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Book History Archive
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Making Books for Profit in Medieval Times
Posted on April 15, 2013 | No CommentsWhat I find most remarkable about the bookish slice of medieval society that I study is not so much the differences between medieval manuscripts and our modern books, but their similarities. -
The Great Age of Books: The 14th and 15th Centuries
Posted on January 18, 2013 | No CommentsIn this video, Hobbins discusses his research on the tremendous changes in book production in the late Middle Ages, before the advent of print. -
Edition, Translation, and Exegesis: The Carolingians and the Bible
Posted on December 23, 2012 | No CommentsIn their attention to philological procedures and details, to the work of editing, revising, and translating, ninth-century scholars made a lasting contribution to the ways in which Europeans would think about the Bible. -
Exegesis According to the Rules of Philosophy or the Rule of Faith?: Methodological Conflict in the Ninth-Century Predestination Controversy
Posted on December 16, 2012 | No CommentsThe development of biblical exegesis, as Contreni shows, was rapid, but not homogeneous. On the one hand, one of the main ways to acquire biblical wisdom was to rely on the interpretations and teaching of the Holy Fathers, whose texts were studied, assimilated, simplified, collected, and taught. On the other hand, Alcuin’s revival of the liberal arts6 paved the way for the rise of another method of biblical exegesis. -
The Production and Planning Process of the Book of Kells
Posted on December 9, 2012 | No CommentsThe Book of Kells is one of Ireland’s greatest treasures, although its origins— location and date—cannot be definitively determined. The gospel book earned its name from the monastery in which it was last housed before its move to Dublin (circa 1654) for safekeeping during the Cromwellian period when Catholic establishments were dissolved and property was either looted or destroyed. -
In It for the Money: The Birth of Commercial Book Production
Posted on December 5, 2012 | No CommentsThis lecture introduces the main players of this world of medieval book commerce -- parchment makers, paid scribes, illuminators, shopkeepers -- and discusses why these traditionally separate professions blended into a closely knit community that stands at the cradle of our bookish world today. -
Reading and meditation in the Middle Ages: Lectio divina and books of hours
Posted on November 25, 2012 | No CommentsThis article aims to shed light on the practice of reading the book of hours by considering who engaged in this practice, how the book of hours was read, and what the goal of such reading activity was. -
Medieval Book History Week Lecture: “Practical Latin and Formal English in the 14th-15th Centuries”
Posted on November 13, 2012 | No CommentsThis lecture is part of Medieval Book History Week. Renown Professor Jeremy Catto spoke about literacy and language in England during the later Middle Ages at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies at the University of Toronto. -
Authors, Scribes, Patrons and Books
Posted on October 28, 2012 | No CommentsThis essay gives an account of the social role of manuscripts and early printed books and the processes by which they were made, processes that changed greatly during the period -
Bernard Ayglier and William of Pagula: Two Approaches To Monastic Law
Posted on October 10, 2012 | No CommentsThe paper examines the role of canon law in two monastic works, the Speculum monachorum (SM) (1272x74) of Bernard Ayglier (d.1282), abbot of Montecassino, and the Speculum religiosorum (SR) (c.1322) of William of Pagula, a canonist and secular priest (d.1332) -
The Librarius and Libraire as Witnesses to the Evolving Book Trade in Ducal Brittany
Posted on October 7, 2012 | No CommentsIn monasteries and cathedrals of the medieval West, the « custos librariae » functioned primarily as a custodian or keeper of bound codices, and we see a similar role emerge from extant medieval registers from Breton cathedral chapters. -
“The King’s Library: Construction, Representation and Reception of the Ideal Kingship in the Late French Middle Ages”
Posted on October 6, 2012 | No CommentsThis paper on Charles V of France and his contribution to education was given on October 5th, 2012 as part of a workshop between Freiburg and the University of Toronto. -
Medieval and Renaissance Book Production
Posted on August 28, 2012 | No CommentsWe are accustomed to think of the periods of manuscripts and printed books as distinct. Traditionally a scholar working in one of these fields has known little of the other field. -
Kissing Images, Unfurling Rolls, Measuring Wounds, Sewing Badges and Carrying Talismans: Considering Some Harley Manuscripts through the Physical Rituals they Reveal
Posted on August 13, 2012 | No CommentsChristianity as practised in the late Middle Ages demanded physical rituals. These rituals encompassed great public displays, such as processions around town walls and through churches, led by clergy dressed in ceremonial garb; smaller public displays, such as priests’ performances of Mass; and actions by the laity, including small private rituals involving a votary with his book and perhaps an image. -
Reading in the Refectory: monastic practice in England from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries
Posted on June 13, 2012 | No CommentsTeresa Webber discusses monastic practices of communal public reading at mealtimes. -
Glossaries and Other Innovations in Carolingian Book Production
Posted on May 21, 2012 | No CommentsCarolingian book production needs to be understood within the context of the communication of knowledge, the transmission of ideas across time and space and the consequent formation of what can be described as a cultural map in Europe. -
Charting the “Rise of the West”: Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, A Long-Term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries
Posted on April 29, 2012 | No CommentsThese arguments suggest that the number of manuscripts and printed books produced in a given society are complex measures of economic performance and societal capabilities, and are therefore a valuable guide to the study of long-term economic change. -
Libraries and Book Culture of the Byzantine Empire
Posted on April 22, 2012 | No CommentsThe Byzantine Empire supported literary life at a time when many other parts of the western world were in a state of literary darkness. -
Literacy, reading, and writing in the medieval West
Posted on February 19, 2012 | No CommentsOf course, literacy, reading, and writing are also overlapping and interdependent cultural forms and practices, and no historical treatment can study one in isolation from the others. Yet because they are not exactly the same things, so too scholars have tended to concentrate upon one or the other. -
The Care and Value of Medieval Books: A Literature Review
Posted on November 29, 2011 | No CommentsThis paper examines, compares and contrast diverse points of view about caring and valuing books in medieval times, from the perspective of the most authoritative authors in this field. -
Footnotes on Life: Marginalia in Three Medieval Icelandic Manuscripts
Posted on October 27, 2011 | No CommentsFootnotes on Life: Marginalia in Three Medieval Icelandic Manuscripts By Christine M. Schott Thesis, University of Iceland, 2010 Abstract: This project investigates what paratextual material—specifically marginalia—can tell us about the... -
Hidden Wisdom and Unseen Treasure: Revisiting Cataloging in Medieval Libraries
Posted on July 14, 2011 | No CommentsHidden Wisdom and Unseen Treasure: Revisiting Cataloging in Medieval Libraries By Beth M. Russell Cataloging and Classification Quarterly, Vol. 26, no. 3 (1998) Abstract: Scholars working in the fields of... -
The Medieval Girdle Book Project
Posted on June 19, 2011 | No CommentsThe Medieval Girdle Book Project By Margit Smith and Jim Bloxam International Journal of the Book, Vol.3:4 (2005/6) Abstract: The study of girdle books in their historical context will add...