123. Westminster Abbey Runs a Forgery Ring, Westminster, England 12th Century

About this episode

This episode explores the creation of forgeries in medieval scriptoria, particularly at Westminster Abbey.

In the medieval scriptoria, amongst all the holy books, and the hagiographies, and the books of philosophy, and the legal charters, not to mention the beautiful illuminated manuscripts, there were often, we are sorry to tell you, forgeries being created. Sometimes monasteries needed to codify some history that hadn't gotten written down when it happened, or to provide documentation of some land sale that hadn't gotten written down, or to provide evidence for things that didn't happen at all, ...

People in this episode

Hosts: Anne Brannen, Michelle Butler

Topics covered

• forgery
• medieval history
• scriptoria
• monasteries
• illuminated manuscripts

Keywords

• forgery
• medieval
• Westminster Abbey
• scriptoria
• illuminated manuscripts
• hagiographies
• legal charters

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Westminster Abbey

Places: Westminster, England

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