Actually, the copying of printed books by hand was more common in the
early modern period than one might think. I'm not talking here of
manuscripts made for nobles who despised printing, but of a practice
that seems to have continued almost into the 18thc. Bill Stoneman of the
Houghton Library mentioned the practice in a 1991 paper given at a
Centre for Medieval Studies conference here in Toronto. The example I
know best is an illustrated sonnet sequence known as the Isolario, which
if I recall correctly has a sonnet for each of the islands in the
Mediterranean. I saw a ms. of this diverting work in Venice, and learned
of another at Greenwich long before I found out that both were copies of
a printed book. As a sonnet sequence, 'Isolario" is a take on a
well-known genre; “isolarii” were medieval guidebooks for the navigation
of the Mediterranean. Happy New Year to all, Germaine.
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Germaine Warkentin // English (Emeritus)
VC 205, Victoria College (University of Toronto),
73 Queen's Park Crescent East, Toronto, Ont. M5S 1K7, CANADA
[log in to unmask] (fax number on request)
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