HISTORY OF MANUSCRIPTS

In the history of writing, the invention of the codex was one of the most remarkable and lasting revolutions. The codex first appeared in the beginning centuries of the Common era, slowly taking precedence over the scroll, which had been the dominant writing medium. Scrolls had been used as a primary tool for writing for centuries leading up to the invention of the codex. However, scrolls had several drawbacks, according to Martyn Lyons in his work: Books: A Living History, Lyons identified some of these disadvantages to the scroll. For one, scrolls could be quite clumsy and difficult to manipulate, a scroll when fully unraveled may be as long as 10 meters, often navigation of the contents was laborious. In comparison, the codex has individual pages which are uniform in size and able to be organized through quire numerals, page numbers, and other forms of pagination. Early Christians are credited as some of the first to adopt the codex, which from the fourth century onwards was becoming exponentially more popular.

Monasteries in the Middle ages are credited in preserving and collecting manuscripts–especially ones containing copies of texts originally on scrolls–this was a result of their studying, copying, and bookmaking. Many bookmakers in the Middle Ages were monks. Monasteries kept libraries filled with literary, scientific, and philosophical works by Greek and Roman authors alongside their sacred texts. During the mid 12th Century, two of the earliest “universities”: The University of Bologna and its sister institution the University of Salerno emerged. Universities in Europe further advanced manuscript production by driving their increased demand. Before universities, monasteries were the most centralized places for learning, but once universities grew in popularity, the demand for books skyrocketed and illuminated manuscript production became a major business.

Throughout the Middle Ages, manuscripts included a diverse array of content which reflected the religious, academic, and cultural priorities of their time. Manuscripts primarily fell into one of the three broad categories:

RELIGIOUS TEXTS

This includes Bibles and other religious or liturgical texts. These were often beautifully illuminated works used for worship, display, and study. It also includes gospel books and ‘books of hours’ decorated prayer books intended for daily prayers; they were among the most widely produced manuscripts in the Middle Ages.

LITERARY TEXTS

Among literary texts were classical works by authors in antiquity such as Cicero, Plato, or Aristotle. This also included literature and poetry, as well as philosophical works and histories. These works reflect their cultural significance and the intellectual drive to preserve history.

ACADEMIC TEXTS

Manuscripts in the Middle Ages were used in scholarly settings for practical, legal, and scientific purposes. Guidebooks were on agriculture, legal documents contained text on laws and charters, and medical texts from a wide geographical array included potable medicines, studies on anatomy, and even books of ritual spells. Some of these would be contemporary for the times while others were ancient sources on science and medicine.

These sections do not reflect the entire vast array of subjects and topics included in medieval manuscripts, but allow for an introductory framework of the contents of a large chunk of them.

Manuscripts remained popular up until the 15th century, when Johannes Gutenberg introduced the mechanized printing press to Europe. After this technological revolution, books became mechanically reproduced, slowly reducing the scale of handmade production.

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