copies of Gregory of Tours Historia Francorum (VLO 86) and of Pliny (VLF 61), both dating to the early ninth century.
January 24, 2025 at 8:54 AM
This is wonderful news, as the Leiden MSS were pretty inaccessible. Among them are these beautiful copies of Gregory of Tours Historia Francorum (VLO 86) and of Pliny (VLF 61), both dating to the early ninth century.