November Labours: Martinmas, killing pigs and swingling flax

Traditonally, November is the month for killing cattle and pigs to preserve their meat,  when there was little fodder to spare for livestock and the main drive was to lay in provisions  to last the household through the harsh winter months.  Many Calendars show pigs, as in the fifteenth century rhyme,
 "At Martinesmasse [11th November] I kylle my swine".
This medieval manuscript decoration shows a labourer with what might be a poleaxe, stunning the pig before it is despatched with the blade.

(Wikimedia commons)

Other Calendar versions for November show pigs still being  herded in the woodlands,  as in this late fifteenth century French calendar, with the zodiac sign of Sagittarius clearly having loosed his arrow below.  And is the young man in the background out to catch a bird?

Heures de la Reine Anne de Bretagne, Paris

© National Library of France

Anne of Brittany (1477-1514) was Queen Consort to two kings of France, Charles VIII and then his succeeding cousin Louis XII. Four surviving  Books of Hours bear her name. By the sixteenth century royal collectors liked their new style printed books to have hand-painted illustrations, and also still commissioned traditional illuminated manuscripts.

For those who did not have to labour, hunting was a source of meat as well as a pastime, and this later Venetian image for November shows a very relaxed young man with his dogs and hunting horn and again with a small bird - sparrow hawk, delicacy or pet?

Month of November,  oil painting, Venice c. 1580

© National Gallery London

And this November image from  the Da Costa Hours  is unusual as it shows an image from textile production - the preparation of flax, an important crop for seed (linseed oil), straw and linen. Flanders, where this painting was done, was a centre for the linen trade. 

Detail from November: Swingling Flax, Da Costa Book of Hours c.1515  Ghent

After being retted, which used water or outside weathering to soften the stalks, the flax was beaten to break up the fibres and separate them from the straw and woody stems.  

This "swingling" was done with a heavy ridged or toothed tool, although probably not in such an artistically neat circle as this. A scutching tool was also used to dress the flax, with a thin edge one side like knife.   The woman in the background is using one.  Finally the fibres would be combed, or "heckled" to remove the last shreds of straw and wood.  

It is clearly a winter occupation as the manuscript pages below are consecutive,  with bare trees and the pigs in the farmyard, and the actual calendar page ends with a fine Sagittarius as the zodiac tailpiece.

November illustration from the Da Costa Book of Hours, Simon Bening, Ghent c. 1515. 

From the coats of arms on the cover,  thought to be made for a wealthy family in Porto, Portugal, and then owned by Don Alvaro da Costa, the King's chamberlain.   © Morgan Library, NYK

From the Da Costa Book of Hours, as above.

October Labours: "And I sow my whete so rede (red)"

October is still the month when in the northern hemisphere we prepare for the winter ahead.  In medieval Europe the essential  second sewing of winter wheat or rye took place,  pigs were fattened on fallen acorns or mast before killing, and wood was stored for ovens and stoves.

In the scene below, ploughing and sewing seed for winter wheat takes front of stage: the skilled sewer will first have measured out the steps per furrow, so that the precious grain is broadcast evenly by handful per number of steps.  The harrow was used to loosen and then rake over the soil to protect the seed from eager birds.  In the background, a man is knocking down acorns or nuts to fatten the pigs rooting among the dead leaves and autumn fungi. Peasants would pay "pannage" for the right to forage their pigs in the landlord's woodland.

Golf Book of Hours, workshop of Simon Bening, Bruges, c. 1520-30

©  British Library Add. MS 24098

In the Golf Book of Hours, this is in fact the illustration for September, with October devoted to the vintage.   Other calendars also show the grape harvest in October,  with winter wheat sewing and pannage activities spread across the three autumn months, according to regional climate and custom.   

This decorated calendar page for October  emphasises the all-important autumn ploughing and sewing, to provide grain through the late winter months.  It also includes the zodiac sign of Scorpio against the same fertile landscape.

October Calendar page with Saints' Days 

©  Morgan Library, USA

And this cheerful, fifteenth-century stained glass Labour for October makes the harrow and the evenly scattered seed into a decorative pattern. Notice the extra large sack of seed,  all part of the pattern, along with the mettlesome horses and the fortified city.  

Painted and stained glass roundel, unknown maker, English c. 1450-75, probably based on woodblock engraving.  The skilled artist has used scratching, stippling and smearing of the brown pigment for shading and emphasis. 

© V&A Museum

March Labours: a foretaste of summer

Despite the daffodils, as the winter chill continues into March, many of us are dreaming of summer holidays and enjoying a glass of wine in the sunshine.  But that depends on those in wine growing regions working on the spring pruning which ensures a fruitful vintage.

Book of Hours, March Pruning   Master of Mary of Burgundy and others, Ghent or Bruges, 1500s 

© Houghton Library, Harvard University

It is often the southern countries of Europe which portray pruning vines as the Labour for the month of March, while colder northern regions focus on digging and delving, as in this sculpture from Carlisle Cathedral.    The twelve Labours of the Months are carved into the capitals of the pillars in the choir, images of devotion for the majority, who could not afford illuminated prayer books and their own stained glass. These vignettes of the agricultural year would illustrate many Bible references in the prayers and preaching for the whole congregation.

Medieval carved figure for March   © Carlisle Cathedral 

Whether digging or pruning, it was all hands to the work;  the smaller sickles suggest skilled pruning of valuable vines, or grafting trees, not just lopping dead branches, although the important Church symbolism of wine and vineyards would be a reason for vines to feature in these luxury devotional manuscripts. 

Page heading for month of March,  Queen Mary's Psalter,  English, c. 1310-20 

This manuscript was thought to be made for Edward II or his Queen, Isabella.  It was seized from the Earl of Rutland in 1533 when Mary Tudor, Mary I, succeeded to the throne and was presented to the Queen  by the Customs officer.  It was given to the British Library in 1757 by George II as part of the Old Royal Library.                

 © British Library Royal Collection

February: winter labours: "Whether the weather be cold…."

February Labours of the Month traditionally show people warming themselves by a cosy fire, like this wealthy man, with his fur hat, and yellow hose, toasting his toes by the supper pot.  His home has glazed windows, and smart tiled floor, as well as bowl and ewer over the large fireplace.

Labour of the Month for February, stained glass roundel © from the Burrell Collection, Glasgow

Designs were often taken from stock woodblock images, shared amongst glaziers, and other craftsmen:  this later one from  Norwich shows similar common elements, with a very fine fire.  

Norwich School stained glass roundel c. 1480-1500  © V&A Museum

There was more demand for domestic stained glass - as can be seen in the wealthier dress and home comforts portrayed - in the early 1500s, and the monthly Labours were a popular subject.  The borders show the  increasing use of silver stain painted on to create yellow areas on clear glass, as well as the continued use of the more easily controlled pot-metal yellow glass cut to shape (emphasising the large bowl).

This one from the same series (which may represent  the month of April?)  shows the inclement weather, as a well-dressed man dives into the porch away from the sudden shower of rain or snow.  The bare trees suggest winter, although the sward is green and he has abandoned his spade, but I like the sense of a familiar chilly weather moment caught in the stained glass.

Possibly the work of John Wattock, for Thomas Pykerell, mayor of Norwich in the 1520s and 30s. ©Norwich Castle Art Gallery & Museum

For more information on stained glass see the Boppard Conservation Project Glasgow and Vidimus.org (Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi).  The glazier's original sketch (for the patron) is called the vidimus.

January: the 'Golf' Book of Hours

The month of January from the "Golf" Book of Hours,  Simon Bening, Bruges c. 1540

© the British Library 

This beautiful Calendar page comes from a luxury Book of Hours, containing prayers and psalms for private worship, with each month showing the traditional European labours of the month.  January usually shows someone warming themselves by the hearth, or vigorously chopping wood, as many country dwellers will be doing even nowadays.  This illumination has several other popular images included, such as the windmill, the pigeonloft and farm animals, all in deep snow.  The 1500s saw Europe's "little Ice Age" taking hold -- in England the Thames froze in December and January (1536/37) so that King Henry VIII could travel on the ice by sleigh between London and Greenwich.

The Renaissance style borders in this Book of Hours show seasonal sports and pastimes, hence its name as the "Golf Book", and January shows boys happily sledging.  This is, of course, a particularly idealised view of ordinary villagers' life in January, with the blue-robed mother and child a reminder of the Nativity.  Prosperous, well-wrapped villagers and townsfolk are leaving a church which would not have looked out of place in the miniaturist's home town of Bruges, which can look particularly beautiful in winter when its canals are frozen and the trees are bare.