Author Archives: Michaela de Bruce

Ummm… after a winter sans sluggies we had 3, yes 3, seek shelter from the rain last night. All pretty small maybe 6cm fully stretched, 4cm travel sized. But fast! Yeah fast slugs who knew? The one I rescued from the front door also looked at me. I rescued it using a piece of card and it zoomed to the edge and elevated the front half to look around and it turned to face me.
I’m not really prone to hyperbole but it was sufficiently creepy for me to go into said rain and throw the card and sluggie a little further onto the grass than I would normally. And it was upon returning that the third sluggie was found zipping over the front steps.
I did get more card to rescue/remove it to the grass but ummm.
Fluffy stepped on it.
I tried nudging it to get it to start to move, but…
Fluffy is now a, Absolute Unit.
A hefty chonker.
Sluglets don’t really stand a chance.

Of all the disabilities it has to be the same as what I’m currently in a waiting list to understand. We both have neuropathy in our legs. We both seem to have degeneration in the (very) lower spine. Mine is made worse if I have any compression at any point from neck to knees, but his seems to be permanent. He also has had a really sudden health crash that obscured just how very determined he is. When he is unwell he just stops eating. Which, again, is what I do. I took a chance on a product that seemed to be the equivalent of what I need when I get to that point. It’s basically fluids, protein, and sugar in a very tasty sippy (or licky in his case) form.

It was exactly what he needed. In fact he’s even eating his preferred hard biscuit food. He has turned the emergency corner I think. He is so very tired so I’m under no pretences that he is cured.

My sleep is just…. but he seems to have learned that if he stands on my feet I pick him up to get water. If I feel him next to my feet that means he wants food. If he stands on my chest he needs the litter tray. He really has learned that I’ll loop my hands under him to let him get back on my bed himself and I’ll protect him from falling.

He is such a scrapper.

Boo was too.

I am too.

It’s not about denying this really important part of how you interact with the world and even more importantly how the world responds to you. It’s knowing that and doing what you can.

I’m worried that his habit of jumping is going to cause more injury to his spine, so during the day he has the entire lounge to himself. The sofa seats are low, he remembers where his water and food and tray are, all low to the ground.

Boo being deaf was also disabled and we also needed to find a way to gradually open up his world in a way that would prepare him.

If this emergency period is coming to an end I really hope we can try one of the two treatment options. Healthcare for pets is under pressure just as much as for people. It’s still a bit of a difficult wait.

In 2004 I took notes and recorded an image of an illustration from a book I believe I gravitated to as an exhibition catalogue about Felipe II. But my notes are lost. All I have is the artist name and that it was an illumination. This is a long post as this is sometimes the amount of work I need to track down any individual image or source.

In the years since I found only a few examples of Jörg Breu d.J.s work but yes that included two illuminated books. One of martial arts, and the other a family book of the Fuggers. Neither of which contain this illustration. He was important in Augsburg so I kept wondering how much of this probably ancestral figure used clothing known to him, and how much was made up.

I actually grabbed what information I could as I had seen sleeves like this before worn by Maria Jakobäa von Baden, Duchess of Bavaria.

Sammlung | Herzogin Maria Jacobaea von Bayern (pinakothek.de)

This painting is very much about going to the very limit of sumptuary laws even for a duchess. And her hat. Come on. How much do I need one. I am making one, but that’s for another blog.

Every few years I try various searches but finally this year of curating enough manuscripts to get the actual information I need for my Anne of Cleves research.

I don’t know why but The Story of Lucretia by BREU, Jörg the Younger (wga.hu) made me think “what if?”

Manuscript (Ms. 92), Eton College Library.

Needless to say I tried all the terms in this page:

“Commonly referred to as the ‘Antiquitates’ of Hans Tirol. A possible formal title is given on f. [7]v, of ‘Sentencia heroaldi’. This accompanies the portrait of Hans Tirol pointed towards the dedication to Henry VIII.” and “This volume belongs with a further three volumes produced by Hans Tirol, entitled ‘De nobilitate et ortu heroum’: Eton MSS 93-95.”

Round and round I went, finding articles on JSTOR- the greatest interest in this and other manuscripts is in historic deeds, and non-figurative art- and then found a link to a British Museum held sketch of dancers by Breu (Augsburg was big on dance.)

Again! Puffed and paned upper sleeve and trumpeting lower.

But more than that her hem has the same decoration as the probable Eton College image, and the Lucretia from the same, and there are the same curving details to the top of her bodice. Here though she wears a contemporary set of hauben and barret. These probably are his fast fillers but were used on two figures with very different uses.

So you can imagine how exciting that has been. If we didn’t have the Maria Jacobae painting these figures might be dismissed as highly fanciful.

I still really wanted to know if my hunch was right.

I found exhibition catalogues in online bookstores, the exhibition site using the way back machine, and nowhere could I find more images that hinted if my hunch was right.

And then yesterday. I somehow I spotted another solution I must have skimmed several times.

Der Codex entstand in der Werkstatt des Augsburger Malers Jörg Breu des Jüngeren. Eine 1547 entstandene, weniger umfangreiche Fassung des Werks, die dem spanischen König Philipp II. gewidmet war, der Escorial-Codex, befindet sich im spanischen Escorial.

Eton-Codex – Wikiwand

The codex was created in the workshop of the Augsburg painter Jörg Breu the Younger. A less extensive version of the work, created in 1547 and dedicated to the Spanish King Philip II, the Escorial Codex, is in the Spanish Escorial.

Eton-Codex – Wikiwand translated with google translate.

Oh no. Yet another codex I needed to hunt down using all the names it’s been known by across time and space. “Codex Escurialensis” with the date 1549 lead me to a facsimile with the titles of each volume. A great page for tracking down more information but nothing to help me check the style of the figures.

I had tried searching the Escorial library but just was not in the right section. So I still didn’t have the shelfmark. So I try another image search for “”Heráldica y origen de la nobleza de los Austrias” El Escorial

And oh my goodness. There she is. In a tiny thumbnail of a copy of the facsimile held open to her page.

She’s in the first thumbnail of the third row. in this screenshot. She’s in the top of the first page, and in the middle. Maybe the image from the site will help:

Inicio Ediciones Facsimilares Otros Facsímiles Historia genealógica y heráldica de los emperadores, reyes y nobles de Europa, c. 1547

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!! My instinct was right, and oh did you catch the price? There were less than 1000 of these facsimiles made so no, I’m not able to afford one unless it’s an ex university library copy severely defaced and even then… nope.

But finally, I found the correct section of the El Escorial Liabrary!!!! And yes via the facsimile, so taking a bit of a chance I type in “Breu” in the search field, then selected “manuscritos” from the filters and… There they are!

Two have been digitised:

Historia Nobilitatis et Torneamentorum / per Othonem Cardinalem et Episcopum Augustanum
por Truchsess von Waldburg, Otto , Cardenal (1514-1573) | Tirol, Hans (ca. 1505-ca. 1576) | Breu, Jörg (ca. 1510-1547).
Idioma: Latger
Editor: Augsburgo , ca. 1547
Acceso en línea: https://rbdigital.realbiblioteca.es/files/RBME.jpg
Disponibilidad: Ítems disponibles para préstamo: Real Biblioteca del Monasterio de El Escorial Signatura topográfica: 28-I-12.

And

Historia originis et successionis regnorum et imperiorum a Noe usque ad Carolum V
por Truchsess von Waldburg, Otto , Cardenal (1514-1573) | Tirol, Hans (ca. 1505-ca. 1576) | Breu, Jörg (ca. 1510-1547).
Idioma: latger
Editor: Augsburgo , ca. 1547
Acceso en línea: https://rbdigital.realbiblioteca.es/files/RBME.jpg
Disponibilidad: Ítems disponibles para préstamo: Real Biblioteca del Monasterio de El Escorial Signatura topográfica: 28-I-11.

So naturally I get scroll happy, hoping my girl (now girls as I want to see them all) will pop up. Now these are incredible books, with so much valuable information including for my own research, but as I suspected the volume I need is actually:

Historia originis et nobilitatis Hispaniae et Germaniae etc. / per Othonem Episcopum Augustanum
por Truchsess von Waldburg, Otto , Cardenal (1514-1573) | Tirol, Hans (ca. 1505-ca. 1576) | Breu, Jörg (ca. 1510-1547).
Idioma: latger
Editor: Augsburgo , ca. 1547
Disponibilidad: Ítems disponibles para préstamo: Real Biblioteca del Monasterio de El Escorial Signatura topográfica: 28-I-10.

And that makes sense. I suspected she was dressed in an Augsburg style after all.

But what of the other images you find in an image search. Well another seller of facsimiles includes a page that is very familiar in style and that’s because Jorg Breu also illustrated the Fuggerbuch- a genealogy book for the very rich Fuggers. Of Augsburg.

These pages are so useful for heraldry, for calligraphy, and is absolutely helping me finally settle on how to do my pattern book! I get to keep my prefered font but include a latinised font “translation.”

As already mentioned Das Ehrenbuch der Fugger – (BSB Cgm 9460) was illustrated by Breu and uses this same person behind their arms, in various examples of contemporary and “ancient” dress.

https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667751/ has the simplest access to all the images, of which there are many.

So while I’m no closer to knowing who she was, I have the information needed while waiting, and hoping that the final volume of the Escorial Codex or Eton Codex are digitised.

At 13 I had two extremely important and life altering discussions with my high school principle.

They both were about my potential.

The first was essentially to counter the heavy social pressure to give up learning before the end of high school. I was told you could learn how to do anything here so here is another chance to do what *you* want. But more that than in a school with the resources that gave me those chances. Chem lab? Got. Bio labs? Got. Technical drawing? Got. Drama space and books and teachers? Got.

So I changed my classes to be STEM first but with a heavy side dose of arts

I needed my second discussion because I was 13 and the peer pressure was to waste time at school. I was goofing off and even skipped some classes.

That second discussion didn’t just help me, it meant I asked was that actually worth losing the future I wanted? And then wow, I wanted to give so many people that same chance and then the follow up chance at least.

And it wasn’t phrased as I’ll end up in “bad” jobs if I didn’t- just that the chances here were due to having the people and infrastructure to help me do what I really truly wanted to do.

I actually got to follow two, TWO!, paths at the same time. I ignored all the free time in senior school and filled them in with more classes

I ended up with tertiary qualifications in art and in science.

In many ways I surpassed expectation by doing both, and pretty well even if not in the highest grades.

I knew that was the cost.

But yeah.

I think about that a lot.

All the schools without the resources for each student to have what they need.

Oh goodness! My sewing machine stopped being able to do a zig zag stitch a while back. It was all a bit hard to think I might need to save to replace her given how much work she saves me, so for a good month or so I’ve just not felt confident and have felt overwhelmed. I couldn’t find any explainers as to what might be going on so I figured I’d start with the advice I give everyone when their machine isn’t operating as expected- clean for dust as it gets everywhere especially places you can’t see.

For my machine this is exactly what was going on. I did have to sacrifice some of the grease as dust absolutely got embedded in some. Luckily it’s over the disks that change the stitch type and I should be able to safely replace that.

But it totally shifted my mood when I was able to use my machine, and the very generous width the zig zag offers, to make over a dress I got second hand. I was also able to close a hole in the seam of my super cute A line tunic in violet, teal, and black striped mix. I realised why I was drawn to this fabric only recently when mum brought out her last pair of knitted footie-slippers Oma made which have the same marled pattern.

But more than that suddenly my options for how to get the brocade onto my velveteen for my Cleves gown has opened wide again. Same with hemming. And I absolutely can think about my other pieces languishing in storage boxes because this was such a barrier.

But yes. Dust, it’s nearly always dust.

I am currently doing an impression of a children’s TV presenter from the 60s or 70s with a long sleeved red skivvy and my teal-black-purple tunic over the top.

Yes! I’ve emerged from the fuzzy dressing gown!

My fibro really get very grumpy when I wear anything wool or acrylic next to my skin. Silly me totally forgot I have a few super soft layers not just my merino ones. I’ll figure some way to use them again. Even more research is pointing to a provable immune involvement that I really hope leads to treatment to prevent symptoms not mask them. Though I’m grateful for that.

My Anne of Cleves research is developing well. It still holds up as novel even as several books and articles use some of the lesser known sources. It’s handy as I can quote the sources and have a bit of a guide as to how they have been used, and include these books in my bibliography.

I’ve got hold of some lovely big art books and with no real reason have once again had a handful of useful images out of hundreds. This is an absence of evidence, not evidence of absence. When a book about different audiences for books entirely ignores the vast libraries of manuscripts owned by women within those audiences. Students? Not university but taught by tutors. Aristocrats? Well nobility mostly but same deal. Monks? Nuns.

https://booksofduchesses.com/teach is a great place to get and idea of just how much there is, though I think a bit limited by different digitisation efforts in different countries, which has been my issue. I suspect an absence of evidence too, not not evidence of absence as has been suggested. When you have the incredible BNF digitisation project then your manuscripts skew French.

So I’m almost ready to move my digital library into the folders of the women who owned them.