Conclusion

Abstract

Assistant Professor The notion that the Dissolution was of singular importance for determining the fates of medieval manuscripts has been powerfully enduring. From it stems a set of interconnected—but at times contradictory—beliefs about the ways in which the surviving record of medieval manuscripts has been skewed. These include the notion that the record has been disproportionately bereft of more orthodox medieval manuscripts, or of more heretical manuscripts, or of large or richly illuminated luxury manuscripts, or of smaller or unassuming manuscripts. In this way, the notion that the Dissolution was a watershed moment for the survival of medieval manuscripts has shaped not only perceptions of how many medieval manuscripts have been lost, but also of what sorts of manuscripts have been lost. But the evidence presented here contributes to a growing body of scholarship that has shown that the importance placed on the Dissolution in traditional accounts of manuscript loss has, in many key ways, been greatly exaggerated. It is likely that this exaggeration stems in part from the powerful role of the Reformation and its aftermath in the foundation of modern institutional collections, including the Bodleian, Parker, and Wren libraries.1 But the tendency to emphasize the Dissolution over other moments of book loss is undoubtedly also due to a legacy, found especially in nineteenth-century book history and literary scholarship, of casting pre-Reformation religion as barbaric and its adherents as the enemies of intellectual culture, political stability, and national character. This model, which finds its roots in the writings of the reformers themselves, casts early church reformers as the first liberal humanist subjects, fighting to save the pillars of Western civilization from a backwards, superstitious, and commodity-driven Church and its boorish supporters. It is tied to a broader and more pervasive presentist tendency to view the Reformation as a pivotal moment for the development of liberal humanism and the rise of the modern individual.2 This model has proved tenacious, in part because it appealed so strongly to the religious and ideological convictions of the nineteenth-century scholars who gave shape to the field of book history and to other adjacent fields. But as we have seen, this model is the product of what could be called highly biased accounts. Accounts of the destruction that occurred at the Dissolution and beyond it are marked by the national, religious, and political fervour of reformers, Parliamentarians, and other historical actors who have narrated them. This sort of documentary evidence, invested as it is in the values of reformers and others, must be approached with caution. While no less historically contingent than this sort of documentary evidence, the quantitative evidence explored here serves as a means of sidestepping some of the inherited biases of documentary sources and, in so doing, reveals the extent to which the impact of the Reformation on the surviving record has been exaggerated due to the legacies of sectarian conflicts. As this investigation has shown, the importance placed on the Dissolution has obscured the significant losses that took place both during the medieval period itself and during the two centuries that followed it. While the dissolutions of religious houses in the early sixteenth century led to the vast dispersal of many manuscripts, and while the Dissolution must have had a large impact on the survival of some medieval collections, it was not, in terms of changes to official policy and in terms of the sheer number of books that were destroyed, the most significant event for determining the broader survival rates of medieval manuscripts in England. Nor was it the persecution of liturgical volumes under Edward, nor the banning of reformist volumes under Mary—though these moments left their marks on the record in significant ways. Rather, the evidence suggests that the most significant event, in terms of its impact on the number of surviving medieval manuscripts, was the injunction against pre-Reformation liturgical volumes passed by Elizabeth. It was as a result of this injunction that thousands upon thousands of volumes that had survived the tumultuous period of religious upheaval that marked the sixteenth century were consigned to the flames. As we have seen, this is witnessed by a large collection of churchwardens’ accounts that were produced during Elizabeth’s reign and also by sources with less potential for bias, including pastedowns in early printed books and evidence from the broader survival rates of the books in question. Taken together, this evidence suggests that the impact of Elizabeth’s injunctions on the number of medieval manuscripts that have survived in England was considerable. Yet while the impact of Elizabeth’s injunction was extensive in terms of the numbers of manuscripts destroyed, it was highly limited in terms of its targets and fundamentally tied to the ideological weight of the service books that had fallen under suspicion. It should not be taken to reflect an air of indifference towards medieval manuscripts. Indeed, the destruction of service books that occurred during the reign of Elizabeth coincided with the emergence of a new kind of appreciation for older books as cultural artefacts and as a form of national heritage. As history was increasingly being used as a tool for the development and promotion of the reformed religion, collectors such as Matthew Parker sought out volumes that they thought held religious and historical significance. At the same time that medieval service books were being set ablaze for containing doctrine that was no longer supported by the Church, older books, and those containing historical and theological commentary that was considered relevant, were being upheld as the religious, historical, and spiritual keystones of the nation. The end of the Elizabethan period coincided with a new development in the collection and preservation of medieval manuscripts. While Leland, Bale, and others among the first wave of early modern antiquarians had prioritized the preservation of manuscripts that were of political or historical importance for the nation—and especially those created before the twelfth century—a second wave of antiquarians began to value and seek out a wider range of medieval manuscripts. No longer the default medium for the circulation of a public-facing text, the manuscript itself had become rarefied, and manuscripts produced as late as the fifteenth century had become collectors’ items. In the heat of the Civil Wars, when the conservation of the nation’s history had become politically expedient for the Royalist cause, the preservation of manuscripts took on new ideological force. The collection and appropriation of manuscripts was politicized, with Royalists seeking to cast themselves as the saviours of England’s cultural heritage and, through it, the spiritual heart of the nation itself. While manuscripts continued to be recycled and lost during the Civil Wars, these deliberate acts were met with considerable resistance and the period of manuscript destruction was reaching its conclusion. The evidence presented here contributes to, and builds on, the findings of several focused studies that have shown that the turn of the eighteenth century marked the culmination of a significant shift in the conceptualization of medieval manuscripts. Medieval manuscripts, by this stage at least 200 years old, began to be valued regardless of their contents and their preservation was increasingly ensured as a matter of national importance. The response to the Cottonian fire of 1731 can be considered the epitome of this change, in the sense that it helped launch the foundation of a national collection and a nationwide policy for the preservation of historical documents. From this point onwards, losses to institutional manuscript collections in England have been relatively limited. If a manuscript had the good fortune to survive the tumultuous period between its creation and the start of the eighteenth century, its chances of survival were exceptionally high. Throughout all the periods under investigation, official policies calling for the destruction of medieval manuscripts were rare. Those that did have an impact on the survival of medieval manuscripts targeted service books and, in the case of Edward’s injunction, Books of Hours. Other sorts of medieval manuscripts were largely spared from all official—and indeed, all systematic—policies of book destruction in England. This finding, considered alongside the evidence for how these policies were enacted, has significant implications, because it suggests that the survival rates for medieval service books differed significantly from those of institutional library books, and that medieval manuscript loss must therefore be understood within distinct categories. The difference is stark. Survival rates for library books, which—judging from studies of the books that can be identified from medieval library lists—typically range from 2 per cent to 25 per cent (1 in 50 or 1 in 4), look very high compared to those of service books, which are estimated in ranges from 0.1 per cent to 0.2 per cent (1 in 1,000 or 1 in 500).3 The difference is important because it indicates that manuscript destruction affected the collections of institutions in significantly different ways. Since service books formed the backbone of any parish church collection, their targeted destruction meant the near-complete eradication of most parish church collections. For a larger institution, such as a priory, the destruction of service books would have left little dent on the institution’s book collections as a whole. But the differences between the survival rates of library books and service books has other, more important implications for the questions at hand. As should by now be obvious, the survival rates of service books, small and dismaying as they are, should be where we start if we seek to make estimates about the survival rates of medieval manuscripts as a whole. Since service books were among the most common sorts of books in medieval England, with an estimated 20,000 Sarum-use antiphonals circulating in fifteenth-century England alone, their survival rates offer a closer approximation of the survival rates of medieval manuscripts as a whole than would the rates of almost any other sort of book. Since vast collections of medieval manuscripts were stored in a vast number of parish church collections scattered across the nation, and since the vast majority of these collections did not survive, existing studies of survival rates—which are almost all based on the library lists of institutions or on the sorts of books that would have been held in medieval libraries—can offer only limited insight into actual survival rates.4 By focusing on the ideologically and politically safer collections of institutional libraries, these studies overlook the tens of thousands of destroyed volumes that were read and heard by local priests and their parishioners. It is clear by now that existing estimates of medieval manuscript production and circulation that rely on data from institutional library collections are all improbably low, and that we have lost a much larger quantity of medieval manuscripts than is usually acknowledged in these estimates. It might be that the point not matter very because the lost manuscripts that are many of which were service books, not matter very much to modern The might be that if these books were produced in large numbers in medieval England, they were produced for only a small of the and so can little about the literary and that are of to literary book and adjacent fields. But as we have seen, the this are books were read and used by a large of medieval between institutional and the many of the who held a service book in their would have heard from these books during or their impact on the The vast destruction of service books, has had the of some of the not only by parish priests but also by their have that in to service books, the sorts of books that were more in institutional had very high survival For books in institutional libraries, a significant number of volumes were destroyed during the medieval period itself. While service books to have fallen out of than other sorts of books during the medieval books in institutional could also be when they out of key in this was and This to have been especially common among and of that were used in the and that were to in terms of or it to have relatively medieval institutions would also or a book when the in which it was had fallen out of was also a are of in both and being recycled during the medieval and it is that medieval manuscripts containing were more to destruction than those containing But as this has shown, this was only of medieval manuscripts containing These were recycled in we be as a result of the increasingly out of in the second of the their survival rates are than those of manuscripts that are in containing on the other had chances of survival than those in The evidence suggests that this was not, on the due to medieval but due to the of early modern who in as historical and from the most important in determining the survival of medieval library books was the books that are most as being in of during the medieval period were service books, other books were to and destruction from from lists of lists of and lists of indicates that the library books most to were of as the sorts of that were used by as and less for priests as and which were used in the can be from the at Church in which of and quantitative between the more on the of Church about changes to the collection, that early medieval as of for and other to have been in of more than other sorts of while by such as those of to have been or out of the medieval the volumes in institutional that were at the from or from were and other that formed the of medieval including of As this has shown, the to these volumes during the medieval period was while medieval are as the evidence presented here contributes to a growing that these were in a of to the In the case of Church about of of its collection is from a produced only a century and a and in the two between 2 per cent and per cent at the of By the time of the any older books that had not been cast now as had been to a and to their of these volumes are with At the library of Church the to a medieval survival was not indifference to nor political but the loss that and a for the While some books from institutional must have been or destroyed by reformers during the the presented here the of and others that has shown that the number of manuscripts that were destroyed during this period was more limited than was this is more evidence of and other of religious institutions volumes from their than of these institutions being by boorish religious reformers, or manuscripts were during this tumultuous but the evidence for this limited as it is for that suggests that this was in the of many manuscripts were destroyed or for in the of the but is no evidence that any sort of manuscript was targeted for this more than any other, or that more books were targeted for destruction in this The of antiquarians during this period was limited and to have left little on the of manuscripts that have Yet the policies that these antiquarians to the and of medieval older those of theological value for the reformed Church and those of historical or political value for the shape to the policies of such as and These collections would the of most of the collections in England, prioritized the preservation of older volumes and they considered of historical importance. As we have seen, the impact of their policies when which books have survived from medieval library that impact should not be the century, collectors increasingly in their and of medieval manuscripts. As medieval manuscripts increasingly to be as of a lost and as that politically in the heat of the Civil library books of any sort increasingly valued and increasingly By the eighteenth century, when all surviving medieval manuscripts were at least years old, their had to be as a matter of national and losses have been this all of these historical into we can a that a medieval library book was more likely to have been destroyed during the medieval period if it or a of and it had a of survival if it to early modern antiquarians or if it historical or other that antiquarians thought was important for the reformed Church or the nation. containing which into this had chances of survival than those containing in or all other being the of Books of and service books set is no evidence of books of a more being disproportionately destroyed in any way, nor of smaller manuscripts, or more manuscripts, surviving less on the whole. that the survival rates of institutional with survival rates from 2 per cent to about 25 per it is clear that the of a manuscript during the medieval period had a on it It is that an number of medieval library manuscripts have been lost. medieval library chances of survival were by such as its and such as to have had a relatively small If a manuscript had the good fortune to its into a medieval its chances of survival were but in no the presented we can to about the survival of of the of a to make some It highly likely that from the two of the and the that survive, must have been many more in circulation during the medieval the of these would have helped their chances of since all being a manuscript containing to have chances of survival than But as a a of and the would have been more than a religious such as a for since the was more likely to have in the sort of manuscript that was institutional the chances of any the of its manuscript and of the broader survival of manuscript from the survival larger from the data presented all periods under investigation the manuscripts that were the most likely to be destroyed were between 50 and 200 or so years at the time of their manuscripts that were very nor very This was of the library books that were shown to have been recycled during the medieval and early modern periods and it is also of the service books that were shown to have fallen out of during the medieval can this As we have seen, changes in and in proved to have had a powerful impact on the survival of medieval that has not been acknowledged in studies of medieval manuscript the medieval these changes took many to liturgical the of new to the and changes in and manuscript all to the destruction of medieval manuscripts. manuscript that out of due to these changes was usually no more than a century or two the medieval a book was most at when it was through this being nor for its it had survived this it to be approached with and and, on this had a good of being have that the same into the early modern As and of pastedowns the manuscripts that were most recycled into the of manuscripts from the end of the medieval period about were of and other that had fallen out of when the of led to more As has shown, the dispersal of library was not because its contents were to the reformed Church but because the volumes in it had been by the of While these of manuscript loss and dispersal to be to the Dissolution of the the evidence presented here suggests that we should of as the result of as the more and books to older manuscript destruction of this much that of the was focused on that was to be but new to be At the same the of collectors during this stage of the Reformation As and others have shown, the collectors of this preservation would to be prioritized the preservation of older those produced to the twelfth the other of religious houses to have had a for volumes for these of religious as for other collectors of the theological volumes were also that were 50 to 200 years were not prioritized by and more to As the early modern period to a the of centuries had all medieval the of Medieval manuscripts, most of which were by this stage over years old, had collectors’ regardless of their have that this out in the of a new wave of who sought out not the and historical volumes that had but almost any medieval As the from the medieval has the preservation of medieval manuscripts has become In more the period during which an from new to has with the of the late century that any over years is of But this the is the an is if it is new or if it is and that between these two are most at This in book which have been to here as the of is not when we that the same is in many different on different to book collection in of a the books most likely to part with are those that are to nor collection, usually books produced between and The same of in libraries, and is when it has to its and has not become a to an this a significant for by the time an valued for its it has had to have passed through a period of marked undoubtedly this period of by the contributes to its can the impact of this before in modern preservation a of the changes to of the century was by the of and we can the that of years in the early with the same and as we medieval manuscripts. is it that while we have on medieval manuscripts, we have lost the first that when the first was in Yet it is not that years in the its the same we the loss of the first of The At the same time that policy and institutions are considerable to the preservation of important to the are If we are to cultural heritage for the we to the significant by any preservation that the potential value of the The implications for the preservation of documentary heritage are As this has shown, it is in a large part due to the high value of medieval manuscripts and the on their conservation that they have been so over the two and these are and should to be supported as a matter of But as this has the high value of manuscripts has also to and to which is used as a means of their means of these is to the of manuscripts into collections, which have the and for both the preservation of manuscripts and their for and can these sorts of by that these institutions have the to any manuscripts that end on the the survival of documentary heritage in the century to and political But the findings presented here also have other implications for the preservation of documentary especially of more heritage. As the of the lost heritage is at significant This is in to the of to and are all relatively with of than England was to it used this relatively and medium for of only to it for less and a preservation in The we took only years are to The is a since for heritage is increasingly only heritage. In on the role of the book in has about the of that is now of the of the is and the extent to which data is increasingly stored that to the of an For this is a because it data It can be and in ways that were before By we in over through it, is to to the of data that is now and the to which it modern and is also that of over this data is a that But we should not the of this data from its when we in we over not only how be but also it be is not the only to heritage. have that is not only to but also to as the was produced in but by about years become As an about the in The out the by the two scholars have to about the of in the of and These are it is that they have been by that have over the years and that have it to and in a In the of documentary development is as a used for that is with in While most is and therefore to is to and is therefore a for the several other at the preservation of have including the of on But while these to are they both in their and in their This should If we are to losses to we to not only of the but also those of the that be years in the

Authors 1

1. Krista A Milne corresponding Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University ,