Book production in the medieval West Midlands: The case for organized bookmaking

Abstract

My thesis project, Book Production in the West Midlands: The Case for
Organized Bookmaking, takes into consideration the geographical factors of the medieval
manuscripts of the West Midlands in England from the mid-fourteenth to the early
fifteenth centuries. The medieval manuscript is an artifact: it is a piece of the past that, if
examined carefully, will present a narrative about bookmen, bookmaking practices, and
the reading public of a specific period and, in this case, a geographical area.
To discover a more coherent picture of bookmaking and the way books were
prepared and received in the West Midlands, I closely examine a series of manuscripts
attributed to the West Midlands, a rural region in England: Leeds, Leeds University
Library, Brotherton 500, a copy of the Prick of Conscience made at the turn of the
fourteenth century; Houghton MS Eng 515 Harvard, a copy of the Prick of Conscience,
made around the beginning of the fifteenth century; and Cambridge, Corpus Christi
College, 293, a copy of William Langland's Piers Plowman, the C version, from the first
quarter of the fifteenth century. I study the codicological evidence (i.e. the layout and
decoration) presented in these manuscripts in order to determine whether commonalities
of West Midland manuscripts suggest that there was a specific West Midlands style of
organized bookmaking.
My thesis demonstrates that there was, in fact, a kind of organized bookmaking in
the West Midlands. However, this organization, not regulated by guilds as bookmaking
in London was, appears to be conducted on a much looser scale. I identify two types of
rural bookmen taking part in this looser organization in rural West midlands. Type A
scribes are those with some legal training who, perhaps seeking a means to earn some
additional money, are either copying a single literary text or attempting to become skilled
in copying literary texts. Type B scribes exhibit more professional skills in textwriting
and perhaps might be considered commercial, provincial book producers. Though these
two types of bookmen do not represent the whole of organized book production in any
rural area, their work in the manuscripts, and the compilation of the manuscripts,
demystifies aspects of bookmaking in the West Midlands.

Date of Award	2012
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	Eastern Illinois University
Supervisor	Timothy Shonk (Supervisor)