Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

an outward show ot knowledge and learning,
rather than suggesting that knights and nobles
were becoming less able in these fields and
needed how-to manuals. Often such texts were
bound together so that a translation ot a
classical text on grammar might lie between a
bestiary describing rare and strange beasts and
a saint's life. Sometimes the owner of the book
might also be its compiler. The expense of
owning a book made it normal to view and copy
texts from the collection of a local abbey or a
neighbour. Commonplace books or zivaldone,
hotchpotch books' as they were known in Italy,
could contain a bewildering variety of subjects,
copied down by individuals as they came across
them and found them important or merely
interesting. One 15th-century example contains
everything from word puzzles to the fifteen
signs before Domesday', to legal torms ot
charters and bonds, to copies of accounts and
bills from the estate. Literacy and learning were
far from unknown to the knight.
CLOTHING,
JEWELLERY AND
CHATTELS
BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD: THE KNIGHT IN MEDIEVAL SOCIETY -•
Jmnwn.
The collection of books was a symbol of wealth and status, a mark of the nobility in
the same way as arms, armour and horse. So too were the other objects that adorned
a medieval knight's residence or, on campaign, pavilion. These objects, like the subject
matter ot their books, reflect the interests of their owners. Survivals are rare: textiles
were re-used and re-cut, precious metals melted down and fashioned into new items.
However, inventories, such as that taken of Wigmore, give some indications of the
sorts of things that were in the households ot the nobility. There are substantial
amounts ot bed hangings and tapestries, in a variety of colours, patterns and designs,
Despite their exquisite
workmanship, and the
pastoral scenes, with the
lord's castle ever in the
background, psalters like
the Tres Riches Heures
du Due de Berry were also
practical devotional books,
providing the owner with
a calendar to chart the
festivals and observances
of the Church. (Bridgeman
Art Library)
193