Quarter Life Crisis

The world according to Sven-S. Porst

« Cheap Travel FridayMainPatrick Wolf Halloween »

Illuminated

262 words

The weekend in Cambridge turned out quite fun. Seeing Dan’s cool new flat, attending two themed parties and meeting Dan’s old friends and new colleagues there… and, most importantly but not entirely surprisingly, winning the eat a doughnut hanging from a clothes line contest at the one party… I was hungry at the time, so my Homer Simpson skills came through – but competition was tough with a ten-year-old coming in as a close second…

We also walked around Cambridge, visited Dan’s department, did shopping and so on. Nothing particularly stressful, I’d say. As a little Sunday afternoon thing we visited the Fitzwilliam Museum which has a rather big collection of antiques from Roman sculptures to medieval arms to Chinese porcelain. Nice, but nothing I’m too interested in. And with by far too many exhibits in very little room to start being enthusiastic about.

But, as a cool highlight, they had a special exhibition on The Cambridge Illuminations, with two darkened rooms full of illuminated manuscripts. I just love that kind of thing. The illuminations, but even more the writing. To see how the writing changed to and from forms that are more or less legible when you’ve learned reading in the twentieth century. To see the effort people put into these manuscripts, many of them copies of the bible, the making of which took years. And in which every single page seems to have been done with great care for details to make sure there are well-shaped paragraphs. I could look at these things all day and enjoy the little details…

October 30, 2005, 23:09

Comments

Comment by Scott: User icon

Have you seen the British Library’s turning the pages exhibit? It’s really quite something.

November 1, 2005, 16:26

Comment by ssp: User icon

Thanks for that link Scott. Looks like a nice idea. Although I must say that I keep being a bit unimpressed by on-screen graphics. Particularly with all the JPEG artifacts the British Library managed to put into their images. But better than not seeing those books at all :)

November 9, 2005, 1:41

Add your comment

« Cheap Travel FridayMainPatrick Wolf Halloween »

Comments on

Photos

Categories

Me

This page

Out & About

pinboard Links

People

Ego-Linking