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NEW
dir e c t ions
IN BOOK
history

Reading Books
and Prints as
Cultural Objects

Edited by
EVANGHELIA STEAD
New Directions in Book History

Series editors
Shafquat Towheed
Faculty of Arts
Open University
Milton Keynes, UK

Jonathan Rose
Department of History
Drew University
Madison, USA
As a vital field of scholarship, book history has now reached a stage of
maturity where its early work can be reassessed and built upon. That
is the goal of New Directions in Book History. This series will publish
monographs in English that employ advanced methods and open up new
frontiers in research, written by younger, mid-career, and senior scholars.
Its scope is global, extending to the Western and non-Western worlds
and to all historical periods from antiquity to the 21st century, includ-
ing studies of script, print, and post-print cultures. New Directions
in Book History, then, will be broadly inclusive but always in the van-
guard. It will experiment with inventive methodologies, explore unex-
plored archives, debate overlooked issues, challenge prevailing theories,
study neglected subjects, and demonstrate the relevance of book history
to other academic fields. Every title in this series will address the evolu-
tion of the historiography of the book, and every one will point to new
directions in book scholarship. New Directions in Book History will be
published in three formats: single-author monographs; edited collec-
tions of essays in single or multiple volumes; and shorter works produced
through Palgrave’s e-book (EPUB2) ‘Pivot’ stream. Book proposals
should emphasize the innovative aspects of the work, and should be sent
to either of the two series editors.

Editorial board:
Marcia Abreu, University of Campinas, Brazil
Cynthia Brokaw, Brown University, USA
Matt Cohen, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Archie Dick, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Martyn Lyons, University of New South Wales, Australia

More information about this series at

http://www.springer.com/series/14749
 Evanghelia Stead
Editor

Reading
Books and Prints
as Cultural Objects
Editor
Evanghelia Stead
Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin, Guyancourt, France
& Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France

New Directions in Book History

ISBN 978-3-319-53831-0 ISBN 978-3-319-53832-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53832-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017939084

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover credit: Claudio Parmiggiani, Campo dei fiori [Field of Flowers] and Delocazione
[Displacement], San Giorgio in Poggiale, Bologna; from the collections of Fondazione
Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna, Biblioteca d’Arte e di Storia di San Giorgio in Poggiale,
Genus Bononiae - Musei nella Città

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Contents

1 Introduction 1
Evanghelia Stead

Part I Manuscripts as Cultural Objects

2 From Devotional Aids to Antiquarian Objects: The

Prayer Books of Medingen 33
Henrike Lähnemann

3 How to Read the “Andachtsbüchlein aus der Sammlung

Bouhier” (Montpellier, BU Médecine, H 396)? On
Cultural Techniques Related to a Fourteenth-Century
Devotional Manuscript 57
Henrike Manuwald

4 “Otium et Negotium”: Reading Processes in Early Italian

and German Humanism 81
Michael Stolz

v
vi Contents

Part II Prints in Europe

5 The Fluidity of Images or the Compression of Media

Diversity in Books: Galeriewerke and Histoires Métalliques 109
Christina Posselt-Kuhli

6 Change of Use, Change of Public, Change of Meaning:

Printed Images Travelling Through Europe 137
Alberto Milano (†)

Part III Printed Books: Media, Objects, Uses

7 The Promotion of the Heroic Woman in Victorian and

Edwardian Gift Books 159
Barbara Korte

8 Pinocchio: An Adventure Illustrated Over More Than a

Century (1883–2005) 179
Giorgio Bacci

9 Illustration and the Book as Cultural Object: Arthur

Schnitzler’s Works in German and English Editions 209
Norbert Bachleitner

10 Two Peas in a Pod: Book Sales Clubs and Book

Ownership in the Twentieth Century 231
Corinna Norrick-Rühl

Part IV Epilogue

11 E-Readers and Polytextual Critique: On Some Emerging

Material Conditions in the Early Age of Digital Reading 253
Stephan Packard

Index 279
 Contributors

Giorgio Bacci Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy

Norbert Bachleitner Vienna University, Vienna, Austria

Barbara Korte University of Freiburg, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Germany

Henrike Lähnemann Oxford University, Oxford, UK

Henrike Manuwald Georg August University, Göttingen, Germany

Alberto Milano (†) Museo Per Via, Pieve Tesino‚ Provincia di Trento, Italy

Corinna Norrick-Rühl Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany

Stephan Packard Universität zu Köln, Köln, Germany

Christina Posselt-Kuhli Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Evanghelia Stead Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin, Guyancourt,

France & Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France

Michael Stolz University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

vii
 List of Figures and Tables

Fig. 1.1 Claudio Parmiggiani, Campo dei Fiori (Field of Flowers)

and Delocazione (Displacement) 3
Fig. 2.1 Intensity map of the distribution of the Medingen
manuscripts in 1542 (ringed) and in 2017 50
Fig. 3.1 Montpellier, Bibliothèque Universitaire de Médecine,
H 396, fol. 29r: Saint Calendar (1–14 January) 60
Fig. 3.2 Montpellier, Bibliothèque Universitaire de Médecine,
H 396, fol. 45v/46r: Flagellation and Crowning with Thorns 62
Fig. 3.3 Montpellier, Bibliothèque Universitaire de Médecine,
H 396, fol. 19r: Jesus and the Canaanite Woman 63
Fig. 3.4 Montpellier, Bibliothèque Universitaire de Médecine,
H 396, fol. 6r: Ask, Seek, Knock 67
Fig. 4.1 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 504, fol. 59v:
codex owned by the German humanists Hermann
and Hartmann Schedel 88
Fig. 4.2 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 3941, fol. 13r:
codex from Gossembrot’s library, with two-column
register on the “inventors of the arts” 89
Fig. 4.3 a Augsburg, Staats- und Stadtbibliothek, 2° Cod. 217,
fol. 175v: codex from Gossembrot’s library, references
on Sibylline Oracles also pointing to Boccaccio’s book
on Famous Men. b Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August
Bibliothek, 36.19 Aug. 2°, fol. 188v: codex newly
attributed to Gossembrot’s library, detail with numerous
cross-references 91
Fig. 5.1 Theatrum Pictorium, 1660, frontispiece 112

ix
x List of Figures and Tables

Fig. 5.2 Nicolas de Pigage, La Galerie Électorale de Dusseldorff ou

catalogue raisonné et figuré de ses tableaux, 1778, mural
display 115
Fig. 5.3 Nicolas de Pigage, La Galerie Électorale de Dusseldorff ou
catalogue raisonné et figuré de ses tableaux, 1778, title-page
engraving drawn by Nicolas Guibal 116
Fig. 5.4 Thesaurus Brandenburgicus, 1696, frontispiece, vol. I 119
Fig. 5.5 Thesaurus Brandenburgicus, c. 1696, frontispiece, vol. II 120
Fig. 5.6 Thesaurus Brandenburgicus, 1701, frontispiece, vol. III 121
Fig. 5.7 Romeyn de Hooghes, title-page engraving for Nicolas
Chevalier, Histoire Guillaume III par Medailles, Inscriptions,
Arc de Triomphe, & autres monumens Publics,
Amsterdam 1692 124
Fig. 6.1 Ventola engraving, after Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s
La Grasse Cuisine and La Maigre Cuisine, published
by Luca Bertelli, Venice 140
Fig. 6.2 La Grasse Cuisine, second edition, reversed engraving
after Pieter van der Heyden (after Pieter Brueghel the Elder)
by Hieronymus Cock 141
Fig. 6.3 Francesco Villamena, Il Bruttobuono, engraving, Rome, 1601 144
Fig. 6.4 Crédit est mort, engraving, anonymous copy
of Il Bruttobuono by Francesco Villamena, Lyon,
last quarter of the seventeenth century 145
Fig. 6.5 Francesco Villamena, Geminiano caldarrostaro, copy
by Charles David, published by Pierre Firens, Paris,
1620–1630 146
Fig. 6.6 Portrait de M.r Ramponeau [sic] cabartier [sic] de la
basse Courtille en bonet [sic] de nuit, etching
and chisel engraving, published by Charpentier,
Paris, March 1760 147
Fig. 6.7 The Surpreising Bett Decided, etching, published
by Carington Bowles, London, c. 1751 149
Fig. 7.1 Frank Mundell, Heroines of Daily Life. London:
The Sunday School Union, 1886 168
Fig. 7.2 Alfred H. Miles (compiler), A Book of Brave Girls at
Home and Abroad: True Stories of Courage and Heroism
Shown in Modern Life by Women and Girls. London:
Stanley Paul, (1909) 172
Fig. 8.1 Enrico Mazzanti, frontispiece for Carlo Collodi’s
Le Avventure di Pinocchio. Storia di un Burattino, 1883 181
Fig. 8.2 Carlo Chiostri, drawing illustration for Carlo Collodi’s
Le Avventure di Pinocchio. Storia di un Burattino, 1901 184
 List of Figures and Tables xi

Fig. 8.3 Attilio Mussino, original drawing for Carlo Collodi’s

Le Avventure di Pinocchio. Storia di un Burattino, 1911 187
Fig. 8.4 Piero Bernardini, blue cover with Pinocchio silhouette
for Carlo Collodi’s Le Avventure di Pinocchio. Storia di
un Burattino, 1942 192
Fig. 8.5 Lorenzo Mattotti, full-page plate, Pinocchio’s meeting
with the Cat and the Fox. In Carlo Collodi, Le Avventure
di Pinocchio. Storia di un Burattino, 2008 196
Fig. 8.6 Mimmo Paladino, serigraphy for the Cat and the Fox,
In Carlo Collodi, Pinocchio. Le Avventure di Pinocchio, 2004 198

Table 9.1 Diagram of the narrator’s and the illustrator’s perspectives

in Schnitzler’s Lieutenant Gustl 216
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Evanghelia Stead

Cultural Stories and Libraries

In central Bologna, the deconsecrated church of San Giorgio in Poggiale
provides a long and eventful chronicle. Its many features also nourish a
fascinating cultural allegory.
First recorded in writing in 1237, the church was founded in much
older times, and is most probably of Longobard origin. The edifice,
rebuilt in late Mannerist style under the mendicant order of the Servite
friars between 1589 and 1633, is still preserved today. A monastery,
added between 1641 and 1642, met with the fate of many other reli-
gious institutions in the Napoleonic wars, along with the church: it was
suppressed, never to retrieve its sacred vocation either under private
or public ownership. The church was, however, reconsecrated several
times over the course of the nineteenth century. It re-opened inter-
mittently, from 1824 to 1842, under the Franciscan order of the Frati
Minori Conventuali (the Minorites or Greyfriars), and again after 1882
under the Jesuits. The coup de grâce came with the Second World War.

E. Stead (*)
Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin, Guyancourt, France
e-mail: evanghelia.stead@uvsq.fr
E. Stead
Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France

© The Author(s) 2018 1

E. Stead (ed.), Reading Books and Prints as
Cultural Objects, New Directions in Book History,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53832-7_1
2 E. Stead

On 25 September 1943 it was heavily bombed and many of the splen-

did artworks it housed were either lost or destroyed. Desecrated, and
even effaced from Bologna’s cultural memory, it faced demolition, but in
recent years it has undergone two restorations, before finally reopening
as a library in 2009.1
Currently installed in the San Giorgio sanctuary, two artworks by the
contemporary unclassifiable Italian artist Claudio Parmiggiani (1943–)
mirror this turbulent storyline. The first is a delocazione (“displace-
ment”), the name Parmiggiani bestows on the traces of dust, soot, and
smoke left by books or objects on the walls of memorable places.2 In
San Giorgio’s semi-circular apse, shadowy outlines of books and shelves
form three insubstantial bookcases looming from between slim Ionian
pilasters. They were torched, imprinted with fire, and only the trace of
their presence remains on the walls, impeccably restored and finished in
2010. Resembling oversized silver-based photographs, or silver-plated
daguerreotypes, they form Parmiggiani’s first permanently visible dis-
placement—former installations having never survived beyond their
temporary exhibition. This ethereal, white-and-grey “fresco” serves
as a backdrop to the second artwork, a portentous installation, now
standing on the site of the vanished altar. A bell weighs down upon a
squat, square bed of charred books. Christened Campo dei fiori (Field
of Flowers), the monumental tribute alludes, among other things, to the
death of Giordano Bruno, who was burnt at the stake.3
The ghostly “bookcases” and the hefty sculpture, materialized in
space as vast metaphors in subtle dialogue with each other and with us,
commemorate the bombing and gutting of the church, the silencing of
the bell, all the while affirming their presence and renewed existence. In
their contrast and tension, they remind us that books are as much solid
bricks as they are symbolic voices and evocative spirits. In this volume,
we look at them as objects, as media, as metaphors, and as symbols. By
transferring ideas and structuring worlds through their rich materiality,
they are seminal agents in the construction and reconstruction of cul-
ture. Just as the inside of San Giorgio was obliterated but today accom-
modates a library, the original shapes and forms of books may survive
and undergo many transformations (Fig. 1.1).
Parmiggiani’s artworks not only reflect upon time, wreckage, and change,
they also invoke the mutability of books, both conceptually and materially.
As a twinned gesture in a desecrated space, they evoke a rich cultural story
of traceable deposits that bind the works of art to the refurbished space
 1 INTRODUCTION 3

Fig. 1.1 Claudio Parmiggiani, Campo dei Fiori (Field of Flowers) and
Delocazione (Displacement), courtesy of the artist. Collections Fondazione Cassa
di Risparmio in Bologna, Biblioteca d’Arte e di Storia di San Giorgio in Poggiale,
Genus Bononiae—Musei nella Città
4 E. Stead

and to its books and prints suggesting novel uses and virtual potential. San
Giorgio in Poggiale today houses: Bologna’s Art and History Library, total-
ling 100,000 volumes from the 1500s to modern times; a periodical and
newspaper collection from the eighteenth century to the present; and a
photographic archive of some 60,000 prints pertaining to Bologna before
it underwent major urban change. Access from the street is through a cir-
cular wooden drum that was conceived by the architect Michele De Lucchi
(1951–) as a tower of books to exclude the city’s noise. The material and
spiritual life cycle of a printed book from production to destruction is
here complete: from paper, traditionally derived from lumber and rags, to
volumes kindled, then conceptualized. The whole building reads as a vast
metaphor, or, as Garrett Stewart would have it, a remarkable “bookwork”
(Stewart 2011). Yet these volumes are no longer orphaned codex forms
violently hijacked from their normal use, as in most of the cases studied by
Stewart. In San Giorgio, materially wrecked objects and their conceptual
reinterpretation have been relocated within a modern library’s collections.
Yet, San Giorgio is more than just an empty, echoing, cultural cell
turned operational library. The lateral walls of the ex-church shelter
a cycle of altar-like paintings by Piero Pizzi Cannella (1955–) baptised
Cathedrals, alluding to other landmarks, either imaginary cities or real
places. The library hosts conferences, talks, and cultural events, and is
today one of Bologna’s important cultural venues. As such, it is part of
the Genus Bononiae virtual network of urban museography, Bologna’s
streets serving as hallways, and its historical edifices working as exhibition
spaces with exhibits, all of which attest to the city’s contribution to the
arts and sciences.4
From a rugged past there emerges a multi-layered identity and his-
tory. Both the San Giorgio library and Parmiggiani’s material and con-
ceptual artworks address factual, physical, and symbolic representations of
cultural objects. They feature as strong emblems the way this collective
volume engages with books and prints as objects, media and metaphors.
Hence the referential analogy, by way of introduction, to the recurrent
phenomena this book investigates.
We set out to retrace here, across books and prints, cultural stories
analysed in context and retold. The extreme, the growing value, even the
perishable quality of cultural objects, all register and reflect the passage
of time, the rise and fall of trends, the changes in purpose, the shifting
functions. As tangible and symbolic embodiments of culture, books and
prints both mean and matter. They point to many uses, whether factual,
 1 INTRODUCTION 5

intellectual, or imaginary. Our particular interest is in addressing their

past value and current heritage, textual, visual and object-specific, from
the fall of the Roman Empire to Amazon’s e-reader hardware.
The parable of San Giorgio in Poggiale, rife with intellectual and
mythical reconstruction, takes us back to the practices of convent scrip-
toria, brings us through the deposits of a remembered past, the many
layers of present physical printed matter, to suggest finally translation
into digital media through the Genus Bononiae network. Similarly, this
book starts with medieval manuscripts, then turns to prints, investigates
meanings and uses of printed matter, and closes with e-readership and
digital books.
As a cornerstone of European culture, Bologna symbolizes the birth
and building of universities in the Western world. Over the last 18 years,
the “Bologna process”, adopted in 1999 by 29 countries with the aim
of creating a European Higher Education Area, has brought students,
academics, and educational systems into durable contact. It has fostered
multi-disciplinary, life-long, and linguistic education through the pro-
motion of circulation and exchange across Europe, thanks to informa-
tion technologies and despite a dismissal as “Humboldt’s nightmare”.5
Likewise, events prior to this book brought together scholars from 6
European countries (Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, the United
Kingdom, and Austria), cutting across specialities and fields of interest:
medievalists encountered sixteenth-century experts, baroque connois-
seurs and modernists; literary historians rubbed elbows with profession-
als of book and media studies; academics mingled with a collector (since
sadly departed); literature scholars engaged with art historians; and all in
answer to the preoccupations of cultural history. Research institutes for
advanced studies provide such platforms as are necessary for interdisci-
plinary encounters, and the venture resulting in this publication origi-
nated as a conference held at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies
(FRIAS) at Freiburg-im-Breisgau in July 2015.
Within this book’s wide, interdisciplinary perspective, we adopt no
conventional divisions of language, country-specific practices or print cat-
egories (collectable fine art versus the cheap and popular, for example).
The editor is of course aware that the selection of chapters proposed here
is mainly European-focussed with a few extensions reaching across the
Atlantic to the USA in the West, and stretching in one case to Russia in the
East. This, however, stems from the participants’ subject matter, not from
6 E. Stead

oversight. Many outstanding studies have opened new ways of investigat-

ing cultural history outside Europe and across the globe. Several Panizzi
lectures have considered manuscripts and prints worldwide, from com-
paring Hebrew manuscripts between East and West (Beit-Arié 1993) to
Arabic learning introduced into England (Burnett 1997), one turning to
books in medieval China (Dudbridge 2000). To mention but two scholarly
inquiries, Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann’s Toward a Geography of Art (2004)
has straddled the geographical dimension of art history in Europe, Latin
America, and Asia during the early modern period, opening methodo-
logical vistas not only in art history but also in cultural geography. Equally
stemming from geography, Sean Roberts’s Printing in a Mediterranean
World: Florence, Constantinople, and the Renaissance of Geography (2013)
shows how political and intellectual culture renegotiated the heritage of
classical antiquity when manuscripts turned into printed books, copper-
plate engraving emerged, and remarkable tailored copies travelled from
Quattrocento Florence under Lorenzo de’ Medici to Bayezid II’s court
in Constantinople. Although Roberts does not refer primarily to Ottoman
sources, he revisits relations between early modern Italy and the Ottoman
state in their respective views of the world. And I would have been keen to
add to the present volume a chapter on the travels of The Arabian Nights
around the globe across manuscripts as well as printed and illustrated mat-
ter—a fascinating topic that is only just being investigated.6
However, although grounded in Europe, this volume’s interest and
scope lies beyond its specific subject matter in the way it can be relevant
to future research both inside and outside Europe. Many of its particular
chapters could be case studies to be continued, carried over, or renewed
in other parts of the world, as they build not only on new research mate-
rial, but, more importantly, on an interdisciplinary methodological
stance, each author enhancing his or her home discipline with a broader
approach.
Several moments chart threshold periods: the late Middle Ages, early
humanism, early precursors of art publications, illustrated books from
the industrial age, book consumerism in the twentieth century, contem-
porary e-reading. Just as Parmiggiani’s works of art are both material and
conceptual, our aim for this book is to conceptualize how “the mate-
rial culture of ideas” (Sharpe 2000, 39) relates to reading; how physical
books and prints reveal tendencies and developments, past and present,
 1 INTRODUCTION 7

while disclosing their changing significance over time. To what extent do

form and content, message and medium, respond to material, concep-
tual, symbolic and imaginary use? How do they point to specific cultural
narratives or tales?

The Drill of Discipline

Our wide-angle approach encompasses a field rich in accomplish-
ments, rife with debate. From the 1980s, intense disciplinary discus-
sions have sought the best path towards writing “the history of books”
(Darnton 1982)—a translation of the French term histoire du livre, not
always engaging to anglophone ears.7 There are three major compet-
ing disciplines in this arena: History (privileging cultural transactions),
Bibliography (focussing on material artefacts), and Literary Studies
(prioritizing literary texts). Robert Darnton’s “communications circuit
of the book”, epitomizing the transactions between author, publisher,
shippers and agents, booksellers and readers, is a well-known attempt to
formalize the field and prevent the disciplines from “running riot”. The
role of reading however, was wanting in this model, as Darnton himself
acknowledged: “reading remains the most difficult stage to study in the
circuit that books follow” (Darnton 1982, 16). Several innovative con-
tributions have since made reading studies a leading area in contem-
porary research, from Roger Chartier’s work constructed around four
constants—authors, texts, books, and readers8— to Martyn Lyons’s A
History of Reading and Writing in the Western World (2010), Palgrave
Macmillan’s series on The History of Reading (2011), and an identical
title in the “Routledge Literature Readers” series (Towheed et al. 2011).
Eleven years after Darnton’s influential essay, analytical bibliogra-
phy made its own claim to recognition. Thomas R. Adams and Nicolas
Barker promoted an alternative model of circulation, arguing compel-
lingly that the life of a book does not begin with writing any more than
it ends with reading. Significantly, their book cycle begins with publi-
cation and goes on to reception and survival, but does not end there.
It is graphically set at the very heart of “the whole socio-economic
conjuncture”, seen as four spheres exerting radial pressure on the core
life cycle of the book. The spheres correspond to: (a) intellectual influ-
ences; (b) political, legal, and religious influences; (c) commercial pres-
sures; and (d) social behaviour and taste. This counter-model, aiming to
capture the total significance of books, mainly privileges print culture,
8 E. Stead

“something printed or written in multiple copies”, produced “for

­public consumption” (Adams and Barker 1993, 51). In other words, it
excludes manuscripts, be they medieval copyists’ productions or unique
­unpublished scripts, and was conceived in the pre-digital era. Akin to
Darnton’s graph, it schematizes affairs and relationships diagrammati-
cally. And models, though necessary to visualize, formalize, and rep-
resent theories, “have a way of freezing human beings out of history”
(Darnton 1982, 11).
Peter D. McDonald would in turn emphasize human interactions
in 1997 with his British Literary Culture and Publishing Practice,
1880–1914, as Leslie Howsam notes (Howsam 2006, 38f). By applying
Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural theory of the literary field to book history,
McDonald provides the cyclical actions with relationships and structures.
Writers, critics, publishers, printers, distributors, and readers endow
Darnton’s circuit with genuine life; texts are not only meanings and ideas
to be interpreted, but “radically situated, for Bourdieu, as material forms
with a specific status in the [literary] field” (McDonald 1997, 13, quoted
by Howsam 2006, 38). Transitory commercial, cultural, and intellectual
situations take on a new significance.
Mapping the field, discussing its methodological principles, and iden-
tifying key notions, these useful contributions also reveal the difficulty
in providing a full portrayal of books and prints as cultural objects, and
in rendering their roles or agency. While the historian’s and the bibli-
ographer’s grids capture crucial aspects of the book industry and tech-
nology, they are based either on the book as product, commodity, or
artefact (Darnton), or on the book as object of inquiry, in an attempt
to have Bibliography recognized as a sovereign academic discipline
(Adams and Barker). The question of what books may achieve as cul-
tural agents is not tackled. Leslie Howsam has importantly observed that,
firstly, Darnton’s focus is on the book trade; his main interest lies in the
book’s material production and distribution and he means to explore the
history of communication, not develop a history of culture (Howsam
2006, 31–32). Secondly, still according to Howsam, by concentrat-
ing on events, Adams and Barker undertook to establish bibliographic
truth, provide an accurate text, and follow its transmission. The “reading
public or the broader culture is cast in passive terms”, and “the social
context” in which the book emerged “drops to the background” (ibid.,
15). Despite their ambitious approach, Adams and Barker deem that
“understanding of reception is episodic and scattered”. Reception itself is
 1 INTRODUCTION 9

a “theme”, “a passive thing”, not a process (Adams and Barker 1993, 60

and 58). Their recurring comparison of Bibliography with Archaeology
clearly does not favour the book’s impact or influence. Lastly, McDonald
intends “to re-think and re-write literary criticism” and, by recon-
structing the literary field, “stress the complexity of a literary culture”
(Howsam 2006, 39).
This collection also builds on literary and artistic culture with a dif-
ference: by combining literary analysis and looking at how books and
prints are shaped by design, format, uses, and, later, marketing, it inves-
tigates their impact on cultural trends; similarly, it explores how cultural
trends shape the reading and deciphering of books and prints. Books and
prints may well be the outcome or consequence of procedures, transac-
tions, or trades (as well as a witness to the legitimacy and strength of
Bibliography); still, they concern us here as active and complex repre-
sentatives of culture through their manifold uses and many-sided reading
processes.
Since McDonald, an alternative to the “History of Books” has
emerged in the form of “Book Studies”. The breadth implied by the
term has proved appropriate for this book. True, in Jonathan Rose’s
words, Book Studies represents “a new academic field to explore the
past, present, and future of all forms of written and printed communica-
tions” that “would bring together, under one interdisciplinary umbrella,
specialists in book history, the book arts, publishing education, textual
studies, reading instruction, librarianship, journalism, and the Internet,
and teach all these subjects as an integrated whole” (Rose 2003, 12,
my emphasis). Admittedly, when Book Studies is merely understood
as “a dual discipline”, encompassing “Book History and Book Arts”
(Stepanova 2007), significant phenomena, such as the effects of reading
or the complexity of literary culture, are still sidelined. And it has been
asked whether Book Studies is not “merely an interdisciplinary academic
program” rather than a “free-standing discipline” (Stepanova 2007).
The latter question, however, concerns more the structure of academia
than Book Studies as the research stance we propose here. This book
aims to show its research benefits. As I have already argued regarding
periodicals, it may not be necessary to establish yet another free-stand-
ing discipline. “Discipline” implies rules and sanction. Books (and, in
the broadest sense, manuscripts, periodicals, and prints) invite switching
disciplines in order to cross-exchange views and interrelate objects, uses,
and fashions. Should yet another specialist field emerge, it would, in the
Another random document with
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[I thought of these words many a time after that short and
merry life had come to its miserable close, and that fair
head, with the crown it coveted and wrought for, lay
together on the scaffold. I did never believe the shameful
charges brought against her, by which her death was
compassed, but 'tis impossible to acquit her of great
lightness of conduct, and want of womanly delicacy, or of
the worse faults of lawless ambition and treachery against
her kind mistress, than whom no one need wish a better.
Though I am and have long been of the reformed religion,
my feelings have ever been on the side of Queen
Catherine.]

The next day we went across the moor, to see the woman,
Magdalen Jewell, of whom Dame Lee had told us. Mistress
Anne was not with us, pleading a headache as an excuse,
and I was not sorry to miss her company, but we had
Master Griffith instead, and a serving man, who led the
Queen's donkey. The rest of us walked; and oh, what joy it
was to me to feel the springy turf under foot, and smell the
fresh odors of the moorland once more! How beautiful the
world is! I can't think why God hath made it so fair, and
then set it before us as our highest duty to shut ourselves
from it between stone walls. "The earth is the Lord's and
the fulness thereof," we sing in the Venite, and all the
Psalms are full of such thoughts. But this is beside the
matter.

We had a charming walk over the high, breezy moor, and

Master Griffith entertained us with remembrances of his
own country of Wales, where he says the people speak a
language of their own, as they do in some parts of Cornwall.
The Queen riding before us, would now and then put in a
word to keep him going.
Presently the path dipped into a little hollow, and there we
saw the cottage at the foot of the Tor which had been our
landmark all the way. 'Twas to my mind more like a nest
than a cottage, so small was it, and so covered (where the
vine gave the stones leave to show themselves) with gray
and yellow lichens. A humble porch well shaded with a great
standard pear, and fragrant with honeysuckle and
sweetbriar, held the good woman's chair, wherein lay a
spindle and distaff.

Magdalen herself was at work in her garden, gathering of

herbs to dry, and attended by quite a retinue. There was a
very old dog lying blinking in the sunshine, and a motherly
cat with two or three mischievous kitlings, and also a lame
and tame goose, which attended her mistress' footsteps,
and now and then with hisses and outspread wings chased
away the kitlings, when they made too free. A more
important member of the party was the little orphan maid,
a child of some five years, who with grave and womanly
industry, was carrying away the cut herbs, and spreading
them in the shade to dry. A row of beehives reached all the
length of the garden wall, and before them a bed of sweet
flowers and herbs, such as bees love. On one side was a
field in which fed a cow and an ass, while on the other was
a small and old, but well-tended orchard, and at the bottom
of this a still, glassy pool. Behind all, rose the gray, steep
Tor, like a protecting fortress. It was a lovely picture, and
one on which I could have gazed an hour; but presently, the
woman catching sight of us, laid aside her industry, and
came forward to give us welcome, which she did I must say
somewhat stiffly at the first. But she presently thawed into
more cordiality under the charm of her Grace's manner, and
remarking that we had had a long walk, she busied herself
to provide refreshment.
"Pray do not incommode yourself, my good woman," said
the Queen: "we have come but from the convent yonder,
where I am at present abiding, and this is one of the young
pupils, whom I dare say you have seen."

"Not I, madam!" she answered, somewhat bluntly. "I have

no errand to take me to the convent since I desire no alms
at the hands of the ladies, and I have naught to sell but
that which their own gardens supply."

"You might go thither for purposes of devotion," said the

Queen: "'tis a great privilege to worship in a church
possessed of so many holy relics."

A strange look, methought, passed over the woman's face,

as her Grace spoke, but she made no answer to the Queen,
only to press us to eat and drink.

"And you live here quite alone, save this child?" said the
Queen, after she had asked and heard an account of the
little maiden.

"Aye, madam, ever since my old father died, some ten

years since, till this child was sent me, as it were."

"But had you no brother, or other relative?" Again the

strange look crossed Magdalen's face, as she answered: "I
had a brother once, and for aught I know he may be living
now; but 'tis long since I have seen or heard from him. Our
paths went different ways."

"How so?" asked the Queen.

"Because I chose to maintain my old father in his

helplessness, and he chose to bestow himself in yonder
abbey of Glastonbury, with his portion of my gaffer's
goods."
"Doubtless he chose wisely!" she added, with a scorn which
I cannot describe. "'Twas an easier life than tilling barren
land, and bearing with the many humors of a childish, testy
old man."

"You should not speak so of your brother," said the Queen,

somewhat severely.

"You are right, Madam;" answered Magdalen, softening.

"Scorn becomes not any sinner, whose own transgressions
have been many. Nevertheless, under your favor, I believe
my brother did mistake his duty in this thing."

"Yet you yourself have chosen a single life, it seems!" said

the Queen. "Why was that?"

"I did not choose it," she said quietly, but yet her face was
moved. "'Twas so ordered for me, and I make the best of it.
I doubt not many married women are happier than I; but
yourself must see, Madam, that no single woman, so she be
good and virtuous, can possibly be as miserable as is many
a good and virtuous wife, through no fault of her own; aye
—and while she hath nothing of which she may complain
before the world."

"'Tis even so!" said her Grace; and again saw the cloud
upon her brow. I wonder if she is unhappy with her
husband? After a little silence, the Queen fell to talking of
the child, and after some discourse, she offered to leave
with the parish priest such a sum of money as should be a
dower for the girl, whether she should marry or enter a
convent. Magdalen colored and hesitated.

"I thank you much for your kindness," said she, at last. "I
have never yet received an alms, but the child is an orphan,
and hath no earthly protection but myself; and should I die
before my brother, he, or the men with whom he has placed
himself, would take that small portion of goods which
belongs to me, and little Catherine would be left wholly
destitute. I believe Sir John, the village priest, to be a good
man, so far as his lights go, and anything you may be
pleased to place in his hands will be safe. I therefore accept
your offer and thank you with all my heart; and may the
blessing of the God of the fatherless abide upon you."

"That seems like a good woman," remarked Master Griffith

to Mistress Patience, after we had left the cottage.

"Yet I liked not her saying about the priest," returned Mrs.
Patience, austerely. "What did she mean by her limitation
—'A good man, so far as his lights go,' forsooth! What is
she, to judge of his lights? Methinks the saying savored
somewhat too much of Lollardie, or Lutheranism."

"Then, if I thought so, I would not say so," said Master

Griffith, in a low tone. "You would not like to cast a
suspicion on the poor creature, which might bring her to the
stake at last."

Whereat Mistress Patience murmured something under her

breath about soft-heartedness toward heretics being
treason to the Church; but she added no more. I think
Master Griffith hath great influence over her, and if I may
venture to say so, over his mistress as well; and I wonder
not at it, for he hath a calm, wise way with him, and a
considerate manner of speaking, which seems to carry
much weight. It was odd, certainly, what Magdalen Jewell
said about the priest, and also about her brother. It does
seem hard that he should have gone away and left her to
bear the whole burden of nursing and maintaining her
father, and yet, as we are taught to believe, it is he who
hath chosen the better part. Another thing which struck me
about this same Magdalen was, that she was so wonderful
well spoken, for a woman in her state of life. Even her
accent was purer than that of the women about here, and
she used marvellous good phrases, as though she were
conversant with well-educated people.

This was the last of our walks. To-morrow the Queen goes,
and then I shall fall back into my old way of life again, I
suppose—writing, and working, and walking in the garden
for recreation. Well, I must needs be content, since there is
no other prospect before me for my whole life. It will not be
quite so monotonous as that of the poor lady who lived for
twenty years in the Queen's room, and never looked out.

I ought to say, that when we returned from visiting

Magdalen Jewell, we found that a post had arrived with
letters for the Queen, and also a packet for Mistress Anne,
who seemed wonderful pleased with her news, and with a
fine ring which she said her brother had sent her.

"Your brother is very generous," said her Grace, (and I saw

her face flush and her eyes flash.) "Methinks I have seen
that same ring before. 'Tis not very becoming for your
brother to make so light of his Majesty's gifts, as to bestow
them, even on his sister."

"I trust your Grace will be so good as not to betray my poor

brother's carelessness to his Majesty," answered Mrs.
Bullen, with an air and tone of meekness, which seemed to
me to have much of mocking therein. "It might prove the
ruin of us both."

To my great terror and amazement, the Queen turned

absolutely pale as ashes, and put out her hand for support.
Both Mrs. Anne and myself sprang forward, but she
recovered herself in a moment, and her color came back
again.
"'Tis nothing," said she, quietly. "I think the heat was too
much for me. Patience, your arm; I will lie down awhile."

The glance which Patience cast on Mrs. Bullen in passing,

was such as one might give to a viper or other loathsome
reptile. Mrs. Bullen, on her part, returned it, with a mocking
smile. Presently I saw her in the garden in close conference
with Amice, as indeed I have done several times before. I
cannot guess what they should have in common, and it is
all the more odd that I know Amice does not like her.

CHAPTER XIV.

August 14.
HER Grace left us yesterday, and to-day Amice and I have
been helping Mother Gertrude to put her rooms to rights,
and close them once more.

"How lonely they look," said I, as we were going round

closing the shutters. "I suppose they will always be called,
'The Queen's Chambers,' after this; and will be looked on as
a kind of hallowed ground."

"They will always be hallowed ground to me, I am sure,"

said Amice, so warmly, that I looked at her in surprise.

"Well, well, I am not sorry they are empty once more," said
Mother Gertrude. "I trust now we shall go back to our old
quiet ways, and at least we shall have no more singing of
love songs and receiving of love tokens, within these holy
walls. Yonder fair Bullen is no inmate for such a place as
this."

"Why should you think of love tokens, dear Mother?" I

asked, feeling my checks burn, and wondering whether she
referred to me, though indeed I might have known she did
not. 'Tis not her way to hint at anything.

"Because Mistress Anne must needs show me her fine

diamond ring, and tell me in a whisper how it was a token
from a gallant gentleman, as great as any in this realm."

"She said it came from her brother," said I, unguardedly,

and then I all at once remembered what she had said in the
presence, and the Queen's answer. Can it be that her Grace
was jealous, and that she had cause for jealousy? However,
that is no business for me.

Mrs. Bullen must needs watch her chance and ask me

whether I had no message or token for my cousin? I told
her no—that in my position, it did not become me to be
sending messages or tokens: but I did not add what I
thought—that if I had any such message, she would be the
last person I should trust therewith.

"Well, well, I meant you naught but kindness," said she. "I
dare say our squire wont break his heart."

To which I made no answer.

Mother Superior gave me leave to write to my father by

Master Griffith, who kindly offered to carry a letter. When I
had finished, I carried it to her, as in duty bound. She just
glanced at it, and then opening a drawer, she took
therefrom poor Richard's packet and enclosed all together,
sealing them securely, and said she would give the parcel
into Master Griffith's hands, together with certain letters of
her own. My heart gave a great leap at sight of the packet,
and I must confess a great ache when I saw it sealed up
again, because I knew how sadly Richard would feel at
having his poor little letter and token returned on his
hands; and I am quite sure he meant no harm in sending
them, though it was ill considered.

The Queen gave magnificently to the Church and house on

leaving, and also bestowed presents on those members of
the family who have waited on her, mostly books of
devotion, beads, and sacred pictures. She hath also
provided for an annual dole of bread and clothing on her
birthday to all the poor of the village.
 CHAPTER XV.

August 25.

WE have begun the general reformation which Mother

Superior promised us. I suppose, like other storms, it will
clear the air when all is done, but at present it raises a good
deal of dust, and makes every body uncomfortable.

Mother Gabrielle and Mother Gertrude still keep their old

places, the one as sacristine, the other as mistress of the
novices and pupils. But Sister Catherine is discharged of the
care of the wardrobe, and Sister Bridget, of all people, set
in her place. Sister Bonaventure takes Sister Bridget's place
in the laundry, and Sister Mary Paula is in charge of the
kitchen, which I fancy she does not like over well, though
she says nothing. Sister Mary Agnes has the accounts, and
Sister Placida the alms. As to Sister Catherine, she is
nowhere and nobody, which I suppose will give her all the
more time to meddle with everybody. She has been in
retreat for a week, and is still very mum and keeps quiet. I
have still charge of the library, to my great joy, and Amice is
by special favor appointed to help Mother Gabrielle in the
sacristy.

Our rules are to be more strictly enforced in future. No

more exclusive friendships are to be permitted. Silence is to
be rigidly enforced, and in short we are to turn over a new
leaf entirely. A great deal of needlework is to be put in hand
directly, including new altar covers for the shrine of Saint
Ethelburga in the garden, for which her Grace hath given
very rich materials. Besides we are to make many garments
for the poor against winter.

A good many wry faces have been made over all these
changes. For my own part I like them well enough. I think
people are always more comfortable when each one knows
his own place and his own work. Perhaps I should feel
differently if I had been put out of office, like Sister
Catherine, or set to work I did not like, as was Sister Mary
Paula. Poor Sister Catherine! She little thought how it was
to end when she used to talk about the enforcement of
discipline. I must say, that as far as the wardrobe goes, she
had no right to complain, for she did keep everything at
sixes and sevens, so that two whole pieces of nice black
serge were spoiled by her negligence, and many of the
spare napkins were moulded through and through. I
ventured to ask Mother Gertrude how she thought Sister
Bridget would succeed.

"Why, well enough, child," she answered. "Sister Bridget's

mind is not very bright, but she always gives the whole of it
to whatever she does."

"I have noticed that," said I. "If she is folding a napkin, or

ironing an apron, you may ask her as many questions as
you will, and you will get no answer from her till she has
done folding or ironing, as the case may be."

"Just so; and she hath another good quality, in that she will
take advice. When she does not know what to do she will
ask, which is to my mind a greater argument of humility
than any kissings of the floor, or such like performances."

Amice and I do not see as much of each other as we used,

but she is always loving when we meet. She appears to me,
somehow, very greatly changed. At times she seems to
have an almost heavenly calmness and serenity in her face;
at others she seems sad and anxious, but she is always kind
and gentle. She is much in prayer, and reads diligently in
the Psalter, which the Queen gave her. Sister Gabrielle has
grown very fond of her, though she was vexed at first that
Amice was assigned to her instead of myself; but she says
Amice is so gentle and humble, so anxious to please, and to
improve herself in those points wherein she is deficient, that
she cannot but love the child. I have, at Amice's own
request, taught her all the lace and darning stitches I know,
and she practises them diligently, though she used to
despise them. I am teaching her to knit stockings, an art I
learned of Mistress Patience, and we mean to have a pair
made for the Bishop against his next visit.
 CHAPTER XVI.

St. Michael's Eve, Sept. 28.

IT is a long time since I have touched this book, and many

things have happened. Ours is now a sad household. Out of
the twenty-three professed Sisters and novices who used to
meet in the choir, but fifteen remain. The rest lie under the
turf in our cemetery. Mother Gabrielle is gone, and poor
Sister Bridget, and of the novices, Sisters Mary Frances and
Agatha. Mother Gertrude had the disease, but was spared.
Three others recovered. The rest were not attacked. The
disease was the dreadful Sweating sickness. It began first in
the village, in the household of that same Roger Smith, but
broke out in three or four other cottages the same day. The
news was brought to the convent gates the next morning by
some who came for alms, as they use to do on Wednesdays
and Fridays, and produced great consternation.

"What are we to do now?" said Sister Catherine, while the

elders were in conference by themselves.

"We shall do as we are told, I suppose," answered Sister

Bridget, with her wonted simplicity.
"But don't you suppose Mother Superior will order the gates
to be shut, and no communication held with the villagers?"
said Sister Mary Paula.

"I should certainly suppose not;" answered Sister Placida.

"Think what you are saying, dear Sister! Would you deprive
the poor souls of their alms, just when they are most
wanted? Methinks it would ill become religious women to
show such cowardly fears."

"Beside that I don't believe it would make any difference,"

said I. "Master Ellenwood, who has studied medicine, told
my father the disease was not so much infectious, as in the
air. I wish we might go out among the poor folk, to see
what they need, and help to nurse the sick, as my mother
and her women used to do."

"Rosamond is always ready for any chance to break her

enclosure," said Sister Catherine, charitable as usual. "She
would even welcome the pestilence, if it gave her a pretext
to get outside her convent walls."

"Sister Catherine," said Sister Placida, reprovingly, "you are

wrong to speak so to the child. Why should you be so ready
to put a wrong construction on her words? I am sure the
wish is natural enough. I had thought of the same thing
myself."

"O yes, I dare say," retorted Sister Catherine. And then,

with one of her sudden changes, "but I am wrong to answer
you so, Sister. It is my part to accept even undeserved
reproof with humility, and be thankful that I am despised."

"Nonsense," returned Sister Placida, who is by no means so

placid as her name, "I think you would show more humility
by considering whether the reproof was not deserved. As to
being thankful for being despised, that is to my mind a little
too much like being thankful for another's sin."

"How so?" I asked.

"Why, in order to being despised, there must needs be

some one to despise you, child, and is not contempt a sin?"

I do like Sister Placida, though she is just as often sharp

with me as Sister Catherine, but it is in such a different
way.

"Anyhow, I hope they wont shut out the poor folk," said
Sister Bridget.

"Who is talking about shutting out the poor folk?" asked

Mother Gertrude's voice, coming in sharp and clear as
usual, (by the way I ought to call her Mother Assistant now,
but I never can remember to do so.) "Children, why are you
all loitering here, instead of being about your business in
the house? Let every one set about her duty just as usual,
and at obedience, you will hear what has been decided."

[Obedience is that hour in a convent when the nuns

assemble with the Superior to give an account of their
labors, to receive special charges, and not seldom special
reproofs as well. In our house this gathering took place just
after morning recreation. Amice and I, not being even
regular postulants, had no business there, and since the
reformation in the house, we have never attended, but we
were called in to-day, and took our places at the lower end
of the line, and therefore next the Superior, who addressed
us in few but weighty words, which I will set down as well
as I can remember them.]

There was no doubt, she said, that the pestilence known as

the sweating sickness had broken out in the village, and we
might with reason expect its appearance among ourselves,
at any time. She said she had heard with sorrow that some
of her children had desired to have the gates closed against
the poor folk who used to come for alms. Such cowardliness
as this was unbecoming to any well-born lady, and above all
to religious, who were doubly bound to set a good example
of courage and resignation: but she was willing to think this
only a momentary failing, which a second thought would
correct; and she bade us consider that there would be no
use in shutting the gates now, since they were opened
yesterday, as usual.

Then she told us what she, with the advice of our confessor
and the other elders, had decided upon. The doles were to
be given out at the outer gate, by the proper officers, only
they were to be given every day, instead of Wednesdays
and Fridays. The two distributing Sisters were to be helped
by two others, taken in turn from the professed, to hand
the things as they were wanted. All embroidery, with other
unnecessary work of every kind, was to be laid aside, and
all were to employ themselves under the direction of the
Mother Assistant and herself in making linen and in
preparing food, cordials, and drinks for the poor. If any
Sister felt herself ill in any way, she was at once to repair to
the infirmary, and report herself to Sister Placida. Finally,
we were all to have good courage, to give ourselves as
much as possible to prayer, and such religious meditation as
should keep us in a calm, cheerful, and recollected frame of
mind, observing our hours of recreation as usual; and she
added that nobody was to presume to take on herself any
extra penances or exercises without express permission
from her superior or confessor.

"We are all under sentence of death, dear children, as you

know!" concluded Mother, "And it matters little how our
dismissal comes, so we are ready. Let us all confess
ourselves, so that the weight, at least, of mortal sin may
not rest on our consciences here, or go with us into the
other world. If we are called to suffer, let us accept those
sufferings as an atonement for our sins, considering that
the more we have to endure here, the less we may believe
will be the pains of purgatory hereafter. As for these
children," she added, turning to Amice and myself, who
stood next her, "what shall I say to them?"

"Say, dear Mother, that we may take our full share of work
and risk with the Sisters!" exclaimed Amice, kneeling before
her. "I am sure I speak for Rosamond as well as myself,
when I say that is what we desire most of all, is it not,
Rosamond?"

"Surely," I answered, as I knelt by her side: "I ask nothing

more than that."

"And what becomes of the Latin and Music lessons, and the
embroidery, and our learned librarian's translations?" asked
Mother Superior, smiling on us.

"They can wait," I answered.

"And surely, dearest Mother, the lessons we shall learn will

be far more valuable than any Latin or music," added
Amice.

"Well, well, be it as you will!" said dear Mother, laying her

hands on our heads as we knelt before her. "Surely, dear
children, none of us will show any fear or reluctance, since
these babes set us such a good example. Well, hold
yourselves ready, my little ones, and wherever you are
wanted, there shall you be sent."

That afternoon there was a great bustle in the wardrobe;

taking down of linen, and cutting out of shifts and bed-
gowns, and the like, and in the still-room and kitchen as
well, with preparing of medicines, chiefly cordial and
restoratives, and mild drinks, such as barley and apple
waters, and the infusion of lime blossoms, balm and mint.
This was by the advice of Mother Mary Monica, who has
seen the disease before, and understands its right
treatment. She says that those who on the first sign of the
disorder took to their beds and remained there for twenty-
four hours, moderately covered, and perfectly quiet, and
drinking of mild drinks, neither very hot, nor stimulating,
nor yet cold, almost all recovered; but that purges,
exercise, hot or cold drinks and stimulants, were equally
fatal. The dear old Mother has seemed failing of late, but
this alarm has roused her up and made her like a young
woman again.

Thus things went on for more than a week. We heard of

great suffering among the villagers for lack of nurses who
knew how to treat the disease, and also because from
selfish fear of taking the pestilence, people refused to go
near the sick and dying. One day Mother Superior was
called to the grate, and presently sent for me to the parlor,
where I found her talking through the grate to a woman
whom I at once knew as Magdalen Jewell of Torfoot. Hers is
not a face to be forgotten.

"This good woman says she believes you were at her house
with her Grace," says Mother.

I answered that I was so, and added that her Grace did
much commend the neatness of the place and the kindness
of Magdalen in taking the little one. I saw Magdalen's face
work.

"The babe hath been taken home!" said she, almost sternly.
"God's will be done! I have been telling these ladies that
there are divers orphan maids in the village (left so by this
sickness), who are running wild, and are like either to die
for lack of care, or worse, to fall into the hands of gypsies
and other lawless persons, whom this pestilence seems to
have let loose to roam about this wretched land."

"Are there so many dead in the village?" asked Mother

Gertrude.

"There is not a house where there is or hath not been one

dead!" answered Magdalen; "And the terror is worse than
the pestilence; children are deserted by parents, and they
in their turn by children, and 'tis the same with all other
relations. 'Tis a woeful spectacle!"

"Could not you yourself take these poor babes to your

home, since you have one?" asked Mother Gertrude.

"I cannot be spared, madam," answered Magdalen: "I must

nurse the sick."

"That is very good in you, and you must take comfort in the
thought that you are thereby laying up merit for yourself!"
said Mother Superior.

I saw an odd expression pass over Magdalen's face, but she

made no reply.

"And you think we might take these babes and care for
them, at least till the present emergency is passed?" said
Mother.

"Nay, madam, I did but state the case to you," answered

Magdalen; "'tis not for me to presume to offer advice."

"But what to do with them, if we took them?" said Mother

Superior, in a musing tone. Then catching my eye, which I
suppose ought to have been on the floor instead of on her
face: "Here is Rosamond, with a ready-made plan, as usual.
Well, child, you have permission to speak. What is brewing
under that eager face?"

"I was thinking, dear Mother, that I am used to young

children," said I. "Why could I not take these little maids
into one of the rooms called the Queen's room, and tend
them there? I suppose there are not many of them."

"I know of but five utterly friendless maids," answered

Magdalen.

"Then I am sure I could care for them, with some help and
advice," said I. "They would be away from the rest of the
family, and would disturb no one; and if we were kept in
health, I might teach them as well."

"'Tis a good thought, but we must do nothing hastily," said

Mother Superior. "We ought to have the permission of our
visitor, the Bishop, but he is now in Bristol, and some days
must elapse before we could hear from him, and this seems
a case for instant action."

"I am sure you would say so, madam, could you see the
state of these poor babes!" returned Magdalen.

"Well, well, come to-morrow, and we will see," said Mother.

"Meantime the holy relics are exposed in the church for the
comfort of the faithful in this trying time. You had better
visit them, and then go to the buttery and obtain some
refreshment."

However, she did neither—I suppose from want of time. The

next day she came again, and to my great joy, Mother
consented, the need being so great, to receive the five little
maidens, who were placed under my care in the Queen's