The Oxford Handbook of Latin Palaeography ed. by Frank T. Coulson and Robert G. Babcock

T he Oxford Handbook of Latin Palaeography (OHLP) does exactly what it sets out to do, and more. In keeping with Leonard Boyle’s conception of “integral palaeography”—the idea that the study of paleography is not an isolated discipline but rather is intimately entangled with other aspects of the handwritten book—the volume moves beyond examinations of different script styles to wide- ranging discussions of everything from codicology and textual genres to the technical aspects of manuscript cataloguing. Written by an international “Who’s Who” of Latin paleography, with smooth and expert translations from German, Italian, and French when necessary, the volume provides welcome introductions to Latin bookhands from late Antiquity to the Renaissance, with additional sections covering codicology, manuscript culture, and book history. Each essay includes an extensive bibliography, and many are illustrated (in black and white in the print edition but in color online). The Oxford Handbook of Latin Palaeography should quickly become a staple on bookshelves and in classrooms, and many of the essays will become instant classics (I have already added several to my Latin Paleography syllabus).

The volume is divided into five sections: “Script” (580 pages in 34 chapters), “Material Embodiment and Techniques” (112 pages in 8 chapters), “Cultural Setting” (44 pages in 4 chapters), “Selected Scriptoria and Libraries” (116 pages in 8 chapters), and “Varieties of Book Usage” (166 pages in 9 chapters). The back matter includes an index of manuscripts cited and a general index. The editors note in their introduction that manuscript decoration and illumination have been intentionally excluded “for reasons of length and cost,” an appropriate and sensible decision.

“Part I: Script” covers the standard paleographical topics, from ancient Rome to the humanists, with special essays on punctuation, abbreviation, and numerals. This section includes several scripts that sometimes get short shrift in paleography syllabi, like New Roman Cursive, Beneventan, and Visigothic. The most successful essays—such as Theresa De Robertis on New Roman Cursive, Robert G. Babcock on Uncial, Francis Newton on Beneventan, Anna A. Grotans on the scripts of St. Gall, and Peter Stokes on Insular Script—are those that include both historical context as well as descriptive criteria (it is worth noting that the great scriptorium of St. Gall is treated twice, here and again more generally in Part IV). The lengthy section on Gothic, which includes eleven different essays, demonstrates just how complex are the origins and development of the wide variety of Gothic scripts. This section begins with a copiously illustrated methodological and terminological introduction by Albert Derolez that should be required reading in any paleography seminar (the essay is essentially an abstract of his paradigm- changing monograph The Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books from the Twelfth to the Early Sixteenth Century). Theresa De Robertis returns for essays on the origins of Humanistic script and its development in Italy; these, too, are standouts in the collection.

Most of the essays in “Part II: Material Embodiment and Techniques” do not break new ground, nor was that their intent, as the contributions are meant to be introductory. Exceptions include the theoretical and aspirational “Application of Quantitative Methods to the History of the Book” by Ezio Ornato and “Comparative Codicology” by Malachi Beit- Arié, both of which lay out forward- thinking methodologies that may be usefully applied by other researchers. Collectively, the essays in “Part III: Cultural Setting” provide a useful introduction to the culture of book production, both monastic and secular. Paul Saenger’s contribution surveys visual evidence, including layout and punctuation, to demonstrate the gradual transition from vocalized to silent reading in the early Middle Ages, and Alison Beach brings her usual aplomb to a discussion of scribal demographics. In “Part IV: Selected Scriptoria and Libraries,” the case studies on Lindisfarne by Michelle P. Brown, Monte Cassino by Francis Newton, and Paris by Richard H. and Mary A. Rouse are masterful surveys of the history of book production in these important centers. The volume concludes with “Part V: Varieties of Book Usage,” essays on particular genres such as Books of Hours, the post- medieval histories of manuscripts, and a guide to manuscript cataloguing. The latter two, by Gregory Hays and Consuelo Dutschke, respectively, are particularly important contributions. To supplement its historical narratives, Hays’s essay includes a noteworthy schematic diagram (fig. 62.1, p. 958) showing different routes that a manuscript might take on its journey from the Middle Ages to today, such as “Monastery or Cathedral Library” - > “Confiscated at Reformation or in Eighteenth- Century Secularization” - > “National Library.” To this, I might add a step that indicates post- medieval fragmentation—initial cuttings and whole- leaf dismemberment—with arrows leading from “Private Collectors” to “Biblioclasts” back to both “Private Collectors” and “Modern College or University Library.” Finally, Dutschke’s clear and cogent guide to manuscript cataloguing should be required reading for bibliographers, librarians, and anyone who reads, creates, or works with manuscript catalogues.

As is typical for volumes of this size and complexity, authors submitted their contributions several years before publication. In this case, as the editors note, “most contributors completed their essays for this volume by 2014, and publications which appeared after that date have only rarely been mentioned” (xix). This time lag also explains the paucity of citations of digitized manuscripts and digital resources as well as the inclusion of a few dead links and citations of defunct projects (such as Manuscriptlink, cited on p. xxi, which has been supplanted as a fragmentology resource by Fragmentarium, https://fragmentarium.ms/). The digital landscape for paleographers has changed enormously even since 2014, with the development of the International Image Interoperability Framework (https://iiif.io/) and numerous expanded digital repositories such as Bibliophilly (https://bibliophilly.library.upenn.edu/), Biblissima (https://portail.biblissima.fr/en), and Parker Library on the Web (https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/), among others.

For such a complex volume, editorial oversights in the OHLP are few and for the most part unobtrusive. Most essays begin with a helpful abstract, but for a dozen or so, the abstract is lacking in the print volume (although it does appear consistently in the online editions). Readers should be aware of the inconsistent use of references to E. A. Lowe’s Codices Latini Antiquiores (CLA) throughout the OHLP. The same manuscript may be referred to by its CLA number in one essay but by its current shelfmark in another. This inconsistency is reflected in the Index of Manuscripts: some manuscripts are recorded twice—once by number in the CLA entry and then by shelfmark beneath the entry for their current city/library—while other CLA manuscripts are indexed only by one number or the other. For pre- 800 manuscripts, then—that is, those early enough to have a CLA number—readers should refer to the CLA database (https://elmss.nuigalway.ie/) for a concordance of CLA numbers and modern shelfmarks to ensure they have found all references to a given manuscript in the OHLP. Readers should also make note of one important typographical error: in the de Robertis essay “Humanistic Script: Origins,” the reference on page 515 to Niccolò Niccoli’s critically important marginal experiments with littera antiqua (note 16) should read “Vatican City, BAV, Vat. lat. 2056” instead of “2026.”

Ranging from Rome to Northumbria and from late Antiquity to the twenty- first century, the Oxford Handbook of Latin Palaeography is vast and ambitious in scope, and Coulson and Babcock are to be commended for bringing this project to successful fruition. Given the xxii + 1,052 pages that make up the volume, its price tag of $200 should come as no surprise, although the cost will certainly deter many would- be buyers, especially students. This is unfortunate, since it is the student of paleography who is most likely to profit from the excellent essays and detailed bibliographies in this volume. The online html and PDF editions may ameliorate that concern and have the advantage of live links and color images. Although I do recommend the print volume for ease of reference and navigation, interested students, researchers, and faculty should refer to their institutional library catalogue to determine whether the institution holds an online subscription to the Oxford Handbook series that would allow online access to the OHLP free of charge. Whatever format a reader chooses, the OHLP will find a welcome home on syllabi, hard drives, browsers, and bookshelves.