Perceptions of medieval manuscripts : the phenomenal book / Elaine Treharne.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Treharne, Elaine, Author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Manuscripts, Medieval.

Books--History--400-1450.

Books.

Criticism, Textual.

Phenomenology and literature.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xiii, 248 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Phenomenal book

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2021.

Summary:

"Perceptions of Medieval Manuscripts takes as its starting point an understanding that a medieval book is a whole object at every point of its long history. As such, medieval books can be studied most profitably in a holistic manner as objects-in-the-world. This means readers might profitably account for all aspects of the manuscript in their observations, from the main texts that dominate the codex to the marginal notes, glosses, names, and interventions made through time. This holistic approach allows us to tell the story of the book's life from the moment of its production to its use, collection, breaking-up, and digitization--all aspects of what can be termed 'dynamic architextuality'. The ten chapters include detailed readings of texts that explain the processes of manuscript manufacture and writing, taking in invisible components of the book that show the joy and delight clearly felt by producers and consumers. Chapters investigate the filling of manuscripts' blank spaces, presenting some texts never examined before, and assessing how books were conceived and understood to funcManuscripts' hefts'heft and solidness can be seen, too, in the depictions of miniature books in medieval illustrations. Early manuscripts thus become archives and witnesses to individual and collective memories, as 'relicsd as'relics of existence', as Maurice Merleau-Ponty describes things. As such, it is urgent that practices fragmenting the manuscript through book-breaking or digital display are understood in the context of the book's wholeness. Readers of this study will find chapters on multiple aspects of medieval bookness in the distant past, the present, and in the assurance of the future continuity of this most fascinating of cultural artefacts."-- Provided by the publisher

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. `A Profit to People': Introduction

2. `Fingers Folded Me': Making the Book

3. `Covered Me with Tracks': Writing the Book

4. `People Will Use Me': Book as Archive

5. `My Name Is Famous': Presence in the Book

6. `In Spirit the Wiser': Invisible Things in the Book

7. `Covered with Protecting Boards': Representing the Book

8. `Cut by the Edge of the Knife': Libricide and the Modern Book Trade

9. `More True and Better': The Digital Book and Its Frameworks of Understanding

10. Bookending `Pa Wuldorgesteald': The Wondrous Edifice.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9780192843814

0192843818

OCLC:

1252705158

Publisher Number:

99990999342