Textual diversity and textual community in a monastic context: the case of eleventh-century Marchiennes

In 1024, the nuns of the Flemish monastery of Marchiennes were expelled from their nunnery to be replaced by monks. Soon after this reform, the monks created a manuscript (Douai Bibliothèque Municipale 849) that contained all known stories about the monastery’s patron saints. It is tempting to construe this codex as the creation of ‘a central text’ by the community of Marchiennes, referring to Brian Stock’s acclaimed concept of a ‘textual community’. However, a closer look at the manuscript reveals that it did not lay the foundations for a unified interpretation of Marchiennes’ history, but emphasized diversity and consciously targeted various subgroups within the monastery. Douai BM 849 testifies that although it was vital for a newly reformed community to develop a basis of shared stories, interests and values, this did not necessarily require the creation of one shared, monolithic interpretation of its history