People

The story of a manuscript may be told by a variety of different ‘authors’.

BNF, fr. 12581, f. 139v Reproduced by courtesy of Bibliothèque nationale de France: http://gallica.bnf.fr/?lang=EN

BNF, fr. 12581, f. 139v
Reproduced by courtesy of Bibliothèque nationale de France: http://gallica.bnf.fr/?lang=EN

These storytellers were the people who composed the texts, the scribes responsible for copying and transmitting the work, and, amongst others, the artists and rubricators (?) involved in the creation of a codex. You can find out more about the writers and makers of manuscripts here.

Yet the creation of these expensive objects relied on financial backers. Noblemen or rich citizens who were interested in literature commonly became patrons and commissioned the production of manuscripts.

Following the initial purchase, a manuscript may have passed through the hands of many different owners before arriving in one of the national libraries or institutions where we find them today. The traces left by the manuscript’s various readers offer some exciting insights into the reception of these books and their function.