Awareness of the outside world. Equine Ink: The Triple Crown’s Flower Garlands.
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Plot concept. Story built around a medieval manuscript. The settings would follow the book through different times and places. Could be done as narrative history about an IRL manuscript. Or use interesting examples from various books as best suits the storyline.
One plot possibility would be for the story to center on the book itself. The ideas it contains. The book as an object. Caring for the book. Inheriting the book. How the ideas within the book affect the world around it.
Or, the book could be the silent thread that joins the lives of the people and organizations that have possessed the book over time.
Monastery I. Creation of the book. Characters could be the parchment maker, the scribe, the illuminator, the abbot who oversaw the project. Start here because it gives the longest timeline.
Monastery II. One hundred years later, the manuscript is sent to another monastery to be copied.
Famous people write commentaries in the margins, which then become famous in their own right. Book continues to accumulate content.
Bookshop. Another hundred years later, manuscripts have moved out of the monasteries and are being commercially produced. Book is sent out to be copied, yet again. Characters could be the store owner, the apprentice, the wife of the store owner who is not literate but manages the personnel of the shop. I’ve heard important VPs who have not idea what the particular widget is, but they know how to sell and organize widget production and sales.
Wider world. If you want to go religio-political, the book gets caught in the breakup of monasteries. In modern times, book could be confiscated during WWII and then repatriated.
Palaces. Books are still expensive. Owners will be royalty and other rich folks.
Post-Gutenberg. That which is no longer necessary become art. Book is taken apart to be jazzed up. llustrations are added. Famous commentaries are appended. Luxury binding is put on. More royalty & rich people.
Etchings & print copies made of the book.
Auction House. Book is sold through an art auction house. Characters could be the appraiser. the auctioneer, the bidders, the buyer.
Fine art photography copies are made. Faksimile Verlag. As an example, The Saint John’s Bible exists as one manuscript book, an handful of fine art editions, in trade hardbacks & digitally.
Exhibition. Book is taken apart to be digitized. Is put on exhibit while in pieces, so people can see multiple parts. Opportunity for travel. “It was also exhibited in America at that time, when the separated leaves allowed many pages to be seen at once.” Meetings Chapter 4.
Museum. Some manuscripts are still in private hands, I assume. Many are in museums. Characters could be the curator, a grad student who is studying the book, a museum goer inspired by the book, or a museum goer dragged there by family/friends and bored to tears by the whole idea.
Alternate plot structure. The book is broken up and made in to separate books or the materials are used in the binding of other books. In either case, the segments of the book go their own ways, thereby creating multiple storylines.
I’d read this.
Afterword
Inspiration, two books by Christopher De Hamel, Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts: Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World (Penguin 2017) & The Manuscripts Club: The People Behind a Thousand Years of Medieval Manuscripts (Penguin 2023). Disclosure FWIW, have listened to the first one as an audio book. Have the print version for the illustrations. Have listened to the introduction and epilogue of the second, as the author does not read the body of this book. The text version is in my TBR pile.
This concept would work with anything that has been around for a while. A store. A building.
The nice feature about manuscripts, is that they were used, rather than sitting in dirt for a thousand years and then going directly into a museum. Granted, museums, libraries, and collector cabinets have now become the fate of manuscripts. Until then, many stage sets to hang a story on.
Once again, the post is fiction ideas rather than actual fiction. Still, crossrails before oxers.
Onwards!
Katherine
Virtual Brush Box 