book review: shared language: vernacular manuscripts ...in his introduction, christopher de hamel...
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Peregrinations: Journal of Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture Medieval Art and Architecture
Volume 7 Issue 1 195-199
12-4-2019
BOOK REVIEW: Shared Language: Vernacular Manuscripts of the BOOK REVIEW: Shared Language: Vernacular Manuscripts of the Middle Ages. Text manuscripts 7. Text by Laura Light, with an Middle Ages. Text manuscripts 7. Text by Laura Light, with an introduction by Christopher de Hamel, and essays by Dennis introduction by Christopher de Hamel, and essays by Dennis Dutschke, Stephen Mossman, Emily Runde, John Van Engen, and Dutschke, Stephen Mossman, Emily Runde, John Van Engen, and Mary Beth Winn. (Paris: Les Enluminures: 2018) Mary Beth Winn. (Paris: Les Enluminures: 2018)
Emily Savage University of St Andrews, Scotland
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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Savage, Emily. "BOOK REVIEW: Shared Language: Vernacular Manuscripts of the Middle Ages. Text manuscripts 7. Text by Laura Light, with an introduction by Christopher de Hamel, and essays by Dennis Dutschke, Stephen Mossman, Emily Runde, John Van Engen, and Mary Beth Winn. (Paris: Les Enluminures: 2018)." Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture 7, 1 (2019): 195-199. https://digital.kenyon.edu/perejournal/vol7/iss1/12
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____________________PEREGRINATIONS_______________ JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL ART AND ARCHITECTURE
VOLUME VII, NUMBER 1 (AUTUMN 2019)
BOOK REVIEW: Shared Language: Vernacular Manuscripts of the
Middle Ages. Text manuscripts 7. Text by Laura Light, with an
introduction by Christopher de Hamel, and essays by Dennis
Dutschke, Stephen Mossman, Emily Runde, John Van Engen, and
Mary Beth Winn. (Paris: Les Enluminures: 2018).
EMILY SAVAGE
University of St Andrews, Scotland
This sales catalogue, produced by Les Enluminures, presents a rich and varied
collection of relatively unknown vernacular manuscripts from Western medieval Europe,
dating roughly from 1300 to 1550. Founded in 1991 by Sandra Hindman, Les Enluminures
now has gallery locations in Paris, New York and Chicago, and also regularly exhibits
medieval manuscripts, jewellery and other works of art at international arts and antiques
fairs. As this excellent little book demonstrates, however, their associated publications are
more than mere advertisements.
In his introduction, Christopher de Hamel observes that manuscripts are special
because, unlike other forms of art, “they can talk” (p. 8). De Hamel underlines the
continuing significance of orality to manuscript production, first in the early transitional
age famously described by Michael Clanchy in From Memory to Written Record (1979), and
later in the rise of the vernacular languages to which this volume is dedicated. We can
trace this development further as the taste for manuscripts in the vernacular trickles down
Savage
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from the aristocracy, and vernacular books for private devotion, edification, and pleasure
proliferate during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
This proliferation is reflected in the structure of the catalogue itself, with five
sections devoted to French, Italian, German, Dutch, and English manuscripts, respectively.
Each section is prefaced by a brief essay which weaves the catalogue’s featured
manuscripts into the larger history of their vernacular. Such a framework might
unintentionally produce isolated material and linguistic histories, but the authors are keen
to highlight connections between the thirty-six books highlighted here. (Two items, cat.
nos. 19 and 36, contain printed material.) The title, Shared Language, suggests one recurring
element: multilingualism. A case in point is the religious miscellany likely produced in the
Southeastern Netherlands or Western Germany (Cat. no. 23, Fig. 1). Dating to c. 1460-1480,
it contains texts in Latin, Low German, and Dutch, thus reproducing the “linguistic
realities” of its geographical origin (p. 76). In a time where white supremacists seek to
bolster their cause by citing an invented white, monolingual, nationalist history, it is
imperative that we teach this multilingual past.1
Are certain kinds of texts better suited to the vernacular? Reading Shared Language,
the overall impression is that vernacular languages fostered textual experimentation. For
the medieval Low Countries, John van Engen focuses on the “veritable explosion” of
religious texts associated with the Modern Devotion, a broad movement linked by
regimental meditation on the Passion of Christ (p. 90). Dennis Dutschke comments on
1 Rachel Moss, “Inventing (the) English: Racism, Multilingualism and Medieval Studies,” Creative
Multilingualism, August 9, 2017, accessed September 10, 2019.
https://www.creativeml.ox.ac.uk/blog/exploring-multilingualism/inventing-english-racism-multilingualism-
and-medieval-studies.
Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture, Vol. 7, Iss. 1 [2019]
https://digital.kenyon.edu/perejournal/vol7/iss1/12
https://www.creativeml.ox.ac.uk/blog/exploring-multilingualism/inventing-english-racism-multilingualism-and-medieval-studieshttps://www.creativeml.ox.ac.uk/blog/exploring-multilingualism/inventing-english-racism-multilingualism-and-medieval-studies
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the so-called Three Crowns, Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, whose literary
accomplishments ignited a passion for the vernacular in Italy, one which spread even
amongst the nascent middle classes (p. 47). Meanwhile, in England, manuscript collections
of legal statutes were perennially fashionable. One particular legal language used in these
texts, Law French, combines ingredients from Anglo Norman, Parisian French, and
Middle English (Cat. no. 33). In her accompanying essay, Emily Runde notes that even
with the advent of print “British books remained sites of multilingualism” (p. 107). Of
Figure 1 Miscellany including Thomas a Kempis, Imitatio Christi, book one; Marcus
of Regensburg, Visio Tnugdali; H[enricus] Salteriensis, Tractatus de Purgatorio de
Sancti Patricii; Johannes Gobi, Historia de spiritu Guidonis; Historia Udonis
Magdeburgensis episcopi; Ps-Bede, De meditatione passionis Christi; Bonaventure,
Lignum vitae; Ludolf von Sudheim, Reise ins heilige Land; Visio Philiberti; Ps-
Anselm, Dialogus beatae Mariae et Anselmi de passione domini (Latin and Dutch
versions); and other texts. In Latin, Low German, and Dutch, decorated manuscript on
paper. Netherlands (Southeastern?) or Western Germany, c. 1460-1480 [TM 625]
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course, this small collection should not be seen as wholly representative of the histories of
these vernaculars; the variety of texts, or lack thereof, presented here must be due in part
to commercial factors.
Figure 2 Prudentius of Troyes, Flores psalmorum (Flowers of the Psalms); Prayers in Latin
and Italian. In Italian and Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment. Northern Italy, c.
1400-1450 [TM 891]
Another matter echoed across the catalogue concerns the role of women, primarily
as agents of translation. In scholarship women are often identified as the intended
audience for early vernacular texts, due in part to low Latin literacy rates (p. 70). However,
in this collection we see them not just as readers or listeners, but also as patrons, authors,
and collectors (Cat. nos. 6, 16, 19, 21, 24, 28, 30). Indeed, a remarkable fifteenth-century
prayerbook in this collection (Cat. no. 16, Fig. 2) may even have been compiled and copied
Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture, Vol. 7, Iss. 1 [2019]
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by its female owner. Its contents, which include the early medieval Flores psalmorum by
Prudentius of Troyes and a charm to ensure safety in childbirth, suggest an individual
comfortable reading in Latin and Italian, and a woman as concerned about the condition
of her earthly body as her eternal soul.
Readers should note that fuller descriptions of most manuscripts in this catalogue
are freely available on www.textmanuscripts.com, which features a detailed inventory of
more than 1000 manuscripts that have passed through Les Enluminures over the years.
This information is unfortunately buried on the publication page.
As a sales catalogue, this book naturally boasts an appealing page design, and each
entry is illustrated with a single, high-definition color image. On an academic level, the
author and contributors have succeeded in producing a volume that functions as a
practical reference work for postgraduates and scholars. Their clear and concise
introductory essays are backed up by a useful, if brief, bibliography. As for the
manuscripts themselves, readers will find much to delight in.
Savage
Published by Digital Kenyon: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Exchange, 2019
http://www.textmanuscripts.com/
BOOK REVIEW: Shared Language: Vernacular Manuscripts of the Middle Ages. Text manuscripts 7. Text by Laura Light, with an introduction by Christopher de Hamel, and essays by Dennis Dutschke, Stephen Mossman, Emily Runde, John Van Engen, and Mary Beth Winn. (Paris: Les Enluminures: 2018)Recommended Citation
BOOK REVIEW: Shared Language: Vernacular Manuscripts of the Middle Ages. Text manuscripts 7. Text by Laura Light, with an introduction by Christopher de Hamel, and essays by Dennis Dutschke, Stephen Mossman, Emily Runde, John Van Engen, and Mary Beth Winn