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Introduction to On the Typology of Liturgical Books from the Western Middle Ages
On the Typology of Liturgical Books from the Western Middle Ages, 2023
This introductory chapter examines briefly and critically the history of the categorization and typologies of liturgical books and their underlying frameworks. Liturgical texts' transmission in multiple-text manuscripts provide particular challenges and particular new possibilities (particularly in the field of comparative codicology) in rethinking medieval liturgical book typologies. The introduction concludes with a brief summary of the programme of the volume and an account of recurring themes.
2024
Join us on Wednesday, 3 july for our four panels on Monastic Libraries & Book Collections in times of Crisis! at @IMC_L2024! Description These sessions focus on religious communities’ responses to crises in relation to monastic libraries and book collections. We aim to investigate what happened to medieval convent libraries and book collections in times of peril during the Middle Ages, but also the early modern period and up until our time. Session I examine in what way religious communities and some specific religious leaders responded to crises by stimulating desire for knowledge preservation and systematization. Through the analysis of eight donation lists, Benjamin Bertrand examines the role of abbots or bishops in the Anglo-Norman world in the 11th and 12th centuries in reforming their libraries to respond to a changing cultural atmosphere. René Hernández explores the role of library catalogues as a form of securing the agency of readers within medieval book collections. This talk will compare the catalogues of the Franciscan libraries of Assisi (1381), Padua (1396, 1449) and the Libro de los epítomes of Hernando Colón (c. 1539). Finally, Giovanni Verri will discuss the literary works that may have been kept in the Augustinian canonry of Helgafel in Iceland, through an analysis of the church registers (máldagar) and other documents. Session II discusses the acquisition, commission, production, and use of devotional, liturgical and theological books in response to the challenges and crises faced by religious communities. Some of the papers gathered adopt explicitly gendered approaches to crisis in religious communities and consider the continuities and disruptions in production of manuscripts, re-use, and function of books within these communities. Katie Bugyis analyses the motivation behind the acquisition and commission of liturgical, devotional and theological texts by Sibyl de Fenton, abbess of Barking abbey (r. 1393-1419) in times of political, economic, and religious turmoil. This paper considers Sybil’s need to respond to questions of her sacramental authority, particularly to address new and pressing questions about the sacrament of penance. Minela Fulurija Vučić will explore the production of manuscripts in vernacular for convents in Dubrovnik from the 14th to the 18th century, and the liturgical and devotional practices of these nuns through these sources. Finally, Katharine C. Chandler will analyse the creation, use, and afterlife of two precious liturgical sources (MS Lewis E 8 and Morgan MS M.115) part of a set of manuscript graduals copied for the Chartreuse de Champmol around 1470, as witness to the changing textual process of liturgical invention through the late Middle Ages and the early modern era. Session III discusses how at certain times, crises' effects were incremental in book collections of various religious institutions, with the reception of texts that were adapted to new contexts. Phillis will discuss the circulation and copy of the Lamentum Lacrymabile (c. 1150-c. 1153), written in response to the Second Crusade, in relation to changing perceptions of crises in 12th century Flemish religious communities. Brianna Cano analyses the dissemination and use among New Spain nuns of the translation of the Legenda Maior of Catherine of Siena commissioned by Cisneros and the impact of this text on both the visual culture of the convent and the liturgical performance in these communities. Victoria Legkikk explores the circulation of liturgical traditions and the networks between monastic libraries of Rus, Bulgaria and Serbia. Finally, Zhang Fu discusses the publication and circulation of the Jingshan zang 徑山藏, a special version of the whole Buddhist canon, the Tripiṭaka, as a response to social crisis and religious eschatology. Session IV explores how at certain times, these changes were detrimental, and the original context of collections was lost. Papers in this part look at a the Nachleben of medieval and early modern manuscripts, their dispersion and loss in times of peril, their re-assembly and their reinterpretation in their new locations. Katrin Janz Wenig discusses the Zacharias Konrad of Uffenbach’s manuscript collection at the State Library in Hamburg, and the role of this important collector in saving important manuscripts and fragments from late medieval Rhenish monasteries. Anna Michlalchuck (National School of Charters) analyses how the manuscripts and the archives collected by the Maurists were able to «survive» the «difficult» times of the French revolution. Finally, Suzan Folkers studies the processes of safekeeping and exchange of the book collections from the houses of the Sisters of the common life at Deventer and the monastery of canonesses regular of Diepenveen, during the occupation of these towns by Spanish soldiers and the Dutch Revolt (c. 1560-1600). She will also look at how the sisters' books made it into the town's library.
The book collection at St Guthlac's Priory, Hereford, before 1200 : acquisition, adaptation and use
2009
This investigation into the history, content and nature of the book collection at the Priory of SS Peter, Paul and Guthlac, Hereford, constructs a detailed history of the priory and its two predecessors, St Guthlac's Minster and St Peter's Church, until 1200, by way of a context for the collection's three earliest surviving manuscripts. The wider literary and cultural climate of the West Midlands in the period up until 1200 is also taken into account in this construction of context, as are any references to the book collection in primary or secondary sources. With a contextual framework thus established in the first section of the thesis, the second section goes on to describe the three study manuscripts (Hereford, Cathedral Library, O. VI. 11 and P. III. 2, and Oxford, Jesus College 37) in turn, with the contents and structure of each situated within the literary and cultural milieux outlined in the previous chapters. In providing both a fuller description of the study manuscripts and a more comprehensive history of the Hereford churches implicated in their use than have hitherto been available, the thesis sheds new light on the nature of the relationships that existed between the churches and between their book collections, clarifying their position within contemporary networks of book production and dissemination. The thesis suggests an earlier provenance and a common point of origin for the two earliest manuscripts from St Guthlac's Priory: it argues that Hereford O. VI. 11 and Jesus 37 were produced at Gloucester Abbey, with the former sent to St Guthlac's Minster and the latter to St Peter's Church. It also suggests that the transmission of manuscripts from Gloucester to Hereford at the beginning of the twelfth century reflected Gloucester Abbey's concern to extend its influence into the city of Hereford, to the detriment of Hereford Cathedral and in partnership with the local nobility. The thesis also identifies changes in the character of Gloucester Abbey's daughter cell in Hereford, which became more independent after refoundation as the priory in 1143. This was reflected in patterns of book acquisition, as the priory developed into a noteworthy repository of books in its own right. The character of its growing collection owed as much to the influence of Hereford Cathedral as to that of its mother house, and numerous bequests by individual donors added considerable variety to its holdings.
Modern Philology, 2012
This superb account of the invention of the library in England leads the reader on a journey from the late Middle Ages to the seventeenth century, not only describing early libraries and their makers in exquisite detail but also convincingly demonstrating Jennifer Summit's claim that early modern literary history cannot be written without understanding the ''phenomenon of the library'' (Foucault's phrase) that shaped and formed it (37). 1 Summit's range and depth of reference are both intently focused and impressively capacious throughout as she explores the library as a place, an idea, and a set of methods. She brilliantly narrates the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance by describing the fate of books as they were first cataloged in the fifteenth century, displaced and sometimes destroyed or disarticulated as the monasteries were taken over during the Reformation, and finally reassembled into the libraries of the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Summit has an equal facility with medieval and early modern texts, making her uniquely capable of rethinking the import of the Reformation, mapping out its origins, and considering its effects. This book is a groundbreaking volume that will have enormous significance for literary scholars, historians of the book, bibliographical scholars, and many others; Summit's revisions of received wisdom about books and libraries pre-and post-Reformation are compelling, forceful, and undeniably convincing. The book is divided into five chapters, each of which discusses specific libraries and librarians as part of a narrative of what might be called ''knowl-For permission to reuse, please contact journalpermissions@press.uchicago.edu.
The Library of Iona in the Late Seventh Century
Eriu, 1994
1 wish to record my thanks to the Ins the many others who have helped in its preparation. The following must be m name: first, Professor Dr H.J. Frede of the Vetus Latina Institut in Beuron, w assistance in giving me access to Beuron archives this paper could not have b second, the Faculty of Arts, UCD, and especially to the dean, Dr Fergus D travel grant to enable me to carry out research in Beuron; and third, Re Chisholm C.S.Sp. for many enlightening discussions on the methodology o latent sources. 2 'The interest of finding out what books people read in the monasteries and colleges of the Middle Ages needs no underlining, and various ways are open to the enquirer. By a close study of some single author, one may be able to form an impression-as Prof. Laistner does by studying Bede-of the books at the command of that author and his circle. Medieval catalogues, also, show (with less certainty that the books were actually read) what books were available in particular libraries, at particular times. But these methods of investigation have their obvious limits. Another way of gaining a view of the scriptoria and libraries of the [period] is to identify exactly the provenance of as many surviving books as possible.' N.R. Ker, Medieval libraries of Great Britain: a list of surviving books (London 19642), vii; obviously only the first approach is available in this case.