Writing with the Book: History through the Codex and the Materiality of Autography
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Rachel Wilson
Abstract
This chapter analyzes the autograph manuscript of the Chronicon de tempore regis Ricardi of Richard of Devizes, a Latin text of the 1190s centered on the reign of Richard the Lionheart, now known as Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 339. Written in Richard of Devizes’ own hand, the manuscript employs an idiosyncratic mise-en-page to generate new spaces for historical meaning making in the codex. Richard’s use of the two text columns, at first seemingly improvisatory, emerges as a deft and purposeful tool of narrative juxtaposition central to his authorial philosophy. Richard, a monk of Winchester, writes a text that uses both its shifting form and contents to reveal the irony of its author’s perspective on recent history even as it is still unfolding as he works on his chronicle. Thus, his scribal-authorial work in CCCC MS 339 exposes his text’s meaning-making capabilities as contingent on its production and existence in a particular manuscript form.
Abstract
This chapter analyzes the autograph manuscript of the Chronicon de tempore regis Ricardi of Richard of Devizes, a Latin text of the 1190s centered on the reign of Richard the Lionheart, now known as Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 339. Written in Richard of Devizes’ own hand, the manuscript employs an idiosyncratic mise-en-page to generate new spaces for historical meaning making in the codex. Richard’s use of the two text columns, at first seemingly improvisatory, emerges as a deft and purposeful tool of narrative juxtaposition central to his authorial philosophy. Richard, a monk of Winchester, writes a text that uses both its shifting form and contents to reveal the irony of its author’s perspective on recent history even as it is still unfolding as he works on his chronicle. Thus, his scribal-authorial work in CCCC MS 339 exposes his text’s meaning-making capabilities as contingent on its production and existence in a particular manuscript form.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Abbreviations IX
- List of Figures XI
- Notes on Contributors XVII
- Introduction: History, Manuscripts, Making 1
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I Strategies of Production
- Assemblages and History in a Medieval French Manuscript from Corbie, ca. 1295: Copenhagen, Kongelige Biblioteket, GKS 487 f° 23
- Writing with the Book: History through the Codex and the Materiality of Autography 47
- Miscellanies of Histories: Perception of the Past and Historiographical Agency of Late Medieval Compilers 71
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II The Stakes of Adaptation
- Writing History with Bede’s Martyrology, 800–1200 95
- Adaptation and Affect in Orderic Vitalis’s Historia ecclesiastica 117
- From Little Egypt to Zurich: Chronicling Romani Immigrants with Late Medieval Manuscripts 141
- Making History in the Renaissance with Medieval Manuscripts: Jean Le Féron and the Grandes chroniques de France 171
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III Configuring History
- Medieval Monastic Manuscripts after the Middle Ages: The Case of St. Nikolaus in undis at Strasbourg 199
- History Branches Out: Narrative and Chronology in Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 147 225
- Fabulous History: Painting History in Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, MS 5069 253
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IV Response
- Making History with Manuscripts: Response 287
- General Index 303
- Manuscripts Cited 315
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Abbreviations IX
- List of Figures XI
- Notes on Contributors XVII
- Introduction: History, Manuscripts, Making 1
-
I Strategies of Production
- Assemblages and History in a Medieval French Manuscript from Corbie, ca. 1295: Copenhagen, Kongelige Biblioteket, GKS 487 f° 23
- Writing with the Book: History through the Codex and the Materiality of Autography 47
- Miscellanies of Histories: Perception of the Past and Historiographical Agency of Late Medieval Compilers 71
-
II The Stakes of Adaptation
- Writing History with Bede’s Martyrology, 800–1200 95
- Adaptation and Affect in Orderic Vitalis’s Historia ecclesiastica 117
- From Little Egypt to Zurich: Chronicling Romani Immigrants with Late Medieval Manuscripts 141
- Making History in the Renaissance with Medieval Manuscripts: Jean Le Féron and the Grandes chroniques de France 171
-
III Configuring History
- Medieval Monastic Manuscripts after the Middle Ages: The Case of St. Nikolaus in undis at Strasbourg 199
- History Branches Out: Narrative and Chronology in Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 147 225
- Fabulous History: Painting History in Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, MS 5069 253
-
IV Response
- Making History with Manuscripts: Response 287
- General Index 303
- Manuscripts Cited 315
