Medieval Gurdy illustration

[Graham Whyte]

This came up on the UK HG list

A fascinating drawing of an HG from a Bodleian Library manuscript c
1338-1344 "Romance of Alexander"
Pic can be seen at
http://www.altongate.co.uk/hg/Gurdy_ill_1344.jpg

You can view the whole book
at:http://image.ox.ac.uk/show?collection=bodleian&manuscript=msbodl264

The HG drawing is at the bottom of Folio 81 recto
You can see strings, crank, wheel cover, keys (no dog)
It looks a surprisingly modern shape
The creature with the apparently strange posterior anatomy may in fact
just have a folded tail

Graham Whyte

[Dennis Sherman]

Interesting find! The shape is typical of a rebec. I speculate the artist knew the rebec from personal experience, but the hurdy-gurdy only by description. So he drew a rebec and added keys and crank.

--
Dennis Sherman
Chicago, IL, USA
http://www.dennissherman.com

[Arle Lommel]

About a year ago I was looking for images of some sort of solo
organistrum depicted on the west face of Paris' Notre Dame, which
predates this manuscript by over 100 years (as I understand it). The
form seen there is actually quite similar, but much better made. So
there is some evidence for this shape associated with HGs predating
this manuscript. I'd post a photo, but the only photos I've seen were
taken by Vlad (on this list) and I don't have permission from him to
post them. Instead I've added a drawing by Balázs Nagy to the group's
files:

http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy/web/1_1_07notreDame.jpg

So similar forms actually predate the manuscript from the Bodleian.

-Arle

[wsteinmayer]

On Sep 25, 2009, at 2:14:50 PM, "Graham Whyte" <gra...@altongate.co.uk> wrote:

From:	"Graham Whyte" <gra...@altongate.co.uk>
Subject:	[HG-new] Medieval Gurdy illustration

[duod...@gmail.com]

Thanks for posting this Graham. What a beautiful manuscript, I had a
great time looking through it. It's great to see the illustrations in
such close up detail, you can even see the illuminator changed his
mind on the correct perspective of the hurdy gurdy's wheel cover,
though I think he had it right the first time.
Bearing in mind that the figures are no more than an inch tall it is
remarkable that the hurdy gurdy is not just a blob with a crank.

I think the brown (tail-less) monkeys are representations of Barbary
apes, the grey monkeys could be any tailed variety.
The illuminator had a great, if somewhat base, sense of humor, he
seems to enjoy buttocks a lot as in the drawing of someone aiming a
crossbow at the posterior of another figure that is bending over while
a rabbit looks on (fol.3) and the one of a naked man carting off a
wheelbarrow load of nuns.

Juan

On Sep 25, 12:14 pm, Graham Whyte <gra...@altongate.co.uk> wrote:
> This came up on the UK HG list
>
> A fascinating drawing of an HG from a Bodleian Library manuscript c
> 1338-1344 "Romance of Alexander"

> Pic can be seen athttp://www.altongate.co.uk/hg/Gurdy_ill_1344.jpg