Lady Aaradyn Ghyoot, OSC, OM, OSB
Barony of Carolingia
East Kingdom
The initial idea:
In 2018 I embarked on a project to understand how vellum worked as a ground, how the materials I was already very familiar with worked on the most used ground in period, and how my process would have to change to work with this new material. I chose a source with a most excellent carpet page, and one that would be easy to do in parts: Add MS 28162, The Somme le Roi, a moral compendium compiled in 1279 for King Philip III of France. A beautiful French manuscript with heavy gold work, this manuscript features multiple pages of 4 panel depictions of the Virtues.
The finished project will be the Vellum Dragon and four separate images, each a “complete” panel as though the panels were individual images. This project is the learning section for the final project, which will be a 4 panel “missing page” from MS 28162 – 4 virtues done in the style of Somme le Roi with original artwork.
My focus for this project is not materials but technique. I will be using modern gouache for familiarity, and also for the fact that modern professional gouache is much the same recipe as period. The materials I’ll be using:
- Windsor Newton, Holbein, and M. Graham gouache
- Pelikan black calligraphy ink
- 24k gold leaf and 24k shell gold paint
- Goat skin vellum
- #1 Round sable brush
- Crow quill dip pen
- Staedtler .3 mechanical pencil
- Staedtler white rubber eraser
Part One, The Vellum Test:
The Dragon at the End of This Manuscript
The first in the series isn’t from my source page, but instead is from Yates Thompson MS 13, a manuscript created in the 2nd quarter of the 14th century. I call this one “the Dragon at the End of this Manuscript” or Vellum Dragon for short.
The first piece I’d ever done on vellum, I left space for the calligraphy but did not fill that in. My focus for these pieces is the illustration and gilding. On this piece I did a small section of gold leaf, and the rest in shell gold gouache.
It was with this piece that I learned how vellum swells when you apply paint that is too wet, and how drawing back up some of the paint with your brush can reduce the swelling, and it will lay flat again easily. When doing white work overtop of paint applied to vellum, the paint doesn’t rehydrate as easily as it does on pergamenata, and your white work goes on more cleanly. For a piece of scrap vellum, I was very happy with this piece and this inspired me to begin the project in earnest.
Part Two, Panel One:
Orientalis
The first panel from Add MS 28162 is from f6v, a carpet page (a page of just illumination) of four panels each depicting a different facet of moral behavior. The manuscript size, thanks to the clarity of the British Library manuscripts database, is 255 x 185mm, with a text size of 165 x 125mm. As I learned from doing 1:1 scrolls, painted size isn’t always text size, and here is no different. The painted size is slightly larger than the text area, but as I wasn’t doing a complete page but instead each of the panels as individual images, my math was a little more nebulous. The finished size for each of my pieces is roughly 3.5” x 4”. Page size varies depending on the vellum piece. The vellum here is goat skin, and I prepared it with a white Staedler eraser.
The panel for the first piece is Ammitie, or Friendship in modern English. The virtue depicted was not the goal for me, so instead I created this piece as Orientalis, or “belonging to the East”.
The Lady is veiled, and so could be any Rose of the East, and holds a plate with a dove, a symbol of peace and grace. She is clothed in the colors of the East, Purple and Green, and the plate backing in Blue, a nod to our populace badge. She stands on a Dragon, but the Dragon is not injured, honoring the Yearly Enemies/ Eternal Friends bond we hold with our neighboring kingdoms.
My Findings:
My experiment here was to determine how the gold background was done. My experience with gold leaf is limited and this project is to help me understand how the effects were achieved.
My first thought was, because this is in a book and the pages are quite flexible, the detail must have been painted on the gold leaf. I did not find indications that the gold was an indention in the page because there was no indication of that on the back of each illuminated page.
I was quite wrong. While the painted detail doesn’t look bad, it’s also not correct. The detail here is most definitely tooled gold.
I am very happy with the rest of the piece, and remain solid in my opinion around whitework on vellum – it is so much easier. The changes I made to the illustration were minimal, only adding a veil and color changes.
This was completed in February of 2019.
Part Three, Panel Two:
Humilite
Panel two is from f5v, the panel depicting Humilite, or Humility. I intended this piece to be Humility, as the original, because it’s an important reminder as our skill grows in the arts.
This piece is mostly finished, save for the title at the top. The vellum for this piece is also goat, and was prepared the same way as before.
Here, the woman is clothed as she is in the original manuscript, save the lining for her cloak. Her stance is slightly more behind the stag than on top of the stag, but still very close to the original. I wanted to make sure I had a strong understanding of figure placement before I created originals.
My Findings:
Building on what I learned on Panel One, I knew that the pattern on the gold had to be tooled. I prepared the page as before, setting the miniatum in place, and once tacky applying the gold leaf in “panels” working from left to right.
Once the gold was set I burnished it with silk and my agate hounds tooth burnisher, then used that same burnisher to tool the pattern into the gold.
This both did and did not work. The pattern is not as smooth as the original, and I’m unsure if that is due to my inexperience in tooling gold or the fact that the gold in the original is actually raised. I suspect both. It is clear after doing this that the gold must be raised. If I pressed to hard there were indentions in the page that were visible from the back. Those do not appear on the original, so excessive pressure isn’t the answer.
My blackwork here is a little messy, and I suspect the issue is the consistency of my paint. I have since moved away from some Windsor Newton paints and now use Holbein, and am much happier with the results. Ultramarine was also too dark for her dress, and some detail is lost. I rushed doing the whitework lettering at the top, and removed it as it smeared with the orange beneath it.
I will likely not finish this piece though… The page got wet through some clumsiness on my part and is badly wrinkled now. I was going to try to flatten it, but I will leave it as it is and start the next piece once the rush of the holidays is over. The page will serve as a reminder to be careful around your rinse water!
This was completed in 2021.
Part Four, Panel Three:
Mercy
Panel three is from a subsequent page of the manuscript. Sadly, my file did not include the folio for this page and as the British Library database was destroyed my original link won’t work for me to retrieve that information. It is likely that this is from f.7v.
This panel depicts Misericorde or Mercy, Compassion. It should be pointed out that this is also the name of a medieval weapon, a small dagger used for a coup de grace. I had originally chosen Perseverance for Panel three, but Mercy spoke to me more.
I have made changes from the original image. The original piece has Mercy crowned and standing on an animal with another in its mouth. A dove within a halo occupies most of the space between the figures. I have removed the halo and the animals. Mercy now stands it a simple veil on rocky ground. The beggar is now stepping up to the same level as Mercy, as though she’s helping him up, not just bestowing on him a garment.
I made these changes for a number of reasons – first, it is in line with my goal of original artwork on all four of the panels in the Full Page I plan to complete once this project is done. Second, while we re-enact the best parts of the Middle Ages, period artwork doesn’t always agree with our modern values. I think it is possible to blur that line between modern ideals and medieval ideals, and bring it more in line with our current values. Mercy, to me, is not just benevolent, but truly kind – she would bring those less fortunate up, not just bestow gifts. Removing the animals and other figures from this scene also takes some of the religious connotations away from the imagery. Those were critical in the Middle Ages, but are less so now. In my previous panels I proved that I can replicate well, but going forward the imagery will be more secular.
My Findings:
This piece was sketched from the original through a lightbox in November of 2025. I utilize some tracing, as was done in period, to ensure my panel sizes are exact as I will need that for the full page once this current project is complete.
After the gold trials on Panels One and Two, it is clear that I will need to gesso this panel to achieve a raised gold effect. I am researching the gesso used on vellum pages in manuscripts now as I suspect it is different than the gesso used on panels. I have experience with panel painting gesso, not so much with raised gilding in manuscripts. Frankly, I’m very excited to work on this piece.
The length of time between the completion of Panel Two and the start of Panel Three was daunting, despite the excellent reasons for the pause in this project.
Being a Seneschal, getting married, and my career taking off significantly all meant that my hobbies had to take a seat for a time.
I’m renewed in my passion for this project though and plan to have a more completed panel for display at Kingdom Arts & Sciences in March 2026.
I do not have a timeframe for completion for this project as I refuse to rush through it. My hope is that the British Library is able to put this digitized manuscript back online soon – I have contacted them to see if it can be moved up the list. I am also looking into the viability of traveling to London to see the manuscript in person – I would like to do so before starting the full page piece.
If you have questions regarding this project, please reach out via email:
aaradyn . ghyoot @ gmail . com (omit spaces)