The scrapbook as repurposed and transplanted illustration: The ABCs of medieval alphabet compilations in nineteenth-century England

Abstract

The so-called Gothic Revival long has been viewed as a mode of resistance to the mechanization and mass production of culture wrought by industrialization. Throughout the nineteenth century, society’s nostalgic longing for the distant past manifests itself in the form of medieval-inspired art, architecture, theatre, fashion and interior design. It also involves the uniquely contemporaneous literary fad of extracting illuminated letters (elaborately decorated initials) from parchment bibles, books of hours and other medieval religious texts, and reassembling them into handmade alphabet scrapbooks. Using illustrative cases in point, this article examines how certain medieval alphabet scrapbooks operate in the service of British nationalism by embodying nationalist identity and values.