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Bound Fast with Letters

by Mary a Rouse

$79.05

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Bound Fast with Letters

brings together in one volume many of the significant contributions that Richard H. Rouse and Mary A. Rouse have made over the past forty years to the study of medieval manuscripts through the prism of textual transmission and manuscript production. The eighteen essays collected here address medieval authors, craftsmen, book producers, and patrons of manuscripts from different epochs in the Middle Ages, extending from late antiquity to the early Renaissance, and ranging from North Africa to northern England. Their investigations reveal valuable information about the history of texts and their transmission, and their careful scrutiny of texts and of the physical manuscripts that convey them illuminate the societies that created, read, and preserved these objects. The book begins in Part I with articles on writers from the patristic era through the twelfth century who experimented with, and mastered, various physical forms of presenting ideas in writing. Part II contains essays on patronage and patrons, including Richard de Fournival, Jean de Brienne, Watriquet de Couvin, Pope Clement V, the Counts of Saint-Pol, and Christine de Pizan. Part III, on manuscript producers, discusses the questions, for whom? and by whom? were manuscripts made. The four essays in this section each reflect on a different part of the process of book-making. Throughout, Bound Fast with Letters focuses on the close ties between the physical remains of literate culture--from the wax tablets of the patristic era to the vernacular literature of the wealthy laity of the late Middle Ages--and their social and economic context.

The common denominator shared by all of these essays is the human dimension, constituting in some ways a people-oriented history of the book and the book trade. The collection emphasizes the experimental nature of book production, the communities of artisans of the book, and the practicalities of life in them, the movement of scribes and artists, and the expectations of patrons. All of the articles place manuscript production in historical, social, and cultural contexts.--Keith Busby, University of Wisconsin, Madison


Bound Fast with Letters brings together in one volume many of the significant contributions that Richard H. Rouse and Mary A. Rouse have made over the past forty years to the study of medieval manuscripts through the prism of textual transmission and manuscript production. The eighteen essays collected here address medieval authors, craftsmen, book producers, and patrons of manuscripts from different epochs in the Middle Ages, extending from late antiquity to the early Renaissance, and ranging from North Africa to northern England. Their investigations reveal valuable information about the history of texts and their transmission, and their careful scrutiny of texts and of the physical manuscripts that convey them illuminate the societies that created, read, and preserved these objects. The book begins in Part I with articles on writers from the patristic era through the twelfth century who experimented with, and mastered, various physical forms of presenting ideas in writing. Part II contains essays on patronage and patrons, including Richard de Fournival, Jean de Brienne, Watriquet de Couvin, Pope Clement V, the Counts of Saint-Pol, and Christine de Pizan. Part III, on manuscript producers, discusses the questions, for whom? and by whom? were manuscripts made. The four essays in this section each reflect on a different part of the process of book-making. Throughout, Bound Fast with Letters focuses on the close ties between the physical remains of literate culture--from the wax tablets of the patristic era to the vernacular literature of the wealthy laity of the late Middle Ages--and their social and economic context. "The common denominator shared by all of these essays is the human dimension, constituting in some ways a people-oriented history of the book and the book trade. The collection emphasizes the experimental nature of book production, the communities of artisans of the book, and the practicalities of life in them, the movement of scribes and artists, and the expectations of patrons. All of the articles place manuscript production in historical, social, and cultural contexts." --Keith Busby, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Richard H. Rouse is professor of history emeritus at University of California, Los Angeles.
Mary A. Rouse is former managing editor of Viator. They are coauthors of a number of books, including Manuscripts and Their Makers. Commercial Book Producers in Medieval Paris, 1200-1500 (Harvey Miller Publishers, 2000).
Bound Fast with Letters is another triumphant collection, ranging across a millennium, and teasing from individual manuscripts (or small groups) whole worlds of learning, book production, patronage, faith, and political power. Richard and Mary Rouse ask 'basic questions' of these manuscripts--which might with less modesty be called fundamental: who made the object, where, for whom, and for what use? Where did the manuscript travel in its later life, and how did its uses change across place and time? As comfortable and skilled in the archive as they are in the library, the Rouses draw together the fruits of each with unique skill and the wisdom of many years' thought. It is an inspiration for any scholar to witness such a marriage of true minds, actively at work in their sixth decade of joint studies and publication. --Christopher Baswell, Ann Whitney Olin Professor of English at Barnard College and Columbia University

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Product Details

  • University of Notre Dame Brand
  • Jun 15, 2013 Pub Date:
  • 0268040338 ISBN-10:
  • 9780268040338 ISBN-13:
  • 570 Pages
  • 10 in * 7 in * 1.3 in Dimensions:
  • 2 lb Weight: