St. Thomas Becket Manuscript: Preservation and Context, Dispense di Inglese Giuridico

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The manuscript of the illustrated Life of St Thomas Becket survives as a fragment only of four separate leaves. The pages measure about 303mm by 223 mm and show signs of staining from glue and damp. Because vellum is a strong material, old leaves from unwanted manuscripts were someAmes in the past re-used by book-binders for strengthening sewing and for lining the covers of bookbindings, and it seems likely that the Becket Leaves owe their preservaAon to the chance of having been pasted as padding into the covers of another book. These are the only four leaves of the manuscript which have ever been found. One has to say that it is possible, of course, that other pieces could lie sAll undetected and glued down in other bindings somewhere.

The known fragments were discovered in Belgium. In the 19th century they formed part of the vast library relaAng to the history of Courtrai assembled soon aHer the French RevoluAon by Jacques Goethals-Vercruysse (died 1838) and when his collecAon was presented to the city of Courtrai, the Becket Leaves, which did not form part of the library’s theme of local topography, were retained by a collector’s family and remained in their possession unAl 1986. The decades following the French RevoluAon formed a golden period for book buyers. Ancient libraries from suppressed monasteries were thrown into the market much faster than they could be absorbed by public collecAons, and it is to the credit of energeAc anAquarians such as Goethals-Vercruysse that certain monasAc archives and books survived at all.