Stolen Scriptures: The Bible Historiale and the Hundred Years’ War

This article explores the politics of owning, or taking ownership, of Bible historiale manuscripts during the Hundred Years’ War. As theft and capture disrupted predictable patterns of patronage and exchange, new owners’ additions, erasures, and alterations can shed new light on ways in which the French Bible conditioned readers’ experience of the war on both sides. Such marginal acts of appropriation also force us to revise traditional notions of patronage to account for the sometimes violent refashioning of books to match the image and needs of unintended owners.