Unusual Online Reproductions of Medieval Manuscripts

Online reproductions take many forms, from simple textual transcriptions to multimedia productions. There are some reproductions that are totally innovative that form a very unusual group of reproductions of medieval manuscripts.

The Luttrell Psalter
A non-profit group of filmmakers, actors, craftsmen--indeed, an entire community--has come together to bring to life this manuscript on film through a number of recreations. Below is the trailer for their upcoming film. Clothes have been recreated, as have ploughs, music, dances, food, buildings, and a host of other things. Here is a link to their website, where you can find more information about this project.



Revival Clothing
This is a company that sells recreations of medieval clothing as well as anachronistic interpretations (they use cotton and elastic in some things, which is not period-authentic). Since there are few extant garments that give us a good idea of how medieval people dressed, art is used to help decide how things fit and wore--those this was sometimes sculpture or paintings, it was more often than not a manuscript that provided the last word on a garment. Choose a garment from their catalogue and scroll down to see their “historical inspirations” (“inspirations” because even manuscript art is not precise and the closures of some of the clothing can prove tricky). They provide shelf marks, folio numbers, and proper manuscript documentation for most of their items--in specific, you can see the Gaston Phoebus clothes in the men’s section are all traced back to the Bibliothéque Nationale’s “Book of the Hunt”.

The Roman de la Rose Musical
This struck me as a completely unorthodox renewal of medieval literature from manuscripts until I remembered Monty Python’s Holy Grail and the absurd ensuing musical Spamalot. This is a student project, with a website all its own, but I present to you the trailer, here:

National Libraries

Countries often see manuscripts as cultural icons and as national treasures. Books were once incredibly valuable objects, made by hand and with very expensive materials: aside from their monetary value, they carried with them a national identity. To simply possess a shelf full of books was an amazing thing. National libraries still value their medieval manuscripts, but are now trying to save them from deterioration over time and trying to make them available to the public (something very rare, and certainly impossible for their original viewers).

The National Library of Scotland
In addition to more modern manuscripts, this library contains the Murthly Hours (a devotional book of hours) and the Auchinleck Manuscript (lyrics, stories, poetry and prose) reproduced in full, with accompanying commentary, transcription.

The British Library
This library has a conservation and publication program that has made very important manuscripts available to the general public in a display setting that appeals to many. Their “Turning the Pages” program simulates actually turning the pages of a manuscript, and transcriptions, translations, and commentary are available at the click of a button. The images of these manuscripts are high-res and detailed, professional photographs.

Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru (The National Library of Wales)
This library has made available numerous selections and some whole manuscripts in a number of languages, including books of Taliesin, of the Mabinogi, an edition of Chaucer, a miscellany in Middle English, and several historical chronicles. These manuscripts have their own descriptive pages that put them in a historical context.

Bibliothéque Nationale de France
France’s national library contains selections from many medieval manuscripts, including that of Jean of Berry’s book of hours and Gaston Phoebus’ Book of the Hunt, as well as Froissart’s 15th century historical chronicles, an earlier atlas, a scientific work, and a breviary.

Selected Images

Selected images of manuscripts are placed online usually because the manuscripts are too damaged to be handled very much without expert care, or because the department putting up the manuscript was not funded well enough to place the entire manuscript on the internet. Such is the case in some of the following manuscripts.

As you can see, though, placing only part of a manuscript online does not necessarily take away from the overall presentation. For some online presentations, the audience is made up of the general public, schoolchildren, or scholars that are more interested in the subject of the piece rather than the piece itself.

The Ellesmere Chaucer Facsimile
Long Island University has placed miniatures of the pilgrims of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales online in this page. Though there are actually 31 pilgrims (or 29, depending on your research), there are only 23 portraits here: the ones missing are the tradesmen. If you click on a single image until it takes you to a high-resolution version of the image.

Byzantine Medieval Hypertexts
This web site was produced by a doctoral student at the Univ. of Texas at Austin, working with images produced by faculty at Univ. Notre Dame. The text used here is the Theodore Psalter.

Treasures from the UK National Archives
This site provides selections from a number of manuscripts, including a copy of the Magna Carta, the Domesday Book, the Treaty of Calais, and others. The images are not high-resolution or annotated for professional use but described for the general public. Options on this website include viewing a transcript, sending as an e-card, and bookmarking the site with Facebook, Reddit, or Yahoo--definitely for the general public!

Gaston Phoebus, “Book of the Hunt”
This hunting manual has been cropped and scanned only for its miniatures. However, the miniatures can be enlarged to a fairly good resolution image. This manuscript has been placed online by the Bibliothéque National de France.