Category Archives: Erik Kwakkel

The Last Page of the Medieval Book

Posted on August 22, 2014 by medievalfragments

By Erik Kwakkel (@erik_kwakkel) I love the last page of the medieval book. Not because it means that my research of a particular manuscript is almost completed, but because the last page often provides information pertaining to the origins of the object – information not … Continue reading →

Posted in Erik Kwakkel | Tagged advertisement, Colophon, doodle, Manuscript, page | Comments Off

The Beauty of the Injured Book

Posted on May 2, 2014 by medievalfragments

By Erik Kwakkel (@erik_kwakkel) While our eyes are naturally drawn to pages filled with color and gold, those without decoration can be equally appealing. Indeed, even damaged goods – mutilated bindings, torn pages, parchment with cuts and holes – can be highly attractive, as … Continue reading →

Posted in Erik Kwakkel | Tagged damage, Manuscript, Medieval, parchment, photography, scribe | Comments Off

My Week of Lecturing in Oxford

Posted on February 28, 2014 by medievalfragments

By Erik Kwakkel (@erik_kwakkel) It is the evening of Thursday 27 February, 2014, and at the moment I am sitting in The White Horse being stared at by Inspector Morse, who frequented this pub back in the day – and who seems … Continue reading →

Posted in Erik Kwakkel | Tagged Caroline Minuscule, Digital Humanities, Gothic, Lowe Lectures, Manuscript, Oxford, Script | Comments Off

What is the Oldest Book in the World?

Posted on December 20, 2013 by medievalfragments

By Erik Kwakkel (@erik_kwakkel) The past few days I have been preoccupied with a deceptively simple question: “What is the oldest book in the world?” Having done some looking around I can now report that while somewhere on this planet, in a … Continue reading →

Posted in Erik Kwakkel | Tagged codex, Manuscript, oldest book in the world, papyrus, parchment, quire, sheet | Comments Off

Where Are the Scriptoria?

Posted on November 5, 2013 by medievalfragments

By Erik Kwakkel (@erik_kwakkel) This blog connects to two earlier entries in medievalfragments: Irene O’Daly’s recent blog on how scribes are depicted in medieval art (here); and Jenneka Janzen’s assessment of how we are to understand the “physical scriptorium” (here). Something struck … Continue reading →

Posted in Erik Kwakkel | Tagged Book Production, Copying, Miniature, Monastic Scriptorium, Scribes, Scriptorium, Writing | Comments Off

Stamp of Approval: A Paper Snippet and the Spanish Inquisition

Posted on September 24, 2013 by medievalfragments

By Erik Kwakkel (@erik_kwakkel) This blog entry focuses on a book fragment I encountered in Leiden University Library earlier this week while studying twelfth-century material with my research team. As discussed in an earlier blog, after the invention of printing … Continue reading →

Posted in Erik Kwakkel, Project News | Tagged Antwerp, approbatio, fragment, Inquisition, Plantin Moretus, print culture, printing | Comments Off

Voices on the Medieval Page (1): The Reader

Posted on June 21, 2013 by medievalfragments

By Erik Kwakkel (@erik_kwakkel) This is the first part of a series highlighting instances where medieval individuals added information to an existing book, either right after its production or centuries later. What precisely did scribes, readers, booksellers and librarians scribble … Continue reading →

Posted in Erik Kwakkel, Project News | Tagged Annotations, Corrections, Manicula, Manuscript, Medieval, Readers | Comments Off

A Hidden Medieval Archive Surfaces

Posted on May 3, 2013 by medievalfragments

By Erik Kwakkel (@erik_kwakkel) On my Tumblr I recently posted two entries devoted to a remarkable discovery made in the Book History class I am co-teaching with Paul Hoftijzer for the Book and Digital Media Studies programme at Leiden University. It concerns 132 … Continue reading →

Posted in Erik Kwakkel | Tagged Archive, Court, Manuscript Fragments, Medieval Bindings | Comments Off

Making Books for Profit in Medieval Times

Posted on April 15, 2013 by medievalfragments

By Erik Kwakkel (@erik_kwakkel) The novelist L.P. Hartley once said that the past is like a foreign country: things are done different there. What I find most remarkable about the bookish slice of medieval society that I study is not … Continue reading →

Posted in Erik Kwakkel | Tagged Commercial book production, Manuscript, Medieval Economy, Medieval Scribes, Profit | Comments Off

The Proud Reader: Showing Off the Medieval Book

Posted on March 1, 2013 by medievalfragments

By Erik Kwakkel (@erik_kwakkel) When I started this post I set out to answer a very simple query: what is the oldest photograph we have of a real reader interacting with a medieval manuscript? The quest was sparked by a 19th-century photograph … Continue reading →

Posted in Erik Kwakkel, Project News | Tagged Beowulf, Codicology, Manuscript, Reading, Research Reflections, Tolkien | Comments Off