David W. Sorenson
(Allen G. Berman, Numismatist)
“Taking it to the Mail Box:
A Fragment of a Fifteenth-Century Lawyer’s Mail Ledger”
Abstract of Paper
presented at the 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies
(Kalamazoo, 2024)
Session on
“Letters, Couriers, and Post Offices:
Mail in the Medieval World”
Co-Sponsored by Postal History at Kalamazoo
and the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
Organized by David W. Sorenson
2024 Congress Program
Abstract:
Although the letters themselves are well known, and as a group are not uncommon, the details of their transit from sender to recipient are usually very obscure. This paper examines one small step on one small mail-chain, in this case a leaf from a ledger, listing letters sent by (or to?) a lawyer in Paris around 1480. As a scrap it can by itself tell little, but fortunately it survived along with a few other items, and we may be able to build up something of a picture of the type and volume of mail produced by such a firm.
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Note: We thank David for his many contributions over the years to the RGME. For example, he has frequently presented papers for Sessions sponsored and co-sponsored by the RGME at the ICMS, and papers and responses to our Symposia both in person and online. He has generously contributed expertise and images to our blog on Manuscript Studies and to our gallery of images on Watermarks and the History of Paper. Some of his papers are published on our website.
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Private Collection, Courier delivering letter. German translation of Petrarch (1559).