black with a mount · Fez · Manner of the fourteenth century
Ink and Interlace
Marinid illumination · Manner of the fourteenth century · Fez
- Giclée on 200gsm archival matte, pigment inks
- Printed to order in Europe and posted to you
- Framing is optional, and framed prints arrive ready to hang
About this piece
A carpet page is the one surface a workshop was allowed to show off on: a full field of interlaced knotwork in gold, lapis and deep red before a word of text. The Qarawiyyin at Fez has been lending books like this since 859, which makes it the oldest working library anywhere.
Lampblack, lapis, gold
A living tradition
This comes from a craft people still practise. It is nobody's private property and it is not nobody's work either: it was made, over centuries, mostly by women whose names were never written down. We say so rather than call it anonymous.
