The medieval priory and hospital of St Mary Spital and the Bishopsgate suburb: excavations at Spitalfields Market, London E1, 1991–2007

Abstract

printing. The connection between the Carthusians and writing is well-established. The statutes of the order stipulate that each monk was to be provided with ‘a desk, pens ... two inkhorns, ... a rule, a ruler, tables, a writing style’ (p. 342), and some of Mount Grace’s residents (for example, Nicholas Love and Richard Methley, pp. 39–41, 343) were important medieval thinkers and writers. The archaeology reveals the extent of textual production and copying at Mount Grace (pp. 342–46), and establishes the existence of a ‘production line’ whereby books were laid out, written and illustrated – before being finished by the bookbinder in Cell 8 (p. 397). More interesting, if only because less well known, is the evidence for printing (lead plaques with inscriptions in reverse, an inscribed panel with a figure of Christ, and, uniquely in Britain, a stone mould ‘for casting gothic type’ indicative of ‘an attempt to print by casting moveable type’ (pp. 133–34, 348). The suggestion that the monks were printing ‘devotional items for pilgrims’ has considerable merit (p. 349), and adds to the evidence for the role of printing in facilitating the practice and piety of the pre-Reformation Church.