Scraped, Stroked, and Bound: Materially Engaged Readings of Medieval Manuscripts ed. by Jonathan Wilcox (review)

This collection grew out of a research seminar held at the University of Iowa Center for the Book on ‘Extreme Materialist Readings of Medieval Books’ (p. 4). Participants were given the opportunity to experience hands-on the process of medieval book-making, from preparing parchment, to practising scribal arts, to bookbinding – the ‘Scraped, Stroked, and Bound’ of the title. The contents of the volume are also divided into these three key arts, with two detailed discussions of whole books by Karen Louise Jolly and Martha Rust providing the conclusion. Throughout the collection in-depth scholarly analysis is juxtaposed with practical accounts of these three main book arts – paper/parchment-making, letter art, and bookbinding – making for a refreshing and fascinating read.

In the opening chapter, Matthew T. Hussey cites the common medieval aphorism ‘three fingers write and the entire body works’ (p. 16). This focus on the importance of the whole experience, of reaching greater understanding of the whole through informed analysis of minutiae, becomes a recurring theme throughout the volume. Hussey’s chapter examines scribal habitusand the importance of practised and subconscious mechanical production to mastery.

Patrick W. Conner’s exploration of matched scribal hands is particularly engaging, and challenges many of the core assumptions used for dating in palaeography. This chapter is also notable for its comparison of medieval and modern book making by setting its examination of various early medieval manuscripts (such as the eleventh-century Guild Statutes for the Abbotsbury Parish Guild, the Book of Kells, the Exeter Book, and the Beowulf manuscript) alongside the modern Saint John’s Bible project.

Those chapters contributed by craftspeople – Cheryl Jacobsen’s comparison of medieval and modern scribes, Jesse Meyer’s brief but instructive account of parchment making, and Gary Frost’s exploration of the mechanics of medieval bookbinding – proved stimulating in their different perspectives on codicology. Jacobsen reflects on her experience of reproducing a page from the Exeter Book. Through the eyes of a modern letter artist, the Exeter book lacks the precision and uniformity valued in modern calligraphy, yet its variation is due to the mastery of the scribe.

Jennifer Borland’s piece explores the use of the manuscript as a physical object of devotion, focusing on the defaced Passion of Saint Margaret. Borland ponders what inspired the sustained and targeted violence against this particular manuscript and how it might have been carried out. The answers reveal much about changing attitudes to images, the treatments of which become tangible connections to the past for the modern scholar. Martha Rust also explores the medieval use of the material book, in this case the book of the anchorite and book artist John Lacy. The book itself becomes a physical focus-point for devotion, both in its creation by Lacy and its continued use.

The tight focus of the volume works in its favour as each successive chapter adds to a greater understanding of the whole. Themes developed throughout the collection include the importance of sensory experience of material objects, the value of learning through experiencing rather than just watching or studying, the equal importance of contributions by scholars and craftspeople, and the importance of collaboration and collective learning (both for medieval and modern scholars and craftsmen). Although mostly accessible for those unfamiliar with codicology, the detailed studies of specific manuscripts that make up the latter part of the book may prove somewhat dense for the casual reader.

This collection is valuable because it respects the medieval book as a work of art in and of itself. The authors often express even greater admiration for the skill and dedication of the medieval scribes and book-makers once they have experienced the process themselves. The essays carefully consider material aspects of the book in a time when so much attention is given to digitalisation. Many of the chapters warn of...