UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title “Pieces of Old Clothing or Even Viler Things”: The Utilization of Paper in Jewish and Christian Books in Medieval Italy and Iberia, a Quantitative Approach Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8pw186b0 Author Geller, Stephanie Publication Date 2019 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles “Pieces of Old Clothing or Even Viler Things”: The Utilization of Paper in Jewish and Christian Books in Medieval Italy and Iberia, a Quantitative Approach A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Library and Information Science by Stephanie Geller 2019 © Copyright by Stephanie Geller 2019 ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS ‘Pieces of Old Clothing or Even Viler Things’: the Utilization of Paper in Jewish and Christian Books in Medieval Italy and Iberia, a Quantitative Approach by Stephanie Geller Master of Library and Information Science University of California, Los Angeles, 2019 Professor Ellen Pearlstein, Chair Culture is often proposed as a determinant factor in the decision to use paper as a material support for medieval manuscripts. Specifically, scholars frequently assert that European Jews were more willing to adopt paper as a support than Christians. However, the scholarly field has yet to consider an exhaustive quantitative comparison to support this claim. This study utilizes a quantitative codicological method to infer whether paper usage was truly influenced by cultural factors in Medieval Italy and Iberia. In so doing, this paper also evaluates the extent to which quantitative research can be done using digital resources from cultural institutions with holdings relevant to the geographic and temporal areas of interest to this research. Finally, the data ii gathered is compared to two online databases of medieval manuscripts to extrapolate the accuracy of the results. iii The thesis of Stephanie Geller is approved. Johanna Drucker Miriam Posner Ellen Pearlstein, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2019 iv Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ vi Introduction ....................................................................................................................................1 Part I: Historical Background & Previous Research .................................................................6 Paper Arrives in Europe ................................................................................................................6 European Technical Innovations.................................................................................................12 Part II: Data Collection and Evaluation of Sources .................................................................19 Defining a sample .......................................................................................................................21 Evaluation of Institutions ............................................................................................................24 Traditional Cataloging and Metadata Standards .........................................................................28 Institutions with Accessible Data Jewish Theological Seminary ...............................................................................................30 Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.............................................................................................31 British Library .......................................................................................................................32 Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico.................................................................34 Findings and Analysis .................................................................................................................34 Part III: Comparison with Other Databases .............................................................................38 Other Databases Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts ......................................................................................39 SfarData ...................................................................................................................................41 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................44 Appendix A: Glossary of Papermaking Terms .........................................................................50 Appendix B: Tables and Figures ................................................................................................52 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................62 v Acknowledgements First and foremost, I must express my deepest gratitude to my committee for their support and advice. Professor Ellen Pearlstein and Professor Johanna Drucker, in particular, shared with me a seemingly endless well of encouragement and advice. Without their astute and considerate feedback on my research and writing throughout this process, this paper would still be an unrealized spark of curiosity. I originally applied to this program because of Professor Ellen Pearlstein and her impact in bridging the Department of Information Studies and the Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials program. It was in her conservation courses that I was first introduced to the physical aspects of books and their materials, which sparked the interest that lead to this topic. I am still awed by my good fortune in studying under Professor Johanna Drucker. The carefully weighed consideration with which she approaches every subject has been inspiring and adds substance to the support she gives to her students. Much of my success is owed to her encouragement in the pursuit of this topic and every area of research I have broached under her guidance. I must also thank the British Library for providing free data services to researchers. Without that service, this research would not have been possible. Lastly, I would also like to express my gratitude to my peers that supported me over these past two years. Their comradery has kept me sane. I would especially like to thank Yoonha Hwang, who has graciously read over much of this work. Without her attentive review, this paper would be unintelligible. vi Introduction Pick up any book that addresses the shift from parchment to paper as a material support, be it a history of paper or a chapter on medieval manuscripts in an anthology about the history of the book, and there is a good chance the author mentions culture being a major influence in the decision to either use or reject paper. The slow and late adoption of paper is usually attributed to the association of paper with the Muslim world and Islam. Some authors continue in this reasoning and state that Medieval Jews, unlike their Christian counterparts, adopted the material more readily. Ronald Deibert, for example, states that “Resistance was probably due to a combination of its relative fragility, craftsmen’s inertia, and religious bigotry. The Abbot of Cluny, Peter the Venerable was probably not alone in having a contempt for paper because of its association with the ‘infidel’ Jews and Arabs.”1 The Abbot of Cluny’s quintessential quote that Spanish Jews wrote their religious texts on material made from “pieces of old clothing or even viler things” appears in many works on this subject, though it is rarely accompanied by any other evidence supporting the claim that culture was a motivating factor in the choice of material support.2 Fortunately, the past half-century has seen a drastic increase in the number of Western Islamicists and Hebraists interested in Medieval Iberian history and, though to a lesser extent, the history of paper in that region. This influx of linguistic and cultural specialists has produced significant discoveries in documentary and archaeological evidence. Recent discussions have shifted focus to concerns over impermanence as the primary factor deterring the use of paper. 1 Ronald Deibert, “From the Parchment Codex to the Printing Press: The Sacred Word and the Rise and Fall of Medieval Theocracy,” in Parchment, Printing, and Hypermedia : Communication in World Order Transformation (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), 63. 2 Oriol Valls i Subirà, The History of Paper in Spain (Madrid: Empresa Nacional de Celulosas, 1978), 100. 1 Despite this, the idea that cultural xenophobia, specifically against Jews and Muslims, was the primary or at least an important barrier to its adoption remains present even in contemporary discussions of the subject. There remains also a paralleling of Jewish and Muslim Iberians, despite the fact that, starting in the eleventh century with the massacre of the Jewish population in Granada, Jews enjoyed a much less privileged status in Muslim Iberia than they had previously.3 The next two centuries were a time of increasing religious intolerance in Muslim Iberia because of the increased conquests, riots, and shift in power from the relatively liberal Caliphate of Cordoba to the more conservative Almoravids