Have you ever wondered how ancient castles were constructed without modern technology? A visit to Guedelon Castle will answer your questions!
During the Middle Age was common carrying small items like coins, keys, inside pouches or purses attached to the belt. There are many archaeological and iconographical documents, you can search for…
Gothic Textura Quadrata is an absolutely gorgeous script, dense and architectural it is a wonderful example of how letters can be art in their own right. It's also very difficult to write well, especially for a beginner. There are two details about this variant of gothic that are extremely important to get right: perfectly vertical strokes and precise spacing between those strokes. Oddly, the calligraphy books I've read focus on how to draw each letter with the minimum number of strokes. Their method helps write faster, but it is harder to be precise and get those critical details right. For a beginner, that can make this script extremely frustrating. So I'd like to present alternate instructions for drawing Gothic lettering, hopefully making this script easier to learn for the beginning calligrapher. Before I begin, credit must be given, as there are two calligraphers who taught me much of what I'm about to pass on: Master Edward MacGuyver gave me my first tips on alternate methods for forming letters in Gothic. It was an eye opening moment when he showed me the trick of making the vertical strokes first. Master Robert Whitcome of Brandywine taught me how to break down gothic letters into vertical strokes and diamonds. Many of his teachings are incorporated here and in my lesson on practicing with the pen. He has some of his own lesson plans posted on his site in the Pixels, Pens and Type section. I encourage you to read them as he says a lot with an economy of words I cannot match. Guidelines Because of how rigid this script is, use as many guidelines as you need. Beyond the required lines at the top and bottom of the minims, feel free to add lines to keep the height of ascenders and descenders even. A line in the middle of the minim space may be helpful for the "half"-height strokes used in the letters a, k, and s. Vertical guidelines aren't a bad idea either, as they will help keep those strokes straight up and down & parallel to one another. With the guidelines in place, there are two things I learned from Master Robert that are extremely helpful to keep in mind: The top and bottom of each vertical stroke just touches the guidelines. The left and right point of each diamond stroke touch their guideline. My Ductus The basis of "my" ductus is simple: make the vertical strokes first, then add any connecting strokes. That's it. It sounds way too simple, but it was a huge revelation to me when I learned it from Masters Edward & Robert. I still scratch my head that I've not seen a calligraphy book mention this. By making the vertical strokes first, you can focus on making them perfectly vertical and evenly spaced. Then you can add the connecting and decorative strokes. Without further adieu, let me present my ductus for one version of Gothic Textura Quadrata: The examples here are roughly 4 nib-widths tall, penned with a Rotring 2.3mm ArtPen on 10 square per inch graph paper. If you can see it in the images, the fatter horizontal line is the baseline. Three squares up from that is the line I'm using for the height of the minims. I'm holding the pen at a 45° angle. a - In many scripts, a is one of the hardest letters to learn to make well. Most calligraphy books have make strokes 3, 2 and 5 first. Doing so makes spacing from the preceding letter very difficult to get right. A solution is to start with strokes 1 and 2, then add in the rest. The hairlines can be done in a couple different ways, which I'll discuss toward the end of the page. b - The books will generally tell you to make strokes 1 and 4 as one, followed by 3 and 2. This causes difficulty making the white space in the middle of the letter the correct width and shape. Make the vertical strokes first, then connect them to insure perfect spacing. The flourishes at the top are added later. See the letter o for notes on the overall shape of the round letters. c - I've separated out stroke 1 and 3 because as you begin, this helps you focus on the use of the guidelines and keeping the vertical stroke straight. They can be combined, but beware of a tendency to curve the whole stroke. A hairline flourish can help fill the empty white space in middle of the letter. d - As with the lowercase b, the books often have you make the left and bottom strokes first (1 & 4), followed by the top and right (3 & 2). Until I learned the trick of making the vertical strokes first, I was always making the bowl too narrow or wide, or misjudging the end of stroke 3 such that stroke 2 started too high or low. e - See the notes for c. The only difference is the hairline stroke that closes the letter. When you start, treat stroke 2 as two separate strokes. You don't have to lift the pen between them, but stop making the diamond before you draw in the hairline. f - Like with c and e, there's really no reason you can't make stroke 4 just after completing stroke 1. Depending on the version of Gothic you are working on, the diamond made by stroke 4 may be centered under the letter as in my example, or to the right of stroke 1. Strokes 2 and 3 are fairly simple, and just have to be located correctly. Be consistent about where cross-strokes like 3 fall in your letters. In my examples, I have them centered on the upper minim guideline. The cross-stroke on the t should be at the same height. g - The trick I have found for g is to make an o first, with a bit of a flourish on the upper right corner with stroke 3. Once the basic shape is complete, you can add the complex tail to the bottom. h - Made from a tall vertical, a minim height vertical, and three diamonds. Like with the f, center the diamond strokes 4 & 5 for the feet just under the legs. To improve legibility, leave a tiny gap between them. i - One vertical stroke with diamond on the top and bottom. Most period versions don't have any sort of "dot" on the top of the i. I have one here in the finished letter and often include them in my text to improve legibility. j - Be careful not to curve too much at the bottom of stroke 1. Like with the letter e, you can almost treat this as two separate strokes with a pause between them. Finish with a centered diamond on top. Like with the i, the "dot" is optional. k - Like with the letter a, make the two vertical strokes first. Note how stroke 2 is shorter than minim height. Use the right side of stroke 2 as a width reference when you make the first half of stroke 3. Connect across from 1 to 2 with stroke 4. Finish with the bottom diamonds on the legs and flourishes on top. l - Just about as easy as i or j. A tall vertical with a diamond foot and a couple flourishes on the top. m & n - Both of these letters are made the same way: Vertical strokes first, then accent & connecting diamonds on top, and feet on the bottom. In period, all the diamonds could run together; sometimes only context could tell you if you were looking at m, in, ni, ui, iu, vi, iv or w. One great example of this is how the word minimum could be written in gothic: 15 vertical strokes all connected with diamonds at the top and bottom; it could look like a picket fence. To improve legibility for a modern audience, leave a little space between the diamonds as needed. o - One of the hardest letters to get right because it goes against our modern sense of symmetry. The finished letter has 6 points on the outside. The left and right points are not at the same height: the right points are higher than the left. A properly made o has whitespace in the center that is a perfect parallelogram. Keep this in mind for the other closed round letters: d, g, p, and q. p - This letter has one feature that's slightly different than the other round letters: stroke 5. In many scripts, this stroke starts to the left of stroke 1, and subtly curves up before coming down to finish closing the bowl. The descender is finished with a flourish. q - Make an o, but extend the right vertical into a descender and add flourishes. r - A vertical with three diamonds. Many scribes added the little flourish coming down to fill in the white space that appears between r and the next letter. s - In medieval writing, there were two forms to the letter s, the tall s (ſ) and the short s. The tall s was used in the beginning and middle of words, the short s only if it was the last letter. Eventually, in some places, a double s was made using a long followed by short form (ſs). This became the letter ß which I believe is still used in modern German. short s - If you look at the middle of the letter, it's really two diamonds side by side. Concentrate on this as you make strokes 1 and 2. Then close the top and bottom. Be careful with the start of stroke 4, it's easy to pull way out to the left and make the letter too wide. long s - Make a lowercase f, but don't include the crossbar. Remember your recipient, you might choose to not use the long s to improve legibility. t - The trick to a good looking t is to not make it too tall. The start of the vertical stroke is only enough above the top guideline to allow for stroke 2 to be made. Like with the c and r, the t sometimes has a flourish on the right side to fill in white space. u - Back to verticals followed by diamonds. Similar to m and n, but now the upper diamond are used for decoration and may have a small gap for legibility. v - Make a lowercase u without the last stroke. Like with the o, the bottom of the v may look "off" because of the left and right points being uneven heights. Some period texts don't use a separate v character, instead using u for both. w - Made just like the letter u with an additional stroke and diamonds. x - This is a little like a cross between an r and a c with a crossbar in the middle to help distinguish it from both. The vertical stroke can incorporate a little flourish on the lower left. y - Making this letter is similar to g. Start with a v and then add the two part tail. Note how stroke 6 looks like an extension of stroke 2. With experience you can combine the two, but to start it may be easier to separate them. z - And z. Make the top and bottom strokes first so you can be sure to have them parallel and the same length. If you try to make one continuous stroke of 1 through 3 to 2 you'll probably find that it's difficult to get 1 and 2 the same length. Add stroke 4 at the end. Flourishing When you have finished certain letters, there may be some little flourishes needed to really give them style. There are two ways of making these. The easy way: Using a fine point pen, go back after the ink is dry to add the hairlines on the a, c, r and t, or the extensions at the top of b, h, k, and l and the bottom of p and q. Whatever you use, it should use the same ink as your calligraphy pen. This can be time consuming, and you have to be careful of not smudging your finished lettering. The hard way: Use the corner of your calligraphy nib to drag some ink out into the flourish. I find I usually need three steps: place your nib at the end of a stroke and deposit a small amount of ink. twist the pen in your fingers so that only a corner of the nib is resting in the wet ink. drag that ink out into the flourish you need. If there's still a pool of wet ink you can drag out, you can skip step 1. Deposit ink. Twist the pen onto the corner of the nib. Drag out the ink into the flourish. This is definitely not the easiest method for adding these small lines and details. However, if you can learn to do it well and are writing a script that only requires flourishes on a few letters, it can be a time saver. Putting it all together Once you have figured out how to form the individual letters, it's time to string them together into words. There are a couple things to remember if you want your gothic to look as period as possible: The whitespace between letters is the same as the whitespace within letters (one stroke width). The whitespace between words is twice as wide as the whitespace within letters (two stroke widths). If you write gothic in a fully period manner, the letters are usually run together making the text dense and frequently difficult to read. SCA scrolls are often given to recipients who want to be able to read the writing, so leaving a little extra space to help with that may be a choice you wish to make. Let's take a detailed look at the calligraphed subtitle I made for this page: The yellow squares across the bottom show what "perfect" medieval spacing would be for this phrase. The red squares show my actual spacing. Over the course of these 17 letters, my spacing is wide by just over two stroke widths. If you look at red squares on the full size image, you can more easily see where I crowded some strokes and left too much space between others. I left a significant amount of extra whitespace after the open letters e, r and c, despite my experience. I did purposely leave gaps between some diamonds that might have been connected in period to enhance the legibility of my text. I was trying to be as accurate as possible with my spacing. As you can see, I wasn't 100% successful. Master Robert teaches that you can only draw what you are able to see. As you practice, remember you are training your eye as well as your hand. Careful examination of your own work like I've done above can help train your eye to see where you can improve. Final Thoughts I hope that these alternate methods for drawing gothic letters are helpful. By now, you may be starting to realize that there is more than one method for achieving the same result. With practice, you can find the one that words for you. If you are practicing from a calligraphy book and are having problems getting a letter to look right, ignore the book's ductus and try putting down the strokes down in a different order. In the end, focus on the final shape of the letter, not one particular way of making it. Once you get comfortable with gothic, look at different period examples of the script. Note the small differences in letter heights, how and where the diamonds sit on the ends of the vertical strokes, etc. Try your hand at matching the differences, you might end up with something you like better or is easier for you to pen.
Learn how a wide variety of wool cloth was manufactured in the Middle Ages, from sorting the wool to the finishing stages.
Christa Hook “Born in 1968 in Surrey, England, Christa studied under her father, Richard Hook, the well known historical book illustrator. She has since illustrated many books, including over…
Everything started with me searching different depictions of the female apron during the 16th century. And it ended up with me finding a lot of depictions of 16th century male cooks. Why not collec…
MEDIEVAL TILE MAKING DEMONSTRATIONS For Historic Properties, Museums, and Events. In role as Kate Tiler I offer a demonstration of medieval tile making, using replica tools and equipment and traditional materials with which the public and children can join in and learn about the methods used by helping me to make a tile. During my […]
A blog about calligraphy in the SCA, focused on methods for reproducing writing in a medieval or Renaissance style.
Architects and historians are working with masons to build Guédelon Castle in France. Using 13th-century techniques, tools, and materials, the archeological experiment is meant to be as authentic as possible.
Some innovative castle designs by my middle school students, Samuel E. Shull Middle School, Perth Amboy NJ 2017 After watching the video of David Macaulay's Castle, my students designed their own fortresses. They tested the defensive walls by building catapults with popsicle sticks, rubber bands and spoons and firing mini marshmallows at their creations to see how many could land inside. Caerphilly Castle was built in the thirteenth century. It is the largest castle in Wales. To learn more about Caerphilly Castle, click here. More views of Caerphilly Castle David Macaulay re-creates the building of a medieval Castle in his book Castle. For more information about this very detailed and informative book, visit the author's website by clicking here. To watch a four part movie based on the book, click on the YouTube videos below. The castle in Macaulay's book is imaginary but it is based on several real Medieval castles. One of them is Caerphilly castle in Wales. Here is a floor plan of Caerphilly Castle: The film starts off with the author, David Macaulay, with his sketchbook, in Conway Castle in Wales. Here are some photographs of Conway Castle: Here is a floor plan of Conway Castle: Below is a floor plan and some photographs of Deal Castle, in Kent, England Below is a floor plan and some photographs of Windsor Castle in England WHY DO ALL THESE MEDIEVAL CASTLES LOOK SO DIFFERENT FROM EACH OTHER? HOW ARE THEY ALL ALIKE? Keep reading to find out. There was no standard shape and structure for a castle. The builders adapted their designs to suit the site, the budget and the military dangers of the day. THE ANATOMY OF A MEDIEVAL CASTLE Print out the picture above and look at all the basic parts that make up the anatomy of a Medieval castle. The castles all look very different from each other, yet they are all made up of the same basic components. See if you can identify the components all of these castles have in common. How would geographic location and the topography of the site influence a castle's design? Some cool Medieval castle activities: Click here to learn how to build your own paper and cardboard Medieval castle Click here to learn how to design a castle floor plan Click here for a step by step Power Point presentation by The Helpful Art Teacher on how to design and build your own paper castle. Printable Worksheets How to build a paper castle You will need heavy paper, like oak tag or card stock, white glue,masking tape,cardboard for the base scissors,markers, paint and whatever else you wish to use to decorate your creation. A small inexpensive low temperature hot glue gun is useful but not necessary. The starting point: A tower You will need to build at least four of these towers and connect them by walls just to start building your castle. These worksheets are just to get you started. Be inventive! Figure out how to include all the parts of the castle from the moat and draw bridge to the gate house and portcullis to the inner ward and keep. Work in progress: These 7th grade students are creating a curtain wall, the wall surrounding their castle complex. A soldier can walk along this wall and shoot arrows at his enemies from behind the embrasures. These students have created a portcullis and draw bridge using yarn, Popsicle sticks and a low temperature hot glue gun. Interior and exterior shots of one 7th grade student's work in progress. She used a sharp scissors to cut the points on the Popsicle sticks that form the portcullis. When each group was done constructing their castles I gave them 12 Popsicle sticks, a rubber band, a plastic spoon and permission to go over to the hot glue gun table. Their mission? To design a working catapult capable of lobbing mini marshmallows into another group's castle. Catapult designed by a 7th grade student Click here to learn how to build a miniature working catapult out of Popsicle sticks (so you can storm your paper castle). This website gives step by step directions but I prefer to have my students come up with their own designs. As you can see, from the video below, my 7th graders' original contraptions worked quite well. catapult design by a 7th grade student from Rachel Wintemberg on Vimeo. STEAM connection: How does building a catapult connect art to science, technology, engineering and math? When you create a catapult you are using a simple macine, the lever. If you pull the spoon back, the taut rubber band has potential energy. When you let go of the spoon the marshmallow is propelled by force and has kinetic energy. When you pull the rubber band back to a 45 degree angle, the marshmallow will travel the farthest distance. When you pull it back farther, the marshmallow will travel higher, but not go as far. We set up our catapults behind a taped barrier and asked the students to see how many mini marshmallows they could get into each castle. In order to make it over the wall, student found that they ideally needed to pull the spoon back farther than 45 degrees to attain more height and less distance. We discussed how the goal of the job affects the method used to launch the catapult; had the goal been to make the marshmallow go the farthest distance, then a 45 degree angle would have been preferable. STEAM Vocabulary/Definitions accuracy : The degree of closeness of a measured or calculated quantity to its actual (true) value. For example, in the associated activity, accuracy is the ability to hit the target with the Ping-Pong ball. catapult: A toy/machine that launches a projectile. geometry: An area of mathematics that studies shape, size, position and properties of space. precision: The degree to which further measurements or calculations show the same or similar results. For example, in the associated activity, precision is the ability to hit the same location multiple times with the Ping-Pong ball. projectile: An object that is launched or thrown, usually in the air, by a force. Source:https://www.teachengineering.org/lessons/view/cub_catapult_lesson01 Other STEAM connections in this lesson: The portcullis and draw bridge on the castles above operate using a pulley, another simple machine. Show students simple machines and have them divide into small groups to brainstorm how they might incorporate simple machines into their castle designs. For instance, a pulley might be used to draw water from a well as well as to control the draw bridge and portcullis. What is a simple machine? A simple machine is a mechanical device that changes the direction or magnitude of a force. In general, they can be defined as the simplest mechanisms that use mechanical advantage (also called leverage) to multiply force. The six simple machines are: Lever Wheel and axle Pulley Inclined plane Wedge Screw This student took the assignment a step farther. After researching medieval weapons he decided to design a crossbow to defend his fortress and siege neighboring castles. He was, of course, very careful to aim his weapon at rival social studies projects and never at people. Learn all the parts of a real medieval castle and what they were used for before you begin. Look at several real castles and their floor plans before you create your own. Remember, fortresses were designed and built for defense so make sure your castle will protect the inhabitants within. The Parts of a Medieval Castle Vocabulary terms you will need to know: You will remember the vocabulary better if, after reading the definition, you click on the word. This will bring you to a picture that illustrates the word. If you are building a castle for a 7th grade social studies class your teacher will probably expect you to use these vocabulary words to label the parts of your castle. You will also be expected to demonstrate the ways in which your fortress uses these elements to protect it's inhabitants. Arrow Loops - These were slots in the walls and structures that were used to shoot arrows through. They came in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Ashlar - Blocks of smooth square stone. They can be of any kind of stone. Bailey: This is a courtyard or open space surrounded by walls.The walls that make up the Bailey are also considered to be part of the Bailey. A castle could have several. Sometimes they were called the upper bailey and lower bailey or the west bailey and east bailey. Barbican: A stone structure that protected the gate of a castle. Think of it as a gatehouse. It usually had a small tower on each side of the gate where guards could stand watch. Barmkin: A yard surrounded by a defensive wall Bartizan: A small turret at the corner of a tower or wall. It is usually at the top but not always. Bastion: A tower or turret projecting from a wall or at the junction of two walls Battlements: These are the structures at the tops of the walls surrounding a castle. Picture what you have seen in the movies where archers are at the top of the wall and firing arrows between open slots down on the attackers. These shapes at the top (Where the archers position themselves for battle) are called battlements. They are also referred to as crenellations. Buttress: A masonry projection used as additional support for walls. Notre Dame Cathedral is a good examlple of the use of Buttresses. Corbel - A stone projection from a wall. It supports the weight of a battlement. Courtyard - The open area with the curtain walls of a castle. Curtain Wall - The stone walls around a castle. Drawbridge - This was a wooden bridge in front of the main gate of the castle. In the early centuries of castles it was moved horizontal to the ground and in the later centuries it was built so it could raise up in a hinged fashion. Dungeon - A deep dark cell typically underground and underneath a castle. This is a derivative of the word Dunjon. Donjon - this is an old word for a great tower or a keep. Embrasure - An opening in a parapet wall. GateHouse - A strongly built and fortified main entrance to a castle. It often has a guard house and or living quarters. Hall or GreatHall - This is the major building inside th walls of a castle. Hoarding: a covered wooden gallery above a tower the floor had slats or slots to allow defenders to drop object on besiegers. They could also drop liquids and projectiles. Keep - This definition changed slightly over the centuries of castle building. In the early years of stone castle building the Keep was a standalone structure that could be defended and often square in shape. Over the centuries these structures were improved upon and built around. Thus a castle was made that was a larger and more complex structure. The main tower that this was built around was still called the Keep and it was usually the tallest and strongest structure in the castle. It was also used as the last line of defense during siege or attack. Machicolations - The openings between the corbels of a parapet. They form areas that stick out along the top of the wall and defenders inside the castle can drop items like boiling water and rocks onto attackers. Merlons - The parts of parapet walls between embrasures Moat: A Body of water surrounding the outer wall of a castle. It was often around 5 to 15 feet deep and it was sometimes within the outer wall -between the outer wall and the inner wall. The primary purpose of the moat wasn't to stop attackers it was to stop tunnelers. Tunneling under a castle was an effective means of collapsing the walls or infiltrating it. A moat would cause any tunnel to collapse. Motte And Bailey: This isn't part of a castle it is the predecessor to the castle. A Motte and Bailey was an early form of castle where a large mound of dirt was built up then a wooden fortification was placed on top. This wooden fortification was in the shape of a timber fence that formed a circle like a crown at the top of the mound. The Mound is the motte, and the timber fence and the space it enclosed is the Bailey. Murder Hole: An opening in the roof of a gateway over an entrance. Used to drop projectiles or other things onto the besiegers. Oubliette: A deep pit reached by a trap door at the top. Prisoners were kept in it. Palisade: A defenisive fence Portcullis - This is a metal or wood grate that was dropped vertically just inside the main gate to the castle. Postern - A small gate at the back of a castle. Often considered to be a "Back Door". Rampart: Picture the battlements in the previous definition. The battlements are the top sections of the outer wall of the castle. Now to access these battlements the archers would stand on a walk way that was a wall in it's own right. This walkway is built right up against the outer wall and is called the Rampart. Ward - The area inside the walls of a castle. Often also called the Courtyard. Yett: Iron gates at the entrance of a castle To learn more about Medieval weapons, click here Click here to learn more about what life was life like in Medieval times If you were a peasant and wanted the protection a castle afforded, you had to pay your taxes If you were a monk you might work in a scriptorium painstakingly copying The Bible in Latin by hand and creating Illuminated manuscripts What is an illuminated manuscript? Before the invention of the printing press books had to be written by hand and very few people knew how to read.Click here to learn more about Medieval illuminated manuscripts If you were a knight, you would have to decorate your outfit with distinctive heraldry to avoid accidentally being killed by your own men Special thanks Richard Burzynski, Alexandre Lopez, Derrick C. Kyriacou and the Social Studies department at William C. McGinnis School. Please note: The pictures of actual medieval castles come from Wikimedia commons and are in the public domain. A few of the black and white images are handouts I have had for many years. If anyone knows who I should attribute them to, please email me. The pictures of step by step directions and photographs of student art work are my own. They may be downloaded and reproduced for educational purposes only (with appropriate credit given) in accordance with fair use law. Please do not republish them without contacting me for permission. Castles and creative writing: Middle school students love learning about castles. They figure heavily in many beloved children's stories, movies and video games. Why not use a castle construction project as a jumping off point for a unit on imaginative story telling? Castles are often a main feature in fantasy and mythological stories. Here is a fantasy art and storytelling assignment that I gave to my students during the 2016-2017 school year: Samuel E. Shull School, 2017 STUDENT ART GALLERY:
When many people think about the Middle Ages they see it as a time when people were tortured by a wide collection of diabolical instruments. Whether it is the Pear of Anguish or the Iron Maiden, these torture devices are portrayed as medieval. The reality, however, is that many of these devices never existed in the Middle Ages.
Iconografia interessante del ‘400 che mostra forni trasportabili. (immagine e link forniti da Andrea Carloni) Konzil von Konstanz (Rosgartenmuseum, fol. 23r), 1465
The iron maiden is a torture device widely believed to have been used in Europe during the Middle Ages. This notorious contraption is known by other names, such as the Virgin (a reference to the Virgin Mary), and Jungfer (German for spinster)
Medieval tally sticks illustrate what money really is: a kind of debt that can be traded freely.
Heddle board for hand weaving size SMALL, hand made in beech wood. Ideal for weaving wool belts and colored trimmings according to the medieval method. Model 9 holes length 10cm, height 10cm For other models and complete kits see our section: https://www.etsy.com/shop/emelunashop?section_id=25569879 For customers who purchase from ITALY, our new shop has been activated with reduced prices, link in the second photo.
These will make you cringe.
This entry is a continuation of the previous series on sawing lumber. (See also China, India, Japan) These images from Italy, Spain & France depict a once
