This book comprises experiences and incidents that have occurred during my career as a medievalist. They focus on some problems I’ve researched and usually not resolved, but all have brought to the surface another body of knowledge that I believe is extremely useful in the repertoire of a medievalist. My own background lies in calligraphy, but I’m not referring only to calligraphy as a valuable piece of knowledge, I mean to stretch the concept further to suggest that knowledge of practical book arts is incredibly important for a medievalist to have some knowledge of. This includes calligraphy, but also book binding, codicology, palaeography, parchment making, ink and paint making, painting and illustration, design, gilding, among other activities. All of these combine to offer a package of practical skills that support the theoretical knowledge of the medievalist, whether a literary specialist or historian, or some other discipline.
University of Otago
Simone Celine Marshall 