1300’s--Shoptalk
Henri Fontenay, Guild Member. Maker and Seller of Fine Books.
Scriptorium located in the Latin Quarter of Paris, near the steps of Notre Dame.
Henri Fontenay promises to all his worthy customers that he will uphold the quality and standards of his predecessors and kinsmen.
(Formerly the scriptorium of Philippe de Bretagne, now under new management.)
[MORE button for]: A History of the Scriptorium of Henri Fontenay
[book buttons]:
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England Italy India The Universe
1300’s
[MORE page from 1300’s Shoptalk]
A History of the Scriptorium of Henri Fontenay.
In the year of our Lord 1286, Jacques de Bretagne founded a Scriptorium to serve the citizens and university of the city of Paris.
When the Great Pestilence arrived in Paris in 1348, master bookseller Philippe de Bretagne and his newly-wedded wife, Marie, were spared by the Grace of God. But in 1361, Philippe and both his sons died in the Pestis Secunda, the second wave of pestilence to strike the city. Only Philippe’s wife and their young daughter, Geneviéve, survived.
Marie, being a woman of unusual learning and a long-time helpmate in her husband’s work, passed the examinations in Latin and in the technique of making books required by the Paris guild of booksellers. She carried on Philippe’s work for many years, with the help of his journeymen and apprentices.
One apprentice, called Louis Fontenay, worked faithfully for Marie, as he had for her husband, until he earned the rank of master in his own right. Louis married Marie’s daughter, Geneviéve. He became a son to Marie and carried on the business of the scriptorium.
Today, Henri Fontenay, son of Louis and Geneviéve, continues the proud tradition of his family.
1300’s
[NOW page from 1300’s page called: A History of the Scriptorium of Henri Fontenay.]
Women and Work.
Women living in European cities during the 1300’s performed many types of work. Many women worked as servants. Others worked in their families’ businesses or, after marriage, with their husbands. If a woman’s husband died, she might take over the business, at least until she remarried.
Some unmarried women practiced a craft on their own, and some married women had a separate business or craft from their husbands. Making silk thread and cloth was considered one of the best crafts for women. Other common crafts for women included dressmaking and brewing beer.
A woman with a business or craft might have one or more girls as apprentices. Usually, the woman’s apprentices lived in her home. Before taking a girl on as an apprentice, the woman often made a contract with the girl and her parents. The contract could specify such things as how long the apprenticeship would last, what duties the girl would have, what the girl should be taught, and how much the girl had to pay if she wanted to quit the apprenticeship early to get married.
1300’s
[Book page. Islamic-style borders. Description of the book and link to the main Ibn Batuta feature, whatever it’s eventually called. Visual could show a Muslim ship, caravan, an exotic place, or repeat something from the main Ibn Batuta feature.]
India
Rihla by Ibn Batuta.
Travel the World with Ibn Batuta.
For almost 30 years, Ibn Batuta visited such exotic locations as India and China in the east and the African kingdom of Mali in the west, before he returned to his native Morocco for the last time. There, Sultan Abu Inan asked him to dictate Rihla(Journey), an account of his travels through the many realms ruled by the people of Islam.
For a map and travel log of Ibn Batuta’s journeys, visit the ______________ site.
1300’s
[Book page. Use the picture of one of these Italian choir
books in the Illuminated Manuscript article in WBME, making the picture as large as possible.]
Italy
Giant Imported Italian Choir Books.
All the rage in Italy.
Each page is two feet tall and one and a half feet wide. Open one of these books on a lectern, and your entire choir can read the lyrics and notes.
[Note: Recommend we make the picture as big as possible and limit the amount of text, so the above paragraph should be enough. But if you need more text, you could add the following:]
Lovely decorated capitals contain miniature paintings as large as an entire page in any ordinary book. Each scene is depicted in the naturalistic style made popular by the Italian painter Giotto.
1300’s
[Book page. Possible visuals--Chaucer, medieval travelers, Canterbury Cathedral, or an English inn.]
England
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
A group of pilgrims gather at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, across the River Thames from the city of London. They are bound for the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Harry Bailly, host of the Tabard, proposes a contest to liven up the long journey. Each pilgrim agrees to tell two stories on the trip to the shrine and two more on the way back. Upon their return, Harry and the pilgrims will treat the teller of the best tale to a free dinner.
Chaucer brings us 24 of his travelers’ tales. Courtly love. Saints lives. Wives trick husbands. A rooster tricks a fox. Young men trick just about everybody. Chaucer’s masterpiece has something for everyone.
Special announcement:
Canterbury Travel is pleased to announce the grand prize winners of its Wife of Bath Sweepstakes. John of Oxford and his lovely wife Joan correctly identified the ages at which the Wife of Bath in Chaucer’s story wed her first and fifth husbands (ages 12 and 40).
Congratulations John and Joan on your all-expenses-paid pilgrimage to the one and only Canterbury Cathedral!
1300’s
[Book page. Perhaps you could do the title and first paragraph. Then list the names of the 3 books, and have their descriptions come up in child windows. Picture--maybe some angels? Note--remember that if you do something visual for the Inferno, in Dante’s story it is frozen at the bottom, not hot.]
The Universe
Commedia (Comedy) by Dante Alighieri.
Chaucer took you to Canterbury. Marco Polo took you to China. But Dante brings you on the ultimate trip and back again. The Commedia--a moral guide and travel log to the medieval universe.
Inferno. Dante shows you to what depths human beings may sink and the excruciating consequences in the afterlife if they do. As Dante might say: An instructive place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there--Say your prayers that you never do!
Purgatorio. Dante and his guide, the ancient Roman poet Virgil, climb the bright terraces of Mount Purgatory. There, those of the dead who have gained salvation but have not yet reached heaven seek forgiveness for the misdeeds they committed on Earth. Quiet and calm, Mount Purgatory is a place of hope.
Paradiso. At the top of Mount Purgatory, a new guide joined Dante, the good and beautiful Beatrice. Now she guides him through the 10 spheres of heaven, where Dante meets the blessed men and women who reside there. At last, our poet reaches the throne of God, set among hosts of angels, and glimpses his Lord, "the highest source of bliss and light"..."the love that moves the sun and other stars."
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[Citation]
The Comedy of Dante Alighieri the Florentine. Cantica III: Paradise (Il Paradiso). Translated by Dorothy L. Sayers and Barbara Reynolds. 1962. Reprint. Penguin, 1978.
1300’s
[NOW button for Dante.]
Dante called his work Commedia (Comedy), because it had a happy an ending. The searcher in the story--Dante himself--progressed from wickedness to goodness and was shown the path to God in Heaven. The word "Divine" was added to the title in the 1500’s. Today, Dante’s great poem is known as The Divine Comedy.