"The 13th-century librarians at Rochester Priory weren't taking any chances. Their books - valuable, powerful and sacred - had to be protected. Casting curses appears to have been the most effective anti-theft device. Anyone who stole, hid or damaged their copy of the manuscript Distinctiones would be 'deleted from the Book of Life'."
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@Libraries @bookstodon @medievodons
"The 13th-century librarians at Rochester Priory weren't taking any cha
Submitted 15 hours ago by 
ClaireFromClare@h-net.social to bookstodon@fedigroups.social
“Other religious houses were creative with their curses. ‘A book of [the Abbey of] SS Mary and Nicholas of Arnstein: If anyone steals it: may he die, may he be roasted in a frying pan, may the falling sickness [i.e. epilepsy] and fever attack him, and may he be rotated [on the breaking wheel] and hanged. Amen.’”
Rachel Morley in the excellent Summer 2026 magazine of the Friends of Friendless Churches. 🧵 2/2
#medieval #manuscripts #CrimePrevention