The SCA, Inc., in its early days, formed a number of traditions that have become firmly entrenched after 30-odd years of use. Few of these long-standing practices were based on hard research into period practice; rather, they were based on misunderstandings, poor Victorian scholarship, or "the cool factor;" something which seemed fun at the time, but which later research has revealed to be quite inaccurate.

Many of the most notoriously faulty SCA practices are found in the SCA system of awards. Of course, some of the inauthentic practices are part of the nature of the beast: Men and women running about in modern America playing at Kings and Queens can hardly give away huge tracts of land to their "subjects" as a reward. On the other hand, there is nothing to stop us from doing what we can to move SCA tradition closer to period practice.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to base SCA award scrolls on period documents rather than upon illuminated manuscripts. The SCA scroll is a bit unique; part "legal" document, part certificate of recognition, part art. Most SCA award scrolls are based primarily on the illumination generally found in the best books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, with different kingdoms following period practices at different levels of accuracy: some kingdoms encourage reproduction art that could pass for a product of the period, while other kingdoms are a bit more flexible. While this has lead to a unique modern art form, it isn't very like period practice..

On the other hand, there were period documents with illumination, albeit rarely as grand as what might be seen in the books of period. Too, the SCA would, in my opinion, be less if our awards were undecorated. What I suggest, then, is that scribes of the current middle ages explore period illuminated documents as exemplars for their craft. I wouldn't suggest the complete abandonment of current SCA practice; however, I would suggest that scribes use book illumination with more discretion. There are many beautiful period illuminated documents.

We must, of course, take into consideration that most documents are undecorated. I cannot emphasize this enough. The percentage of period documents that are illuminated is quite small in comparison to those that are not. There are, especially in late period, a few elaborately decorated illuminated documents, but these tend to be very high level documents, such as the marriage treaty for Princess Mary (later Mary I) or the letter from Suleymann to Elizabeth I. These documents are reflective of the Royal status of those involved, and few illuminated documents can match the quality of these examples.

However, there are also a number of examples of period documents that have some decoration. Let's have a look at a few. Follow this link!

Welcome back. After perusing the selection of documents, you might have noticed that the illumination in the best of the documents, as mentioned, may be quite lovely but is rarely as grandiose as that found in even the average book of hours. Too, illumination styles in most illuminated documents tend to be somewhat old-fashioned. While the style of the decoration is never clearly of an earlier era (for instance, a 15th century document painted in a 13th century style), there is usually a lag, with the illumination style of the document somewhat "old-fashioned." The style may still be in use in the books of the day, but it is rarely the fashionable style of illumination.

If you looked at every example of document provided, you will have noted that they range from plain text to elaborate illumination. There are certain similarities in the illumination of most of the documents:

• As mentioned, the illumination is generally of a style perhaps 25-50 years out of fashion in contemporary books.

• Documents usually contain a good deal of heraldry and/or reference to the person/persons granting the arms, lands, or whatever mentioned in the documents. There is usually some combination of heraldic badges, the arms involved, a portrait initial, a motto scroll, representation of a standard, or other types of heraldic art. Although they may exist, I have yet to run across an illuminated document that does not have, at minimum, at least a heraldic reference to the person giving the gift. Other illumination around the heraldic references can usually be best described as floral filler.

• With the exception of a few highly, highly important royal documents, illuminated documents are never as elaborately decorated as most books. Borders are usually in 1, 2, or 3 margins of the page, and mosttimes cover the left and top margins. Documents having decoration in four of the margins are frequently bound in codex form--in essence, a small book--as many times the bottom margins of documents are reserved for signatures and the folded bottom edge usually used to support hanging seals. While portrait initials may exist, documents do not usually contain miniatures--the small, stand-alone paintings typically found in illuminated manuscripts. Again, these appear only in the most important of documents, documents designed to impress the socks off foreign monarchs and so forth.

• Illuminated documents are usually landscape format; that is, wider than they are long. Examples in modern frame sizes might be 11.5"x8", 12"x9", or 20"x16".

• The first line of the text is often elaborate; it may feature a larger nib size or elaborate ascenders or both. Some examples feature the first several lines using large letters and extended ascenders and descenders. As a rule of thumb, one can especially expect elaborate first lines in documents that are essentially undecorated but for whatever calligraphic flourishes the scribe might add.

• The balance of the page is taken up by text. Period documents are very wordy; most SCA award scrolls tend to be shorter. You can find some examples of SCA award texts based on medieval documents here.

From this list, we can discern a general sort of pattern, something we might typically expect to see if we were to look at an illuminated document. It should be pointed out that, even today, modern British heraldic documents frequently follow a similar pattern.

How, then, does an SCA scribe fit this pattern into his or her SCA work? Consider the following suggestions:

1. Consider the "level" of arms being awarded. The idea that there are three levels of arms is strictly an SCA phenomenon; in period, you either had arms or you didn't. The armigerous status of a Duke was not, in and of itself, of a higher level than the armigerous status of a knight. The difference in precedence came from things other than the arms. That said, the SCA system can be useful in considering the amount of work to be put into the decorating of an award. Awards that fall into the "Award of Arms" category can be decorated simply; perhaps beautiful calligraphy featuring a cadel initial and an elaborately flourished first line. Awards that fall into the "Grant of Arms" category can be decorated a bit more elaborately; two margins featuring heraldic devices and floral borders and a portrait initial. Awards that fall into the "Arms by Letters Patent" category might feature full blown borders. All of this will depend, of course, on the scribe's preference.

2. If you wish to use a style of illumination of the 15th or 16th century, it is not terribly hard to adjust it into the style of period illuminated documents. Basically, all one need do is adjust the layout into the landscape format and add whatever badges the recipient might be entitled to display while the illumination style fills in the rest of the space. Some suggested SCA heraldry that might be appropriate: his or her past awards and registered heraldry; in the case of awards for service as an office holder, office badge; household or other affiliations; populace badges for the kingdom, principality, barony, shire; and, of course, the arms of the granting authority.

3. What if the person receiving the award is from the, say, 10th century, or perhaps a culture that didn't use heraldry at all? Say you want to make an award with Celtic knotwork. Those few documents that have survived a thousand years or more do not feature knotwork; they were written records of some transaction or another and nothing more--in terms of their artistic quality, anyway. If you desire to be absolutely authentic, just write the document in the appropriate hand. However, if you would like to include knotwork illumination, try making a knotwork border in three of the margins, inserting a square panel for arms and a circular panel for badges. Many insular books featuring carpet pages have borders which might be easily modified to fit the document pattern. With a little thought, you can generally fit most illumination styles into the document pattern, although, naturally, this won't be 100% authentic. Of course, a reproduction of a book page as a scroll is hardly 100% authentic, either. Further, consider just an illuminated initial. Earlier illuminated documents frequently feature just an elaborately illuminated initial; a beautifully decorated Ottonian letter will certainly be a lovely focal point on an illuminated document.

Illuminated documents, while rare, do exist and make excellent exemplars for the scribe who does not want to abandon the SCA custom of illuminated scrolls yet desires to create a scroll based on something more appropriate than a Book of Hours. It is my hope that this article has given you both sufficient exposure to documents, illuminated and plain, to gain a good idea of their typical appearance and guidelines for using these observations in your own work.

Selected References
Most of the information in this article is based on observation. The documents used for the observation may be found in the following books.

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