And so it begins! After a moderately manuscript-free winter break (allowing the occasional perusal of Gallica and the British Library), spring semester has finally begun, and with it so has my research.
Let’s get up to speed. During Fall 2017, my work was focused on the scripture and prayers within the Hargrett Hours. While procrastinating on my paper for SAMLA’s conference in Atlanta, I stumbled upon a link between one of Hargrett’s prayers and Sainte-Chapelle; the Fall 2016 iteration of this project was the first to connect out manuscript to the royal chapel in Paris through a feast day in the Calendar, allowing us to tentatively link ms 836 to the Sainte-Chapelle. The association between this prayer and the chapel fortifies that assumption, and it’s my most important revelation from last semester, really.
Since the one of Hargrett’s ancillary texts can be traced to Sainte-Chapelle, Sainte-Chapelle l is my focus this semester. I’ll still be working on the manuscript survey, as well as textual analysis of the prayers and scripture, but with connections to the chapel in mind. If one prayer can be connected to a specific locus, maybe more can be connected too? We’ll see, hopefully.
Not to be forgotten, however, is the other exciting development in our project. Madison and I are going to the Morgan Library to work with Books of Hours in person! We were fortunate enough to receive funding from UGA’s CURO department for the trip, and are already sorting through Corsair’s archaic catalog for promising manuscripts. You’ll be hearing a whole lot from us during the trip; if manuscript-induced anxiety is your thing, then stay tuned, because I’ll be brimming with it.
But not yet! There’s so much to do between now and then, so I’d better get started. I’ll be talking to you soon.
-Katie