The Annotations

Abstract

The Annotations Blair Hurley (bio) In the monastery at Saône-et-Loire there are two manuscript copiers, and they are always together. They arrived fifteen years apart as donated third sons. Jean-Marie arrived so long ago he claimed to have forgotten the high noble house he came from. While many monks travel to neighboring villages to collect alms or offer teachings, Jean-Marie has not been known to have passed through the monastery gates in many years. Michel, the younger monk, spoke haughtily of his family's great history in Gaul dating back to Roman times, until he learned that such talk was frowned upon. In truth, Michel came from a small, unremarkable house that had fallen on hard times and could no longer afford to feed its many bastards. He was sickly as a child and was given to God to ease the household burden. He was too frail to do much labor on the monastery farm but had a fine, unhurried hand for letters and was assigned as an apprentice to Jean-Marie. After morning prayers they can be found in the dusty manuscript room at the back of the chapel, side by side, heads bent in parallel as they copy Scripture. Jean-Marie is the better reader, so he often copies out the first draft, checking for errors, while Michel copies the final drafts, taking the notes on formatting or phrasing that Jean-Marie has left him in the margins. In the sun-shafted quiet of the room, Jean-Marie finishes his notes on a page and passes it wordlessly to his right; Michel picks it up and reads carefully, then begins his painstaking version. When he finishes a page, he picks it up gingerly by the edges, blowing the delicate, shining ink, then returns it to Jean-Marie to check, note any errors, and start again with a new page. Their shaved heads leaning over the mess of vellum, their fingers stained with ink. ________ Thesis Journal, March 2019 Met with thesis adviser today and finally told him my plan to write exclusively on the annotations. I explained how there are two monks in particular I'm interested in. They seem to be in conversation with each other, even though we can't be sure if they are in fact two individuals or if they were even at the same monastery at the same [End Page 186] time. I call them Jean-Marie and Michel, but of course no one knows their names. Monks don't sign their work, generally. Prof. Henkel looked at me over glasses with a pitying smile. Looks a little like a monk himself, with his curly fringes of hair. Can hear his German accent come out more when he likes my ideas. Asked how I could be sure I was picking out annotations of two particular individuals. Walk me through your methodology, he said. He doesn't know how long I've spent looking at scans of their manuscripts. Going cross-eyed scrolling and zooming and struggling to interpret medieval shorthand and Latin puns. Told him how abbey records indicated a handful of monasteries in the region only had a few copiers at this time. Told how handwriting was distinctive. Jean-Marie appears to be senior copier, and leaves small edits and corrections on Michel's draft. J had a characteristic way of annotating—left small dashes with a little drip on the end, probably a feature of a leaky stylus. Favorite writing tool that has brought him luck from writing gods for too many years to let go of, like the dinged-up ballpoint I have had since eighth grade that refuses to run out. J draws little carets for insertion spacing when Michel writes with letters bunched too closely together. Feel like I almost know them at this point. Michel's writing has exuberant crowding to it, as though trying to fit more and more onto each new version of the same page. An impatience there. Maybe feels his talents are better spent than just mindlessly copying same Bible verses over and over. J's notes bring him back to the job. J reminds M of sacred...