I always knew that books were very valuable in period, but the discovery that clerks wrote in "book curses" against anyone who would steal a book amuses me. I glossed over the apparent used of it when I read Chaucer's "House of Fame"
Some examples I loved:
Some examples I loved:
"Whoever steals this book let him die the death; let be him be frizzled in a pan; may the falling sickness rage within him; may he be broken on the wheel and be hanged"
Placing Middle English in context By Irma Taavitsainen has a chapter where she discuses the use of the genre.
Anathema!: Medieval Scribes and the History of Book Curses by Marc Drogin, apparently also discusses it.
"Whoever Alters This, May God Turn His Face from Him on the Day of Judgment": Curses in
Anglo-Saxon Legal Documents by Brenda Danet and Bryna Bogoch
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 105, No. 416 (Spring, 1992), pp. 132-165
Author, Scribe, and Curse: the Genre of "Adam Scriveyn" by Glending Olson.
The Chaucer Review v. 42 no. 3 (2008) p. 284-97
"Bibliomania and the Medieval Book Curse" by Sandra Anderson, March 2003
http://capping.slis.ualberta.ca/cap03/s
Anderson's works cited--http://capping.slis.ualberta.ca/c
This site even has awsome graphics someone drew:
http://www.sfu.ca/aq/archives/Nov2003/f
And now you can even buy one for your personal library:
http://gifts.cafepress.com/item/medieva
This site even has awsome graphics someone drew:
http://www.sfu.ca/aq/archives/Nov2003/f
And now you can even buy one for your personal library:
http://gifts.cafepress.com/item/medieva
