The scribe blamed the stationer for the sloppy appearance of the erasure and
superimposed corrections.
In 13th-century Paris, the everyday spoken language was French rather than the Latin
language used in the Bible, liturgical texts, and philosophical discourse. Although it is
still debated at what precise time vernacular language was regularly used, it is clear that
secular texts were being composed in French and transcribed and illuminated in
manuscript books by the mid-13th century. It was during the later Middle Ages that a
wealthy and literate lay audience, fascinated by the Arthurian and other romances,
created a demand for deluxe manuscripts of vernacular prose and poetry.
A splendidly illuminated volume of the Arthurian romances, produced in France in the
late 13th century, graphically illustrates the type of expensive book produced by
professional scribes and artists in a secular context (below left; Beinecke 229). The
French text was copied in an elegant Gothic bookhand, with several small decorative
initials to demarcate text divisions. What is most remarkable about this genre of
manuscripts is the number of beautifully painted pictures throughout the volume that
visually re-
French translation of Augustine’s De
civitate Dei (The City of God), ca.
1400. Yale MS 215, fol. 145. Courtesy
of Beinecke Library, Yale University.
The Encyclopedia 1307