Assessing the Nature or Status of Individual Medieval Manuscripts

This article examines the nature or status of medieval manuscripts. Whereas the early printed book always is a formal book, professionally made for the market and hence a commercial product, a handwritten book could possibly be made for other reasons or purposes. Once someone had learned to write, he or she could copy a text for private use or as a gift to someone else. Furthermore, while printing a book involved a single, streamlined process, the creation of a manuscript often occurred in multiple stages, as is demonstrated by codices that were ‘growing’ over years or even decades. In assessing the ‘qualities’ of a given manuscript, the article departs from four oppositions in the manuscript’s production: formal versus informal, for private use versus for the market, commercial versus non-commercial, and professional versus non-professional. These denominations are not intended as rigid labels or mutually exclusive classifications, but rather as analytical tools to help determine what kind of book a particular manuscript might be.