The primary
focus of the present AND project involves the editing of those entries
beginning with the letters N, O, P and U. In addition to this, the editors have
designed and implemented a series of semantic tags, as we have mentioned in
some of our previous posts. These tags have been developed to assist users in
determining the semantic area in which a definition is applicable. It is
envisaged that by early 2017, users of the dictionary will be able to search
via the semantic tags, allowing them to extract all words used in a particular
area (for example, all plant names, or all words relating to brewing, etc.).
The examination
of the semantic tags in use in the dictionary often shows us how important
certain texts are to our understanding of a particular semantic field. While
AND1 contained a [decor] tag, it was poorly used, originally flagging only 22 Anglo-Norman
words. This tag is meant to highlight terms and senses "related to visual
embellishment or adornment of objects, persons or places, including decorative
motifs and techniques". These are the types of terms one would expect to
find in documents that describe, or list, household or ecclesiastical items,
such as inventories, wills, or account books.
One particular source
used for the making of the AND are the Bedford Inventories and their
incorporation into AND2 has increased the number of entries tagged as [decor]
to 163 (and growing!). This book[1] publishes
three post-mortem inventories of the goods of John, duke of Bedford, completed
in the mid-fifteenth century. These documents provide a record and description
of the duke of Bedford's belongings, as well as the inventory of the goods in
his chapel.
 |
| Image of a portion of inventory B, from PRO E 154/1/33 |
The importance
of this type of text cannot be overstated. Currently, the Bedford Inventories
are cited 346 times in AND2, illustrating 246 different entries. Of these, at
least 20% of the entries or senses are solely illustrated by citations from
Bedford, that is, these words or senses appear only in this text and nowhere
else. It is also valuable as a witness for the use of Anglo-Norman in the
fifteenth century, a period that saw the usage of the language dwindle.
What kind of
words do we find solely in the Bedford Inventories and not elsewhere? As can be
expected from this type of text, a number of the unique words and senses are
ones which are used to describe the decorative items found in the Duke's
household and chapel, giving us an unparalleled view of how a medieval royal
household would be furnished and decorated.
The word decoration is
unattested in Anglo-Norman, though it is extant in Medieval British Latin from
1238, in Middle French from 1416 and in Middle English from 1425 (see DMLBS decoratio; DMF decoration; MED decoracioun).
The existence of these parallel forms suggests that it is highly likely the
word existed in Anglo-Norman, but that we have not yet uncovered an attestation
of the form. There were other ways of talking about decoration in Anglo-Norman
though: apparaillement, atiffement, entaillure, and floresshing
were all used in Anglo-Norman texts to refer to forms of decoration or
adornment.
The writer of
the Inventories frequently uses words that are well attested in Anglo-Norman,
but uses them to describe decorative motifs rather than the item themselves.
For example, we find the word oiselet,
a diminutive used to refer to a small bird, used in the Bedford Inventories to
describe a decorative image.
Item, une grand
et haulte gobelet d'argent dorré [...] a .iiij. baneres rouges de petiz
oiseletz esparniés d'argent, esmailés de vert Bedford Inventories 217.C17
[Item, a large and tall goblet of gilded
silver [...] with four red banners of small birds coated (?) with silver, with
green enamel[2]]
Other types of
decoration include the addition of a bocete
or boton, ornamental decorations of
roundels or buds:
aulbe et amit
parez, brodez de petites bosseites d'or Bedford Inventories 193.B62
[adorned alb and amice, embroidered with small
golden roundels]
une aultre
couppe d'or [...] a ung furtelé d'ung boton de fuilles d'or Bedford Inventories
215.C4
[another gold cup [...] with an embossed
ornamental leaf pattern of golden leaf buds]
 |
| The Merode Cup; France 1400; Image from the Victoria and Albert Museum; http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O93263/the-merode-cup-cup-and-cover-unknown |
Other items
might be decorated with valuable gems. In one description, small pearls are
described as branlant. This likely is
a substantival use of the present participle branler, meaning 'to shake, tremble', and it is likely that the
pearls were suspended from the salt-cellar by gold rings, as is documented in
other similar items of the era (though this makes it the sole attestation of
the term in Anglo-Norman).
Item, ung
saliere d'or en façon d'un labourer portant un hotte et soy appuyant a ung
baston [...] et oudit [sic] baston de .xxix. perles plus menues, rondes et
blanches branlans Bedford Inventories 210.B185
[Item, a golden salt-cellar in the form of a
labourer carrying a basket and leaning on a staff, [...] and on the staff 29 smaller,
round and white hanging pearls.]
Another method
of decoration seems to have been the application of a pattern by hammering the
reverse side of metal. This embossing was referred to martelé, from the verb marteler,
meaning 'to hammer'.
Item ung haulte couppe d'or de la
façon d'Angleterre, martellé de grandes fuilles Bedford Inventories C3
[Item, a tall, gold cup, in the English fashion, embossed with large
leaves]
Several of the
words attested in the Bedford Inventories are used in English in the sixteenth
century as heraldic terms, however, the appear to have been used in these texts
to describe decorative techniques. One such style of decoration is componné, called componé or compony
in English. This refers to a decoration consisting of bands of alternating
colours, known as compon or coupon, frequently found on a border. This
technique is also known as gobony, from the past participle of the Anglo-Norman verb goboner, meaning to cut into strips.
deux chappes
orfraiez d'orfraiz, componnez de pers et blanc au fleurs de liz l'or et ung 'K'
couronné en broudeure Bedford Inventories
184.B3
[two copes, fringed with orphrey, with a
bordure compony of blue and white with gold fleur-de-lis and an embroidered,
crowned 'K']
 |
| Arms of Beaufort, with a bordure compony argent and azure |
Eschequeté, is another word used during this period to describe
a decoration formed of a chequered pattern. This term is only attested once,
but the variant forms of chequeté, chequeré and eschequeré are more widely attested, describing a similar type of
decoration:
Item, une autre
chapelle de satin eschequeté Bedford Inventories 184.B3
[Item, another satin head covering of
chequered satin]
We can find one
of the variant forms in another text describing what is likely a very fine
outfit:
brigandiers couvertez de rouge
velvet chequeté noire et blank Reg Chich ii 65
[brigandines (a coat of mail) covered by red velvet chequered black and
white]
Heraldic motifs
also seem to have been a popular type of decoration and decoration with coats
of arms seems to have been known as armoierie:
Item, une autre
tunique et dalmatique de satin vert pour prelate, comme dessus, et orfraiez
tout a long avec l'estole et fanon sur champ d'or, a pluseurs armoieries
Bedford Inventories 191.B144
[Item, another tunic and dalmatic
(=ecclesiastical vestments) of green satin for a prelate, as above, and
decorated with orphrey (=a gold-embroidered fringe) along its length, with the
stole and the maniple on a gold background, with several coats of arms]
 |
| Stole and maniple, linen embroidered with green, white, fawn and blue silks in long-armed cross-stitch with a design of heraldic shields in rectangular compartments with alternative green and fawn grounds. Dates from 1290-1340. Image from the Victoria and Albert Museum.http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O130817/stole-and-maniple-unknown |
Numerous
decorative terms are highlighted in the AND through the addition of our
semantic tags, and these will only increase as we continue our revision! These
are but a few highlights of decorative terms found only in the Bedford
Inventories. This type of documentation is essential to our full understanding
of medieval life and the language used to describe it. Bedford is not the sole
extant medieval inventory, but many (non-royal examples) of this type of text
remain unedited in local archives. How might their identification and transcription
change how we perceive the Middle Ages in Britain and the use of Anglo-Norman
during this period?
[1] The dictionary relies on the excellent edition found
in: The Bedford Inventories: The Worldly Goods of John, Duke of
Bedford, Regent of France (1389-1435), ed. J. Stratford, London,
1993. Complete with extensive notes and pictures, it's a fantastic look inside an
interesting text.
[2] Stratford suggests this cup may have
been emblazoned with the arms of Sir Thomas Erpingham:"vert an escutcheon
within an orle of eight marlets argent" p. 344.
Comments
Post a Comment