Changing Structures of the Medieval Book

As master of the texts, Oresme inherited a long classical and medieval tradition regarding the theory and practice of translation. His approach would have been especially mindful of Roman rhetorical theory and its application to moral philosophy and political science, particularly to issues of practical wisdom. Interpretive and exegetical techniques drawn from ancient and medieval rhetorical treatises affected the style and content of the "replacement" texts composed for and directed to new audiences.^[1] Like rhetoric, the translations themselves are part of a system of communication captured within the physically delimited space and structure of the codex. As the recent study by Mary Carruthers demonstrates, the medieval book is designed as a complex cognitive structure that helped the reader to understand the text.^[2] Through layout, writing, methods of compilation, and organization, medieval texts were fashioned to advance certain psychological processes, of which memory and recollection are the chief tools of cognition.^[3] Carruthers's study emphasizes the role of internal and external imaging in Aristotelian and medieval memory theory.^[4] In both the design and compilation of his texts, as well as in the programs of illustrations, Oresme's strategies as a translator appear to reflect his awareness of, and response to, these rhetorical and cognitive traditions.

Nicole Oresme's arrangement and compilation of his translations for a lay readership include features unusual in vernacular texts of this period. Aids for the reader, such as an alphabetical, cross-referenced index of noteworthy subjects in the Politiques are, however, not Oresme's invention. During the thirteenth century, the need to retrieve certain types of information for specific audiences and newly created institutions governed developments in the layout, arrangement, and apparatus of original, as well as of authoritative, works composed in Latin. One source of this change was the founding of the mendicant orders, whose mission was to deliver sermons to the laity and to write works combating heresy. Consequently, preachers required access to authoritative texts that were organized in such a way as to permit retrieval of specific topics that formed the basis of sermon materials. Collections of exempla, biblical concordances, and distinctiones are among the reference books specifically developed for sermon writers.^[5]

In addition, the growth of universities during the thirteenth century brought better organization to manuscript production and the book trade under university

control.^[6] Teaching and scholarship required, instead of collections of excerpts, study of original texts essential to the training of orthodox preachers and theologians. Both students and professors had to locate quickly precise references on specific subjects. To facilitate research, books were broken down into chapters or even smaller units. Tables of contents, indexes, and chapter summaries aided readers in consulting texts.^[7] As Malcolm Parkes has indicated, the arrangement and accompanying apparatus for university texts brought significant changes in the mise-en-page of the manuscript book.^[8] Among the devices that made scholastic texts easier to read was rubrication, which marked sections of the text and indicated the source of glosses. In analytical tables of contents, alternating red and blue initials divided chapters one from another, while red ink was used for headings and black for subheadings. Running titles and other locators became standardized features that helped readers find their way through materials required for professional purposes. Such devices were associated with psychological theories and practices to promote cognitive mastery of texts.

Although these developments first occurred in religious texts, law and medical schools adapted these methods of organization and compilation to works in their own fields.^[9] Also a beneficiary of these new procedures was the corpus of Aristotelian works that became available in Latin translations during the thirteenth century. Indeed, the process of assimilating the structure of Aristotle's works to Christian thought promoted the development of various research tools, including those mentioned above. From about 1250 Aristotle's works on logic, natural science, and the Ethics were accompanied by alphabetical indexes.^[10] In fact, alphabetical order as a system of organizing references was a conspicuous feature of guides to Aristotle's works.^[11] For example, the reference system for a topic includes the title of the work, the volume and chapter numbers, and a letter of the alphabet indicating placement within a chapter.^[12] Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln, who in 1246 to 1247 made the very influential translation from Greek into Latin of all ten books of the Nicomachean Ethics , not only added notes to the Greek commentaries but also compiled a summary of the important points in each chapter. The aim of this summa, called Tituli , was to help the reader understand and remember the text.^[13] In a magisterial work, Martin Grabmann discusses the vast array of commentaries, summaries, excerpts, and tables of contents that accompanies the Latin translations of the Aristotelian corpus and facilitates its appropriation by and assimilation to medieval intellectual life.^[14]

For the most part, such developments in the organization and arrangement of the book were directed to a clerical audience. But during the fourteenth century, historical works commissioned by courts or royal patrons were equipped with alphabetical indexes and other finding aids. Thus, a manuscript of the Faits des Romains , written between 1324 and 1331 at the Angevin court at Naples, contains a large Latin table of contents.^[15] In 1330 a second edition of a universal history written for King Philip VI is equipped with an alphabetical table of contents, a device hitherto unfamiliar to lay readers.^[16] During the fourteenth century, writings in the vernacular gradually acquired the apparatus, methods of compilation, and the mise-en-page previously limited to Latin works.^[17]