Medieval Manuscripts

[TheNinthWord]

A very exciting (in a nerdy way) day for me. I've just got back from campus after my Medieval Manuscripts seminar.

 

I got to look at an actual medieval manuscript, and even touch it, turn the pages, feel the parchment (but not touch the ink!). I couldn't read any of it since it was in Latin, but it was still fantastic to see such an old book in such good condition.

 

It had a leather-bound wooden binding, and I was really nervous about taking it out of its box. It was amazing to feel the parchment and see the ink that was used by a scribe hundreds of years ago. The colours of the paragraph marks were still really bright red and blue.

 

Going through the rigmarole of signing into the research library was a bit of a pain (it's like going into an airlock), but it was entirely worth it to get to handle a small piece of book history.

 

As you can tell I'm still really excited about the whole thing, and just needed to geek out about it with some people who might appreciate how awe-inspiring it is.

[SueK]

I know how you feel - I think studying medieval manuscripts is just wonderful. Having travelled around to see the Lindisfarne Gospels; The Book of Kells, Magna Carta etc, I was in the privileged position of being able to handle (extremely carefully)an extract of the Domesday book at the British Library some years' back. I had to wear white cotton gloves but the feeling was just marvellous - touching something that had been born so many hundreds of years back. I'll never forget it.

 

I do have a lot of medieval books in my collection and some are beautifully printed (like the Lindisfarne and Book of Kells) but nothing actually beats feeling the original.

 

Glad you enjoyed and thanks for sharing.

Edited October 11, 2010 by SueK

[Kylie]

That's very cool! I remember seeing the Magna Carta in Salisbury when I visited the UK. I would be scared to touch one though, for fear of it falling apart!

[TheNinthWord]

Ooh I'd love to see some of the more famous manuscripts. I'm lucky that my university allows undergraduates access to their collection, so I shouldn't feel to bad that they don't have anything particularly famous (as far as I know).

 

And yes, I was very nervous about actually touching the books and turning the pages. I was convinced that somehow I'd break the entire thing beyond repair and recognition, or that it would crumble to dust if I so much as breathed on it.

[Chrissy]

I held my breath reading your account of handling the manuscript.

Such a wonderful thing to do, and the true meaning of awesome I would imagine.

[Talisman]

I remember some years back when I went to the Arni Magnusson Instutute in Reykjavik where they have some of the original copies of the Icelandic sagas (written 10th, 11th Century). The original language has changed so little since the time of settlement (about 100 years before the texts were written) that they can still be read by modern Icelanders today. Apart from "thank you" I can't speak a word of the language, but I have read nearly all of the translations and have most of them at home, so for me it was really exciting to see the originals and speak to the staff about the translations they were working on at that time. The manuscripts have since been moved to the Culture House, where I visited this summer, but somehow it wasn't the same as seeing them at the actual place where they are restored and translated.

 

I may well end up learning Icelandic one day, so I can read those that haven't been translated !

[Colleen]

Wow that must have been an amazing experience! Just to imagine the people who read it so many centuries ago would blow me away let alone actually touching it.

[Talisman]

I didn't get the chance to actually touch them unfortunately, but for me it was enough to see them anyway ! I definately plan to get further translations when they come out.

[Yellow Wallpaper]

I love medieval manuscripts, and anything old really. Just looking at them makes my brain conjure up all of these scenarios and stories about the manuscript/document. I am currently at Indiana University-Bloomington getting my M.L.S. They have the Lilly Library here, home to some of the best rare books and manuscripts in the country. I'm in heaven every time I go and wish I was badass enough to work there so I could deal with such wonderful items every day