Mediaeval manuscripts and why I love them

Dear all,

I have been asked in social media why it is that I love mediaeval manuscripts. I have also been asked to retweet stuff from @BLMedieval and others in that vein. I am here today to answer that question - the great question of why an urban courtesan should be so obsessed with things that were written hundreds of years ago.

I went to grad school abroad, and so had access to many manuscripts, especially in the British Library's Manuscript Room. Hell, I could have happily lived there for the rest of my life if I wasn't so homesick for Toronto. Not that they would have let me in any case. I got relatively used to handling manuscripts of immense importance. I get excited about them because they represent a highly visual culture. The Gallic mediaeval culture, which is what I was looking at because their books were in Latin thanks to the classy Latin writing which Britain retained after the Romans left, influenced by the monastic movement.

I get all girly over them as well, because they may have been things which I had as textbooks in university, and I can read them. I get happy over them because they represent a culture which is so far removed from ours and yet so much the same. They were very susceptible to images on a page. We are susceptible to images on the Internet. They were vey susceptible to text and memory. We are continually drifting away from that, distracted by each new meme that pops up. The Druids, whom the Romans wiped out in AD 60, valued memory above all other abilities. Although we still admire Stonehenge, and celebrate there at certain times of year, we have shifted perception so much that we can scarce recognize them as (in some cases) our ancestors.

I love mediaeval codices because they are very much like gods - ripped and torn gods, but they have seen so much, and there are clues on each codex as to what it has been through.You just have to be able to read them. That is why I love them - because I am learning to read the clues, and I love to learn. If anyone has any questions about this, feel free to ask.

Xoxo,

Olivia