Touching Parchment: How Medieval Users Rubbed, Handled, and Kissed Their Manuscripts
Volume 1: Officials and Their Books
Volume 2: Social Encounters with the Book
By Kathryn M. Rudy
Open Book Publishers
ISBN: 978-1-80064-959-0, 978-1-80511-164-1
These two volumes, both open-access, reveals how medieval people physically interacted with books. This went way beyond just reading them – these manuscripts would be kissed, sworn upon, displayed publicly and more. It’s a fascinating look at how books were more than the words written on them in the Middle Ages.
Excerpt:
There are two kinds of readers: preservationists who handle books gingerly and protect them from all manner of contagions, including fingerprints, and users who treat books as utilitarian objects. Manuscripts owned by the former have been overrepresented in exhibitions and canonical histories. Touching Parchment focuses on manuscripts owned by the latter. Since the 2010s, such manuscripts have increasingly entered the scholarly discourse. Before that period, most exhibitions and monographs that showcased manuscripts only featured luxurious, pristine examples with celebrity provenance. I consider it a sign of progress that scholars increasingly pay attention to images and manuscripts that are marred, tattered, anonymous, and filthy.
Advertisement
Who is this book for?
If one were to explain material culture in the Middle Ages, this two-volume book would serve as a perfect example. With the growing interest in medieval manuscripts in recent years, this work is sure to attract a wide readership. The fact that these volumes are available for free download will only help it reach an even larger audience.
The Author
Kathryn M. Rudy is a Professor at the University of St Andrews, where her researches focuses on medieval manuscripts or books. You can learn more about Kathryn on her Wikipedia page or Academia.edu page.
Advertisement
You can learn more about this book and downloaded the volumes for free from the publisher’s website: Volume 1andVolume 2
Touching Parchment: How Medieval Users Rubbed, Handled, and Kissed Their Manuscripts
Volume 1: Officials and Their Books
Volume 2: Social Encounters with the Book
By Kathryn M. Rudy
Open Book Publishers
ISBN: 978-1-80064-959-0, 978-1-80511-164-1
These two volumes, both open-access, reveals how medieval people physically interacted with books. This went way beyond just reading them – these manuscripts would be kissed, sworn upon, displayed publicly and more. It’s a fascinating look at how books were more than the words written on them in the Middle Ages.
Excerpt:
There are two kinds of readers: preservationists who handle books gingerly and protect them from all manner of contagions, including fingerprints, and users who treat books as utilitarian objects. Manuscripts owned by the former have been overrepresented in exhibitions and canonical histories. Touching Parchment focuses on manuscripts owned by the latter. Since the 2010s, such manuscripts have increasingly entered the scholarly discourse. Before that period, most exhibitions and monographs that showcased manuscripts only featured luxurious, pristine examples with celebrity provenance. I consider it a sign of progress that scholars increasingly pay attention to images and manuscripts that are marred, tattered, anonymous, and filthy.
Who is this book for?
If one were to explain material culture in the Middle Ages, this two-volume book would serve as a perfect example. With the growing interest in medieval manuscripts in recent years, this work is sure to attract a wide readership. The fact that these volumes are available for free download will only help it reach an even larger audience.
The Author
Kathryn M. Rudy is a Professor at the University of St Andrews, where her researches focuses on medieval manuscripts or books. You can learn more about Kathryn on her Wikipedia page or Academia.edu page.
You can learn more about this book and downloaded the volumes for free from the publisher’s website: Volume 1 and Volume 2
You can buy physical copies of this book on Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
Related Posts
Subscribe to Medievalverse