Conclusion

The binding of the Late Medieval Miscellany MSS 01020 is looser at the bottom than at the top—the book itself holds the echoes of all the people who have held it in their hand. This tiny miscellany, and the others described in this project and the many more held in museums and libraries around the world, act as a bridge connecting us to readers and writers going back six hundred years.

Miscellanies, through their physical construction and through their contents, give insight into the values and goals of their medieval owners. The opulent collection of humanist philosophy of the Opuscula Humanistica MS 315 suggests a wealthy owner who was deeply passionate about philosophy; this is supported by the knowledge we have of Sir William Gray who commissioned the manuscript. Though the early owners of MSS 01020 are unknown, its small scale and texts useful for someone who would be writing suggest a middle-class owner who was concerned with practicality. Miscellanies let you see a library—how texts were collected and considered in context with each other. And thanks to the collections held in these volumes, we can see into the libraries of medieval people.

The manuscripts described in this project are all available digitally online. You can explore them yourself and, like their medieval owners centuries ago, hold a library in the palm of your hand.