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This study presents detailed information on the book production per century and on the uses of medieval manuscripts in eleven areas of the Latin West. Based on a sample from an extensive library and on additional information the numbers of manuscripts surviving from the period 500 – 1500 have been assessed statistically. Other data have been used to quantify the loss rates of such books in the Latin West. Combining both sets of data allowed the estimation of the medieval production rates of manuscripts. Book production during the Middle Ages can be seen as a century-average indicator of local economic output. With a number of explanatory variables (monasteries, universities) the medieval book production in the Latin West can be adequately explained.
Price: $235.00
Pages: 572
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: Global Economic History Series
Publication Date:
19 November 2010
ISBN: 9789004175198
Format: Hardcover
"Astonishing results...[Buringh's] excellent glossary and use of verbal and pictorial illustrations instead of formulae are a model of clarity and transparency for the humanists whose jargon and theory may be impenetrable to counters and comparers like Buringh...This book deserves a wide audience." - Steven Epstein, in: Speculum, vol. 87, no. 1 (2012), pp. 188-190
"...ungeahnten perspektiven...es werden Entwicklungslinien sichtbar, die zwar notwendigerweise mit grobem Strich gezeichnet sind, aber dennoch Erkenntnisse zur Produktion mittelaltlicher Bücher vermitteln, die auf einem soliden statistischen Fundament zu ruhen scheinen." - Jurgen Geiss, in: IFB
"A monumental achievement...the creation and manipulation of the manuscript database allows Buringh to illustrate and explain a long-term change in one of the factors of the medieval economy that can be measured with some degree of certainty. The inventive and methodologically sound use of sampling and statistical analysis allows for clear patterns of change and development to emerge. It is to be hoped that this database will be built upon and that an expansion and refinement of the information it can produce will provide historians with further insights into this important reflector of cultural and economic development." - Steven Biddlecombe, in: Economic History Review, vol. 65, no. 1 (2012), pp. 377-378
"...ungeahnten perspektiven...es werden Entwicklungslinien sichtbar, die zwar notwendigerweise mit grobem Strich gezeichnet sind, aber dennoch Erkenntnisse zur Produktion mittelaltlicher Bücher vermitteln, die auf einem soliden statistischen Fundament zu ruhen scheinen." - Jurgen Geiss, in: IFB
"A monumental achievement...the creation and manipulation of the manuscript database allows Buringh to illustrate and explain a long-term change in one of the factors of the medieval economy that can be measured with some degree of certainty. The inventive and methodologically sound use of sampling and statistical analysis allows for clear patterns of change and development to emerge. It is to be hoped that this database will be built upon and that an expansion and refinement of the information it can produce will provide historians with further insights into this important reflector of cultural and economic development." - Steven Biddlecombe, in: Economic History Review, vol. 65, no. 1 (2012), pp. 377-378
Eltjo Buringh, Ph.D (1980, Wageningen University and 2009, Utrecht University) has worked in academia, industry and for the Dutch government, and now is a post-doc at the Research Group Economic History, Utrecht University. He published ten books in various fields.