Composite volumes | Exploring the Medieval Manuscript Book

The video series ‘Exploring the Medieval Manuscript Book’ features book historian Irene O’Daly (Leiden University), introducing a wider audience to unique artefacts that were created with pen and ink in a distant past. In this seventh episode, she discusses bindings consisting of parts that were not created at the same time and/or place.

The state of a medieval manuscript on the table of a library reading room can differ considerably from its original state when it left the scriptorium or workshop long ago. It might have a second, third or fourth binding. This binding can even contain two or more manuscripts that were written separately and came together only later in time when an owner decided to bring them together. Such a composite volume might contain related subject matter (BPL 191 E). A medieval binding from Egmond Abbey clearly shows several codicological units that once led their own separate lives (BPL 102). From the late 15th century onwards composite volumes could even contain both printed and manuscript parts (LTK 237).