Author: Vincent Wong

Vincent is a librarian at the Digital Innovations team in NTU Library, and is an alumni, having earned his Bachelors from the English Programme at the School of Humanities, as well as his Masters in Information Studies from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information. He likes to spend his free time looking for literary influences in pop culture.
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Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England: A Treatise in Five Parts

by Ysabel

Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England: A Treatise in Five Parts (1743) is a book written by Charles Chauncy (1705-1787). Chauncy was a Congregationalist pastor in Boston, Massachusetts, who opposed the Great Awakening religious revival happening in Britain’s North American colonies during the 1720s to 1740s. His book was a reply to Jonathan Edward’s Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England (1742), which was sympathetic to the Great Awakening.

Originally published in Boston in 1743, this copy of the book has been owned by several Congregationalists in New England. The name “Henry M. Dexter” is signed on the title page of the book. The handwriting is similar to the signature of Henry Martyn Dexter (1821-1890), a Congregational pastor in Manchester, New Hampshire, and in Berkeley church in Boston. Dexter was also a lecturer of Congregationalism at the Andover Theological Seminary and often wrote about the subject. On another page of the book, the name “David B. Kempton” is also signed. While the exact identity of David B. Kempton cannot be identified, as there are many individuals named “David B. Kempton”, a prominent Kempton family was living in Old Dartmouth, Massachusetts, in New England. All the Kemptons were Congregationalists. Thus, this copy might have been passed around to different Congregationalists in New England, which highlights how influential Chauncy’s book was among Congregationalists in New England.

This copy of the book has a leather binding in the Cambridge Panel style. The defining features of the Cambridge Panel style are its three panels and the sprinkling of dye to create varying degrees of density for the leather. The blind tooling, which is the technique of impressing designs onto the book cover, consists of a double blind line (two parallel lines) for the panels, a decorative roll around the central rectangle, and corner tools (flower designs impressed onto the corners of the second panel). The spine of the book contains a single red leather title label and double blind lines at the head (top) and tail (bottom) of the spine, as well as on each side of the raised bands. This use of the Cambridge Panel style explains why the author, title, and year of publication are found on a single label on the spine of the book, instead of on separate labels, which is typical of leather-bound books. Moreover, the Cambridge Panel style originated in England in 1690, and became the predominant style for plain leather bindings in the early 18th century. It was commonly used in 18th Century Boston, which was still a British colony in the 18th Century. This accounts for the use of the English bookbinding style for a book published in Boston in 1743.

Overall, this copy of Chauncy’s text reflects the religious and printing environment in New England during the 18th Century to 19th Century.

Works Cited

“Charles Chauncy.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 6 Feb. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Chauncy-American-clergyman-1705-1787. Accessed 2 April 2025.

“Cheney, Thomas.” McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia, https://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/C/cheney-thomas.html. Accessed 1 April 2025.  

Cowlishaw, Nick. “The Cambridge Panel.” Skin Deep, vol. 36, 2013, pp. 2-10.

“Eighteenth Century: Elaboration and Simplicity.” Michigan State University Libraries, https://lib.msu.edu/exhibits/historyofbinding/18thcentury. Accessed 2 April 2025. 

“Great Awakening.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14 Mar. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Awakening. Accessed 2 April 2025.  

“Old Dartmouth Historical Stretch Number 21.” New Bedford Whaling Museum, https://www.whalingmuseum.org/old-dartmouth-historical-society-sketches/old-dartmouth-historical-sketch-no-21/. Accessed 2 April 2025.  

“Rev Thomas Cheney.” FamilySearch, https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/93JW-GHT/rev-thomas-cheney-1690-1747. Accessed 1 April 2025.

The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. 1, New York, James T. White and Company, 1803. 

Wolcott, Renée. “Splintered: The History, Structure, and Conservation of American Scaleboard Bindings.” The Book and Paper Group Annual, vol. 32, 2013, pp. 56-79.

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The Dance of Death

by Si Chen

The Dance of Death is a play written by Wystan Hugh Auden and directed and produced by Rupert Doone, making its debut as part of the Group Theatre’s first season to general audiences in the London Westminster Theatre in 1933. It is a musical propaganda play, depicting the psychological collapse and decay of the modern bourgeoisie, the social order made up of citizens in the middle class.

The term was coined by Karl Marx, the forefather of Marxism, whose ideas served as the basis of communism and socialism. Interestingly, at the end of the play, it is written that Karl Marx himself is a character who appears, to the tune of Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn, just to watch the main character (the dancer) abruptly pass away on the spot.

This copy of the book is a version bound in its original black cloth cover with gilded lettering on its spine, and based on observation, it was likely manually hand-printed with a press, as there are discrepancies such as smudges in the inked words.

Interestingly, there is a handwritten message behind the front cover quoting, “This copy was shown to Rupert Doone, the producer of the original, who declared that these annotations bore no relation to his original production.” This note is dated on 13 October 1958, and is signed by B. C. Bloomfield, which is a clue to one of this book’s previous owners.

Researching deeper on his name brings up that he authored A Directory of Rare and Special Collections in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland for the Rare Books Group of the Library Association of Ireland. It also further explains why he would have had access to this book and was able to communicate directly with the original producer, Doone, as well.

Other notes that allude to the book having passed through many owners are three more names signed in varying degrees of legibility, one that might be a John Harreis, G. F. Palmer, and lastly Geoffrey Tillotson. The book also shows annotations that could indicate the prices the owners paid to buy this book for their collections.

The pages of the play script are filled with numerous short annotations, seemingly director’s notes and edits on stage directions. Some examples include instructions indicating when different parts of the chorus (men, women, all) should sing (Fig 3), and he also cancelled off certain side characters and rewrote their lines for other casts.

A possible reason why this previous owner would have done this was because he could have been a play director with a limited cast, and further inspection of the top of the pages show an indent in the paper, most likely from being pressed by a pen’s clip. Seeing this, we can imagine a busy director running around the stage, instructing his cast members with a pen clipped onto his script for quick annotations and changes.

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Sacred Text, Select Access: The Privileged Ownership of Indago Monocerotis

by Tricia Seraphina Tham 

Indago Monocerotis is a devotional book that reveals how books are not only read, but also collected, reinterpreted, and revalued. Initially valued for its spiritual content, its preservation through different forms of ownership highlights how accessibility to this book was shaped by privilege.

This copy of Indago Monocerotis was printed in 1658 by Charles University in Prague, a Jesuit institution in what is now the Czech Republic. The full title translates to “The Investigation of the Unicorn by the Human Nature of the Deity, the Most Sageful Hunter, Lovely Adorned by the Desires of the Five Senses: Finally, Under the Auspices of Mary the Living Diana, Full of Grace, and Called for Help by the Architect Gabriel, Has Been Followed”. The title reflects its religious content, aligning with Jesuit ideals and the Holy Roman Empire of that era and location. It presents the unicorn as a metaphor for the human pursuit of divine truth and references the Roman goddess Diana, associated with chastity, wild animals and the moon. Reflecting the Jesuit embrace of Renaissance humanism, Indago Monocerotis combines Christian and classical allegory in its didacticism, even in visual imagery (Appendix A).

Fig. 1 Crossed-out handwritten inscription: “Ecclesiae Lichtenstadis”
Fig 1.2 Handwritten inscription: “Bibliotheca Slacoverdensis Scholarum Piarum“

A crossed-out handwritten inscription, “Ecclesiae Lichtenstadis” (Fig 1), suggests prior ownership by the Church of Liechtenstein. Below it, “Bibliotheca Slacoverdensis Scholarum Piarum” (Fig 1.2) indicates later ownership by a Piarist school library. These inscriptions present Indago Monocerotis’ shift from ecclesiastical to educational use, while maintaining its didactic religious value. However, the transmission of such religious knowledge was limited by class and literacy, as Latin texts were accessible only to those trained to interpret them.

Fig 2: Bookplate of Edward Oates
Fig 2.1: Bookplate of William Edward Oates
Fig 2.2: Bookplate of Robert Washington Oates

In the 19th century, Indago Monocerotis entered the Oates family’s private collection. Bookplates, which are decorative labels indicative of ownership, identify Edward (Fig 2), William Edward (Fig 2.1), and Robert Washington Oates as successive owners (Fig 2.2). While we cannot ascertain the Oates’ engagement with this book’s religious value, the bookplates, generational preservation, and the 1897 posthumous insertion of William’s bookplate (Fig 2.1) after his 1896 demise, reflects how they eventually regarded the genealogical and historical value of it.

Fig 3: A book stamp from the Bibliotheca Oatesiana
Fig 3.1: A book stamp of the Department of Zoology in the Newton Library at Cambridge University
Fig 3.2: Printed label recording this book’s agreed upon transfer by Robert Washington Oates to the Gilbert White Memorial Library

Stamps, and a printed label trace Indago Monocerotis’ movement from private to institutional hands, though it remained within the Oates family’s orbit. A book stamp from the Bibliotheca Oatesiana (Fig 3) presents its place in the family’s private library. A stamp (Fig 3.1) records this book’s presence in the Newton Library at Cambridge University’s Department of Zoology and a printed label (Fig 3.2) presents its agreed transfer by Robert Washington Oates to the Gilbert White Memorial Library, which he founded. Though a religious text, its symbolic unicorn aligns with Zoology’s interest in mythical animals, shifting its value from heirloom to academic. This book’s ownership through elite settings reflects how its accessibility and preservation depended on the Oates’ affluence and institutional ties to a leading university.

Though not present in this copy, this book’s provenance appears in Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers’ 2010 catalogue, valued at £400 (Appendix B). This highlights its academic and bibliographic significance to scholars, supporting its 2018 acquisition by NTU for The History of the Book class. Its price and current ownership in higher education reflect how Indago Monocerotis’ access remains shaped by institutional privilege.

Appendix A

Virgin Mary Surrounded by Symbolic Imagery

Supporting the merging of Christian and classical allegory, this early page from this edition of Indago Monocerotis visually depicts the Virgin Mary with radiant lines fanned out behind her, forming a halo of light. She is shown holding a unicorn, crowned with twelve stars, standing on a crescent moon, with two angels overhead and surrounded by wild animals and human figures. The crescent moon and animals symbolically evoke Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt and the moon, known for her chastity and connection to nature. At the same time, this imagery directly references Revelation 12 in the Bible, which describes a woman “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head” In Christian tradition, Revelation 12 reveals this apocalyptic vision, and is often interpreted as the Virgin Mary, representing divine motherhood, protection, and spiritual perseverance. The combination of these classical and biblical elements reflects the Jesuit strategy of aligning Christian morality with humanist ideals, reinforcing the book’s initial religious didactic function which would have appealed to learned readers familiar with both traditions.

Appendix B

Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers’ 2010 Sales Catalogue Cover Page and Listing for Indago Monocerotis

This catalogue page from Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers, a London-based dealer specialising in rare historical texts, documents a 2010 listing of Indago Monocerotis, priced at £400. Although the catalogue is not part of the book itself, it contributes to tracing its provenance. Founded in 1969, Jarndyce functions as an intermediary in the circulation and revaluation of antique books. The inclusion of Indago Monocerotis in such a listing reflects its reclassification from a spiritual or educational object to a collectible commodity—an artefact of academic and bibliographic significance appealing to collectors, scholars, or institutions with the financial and cultural capital to acquire it. This listing marks the last documented stop in the book’s provenance before its acquisition by NTU in 2018 for pedagogical use in The History of the Book class, reinforcing how systems of privilege continue to shape who can own, access, and collect books.

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‘Japan in a Nutshell’

by Shirleen

‘Japan in a Nutshell’ is a series of books written by Japanese author Atsuharu Sakai, who intended for these books to give an overview on Japanese culture, history and traditions to Americans during the United States occupation of Japan (1945-52). The series consists of two volumes; both bearing the same title with the exception of the volume numbers. The current volume on display is the first volume in the series, focusing more on the religion, culture and popular practices in Japan.

This particular copy of the book is protected with a sleeve with an array of fans with varying patterns. Each fan is drawn in three distinct colours of red, green and gold. Each fan has a different pattern, illustrating the different Japanese patterns of florals, geometry and nature. These patterns are commonly found on kimonos and traditional Japanese clothing such as “wagara”, and date back to the 8th century. Additionally, the sleeve also serves as a protector to the actual book encased inside. For this copy, the spine of the sleeve has been severely damaged. The sleeve is comparatively more brittle to the rest of the book. The decorative aspect is hindered by the fragility of the sleeve and requires more care than the rest of the book. Nonetheless, the sleeve provides an interactive and engaging experience that draws in curious readers and collectors.

The book itself is bound in a traditional form of Japanese book binding called yotsume toji, or “Four-hole bookbinding”. There are 4 holes poked through the papers and cover that are used for the main binding of the compiled papers and the cover, whereas 4 small holes are used for inner bindings of the papers themselves. This is to ensure that even with the main binding thread broken, the pages inside would not scatter and there would be no need to rebind the book. To add to the authenticity, the book is also covered in various Japanese imagery such as origami, mallets and scrolls.  With the gold linings, the book evokes nobility and value, positing it as a valuable piece to a collection. The cover of the book is made of cloth and creates a rough texture of the book that is reminiscent of traditional Japanese books. The papers used are thin lightweight material called ‘scritta’ that are commonly found in bibles. The scritta is also a durable material that prevents deterioration and yellowing as evidenced by the current state of the book.

The book is completely written in English with detailed explanations on many different aspects of Japanese culture. Occasionally, stamped images are imprinted next to texts to illustrate the content. Most of the stamps are popular images seen in Japanese history and culture, providing an authentic insight and appreciation for Japanese art and the knowledge behind them. While the translation and aestheticisation of the book raises questions of exoticisation, the author himself is Japanese and the publisher is located in Yokohama, emphasising its genuine nature as both a source and a decorative piece.

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Aucassin and Nicolette

by Sherman Tham Kin Yang

Aucassin and Nicolette adopts a unique literary form that alternates between prose and verse, combining elements of both storytelling and lyrical poetry. The version on display was published initially in 1899, translated from French by Andrew Lang, a British folklorist and literary scholar renowned for his translation work in preserving and popularising medieval and fairy-tale literature. The Roycrofters, who published the book, were a reformist community of craft workers and artists in East Aurora, New York.  Their work and philosophy grew to shape the development of architecture and design in late 19th century America.

Originating from the 13th century, Aucassin and Nicolette is one of the last few surviving chantefables and uniquely stands out for its clever blend of high romance and comic and unconventional characters. Unlike conventional medieval romances which often feature chivalric ideals, this work actively subverts expectations by portraying Aucassin as an unconventionally reluctant knight who abhors and rejects violence, while his love interest, Nicolette, displays wit and agency uncommonly displayed in female characters of the 13th century’s conception of gender norms and social mores. The enduring appeal of Aucassin and Nicolette lies in its unconventional storytelling, underpinned by its clear inversion of medieval literary tropes that subvert traditionally entrenched conduct of chivalry.

The displayed edition was published by Roycroft, an American artisan community established in late 19th century America as part of the growing Arts and Crafts movement. Roycroft emphasised high-quality bookmaking and craftsmanship, often producing works with an intricate typographical design and hand-illuminated embellishments. Thus, it renders the book not merely a literary masterpiece, but also a timeless physical artifact of 19th century fine craftsmanship. Andrew Lang’s adaptation uplifted and played a fundamental role in bringing Aucassin and Nicolette to an English-speaking audience, with his rendition preserving the lyrical qualities that define the original French text. In doing so, it retains the whimsical and novel interplay between prose and verse that defines the chantefable tradition. The book’s materiality, with its handcrafted details, enhances its value not only as a reading experience but also as a collectible artifact worthy of conservation. Bound in soft suede leather, the cover has aged, giving it an organic quality that reflects the craftsmanship and artistic movement to adopt natural materials in lieu of industrialised production. The faded brown tones and worn edges enhance its artisanal definition. Furthermore, the embossed rectangular panel containing an intricately aesthetic illustration appears to be strikingly iconic. The cover blends the use of gold lettering with an elaborate, medieval-inspired design, where the depiction of figures and motifs evokes the era of the chantefable. The use of gold embossing, though carefully embedded in a subtle fashion, draws our attention to the title, underscoring an elegant yet humble state of authority. Through the careful use of detailing and use of organic materials, it strengthened its timeless quality by adopting traditional bookmaking techniques one might expect of the Arts and Crafts movement. Thus, this artistic approach serves to bridge its connection to both medieval literary traditions and the late 19th century revitalisation of artisanal production.

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Leaf from a Book of Hours

by Samara Chee Zhao Ern

Books of Hours were some of the most commonly owned books in the late Middle Ages and would often be the first (or only) book owned by literate individuals. They were also packed with sentimental value; records show many Books of Hours being given to one’s child or loved one and being handed down through families; some books include dates of births, deaths, marriages, baptisms, and more. Due to their popularity and sentimentality, they allow us to take a look at the culture and beliefs of the late Middle Ages.

Books of Hours were divided into sections such as calendars, prayers and litanies, psalm, verses, and more. The leaf on display is taken from the calendar section, with important feast dates and holidays marked out at the top in two columns, and two simple precepts written below the dates. The first precept is written in Latin and taken from a series of ‘characterisations’ of the various months; for example, the precept for June associates the month with mead and beer. The second precept is written in Middle French and explains that since June is the month where things begin to die (leading up to autumn and winter), a 36-year-old man should be looking for a wife before he enters the metaphorical autumn and winter of his life. This reveals social expectations of the time; for example, bachelors in their mid-thirties were expected to be looking for wives before it was too late for them.

This particular leaf comes from an early printed Book of Hours, soon after the transition from manuscript to print. Prior to mechanical printing, Books of Hours were entirely hand-written and hand-illustrated; combined with the labour and manufacturing costs for parchment or vellum, these books were expensive. However, Books of Hours were still bought by people from all classes, from aristocrats to merchants to tradesmen to commoners; hence the Book of Hours’ reputation as ‘the medieval best-seller’. With the invention of mechanical printing, the cost of the books dropped, and printers and publishers capitalised on the demand for Books of Hours to make a significant profit.

Despite the shift to print, this leaf (and many others like it) retain elements of the manuscript tradition to appear more familiar to readers and thus increase their appeal. For example, the displayed leaf contains red lines running across the page; these lines are called ‘rulings’ and were used to write in straight lines. With mechanical printing, such rulings were unnecessary, marking their presence as purely aesthetic. The initial letters at the top of the page (on the displayed leaf, the illustrated ‘K’) were also hand-painted on after printing. Part of hand-painting the initials is due to the difficulty of printing in multiple colours, but also to maintain continuity with manuscript traditions. The leaf then indicates that new printing technology did not significantly change the appearance of books; rather, printers took care to ensure printed leaves appeared familiar to their readers.

The leaf thus offers a window into life in the late Middle Ages, marking the transition from manuscript to print and reflecting the social culture of the time period.

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Rinaldo and Armida

by Chua Shao Jun

Rinaldo and Armida is a semi-opera tragedy written by John Dennis in 1698. The book was published a year after, in 1699, and was printed by Jacob Tonson at the Graye’s Inn Gate. The play was written to honour the Duke of Ormond, whom the protagonist, Rinaldo, was modelled after.

The book is beautifully covered in mosaic paper, mixed with colours such as red, yellow and black. The year of publication, 1699, is printed on the spine of the book.

The book begins with a dedication to the Duke of Ormond, making references to the Duke’s love of his country, his honour and the love of glory. Although John Dennis drew lots of inspiration from Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered, he made a valiant attempt to differentiate his work from Tasso’s in the preface. He mentioned several times that his version of Rinaldo is original and unequal to Tasso’s character, and beckons the readers to appreciate his characters without pre-supposed impressions of Tasso’s creation. His beckoning was targeted especially towards readers of Tasso, since they are the ones most familiar with the characters Rinaldo and Armida, and have a stronger tendency to compare the two author’s interpretation of the characters.

Since the book is a semi-opera, it is written in the form of the character’s lines, the lyrics of the songs the characters will sing, as well as the settings for the play. The musical element of John Dennis’ Rinaldo and Armida was what sets it apart from Tasso’s original work, since Jerusalem Liberated was written to be only a narrative, and not a semi-opera.

The story of the play follows Rinaldo, the Christian hero, who falls in love with a beautiful sorceress called Armida. Armida, though she was a beautiful woman, was very prideful and had a bad temper, which led Rinaldo to leave her eventually. Armida was accused for enchanting Rinaldo with spells, so Rinaldo had to exercise good reason to leave her, and resist her charm. Dennis’ portrayal of Armida differs from Tasso’s, in that Dennis placed a larger emphasis on the humanity of Armida. Tasso portrayed Armida as a pure villain, merely seducing Rinaldo with charms and spells, until Rinaldo came to his senses and resisted her. Dennis, however, portrayed Armida as an antagonist that is capable of complex emotions, capable of reflection and displaying affectionate sentiments towards romance. The more humane portrayal of Armida intensifies the tragic nature of the romance, since now the romance between Rinaldo and Armida involves a psychological struggle, as opposed to Tasso’s version, where Rinaldo simply leaves her and rejoins the Crusaders in a line of duty.

The play was performed at Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre, featuring the actors and actresses Betterton, John Thurmond, Elizabeth Barry, Elizabeth Bowman and Elinor Leigh.

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Watts’ Divine Songs

by Nur Sarah

This unique edition of “Watts’ Divine Songs” is one of many from Isaac Watts’ larger collection of moral and religious poems for children which was written in 1715. Published in the mid-19th century, this pocket-sized booklet is merely 8 pages long and contains a small selection of only 3 poems with accompanying illustrations on every page. This particular edition contains the poems ‘Morning Song’, ‘The Little Busy Bee’ (which you might recognize from the parodied version in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) and ‘Brotherly Love’.

Pocket-sized booklets such as this were known as toy books, which is a type of chapbook. Chapbooks were small printed booklets that gained popularity in 17th and 18th century Europe as a medium for entertainment. They were usually made of rough paper between 8-24 pages long that were bound with thread. Any illustrations were printed using crude woodcuts. Because they were so cheaply produced, they became a common source of reading material for lower-class people.

But unlike the usual chapbooks, toy books like “Watt’s Divine Songs” were typically a lot smaller, and were targeted towards the child audience. As part of the marketing strategy, these booklets came with small toys, hence the term ‘toy books’. So early toy books were essentially the first form of children’s books, featuring illustrations to go alongside rhymes and tales as its content. They were often released as part of a series.

Isaac Watts’ original larger collection, Divine Songs, was written in a such a way that was meant to be accessible to young readers, so that they may truly learn and understand moral religious values. It was actually even used as a textbook in schools. Even so, the focus and purpose of it was mostly on education. With the toy book edition, however, there was an attempt at balancing education with entertainment in order to appeal to children.

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Sheet Music for Octave of Saint Agnes

by Lisa Chong

This 15th-century Italian liturgical manuscript is made of parchment, and contains sheet music for religious chants. Unlike modern Western sheet music, the musical stave consists of 4 lines instead of 5, in a form known as plainchant – a sacred piece composed in Latin for the liturgies of the Western church. Such a large parchment page would have been a common sight for those in a church’s choir; its size ensured all singers could refer to the music simultaneously. There are also Roman numerals inked in red on both pages, indicating folio references for full versions of separate chants, such that they would not need to be repeatedly written out in full.

Although Latin was the main language used in Christian service throughout Europe at the time, we can reasonably trace this parchment’s origins to Italy. As seen in Figure 1, part of the music stave has been rubbed out to make space for shorthand text: “Octava Agnetis Virginis”. This is a chant for Saint Agnes, patron saint of chastity and purity, and the most prominent female martyr in ancient Rome. Throughout the year, church choirs would sing different hymns and masses depending on upcoming religious events, including their saints’ upcoming Feast days. The octave is a second Feast celebrated on the eighth day afterward; therefore, members of this church commemorated not only the Feast of Saint Agnes on the 21st of January, but also repeated the feast. This double veneration indicates that the region this church was situated in held Saint Agnes in particularly high regard; the main regions of Europe that would have fallen under these criteria were Italy and England, but the former is more likely due to the plainchant’s origins as a notation invented solely for liturgical composition in the Western church.

Interestingly, the first page has the final line of a previous hymn overriding into the next stave, as seen from the Latin “allelu ya”/hallelujah. But it does not continue left to right into the next stave: it juts into a small right-most section below, and to its left is the rubbed-out stave, with text indicating that the chant below it is for the Octave of St Agnes. Here is a closer look, with the atypical line boundaries shown.

This is likely because the scribe needed to make space for the decorated illuminated capital – the large, ornate letter ‘V’ that sprawls all the way across the left side of the page – that begins Psalm 44:13-16, which is associated with St Agnes’ second octave feast. In doing so, the manuscript writer exhibited a prioritisation of form over minor function. The more elaborately decorated illuminated capital in blue (as opposed to the smaller black capital ‘E’ in “Eructavit”) signals not only the beginning of any new line or chant, but the start of an important commemoration for a particularly venerated Feast Day. Perhaps, stylistic form did not win over function; this decoration functions, alongside the music it accompanies, as a celebration of the mercy of Christ.

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Liturgical Manuscript, likely from a Breviary

by Sing Wei Xuan, Wavern

This manuscript likely originated from a Roman Breviary. The purpose of a Breviary lies in its chronologically-organised lists of prayers and readings, to be referenced by priests during daily service. This leaf likely comes from a section describing the prayers to be recited during the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. Essentially, this serves as a script or a lyric book for religious occasions.

Written on parchment (dried and stretched animal skin, like leather but left untanned), close observation allows one to distinguish between both sides of the leaf. Fig. 1.1 shows the recto, front side of the manuscript, wherein one can identify the textured spots of now empty hair follicles. This suggests this to be the outward-facing, once hairy, grain side of the animal skin. Fig 1.2, on the other hand, show the verso, back side of the manuscript. The absence of these textured spots on this side suggests this to be the inward-facing, flesh side of the animal skin.

Unlike modern-day paper, parchment, as a medium for writing, is thicker and more durable. Thus, in an age before correction tape, scribes would use knives to scrape off writing that is to be rewritten. The large area of alteration as in Fig 2.1 and 2.2 perhaps implies a larger shift in the theological canon, that would warrant a larger-scale overhaul of the text. While it is difficult to identify what exactly was removed, we have a few clues as to why it was. Firstly, the replacement text in Fig 2.2 starts with “Ave decus virgineum ave jubar”, the beginning of a sequence of hymns sung during the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, that dates as far back as the 12th Century (centuries before this manuscript is dated to have been first produced, and later altered). This thus is not new material. Secondly, theological debates surrounding the veneration of the Virgin Mary were common in the 15th Century, and thus a shift from the unknown original text to a 12th Century prayer song hints at the fluctuating conclusions of the Church at the time.

Most striking to a modern reader are the formal and stylistic features of medieval manuscripts, of which this leaf is a perfect example (Fig 3.1). Even in medieval times, financial and logistic practicality drives most of the decisions made in manuscript production, leading to a common set of features we often see in medieval books. Parchment is expensive and time-consuming to produce. Instead of paragraphing, which we use in the modern day to organise ideas, manuscripts cannot afford the luxury of wasting precious parchment-real-estate on empty space, and thus decorated initials are used to denote the beginning of new ideas. This manuscript also highlights all capital letters in yellow, denoting the beginning of each new sentence as well. The use of red ink, referred to as rubrication, was used to draw attention to important details, used here when referencing other religious texts such as the Bible. Scribes also often use abbreviations, adding squiggles or letters above and below shortened versions of words, to imply a longer word. This can be seen in multiple instances in Fig 3.2, with “pś” and “añt” being rubricated abbreviations for “psalms” and “antiphon” respectively. Close observation of the layer of ink colours can also tell us more about the process in which decorated initials are made, with Fig 3.3 suggesting the ink was added in the order of black first, then blue, and lastly red.

Often, especially with breviaries, medieval books are shared and thus must be easy to understand. Many medieval manuscripts were written in two columns of text, which made it easier to follow for readers. This also became characteristic of religious texts, with the first printed bible having two columns as well. Modern-day texts that reference the medieval period often adopt these stylistic choices too, proving that these formal features have transcended being merely practical decisions, now having become wholly emblematic of books of the period.