Page - 27 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/01

Materiality of Religious Books | 27www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/1, 13–32 Fig. 8: A box of maculated folios: the debris of at least two liturgical books (containing the Psalms and biblical cantica). The parchment strips served to repair the holes of a wooden organ’s pipes (courtesy Diocesan Archive Graz). (Photo: E. Renhart) Any text which was no longer useful could fall victim to this procedure, for a variety of reasons. Even biblical and liturgical texts might meet this fate. This metamorphosis of a book discarded its original contents, with the original book surviving only in its materiality. The Maculation of Books The decades and centuries following the invention of book printing saw the maculation19 of medieval manuscripts (mostly made of parchment) in grand style. Thousands of ancient books for which new printings were now available were dismantled into pieces. The resulting materials were used for a myriad of purposes, for example for repairing and enveloping other books or for stuffing the holes of organ pipes (fig. 8). Even biblical and liturgical books with illumi- nations were not exempt from maculation. These actions suggest a disregard for book heritage and have left us today with many thousands of fragments – the rudimentary remnants of a vast hidden but, alas, irregular library.20 19 Neuheuser-Christ/Schmitz 2016. 20 Renhart 2013 and 2016.