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

In the late middle ages (ca. 1200-1520), both religious and secular people used manuscripts, was regarded as a most precious item. The traces of their use through touching and handling during different rituals such as oath-taking, public reading, and memorializing the dead, is the subject of Kathryn Rudy’s research in Touching Parchment. This second volume, Social Encounters with the Book, delves into the physical interaction with books in various social settings, including education, courtly assemblies, and confraternal gatherings. Looking at acts such as pointing, scratching, and ‘wet-touching’, the author zooms in on smudges and abrasions on medieval manuscripts as testimonials of readers’ interaction with the book and its contents. In so doing, she dissects the function of books in oaths, confraternal groups, education, and courtly settings, illuminating how books were used as teaching aids and tools for conveying political messages. The narrative paints a vivid picture of medieval reading, emphasizing bodily engagement, from page-turning to the intimate act of kissing pages. Overall, this text offers a captivating exploration of the tactile and social dimensions of book use in late medieval Europe broadening our perspective on the role of objects in rituals during the middle ages. Social Encounters with the Book provides a fundamental resource to anybody interested in medieval history and book materiality more widely. This volume is part of a four-volume set, with two additional titles forthcoming.

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Rudy

2024

Touching Parchment: How Medieval Users Rubbed, Handled, and Kissed Their Manuscripts

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This book explores the interactions between medieval manuscripts and their users in late medieval Europe, where touching held significant religious and social charge. In contrast to previous scholarship on medieval manuscripts, this book ignores pristine, untouched manuscripts and concentrates instead on those bearing the marks of frequent handling. The underlying argument is that studying marks of wear reveals the functions of books, and to some degree, their owners’ habits and emotions. The study dissects the curative and communal aspects of touching, historically rooted in the veneration of relics, which could transmit divine power through proximity and belief. This reverence for touch extended to manuscripts, especially Gospel books, which were considered conduits of divine power. Such manuscripts functioned as practical tools integral to social rituals and community cohesion. Volume 1 established the divinity of the book-object and its role in Christian rituals, while the current volume expands on the social dynamics of touched manuscripts. Volume 2 highlights three themes: the use of images to enhance public speaking, the moralizing role of the speaker, and the pivotal role of touch in fostering community through books. Volume 2 refines the taxonomy, introduced in Vol. 1, to differentiate between inadvertent from targeted wear and to further identify habits of touch under the latter category. These include intentional interactions with the text and images, such as wet-touching, dramatically gesturing with the finger, aggressive poking, and wiping with a cloth, each revealing the intentions and emotions behind the contact. The method—use-wear analysis—infers the specific gestures based on the marks made on manuscripts, which, whether through wet-touching or dramatic pointing, signify different forms of interaction and intention. The study considers the impact of these practices on the manuscripts themselves, which, when touched, kissed, or manipulated, not only served their utilitarian purpose but also became actors in the rituals they facilitated. Manuscripts were adapted to serve as instruments of social cohesion. The study explores the taxonomy of touching, where manuscripts in various forms - from charters to codices - were used in educational settings, courtly environments, and religious communities to establish identity, authority, and communal bonds through deliberate touch and handling.

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

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Inventive embodiment and sensorial imagination in medieval drawings: The marginalia of the Walters Book of Hours MS W.102

Inventive embodiment and sensorial imagination in medieval drawings: The marginalia of the Walters Book of Hours MS W.102

Touching Parchment: How Medieval Users Rubbed, Handled, and Kissed Their Manuscripts

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