Comments on: Paint It Black

Paint It Black

Horace Rumpole — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 05:50:05 -0800

The Morgan Library Black Hours, one of the world's most beautiful and striking illuminated manuscripts, has been digitized in its entirety. Richly decorated in blue and gold on black vellum, it is one of a surviving handful of such manuscripts produced in late 15th century Bruges. (Poorer quality, but still interesting, images of another such work, the Black Hours of Charles the Bold, are also online.

By: Horace Rumpole

Horace Rumpole — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 05:56:17 -0800

Protip: Make sure you click on the Full Screen button, and then you have to click a couple more times to actually get it to go full size. I'm not the biggest fan of the interface, but once you get these images to fill up your monitor, it is so worth it.

By: GenjiandProust

GenjiandProust — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 06:08:06 -0800

This is beautiful, and pretty darned cool, but am I alone in thinking that "The Morgan Library Black Hours" sounds like a lost Edward Gorey book, and "The Black Hours of Charles the Bold" might be a Gorey/T.H. White mash-up?

By: Capybara

Capybara — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 06:10:37 -0800

Wow, gorgeous and lush. Had not seen those. Reminds me of some of the chiaroscuro woodblock prints from a bit later where they'd start with prepared paper and print with metallic-colored inks.

By: woodblock100

woodblock100 — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 06:12:13 -0800

The Morgan also has a number of interesting musical manuscripts online. [list of compositions]

By: GenjiandProust

GenjiandProust — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 06:14:37 -0800

It also reminds me a bit of the Purple Psalter of Zurich, where the pages are stained (now rather faded) purple and the letters are in silver. The whole thing has been disassembled for preservation, so the effect is somewhat lost.

By: Horace Rumpole

Horace Rumpole — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 06:22:15 -0800

am I alone in thinking that "The Morgan Library Black Hours" sounds like a lost Edward Gorey book Seems to me a Black Hours should be used for private, reflective Satan-worshipping. Like if you can't get enough people together for a Black Mass, you just stay home and have Satanic Vespers.

By: saucysault

saucysault — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 07:12:26 -0800

How beautiful! I hadn't heard of this before. I'm off to explore!

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 07:46:58 -0800

I'm not the biggest fan of the interface, but once you get these images to fill up your monitor, it is so worth it. That interface seems to have been carefully designed to suck, but the images are indeed worth it.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 07:52:21 -0800

Lovely, thanks. The full screen tip is a big help; you have to struggle a bit longer but eventually you can take screenshots. I visited Bruges a few years ago and there's a lovely collection of Dutch Masters. What fascinated me was that the earlier paintings had much more vibrant, beautiful colours. It was explained that over the centuries Bruges' fortunes declined so they couldn't import as good a paint. But I wonder if it was just an æsthetic choice. These scans are great in showing such rich colour.

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 08:32:35 -0800

Fabulous - thank you Horace Rumpole!

By: Capybara

Capybara — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 08:35:02 -0800

(Flemish masters-- different country even back then) The main problem at the end of the 15th c in Bruges, IIRC, is that on one hand the merchants pissed off the dukes and later the emperor, and then the river silted up and they couldn't get enough cash to dredge it, and a lot of trade headed to Antwerp. Not a lot of painters (a handful, though) continued to work in Bruges.

By: everichon

everichon — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 09:32:30 -0800

OH MY GOD I would pay irrational amounts of money for a facsimile edition of this.

By: Horace Rumpole

Horace Rumpole — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 09:49:54 -0800

Is $5900 sufficiently irrational?

By: everichon

everichon — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 09:53:39 -0800

$5900 sigh

By: PinkMoose

PinkMoose — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 09:54:01 -0800

What i was sort of suprised at, was how legible the text was...i also love that the book of hours used black for night.

By: verstegan

verstegan — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 10:54:26 -0800

Formerly owned by the Bishop of the Black Canons?

By: New England Cultist

New England Cultist — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 12:36:33 -0800

Bibliophilegasm. Thanks for posting!

By: immlass

immlass — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 12:56:48 -0800

So gorgeous. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

By: Anitanola

Anitanola — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 15:22:01 -0800

Is $5900 sufficiently irrational? I could weep that I don't have the money to buy this facsimile but I know that, if I did, I would promptly begin to covet the original! The original and the library restored with the three-story walnut bookcases. I would suffer. What I have is a big, beautiful monitor and posts like this one on Metafilter and it is enough--it is luxury itself. I am transported. Thank you, Horace Rumpole.

By: BlueHorse

BlueHorse — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 18:13:58 -0800

Mmmmmmmm, luscious!

By: peacay

peacay — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 23:04:14 -0800

There's more about that facsimile MS at the high end Munich printers, Faksimile Verlag [trans] but it's sold out. They have quite a selection of reproductions available if you're in the hunt for $$multi-thousand manuscripts.