‘The Rutland Psalter and the Rise of Gothic Marginalia’
The lecture aims to revise the idea proposed by Lilian Randall (1957 and 1966) about a possible connection between mendicant preaching and the rise of marginalia in Gothic devotional books. Randall’s hypothesis has generated little resonance in the scholarship but deserves, as the lecture will argue, further consideration. Our main case study will be the Rutland Psalter (England, before 1258) that contains the first extensive series of ‘profane’ marginalia. The themes explored in its margins demonstrate striking parallels with the culture of religious storytelling in contemporary preaching.