Book Curses

Excommunication, hanging, and being cooked in a frying pan are just some of the punishments to dissuade potential book thieves collected in Oxford medievalist Baker’s phenomenal debut anthology. For centuries, a “bookish malediction” inscribed into the front cover of a book could serve as a threat—to pilferers and borrowers alike—to return the book to its owner or suffer the consequences. Baker surfaces some premodern precursors, like a bossy notice on an ancient stone monument (“You must not smash it, you must not cover it with earth, you must not throw it into water”) before touring a vast range of medieval to early modern book curses that promise eye-popping violence (“He that steals this book—May the devil rot off his skin”; “If any person steals this book, He shall be hanged upon a hook”) or outright death (“Whoever steals me, return me, or die”; “Steal not this Book my honest friend, or else the Gallows will be your end”). Alongside the amusing curses, she also offers background on the inscriptions’ source texts, which can be as surprising as the curses themselves (like a curse attributed to “Pookefart,” or “Goblin Fart,” inscribed into a 15th-century collection of sermons as a mockery of the volume’s other, more serious inscriptions from previous owners). This fantastic folio will especially entertain bibliophiles who resent lending their beloved books. (Apr.)