Textiles in Manuscripts

Preserved between the covers of books, textiles offer a remarkable glimpse into how the local production of books was connected to vibrant global trade networks from late antiquity through the early modern period. Textiles appear in manuscripts in many forms: as a delicate overlay used to adorn or protect a precious painted illumination; as silk robes wrapping sacred texts; as the sturdy fabric that supports an intricately sewn binding; as a repurposed bit of cloth, taken from a liturgical vestment, concealed within the volume to convey sacrality. This volume brings together a range of experts to unpack the vivid and surprising history of textiles in manuscripts, ranging from practical uses to the ornamental and beyond. The historical account they offer is both local and global: local, in that each chapter is tightly focused on a single tradition, or even a single book; global, in that together these chapters illuminate the rich web of interconnections that link the cultural and craft centers of Europe, Asia, and Africa.

• New research on Syriac, Armenian, Byzantine, Ethiopian, Chinese, Mongolian, Islamic, and Hebrew manuscripts from late antiquity through the early modern period

• Production, trade, and exchange of books in a global perspective

• With contributions of book historians, textile scholars, conservators, art historians, and codicologists

Contributing authors: Hagos Abrha Abay, Carolina Almenara-Melis, Katherine Beaty, Jody Beenk, Kalzang Dorjee Bhutia, Rachel Bissonnette, Georgios Boudalis, Joy Boutrup, Aaron M. Butts, James Canary, Rosemary Crill, Eyob Derillo, Sarah Fee, Michael Gervers, Paul Hepworth, River Hobel, Bryan C. Keene, Hrair Hawk Khatcherian, Sylvie L. Merian, Alison Ohta, Kristen Pearson, Karin Scheper, Noam Sienna, Thelma K. Thomas, Nancy K. Turner, Michelle C. Wang

Melissa Moreton is a codicologist and scholar of the history of the book, who is particularly interested in material culture and the development and exchange of manuscript technologies across Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas. She has published on a range of book history topics relating to medieval scribal practice, codicology, and traditional care practices for books. Moreton is a Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and works on projects relating to global book history (1000–1700) and Indigenous language and cultural revitalization.

Suzanne Conklin Akbari is Professor of Medieval Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, NJ). Her books are on optics and allegory (Seeing Through the Veil), European views of Islam (Idols in the East), travel literature (Marco Polo), Mediterranean Studies (A Sea of Languages), and somatic history (The Ends of the Body), plus How We Write and How We Read. She recently co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Chaucer and Practices of Commentary: Medieval Traditions and Transmissions.