Matter, 'Manuscripts and Libraries in the Age of Charlemagne, translated and edited by Michael Gorman', Bryn Mawr Medieval Review 9503
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/bmmr/bmmr-9503-matter-manuscripts

@@@@95.3.10, Bischoff, Manuscripts and Libraries (II)

Bernhard Bischoff, Manuscripts and Libraries in the Age of Charlemagne,
translated and edited by Michael Gorman.  Cambridge Studies in Palaeography
and Codicology, 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).  ISBN 
0521383463  
	Reviewed by E. Ann Matter, University of Pennsylvania. 

The death of Bernhard Bischoff in 1991 marked the end of a great era of the
study of medieval manuscript hands and manuscript collections.  This seems,
somehow, a nineteenth-century era.  Although Bischoff was born just at the
turn of the century (1906), he shared with Ludwig Traube and Paul Lehmann,
his predecessors in the Lehrstuhl fuer lateinische Philologie des
Mittelalters at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, an encyclopedic
knowledge of medieval Latin manuscripts: the materials from which they were
made, the hands in which they were written, the collections in which they
were found in the Middle Ages, the types of literature they transmitted,
the reading culture that received them, their modern whereabouts.  Between
1953 and 1975, Bischoff held court in Munich, teaching generations of young
medievalists from all over the world the intricacies and joys of work with
medieval manuscripts.  He was especially renowned for his knowledge of
Carolingian manuscripts, so much so that those of us who do work in this
rich and fascinating period but never did "go study with Bischoff" are well
aware of standing outside a magic inner circle.

Fortunately, though, Bischoff wrote copiously throughout his life.  He
edited a number of medieval Latin texts, and prepared for publication the
facsimile edition of the Carmina Burana manuscripts in Munich.  Bischoff's
books include a two-volume study of the Carolingian scriptoria and
libraries in South-east Germany, and monographs on the scriptoria and
libraries of Wurzburg, Salzburg, the monastery of Lorsch, and the school of
Canterbury.  In all of these volumes Bischoff provided essential guides to
scholars working on Carolingian culture, but he was perhaps even better
known for his illuminating articles on medieval manuscript production and
collection.  The bibliography included in this volume of collected essays
(pp. 161-164) covers only the years 1981 to 1993, but includes eight books
and critical editions written alone or with others, including revised
editions of previously published works; the translation of his
<i>Palaeographie des roemischen Altertums und des abendlaendischen
Mittelalters</i> (second edition Berlin, 1986) into English, French, and
Italian; and over 20 published articles and reviews.  

1981 is a logical time to begin this bibliography, since it is the year of
the publication of the third volume of Bischoff's <i>Mittelalterliche
Studien</i>, the marvelous collection of articles and papers written over
a period of twenty years.  Five of the seven essays collected in this
volume were previously collected in German in <i>Mittelalterliche
Studien</i>.  Gorman says in his introduction (p. xi) that the idea of an
English translation of Bischoff's most frequently cited essays dates from
the appearance of this third volume.  This is not surprising, since
<i>Mittelalterliche Studien</i> gives the most wide-ranging view of
Bischoff's genius.  We are very lucky to have some of these essays in
English. 

Gorman is a logical person to have done this translation, since he is a
former student of Bischoff who made his own mark on the world of
Carolingian manuscript studies with a series of articles tracing the
manuscript transmission of the works of Augustine.  The translations are
clear and faithful.  Of all the many selections of material possible to the
editor of Bischoff's works, those chosen reflect a wise -- and sensible --
introduction to Carolingian manuscript studies.  The book begins with a
wonderful map entitled "Writing Centres and Writing Provinces in the Age of
Charlemagne," marking the sites of monastic houses, bishoprics and
archbishoprics where manuscript production took place.  The seven chapters
which follow are: "Manuscripts in the Early Middle Ages," "Manuscripts in
the Age of Charlemagne," "The Court Library of Charlemagne," "The Court
Library under Louis the Pious," "Libraries and Schools in the Carolingian
Revival of Learning," "Palaeography and the Transmission of Classical Texts
in the Early Middle Ages," and "Benedictine Monasteries and the Survival of
Classical Literature."  The book thus leads the reader through basic
information about early medieval manuscripts, the role of the courts of two
Carolingian monarchs and of monastic and cathedral schools in manuscript
production, and the particular transmission of classical texts.  Since
there is so much in Bischoff's legacy to choose from, one could easily ask
for a different selection, but this is one that will be particularly useful
to students and scholars approaching the subject with little knowledge of
Bischoff's work.  This will surely have the result Gorman desires, to bring
Bischoff's theories and methods into a larger circle of scholarly analysis
and debate than that of specialists arguing over particulars of manuscripts
and hands.
   
Since the translations were done over a number of years, Gorman was able to
work together with Bischoff, checking choices of expression, and sometimes
adding new material to the notes.  Bischoff actually prepared two lists of
manuscripts specifically for this volume: one of grammatical manuscripts
from Charlemagne to Louis the Pious, appended to chapter 5, on libraries
and schools; and one of classical manuscripts rightly and wrongly
attributed to the School of Tours, appended to chapter 6, on palaeography
and the transmission of classical texts.  There is as well an index
prepared by Gorman of over one thousand manuscripts cited in the essays
(pp. 165-178). 

This volume will be of great assistance to young scholars who are just
beginning to study manuscripts and need to get a sophisticated, yet
comprehensible, introduction to the nuts and bolts of the field.  For
scholars young and old who work on Carolingian culture, it will be
indispensable. It will continue Bischoff's life work of training scholars
to work with primary source materials in the Carolingian age.  We should be
grateful to Michael Gorman for his hard work and hard choices.  And we
should hope that Cambridge University Press will repay our gratitude by
publishing the book in a paper edition at a price that makes it possible to
order it for graduate seminars.