Course Handbook - Faculty of History

Class 4 (17 Nov) Dating and Contents (Dr Webber) Faculty
Classes 5-6 (24
Nov/1 Dec)
Technical Description of a Manuscript
(Dr Webber)
Wren Library,
Trinity College
Lent Term
Class 7 (19 Jan)
Class 8 (26 Jan)
Class 9 (2 Feb)
Class 10 (9 Feb)
Part II - Medieval Libraries, Manuscript Collections and Late
Medieval Books
Late Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts – liturgy, history and
literature (Dr S Panayotova, Fitzwilliam Museum)
Medieval Libraries (Dr T Webber, Faculty of History)
Roman and Canon Law manuscripts (Dr P Zutshi)
Early modern and modern manuscript collections (Prof David
McKitterick, (Trinity College) venue to be confirmed).
5.5.1 Introductory Reading List for Medieval Book Production, Codicology and
Libraries
ESSENTIAL READING AND CONSTANT USE: The handbook by Bernhard
Bischoff is the best single guide to the subject of the development of script and
book production. Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages, translated
by David Ganz and Daibhi Ó Cróinin (1990). For later medieval books and
handwriting, the essential guide is A. Derolez, The Palaeography of Gothic
Manuscript Books from the Twelfth to the Early Sixteenth Century (2003). Both
books are available in paperback from Cambridge University Press.
Also useful (and very well illustrated): R. Clemens and T. Graham, Introduction to
Manuscript Studies (2007).
(i) Decoration and illumination
Further reading: A.Grabar, Early Christian Art (1970)
J. Hubert, J. Porcher and W. Volbach, Europe in the Dark Ages (1969)
idem, Carolingian Art (1970)
C. de Hamel, A History of Illuminated manuscripts (2nd edn London, 1994);
R.G. Calkins, Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages (London, 1983);
Pelican History of Art: relevant volumes.
(ii) The monastic scriptoria of the earlier middle ages
For general bibliography see Leonard Boyle, Medieval Latin Palaeography. A
Bibliographical Introduction (Toronto, 1984) and revised version, Rome 1999.
Further reading lists available at the Palaeography classes.
THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY IS ALSO INVALUABLE FOR ALL ASPECTS OF THE
COURSE.
D. Ganz, Corbie in the Carolingian Renaissance (1988)
(iii) The development of the Paris book trade
R.H. Rouse and M.A. Rouse, Manuscripts and their Makers: Commercial Book
Producers in Medieval Paris 1200-1500 (Turnhout and London, 2000)
C. de Hamel, Glossed books of the Bible and the Origins of the Paris Book Trade
(Woodbridge, 1984)
Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, The Making of a Manuscript. The Worms Bible of 1148
(Wiesbaden, 1983) and see the review by R. McKitterick in The Book Collector
(1985) pp. 523-6.
(iv) The pecia system in the universities
Further reading: Graham Pollard, ‘The pecia system in the medieval universities’
in M.B. Parkes and A.G. Watson eds., Medieval Manuscripts and Libraries, Essays
presented to N.R.Ker (1978).
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