![]() ![]() ![]() Should anyone like to be a successful politician, all he needed to do was to organise a lavish spectacle of games, lasting for several days, accompanied by banquets and scenic performances, and success would be guaranteed. 88įrom the mid-3rd century, however, gladiatorial games became an integral part of city entertainment and political propaganda. Miniature of a wrestling game from a 15th-century illustrated copy of Virgil’s Aeneid: King's MS 24, f. As part of the funerary rituals, they were sacrifices to the netherworld or played a role in war-magic with gladiators bearing the enemy’s names being gloriously defeated by Roman-looking gladiators to ensure their victory in real battles. The origins of these combats went back to the early Roman Republic, when they probably had magical functions. In theatres built across the Mediterranean, from the Middle East to the site of the Guildhall in London, professional fighters did battle to entertain the public. Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, The Art of the Bible: Illuminated Manuscripts from the British Libraryįollow us on Twitter games were spectacular shows in the ancient world. The Art of the Bible: Illuminated Manuscripts from the Medieval World (London: Thames and Hudson and the British Library, 2016) For more information and to book tickets, follow this link. The authors, British Library curators Dr Scot McKendrick and Dr Kathleen Doyle will be discussing their feelings of arriving at the ‘home port’, and hopes that readers will find their work ‘refreshing’, at Dulwich Picture Gallery on 15 November, as part of the lecture series, InSight Lecture Series: Book Illustration: Enriching the Story. St John before Christ, with a double-edged sword either side of his mouth, with the Seven Churches represented by arches, Revelation 1:10-20, Add MS 11695, f. It is also featured in the recent book, The Art of the Bible: Illuminated Manuscripts from the Medieval World (London: Thames and Hudson and the British Library, 2016). You may like to know that the manuscript is fully digitised, and available on the Library’s Digitised Manuscripts website: the Silos Apocalypse, British Library Additional 11695. These scribes' work, now known as the Silos Apocalypse, and illuminated twenty years later with stunning illustrations, is one of the treasures of the British Library. 278rĭominicus also identified himself and brother Munnio, monks at the abbey of Santo Domingo in northern Spain, as the scribes of the work in an inscription, and possibly also the flowers below it: ‘Scribano Monnio’ and ‘scribano Dominico’.ĭetail of flowers possibly identifying the scribes, from Add MS 11695, f. To God be thanks for ever.Ĭolophon in which Dominicus describes his relief, from the Silos Apocalypse, Add MS 11695, f. It brings darkness to your eyes, crooks your back, wrecks your ribs and stomach, pains your kidneys and engenders loathing of your body … As sweet as the home port is to the sailor, so is the final line to a scribe. Should you, however, wish to know what labour it entails, I shall tell you how heavy a burden writing is. So if you gain anything from this work, forget not the labouring scribe … Those who cannot write think it no work at all. The scribe drains his body of strength, while the reader nourishes his mind. My book is ended … For the scribe it has been hard toil for the reader it will be uplifting and refreshing. In April 1091, the monk Dominicus described his relief at having completed writing out a large-scale copy of the book of Revelation and an associated commentary: All writers will know of the struggles, mental and physical, in completing a project. ![]()
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