#manuscript repairs

[cuties-in-codices]

parchment stitching

pages from a cistercian breviary, produced in the cistercian nunnery lichtenthal abbey, c. 1450-1500

source: Karlsruhe, BLB, Cod. Lichtenthal 29

[itinerarium-hic]

The Artful Imperfection of Medieval Manuscript Repair

Old parchment is full of creative fixes.

[itinerarium-hic]

Parchment Repairs in an early 13th-century manuscript

I was looking through the London, British Library Royal MS 13 B.viii for an image for my dissertation defense when I noticed some tiny little repairs made to the parchment after the illuminations had been added. This manuscript contains numerous works, most prominently the Irish and Welsh works of Gerald of Wales. You can see that the manuscript was much loved and meticulously repaired:

Folio 9v, detail:

You can also see that someone noted “stork” below the bird on the right. It’s relatively rare to find English annotations in manuscripts containing Gerald of Wales’s work!

Folio 15v, detail:

Here you can also see some of the numerous scribal corrections made with signes de renvoi throughout the manuscript.

Folio 30v, detail:

Not a parchment repair, but I wanted to include this marginal illustration of a disabled man. There was a thread on twitter the other day about medieval images of disabilities. 

This manuscript was kept St. Augustine’s Abbey at Canterbury for hundreds of years before the early modern antiquarian John Twyne appropriated it during the Dissolution of the monasteries. It’s a beautiful manuscript and full of annotations, demonstrating that it was greatly valued and much loved in the Middle Ages. ❤️