Medieval Literacy

Traditionally, the study of medieval written culture was the preserve of specialists in palaeography, diplomatics, codicology, and a series of philologies. From the 1970s questions regarding the literacy of all those who encountered the culture of writing came to the fore, concerned with the making, using, and preservation of written texts. Soon afterwards, it was recognized that other forms of communication were worthy of study too, including orality. More recently, an exciting development is the study of medieval “graphospheres”: the places where “visible language” is encountered in a variety of forms—from the hovels of peasants to the courts of rulers, and from the institutions of the Church to the houses of town-dwellers. This book asks how combining these different approaches to medieval written culture might produce new ways of looking at medieval history.