For my second post I will provide both a description of BL MS Egerton 1821 and some images as a starting point for this project.
As mentioned in my introductory post, BL MS Egerton 1821 is a late 15th century (~1480-90) devotional prayer book. While I have been unable to find any online images of pages with text in both languages, the British Library's catalogue of illuminated manuscripts states that its literary content was written in both Latin and English in Gothic script. The codex is relatively small (180 x 130mm) and consists of parchment folios with woodcut images bound by a post 1600 cover.
Image of the Virgin
BL MS Egerton 1821 ff 2v
The codex is quite remarkable for its very graphic and frequent depictions of blood. While it would safe to say that medieval audiences were more receptive to gory images than we are today, this manuscript takes a tolerance of blood to the extreme. This is evident right from the first three pages (ff1-2) which consist only of a black background with red blood droplets painted on top. After an image of the Virgin and a few pages of text, the sanguine theme continues with eight back to back pages (ff. 6-9v) consisting only of a red painted backgrounds topped with blood droplets streaming down.
The last three pages (ff 8v - 9v) of this red onslaught are topped by colored (and quite bloody) print images of the crucifixion and the instruments of the passion. With so much blood, one must certainly wonder what sort of patron would ever desire such a codex. The BL cites its litany populated by many women as evidence that it may have been intended for use by a woman of Kent though this appears to be debated in what literature has been published on the book. Nancy Thebaut offers a convincing gendered reading of the book suggesting the imagery in the book is intentionally feminine which I will discuss in a later post.
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