ZOOM - Sara Charles on The Medieval Scriptorium – Making Books in the Middle Ages

November Midday Program

Have you stretched an animal skin lately? Prepared its surface to accept ink? Collected oak galls to make ink? Scribed? Added rubrics and colored initials? How about applied gesso and then adhered gold to it? Painstakingly painted on vellum?

Our guest Sara Charles has. To paraphrase the movie Pulp Fiction, she will go Medieval on us.

But worry not. Her talents are all for good – particularly as they inform her wonderful book, The Medieval Scriptorium (Reaktion Books, Ltd., 2024). In it she brings to life the grueling, creative, smelly, artistic, earwax-laden, glittering, backbreaking, world of creating books fully by hand.

This talented book historian will be joining us from the University of London, where she is co-editor of Historical Research and Journals Manager for University of London Press. She has appeared at Canterbury Cathedral in the documentary series History Hit, presents fascinating how-to videos on YouTube, shares content on teachingmanuscripts.com and continues to create illuminated manuscripts that are breathtakingly beautiful.

Great news! You won’t have to find and sharpen a quill, dip it ink you’ve made yourself, and copy dense text in order to register. You can sit in your comfy chair, login, and register online. No squinting required.