Late Medieval Personal Miscellanies: The Case of Mattheus Beran (d. 1461), Augustinian Canon of Roudnice nad Labem
Abstract
An analysis of three miscellaneous codices copied by Mattheus Beran (d. 1461) with special attention to aspects he himslef points out in his colophones which, at the same time, are reappearing in other late medieval miscellanies, namely the compilation character (compilatum et collectum), hasty hand (raptim scriptum), including personal information, multiple copying of the same texts, problem of authorship, and concern for the readers. Late medieval personal miscellanies perhaps mark a point of transition: they face the information boom of the late Middle Ages and digest it in some way.
Since their approach is not systematic and easily understandable for outsiders, these miscellanies did not gain wide popularity; they gave rise to private notebooks on the one hand, and to simpler and better organized thematic selections on the other. They could be considered a dead-end.
They are nonetheless precious: in a unique way they mix the personal with the universal, science with art, Latin with vernacular languages. They offer insight into the trends and patterns of late medieval devotion and information management, as well as personal feelings and opinions.
The mixture is almost impenetrable, but at the same time straightforward, unmediated, and natural. After all, miscellaneity is what surrounds us in this world; in this respect, the late medieval personal miscellanies reflect real-life experience with all its incoherence and inconsistency.
The quest for continuity and coherence, a story, a line with a clear beginning and end, is in fact artificial and its result is necessarily a simplification and misrepresentation of the complex situation in which we always find ourselves. However, it has the advantage of approachability and communicability.
The fact that the two are almost lost in late medieval personal miscellanies makes them a challenging but no less exciting research subject.