The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club

by Christopher de Hamel

Synopsis:

The illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are among the greatest works of European art and literature. We are dazzled by them and recognize their crucial role in the transmission of knowledge. But we generally think much less about the countless men and women who made, collected and preserved them through the centuries, and to whom they owe their existence.

This entrancing book describes some of the extraordinary people who have spent their lives among illuminated manuscripts over the last thousand years. A monk in Normandy, a prince of France, a Florentine bookseller, an English antiquary, a rabbi from central Europe, a French priest, a Keeper at the British Museum, a Greek forger, a German polymath, a British connoisseur and the woman who created the most spectacular library in America - all of them were participants in what Christopher de Hamel calls the Manuscripts Club.

This exhilarating fraternity, and the fellow enthusiasts who come with it, throw new light on how manuscripts have survived and been used by very different kinds of people in many different circumstances. Christopher de Hamel's unexpected connections and discoveries reveal a passion which crosses the boundaries of time. We understand the manuscripts themselves better by knowing who their keepers and companions have been.

In 1850 (or thereabouts) John Ruskin bought his first manuscript 'at a bookseller's in a back alley'. This was his reaction- 'The new worlds which every leaf of this book opened to me, and the joy I had in counting their letters and unravelling their arabesques as if they had all been of beaten gold - as many of them were - cannot be told.' The members of de Hamel's club share many such wonders, which he brings to us with scholarship, style, and a lifetime's experience.

The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club is quite the chonker. Christopher de Hamel has chosen a number of people whose lives were intimately wrapped up in manuscripts — from those who wrote them to modern curators — and given them a chapter each, delving into how manuscripts were used and regarded in their lifetimes and by them specifically.

It’s quite the undertaking, and sadly lacking in terms of representation of women: it’s hard to believe that only men and Belle da Costa Greene could be considered worthy representatives for this manuscripts club. Christine de Pizan surely warrants more than a glancing mention, for example, and brings a somewhat unique perspective as one of the few women who made a living for herself by writing in her era.

Nonetheless, it’s quite fun to explore these people and how they shared their manuscripts, what they might’ve said if meeting the author (though sometimes I found this bit of each chapter a little bit cringe; felt like self-insert fanfic). He picks not just manuscript writers and collectors, but also a forger, though he’s a little too ready to diagnose a historical figure with a mental illness based on absolutely zero expertise whatsoever. Even a doctor would be reluctant to get too into the weeds on that.

That said, it’s a bit weird to have that conversation with Anselm which is basically self-insert fanfic…

The book is gorgeously illustrated, with full-colour illustrations, sometimes embedded into the text, sometimes a full page spread. It’s a beautiful book.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)