Bookseller Catalogs
The 2021 California International Antiquarian Book Fair Our books for the fair, in four categories.
How to request a print version: You can print from the online version
E-CATALOGUE FOUR: THE “I” IN MANUSCRIPT Manuscripts are, by definition, made by hand, and one of the thrills of studying them is connecting with the many people who made them, from the parchment or paper maker, to the scribe, the illuminator, and binder, and the many people who owned and read them down through the centuries. At times, though, these people can seem abstract and are often unnamed. It is thus exciting when the personal comes into focus and we meet the “I” in a manuscript, as it does in the case of each of the ten manuscripts in this varied list. Here we have scribes and original owners known by name, owner-produced books (or as we have called them, “selfie-books”), and biographies that by definition focus on the personal. For the collector and in the classroom, these manuscripts bring the Middle Ages and Renaissance alive.
E-CATALOGUE THREE: EXCUSE MY FRENCH “If we want to eavesdrop on the actual words of the medieval courts, or the banter of trade, or the inmost thoughts of private piety, it will not be in Latin but in medieval French, English, German, Dutch, or Italian,” so says the inimitable Christopher de Hamel. In this list, we present ten manuscripts in French. Each broadens our picture of medieval and Renaissance society. Canon Law is the law of the church, and Latin was undoubtedly the language of clerics. A thirteenth-century Canon Law manuscript in French reminds us that viewing the civilization of the Middle Ages exclusively through the lens of Latin is much too narrow. Included are histories, feudal records, and texts exploring ethical and religious behavior, some originally composed in French, others translated from Latin. For the classroom and the collector, these manuscripts bring to life the stories of men and women in everyday life in the past.
E-CATALOGUE TWO: THE ANCIENTS Sallust, Plutarch, Cicero, Juvenal, Boethius–are these authors we still read? that we should still read? Certainly, they have shaped our society. As the historian Mary Beard says, “many of our most fundamental assumptions about power, citizenship, responsibility, political violence, empire, luxury, beauty, and even humour, have been formed, and tested, in dialogue with the Romans and their writing.”
E-CATALOGUE ONE: WOMEN AND THE BOOK Manuscripts made and/or owned by women offer one of the best and most vivid resources for telling the stories of these women, secular and religious, young and old, high-born and common. Seven of the manuscripts in our new list were owned by, and often made by, nuns; the lives of secular women are revealed in three special manuscripts. For the classroom and the collector, these manuscripts bring to life the roles women played in society.
Teaching with Original Manuscripts In April 2019 we reached TM 1000 on our website www.textmanuscripts.com. The present publication was created to celebrate both this remarkable milestone and the success of our newest program, Manuscripts in the Curriculum. Sixteen manuscripts from our past inventory and sixteen manuscripts from our current inventory (on an insert of separate cards) together illustrate sixteen major categories of manuscripts for teaching.
Sixteen illustrated books from the sixteenth century European illustrated books, 1508-1600
How to request a print version: On request
Shared Language: Vernacular Manuscripts in the Middle Ages Text by Laura Light with an introduction Christopher de Hamel, and essays by Dennis Dutschke, Stephen Mossman, Emily Runde, John Van Engen, and Mary Beth Winn, fully illustrated, in English
The thirty-six manuscripts included in this catalogue provide viewers unique access to the authentic, spontaneous vision of people in medieval France, Italy, Germany, the Low Countries, and Britain.