Introduction to Manuscript Studies by Raymond Clemens, Timothy Graham (review)

REVIEWS 246 an ancestor of the first sign language systems employed in educating the deaf beginning in the sixteenth century. Bruce asserts that “the monasteries which fostered a signing culture since the Middle Ages laid the foundations for the first experiments in deaf education” (176). Twice in the book, Bruce explicitly states that the Cluniac sign lexicon cannot be compared to sign language because of its disabled nature, yet here he implies that the lexicon was “abled” enough to create a culture when he has carefully shown that the lexicon was disabled not only lexically speaking, but also in its usage within the abbey. How, then, did a “signing culture” develop both at Cluny and at other monasteries in the succeeding centuries, and come to be understood as such? The book thus ends on a disappointing note with its implicit suggestion that medieval monastic sign language cannot truly be understood on its own terms, but only in terms of modern sign languages and the history of deaf education. This unjustly dilutes the value and originality of Bruce’s carefully qualified argument that medieval monastic sign language can, and should, be understood as being founded upon principles and values that are quite different from those that govern modern sign languages and, indeed, languages in general. GREGORY CARRIER, History and Classics, University of Alberta Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies (Ithaca: Cornell University Press 2007) xvi + 3011 pp., ill. (chiefly color). Manuscript studies combines a wide range of sub-fields, such as paleography and codicology, into analyses of entire manuscripts and the ways in which such codices function in a larger cultural context. Each of the fields that make up manuscript studies has key texts and a precise lexicon to describe phenomena within their field. With this in mind, creating a single text that aims to present the entire field of manuscript studies to a beginning scholar is a formidable task, and one that Raymond Clemens’s and Tony Graham’s book, Introduction to Manuscript Studies, takes up. The text, partly based on classes held at the Newberry Library, relies heavily on the Newberry’s manuscript collection for its images, which introduces scholars to the wealth of manuscripts at the Newberry, but also can feel like a publicity pamphlet for the library. The color photographs that fill almost every page of this book are one of the strongest aspects of this study, especially since a stated goal of this text is to make the study of manuscripts “a little less baffl[ing]” for scholars, especially at the beginning of their studies. Clemens and Graham divide their text into three parts (Making the Medieval Manuscripts, Reading the Medieval Manuscript, and Some Manuscript Genres), and each of these house a number of smaller chapters. Such broad categories allow the authors to cover a wide breadth of topics within each section. For example, the first section contains a chapter on writing surfaces as well as a chapter on annotations and corrections within medieval manuscripts. The first section of the text, which covers technical details about how a manuscript is put together, is the most useful, and will be especially helpful as an introduction for undergraduate classes. I am surprised at the ordering of some of the chapters, especially in the section on writing surfaces, which moves from papyrus, wax, metal, wood, and then to paper, leaving parchment as the last material. While parchment’s importance to the medieval book is unquestionable, one should not REVIEWS 247 overlook the historical framework behind the change from parchment to paper, especially in a text aimed at beginners, it seems important to organize the section on “writing supports” in terms of historical significance. Clemens and Graham introduce their readers to the process of “Distance Reading” (how to read microfilmed versions of manuscripts) in the second section of their book, “Working with Medieval Manuscripts.” The authors provide a much-needed introduction to the ways in which a scholar reads a manuscript when access to the original manuscript is impossible. Clemens and Graham also provide hints to students who are preparing to view a manuscript for the first time: focusing on reader’s tickets, transcribing and editing, and...