The secret lives of medieval manuscripts: Kathryn Rudy at TEDxUniversityofStAndrews 2013

Summary

Kathryn Rudy argues that medieval manuscripts were not merely read: they were handled, kissed, touched, and used in rituals. The physical traces left behind can reveal how people interacted with books and which parts mattered most to them.

Manuscripts as objects of devotion

• During Mass, priests kissed sacred images in missals and other objects. Repeated kissing wore away paint and surface detail; Rudy jokes that some users may even have nibbled the page.
• Artists created an osculatory plaque, or “kiss target,” to direct kisses away from a painted image and protect the book. In practice, some priests ignored the target and kissed the image itself.
• Kissing and touching were not limited to clergy. Nobles and other lay book owners also venerated images in their prayer books, sometimes wearing away faces or transferring paint between pages.
• Books could serve other public purposes. A civic-oath book in ’s-Hertogenbosch was placed on a table while people swore their oaths on it, leaving it visibly smeared through repeated use.
• These marks show the emotional force of religious images and the intimate, tactile relationship between readers and books made from parchment—animal skin.

Measuring wear to understand reading habits

Rudy explored whether grime on manuscripts could be measured to identify which passages readers used most. Her method was:

1. Choose a manuscript: She used a Book of Hours made in Delft around 1440.
2. Compare areas of wear: She examined multiple page openings and noted differences in dirt and handling.
3. Establish a baseline: Using a densitometer—a device that measures the optical density of a reflecting surface—she took a reading from an area at the top of the page that readers did not handle.
4. Measure handled areas: She took readings from the most visibly soiled parts of the pages, such as corners where fingerprints had accumulated.
5. Record and graph the readings: She plotted the results against the book’s page numbers and sections, allowing patterns of use to emerge.
6. Compare the patterns with the contents: She matched high or low readings to texts and images, then considered what the patterns might indicate about the reader.

What the wear patterns suggested

• In one Book of Hours, the Hours of the Virgin showed the most use. Wear declined late in the day, leading Rudy to suggest that the reader may sometimes have fallen asleep before completing the text.
• In another, sharp peaks in the readings corresponded mainly to pictures. The most-handled image showed the book’s owner with his coat of arms, suggesting that he repeatedly returned to this self-image. Some wear on text pages also indicated that he could read.
• A third book showed repeated use of the Penitential Psalms and prayers to Saints Adrian and Sebastian. Since Saint Sebastian was associated with protection against plague, Rudy suggested that the owner may have been anxious about the disease. A prayer to Saint Apollonia, associated with dental pain, showed little use—prompting Rudy’s humorous suggestion that the reader feared plague but had good teeth.

These interpretations are clues rather than certainties: physical wear can suggest reading habits and concerns, but it does not prove what a reader thought or felt.

The tactile nature of reading

Rudy contrasts medieval manuscript culture with modern print and screen culture. Manuscripts invited close physical interaction, and readers left cumulative marks that demonstrated repeated engagement with particular texts or images. She suggests that modern touchscreen devices may reflect a continuing desire for tangible, hands-on reading.

Speakers and sources featured

• Speaker: Kathryn Rudy.
• Manuscripts and objects discussed: The Hours of Blanche of Savoy; a missal; osculatory plaques; a lavish missal commissioned by a bakers’ guild; the civic-oath book of ’s-Hertogenbosch; a prayer book belonging to Philip the Bold; fifteenth-century devotional books from Haarlem and Bruges; a book of sacred poetry; a prayer book with contrasting levels of wear; and Books of Hours, including one made in Delft around 1440.