Hannah Ryley - Re-Using Manuscripts in Late Medieval England: Repairing, Recycling, Sharing

Re-using Manuscripts in Late Medieval England

YORK MEDIEVAL PRESS

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Editorial Board (2022)

Professor Peter Biller, Emeritus (Dept of History): General Editor

Professor Tim Ayers (Dept of History of Art): Co-Director, Centre for Medieval Studies

Dr Henry Bainton: Private scholar

Dr J. W. Binns: Honorary Fellow, Centre for Medieval Studies

Dr K. P. Clarke (Dept of English and Related Literature)

Dr K. F. Giles (Dept of Archaeology)

Dr Shazia Jagot (Dept of English and Related Literature)

Dr Holly James-Maddocks (Dept of English and Related Literature)

Dr Harry Munt (Dept of History)

Professor W. Mark Ormrod, Emeritus (Dept of History)

Dr L. J. Sackville (Dept of History)

Professor Elizabeth M. Tyler (Dept of English and Related Literature): Co-Director, Centre for Medieval Studies

Dr Hanna Vorholt (Dept of History of Art)

Dr Sethina Watson (Dept of History)

Professor J. G. Wogan-Browne (English Faculty, Fordham University)

Dr Stephanie Wynne-Jones (Dept of Archaeology)

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York Manuscript and Early Print Studies

Series Editors

Orietta Da Rold (Cambridge)

Holly James-Maddocks (York)

A description of the series and a list of published titles may be found at the end of this volume.

Re-using Manuscripts in Late Medieval England

Repairing, Recycling, Sharing

Hannah Ryley

YORK MEDIEVAL PRESS

Hannah Ryley 2022

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The right of Hannah Ryley to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

First published 2022

A York Medieval Press publication

in association with The Boydell Press

an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd

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and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.

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and with the

Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York

ISBN 978-1-91404-906-4 (hardback)

ISBN 978-1-80010-587-4 (ePUB)

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Cover image: Bodleian, MS Bodley 264, fol. 84r. Photo Bodleian Libraries.

Illustrations

Figures

1 TCC, MS R.14.45, fol. 57r (or p. 101), recipes for parchment and vellum.

2 Diagram to show mammalian skin layers, modelled on Ronald Reed, Ancient Skins, Parchments and Leathers (London, 1972), p. 14, fig. 1.

3 Diagram to show the prime cuts and off-cuts of skin, modelled on Ji Vnouek, The Manufacture of Parchment for Writing Purposes and the Observation of the Signs of Manufacture Surviving in Old Manuscripts, Care and Conservation 8 (2005), 7492 (p. 77) fig. 28a.

4 BodL, MS Douce 25, fol. 72r, off-cut.

5 Oxford, Hertford MS 4, fols. 49v50r, palimpsested quire guards.

6 BodL, MS Ashmole 33 outer covers.

7 Diagram to show the inner and outer covers of BodL, MS Ashmole 33, modelled on Stephen H. Shepherd, Four Middle English Charlemagne Romances: A Revaluation of the Non-Cyclic Verse Texts and the Holograph Sir Ferumbras (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Oxford, 1988), p. 18.

8 Diagram to show the construction of the limp cover on SJC MS S.54.

9 BodL, MS Rawl. C.35, fols. 112v113r, palimpsest and glimpse of undertext.

10 BodL, MS Douce 302, fol. 35v, markings on a back flyleaf.

11 BodL, MS Douce 109, fol. iv verso, markings on a front flyleaf.

12 BodL, MS Douce 103, fol. 15r, alphabet.

13 BodL, MS Douce 84, fols. ii versoiii recto, recipes written across front flyleaves.

14 BodL, MS Laud misc.609, fol. 170va, verse added to the last leaf.

15 Lambeth Palace Library, MS 472, fol. 260r, common-profit inscription.

16 Lambeth Palace Library, MS 472, fol. 265r, memorandum.

17 BodL, MS Auct. D.5.14, fol. 578v, cautio inscription and stationers mark.

18 BodL, MS Bodley 251, fol. iii verso, front flyleaf with two inscriptions.

19 BodL, MS Bodley 315, fol. iii verso, front flyleaf with donation inscription.

Table

1 The values of precium inscriptions in books (from the survey of SummaryCatalogue II.i).

Full credit details are provided in the captions to the images in the text. The author and publisher are grateful to all the institutions and individuals for permission to reproduce the materials in which they hold copyright. Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders; apologies are offered for any omission, and the publisher will be pleased to add any necessary acknowledgement in subsequent editions.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank several people for making this book possible. Thank you to Prof Daniel Wakelin for helping me to shape this project and bring it to completion. I am also grateful to Prof Julia Boffey and Dr Jane Griffiths, and to my editors Dr Orietta Da Rold, Dr Holly James-Maddocks, Prof Pete Biller, and Caroline Palmer for their unstinting support.

Thank you to my fellow Oxford medievalists for the ongoing intellectual and literal nourishment. Further specific thanks to colleagues in Oxford and further afield: Prof Laura Ashe, Dr Tamara Atkin, Prof Mishtooni Bose, Prof Neil Cartlidge, Cavaliera Cristina Dondi, Dr Geri Della Rocca de Candal, Prof Mary C. Flannery, Prof Vincent Gillespie, Daryl Green, Dr Carrie Griffin, Prof Simon Horobin, Prof Heather ODonoghue, Dr Nick Perkins, Prof Adam Smyth, Dr Annie Sutherland, Dr Laura Varnam and Dr Mary Wellesley.

At Worcester College in Oxford, the Wilkinson Assistant Dean & Junior Research Fellowship and the Martin Senior Scholarship enabled me to embark on this research. I am also deeply grateful for the disability support I have received.

This research would not have been possible without access to collections of medieval manuscripts, something that is keenly missed at the time of writing. To the Bodleian Library staff, special thanks for hefting so many heavy manuscripts! Thank you to Colin Harris, Dr Matthew Holford and Dr Martin Kauffmann. I would like to express my gratitude to the following research collections for welcoming me: in Cambridge, the University Library, Gonville & Caius College Library, St Johns College Library, and the Wren Library at Trinity College; in London, the British Library, Lambeth Palace Library, and Grays Inn Library; in California, the Henry E. Huntington Library; in addition, Eton College Library; Exeter Cathedral Library; and Worcester Cathedral Library. Also, particular thanks to the Henry E. Huntington Library for awarding me the Gilbert & Ursula Farfel Fellowship in 2015.