This article compares the circulation and reception of useful knowledge—from medical and craft recipes to prognostications and agricultural treatises—in late medieval English manuscripts and early printed practical books. It first surveys the contents and composition of eighty-eight fifteenth-century vernacular practical manuscripts identified in significant collections in the United States and United Kingdom. Close analysis of four of these late medieval practical miscellanies reveals that their compilers saw these manuscripts as repositories for the collection of an established body of useful knowledge. The article then traces the transmission of these medieval practical texts in early printed books. As the pressures of a commercial book market gradually transformed how these practical texts were presented, readers became conditioned to discover “new” knowledge in the pages of printed books. The introduction to England of the “book of secrets” in 1558 encouraged readers to hunt for “secrets” in unpublished medieval manuscripts, ensuring that these century-old sources would remain important sites for useful knowledge well into the early modern era.

中文翻译：

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“这对 Lerne 来说是一本好书”：实用书籍，新闻界的到来，以及对知识的探索，ca。1400–1560

本文比较了中世纪晚期英语手稿和早期印刷的实用书籍中有用知识的流通和接收——从医学和工艺食谱到预言和农业论文。它首先调查了在美国和英国的重要收藏中发现的 88 份 15 世纪白话实用手稿的内容和构成。对这些中世纪晚期实用杂文中的四本进行仔细分析后发现，他们的编纂者将这些手稿视为收集已建立的有用知识的宝库。然后，本文追溯了这些中世纪实用文本在早期印刷书籍中的传播。随着商业图书市场的压力逐渐改变了这些实用文本的呈现方式，读者习惯于在印刷书籍的页面中发现“新”知识。1558 年将“秘密之书”引入英国，鼓励读者在未发表的中世纪手稿中寻找“秘密”，确保这些具有百年历史的资源在现代早期仍然是有用知识的重要场所。