Abstract
Joyner’s interpretations are based on the 1979 edition/reconstruction (not a true facsimile) edited by Rosalie Green et al. and published by the Warburg Institute, which in turn was based on an exhaustive study of descriptions, transcriptions, and copies made in the nineteenth century. Chapter 4 argues that, for the medieval readers of these texts, understanding the temporal patterns revealed by the computus was a logical extension of exegetical practice, another way for educated contemplatives to “read” the nature of God and the meaning of salvation history in the complicated interactions between historical time, seasons, and the liturgical year. In chapter 5 the author extends this argument by suggesting that the figure of Ecclesia, the personified Church-who reappears sporadically across the course of the book as an abstract concept, as a concrete personification, and in her local or contemporary manifestation in the community portrait of Hohenberg that appears at the end of the manuscript-is a key figure for understanding the overarching structure and meaning of the collected texts and images of the miscellany. Some of the text excerpts were copied in full, but in other cases only the rubric identifying the text was copied. Because of the many uncertainties about the content of the original manuscript, readers who do not have the 1979 edition to hand may find that the present volume does not always transmit all the codicological and content detail needed to answer the many questions that arise in the course of following these complex arguments.