A common myth about the Middle Ages is that only Christian religious texts were read in monasteries – especially the bible, the legends of saints and the books of the Church Fathers. This learning scenario will help to correct this wrong idea by confronting the students with several outstanding medieval manuscripts.

This learning scenario draws upon a book inventory from the 11th century Corbie monastery (SBB, Ms. Phill. 1865). A small number of the manuscripts previously kept in Corbie have been made available to students as digital facsimiles via Europeana. The aim of this teaching activity is not to read the Latin texts from the manuscripts, but to gain an insight into medieval monastic reading culture: What was read in a medieval monastery? What kind of knowledge was available?

The book inventory from Corbie and items featured in the Europeana Gallery demonstrate the variety of other texts besides the many codices with Christian texts (such as the Bible, books of the Church Fathers, etc.). This learning activity will highlight the importance of ancient and late antique authors for medieval monastic reading culture. In addition, the students will recognize that a lot of information about CHOs can be generated with new digital tools.

The focus of this learning scenario is on gathering information about ancient authors and their works that can be found on 11th century book inventory from Corbie Abbey.

This learning activity has two aims: first, to learn about the presence of ancient (and late antique) texts in medieval monasteries. Second, but even more important, is to learn how to use a variety of online resources on ancient authors and texts.

Students who have little or no knowledge of Latin may feel uncomfortable with ancient (and medieval) texts written in Latin, and may consider their knowledge insufficient to use such Latin texts as a learning tool. However, with increased digitization of manuscripts and the large amount of information now accessible online (such as metadata of digitized manuscripts and annotated guides to medieval texts) students have the opportunity to explore Latin classics without the requirement to read Latin.

Using the book inventory from 11th century Corbie Abbey, your students will actively search out appropriate online resources of information and critically reflect on the suitability of these resources for academic research. Your students will work together in teams and collect information from different sources about ancient authors listed in the Corbie Abbey inventory. Importantly, students will reflect: What are the different sources of information? What can these resources be used for? Which resources are best used and cited in academic work?

This learning scenario can be used as the continuation of ARMA (Postsecondary) Learning Scenario 1: Book inventories (and what they tell us about reading in monasteries): The 11th-century book inventory of Corbie. But you can also teach it separately, depending on your students’ prior knowledge and skills.

Combining Digital Humanities, Art History, historical Anthropology and Codicology, this lesson plan introduces post-secondary students to medieval manuscript production, trade and reading culture in the Middle Ages, emphasizing the human processes involved in the manufacturing, selling and use of these artefacts as well as how their purpose (be it monastic, courtly, or urban) determined their material and visual qualities. Students will learn to navigate available digitized manuscript platforms to gain access to these books and consult them in detail. The aim of this activity is to explore medieval manuscripts throughout the Middle Ages, understand their physical qualities, their commercial and symbolic value and how the physical appearance of the manuscript responded to the times, to its readers as well as to its purpose.

*If used in conjunction with Learning Scenario Part 4 (Book Trade in the Early to Late Middle Ages: Manufacturing the Printed Book) students will be able to compare and contrast what they have learned in Part 1 with the trade, manufacture and use of the first printed books (incunabula) and realize that these two methods of book fabrication were not mutually exclusive and that, on the contrary, they influenced each other for decades after the invention of the printing press.

This lesson plan introduces post-secondary students to the medieval printed book trade in the late Middle Ages, focusing on the editing and manufacturing process, the book market, as well as how the physical appearance of the page evolved over time. Students will learn to navigate available digitized collections (such as Europeana and Gallica) to gain access to these books and consult them in detail. The aim of this activity is to come into contact with the first printed books (incunabula) up until the year 1500 and beyond, in order to understand their physical qualities, their commercial value and the ways in which they imitated the appearance of the medieval manuscript and evolved with the trade, developing into the modern book.

*If used in conjunction with Learning Scenario 3 (Book Trade in High to Late Middle Ages: Manufacturing the Manuscript) students will be able to further compare and contrast what they have learned in each part and realize that these two methods of book fabrication were not mutually exclusive and that, on the contrary, they coexisted for decades after the invention of the printing press.