Gilding Made Easy

By Master Caleb Reynolds

Published on the AEGazette, 4/1/2019


Nothing says “medieval manuscript” quite like the gleam of gold shining on the page. Gilding is the high wire act of the scribe’s art, the skill that can boost a scroll from “not bad” to “wow!”

Gilding can be an intimidating skill, and all too many scribes give up after a few hesitant experiments. Gilding is not as difficult as it first appears, and the results are well worth the effort. This article is the result of several minutes worth of experimentation with gilding; it’s so easy anyone can do it.

Step 1: Make your design. For this example I will be using a simple design: just some dude in a ‘T’. Pencil in the design, ink over the pencil marks, and then erase the pencil marks. I find that the end result looks better.

Step 2: Mask off everywhere on the image that you don’t want gilded.

Take your time to make sure that you cover everything. And use good painter’s tape. Cheap tape will only disappoint. Use multiple layers as needed. A good X-ACTO knife will help you trim the tape to fit the curves and oddball shapes on your image. You might want to start off with straight lines and borders until you get the hang of it.

Step 3: Shake up your can of gold spray paint. I prefer Rust-Oleum to Krylon. I think that the Rust-Oleum gold is shinier and doesn’t require a primer. And since you don’t have to put down a primer coat, you save time.

Hold the can a couple of inches away from the paper and spray in short bursts. By spraying close to the paper, you can make sure that the paint doesn’t touch the area around your mask. And using short sprays you make sure that you don’t over saturate the paper. Use quick sprays until you cover all of the desired parts. Once you have covered all of the area, let the paint dry overnight. This is important. You don’t want to skip this step. If the paint isn’t dry, you can smudge it when you remove the tape.

Step 4: Time to remove the tape. You can see how shiny the paint is. Krylon doesn’t look this good. Now, carefully peel up the tape. You might need an X-ACTO knife to get underneath the tape. Work slowly and peel away from the gold paint. Again, work slowly. You don’t want all of your work to go to waste. Don’t try to save the tape. It’s given all that it can give. Some of you might be thinking that you can re-use your mask on another sheet of paper and save you some time, if you want to make two copies of the same scroll. It really isn’t worth the time and effort: the tape is covered in paint and will curl up on itself. Painter’s tape isn’t that expensive.

Once you have all of the tape removed, you can sit back and admire how nice your gilding is. And you didn’t have to mess around with gold leaf and gesso. Don’t be overly concerned with not having a perfect mask. If some gold paint bled through the edges of the tape, don’t sweat it: just paint over the errant gold and no one will notice the difference.

With only a small amount of practice, you should be able to lay gold quickly and easily. I find this method works best for me, but please, experiment and practice for yourself. You may well find a better brand of spray paint that works better for you, and you should always strive for better results and greater accuracy. Whichever way, gilding will enhance the look of your work immensely, and make the scrolls you create treasures indeed.

London Destroyed by Kaiju

Published on the AEGazette, 4/1/2022

Fake Research: Real Writing
by Caleb Reynolds

We are taught that London burned down in 1667 because of a fire that started in a bakery on Pudding Lane. When the fire was brought under control, four days later, more than four-fifths of the city was destroyed. Miraculously, only 16 people were known to have died. Was this due to advanced fire-fighting technology or was this because the fire was actually planned to destroy a kaiju? A “dragon”, if you will. Granted, the people of 17th century London would not have used the word “kaiju” as Godzilla movies did not appear in England until the mid 1950s. The natives would have used such language as was familiar to them. And since Jacobean English had few Japanese words mixed in with it, they would have turned to their own legends and used the word “dragon” to describe the giant beasts that roamed the country.

In 1217, there was a beast of a sea monster that prowled the Thames river; some references referred to it at 300 stone in size. The poem “The Dragon of Wantley”, first published in 1685, recounts an legendary monster that ravaged the land in the mid 15th-century.

All sorts of cattle this dragon did eat.
Some say he ate up trees,
And that the forests sure he would
Devour up by degrees:
For houses and churches were
to him geese and chickens
He ate all, and left none behind,
but some stones, dear Jack,
that he could not crack,
Which on the hills you will find. [1]

Geoffrey Of Cambria’s 1455 “The History of Britain” recounts what might have been the same monster.

Then a great dragon began to ravage the country-side with fire and alone did a single knight take arms against it, and in the end, was the victor. All night long did the raging flames swept o’er the land and the water, and all withered and burned at it’s touch. The dragon had burned up the people’s homes and fields. The city did burn as likewise did the ships and the water-skirted land was devastated. Not ‘til the touch of dawn did the dragon end it’s destruction and retreat to its lair. Great faith did it have in the safety of its hiding place, but it’s faith was to be futile.

While stories of giant dragons continued to be written, in England, after the Great Fire, [2] no credible accounts of dragons were recorded. I feel that the last of the great, English kaijus was killed in London, in 1667. While there are many conspiracy theories that have survived even to this day, (Freemasons started the fire to create more work for themselves; French and Dutch agents started it to punish the English for their pie eating habits; Charles II started it as revenge for London’s support of Parliament during the Civil War; Robert Hubert claimed to start the fire in Westminster but it got out of hand when the wind shifted.) [3]




The 200 foot tall monument to the fire might be a clue as to the size of the kaiju that attacked the city. It is possible that the kaiju was lured to the city to destroy it, hence the few fatalities recorded, as the population was told “to remove themselves and Goods into the open fields” [4] for their own safety. “The London Gazette” recounts the fight against the monster with chilling words:

…pulling down houses…”, “Too big to be mastered by any Engines or working near it.” “About the Tower the seasonable orders given …to secure the Magazines of Powder.” “…but all in vain, the [monster] seizing upon the Timber and Rubbish and so continuing it self, even through those spaces, and raging in a bright flame all Monday and Tuesday, notwithstanding His Majesties own, and His Royal Highness’s indefatigable and personal pains to apply all possible remedies to prevent it.

Finally, the monster was defeated. Again, from “The London Gazette”:

…by the falling … upon a Pile of Wooden buildings; but his Royal Highness, who watched there that whole night in Person, by the great labors and diligent [used], and especially by applying Powder to blow up the Houses about it, before day most happily it [stopped].” “On Thursday by the blessing of God it was wholly beat down and extinguished.

London was destroyed, but its citizens lived and the last of the great English kaijus was dead.

Footnotes

[1] “The Dragon of Wantley”, quoted from Thomas Percy’s “Reliques of Ancient Poetry”

[2] Even an opera was written in the 18th-century.

[3] These are all actual conspiracy theories about the fire.

[4] “The London Gazette”

References

Æthel, Aunt. “Models of Dragons Are Not To Scale.” Aunt Æthel’s Big Blog of Baloney. Created on February 31st, 1987.

Anonymous. The Dragon of Wantley, quoted in Thomas Percy’s Reliques of Ancient Poetry (17th Century)

Anonymous. “The London Worm?” Punch Magazine. Unknown Volume. 1891.

Bell, Walter. The Great Fire of London in 1666. New York Bodley Head. 1923.

Jones, Terry, and Alan Ereira. Terry Jones’ Medieval Lives. London: BBC, 2004.

Mortimer, Ian. The Time Traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan England. New York: Penguin Books, 2013.

Moxon, Steve. The Dragon of Wantley. Creative Commons, May 2013

Shorpe, L. Geoffrey of Cambria’s The History of Britain. London: Penguin Books Ltd. 1981

“The London Gazette – Fire of London” The London Gazette. Published by Authority From Monday September 3 to Monday September 10 1666. British Library. Timelines: Sources from History.

Ask Another Laurel - What is a Mark?

by Caleb Reynolds

The following was written for the AEthelmearc Gazette

I'm still working on part two of the how not to be noticed series, but I keep getting distracted: orange omelets; certifications for work; medieval riding horses; cleaning the house; car repairs; Roman dodecahedrons. Part 2 is being written but I needed a mental pallet cleanser. I will keep this short.

So, I was doing some research and kept coming across a Mark as a unit of currency. I kept finding references such as "A 1265 French ordinance ruled that a squire could not spend more than twenty Marks on a rouncey", or "The Bohemian King Wenzel II rode a horse valued at one thousand Marks in 1298", or "[London] servants and artisans were not allowed to buy cloth costing more than 2 marks a length". But, what is a Mark? Why did France, England and Bohemia use the same currency?

The short answer is that they didn't. Kingdoms used a Mark to do monetary transactions. A medieval Mark, unlike the pre-Euro German Mark, wasn't a coin, but an international unit of accounting that was the equivalent of 160 Pennies (ish). This allowed people to easily convert money from one currency to another, since most European kingdoms used a similar form of currency derived from ancient Rome: Denarius (Penny, Pence, Pfennig, Denier), Sesterius or Solidos (Shilling, Sous, Groschen, Quentchen), and Libra (Pound, Pfund, Livre, Gilder, Taler). All rabbit holes lead to Rome. See, one Imperial Roman pound of silver was minted into 240 silver coins called denarius or denarii.

Each currency followed similar rules, although the actual numbers changed over time: 12 pennies to the next biggest coin, 20 of those to the next step up. On paper, 240 pennies would weigh one pound-weight of silver and the Pound, Livre, etc, would be the equivalent value of a pound-weight of silver: an ancient Roman pound-weight, which is less than a modern pound-weight (329g vs 454g). A Mark (from the Latin "Marca") was 160 silver pennies (ish) from anyplace, or 2/3 of a pound-weight of silver, ancient Roman pound-weight, of course. Or 8 troy ounces; about 250g. This dates back to the time of Charlemagne's father, Pepin the Short. I have been unable to find out why this arbitrary weight was used. I couldn't find anything obvious, like the annual salary of a Roman soldier or the cost of a plow horse. There probably was a logical reason for the 2/3rd of a pound-weight, but I have been unable to discover it.

I can't imagine that Pepin was brain storming about what weight they should use to make international commerce easier and instead of using a full pound-weight, he picked up a 12" Philly cheesesteak and said, "Yes, this cheesesteak is the right weight for these new Marks." And, of course, since he was the king, they had to go with the cheesesteak's weight, much to the disappointment of team-double-order-of-Buffalo-wings. The only "logical" explanation I could find, while searching academic sources, was that a Libra (Pound, Pfund, Livre, Gilder, Taler) was 12 troy ounces of silver and a Mark was 8 troy ounces of silver. You will notice that while this is technically correct, it doesn't answer our question as to why.

Seriously, I can't think of any logical reason why. Everyone already agreed to use the 12 troy ounces as the weight of 240 silver pennies (more or less), so the Pound, Pfund, Livre, Gilder, and Taler would represent the same mass of silver. I don't know why everyone didn't just use that as the inter-kingdom standard. Why 2/3rd of a pound? How is 13s 4d an easier number to deal with than 20s. Both 160 and 240 are divisible by 10, 8, and 4, but 240 is also divisible by 12. I've been racking my brain as to what logical reason why a Mark was such an arbitrary weight. It's about the weight of two adult hamsters, or ten 'AA' batteries, or an empty heart of a child. Or a medium sized russet potato. Or a small, paper-back book. Or, as Google AI tells me, a handful of coins (I hate AI because of answers like that). Maybe Pepin just hated exchequers.

Robert Tye's "Coin Weight and Historical Metrology (Third Revision, 2022)" gives the following explanation: "The simplest and most readily available measure of volume available to mankind, at least for a stuff like grain, is using a kind of cup made up of the two hands, when used to scoop up a small heap. My own trials of this with modern wheat grain suggest this amount of grain weighs about 250g. In addition, many authors have estimate the average human daily bread ration at about 500g, thus approximately double that amount. These two physical measure arise out of the basic facts of human beings themselves, and might well be connected to the prominence of 500g and 250g standards in Europe, Persia, and China, as will be accounted below." [p116]

This is an interesting idea, but the 2/3rd of a Roman pound-weight was never, as far as I can tell, used to measure out grain or bread; only silver. Most set pricing for bread mentions a full pound of bread to be sold a certain amount. Criminal charges were handed out to bakers who sold bread under a full pound; the whole concept of the baker's dozen was a way of making sure that a dozen small rolls weighed a combined 1 pound, with an extra roll thrown in to make up for any undersized rolls. Philip Grierson, in "Money and Coinage under Charlemagne" theorized that there were two different Carolingian pounds, a heavy one of 16 troy ounces and a light one made up of 15 troy ounces, which might have had something to do with the difference between a Roman pound and an Arabic pound. Or it might have had something related to internal and external commerce. Tye went on in his paper to write, "...but with a general lack of consistency in the coins and apparently no weights or texts to corroborate anything, we are left somewhat whistling in the dark." [p143] We might never know the real reason.

Unfortunately, despite the general agreement about the theoretical weight of the penny, the number Pennies to a Mark varied, based on the time and place, being 144 in some parts of Germany and 160 in others, 160 in Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Flanders and France, and between 160 and 384 in Scandinavia, probably due to the physical size of coins minted in various places. Several sources I found list the weight of a Mark in Gotland as 200g, whereas in Pomerania the Mark was just under 250g. Spain had a complicated history of coinage in the Middle Ages due to the various Islamic and Christian kingdoms that were rivals and what was done after the unification of Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella. And don't get me started on what the Italians were doing. But, for the purposes of this short article, let us just agree that a Mark was 160 silver pennies and move on.

The purpose of the Mark was to make commerce easier, particularly between kingdoms. If you owed someone 1 Mark, you could either count out 160 pence, or the local equivalent, or you could hand over 2/3rd of a Roman pound-weight of silver, about 250g, as mentioned above. As long as the weight of silver was sufficient, that was what was used to pay your debt. Coins, ingots, serving plates, cutlery, rings; the weight of silver was all that mattered. If you owed 100 Marks, you would need to turn over 25kg of silver as collecting and transporting 16,000 pennies would be more of a challenge. Richard the Lionheart's ransom was set at 150,000 Marks, which was 32,900kg of silver. No fiddling about with converting English Pounds to Austrian Talers, the English just had to fork over almost 33 metric tonnes of silver. The huge amount of silver was split between The Holy Roman Emperor, Heinrich VI and the Duke of Austria, Leopold V. The Austrians used the silver to improve the walls of several cities and to establish the Austrian mint. What the Emperor used his share for is a subject for another article.

Marks weren't used for small debts; if you owed someone 50 Pennies, you paid in coins. Either 50 silver pennies, or, 4 Shilling coins and 2 Pence. Pound coins, and their equivalent, were used for medium sized payments within one kingdom. Because of the difference in weight between various coinage, an exchequer or a money changer could figure out the the relative value between coinage which could be various sizes and weights, particularly in port cities where sailors and merchants could have money from almost anywhere in their pockets. The exchequer did this using an exchequer, which is defined as a calculation board used by an exchequer. This is like how a casserole is any dish that is baked and served in a casserole dish. Writing about how to use an exchequer is already on my to do list, but if anyone in the Kingdom's Coiner's Guild wishes to write about it, I would be happy to share the spot light.

Buying a cheap horse from a local seller was normally done with coins, but buying a expensive horse from the other side of Europe was normally done with Marks, or with letters of credit that could be redeemed for a named weight of silver. Marks continued to be used for international accounting until the early 16th Century when new coinage were created for high denominations, minted in gold. But, that will be a more complicated deep dive because everyone kind of went nuts with making new coins. Gold became more common, in Europe, as the new world was looted of everything shiny. The Spanish and Portuguese crowns were using that gold to buy influence across Europe, and gold coins can always be melted down and re-minted.

I hope this helps puts things into perspective when you do your research and come across prices in Marks. Now, back to researching sumptuary laws.

Jochem Becker and Pretzles

I pulled this from some notes and a FB post I made on 6/10/24. I'm posting this here so that it will be more visible.

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I'm putting together class notes for my pretzel rant and I found another BS source. I have found the following line from multiple sources: "there is a story that in 1652 a settler named Jochem Becker was arrested for using good flour to make pretzels to sell to the Indians at a time when his white neighbors were eating bran flour."

I found the court records regarding Jochem and it is a perfect example of sloppy research. Jochem was a baker in 17th century Beverwyck, which is near modern day Albany, NY. He was in court in 1652. And 1653. And 1654. But it does not appear that he had anything to do with pretzels. No. He was called into court multiple times as both a witness for allegations against other people and for himself being rude, insulting, violent, as well as a cheat: He owned numerous people money or goods, and there is even a record that he tried to take possession of someone else's house.

 
What does this have to do with pretzels? Well, on the same court records we find:
Ordinary Session, Tuesday, March 4, 1653
A petition was read from the respective bakers in Beverwyck, requesting mitigation of the ordinance concerning the baking of white bread, pretzel and cookies to be sold to the Indians. Resolved to refer the petitioners to the ordinance

And then, later in the record:
Delivered this day to the honorable gentlemen and signed by all members of this court. After some verbal questions had been asked of their honors, orders were given to put them into writing and to deliver [the petition] to their honors, which was done, the contents or tenor being as follows:
To the Hon. Director General Peter Stuyvesant and the Hon. Nicasius Sille
Upon the complaint of the burghers here, the petitioners find and have daily experienced that the bakers do not act in good faith in the matter of baking bread for the burghers, but bolt the flour from the meal and sell it greatly to their profit to the savages for the baking of sweet cake, whit bread, cookies and pretzels, so that the burghers must buy and get largely bran for their money, and even then the bread is frequently found to be short of weight, and they ask one guilders, yes, as much as 24 stivers for such poor and short-weight baked bread. Which the petitioners in the interest of this community have thought it necessary to bring to your honors' attention, in order that in the future your honors may provide herein as you shall see fit, in the interest of the community here and escpeially of the plain and common people, who can not bake themselves, so that if this continues the Christians must eat the bran while the savages eat the flour; [praying therefore] that a proper weight and a price for the sale of proper bread may be set
Your honors obedient and faithful servants, the magistrates of the court of Fort Orange and Beverwyck. Fort Orange, this 17th of March 1654

What does this have to do with Jochem Becker? Well, the next court entry reads:
Tuesday, March 31, 1654
Commissary Dyckman, plaintiff, against Jochem Becker and Jacob Willemsz de Wolff, defendants, on account of assault and battery by Jochem Becker upon Jacob Willemsz de Wolff at his house on the last of February preceding.

The court having heard the statements of both sides and also examined the evidence, it is resolved to condemn Jochem Becker to pay a fine of thirty guilders to the officer here within the space of forty-eight hours, on pain of execution and to order the aforesaid Becker, as it done hereby, to leave his neighbor, the aforesaid Jacob Willemsz, and all others henceforth unmoloested and in peace, on pain of arbitrary correction.

The next item (5/5/1654)was that Jochem shot someone's dog.

 
Holy crap. How can one poorly presented piece of information can miss the mark so bad? Why even mention Jochem at all? The quote could just have been about the court record of the bakers of Fort Orange and Beverwyck. Why even mention Jochem Becker who appeared to be a douche-canoe. His name shows up about 40 times in a ten year period. If you want to mention pretzels in colonial America, great, use this source, but don't bring Jochem into it unless you want to pour through years of criminal behavior.... It's a wonder how he got any baking done

  Scroll Text - Arden Scot of Clann Scot - Millrind 2025

Kingdom of AEthelmearc - Service Award

Do hear the words of the Crown of AEthelmearc. To Our most beloved Arden Scot of Clann Scot, Knight of the Realm. Since We have had consultation and meeting with the Peers, Coronets, Nobles, and other principal people of Our Realm, with regard to the quantity and quality of service which you have done for Our Realm. We are so moved to take action on this day, to Give and to Grant you entrance into the Most Noble order of the Millrind and to give to you, from Our own hands, the badge of said Order so that all may see and know of your new station. In witness do We, Bjarki and Gabrielle, the aforesaid Crown of  AEthelmearc, commit Our hand to paper at Ice Dragon in Our Barony of the Rhydderich Hael, the 5th day of April, AS59.

inspired by the 1295 Summons of Representatives of Shires and Towns to Parliament

  Scroll Text - Pentathalon Highnesses' Choice - Ice Dragon 2025

Barony of the Rhydderich Hael - A&S Tourney

ATTEND US {INSERT NAME HERE____________________________________}

It is the wish and desire of Timothy and Gabriel, Prince and Princess of Sylvan AEthelmearc,  to hold up before your fair work in the arts and sciences did impress royal eyes and so moved hands to paper and name you and your work Highnesses' Choice at the Ice Dragon A&S Pentathalon, held on this XX day of March, AS nine and fifty in the Barony of the Rhydderich Hael. And these letters shall be your warranty in this behalf.

 Scroll Text - Pentathalon 1st place - Ice Dragon 2025

Barony of the Rhydderich Hael - A&S Tourney

Do all here present pay heed to the words of Magnus and Thalia, Baron and Baroness of the Rhydderich Hael and of the Canton of Beau Fleuve. To the nobles and commons within hearing or seeing these letters, it is our wish and desire to hold up before all the fair works of the trusty and welbeloved artisan, {INSERT NAME HERE}, whose skill in the arts and sciences did impress our eyes and so moved hand to paper and name them and their work Grand Winner of the Ice Dragon A&S Pentathalon, held on this 5th day of April, AS nine and fifty. And these letters shall be your warrant in this behalf.

Inspired by Henry VII's warrant for an imprest at the receipt of the Exchequer, 10/16/1498