medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
http://www.jhna.org/index.php/past-issues/volume-2-issue-1-2/129-dirty-books
its content aside, the general appearance of this article is quite impressive
and something of a model for what "publishing" on the web should look like.
c
------ Original Message ------
Received: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:39:11 PM EDT
From: George Brown <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] Medieval people fell asleep reading their prayer books...
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Wow, Paul. I shall certainly quote the astute and insightful analysis you
forward from Kathryn Rudy's article to my paleography and medieval literature
classes.
> Thank you for sending the conclusion, and providing the link to to the
original.
>
> George Brown
>
> On Apr 23, 2012, at 6:02 PM, Paul Chandler wrote:
>
> > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> >
> > Here is a link to Kathryn Rudy's original article in the Journal of
Historians of Netherlandish Art : "Dirty Books: Quantifying Patterns of Use in
Medieval Manuscripts Using a Densitometer". It is, of course, far more
sophisticated than suggested by the news reports, and beautifully
illustrated:
> >
<http://www.jhna.org/index.php/past-issues/volume-2-issue-1-2/129-dirty-books>
> > (via medievalists.net today)
> >
> > Part of the conclusion:
> >
> > The preliminary results achieved with the densitometer presented above can
already help us to tell more specific narratives about books and their users.
The densitometry analysis has revealed patterns of wear that are valid with
respect to the individual specimens. Much more data will have to be collected
before one can begin to make valid claims across groups of manuscripts,
although it seems, already in this limited study, that one of the surprises is
the degree to which votaries read the Seven Penitential Psalms, certain
indulgenced prayers, and prayers that they added to their books themselves. I
suspect, but do not yet have the evidence to show, that the degree to which
late medieval votaries desired indulgences put market pressure on manuscript
makers, who responded to their demands by creating manuscripts with more
indulgences and fewer of the kinds of prayers that votaries would ignore.
Similarly, there may have been market pressure to shorten the Vigil for the
Dead, one of the longest sections in a book of hours. More analysis might
demonstrate that toward the end of the fifteenth century votaries were willing
to buy manuscripts with the shortened version of this text, which contains
only three readings rather than the traditional nine. Conversely, votaries
demanded the nine-, ten-, or even eleven-verse versions of the Adoro te,
rather than the old-fashioned five-verse version that promised a smaller
indulgence.
> >
> > There's also a plea against restricting access to original manuscripts:
> >
> > I make a similar plea that, as libraries continue to digitize medieval
illuminations, they continue to grant access to the physical objects, which
always hold more evidence than we first perceive... The convenience of digital
facsimiles might be heralding the end of codicological approaches to
manuscript studies. This is lamentable, as there is much subtle information
stored in the physical object.
> >
> > -- Paul
> >
> >
> >
> > On 24 April 2012 04:26, Dr Jim Bugslag <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> > Thank you, George. Unfortunately, this image only shows the top of the
altarpiece. One can only see the very top of the bottom right scene which
depicts a plague-ravaged city with a miraculous appearance of St Sebastian.
> > Cheers,
> > Jim
> >
> >
> > --
> > Paul Chandler, O.Carm.
> > Holy Spirit Seminary | PO Box 18 (487 Earnshaw Road) | Banyo Qld 4014
| Australia
> > office: (07) 3246 9888 | home: (07) 3246 9894
> > [log in to unmask]
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> Prof. Em. George Hardin Brown
> Department of English, Bldg. 460
> Stanford University
> Stanford, CA 94305-2087
> tel: 650 269-9898
>
>
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