Bat books: A catalogue of folded manuscripts containing almanacs or other texts (Bibliologia) (Bibliologia: Elementa Ad Librorum Studia Pertinentia, 41)

by Jp Gumbert

This work represents an important contribution to the history of medieval books, providing full scholarly description and discussion of an otherwise very little known category of written artefact in quasi-book form, but one that the 60-odd identified examples suggest was relatively common. This volume will be of interest not only to medieval book-historians and codicologists but also to historians of medieval science and of the liturgy, and of medieval written culture and cultural practice more broadly. Although a large proportion of the volume takes the form of a catalogue, the information and explanatory material presented in the introduction to the catalogue as a whole and to each of the sections into which the catalogue is divided give the volume the coherence and value of a historical and codicological survey of this form of artefact, the kind of texts they contained, and how and by whom they were made and used. The way in which the catalogue is structured in chronological and thematic sections, each with their own introduction, also contributes to enhance this aspect of the volume.

240 pages, Paperback

Published October 7, 2016

Reviews

[Chelsea]

my favorite genre of academic book is "the book i've wanted to write for 50 years but other projects kept getting in the way but now i'm so old and established in the field that nobody can tell me what to do, so here is my Passion in a hilariously informal tone"

sure wish this had been published in late 2015, when i had to compile all of this information into an excel sheet by hand!!