What is it about?
It was common practice in the medieval and early modern periods to recycle the parchment of old or unwanted books and documents in the construction of new books, as coverings, pastedowns, and spine guards. As a result, fragments of medieval manuscripts have travelled unseen for many centuries, stowed away within the physical structures of early modern printed books; in many cases it is only as older bindings have begun to fail and required conservation that their hidden textual components have been revealed. This essay discusses this phenomenon, drawing its examples from the holdings of the University of St Andrews. It concentrates on books printed in Germany in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, and the stowaway medieval texts that have come to light in their bindings.
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Why is it important?
The reuse of parchment by early book-binders is an indication that the late medieval and early modern periods were much less wasteful than our current era. Craftsmen had developed sustainable work practices and maintained these for centuries.
Perspectives
I'm always keen to show people the value of old books. I also think it's important to realise that recycling is not a modern phenomenon. These are some of the reasons I wrote about this topic.
Professor Margaret Connolly
University of St Andrews
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Textual Stowaways: Unseen Early Modern Travels of Medieval Texts, January 2023, Nomos Verlag,
DOI: 10.5771/9783831677542-339.
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