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Medieval Manuscripts

By Dr. Nancy Ross
Giovanni Todeschino, Jean Bourdichon and Master of Claude of France, Book of Hours of Frederic of Aragon, Tours, ca. 1501–1502 (The Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris)
Giovanni Todeschino, Jean Bourdichon and Master of Claude of France, Book of Hours of Frederic of Aragon, Tours, ca. 1501–1502 (The Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris)

What survives

More medieval books survive from the Middle Ages in Europe than any other artistic medium. Scholars refer to these hand-made books as manuscripts. Books that contain artistic decoration are called illuminated manuscripts. Manuscripts that survive from the European Middle Ages are generally religious books that reflect the canon, doctrine, and practices of Christianity, though there are Jewish and Muslim books and other types of books that survive from this time period as well.
Bifolium from the Andalusian Pink Qur'an, c. 13th century (Spain), ink, gold, silver, and opaque watercolor on paper, 31.8 x 50.2 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Bifolium from the Andalusian Pink Qur'an, c. 13th century (Spain), ink, gold, silver, and opaque watercolor on paper, 31.8 x 50.2 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The codex vs. the scroll

A medieval manuscript is a codex (pl. codices), meaning a book made of pages bound between two boards. Ancient scribes wrote on scrolls that were stored in boxes. These ancient scrolls only survive in occasional fragments, as a scroll is especially vulnerable to physical degradation. The pages of codices, on the other hand, are protected by their covers and have a much greater chance of survival. Thus, medieval books survive in large numbers.

Where to see medieval manuscripts

The Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris and the British Library in London house the world's largest collections of medieval manuscripts. Though normally only available to scholars, many museums and libraries put some of their manuscript treasures on display. Digitizing, or creating high-quality digital images of manuscripts, is increasingly common, and these images are normally available on the Internet, furthering the study of these medieval books.
A miniature of the hermit (monk) writing at a desk (detail, f. 6v), Estoire del Saint Graal, La Queste del Saint Graal, Morte Artu (Royal MS 14 E III), France, N. (Saint-Omer or Tournai?), 48.5 x 33.5 cm, 1st quarter of the 14th century (The British Library, London)
A miniature of the hermit (monk) writing at a desk (detail, f. 6v), Estoire del Saint Graal, La Queste del Saint Graal, Morte Artu (Royal MS 14 E III), France, N. (Saint-Omer or Tournai?), 48.5 x 33.5 cm, 1st quarter of the 14th century (The British Library, London)

What's in the books

The original manuscripts of the Bible, the works of Aristotle and Plato, and other ancient writers do not survive. They are known today because medieval scribes diligently copied them.

A slow and laborious process

Recording and disseminating information is quick and easy today, but in the Middle Ages in Europe, this process was slow and laborious. Monastery libraries housed most books, and all books were copied by hand, usually by monks. This process of copying and disseminating books was essential to the preservation of knowledge.
Some monks traveled to distant monasteries to view and copy books to bring back to their own monastery's library. Fires destroyed many medieval libraries and the books they housed. Because of this and other accidents in history, not all texts survived the Middle Ages. The Name of the Rose (1980), a novel by Umberto Eco, imagines such a fate for Aristotle's lost work on poetics.
Full-page miniature of St. Luke as an evangelist (f. 129v), ca. 500–599 C.E. This page prefaces the Gospel of Luke in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 286: Gospels of St Augustine. (Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, UK)
Full-page miniature of St. Luke as an evangelist (f. 129v), ca. 500–599 C.E. This page prefaces the Gospel of Luke in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 286: Gospels of St Augustine. (Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, UK)

Books & Christianity

Books were essential to the practice of Christianity. Medieval Christian missionaries, such as St. Augustine of Canterbury, brought books with them as they traveled from place to place preaching and establishing new churches. The Gospel Book of St. Augustine survives today in the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. It contains the text of the gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John of the New Testament—an essential work for teaching potential converts about the life of Christ. A series of images illustrating the life of Christ prefaces the text, and each book of the gospels begins with an illustration detailing the events unique to that gospel, though some of these are now lost.

Illustrations

The oldest illuminated manuscripts are among the oldest manuscripts in existence. The illustration of books was functional as well as decorative. Illuminated initials and painted miniatures marked the beginnings of important sections in the text and allowed readers to navigate the book.
Doodle in the lower margin of a page in a manuscript of Juvenal's Satires, 15th century, MS 368, f. 64v (Carpentras, Bibliothèque municipale)
Doodle in the lower margin of a page in a manuscript of Juvenal's Satires, 15th century, MS 368, f. 64v (Carpentras, Bibliothèque municipale)
Prefatory image cycles prepared the mind of the reader to engage with the text. Some illustrations elaborate doctrines, record events, or simply tell stories. Even readers' doodles are intriguing to contemporary scholars.

Word and image

In illuminated manuscripts, words and images worked together to inform the medieval reader, and occasionally these readers left their own mark. These books are highly interactive. Nearly all medieval manuscripts provide ample space in the margins for readers' notes and comments. In this way, illuminated manuscripts are different from other types of media in that they provided spaces for readers to record their reactions to image and text.
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Essay by Dr. Nancy Ross

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  • piceratops ultimate style avatar for user Erin Becker
    The paragraph "Books and Christianity" mentions a book called the Gospel Book of St. Augistine, and states that it was illustrated, but the article "A New Pictorial Language" states that St. Augistine was an iconoclast who believed that all images were, in essence, lies. Did this book actually belong to St. Augistine? Were the images not found in the original and added by later copyists after iconoclasm ended? Or am I misinterpreting Augustine's stance on images?
    (7 votes)
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  • leaf orange style avatar for user Jeff Kelman
    "Nearly all medieval manuscripts provide ample space in the margins for readers' notes and comments. In this way, illuminated manuscripts are different from other types of media in that they provided spaces for readers to record their reactions to image and text."

    Given that few people could read I would imagine even fewer could actually write. Given this fact is it true that mostly monks would write in these margins to each other? Were their any secret codes passed along that perhaps they wouldn't want the high central authorities to see?
    (3 votes)
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  • duskpin sapling style avatar for user TheCherry
    In the paragraph 'Word and Image", it says that readers too made notes on manuscripts. Were there restrictions on who could write on these books? As the process of making one was so long and arduous, it is highly unlikely that people privately owned books like they did once Printing started. So that's my question- did every literate reader have the right to make these notes? Wouldn't that affect its quality?
    (3 votes)
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    • aqualine tree style avatar for user David Alexander
      rights are not the question here, it is one of opportunity. If books were rarely consulted, additional comments in the margins might be days, week, years or even generations old before they were discovered. If literacy was restricted to only a privileged few (as it seemed to have been), they may have felt entitled to demonstrate not only their ability to access and read texts, but to comment thereon (and therein) just because they and the few like them were the only ones likely to notice.
      (5 votes)
  • female robot grace style avatar for user Sidney W
    Typo - MiddleS ages - 1st line - 1st paragraph
    (3 votes)
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  • orange juice squid orange style avatar for user waukewan1
    What were the manuscripts made out of?
    (3 votes)
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  • spunky sam red style avatar for user Eman
    Does anyone know what's St. Augustine's main argument about human will?
    Can't find it anywhere!! :(
    (3 votes)
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  • orange juice squid orange style avatar for user waukewan1
    What language were the manuscripts written in?
    (3 votes)
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    • duskpin ultimate style avatar for user Миленa
      Latin was the language of scholars. This is because there were so many languages in Europe, scholars needed a common language to communicate.

      However, some manuscripts - usually those containing fiction - are in the vernacular (common tongue). For example, the 12th century Lais of Marie de France are written in Breton.
      (3 votes)
  • leafers tree style avatar for user George K.
    How many of the surviving medieval books are novels? Were novels around back then? ;)
    (2 votes)
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    • duskpin ultimate style avatar for user Миленa
      That's a really cool question! Unfortunately, it's also kinda hard to answer, because the genre known as a "novel" has greatly evolved throughout time. There are some examples of "novels" dating from the Roman era; however, these were very different than ones you would find in modern bookstores. In fact, the first "modern novel" was Don Quixote published in 1605, two centuries after the Middle Ages!

      However, modern novels grew out of medieval traditions, and there are some medieval books we can consider "novels." In the early 13th century, there was a shift from poetry towards prose writing. Most of the books written in prose were chivalric romances (aka, the kind of books where the brave knight rescues the damsel in distress), which were early signs of what would evolve into the modern form. Some examples of such early works (chivalric or not) include: The Filocolo by Giovanni Boccaccio from 1335/6 (first novel in Italian); Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta again by Boccaccio from 1343/4 (first psychological novel in the West); Le Mort d'Arthur by Thomas Malory from the 1470's (first novel in English); and other such works.

      Also, other countries developed novels - see for example Lady Murasaki's genius Tale of Genji from Heian Japan (early 11th century).
      (5 votes)
  • duskpin ultimate style avatar for user James Brown
    Would another reason for the function of illustrated manuscripts be because in the Middle Ages most people were illiterate?
    (2 votes)
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    • duskpin ultimate style avatar for user Миленa
      (Here is what I would say, to the best of my knowledge.) Illiterate people belonged to the lowest classes. Ordinary manuscripts -- and especially illuminated manuscripts -- were too expensive for them. And why would you buy a book for its pictures when the village storyteller is much more lively and engaging? Also, the illuminated manuscripts are not picture books. The illuminations act as more of a supplement to the text than as pictures in their own right.

      However, you are 100% right that pictures were used to communicate with the illiterate. But these were the altarpieces and reliefs on cathedrals -- things the entire public had access to.
      (4 votes)
  • leaf green style avatar for user Nathan Nez
    trying to find out more about the illuminated gospel from the 1400's in ethiopian
    (2 votes)
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