Memory's Library

Young hands, old books: Drawings by children in a fourteenth-century manuscript, LJS MS. 361

“…In the absence of definitive provenance information, it is not clear exactly how this specialised religious manuscript passed out of the medieval convent into a context in which young children could gain access to it. Research has recreated this journey for English books, with Summit (2008) explaining how books were “transported across time and place, from monastery to well-lighted and guarded modern reading rooms” (p. 2). An important step in this journey was from monastic houses into the collections of post-Reformation households and libraries (Summit, 2008, p. 109).…”

“…Research has recreated this journey for English books, with Summit (2008) explaining how books were “transported across time and place, from monastery to well-lighted and guarded modern reading rooms” (p. 2). An important step in this journey was from monastic houses into the collections of post-Reformation households and libraries (Summit, 2008, p. 109). Certain monastic books deemed to be of historic value were “desacralized”, and thus were transformed “from objects of belief into sources for a history of belief” (Summit, 2008, p. 8).…”

“…An important step in this journey was from monastic houses into the collections of post-Reformation households and libraries (Summit, 2008, p. 109). Certain monastic books deemed to be of historic value were “desacralized”, and thus were transformed “from objects of belief into sources for a history of belief” (Summit, 2008, p. 8). The others were destroyed or lost, deemed to be irrelevant by post-medieval collectors.…”

“…Ker (1941) estimated the scale of the loss, finding that of the 600 books recorded in the medieval catalogue of the Austin friars of York, only 5 survived (pp. xi–xii; Summit, 2008, p. 102).…”

“…But how did the survival of medieval monastic books compare in Italy, where there was no Reformation to enact the “defacing of the Libraries of their ancient records” (Speed, 1611, pp. 17–18; Summit, 2008, p. 3)? We know that certain books left Dominican convents due to lending and borrowing activity.…”