
Introduction to Manuscript Studies
Cornell University Press
Published on 15. January 2008
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-0-8014-8708-8 (ISBN)
Description
Providing a comprehensive and accessible orientation to the field of medieval manuscript studies, this lavishly illustrated book by Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham is unique among handbooks on paleography, codicology, and manuscript illumination in its scope and level of detail.
It will be of immeasurable help to students in history, art history, literature, and religious studies who are encountering medieval manuscripts for the first time, while also appealing to advanced scholars and general readers interested in the history of the book before the age of print.
Introduction to Manuscript Studies features three sections:
* Part 1, "Making the Medieval Manuscript," offers an in-depth examination of the process of manuscript production, from the preparation of the writing surface through the stages of copying the text, rubrication, decoration, glossing, and annotation to the binding and storage of the completed codex.
* Part 2, "Reading the Medieval Manuscript," focuses on the skills necessary for the successful study of manuscripts, with chapters on transcribing and editing; reading texts damaged by fire, water, insects, and other factors; assessing evidence for origin and provenance; and describing and cataloguing manuscripts. This part ends with a survey of sixteen medieval scripts dating from the eighth to the fifteenth century.
* Part 3, "Some Manuscript Genres," provides an analysis of several of the most frequently encountered types of medieval manuscripts, including Bibles and biblical concordances, liturgical service books, Books of Hours, charters and cartularies, maps, and rolls and scrolls. The book concludes with an extensive glossary, a guide to dictionaries of medieval Latin, and a bibliography subdivided and keyed to the subsections of the volume's chapters.
Every chapter in this magisterial guidebook features numerous color plates that exemplify each aspect described in the text and are drawn primarily from the collections of the Newberry Library in Chicago and the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
It will be of immeasurable help to students in history, art history, literature, and religious studies who are encountering medieval manuscripts for the first time, while also appealing to advanced scholars and general readers interested in the history of the book before the age of print.
Introduction to Manuscript Studies features three sections:
* Part 1, "Making the Medieval Manuscript," offers an in-depth examination of the process of manuscript production, from the preparation of the writing surface through the stages of copying the text, rubrication, decoration, glossing, and annotation to the binding and storage of the completed codex.
* Part 2, "Reading the Medieval Manuscript," focuses on the skills necessary for the successful study of manuscripts, with chapters on transcribing and editing; reading texts damaged by fire, water, insects, and other factors; assessing evidence for origin and provenance; and describing and cataloguing manuscripts. This part ends with a survey of sixteen medieval scripts dating from the eighth to the fifteenth century.
* Part 3, "Some Manuscript Genres," provides an analysis of several of the most frequently encountered types of medieval manuscripts, including Bibles and biblical concordances, liturgical service books, Books of Hours, charters and cartularies, maps, and rolls and scrolls. The book concludes with an extensive glossary, a guide to dictionaries of medieval Latin, and a bibliography subdivided and keyed to the subsections of the volume's chapters.
Every chapter in this magisterial guidebook features numerous color plates that exemplify each aspect described in the text and are drawn primarily from the collections of the Newberry Library in Chicago and the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
Reviews / Votes
A volume of broad, interdisciplinary appeal.... This volume would be an excellent classroom resource.... This beautifully illustrated, skillfully organized resource is an ideal survey of the field, valuable for presenting information critical to new students and veteran scholars, for teaching the history and scope of the medieval manuscript. A very worthwhile addition to collections in medieval studies, art history, English literature, or archival studies. * Choice *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Ithaca
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 308 mm
Width: 230 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
1504 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8014-8708-8 (9780801487088)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Raymond Clemens is Associate Professor of History at Illinois State University and former Acting Director of the Newberry Library's Center for Renaissance Studies. Timothy Graham is Director of the Institute for Medieval Studies and Associate Professor of History at the University of New Mexico. He is the editor of The Recovery of Old English: Anglo-Saxon Studies in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries and coeditor of Medieval Art: Recent Perspectives.
Content
Part I: Making the Medieval Manuscript
Chapter 1. Writing Supports
Chapter 2. Text and Decoration
Chapter 3. Correction, Glossing, and Annotation
Chapter 4. Assembling, Binding, and Storing the Completed ManuscriptPart II. Reading the Medieval Manuscript
Chapter 5. Working with Medieval Manuscripts
Chapter 6. Punctuation and Abbreviation
Chapter 7. Encounters with Damaged Manuscripts
Chapter 8, Assessing Manuscript Origin and Provenance
Chapter 9. Manuscript Description
Chapter 10. Selected ScriptsPart III: Some Manuscript Genres
Chapter 11, The Bible and Related Texts
Chapter 12. Liturgical Books and Their Calendars
Chapter 13. Books of Hours
Chapter 14. Charters and Cartularies
Chapter 15. Maps
Chapter 16. Rolls and ScrollsAppendix: Tools for the Study of Medieval Latin
by Anders WinrothGlossary
Bibliography
Index
Chapter 1. Writing Supports
Chapter 2. Text and Decoration
Chapter 3. Correction, Glossing, and Annotation
Chapter 4. Assembling, Binding, and Storing the Completed ManuscriptPart II. Reading the Medieval Manuscript
Chapter 5. Working with Medieval Manuscripts
Chapter 6. Punctuation and Abbreviation
Chapter 7. Encounters with Damaged Manuscripts
Chapter 8, Assessing Manuscript Origin and Provenance
Chapter 9. Manuscript Description
Chapter 10. Selected ScriptsPart III: Some Manuscript Genres
Chapter 11, The Bible and Related Texts
Chapter 12. Liturgical Books and Their Calendars
Chapter 13. Books of Hours
Chapter 14. Charters and Cartularies
Chapter 15. Maps
Chapter 16. Rolls and ScrollsAppendix: Tools for the Study of Medieval Latin
by Anders WinrothGlossary
Bibliography
Index