Latin Paleography, part 1

Latin Paleography: Antiquity & the Middle Ages, part 1

Bernhard Bischoff, Latin Paleography: Antiquity & the Middle Ages trans. Dáibhí ó Cróinín & David Ganz (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1995).

Part 1 Codicology

                The work was originally published in Berlin as Palägraphie des römischen Altertums und des abendländischen Mittelalters and was translated into English in 1990. The first portion of this book discusses first and foremost the tools and media used from antiquity through the Middle Ages, followed by an examination of the external characteristics of the written works ( such as format, binding, page layout), and culminating with a section on writing and copying.

Tools and Materials

                There were four primary media used during the Middle Ages: Papyrus, Parchment, Paper, and wax tablets. Papyrus, invented and monopolized in Egypt, was borrowed by the Greeks, and subsequently by the Romans, and usually took on the form of rolls. One of the unique practices done with papyrus was of washing off the text to be written over on the verso (the backside), usually in a different language. This process created what is known as an Opistograph. Sometime during the fourth century A.D there occurred a general widespread transition to the use of parchment, though papyrus continued to be in limited use till the seventh century in the Merovingian period and all the way till the eleventh century Papal Chancery and Ravenna. Few papyrus records survive from these regions as the climate was unsuitable for their preservation.

                Parchment, on the other hand, proved to weather the climate much better. Made from the skins of various animals, the hides were soaked in lye to remove the fat and hair, scraped clean and then stretched on a form. Depending on the skin used, the parchment would have a different feel to it. Sheep, for example produced a smooth parchment. After the Carolingian period calfskin was commonplace; the calfskin method came from the Insular forms in use in the British Isles, where both sides of the skin were roughened with pumice so as to make the hair and skin side indistinguishable from one another and help the ink better adhere, making it more suitable for rich color. As a specialty product, and yardstick standard for scriptoria in the later Middle Ages, unborn lambs were used to make very thin and fine parchment called virgin or uterine parchment.

                Parchment was also not very cheap. Sometimes over 500 skins were used for one work, thus its use was strictly allocated. For special manuscripts, such as a Bible for a king or emperor, the skin was dyed a deep purple. Because the skin was now dark, a bright text was needed, to which gold and silver became the most suitable choice. Gold was most prominently used in the Carolingian period in liturgical texts, names of saints in calendars, litanies, and legendaries. Later, St. Jerome would denounce the use of such costly materials in the production of texts, which led to different substitutes similar in appearance, thus making the use of gold rare in later texts.

                When certain texts became outdated, unimportant, or unintelligible, the text was usually scraped off, the parchment rotated, and a new text added. This is known as a palimpsest. This practice makes possible the recovery of some texts as the scraping does not completely remove the old ink. Palimpsests are rare after the Carolingian period.

                Paper was not in widespread use in medieval Europe until the fourteenth century, though it had come to the Muslim world and Italy in the eighth century. At first, Arab paper was used in the West until Frederick II prohibited its use for important works and documents in 1231. By the thirteenth century paper was also distinguished by watermarks, a trademark symbol that helps us to now date and place where the paper was manufactured.

                Wax tablets were also of primary importance in the daily lives of the educated in the Middle Ages as they provided a quick means of making notes or lists that could easily be erased for the tablet to be used again the next day. They were made from wood blocks or ivory tablets that were scraped out and covered with a layer of wax. They then used a stylus to scratch out letters in the wax, which could be rubbed out and re-written on later. Tablets could be joined together as well to create diptychs, tryptichs, and polyptichs. Specific wax tablets called Consular diptychs were employed in antiquity as a gift to a new consul with an elaborate bas-relief decoration. In the Middle Ages, these diptychs were used for litanies or lists of church benefactors.

                Many ink recipes were in use in the later Middle Ages, and most ink were made soot and gum, sepia, gall nuts and iron vitriol. Early inks between the fourth and sixth centuries had a lacquer consistency and were generally a yellow to brown tone. By the sixth century, brown inks made from white- or blackthorn branches with wine and iron vitriol were common. By the seventh century dark brown predominated. And by the eight century the ink often had a greenish tinge to it. The most common way to distinguish important elements of a text was by rubrication—the use of red ink. There was no set standard practice as to what would be in red, and thus varied from text to text and author to author.

                The most common tool in the medieval West was by far the Quill pen, followed by a stylus, which was employed primarily for wax tablets, though it was frequently used with parchment for notes. Aside from these tools, a scribe also had chalk, two pumice stones, two ink horns—for red and black—a sharp knife, two razors for erasing, an awl used for piercing holes, lead, a straight edge, a ruling stick, and a puncturium. This last  tool was used to make pricked markings to serve as a guide for ruling lines and usually contained a pair of compasses or a small wheel with points.

                I was certainly not aware that so many tools were employed in writing a medieval manuscript, nor was I aware of the economics of parchment making. It was certainly an endeavor to be taken very seriously and considered very carefully.