I have read this a couple of times, with great interest, thanks. Love your take on the subject which piqued my interest a couple of years back with Pliny the Younger’s Letters. When you talk about destructive processes, it poses the question ‘what other uses might medieval parchment have served?’ In the case of the Letters, annotations on the pages might suggest it was held as an adjunct to a sermon. Today we dispose of pages with little thought - gifting them to a church bazaar, or repurposing them of the floor of a budgerigar cage, or substituting them for kindling when lighting a fire (not me, it goes without saying). Could, instead, they have been sought deliberately and systematically as a useful crafting accessory - binding on a bow or tool, plastering on a wall or ceiling, bolstering the strength of a basket, chest or box. While fragile, the remaining calf skin can’t all have been collected by monks looking to recycle. Is this one of those cases where the 5th-6th century ‘silence’ tells us something else? :)
Thanks so much for your comment - I'm so glad you enjoyed the post! You've raised some really interesting questions; unfortunately I'm not an expert on book recycling (it's where I'd turn to conservators and archivists for a more specialist answer!) but I'd recommend Ryley, H. Re-using manuscripts in late medieval England: repairing, recycling, sharing. (Boydell & Brewer; 2022) as a starting point and for more interesting examples! Whilst it is focused on late medieval book recycling I still found it to be quite instructive.
I loved how this took such a tangible image — libraries disappearing — and used it to talk about what we lose when we stop caring for memory, attention, and physical culture.
Thanks so much - & yes, it's a real worry I have. If we refuse to maintain our collective memories, archives, and museums, we will lose them eventually, and that does scare me somewhat.
The rebinding detail really struck me, the manuscript we see now isn't the manuscript that was. Even acts of preservation can fail to preserve. Thanks for this thought-provoking piece:)
I have read this a couple of times, with great interest, thanks. Love your take on the subject which piqued my interest a couple of years back with Pliny the Younger’s Letters. When you talk about destructive processes, it poses the question ‘what other uses might medieval parchment have served?’ In the case of the Letters, annotations on the pages might suggest it was held as an adjunct to a sermon. Today we dispose of pages with little thought - gifting them to a church bazaar, or repurposing them of the floor of a budgerigar cage, or substituting them for kindling when lighting a fire (not me, it goes without saying). Could, instead, they have been sought deliberately and systematically as a useful crafting accessory - binding on a bow or tool, plastering on a wall or ceiling, bolstering the strength of a basket, chest or box. While fragile, the remaining calf skin can’t all have been collected by monks looking to recycle. Is this one of those cases where the 5th-6th century ‘silence’ tells us something else? :)
Thanks so much for your comment - I'm so glad you enjoyed the post! You've raised some really interesting questions; unfortunately I'm not an expert on book recycling (it's where I'd turn to conservators and archivists for a more specialist answer!) but I'd recommend Ryley, H. Re-using manuscripts in late medieval England: repairing, recycling, sharing. (Boydell & Brewer; 2022) as a starting point and for more interesting examples! Whilst it is focused on late medieval book recycling I still found it to be quite instructive.
I loved how this took such a tangible image — libraries disappearing — and used it to talk about what we lose when we stop caring for memory, attention, and physical culture.
Thanks so much - & yes, it's a real worry I have. If we refuse to maintain our collective memories, archives, and museums, we will lose them eventually, and that does scare me somewhat.
The rebinding detail really struck me, the manuscript we see now isn't the manuscript that was. Even acts of preservation can fail to preserve. Thanks for this thought-provoking piece:)
Thanks for the comment - I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Manuscripts truly are remarkable objects.