John-Henry Clay
Gift-giving and books in the letters of St Boniface and Lul
Clay, John-Henry
Authors
Abstract
The Anglo-Saxon missionary and archbishop St Boniface (d. 754) and Lul, his protégé and successor in the see Mainz (d. 768), left behind a rich collection of letters that has become and invaluable source in our understanding of Boniface's mission. This article examines the letters in order to elucidate the customs of gift-giving that existed between those who were involved in the mission, whether directly or as external supporters. It begins with a brief overview of anthropological models of gift-giving, followed by a discussion of the portrayal of gift-giving in Anglo-Saxon literature. Two features of the letters of Boniface and Lul are then examined - the giving of gifts and the giving of books - and a crucial distinction between them revealed. Although particular customs of gift-giving between the missionaries and their supporters were well-established, and indeed bore some resemblance to 'secular' gift-giving customs depicted in Anglo-Saxon poetry, books, while exchanged frequently, were consistently excluded from the ritualised structures of gift-giving. A dual explanation for this phenomenon is proposed: first, that books were of greater practical importance to the mission than other forms of gifts; second, that their status as sacred texts rendered them as unsuitable for inclusion within rituals that depended upon the giver emphatically belittling the material worth of their own gift.
Citation
Clay, J. (2009). Gift-giving and books in the letters of St Boniface and Lul. Journal of Medieval History, 36(4), 313-325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmedhist.2009.08.004
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Publication Date | Dec 1, 2009 |
Deposit Date | Oct 6, 2010 |
Publicly Available Date | Jun 14, 2013 |
Journal | Journal of Medieval History |
Print ISSN | 1304-4184 |
Electronic ISSN | 1873-1279 |
Publisher | Taylor and Francis Group |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 36 |
Issue | 4 |
Pages | 313-325 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmedhist.2009.08.004 |
Keywords | Boniface, Lul, Anglo-Saxons, Gifts, Letters, Books, Codicology. |
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Copyright Statement
This is an electronic version of an article published in Clay, John-Henry (2009) 'Gift-giving and books in the letters of St Boniface and Lul.', Journal of medieval history., 36 (4). pp. 313-325. Journal of medieval history is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/openurl?genre=article&issn=0304-4181&volume=36&issue=4&spage=313
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