For The King on the Occasion of the Coronation

It’s not often that you’re asked to carry out a commission for The King to be presented to mark His Majesty’s Coronation, and it was such a privilege to be asked to do so. It was also a special privilege to be able to propose texts rather than this being prescribed. At the time of this request I was looking into suitable extracts for my latest book ‘The Art of the Scribe’ (published Spring 2025), and this quotation from Shakespeare – John of Gaunt’s speech from ‘Richard II’ seemed most apt. Starting with the phrase ‘This royal throne of kings …’ and with other appropriate regal references in the speech as well – it matched the occasion. (Admittedly, John of Gaunt is lamenting the decline of the realm under Richard II, but that section wasn’t included!)

Such a piece needed a lot of thought and preparation and I was keen to ensure that as many pertinent references were made. First, of course, it had to be on stretched vellum, and a beautiful skin was selected by William Cowley – the most perfect ivory-white. Then, without question, it had to be in gold – yellow shell gold – and with pure leaf gold on gesso as part of the composition. I tried it in my go-to Italic script and wrote out the whole passage as here.

This, though, was too ‘blocky’, and, on re-reading, it seemed that the speech was reaching a crescendo at ‘This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England’ (you can almost hear the actor’s voice rising in volume until the last two words are almost shouted). But writing each phrase on a separate line broke up the design too much.

In the end I decided to write the four phrases in two lines, with ‘this England’ in capital letters. This seemed to work better. However, for this piece italic just didn’t seem right, so I went back to a script developed during the reign of another King Charles, actually a Holy Roman Emperor, that of Caroline Minuscule used in many manuscripts during the time of Charlemagne in the ninth century. But how would it look written in gold? I tried out the first line on an offcut of the vellum being used and it seemed to be just right.

The gesso crown was rather tricky as it was so small (about 1·5 cm) and only a nodding representation could be made to the pearls atop the arches of the crown, and the fleur-de-lis and crosses patey which rise from the gold rim. The different shine on this part of the piece echoed but also contrasted that of the shell gold.

It was framed in Sandringham oak – wood saved from an ancient oak tree in the parkland which would have resonated with His Majesty for whom, we know, it is a very special place. The letter received back by Gallyon indicated that King ‘was touched to receive this beautiful piece of commemorative art’. And I felt that it was a real honour to have been asked complete it.

St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden – the Actors’ Church

Many visiting Covent Garden have little idea that there is a church behind the magnificent portico, in front of which conjurors, acrobats and magicians impress the audience and, hopefully, pay for what they see.

This portico is part of the grand plan of the Earl of Bedford, Francis Russell, who was laying out a large piazza in this part of Covent Garden. As can be seen here, the Church sits well with the arched columns on the north side of the piazza, and paths laid out behind a railed fence in a huge area of gardens. The church itself was built between 1631–33.

However, this grand entrance isn’t used; the access to the church from the piazza is via two arched entrances either side of the portico (they can be in the first image) and then round the sides of the church to the west entrance. The reason for it not being the main entrance is that the church faces east and this is the direction that it is thought the congregation should face – towards Jerusalem and where Jesus lived. No exception was made by the Bishop of London at the time, Bishop Laud (1573–1645) and so the ‘entrance’, which has never been used, is behind the high altar. The church is large, 50 by 100 feet and 38 feet high.

It is called, and is, the Actors’ Church because Charles II, on the Restoration, licensed two ‘Patent’ theatres – the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, and the Royal Opera House at the other end of the piazza to the church, both within the church’s parish. Inside are many plaques commemorating significant actors. Here are some of them.

The pulpit is particularly splendid and is thought to be by Grinling Gibbons or by one of his pupils. The famous, and unbelievably talented wood carver attended the church for decades.

Also in the church is the Aubrey Leyborne Theatre, a model theatre that was built in 1928 to show how theatres work. It shows scenery, flats and the rigging system to move the flats up and down.

Outside the west front is an oasis of calm. The graveyard, now a beautiful garden, provides respite for those who want to site and contemplate. When visiting Covent Garden, why not spend a bit of time behind that portico of entertainers and enjoy the tranquil and calm of the Actors’ Church, St Paul’s, Covent Garden?

August in The Très Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry

August is the month for hawking in the Très Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry, painted and illuminated by the Van Lymborch Brothers. A party of five, three women and two men, are mounted on three horses setting out to do just that. Two of the women are riding side saddle behind men, and the third woman, the most richly attired, is riding side saddle on the most sumptuously decorated horse. Behind them, very much in the background, are people swimming and others stacking the corn into sheaves ready to be carried on a cart by two oxen, one black and one brown.

Ultramarine blue semi-circles top the main image with the appropriate signs of the Zodiac for August, Leo and Virgo, they are surrounded by a sprinkling of stars. In the innermost section of the semi circle is the relentless sun charting its way across the sky in a chariot. Semi-circles of shell gold, polished to a brilliant shine, also adorn the image. It is clear that all the semi-circles were constructed with compasses.

The castle in the background is the Château d’Étampes, near Paris. The Van Lymborch Brothers included a number of the Duc de Berry’s castles and châteaux in their paintings and this one looks particularly splendid with its high main square tower, five smaller towers, three of them with turrets, and a high encircling wall.

In the river below the castle, the Van Lymborch Brothers have shown people enjoying themselves swimming and splashing around in the water.

A man in a white long-sleeved shirt has an over tunic of grey with the skirt slashed high on his thighs. He is wearing a straw hat and a thick glove to protect his hand from the two hawks sitting on his arm. His very long pole drags behind him on the ground and he is stylishly wearing one long red sock and one black one. It’s clearly hot as he has no leg covering above the knee.

The most richly dressed woman has a cloak of glorious ultramarine lined with white fur (in this weather?) which drapes low over her and the body of white horse. The cloak has a circlet of gold decorated with circles and two long braids of gold which are attached to the cloak but extend way beyond it and the horse. These are painted in shell gold and the fine detail is amazing with such a tricky medium. The bridle, headband and straps on the horse are also in the most expensive pigment of ultramarine and again with shell gold painted patterns. The saddle cloth is in cinnabar (vermilion) also a very expensive pigment, and again with shell gold decoration.

Enlargements of the decorations show the fine detail of the decorations and the white fur peeping out from the slashed hem and cuff of the cloak:

One of the other women is wearing a black dress with red sleeves, and what looks like gold kid gloves. Her contrived linen headpiece will at least keep her face shaded from the sun but it must have been a bit tricky to wear and keep on! She is behind a man in a pale blue cloak decorated with a silver pattern and a shirt with a wide white lace collar. He is wearing a stylish straw hat.

It is difficult to show in these images how small the pages of the book are and thus the paintings. The Van Lymborch Brothers were incredibly skilled working with such fine detail as such a small scale.

July from the Très Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry

The Très Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry is an absolutely masterpiece. Created by the Van Lymborch Brothers (previously Limbourg), Herman, Paul and Johan, they consist of page after page of the most magnificent and exquisite paintings. This post focuses on the calendar page for July; there are other blogposts on this website.

July is the month for harvesting wheat and shearing sheep. Two men towards the lower half of the miniature are cutting wheat with sickles, and, as they do, the blue and red flowers are being revealed. At the bottom right a woman in a blue dress and a man are shearing sheep. This particular painting is interesting because the angles of the château in the upper part of the image are reflected in the diagonal stream and the edges of the field. The mountains left and right at the top echo the shapes and draw the eye down and into the page.

The detail in the sheep shearing scene can be seen in this enlargement. Both shearers are using large shears which are operated not from handles through which thumb and fingers go, but by pressing on the blades themselves held open by a circular spring. The wool coming off the sheep being sheared by the man is shown falling on to the ground where it is in a large pile. He is wearing a fashionable bucket hat with a piece of pink fabric hanging down to protect his neck from the sun, but his clothes are rather worn and ragged, the sleeves are frayed and the knees of his breeches are worn away. The woman has a glorious deep blue dress which looks in better repair, and a black hood again for protection from the sun. Relieved of their thick wool coats, the sheep are grazing peacefully.

The other workers in this miniature are the reapers the other side of a small reed-lined stream. One of them has succumbed to the heat and is wearing just a white shirt and underwear; his partner’s tunic is split up to his thigh. Both are wearing straw hats to protect them from the bright sun.

The Duc de Berry was very fond of his castles, palaces and châteaux, and the Van Lymborch Brothers often incorporated them in miniatures in his books. This is a depiction of the Château de Poitiers, an unusual triangular- shaped building with a raised wooden walkway on stone supports providing the entranceway over the moat.

This is shown in greater detail in this enlargement. It is not quite of a high enough resolution to make out the precise strokes used by the brothers to show the curve of the tower and turrets, the covered wooden walkway, and the steeply gabled windows in the roof.

At the top of each calendar miniature are Zodiac signs for that month, here Cancer the crab followed by Leo the lion are set in a dark blue sky with golden stars. The sun, stars and semi-circular lines and divisions are in shell gold which is applied with great precision. There will be other posts on the calendar months on this website.

Here is more on the Très Riches Heures and the Duc de Berry.

Mediaeval decorated letters to colour

I’ve been lucky enough to have worked closely with the British Library for what is now decades. Many years ago I was helping the Education Department which had a lot of school visits. The problem always with such visits is how to occupy those who finish any set tasks quickly before the rest of the class. I suggested producing a series of outline drawings taken from illuminated and decorated mediæval manuscripts that could be coloured in, and then produced six of them.

Having a clear-out recently, I came across them again, and thought that they could be shared with a wider audience, hence this blogpost. They are copyright, but free for personal and educational use, simply click on the picture/link below for a high resolution pdf to print out; they’re sized for A4.

I’ve copyrighted them because they mustn’t be used by anyone or an institution to print out or use in a publication and make money from them.

Please, though, feel free to print these outline letters for your own use, for children and grandchildren, for courses, and for classes.

As the British Library’s website, including the digitised manuscripts, is still not completely available, colour images are here if possible, otherwise black and white photos or similar images are posted.

Copy the original colours if you wish, or go freestyle – they’re your letters to colour, so your choice.

The first is the magnificent letter B from the Ramsey Psalter (BL Harley 2904).