Book of Hours in the Form of a Roll (Egerton 3044), Bruges Scribe Johannes de Ecclesia, and the Art of Writing

Johannes de Ecclesia was a prominent medieval-era scribe known to have worked for a largely Catalan-speaking clientele in late fourteenth century Bruges.

This short-form book highlights the extent of de Ecclesia’s little-acknowledged influence on the scribal practice of Late Medieval Europe; an in-depth exploration of the scribe’s art, it undertakes a considered analysis of two of his major surviving works, as well as a third manuscript he may have authored. Interrogating de Ecclesia’s under-studied role in the aesthetic development of the prayer book genre during the late fourteenth century and beyond, this book submits evidence for the emergence of bilingual text, a variety of unusual letterforms, and ornamental textual features as product of de Ecclesia’s possible exposure to a wide range of courtly and ecclesiastical texts in as diverse locations as Avignon, Paris, and England.

Distinctive for its innovative investigation of digital photography and reader participation as means to construct new ways of imaging manuscripts, A Book of Hours in the Form of a Roll (Egerton 3044) is a pioneering contribution to medieval scholarship from Professor Kathryn M. Rudy, historian at the University of St. Andrews and a leading authority in medieval manuscripts.

This book will be of great value to palaeographers, as well as specialists in medieval texts and illuminated manuscripts, and to the general reader with an interest in codicology, book history, literary and calligraphic studies, and the history of religion.