Why I Love eBay

My ambition to visit the Cloisters, the medieval annex of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, has finally been achieved this month. I'll have more to post about that, but before I do, this was a nice prelude. A week or two before departure, I came across this item on eBay... a facsimile of a famous illuminated book owned by the Cloisters.

It was priced at $9.95, plus postage. In my experience, $25.00 is a floor for illuminated manuscript facsimiles on the used market. That is to say, they don't appear to be priced at less than t

hat in a used bookstore that has a clue. And at that price, I would typically buy one that I didn't have on the spot, just on general principles.

On eBay, however, the rules are different. The seller must surely have supposed he would get more bids than this, and I'm not sure why they didn't... but I expect it is related to the fact that the seller didn't use the words "illuminated" or "manuscript" or "medieval". The words "Cloisters" and "facsimile" do appear, but only the latter would have drawn much attention from anyone but me at that moment (my search was on "Cloisters", of

course). The word "Apocalypse" was misspelled in the offer. At any rate, I was the only bidder, and here we are. An auspicious find.

Again with the Books

Mistress Melisande is spending the weekend doing something called "stitching camp". I find this activity remote, inexplicable and possibly injurious to sanity; therefore I chose to enjoy a leisurely day among the booksellers (and restaurants, and sellers of fine viands and bottled items) to be found in the Barony of Cynnabar. That is to say, Ann Arbor, for those readers not familiar with the nomenclature of the Middle Kingdom.

Some time ago, I mentioned that I would have more to say about bookstores in Michigan. Two of the finest are to be found in downtown Ann Arbor, and I spent a leisurely hour in each. They don't exhaust the possibilities, by the way, but they are more reliable locations for medieval books than the others.

First, perhaps my favorite bookstore in Michigan is Motte and Bailey, at 212 N. 4th St., just south of the Kerrytown area. With a name like that, you might surmise that the proprietors have a good medieval section, and they do. Their prices are reasonable, I might add. Today I chose Those Who Fought; An Anthology of Medieval Sources, edited by Peter Speed. It was an inexpensive paperback; I resisted the many other temptations in the quiet, elegant store, having many other stops to make. (Besides, I'll be back soon enough. I had to make sure I didn't actually have a copy of another book, and I don't.) Checking out, the co-owner suggested a work describing the military campaigns of Louis the Fat. It's that kind of store. I've had similar conversations with both owners on previous occasions. Once had a long talk with this gentleman about Jonathan Sumption, and when we could expect the next installment of his magisterial history of the Hundred Years War.

A bit later, it was on to Dawn Treader, the venerable warren of stacks at 514 E. Liberty, quite near the big Borders and State St. I've been visiting Dawn Treader since the early 1980s, and have lost track of all the books I've bought there (sold quite a few books to them, too). Today I chose, with some difficulty, The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle Ages, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is an exceptionally fine catalog from an exhibition in the mid 1970s; not the flashiest museum exhibition book I have, but probably the best I've seen, with many photos of late medieval objects arranged logically, with clear and knowledgeable commentary. Just at a glance in the store, it had photos of things I had heard vaguely described and found interesting, and it was inexpensive. Over the years, I've both found many wonderful things at Dawn Treader but often found their medieval selection a bit thin; picked over by Cynnabar folk, no doubt. The last couple of times I've visited, the selection was not thin; I had trouble deciding what to buy.

Ann Arbor has other used bookstores; I usually visit Westside Books, at 113 W. Liberty, but it happens that I rarely find what I'm looking for. Still fun to look, as I did today. Also, keep in mind the Ann Arbor Public Library Friends book shop, which is open in the basement of the library on Saturdays and Sundays during fall, winter and spring. Their selection changes massively from week to week, but I usually find it the best of the library book sales in Michigan. Today I found two books I've seen many times but never for a price I cared to pay, Grant Uden's handsome Dictionary of Chivalry and Flanders in the Fifteenth Century: Art and Civilization.

Sometime soon, bookstores in East Lansing.

The Weekly Standard on the Medieval Congress

The conservative magazine the Weekly Standard has a brilliant article by medievalist Charlotte Allen on Western Michigan University's annual Medieval Congress. I particularly enjoyed her merciless remarks on the dreary post modernism that has infected much medievalism.

Nuremberg Tournament Book

Amazon emails me (because I bought Prof. Muhlberger's Deeds of Arms) that the Nuremberg Tournament Book is available at this link. No pictures and little detail, but the book apparently has reproductions of some or all of the original manuscript illustrations plus modern commentary. The Metropolitian Museum of Art (which owns the manuscript) has a little detail and an illo here.

Another Take on Beowulf

The Wall Street Journal reviewer saw a 3-D version and liked it. In fact, much of what the National Review writer didn't like is exactly what he was impressed with. The link is here, but non-subscribers may not be able to see it. (Rumor has it that Rupert Murdoch will take the online service free when he fully takes over; might be a good idea, but the Journal is so good I'm happy to subscribe, I'll admit.)

What's more, as if more is needed, the movie's animation and 3-D techniques offer a seductive vision of the medium's future.

We've seen a glimpse of that future before, and it didn't work. Mr. Zemeckis used an earlier version of "Beowulf's" motion-capture technology, or digitally-enhanced live action, in "The Polar Express," a ponderous Christmas fantasy that seemed to be populated by overachieving glove puppets with dead eyes. But that was then and this is now. The passing years -- all three of them -- have brought significant changes: facial features moving with a subtlety that's near-human rather than nonhuman, bodies conducting cross-border raids between the concrete and the abstract. Lapses still occur -- an occasional face will make you wonder if they had plastic surgery in the seventh century -- but the look of the film as a whole is literally captivating.

Beowulf Review

National Review (what other political magazine would bother, I wonder, or have a Beowulf scholar on staff) has a good review of Beowulf here.

Not planning to see the movie. I almost always wait for the DVD anyway, but I'm afraid that while I read Beowulf in college, of course, my interest in the Middle Ages before the 12th century was always quite minimal.

Beowulf Coverage

Unlocked Wordhoard has lots to say about the Beowulf movie due for release soon.