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MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS

Learn about the history, structure, and tips for tracing provenance of medieval manuscripts. Understand the components like quires, flyleaves, recto, and verso pages. Follow the journey of manuscripts and uncover their hidden stories.

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MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS

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  1. MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS Beatrice Mameli beatrice.mameli@studenti.unipd.it

  2. What we will see... • Story of the book • The structure of a CODEX • Useful tips for reconstructing the provenance of the manuscript ← Bancroft Library MS 150, fol. 176v, detail, Book of Hours (portrait of St. Jerome)

  3. What is a manuscript? IV century A.D. → manuscripts replace scrolls; 1450 Gutenberg • MANUSCRIPT (Ms) = handwritten text → scroll (volumen); book (codex) You, who want to carry my books with you, wherever you go, you, who wish to have my books as companions in your long journey, BUY THEM!!! A cover to bind the small pages: large books are made for shelves, mine are fitted for your hand. You want to know where to buy them, without searching all the city? Follow me and you shall know!!! Martial I.2 (I century A.D.) Qui tecum cupis esse meos ubiquem libellos Et comites longae quaeris habere viae, Hos eme, quos artat brevibus membrana tabellis; Scrinia de magnis, me manus una capit. Ne tamen ignores ubi sim venalis, et erres Urbe vagus tota, me duce certus eris: Libertum docti Lucensis quaere Secundum Liminia post Pacis Palladiumque forum.

  4. THE QUIRE A, B, C, D = PAGE = one face on a leaf • A, C → RECTO (r°, r) (the face which appears first) B, D → VERSO (v°, v) (the face which appears second) E, F = FOLIO (fol.) = one of the two leaves G = BIFOLIO= rectangular sheet folded to make up two leaves QUIRE

  5. QUIRE1 + QUIRE2 + QUIRE3 + QUIREn • Canterbury Tales, Wife of Bath's Prologue: Book of Wykked Wyves • Description: flyleaves indicated in Roman numerals vs pages in quires indicated in Arabic numerals. es. Cambridge, St. John's College MS L.1 (235) [Troilus and Cryseide + Testament of Cresseid]: • 3 paper flyleaves + 1 parchment flyleaf + 128 pages + 3 paper flyleaves. → iii + i + 128 + iii http://www.medievalscribes.com/index.php?navtype=authors&navauthor=Chaucer&browse=manuscripts&id=8 The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College Cambridge MS 61, Troilus and Criseyde, c. 1386 ii + 151

  6. The story of a manuscript... • Provenance (account of what happened to MS from the point when it was made to its present location; often present in the catalogue) ex. Codex Argenteus: Text: Gothic Bible translated by Ulfilas in 4th century (Bulgaria) Book: made for Theodoric (5th century); scriptorium of Ravenna or Brescia Partly rediscovered in the Abbey of Werden in 16th century Now: Uppsala

  7. TRYING TO RECONSTRUCT THE PROVENANCE: • External evidence (library catalogue) • Internal evidence (inscriptions, name of the owner, marks) Helpful details: number of scribes, illuminations, marginalia; colour of the ink; ; conditions of the spine; stains; (watermarks); coat of arms

  8. Bibliography Connolly, Margaret, Mooney, Linne R., Design and distribution of late medieval manuscripts in England,York: York Medieval Press, 2008. Echard, Sian Partridge, Stephen, The book unbound: editing and reading medieval manuscripts and texts, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004. Henderson, George, From Durrow to Kells: the Insular Gospel-Books 650-800, London: Thames and Hudson , 1987. Hunt, Elizabeth Moore, Illuminating the borders of northern French and Flemish manuscripts, 1270-1310 , New York ; London: Routledge, 2007. Rouse, Richard H., Rouse, Mary A., Medieval manuscripts, their makers and users : a special issue of Viator in honor of Richard and Mary Rouse, Turnhout: Brepols, 2011 Scott, Kathleen L., Tradition and Innovation in Late Medieval English Manuscripts, London: British Library, 2007.

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