Books as Chapels: Textual and Commemorative Aspects of Fifteenth-Century London Common-Profit Books

This article analyzes the London common-profit books as memorial objects by looking at the textual and linguistic properties of the manuscripts' colophon, providing further insight into the books’ functions, uses, and the principles and constructs that informed this curious book scheme. It is argued that the memorial function of the books is evidenced by the colophon’s employment of (semi-)legal language, as well as its imitation of the construct of perpetual chantries. As such, the London common-profit books function as 'codicological chantries': both tangible and portable monuments purposed to commemorate their merchant donors.