The Culture Of Manuscripts

I never realized the degree of importance of manuscripts and the degree of widespread popularity manuscript culture had, particularly in seventeenth century England. Or maybe I simply didn't give it much thought. In a very enlightening talk, one way Peter Beal described manuscript culture of the time as possessing an "army of scribes and scriveners". It provided employment to many and in addition to being a part of everyday life it involved the networking of those involved in theatre from owners, to managers, to actors, to playwrights, and more. Manuscript studies are vital in understanding theatre history, however, they are not limited to the culture of the theatre nor just the seventeenth century, although that seems to be the time it gained much popularity. In addition to Elizabethan times, manuscripts were a big part of the Jacobean as well as the Caroline periods.

Manuscripts encompassed speeches, letters, deeds, receipts, contracts, translations, prayers, and literary works of all sorts. Studying them provides tangible evidence and substantial proof for documenting history in general. They provide a first hand account of everyday life by providing insight to such things as mannerisms of people at court, to how much suffering the plague brought forth, to documents that may have changed the course of history.

Now that I think about it, particularly from a literary point of view, what better way to get into an author's head and fully comprehend the train of though he or she might had followed in composing their texts than by exposing oneself to their primary work, particularly their manuscripts. Advances in technology have made it possible to be able to view manuscripts through digital mediums since viewing the original is not a commonly feasible option. The aesthetics of feeling, seeing, and even smelling the original manuscript might be taken out of the experience, but at least a copy of the manuscripts can still be studied just as deeply.