Yesterday, I had a surprise in Del Norte. My friends and I went on an adventure and “did” Del Norte. Our jaunt led us to the nostalgia shop where I found a bunch of prints of fine art. In one of the boxes were framed prints from the most unlikely place — the Codex Manesse. Huh??? What were THEY doing in Del Norte? I exclaimed something profound like, “Huh???” Corey, the store owner said, “I knew sooner or later someone would know what those are.”
I tried to explain but it made no sense to her. I was (honestly) a little shaky from the surprise and it was an alien world to her, completely and totally alien. Finally, we did the phone thing and I wrote stuff down for her and now they will be labeled as what they are.
You never ever ever know what will show up in the San Luis Valley. The Codex Manesse is a late 13th century early 14th century collection of songs and poetry, some were written in the 12th century. They were compiled so that they would not be lost. It was a huge, expensive effort funded by a Zürich man, Herr Manesse. With the poetry and songs are portraits of the poets. I love them. They show the poet in “action,” along with emblems of his life, coats of arms, helmets, flowers, some poets’ names relate to animals (Vogelweide for example: Vogel means bird…) and the animals are depicted.
The Codex is now at the University of Heidelberg. As I explained all this to the store owner, I had to “come out” as a Swiss Medievalist Historian. For a few minutes I felt as bizarre and out of place as these prints are, but in a good way. The San Luis Valley is full of surprising things (how many alligator rescues are there even in the WORLD?) and people. I just wonder how they got there.
I wasn’t tempted to buy them, much as I loved them, and as much as I wanted to look at the backs of the prints. I don’t have to. I guess if they had been the poets from the Codex that I like very much, I might have but…
The colors on the Codex are all described in a wonderful book I just bought On Divers Arts by Theophilus Presbyter (pen name) written in the 12th century. — the black ink might have been made of oak gall or by the method Theophilus describe — hawthorn bark and wine. His recipes for colors read to me like witch’ recipes.
“Summer is the season of inferior sledding” - Inuit proverb (Women's Wilderness Legend) 
There are treasures if we will but look for them! It is surprising what you can find in second hand shops, thrift stores, the local junkshop and of course in one’s own attic! All the houses I’ve lived in had treasures in the attics.
Mine might, too, but I’m not going up there 😀
How astounding is that! I imagine it really made the trip worth while.
It was just weird. 😀 In a good way, but weird.
I imagine. Were they authentic do you think?
Absolutely not authentic. The originals are at the University of Heidelberg.
I just wondered how someone could go about reproducing them is what was on my mind
You can buy a facsimile of the whole book and prints/posters of the individual illustrations and even T-shirts. It’s not rare or special, I just didn’t expect to find it here. 🙂 Anything can be printed on anything — shower curtains, blankets, it’s crazy.
Oh, dud, well that makes sense. phew right over my head. I was picturing someone taking photos of the real macoy hahahaha
Someone did take pictures of the real McCoy. 😀
can we say slow on the uptake today????? lmao
It’s ok. I KNOW we do that but it still stuns me. I had some drawings up on a website for sale as notecards and I could have turned them into anything from a bathmat to wall paper. It creeped me out.
Yeah I get that!
Thank you for educating me on this and what a fascinating find!
Fascinating and strangely disorienting. 🙂 And really something everyone NEEDS to know about 😉
It’s always nice to have a surprise! Especially the good ones.
How very, very strange.
I’m pretty sure someone just bought them because they are pretty but maybe???? Maybe some secret medievalist? We do tend to stay in the shadows…
Two secret medievalists would be a coincidence ….
I think so, too. The only thing that could make it less weird is if it is ONE secret medievalist at a time and the owner of those prints had already gone off to greener pastures.
There is one unfortunate outcome of having a Friday song day, Martha, and that is that I feel inclined to burst into song at the slightest provocation. Have you heard The Seekers performing I’ll Never Find Another You”? Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.
Ha ha ha ha!
I guess you never quite know what will turn up where! What a wonderful, surreal surprise this must have been for you, and I bet the store owner was only too pleased to learn more about the prints he had on sale. These medieval manuscripts are some of the most evocative and beautiful tangible links with the period. Fantastic. 🙂
I think I gave her an “excuse” to put a higher price tag on them! 😀