Do you have to read a book to know a book? Manuscripts in the medieval ages are often written in complex archaic languages which needed to be interpreted to better understand the purpose of the text. However, there is so much more than what meets the eye. Understanding how manuscripts were made and the materials…

Given the substantial resources required to produce a medieval manuscript, it would be insular to separate a text from the tangible materials that comprise the book itself. As Ann Gibbons of Science magazine points out, even the species of deerskin used to produce a leaf can tell a rich history of conquest, human migration, and…

The medieval manuscript, NLW MS 735C, on astronomy is a collection of numerous Latin texts on astronomy. A majority of the manuscript is a Latin translation of Aratus’ Phaenomena which was an early Greek work on constellations and the rules of astronomy. The other portion of the manuscript is an assortment of other texts on…

The 15th century brought arguably the most elegant manuscripts ever created. Many of these manuscripts are known as books of hours or prayer books. These manuscripts set forth how and when to pray along with important biblical tales. The defining feature of many of these manuscripts are the extravagantly illustrated pages and images throughout the…

The Medieval Bestiary is a very unique, interesting and elaborate medieval manuscript. It depicts as the title suggests, a number of beasts both real and mythological. It was created in the early thirteenth century approximately two hundred years before the invention of the printing press. The book contains eighty hand drawn images and has one…

Studying any artifact gives a rewarding and fascinating look into past generations and clues current generations into the nuances of a life before our own. Handmade medieval manuscripts are among the most fascinating of preserved artifacts due to their multifaceted display of workmanship, creativity, and dedication. Nowadays, the way a book is printed has an…

Medieval manuscripts have a lot to tell us, but the information conveyed is not always just writing on parchment. In the medieval ages, not every book was manufactured to be a carbon copy of another like we have today. When monks or scribes did copy something, they did so page by page across a long…

By examining the materiality of a medieval manuscript, analyzing the material context of said document, one can learn quite a bit about its origin, its purpose, its usage, and, at a broader scale, the world in which it existed. Examining things like size, language, origin, owners, and other aspects of the physical form of the…

    Upon first glance, the Miscellany manuscript looks unexciting and more deceivingly unimportant. What drew me to the manuscript was the fact that it was, refreshingly, not Christian and though it was written in Hebrew, it was not based directly on religious text. This piece actually contains a large conversion manual from the Jewish…

Books of Hours, popularized in the late medieval period, were prayer books filled with psalms and litanies for one’s own devotion. These types of prayer books mirrored the books nuns and priests would utilize for their devotion and were organized to follow the canonical hours, which outlined the times one should pray. During the late…