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
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