Stephanie J. Lahey PhD
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sjlahey.bsky.social
Stephanie J. Lahey PhD
@sjlahey.bsky.social
3.1K followers 870 following 390 posts
Mark Andrews Fellow in #BookScience, Old Books New Science Lab, University of Toronto · #MedievalManuscripts cataloguer & researcher · #Parchment #QuantitativeHumanities 📜 🔬 📚 📊 🇨🇦
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sjlahey.bsky.social
A Dispute? (‘The Cloisters Apocalypse’; Normandy, c.1330)
#MedievalManuscripts #Manuscripts #Critters #MedievalAnimals #Dragon #Wyvern 📚 📜
Lower left-hand corner of a medieval manuscript leaf: folio 20 verso in Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cloisters Collection, manuscript 68.174. At top, above a very deep margin, run 9 lines of Latin text copied in brown ink, the first 3 lines indented to accommodate an enlarged decorative initial ‘E’ rendered in blue and ornamented with fine scrolling pen-work in red. Several threads of pen-work, in red and blue, extend from the initial, a few reaching to the right, over the text, but most descending down the left side of the page into the lower margin. Here, next to the pen-work and drawn in the same red and blue ink, we find 2 critters: at left, a long-necked bird with blue wings and orange feet, a crimson plume gracing his head; at right, a red wyvern—a dragon with wings in lieu of forelegs—with a thick beard and long, pointed tongue. They face each other. The bird, beak agape and eyes round with rage, raises a taloned foot to strike. The wyvern hisses, narrowing its eyes menacingly.
January 7, 2025 at 12:33 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
#ChristmasEve #Christmas #MedievalManuscripts
Illumination from a medieval manuscript. Within a rectangular frame, an intimate portrait of the Nativity in a simple colour-scheme on gold leaf. The underlying gold gives the image great warmth. The artist depicted Mary reclining in bed as Joseph stands nearby. Their faces are peaceful and caring, yet weary. Next to Mary’s bed stands the wooden manger holding the infant Jesus. An ox and an ass have stuck their heads within the manger. The ass nuzzles the child tenderly while the ox, wearing an expression of consternation, stares the boy in the face. The child gazes back at the ox warily. The fragment was auctioned by Christie’s at their Valuable Books and Manuscripts sale in London on 10 July 2019. Sale number 17200, lot number 502.
December 25, 2024 at 12:14 AM
sjlahey.bsky.social
The illustrator of Lambert of Saint-Omer’s Liber Floridus reminds us that we are not always the apex of the food-chain. #Critters #Griffons #Monsters #Manuscripts #MedievalManuscripts 📜 📚
Detail of a medieval manuscript leaf: folio 58 verso in Ghent, Universiteitsbibliotheek, manuscript 92. The page bears Latin text in faded black ink, 7 lines at the page’s top, 7 lines at bottom. Decorating the text are 4 large black initials infilled with red and yellow washes. Between these 2 blocks of text, striding right to left, is a griffon—an enormous creature with the body of a lion and beak, talons, and wings of an eagle. The beast has a cobalt blue body, with belly, tail, and curling mane striped in pine and olive greens, and mustard yellow legs, paws terminating in vicious black talons. Its heavy wings—darkly verdant where they spring from the powerful shoulders, but ending in stiff scarlet and white flight feathers—stretch out along its back. The edges of the griffon’s snowy head are finely tipped with crimson and blue. Its icy-pale eye gazes, pitilessly, into the void. From its hooked yellow beak hangs a tiny naked man, limp and pink and helpless as a newborn.
November 25, 2024 at 4:47 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
Interesting surface crackling of thick, red #ink in this German terrier (list of land-holdings) compiled in Klein-Karben, Kloppenheim (1483), and now held by University of Victoria (🇨🇦). #MedievalManuscriptsInCanada #Manuscripts #MedievalManuscripts 📜 📚
Angled, macro photo of part of a medieval manuscript: folio 6 verso in University of Victoria, Ms.Ger.2. The photo zooms in on a Latin date copied in thick red ink, the surface of which has crackled with age. Below the date run two lines of script copied in black ink. Above the date, in the background, increasingly out of focus towards the top of the photo, is a list of multiple items copied in a looping script, in brownish ink with the first letter of each entry heightened by a stroke of red ink. Faint ghosts of the text on the opposite side of the leaf show through the pale, thin parchment.
November 24, 2024 at 3:35 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
Low-hanging fruit? #MedievalManuscripts #Manuscripts #MedievalManuscriptsInCanada #Fragmentology 📜 📚
Detail of a medieval manuscript fragment: the recto of Calgary, Mount Royal University, Archives and Special Collections, C0003-S2-0102-35-02 recto. The lower left-hand corner of a stray manuscript leaf, showing the first few words of 12 lines of Latin copied in black ink. (The text is part of Psalm 118 in the Vulgate.) Decorating the text are 3 slightly enlarged initials rendered in shiny gold leaf atop pink and blue painted squares, plus 1 even larger initial ‘E’ in blue, red, and pink paint atop a square of glittering gold. Slender black sprigs extend from this last initial; they terminate in golden trefoil shapes reminiscent of ivy leaves. Surrounding this splendour is a border element consisting of a curling vine reaching along the lower margin, left to right. Extending upwards from the vine is the figure of a man clad in a salmon-hued hood and cloak. Holding 1 hand to his chest, he reaches up with the other hand to pluck 1 of the golden trefoils.
November 22, 2024 at 12:57 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
Please enjoy this 14th century depiction of the Virgin Mary wrestling a ferocious demon while an angel babysits (because why not? 🤷🏻‍♀️). #MedievalManuscripts #Manuscripts #RareBooks #Women 📜 📚
Detail from a medieval manuscript: folio 155 verso in British Library, Yates Thompson manuscript 13. At the top of the image, a single line of Latin text in black ink. To the left of it and below it runs a bar border in blue, pink, and gold. In the empty space between the border and the line of text sits a painted miniature depicting the Virgin Mary, clad in blue and red robes and crowned, straddling a huge, hairy, ferocious demon. She has grasped the monster by its horns and straddles it, wrestling it to the ground. Her face shows only the mildest irritation. To the left, stands an angel clad in pale robes, its blue and green and yellow wings unfurled. The angel looks on placidly, holding the infant Jesus in its arms, as if the situation were entirely mundane. Frowning, the infant raises its arms, as if spurring his mother to even grander deeds.
November 22, 2024 at 3:53 AM
sjlahey.bsky.social
Exquisite imperfection. #Mess #Beauty #MedievalManuscripts #Manuscripts #RareBooks 📜 📚
A leaf in a medieval manuscript: folio 1 recto in Amsterdam, Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, manuscript 55. Since the page had an irregular shape, the lower right corner was extended by adding of a triangle of parchment or rice paper. The page bears 21 lines of Latin verse in dark brown ink, all double-spaced to accommodate interlinear notes in a much smaller hand in pale ink. Below the verse, after a small gap, runs a paragraph of Latin prose comprising a block of 7 lines, in the same dark ink as the verses copied above. Dark stains pockmark the page’s right margin. The left and lower margins sport smudges of paint in rusty red, pale yellow, faded green, and peacock blue, sometimes covering the text, yielding a chaotic yet beautiful effect. Resembling the smeared product of a child’s finger-painting, the smudges are remnants of an ornamental border which formerly graced the margins of the text: curved vines with leaves, flowers, and … is that a bird-man at the bottom?
November 15, 2024 at 4:16 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
Delighted to be settled in University of Toronto’s Robarts Library to take in this talk by Matthew Boyd Goldie. #MedievalTwitter #MedievalManuscripts 📜 📚
Photograph of a poster announcing a lecture by Matthew Boyd Goldie titled “Topographical Precision: The Form and Function of a Gloucester Rental Roll” and to be held in the Blackburn Room in University of Toronto’s Robarts Library. The poster lists details in white on a dark grey background with a small circular photo of the speaker at lower left, and a large image of his focus, a medieval rental roll, at right.
November 11, 2024 at 10:15 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
And thus one of my weirder childhood fantasies has been fulfilled: I am a sorceress, a necromancer. I wrest utterances from the void. I raise the dead. 📜🔬🪄👻😜 #OBNS_MISHA #BookScience #MedievalManuscripts
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The edge of a fragment of a medieval manuscript in poor condition. Riddled with holes, the strip of parchment has been folded in half horizontally. The text traversing its lower half is badly faded to the point of illegibility, while the text of its upper half is partially obscured by stains and ink transfers. The edge of the same fragment of a medieval manuscript shown in the first photograph. This is a pseudocolour or false colour image produced via special imaging techniques and software manipulation. Here, the fragment is rendered in multiple shades of crimson, dark red, and turquoise, rendering the formerly illegible text legible.
October 19, 2024 at 3:34 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
…
plus a great deal more.
Watch this space 👀
#OBNS_MISHA #BookScience #BookHistory

Right now, University of Toronto Libraries’ homepage features an example of our output (the banner): onesearch.library.utoronto.ca
#OBNS_MISHA #BookScience 📚 📜
#IMadeThis 😊
Screenshot of the landing page for University of Toronto Libraries, showing the main search portal in University of Toronto’s customary blue and white. Above this, in the header, is a link to a web feature, titled “Exploring the Hidden Stories of Books: How the Andrews gift will support book science research and innovation at UTL”, along with a pseudocolour image of a fragment of a medieval manuscript. The image shows the fragment positioned atop a black background, but software has been used to transform the medieval manuscript into a psychedelic extravaganza of purple, white, and red script atop lime, aqua, violet, and crimson parchment.
October 19, 2024 at 2:52 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
Off to campus. Later, all. 👋 #Death #Skeleton #Halloween #MedievalManuscripts 💀 📚 📜
Detail of a leaf in a medieval manuscript: folio 137 recto in British Library, Yates Thompson manuscript 6. A rectangular miniature painted in full-colour. Against a backdrop of dramatically rocky cliffs dotted with a few trees, Death himself rides forth in the form of an animated human skeleton astride an ashen, equally skeletal steed. The gaunt horseman and his mount charge across a heap of fallen human corpses, most nude, some clad in finery of cobalt blue and fuchsia. The few sparse hairs clinging to Death’s leathery pate stream in the breeze as he swings an enormous scythe.
October 15, 2024 at 12:24 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
October 1st! Time for a spot of #Halloween cooking…
#MedievalManuscripts #CdnMdvManuscripts #MedievalManuscriptsInCanada 📚 📜
Detail of a leaf in a medieval manuscript: McGill University, Rare Books and Special Collections, manuscript 110. 14 lines of Latin written in brown ink with a handful of decorative initials of gold on backgrounds of red or blue. The first 4 lines are indented to accommodate a large initial ‘D’ rendered in white atop a square of gold; the gold leaf has been painted with fine scrolling lines in deepest red. At left runs part of the border art: a bar of deep sky blue dotted with tiny spots of gilt and bordered by thinner bars of gold. Atop the spangled blue, the artist has painted, in gold outlined with deep red, branching motifs reminiscent of ornate golden vessels. Peeking out from one of them are 2 long bones flanking a gleaming white human skull. A leaf in a medieval manuscript: McGill University, Rare Books and Special Collections, manuscript 110. Set within a gold-bordered rectangle are 33 lines of Latin written in brown ink and sprinkled with decorative initials of gold on backgrounds of red or blue. At mid-page, 5 lines are indented to accommodate a large initial ‘D’ rendered in white atop a square of gold. Surrounding all this is a wide cerulean border filled with branching gold motifs. Interspersed amongst the gold are several pale human skulls, stripped clean of flesh.
October 1, 2024 at 12:37 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
This site now has over ten million users!
Screenshot of a BlueSky notification reading: Celebrating 10M users 🎉 #219,717 First 10% Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social Joined Jul 3, 2023 Thanks for being one of our first 10 million users. Together, we’re rebuilding the social internet. We’re glad you’re here.
September 19, 2024 at 3:05 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
#Caturday #NotALion in a Book of Hours from @theul.bsky.social. #MedievalManuscripts 📜 📚
Detail of an illumination on a medieval manuscript leaf: folio 10 recto in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Dd.4.17. We see the lower left-hand corner of a larger rectangular illumination depicting Christ, enthroned, surrounded by symbols of the Four Evangelists, all rendered in colours and gold. In this constrained view we see only Jesus’ right foot and knee. Adjacent, however, a corner of the rectangle has been cordoned off by dark rose and orange borders to create a triangular space infilled with gleaming gold leaf. The triangle houses a rather handsome lion, well-maned and entirely white, with impressive wings. His sharp talons pierce a banderole displaying the name of the Evangelist he represents: MARCUS.
August 3, 2024 at 5:56 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
Lower right: Me, skulking in a corner of a @theul.bsky.social Reading Room with My Precio— er, one of my #MedievalManuscripts. #PortraitOfTheCodicologistAsANotSoYoungFellow #BookGollum 📜 📚
Detail of the fore-edge of a leaf in a medieval manuscript: folio 358 recto in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Dd.5.5. The final 2 or 3 letters of 1 column of text and the full width of a second column, both containing Latin copied in black ink and French in red ink. The text is well-decorated, with a border and 2 enlarged initials: 1 blue ornamented with red pen-work, 1 gold ornamented with blue pen-work. Grotesque figures decorate the right margin. At top, a golden-haired youth in a blue cloak plucks a green harp contemplatively despite the creature writhing beneath him: a pink-winged snake with the face of a bearded man. Below all this, at lower right, crouches a mysterious human figure. Clad in a silvery grey hooded cloak, the stranger grasps an open book with both hands, glancing out at us, sidelong, with an expression either knowing or furtive. Is this enigmatic bibliophile pondering … or plotting?
July 30, 2024 at 6:57 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
Error correction in the margin of a Book of Hours from Girton College, Cambridge. #MedievalManuscripts #Art #Devotion #Editing 📜 📚
Detail of a parchment leaf in a medieval manuscript: page 437 in Girton College, manuscript 3. Visible are 10 lines of Latin text copied mostly in black with a few words in red, and ornamented with 2 illuminated initials: a small paragraph symbol in gold on a burgundy ground, and a letter ‘D’, 2 lines high, rendered in gold on a square ground divided diagonally into dark blue and dark red. In the right margin, another hand has added in a bit of text skipped during the original copying of the page: 3 very short line of Latin text opening with a tiny illuminated initial ‘F’ rendered in gold atop a burgundy ground.
July 22, 2024 at 11:27 AM
sjlahey.bsky.social
#Practice, practice! Evidence of a book artisan perfecting their technique in the margin of this @theul.bsky.social statute book. #MedievalManuscripts #LegalHistory #HistLaw #Law #Art 📜 📚
Detail of the lower half of a leaf in a medieval manuscript: folio 75 recto in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Hh.3.11. At top of the smooth parchment sheet run 13 lines of medieval French copied in dark brown ink in a rushed-looking hand, with each majuscule heightened by a stroke of red and paragraph symbols added in red. In the lower margin of the page, sits evidence of an artist practicing: 3 initials, all different styles of the letter ‘F’, have been carefully rendered in a medium blue ink.
July 2, 2024 at 4:08 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
Let us now sing the praises of the #maintenance staff of Girton College, who have just assisted me with my horribly recalcitrant bike lock (which has been complicating my week). Thank you so much, Dan (et alia).
Detail of a leaf in a medieval manuscript: folio 46 verso in Cambridge, Trinity College, manuscript O.3.45. On tan-hued parchment, 20 lines of French copied in brown-black ink interspersed with paragraph symbols added in blue ink or red ink. In the left margin 2 headings have been added, each opening with a paragraph symbol, 1 red, 1 blue. Around this, an early hand has drawn 2 hands. 1, shown from just above the wrist, raises a long index finger to point at the text. The other, also shown from just above the wrist, and sporting a shirt with red-buttoned cuffs, grasps an exceptionally long implement, perhaps a mattock or pick-axe, the handle of which extends far up the page’s margin.
June 18, 2024 at 1:27 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
Visiting the Wren Library of Trinity College, Cambridge today, taking in (you guessed it) yet more Statuta Angliæ #manuscripts — including one which features this rather unhappy little fellow. 😕 #MedievalManuscripts #LegalHistory #HistLaw #Law 📜 📚
Detail of the lower left corner of a leaf in a medieval manuscript: folio 85 recto in Cambridge, Trinity College, manuscript O.7.27. 3 lines of French, followed by 2 larger heading lines of Latin, then 4 more lines of Latin, all copied in brown ink. The bottom-most 4 lines are indented to accommodate an enlarged decorative initial ‘C’ painted in pink atop a square blue background. Bars of pink, blue, green, and gold extend from the background to form a border around the text. Green and orange leaves spring from the bars. The initial ‘C’ is almost entirely infilled with a background of smoothly burnished, shining gold leaf. The non-gilded negative space forms the shape of a standing monk or friar, depicted in profile, his features and the draping of his robes drawn in with black ink. The tiny fellow gestures towards the adjacent text, gazing upon it morosely.
June 17, 2024 at 1:05 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
Decorated initials: notorious site of interspecies struggle since the 11th century. 😱 #MedievalManuscripts #Manuscripts #MedievalAnimals #Critters 📜 📚
@theul.bsky.social
Detail of a medieval manuscript leaf: folio 56 recto in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Ff.3.9. The parchment page bears a 2 line Latin heading in red ink, followed by a dozen more lines of Latin in black ink. The red and first 8 black lines have been indented to accommodate a huge painted initial ‘Q’. The counter (or rounded space) of the letter is built up of entwined blue vines against a background of scarlet. Lush leaves of sage green, orange, and pink curl from the ends of the vines. Gambolling amidst the vines are small strange creatures: a green raptor with apricot wings; a rose and tangerine foxlike beast with olive–azure wings, legs, and tail; and a salmon-hued cat or rabbit with orange ears and sage-green face. At right, forming the tail of the ‘Q’, an indigo-coated wolf crouches between the lines of text. Grasping 1 of the cat–rabbit’s hind legs in its jaws, it strives to pull the scrabbling creature out from the vines. Hold on tight, critter!
June 16, 2024 at 12:13 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
Rub-a-dub-dub! Bath-time in a 15th-century, @theul.bsky.social copy of Régime du corps, a personal guide to home #healthcare composed by the physician Aldobrandino of Siena in 1256.
#MedievalManuscripts #Medicine #Bathing #Healing 📜 📚
Detail of a medieval manuscript leaf: folio 14 verso in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Ii.5.11, photographed on a slight angle from the lower left fore-edge. It shows 12 lines of medieval French text copied in a bold hand with black ink. Lines 4 to 8 are indented to make space for a rectangle of pink and white swirls bordered in gold leaf. Sprays of pink thistles and spiky ivy leaves, in gold, extend from the border into the page’s margin. Within the rectangle rests a decorated initial ‘P’, rendered in blue and gold. The initial is infilled with a tiny depiction of a long wooden tub under a scarlet canopy. Inside the tub sits a bathing man, facing us, hands resting on the tub’s side. Placed nearby is a small table draped with a white cloth, and bearing a bar of yellow soap and a small white cup. Immersed in the dark, placid water, the bathing man contemplates these items meditatively, perhaps deciding what to wash next.
June 9, 2024 at 12:29 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
Polka-dots in a lovely copy of Platearius from @theul.bsky.social . #MedievalManuscripts #PolkaDots #Pretty 📜 📚
The top right corner of a parchment leaf in a medieval book: folio 68 recto in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Dd.3.51. 14 lines of Latin text arranged in 2 columns, showing only the final dozen letters of the left column, but the full width of the right column. The text is copied in black ink with majuscules heightened by thin strokes of red ink, on faintly buckling parchment. In the right column, lines 2 to 6 of the text have been indented to create space for addition of an enlarged decorative initial ‘C’. Elegantly formed, the letter is drawn in red ink, with a slender band, terminating in leafy forms, traced along the inside edge of its hollow bowl in deep plum verging on black. Within and around the tracery are scattered clusters of 3 tiny dots in vermilion and pistachio.
June 9, 2024 at 11:41 AM
sjlahey.bsky.social
“‘God created … every winged bird according to its kind’, by which Genesis 1:21 mainly meant #crows & #ravens, because what other #birds could you want?” — this 13th century artist, apparently

#MedievalManuscripts #corvids #Critters #MedievalAnimals 📜 📚

@theul.bsky.social
Detail of a leaf in a medieval Bible: folio 12 recto in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Dd.8.12, photographed on a slight angle from the lower left. At right, 24 short lines of Latin copied in black ink with majuscules added in red & blue. To the left of this, the focus of the photo, stretches an illuminattion painted in stylized fashion in full colour and gold leaf. It is structured as a golden band linking a series of roundels, each depicting a day of Creation according to the Book of Genesis. In the topmost and bottommost scenes, God creates the sun and moon, and the creatures of the earth, including humans. Between these, in the only fully visible roundel, a young, long-haired God clad in blue robes creates the creatures of the sea—represented by fish teeming beneath green waves—and of the air—mainly represented by 2 black crows or ravens soaring heavenward (though a trio of pink & white seabirds emerge from the sea below).
June 6, 2024 at 3:10 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
#TFW you’re overcome by the sheer horror of c.16 of the 1st Statute of Westminster (3 Edw 1) 😳. #MedievalManuscripts #LegalHistory #HistLaw #Law 📜 📚
@theul.bsky.social
The lower half of a leaf in a medieval manuscript: folio 16 recto in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Additional 732. Visible are 13 lines of medieval Law French copied in dark brown ink in a slightly rushed-looking hand. The text has been copied on indifferent parchment, and is punctuated with pilcrows, paragraph symbols, in red and blue (though only 1 red example is shown here). In the margin at right an early hand has added a note indicating c.16, highlighted with a blue pilcrow. Immediately above looms the head of a red-haired and red-bearded man wearing a lawyer’s coif. He gazes towards the text, eyes wide and round with alarm or even terror.
June 3, 2024 at 12:57 PM
sjlahey.bsky.social
Back in @theul.bsky.social today, taking in more medieval common #law #manuscripts. #MedievalManuscripts #LegalHistory #HistLaw 📜 📚
Detail of a leaf in a medieval manuscript: folio 8 recto in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Ee.6.33. The photo is taken on a slight angle, looking up and across the page from towards the lower left corner. Visible are 5 lines of Latin copied in dark brown ink, followed by 2 lines copied in a larger display script and highlighted with dabs of red ink, then another 8 lines in dark brown ink. In this last section, the first 5 lines are indented to accommodate an enlarged initial ‘E’ for ‘Edwardus’. Rendered in red ink by a less expert hand, the initial is ornamented with an abstract pattern of squiggly red lines.
June 3, 2024 at 11:36 AM