English Renaissance Manuscript Culture: The Paper Revolution

The Paper Revolution explores how the introduction of paper in England in the 14th century transformed writing, making it more accessible to ordinary citizens and leading to the creation of a vast volume of manuscript works. However, over 90% of this output has been lost, distorting our understanding of what has survived.

Format: Hardback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 14 August 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press

The evolution of a novel scribal culture in England that first appeared in the early 14th century is followed in English Renaissance Manuscript Culture: The Paper Revolution. A writing medium that was both durable and affordable enough to be disposable was added to the primary medieval writing surfaces of parchment and wax tablets. Writing was democratized from a near monopoly of professional scribes employed by the upper class to a practice that ordinary citizens could afford. Personal correspondence, business records, notebooks on a wide range of topics, creative writing, and much more flourished at social levels where they had previously been excluded due to the high cost of parchment. Steven W. May situates literary manuscripts, particularly poetic anthologies, within this broader scribal context, demonstrating how its innovative features impacted both authorship and readership. As this amateur scribal culture evolved, so did the medieval professional culture. Classes of documents that were previously limited to parchment frequently switched over to paper, while entirely new classes of documents were added to the records of church and state as these institutions took advantage of the relatively inexpensive paper. By enabling the drafting, revision, and rewriting of works in this new, affordable medium, paper stimulated original composition. Amateur scribes quickly produced an enormous volume of manuscript works of all kinds, which they could afford to circulate in multiple copies. The ever-increasing literate population of England established an informal network that efficiently transmitted all types of texts, from single sheets to book-length documents, throughout the kingdom. The mass circulation of manuscripts through this network had little if any influence on the operation of restrictive coteries.

Weight: 560g
Dimension: 162 x 242 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780198878001