Shared Language: Vernacular Manuscripts of the Middle Ages

Most people today think of the Middle Ages as a time when cloistered monks wrote and read only in now-obscure languages. Of course, Latin was the language of those who aspired to literacy, and it was the language of the Church. But what many do not realize is that by the thirteenth and fourteenth century (and certainly well before Columbus discovered America in 1492), numerous books became available in the everyday languages spoken “at the court, on the street, and in the bedroom.” This cat...