I decided for this one, all the Cadels Ever! BUT! They had to be from or inspired by the same page. Once again diving into the Mira Calligraphia and focusing on one specific page.
And, as I’ve learned in the past, convering what I want to black & white, really helped
All the other Cadels at the start of each block were done pretty much on the fly with the above page as a reference. I feel that I was able to get the sprit of the style down pretty well with each letter.
One of the things my brain finally picked up on while looking at the blown up images was this; there is no “perfection” in any of the Cadels, only beauty. This is a profound thing for me as my brain absolutely prefers rigid structure and why I primarily stick to calligraphy. With this scroll, I was able to say “f-it, mind the spacing and the rest will fall into place”, and it did.
The Cadels are “slightly” out of period for Johannes’s persona by about 300 years. So, I wanted the text to be a little closer. I reached out to the Signet and they put me in touch with Matthias, who did a fantastic job of giving me between 200-300 words (261 to be exact) which gave me the wall of text I was aiming for. I did get very carried away with some of the letter collisions, primarily the use of the half-r following a “u” and occasionally colliding the “a” into the preceding letter. I had a lot of fun with it and I’m glad for it! If I didn’t, there might not have been enough room for signatures and it definitely would NOT have been done in time for the event. As you can see, the end of the last line landed perfectly as far as I’m concerned. The Black, White, and Gold are a call out to the colors in his arms. While white on black was probably not appropriate to the time period, I feel it was a good choice for personalization.
Words by Matthias Grunwald:
Tindal victorious King and Emerson fearsome King Consort, to the barons, constables, bailiffs, reeves, liege-men and friends, all in the present and future, to whom these letters shall come, greetings.
Be it knowen that we haue giuen and granted, to our welbeloued Johannes filius Nicholai for his good, just and supportive work as our Baron in the Barony of Bergental, and to the heires and euery of our aforesayd Johannes, full and free authority, leaue, and power to travel to all parts, countreys, and villages of his ansteral lands, vnder our banners and ensignes, vpon their owne proper costs and charges, to seeke out, discouer, and support whatsoever awards, gifts, or exploits of the our fair subjects in what part of the world soeuer they be, which before this time haue bene vnknowen to all the land
Furthermore, our venerable forebearers have said he who desires peace let him provide for wars, and as such do we waive our right of talliage so Johannes may continue to provide for our armies when the need arises.
And moreover, we haue evelate the said Johannes to the esete of a Baron of our Court, that all the firme lands, isles, villages, townes, castles and places whatsoever he shall chance to finde, may not of any other of our subjects be permuted without the licence of the foresayd Johannes.
In witnesse whereof we haue caused to be made these our ensignes manual. Witnesse our selfe at our Sommer Draw in the resilient Barony of Bergental, AS 59 In the first yeere of our reigne.
