HOW DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE LATER MIDDLE AGES?

Introduction to Medieval Primary Sources

  • Focus: Understanding the historical period of approximately 1000-1500 CE through primary sources.

  • Example Highlight: Abbey Library of St. Gall, Switzerland.

  • Visual Reference: Image available via Wikimedia Commons - Abbey Library of St. Gall.

DEFINING PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES

Primary Sources

  • Definition: Texts and artifacts created during the historical period being studied.

    • In this context, refers specifically to materials produced from approximately 1000 to 1500 CE.

Secondary Sources

  • Definition: Works written by later scholars about the historical period in question.

EXAMPLES OF HISTORICAL SOURCES

Sermon and Manuscript Example

  • Document cited: Giovanni Regina's sermon collection.

  • Location: Biblioteca Nazionale, Naples.

  • Manuscript details: VIII AA 11, containing important theological and historical insights from the later Middle Ages.

TYPES OF SOURCES FROM LATER MEDIEVAL EUROPE

  • Narrative histories and chronicles

  • Sermons

  • Canonization records

  • Hagiographies (biographies of saints)

  • Handbooks for confessors

  • Law codes

  • Taxation records

  • Inquisition records

  • Censuses

  • Papal bulls

  • Textbooks

  • Treatises on diverse topics such as theology, natural science, rhetoric, medicine, and ethics.

  • Marginalia (annotations and drawings in manuscript margins)

  • Herbals and Bestiaries

  • Travelogues

  • Letters and Contracts (including those related to business, property, marriages, and apprenticeships)

  • Account books

  • Wills and testaments

  • Charters

  • Graffiti

  • Mortuary rolls and Necrologies

  • Musical scores

  • Literature: Includes Arthurian tales, allegories, songs, and fabliaux.

  • Drama: Covers both religious plays and secular farces.

  • Visual sources: Encompasses stained glass windows, altarpieces, and manuscript illustrations.

  • Material culture: Includes buildings, landscape archaeology, human and animal remains, coins, seals, charms, and amulets.

FACTORS SHAPING OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE PAST

Written Material Production

  • Knowledge from the past is shaped by two primary variables:

    1. The volume of written material produced during a specific period.

    • For instance, estimating manuscript production over the centuries based on medieval library catalogs.

    1. The survival rate of that produced material.

ESTIMATING MANUSCRIPT PRODUCTION IN LATE MEDIEVAL EUROPE

  • Data Source: 15th-century wall catalogue from Lopsen Abbey library, Netherlands.

  • Statistics: Estimates of manuscripts produced, with total counts over centuries, demonstrating growth in written resources from the 6th to 15th centuries.

    • Example data representation includes numbers of manuscripts forming a graphical trend.

DOCUMENT PRODUCTION IN MID-13TH CENTURY ENGLAND

  • Data Source: English Chancery records through estimates based on purchases of sealing wax.

  • Illustrative Example: Charter of King Edward I (1291) detailing property rights granted to monks of Stoneleigh Abbey.

    • Statistics detailed the amounts of sealing wax purchased weekly, indicating bureaucratic growth.

WHO WAS WRITING?

  • Predominant Writers:

    • Churchmen, monks, and nuns

    • Professional scribes

    • Notaries: Authorized scribes tasked with drafting legally binding documents.

    • Specific example: Christine de Pizan, a prolific early author in the 15th century, recognized as both an author and a professional scribe.

    • Notable manuscripts: Includes examples of documents in Christine’s writing.

FACTORS AFFECTING SURVIVAL OF WRITTEN EVIDENCE

Writing Surface

  • Definition: The material upon which writing is done (stone, metal, wax tablets, papyrus, paper, parchment, etc.).

  • Historical Context: The Middle Ages are characterized as the "Age of the Parchment Codex," lying between the eras of the papyrus scroll and the print age.

    • Include an example of a 9th-century parchment manuscript that has been repaired.

ADVANCES IN BOOK PRODUCTION

Key Developments

  1. The use of paper (originating in China) arrived in Western Europe during the later Middle Ages; the first paper mills opened in Spain in the 11th century and Sicily late in the 15th century.

  2. The adoption of cursive handwriting facilitated quicker document creation.

    • Both features illustrated through examples from Italian archives.

STORAGE OF WRITTEN MATERIAL

Storage Locations

  • Presently, most medieval manuscripts are found in libraries and archives.

    • Historical methods: Books were stored in heavy wooden chests to protect from dampness and pests, or chained to desks in institutional reading rooms.

    • Notable examples include a 14th-century book chest and the chained library.

SELECTION CRITERIA FOR MANUSCRIPT SURVIVAL

  • Selection Factors:

    • Who decided which materials to keep and which to discard?

    • What criteria influenced these decisions?

    • Methods of handling discarded material (e.g. destruction vs. repurposing).

    • Illustrative fragment: A Middle Dutch manuscript cut and used in binding a later book.

PRESERVING MEDIEVAL SOURCES AFTER THE MIDDLE AGES

  • Technological Advances:

    • The invention of the printing press (1450s) and photography (1830s) have significantly aided preservation efforts in the absence of original materials.

    • Modern digitization technologies serve to maintain medieval sources.

    • Cautionary note: Concerns that technology for retrieving digital images may become obsolete, leading to potential loss of recent history.

    • Reference: Robert Bartlett's observations in "History in Flames" regarding the fragility of digitized history.

EXAMPLES OF LOST SOURCES

  • Case Study: The Ebstorf Map, a 13th-14th century Mappa Mundi created in Germany, destroyed during WWII and now known only through photographs.

LANGUAGES OF SOURCES IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE

  • Predominant Language: Latin

  • Emerging Vernaculars: Increased production of texts in the various vernacular languages (e.g., proto-modern French, English, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese) during the later Middle Ages.

  • Diversity of Language: Inclusion of sources in Arabic and Hebrew serves as testimony to cultural exchanges during the period.

QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN READING PRIMARY SOURCES

  • Reliability: Is this source genuinely what it claims to be, and how reliable is it?

  • Source Type: What type of source is it?

  • Authorship: Who authored or created the source?

  • Target Audience: For whom was this created?

  • Date of Creation: When and where was it created?

  • Purpose: Why was it created?

  • Content Analysis: What does the source convey?

  • Implications: What does it reveal regarding societal structures, power dynamics, religion, or literacy?

  • Underlying Assumptions: What assumptions exist regarding human nature or the divine?

  • Gender Considerations: Does the document apply equally to both men and women?

  • Textual Analysis: Is the text a later copy, and what should be noted about its reproduction?

  • Contextual Factors: Is this text situated within a larger source, and how does that change its meanings?