2026/01/01 by Nicholas Karn · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · #Historical Architecture and Urbanism #Historical and Religious Studies of Rome #Medieval Literature and History
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/ean.2025.10011
openalex publication_date 2026/01/01 · openalex created_date 2026/02/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Abstract This essay sets out an analysis of how forgery was produced at Westminster Abbey in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, using the material evidence of the pseudo-original charters rather than the much-used textual evidence. The focus of this study thus lies on how the parchments were prepared, how the seals were used, and what techniques the scribes used to produce archaizing scripts, which are not usually prominent in analysis of charters and related materials. This shows that individual scribal habits shaped how the forgeries were made, but, perhaps more importantly, that there were distinctive practices seen in the forgeries which differed from how authentic originals were made. It is argued that these differences reflect how the scribes envisaged the forged documents would be used, and their knowledge that these usages would differ from those of authentic originals.