Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- The roles of books
- Book production
- Readership, libraries, texts and contexts
- 9 Library catalogues and indexes
- 10 University and monastic texts
- 11 Law
- 12 Books for the liturgy and private prayer
- 13 Compilations for preaching and Lollard literature
- 14 Spiritual writings and religious instruction
- 15 Vernacular literature and its readership
- I The Anglo-Norman book
- II Middle English literary writings, 1150–1400
- III The Welsh book
- 16 History and history books
- 17 Archive books
- 18 Scientific and medical writings
- 19 Music
- 20 Illustration and ornament
- List of abbreviations
- Bibliography
- Photo credits
- General index
- Index of manuscripts
- Plates 1
- Plates 2
- References
I - The Anglo-Norman book
from 15 - Vernacular literature and its readership
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- The roles of books
- Book production
- Readership, libraries, texts and contexts
- 9 Library catalogues and indexes
- 10 University and monastic texts
- 11 Law
- 12 Books for the liturgy and private prayer
- 13 Compilations for preaching and Lollard literature
- 14 Spiritual writings and religious instruction
- 15 Vernacular literature and its readership
- I The Anglo-Norman book
- II Middle English literary writings, 1150–1400
- III The Welsh book
- 16 History and history books
- 17 Archive books
- 18 Scientific and medical writings
- 19 Music
- 20 Illustration and ornament
- List of abbreviations
- Bibliography
- Photo credits
- General index
- Index of manuscripts
- Plates 1
- Plates 2
- References
Summary
The author of a thirteenth-century chess treatise addresses the following instructions to the friend who has commissioned his translation:
Fet est nekedent, ore le recevét
Mun liveret, e pas nel peoplez
Kar chose ke trop est poplee
Meins valt e meins est amee
E sens e aveir plus vil en sunt
Kant commun est a tut le mond
…
Pur ceo, beal frere, par icele fei
Vus conjur, que feistes a mei
Ke vus cest livere pas n’aprestez,
Si vus congié de mei ne aiez.
No doubt the injunction not to lend the book to anyone was inspired by fear of its loss, but the argument about publication, i.e. ‘making public’, goes back to Augustine’s De doctrina Christiana and the hermetic tradition of the ‘books of secrets’ in scientific writing, which seek to guard against trivialization.
It is obvious enough that if we are to discover anything worthwhile about the production, circulation and patronage of vernacular books in the Middle Ages, a careful examination of the make-up of surviving volumes is indispensable. Although the study of the medieval book is well established, Anglo-Norman codicology has made somewhat halting progress so far, largely as a result of the reluctance of editors to give detailed and independent assessments of the manuscripts they are using. Admittedly, the date at which extant manuscripts, booklets and loose sheets were assembled and bound as composite volumes is often incalculable – there are a number of stages between the quire, the unbound pamphlet and the fully bound manuscrit de luxe.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain , pp. 367 - 380Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
References
- 2
- Cited by