Diagram in medieval manuscript illustrating the Sun’s motion relative to the Earth. It shows 2 brownish orbs, each labelled "earth", & surrounded by a blue ring. Each orb & ring pair is superimposed over a pair of golden pins arranged in an ‘X’ shape. The round end of each pin is labelled “Sol” (Sun”); the blue rings represent the path of the Sun around the Earth. Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Français 24428, folio 31v.
f. 31v

Team 5 will transcribe the version housed at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fonds français 24428, ff. 1r-48r

For Phase I of the Image du Monde Challenge (September 25- October 9, 2020) teams will transcribe from the beginning of the work to Book 2, Chapter 4. In the BNF fonds français 24428, the text begins at f. 1r, line 1, and ends at 21v column 1, line 29.

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OCTOBER 8

Stephanie J. Lahey

As a result of various family and personal emergencies, Team 5 found itself short-handed during the last week of the Challenge! Nonetheless, we powered through. With our manuscript transcribed, our transcription revised, and our transcription statement straightened away, we now settle in to tackle the final stages of the editing process. Off we head towards the finish line!

OCTOBER 4

Matt Westerby

One of the joys of the Image du Monde Challenge is looking beyond my own little slice of the world and making new connections (and cat friends). As I work, however, I am struck by how these manuscripts embody their own little hidden worlds—concealed in texts, in maps, and in the materials that make up the book.

As my fingers jumped across my keyboard, one word sprang out from folio 12v: mouche (fly). What is Gossuin going on about here? A quick Google Books search with the line ending (“une mouche iroit”) shows how these words buzz around the collective imagination. What Gossuin is saying, very roughly, is “as a fly would walk around an apple” (comme une mouche iroit / entour une pome reonde), two men walking in opposite directions from the same point would meet on the other side of the earth. What a vivid image! In a chapter “Middle Age of the Globe,” Alfred Hiatt cites this line as evidence of a thirteenth-century “fantasy of circumnavigation” (Conceptualizing the World: An Exploration across Disciplines, edited by Helge Jordheim and Erling Sandmo, 2019, p. 264). In fact, later editions based on Gossuin’s work illustrate this precise passage (the two men walking that is—not the fly), as in Caxton’s incunable of 1490.

Diagram in an early printed book: 2 concentric circles surround a smaller central orb. Men walk about on the surface of the orb, standing upright at its top, hanging upside down at its bottom, & sticking out horizontally to either side. At right: 15 lines of typography in Middle English. Both the typography & the diagram are in black ink on tan-coloured paper.
Figure 1 — Two men going about the earth, from William Caxton, Image du Monde, Westminster, 1490

There is no comparable illustration in our manuscript, but keeping the mouche in mind, it’s remarkable how this book can show the unknown through the materials at hand. First, the image described in the text. We’ve all seen flies walking around a piece of fruit! Second, the illustration of the earth and firmament on the recto of this same folio. Here is a 7-line microcosm with the earth inscribed “T(er)re” on what appears to be red bole (an orange-brown iron earth or “terre rouge,” also called gilder’s red clay). Red bole was used by illuminators to build up the tonality and luster of gilded pages. On this folio, it was probably applied first, filling the entire roundel and serving as a ground. The white, blue, red, and gold (probably shell gold in this case) would then have been painted over it.

At left: a geographical diagram from a medieval manuscript. A brown orb, labelled “Earth”, surrounded by white, blue, red, & gold rings labelled “water”, “air”, “fire”, & “pure air”. At right: a housefly walking across the surface of a yellow apple.
Figure 2 — BnF, Fr. 24428, folio 12r (left); a fly on an apple (right)

What does the user-reader-viewer think of these materials? Would the exposed bole evoke the red clay of the earth underfoot? If a fly were to land on the edge of this microcosmic image, does it perform some semblance of Goussin’s “round apple” metaphor?

TLDR; mouche ado about nothing, perhaps. So, back to transcribing. After a quick snack of apple slices.

Photo of fly on apple is free for use, no attribution required.

OCTOBER 3

Stephanie J. Lahey

Team 5 had a peculiar start. Amidst the excitement of recruitment and set-up, as we finalized our roster, a pre-launch complication emerged. Initially, our assigned manuscript was Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Français 1553; we were slated to transcribe ff. 163r–180r.

Part of a leaf in a medieval manuscript: 2 columns of text, opening with an enlarged decorative initial ‘E’ infilled with a serpent-like beast with a leafy tail. In the upper margin is a Roman numeral running head.
Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Français 1553, f. 163r (detail)

Just prior to the start of the Challenge, however, we learned that Fr. 1553 had been the focus of a third-party project—a transcription already existed (though it had not been made public). As Team 5 co-captain Kathy Krause observed, why re-transcribe a newly-transcribed witness “when we could add to the sum of transcriptions instead”?

Off we set on a hunt for a replacement! Viable witnesses needed to not only contain the first verse redaction, but be both digitized in full and IIIF-friendly.

Fortunately, Arlima provides an extensive bibliography, including a list of first redaction manuscripts. After a bit of searching and back-channel discussion, we identified our new manuscript: Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Français 24428.

Detail from a medieval manuscript: 2 columns of text, each with an enlarged decorative initial. In column 1 is a geographical diagram: an orb, bisected horizontally into blue & gold hemispheres, each bearing labels.
Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Français 24428, f. 13v (detail)

Fr. 1553’s preexisting transcription was brought to our attention during the search for Image du Monde judges, when many of us reached out to colleagues beyond social media. If nothing else, our eleventh-hour adventure demonstrated the value of maintaining extended networks of scholarly contacts.

With a brand new, yet-to-be-transcribed manuscript lined up—and our Slack channels, Google spreadsheets, and other assorted paraphernalia straightened away—we were finally ready to start transcribing. Onward to the Challenge!

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