Philology 1: Middle English
Week 1: Chaucer. The man, his works and his medium
- Poets’ corner in Westminster Abby: Where Chaucer is buried, and other famous poets
were buried because of him being buries there.
o He is called the Father of English Poetry
Medieval manuscripts; parchment, vellum; miniature; scriptorium; pecia system of copying
- Manuscripts
o Manus scriptus = written by hand
▪ They used quill and to copy them, they had human copyists. The
original manuscript is called an ‘exemplar’. Every manuscript is
original because of its mistakes. Chaucer was very annoyed by this and
called them out on it
• They don’t have the exemplar of The Canterbury Tales. There
are 83 manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales, that all post-date
Chaucer, and no original. The tales are in different order in
different manuscripts.
- Parchment
o For much of the Middle Ages, cows were the main ingredient for books
▪ The skin of animals (calves, goats, sheep) were turned unto parchment
and subsequently cut into sheets.
o The quality of parchment sheets varied considerably. Like people today not all
medieval creatures had perfect skin. Some cows loved to rub against a tree
while others were particularly prone to insect bites. We can still see these
defects today, which appear as tiny hole, gaps or dark patched as we read Saint
Jerome or Chaucer.
▪ The quality of the page also had a lot to do with the preparation.
• A scribe producing a book for his own library may be less
attentive than on that worked in a monastic community.
• The best sheets have a deep-white colour with a hint of yellow.
Bad skin shows staining ans a variety of colours
• They feel like velvet and make a slight rustling sound when you
turn the page. Bad skin y contrast, crackles. It is of uneven
thickness.
o Medieval craftsmen were aware of the varying quality of animal skins,
however the animals were not always to blame. The most common
imperfections are holes produced by the knife of the parchment maker.
▪ Preparing parchment was a delicate business. To clear the skin of flesh
and hair, it was attached to a wooden frame, tight like a drum. If the
round knife of the parchment maker (the lunellum) cut too deep during
this scraping process, elongated rips or holes would appear.
, • However, readers did not seem to mind the holes too much and
scribes usually just wrote around them, or repaired them.
Sometimes the reader is given an unexpected sneak peek onto
the next page.
• Sometimes the holes were stitched together. Sometimes this
was done more eloquently like in a page from a manuscript at
the University Library of Uppsala, where it was highlighted by
coloured threads
o Another skin problem encountered by scribes during a book’s production was
the animal’s hair follicle. These show as pronounced black dots on the white
page. Often parchment makers or scribes were able to sand them away,
producing the desired smooth and cream-coloured surface. However, if the
follicles had been too deep, it could not be removed. In these cases, the scribe
would then have to write around the patch. The follicles are however helpful
for us because they allow us to determine – from the distance between them –
whether the animal was a calf, sheep or goat. This, in turn, may shed light in
where the manuscript was produced: the use of goat often points to Italy.
o In the 12th century another material appeared in Europe: paper. Imported from
Arabic culture, it was first exclusively used for documentary purposes, such as
account books and letters. In a remarkable shift of scribal practices, in the
fourteenth century scribes all over Europe started to use paper fir manuscripts.
Conservative scribes, such as monks, ignored the new material for some time,
while others – especially those who wanted to economize – embraced it. Paper
and parchment were used for all sorts of manuscripts, from chunky volumes to
small portable books.
o Schedulae
▪ Leftovers: When the scribe cut
sheets out of the animal hide, he
would normally is the best part of
the skin – what may be called the
“prime cut”. This meant staying
clear of the very edge of the skin
because these areas were very
thin and translucent, and deemed
unsuitable for books. The scribe, therefore, cut a rim of parchment from
the edge of the skin. It usually came off in tiny bits and pieces, which
he called schedulae – strips. These odd and ends were thrown in the
bin. Sometimes they were taken out to be used as scraps, for example,
for taking notes in the classroom or for smaller pages inserted into
existing manuscripts. These tiny pages supplemented the text or added
notes, like our sticky notes today.
o Palimpsest
▪ Layers: What to do when you run out of parchment as a medieval
scribe? You can look around for something else to write on, such as
left-over parchment strips in the bin (schedulae), or use paper, if it is
available. Alternatively, you can take a book that is no longer used
, from your monastery’s library and scrape the text off its pages. You
thensimply apply text of your own. Such recycling resulted in a
“palimpsest”, which holds a removed “lower text” and a newer “upper
text” ………
Codex; numbering of pages, recto/verso side of a folio; shelfmark
- Codex
o Parchment was introduced in late antiquity, when the codex (a book made of
double leaves) was born and started to replace the papyrus scroll
- Quire
o A collection of 24 or sometimes 25 sheets of paper of the same size and
quality: one twentieth of a ream.
o Some quires are irregular. An extra folium could be added (called a singleton)
or a leaf could be cut out.
- Bifolium (bifolia)
o A sheet of parchment or paper folded in half to create two folios (leaves) or
four pages.
▪ Book producers in England were known to have regularly produced
quires of six bifolia.
▪ Scribes on the continent typically preferred quires of four bifolia.
- Numbering pages
o Catchwords were used by scribes to make sure manuscript was bound in the
right order. This was done as well as numbering of pages.
o In the later Middle Ages, further organization was added to the page by also
numbering the individual bifolia, so as the keep track of their specific location
within the quire.
Types of medieval ‘writer’ as scribe, compiler, commentator, author: what does each of them
do with the text
- Scribe
o Before a scribe could begin, they first needed to prepare the page. Preparing
the page was a labour-intensive process, especially when the scribe had opted
for a complex layout, with multiple columns and glosses. This was important
to get right because a messy layout meant a messy book.
o They then had to rule the paper. To add these guiding lines to the blank page,
the scribe would prick tiny holes in the outer margins as well as in the upper
and lower ones. Lines were then drawn with a ruler.
▪ Horizontal lines: to guide the space between each line of text
▪ Vertical lines: to confine the left and right side of the textbook
o Early 12th century: done by pressing down on the parchment with a sharp
object (a hard point), producing a gutter that would guide the scribe’s pen
o 12th century: ruling was done with a pencil (called a “plummet”). This left a
more visible trace on the surface.
o 13th century: a pen was used as well. If the layout was very complex, the ruling
pattern may sometimes appear as a true cobweb.
, o An author may have composed the text, producing the original thought, poem,
or story, but it was often the scribe who put these words on the page.
o The style of medieval script often depended on when and where it was written.
This allows book historians to figure out where and when it was made.
o
Chaucer’s life, career and literary works
- Geoffrey Chaucer 9c. 1340-1400)
o C. 1340 – Born in London into a family of wine merchants
o 1357 – A page in the household of the Countess of Ulster
o 1359-1378 – Serves in wars with France, travels to France, Italy and Spain on
diplomatic missions
o Member of royal courts of:
▪ King Edward III (reign 1327-1377)
▪ King Richard II (reign 1377-1399)
▪ King Henry IV (reign 1399-1413)
o Close to John of Gaunt (1340-1399), son of King Edward III
o 1360 – Captured during military campaign in France, ransomed for 16 pounds
o 1374 – Chaucer is granted a gallon pitcher of wine daily for life
o 1380 – Chaucer is acquitted of raptus of Cecily Chaumpaigne
o 1390-1391 – Robbed three times
o 1400 – Murdered?
o Because of all this, he came into contact with many layers of society. He was
very intelligent with many talents, which is seen in his work. He was deeply
influenced by other language poets during that time.
o He was famous in his lifetime, also internationally and is known as the “Ovid
of English literature”
- Career
o Civil servant
▪ Controller of the customs
▪ Member of Parliament of Kent
▪ Clerk of the works
▪ Deputy forester
- Literary works
o A selection:
▪ ? Romaunt of the Rose
▪ Elaborate
▪ About love
▪ Translated from French
▪ 1369 The Book of the Duchess
▪ Wife of the Gaunt
▪ About a heartbroken man who lost his love
▪ Ca. 1380 The Parliament of Fowls
▪ Birds seek love
▪ Love poem about Valentine’s day
▪ 1382-1385 Troilus and Criseyde
Week 1: Chaucer. The man, his works and his medium
- Poets’ corner in Westminster Abby: Where Chaucer is buried, and other famous poets
were buried because of him being buries there.
o He is called the Father of English Poetry
Medieval manuscripts; parchment, vellum; miniature; scriptorium; pecia system of copying
- Manuscripts
o Manus scriptus = written by hand
▪ They used quill and to copy them, they had human copyists. The
original manuscript is called an ‘exemplar’. Every manuscript is
original because of its mistakes. Chaucer was very annoyed by this and
called them out on it
• They don’t have the exemplar of The Canterbury Tales. There
are 83 manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales, that all post-date
Chaucer, and no original. The tales are in different order in
different manuscripts.
- Parchment
o For much of the Middle Ages, cows were the main ingredient for books
▪ The skin of animals (calves, goats, sheep) were turned unto parchment
and subsequently cut into sheets.
o The quality of parchment sheets varied considerably. Like people today not all
medieval creatures had perfect skin. Some cows loved to rub against a tree
while others were particularly prone to insect bites. We can still see these
defects today, which appear as tiny hole, gaps or dark patched as we read Saint
Jerome or Chaucer.
▪ The quality of the page also had a lot to do with the preparation.
• A scribe producing a book for his own library may be less
attentive than on that worked in a monastic community.
• The best sheets have a deep-white colour with a hint of yellow.
Bad skin shows staining ans a variety of colours
• They feel like velvet and make a slight rustling sound when you
turn the page. Bad skin y contrast, crackles. It is of uneven
thickness.
o Medieval craftsmen were aware of the varying quality of animal skins,
however the animals were not always to blame. The most common
imperfections are holes produced by the knife of the parchment maker.
▪ Preparing parchment was a delicate business. To clear the skin of flesh
and hair, it was attached to a wooden frame, tight like a drum. If the
round knife of the parchment maker (the lunellum) cut too deep during
this scraping process, elongated rips or holes would appear.
, • However, readers did not seem to mind the holes too much and
scribes usually just wrote around them, or repaired them.
Sometimes the reader is given an unexpected sneak peek onto
the next page.
• Sometimes the holes were stitched together. Sometimes this
was done more eloquently like in a page from a manuscript at
the University Library of Uppsala, where it was highlighted by
coloured threads
o Another skin problem encountered by scribes during a book’s production was
the animal’s hair follicle. These show as pronounced black dots on the white
page. Often parchment makers or scribes were able to sand them away,
producing the desired smooth and cream-coloured surface. However, if the
follicles had been too deep, it could not be removed. In these cases, the scribe
would then have to write around the patch. The follicles are however helpful
for us because they allow us to determine – from the distance between them –
whether the animal was a calf, sheep or goat. This, in turn, may shed light in
where the manuscript was produced: the use of goat often points to Italy.
o In the 12th century another material appeared in Europe: paper. Imported from
Arabic culture, it was first exclusively used for documentary purposes, such as
account books and letters. In a remarkable shift of scribal practices, in the
fourteenth century scribes all over Europe started to use paper fir manuscripts.
Conservative scribes, such as monks, ignored the new material for some time,
while others – especially those who wanted to economize – embraced it. Paper
and parchment were used for all sorts of manuscripts, from chunky volumes to
small portable books.
o Schedulae
▪ Leftovers: When the scribe cut
sheets out of the animal hide, he
would normally is the best part of
the skin – what may be called the
“prime cut”. This meant staying
clear of the very edge of the skin
because these areas were very
thin and translucent, and deemed
unsuitable for books. The scribe, therefore, cut a rim of parchment from
the edge of the skin. It usually came off in tiny bits and pieces, which
he called schedulae – strips. These odd and ends were thrown in the
bin. Sometimes they were taken out to be used as scraps, for example,
for taking notes in the classroom or for smaller pages inserted into
existing manuscripts. These tiny pages supplemented the text or added
notes, like our sticky notes today.
o Palimpsest
▪ Layers: What to do when you run out of parchment as a medieval
scribe? You can look around for something else to write on, such as
left-over parchment strips in the bin (schedulae), or use paper, if it is
available. Alternatively, you can take a book that is no longer used
, from your monastery’s library and scrape the text off its pages. You
thensimply apply text of your own. Such recycling resulted in a
“palimpsest”, which holds a removed “lower text” and a newer “upper
text” ………
Codex; numbering of pages, recto/verso side of a folio; shelfmark
- Codex
o Parchment was introduced in late antiquity, when the codex (a book made of
double leaves) was born and started to replace the papyrus scroll
- Quire
o A collection of 24 or sometimes 25 sheets of paper of the same size and
quality: one twentieth of a ream.
o Some quires are irregular. An extra folium could be added (called a singleton)
or a leaf could be cut out.
- Bifolium (bifolia)
o A sheet of parchment or paper folded in half to create two folios (leaves) or
four pages.
▪ Book producers in England were known to have regularly produced
quires of six bifolia.
▪ Scribes on the continent typically preferred quires of four bifolia.
- Numbering pages
o Catchwords were used by scribes to make sure manuscript was bound in the
right order. This was done as well as numbering of pages.
o In the later Middle Ages, further organization was added to the page by also
numbering the individual bifolia, so as the keep track of their specific location
within the quire.
Types of medieval ‘writer’ as scribe, compiler, commentator, author: what does each of them
do with the text
- Scribe
o Before a scribe could begin, they first needed to prepare the page. Preparing
the page was a labour-intensive process, especially when the scribe had opted
for a complex layout, with multiple columns and glosses. This was important
to get right because a messy layout meant a messy book.
o They then had to rule the paper. To add these guiding lines to the blank page,
the scribe would prick tiny holes in the outer margins as well as in the upper
and lower ones. Lines were then drawn with a ruler.
▪ Horizontal lines: to guide the space between each line of text
▪ Vertical lines: to confine the left and right side of the textbook
o Early 12th century: done by pressing down on the parchment with a sharp
object (a hard point), producing a gutter that would guide the scribe’s pen
o 12th century: ruling was done with a pencil (called a “plummet”). This left a
more visible trace on the surface.
o 13th century: a pen was used as well. If the layout was very complex, the ruling
pattern may sometimes appear as a true cobweb.
, o An author may have composed the text, producing the original thought, poem,
or story, but it was often the scribe who put these words on the page.
o The style of medieval script often depended on when and where it was written.
This allows book historians to figure out where and when it was made.
o
Chaucer’s life, career and literary works
- Geoffrey Chaucer 9c. 1340-1400)
o C. 1340 – Born in London into a family of wine merchants
o 1357 – A page in the household of the Countess of Ulster
o 1359-1378 – Serves in wars with France, travels to France, Italy and Spain on
diplomatic missions
o Member of royal courts of:
▪ King Edward III (reign 1327-1377)
▪ King Richard II (reign 1377-1399)
▪ King Henry IV (reign 1399-1413)
o Close to John of Gaunt (1340-1399), son of King Edward III
o 1360 – Captured during military campaign in France, ransomed for 16 pounds
o 1374 – Chaucer is granted a gallon pitcher of wine daily for life
o 1380 – Chaucer is acquitted of raptus of Cecily Chaumpaigne
o 1390-1391 – Robbed three times
o 1400 – Murdered?
o Because of all this, he came into contact with many layers of society. He was
very intelligent with many talents, which is seen in his work. He was deeply
influenced by other language poets during that time.
o He was famous in his lifetime, also internationally and is known as the “Ovid
of English literature”
- Career
o Civil servant
▪ Controller of the customs
▪ Member of Parliament of Kent
▪ Clerk of the works
▪ Deputy forester
- Literary works
o A selection:
▪ ? Romaunt of the Rose
▪ Elaborate
▪ About love
▪ Translated from French
▪ 1369 The Book of the Duchess
▪ Wife of the Gaunt
▪ About a heartbroken man who lost his love
▪ Ca. 1380 The Parliament of Fowls
▪ Birds seek love
▪ Love poem about Valentine’s day
▪ 1382-1385 Troilus and Criseyde
