Dynamics of Literacy in Medieval Europe

This book honours the achievements of Marco Mostert, professor of Medieval History at Utrecht University. Marco has been one of the main promotors and proponents of the expanding field of studies in medieval literacy and orality. The book celebrates his legacy by focusing on communication and writing in the Middle Ages, themes central to Marco’s interest. It is divided into two sections. Part I covers the early medieval period, focusing on manuscripts and texts, mainly those produced by clerics. Articles in this section include studies on the liturgical hymn Te Deum; Carolingian political hegemony in Frisia; a new Carolingian witness of Suetonius’s Life of Caesars; the Utrecht Psalter and its historical context; monastic socialization; political communication through sermons; manuscript annotations at Fleury-sur-Loire; Ademar of Chabannes's final years; and the semantic field of communicatio.

Part II shifts focus to written communication in broader societal layers in the later medieval period, when writing became significant for other societal groups like townsfolk and peasants. Articles in this section discuss a case of identifying a thief through written documents; urban literacy in Danish and Hungarian towns; graffiti in Abruzzi churches; the cartulary of Egmond monastery; and literate culture among late medieval countryside inhabitants.

Friends, collaborators, colleagues, and former students of Marco have contributed to this volume, with all authors discussing different aspects of the use of the written word in various parts of the medieval European world. The result is a book with multiple facets, collectively contribute to a deeper understanding of medieval literacy and its societal implications.

Preface

Contributors

Introduction

Part I. Manuscripts, Texts, and Communities in Early Medieval Europe

1. The Te Deum: Liturgy, Orthodoxy, and Politics in the Early Middle Ages
ROSAMOND MCKITTERICK

2. Educating Frisians in the Eighth Century: The Evidence of the Paenitentiale Oxoniense II
ROB MEENS

3. A New Carolingian Witness to the Text of Suetonius De Vita Caesarum
DAVID GANZ

4. Three of a Kind: Dating the Utrecht Psalter, Ebo Gospels, and Eller Gospels
BART JASKI

5. Intus – Foris: On Monastic Perception and Political Order in the Epitaphium Arsenii
MAYKE DE JONG

6. Sermons hagiographiques et communication politique: Un sermon prononcé en l’honneur de saint Ghislain au xie siecle (BHL 3553)
ANNE-MARIE HELVÉTIUS

7. Reading with the Pen in the Books of Fleury
IRENE VAN RENSWOUDE AND MARIKEN TEEUWEN

8. The Fall From Grace of Ademar of Chabannes (989–1034) — or the ‘Deceits’ of Historiography
AD VAN ELS

9. Communicare memoriae: An Essay on Communication in Medieval Latin Liturgy
ELS ROSE

Part II. Towards a Social History of Writing in Later Medieval Europe

10. Hitting Abraham’s Eye: How to Identify a Thief with the Help of a Hammer (Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries)
CARINE VAN RHIJN

11. ‘Don’t Shoot the Messenger!’ On the Uses and Misuses of the Written Word in Late Medieval Rural Poland
ANNA ADAMSKA

12. Town Books in Late Medieval Denmark
KASPER H. ANDERSEN, JEPPE BÜCHERT NETTERSTRØM, AND BJØRN POULSEN

13. Layers of Literacy in the Cathedral Cities of Medieval Hungary
KATALIN SZENDE AND ANNA KINDE

14. Chronicle Graffiti for a Social History and Geography of Writing: Some Cases from Abruzzo
CARLO TEDESCHI

15. The Cartulary of Egmond Abbey
J. W. J. BURGERS

16. Accountability — From Organized Distrust to Obscure Confusion: A Case Study
BRAM VAN DEN HOVEN VAN GENDEREN

17. Peasants and Charters in Late Medieval Poland
AGNIESZKA BARTOSZEWICZ

18. ‘Oerconde myn hant’: Literate Attitudes of Peasants in Financial Records of Eindhoven and Cranendonck (1532–1547)
MARK VERMEER

Tabula Gratulatoria