Books of the Medieval Parish Church: Elucidating Parish Book Culture in Medieval Sweden by Analysis of the Collections of Recycled Manuscript Fragments

Abstract

Abstract:The Books of the Parish Church-project is an ERC-funded project that launched in January 2021 and is hosted by the Finnish National Library. The project seeks to shed new light on the book provision of the parish churches, in the Swedish realm and in Europe overall, c. 1150–c. 1500. To do this, it utilizes the exceptionally rich collections of fragments of liturgical books from medieval Sweden that were systematically recycled and preserved by the royal tax administration in the early modern period. Here we offer a history of this unique source material and the objectives of the project.