I noticed in the logs of who has visited this site that one person found me by doing a Google search for “what was written in medieval manuscripts.” This is actually a good question: it’s the kind of obvious question that a lot of people never think to ask. So I’ll answer the question.
The short answer is: pretty much everything. After all, manuscripts were the only books they had in the Middle Ages. But of course, that’s oversimplifying things. So here’s a list of some of the types of texts that are commonly found in medieval manuscripts:
- Devotional Texts – These are some of the most common. By devotional texts, I mean psalms, prayers, instructional treatises, biographies of saints, and meditations. They would have been read by clergy and laypeople alike.
- Other Religious Texts – There were a lot more religious texts that were used more specifically by the clergy, such as collections of sermons, theological treatises, liturgy, explanations of Church doctrine, commentaries on religious texts, etc.
- Literature – This is a huge category, and includes prose, poetry, and plays in Latin and the vernacular languages. Some of the devotional and religious texts are also quite literary, especially the biographies of saints. Literature also would have included epics, and works by famous medieval authors like Dante and Chaucer.
- Law – It wasn’t until the late Middle Ages that clear law codes were written down (and even those were often more theoretical than real), but lawyers wrote a lot of treatises about law and the theory behind law. They also wrote down examples of legal proceedings that could serve as good precedents for future law cases.
- Philosophy and Scholastic Texts – Medieval philosophers were busy fellows, and they wrote a lot of treatises and commentaries. Everyone who went to school had to study Aristotle, so his texts were copied a lot.
- History – Manuscripts often contained historical texts: histories of the world, of a country, of a monastery or church, of a family – lots of historical texts were written. Some are simple little diary-entry type of documents that don’t really have a narrative, while others are well-constructed and well-researched narratives. Sometimes, legal documents would be included with histories, especially in monastic histories – they would include copies of all of the deeds of donations that were given to them, so that the growth of their estates was a part of their history.
- Records – Manuscripts often contain financial and legal records. The most famous example is the Domesday Book, which is a giant survey of all the land in England, what assets it has, and who owns it. But there are lots of smaller similar surveys: lords would keep regular records of their estates and what they produce. Legal cases were also often recorded in manuscripts. Guilds kept records of their activities in manuscripts.
That is a broad summary of the kinds of texts that can commonly be found in medieval manuscripts. It was very common for manuscripts to contain a wide variety of texts – they often didn’t put just religious texts or historical texts or financial records in different books, but mixed them all in a single book. I’m sure I have forgotten some kind of text here, but hopefully this gives a broad answer to the question.
