Bat Books: A Catalogue of Folded Manuscripts Containing Almanacs or Other Texts

by JP Gumbert

Overview

This work represents an important contribution to the history of medieval books, providing full scholarly description and discussion of an otherwise very little known category of written artefact in quasi-book form, but one that the 60-odd identified examples suggest was relatively common. This volume will be of interest not only to medieval book-historians and codicologists but also to historians of medieval science and of the liturgy, and of medieval written culture and cultural practice more broadly. Although a large proportion of the volume takes the form of a catalogue, the information and explanatory material presented in the introduction to the catalogue as a whole and to each of the sections into which the catalogue is divided give the volume the coherence and value of a historical and codicological survey of this form of artefact, the kind of texts they contained, and how and by whom they were made and used. The way in which the catalogue is structured in chronological and thematic sections, each with their own introduction, also contributes to enhance this aspect of the volume.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9782503568096
Publisher:	Brepols Publishers
Publication date:	10/07/2016
Series:	Bibliologia , #41
Edition description:	Bilingual
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 10.60(h) x 0.50(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword Introduction Ch. I: The oldest bat books Ch. II: Continental calendars Ch. III: Continental almanacs CH. IV: English almanacs — early Ch. V: English almanacs— mid-century Ch VI: English almanacs — late Ch VII: Late breviaries Appendix 1 Fold-out concertinas Appendix 2: Oblong codex, used vertically