The Materiality of Medieval Manuscripts

Abstract

The article presents the author's Inaugural Lecture for the Chair in German Medieval Literature and Linguistics, delivered on Thursday 21 January 2016. The subject of the lecture is a new acquisition by the Bodleian Library in Oxford, a psalter written ca. 1500 by the nun Margaret Hopes in the Cistercian convent of Medingen near Lüneburg, MS. Don. e. 248. The hypothesis advanced is that the nuns use the materiality of their prayer-book as the embodiment of their devotion. The psalter is analysed in terms of its physical realization (material, layout, writing, corrections, music, illustrations, and additions) and its execution interpreted as a spiritual act. The journey of the manuscript beyond the Middle Ages is highlighted through the accommodation of the manuscript to the Lutheran Reformation and the addition of a bone plaque with a floral border in the nineteenth century, reflecting the contemporary concept of the medieval object. The purpose of the lecture is an enquiry into the changing history of manuscripts as objects of devotional, antiquarian and scholarly interest.Photos of the psalter Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Don. e. 248 by Henrike Lähnemann (1,2,4,5) and Laura Light (6), reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Libraries.