El llibre manuscrit a Catalunya: orígens i esplendor, and: História del llibre manuscrit a Catalunya (review)

Reznews253 AUum i Perucho,Jesús. El llibre manuscrit a Catalunya: orígens i esplendor . Col-lecció Som i Serení, 14. Barcelona: Generalität de Catalunya, 2000. 291 pp. 216 facsimiles in color. ISBN 84-87254-82-9. Altiiro i Perucho,Jesi'is. Historia del llibre manuscrit a Catalunya. Col-lecció Textos i documents, 23. Barcelona: Generalität de Catalunya, 2003. 306 pp. 33 facsimiles in black and white. ISBN 84-393-5994-2. Jesús Alturo i Perucho has already established himself as the heir apparent to his teacher, Anscari Mundo, as the authority on Catalan manuscript books through a series of valuable studies on more narrowly defined aspects of this subject (see El llibre manuscrit 283, and Historia del llibir manuscrit, passim in footnotes). He presents us in these two books with a panoramic view dealing with almost even- aspect of the manuscript book in Cataluña. We are reviewing these two volumes together because, as far as their texts are concerned, they are essentially the same book except for minor verbal differences . They have, however, major differences from non-textual points of view. El llibre manuscrit a Catalunya: orígens i esplendor (Llibre) seems intended for a more popular and affluent audience. It has no footnotes but well over 200 unnumbered facsimiles in beautiful color. Historia del llibre manuscrit a Catalunya (Historia) seems intended for a more scholarly and impecunious audience. It has 533 footnotes but only 33 unnumbered black-and-white facsimiles. Cataluña is understood here very expansively in terms ofboth place and time. The author does not limit himself to the present borders of the region and deals with manuscript books produced and preserved within the Catalan sphere of influence before there even was a Cataluña. The first chapter, devoted to the book in Antiquity, actually has to be based on extant manuscripts from beyond the borders ofeven what we might call "greater" Cataluña, and this is also partially the case in the second chapter treating the Visigothic era. Catalan lands proper make their appearance in the third chapter dealing with the book in the eighth to the twelfth centuries. The following chapter on the Gothic period goes up to the introduction of the printing press. OnIv the humanistic manuscript book is neglected. A fifth and final chapter deals with the making of the medieval book in its material, codicological aspects. U CORoNICA 33.1 (Fall, 2004): 253-55 254ReviewsLa coránica 33.1, 2004 The breadth of coverage can be shown by an analysis of the contents of the last three chapters. The first of these, Chapter three, begins with a treatment of the scripts used. The presentation is brief, since this does not pretend to be a study of paleography as such, and for the most part it does not give references to facsimiles of the scripts as they are being discussed in the text, even though the facsimiles, especially in Llibre but also in Historia, show these manuscript hands. Incidentally, the author advocates the very plausible view that the Visigothic script originated by the mid-seventh century (Llibre, 49; Historia, 59, ? 109), although no example survives from before the early eighth century. The chapter then continues with a discussion of literacy in Cataluña (the laity was mostly illiterate), the books that were read during the eighth to twelfth centuries, the literary production of Cataluña (not very extensive), and the cultural renewal of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. A following section on the readers and the distribution of books in this period describes the libraries, both institutional (monastic, cathedral, and parish) and private (of bishops, canons, rural priests, laity, and women), in which the books were preserved. This is followed by sections dealing with the system of book production and the price of books, the theft of books, the lending of books, the fixed and the mobile library, the scriptorium, and, at considerable length, the social condition of scribes. The fourth chapter on the Gothic period again begins with a brief treatment of scripts, of both documents and books. This is followed by a discussion of the tomes made, used, bought, sold, etc. in the university milieu: Lleida...