Mon Carnet de Voyage

Yesterday, I had the wonderful opportunity to go back to the Manuscripts Department at the Richelieu site at the BnF, to look once again, as some very old books. Books that are 6 times older than my country’s modern settlement history. Five Carolingian treasures…

The Carolingian Dynasty refers to the period of monarchic rule in Europe by a noble family from the 7th century until the end of the 10th – a family who managed to usurp the power of the Merovingians, who ruled Europe from the mid 5th century, though to 751, until Pippin thwarted the throne. And to think that being a mere “chorus player” in the Midnite Theatre Company’s 1989 production of Pippin was never going to learn my anything…

The most well known character from this period of history is Charlemagne (son of Pippin), who was crowned Emperor by the Pope in 800. His empire is referred to as the Carolingian Empire (perceived as being a continuation of the Roman Empire), and this is the era from which the illuminated manuscripts on the table were from.

The reason for the opportunity, is that a group of disadvantaged school students were having a special treat – by way of their local public library, and the fact that some of the treasures on the table refereed to their local history, given that they were from St Denis (in the northern banlieue of Paris). Pippin was buried at the entrance to the St Denis Basilica – as he had requested.


The students (aged about ten years - I think about year 6 by Australian standards) were pretty lucky, to say the least to get this close (I was having kittens they were that close…) to the BnF prized collection of manuscripts. Jeanne-Pierre the Librarian gave much of her time and energy, explaining to the hyperactive students, the history, calligraphy, and the finer points of these 1200 year old Carolingian manuscripts.

These texts, whilst priceless (you couldn’t even attempt to dictate a monetary value) are pretty beautiful, and even that word doesn’t quite achieve how they make you feel – adorned with ivory tablets on the front, jewels and gold, they are works of art. Intended as books of study, they were also deigned to represent the glory of God.

Some pages were blood red, the parchment dyed to represent the blood of Christ. To achieve this colour, the pages were soaked in dyes, typically with the sap from sunflowers or mulloscs (a process called murex).

One bible, has the purest looking parchment I’d ever seen – a perfectly white page in a 1200 year old book, is hard to come by (I don’t want to know the age of the poor lamb or goat who donated his skin to this page).


In 2007, BnF had an exhibition of its Carolingian Treasures. A virtual exhibition is now available here.

Meanwhile, back in Melbourne…SLV opened the door yesterday to the largest exhibition of illuminated manuscripts ever in the Southern Hemisphere – The Medieval Imagination - Illuminated manuscripts from Cambridge, Australia and New Zealand is on display until 15th June 2008. If you live on the east coast, missing this would be the equivalent of forgetting your fiftieth wedding anniversary.

Pop in and take a look while you can…for more information click here.
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