Syon Abbey’s Books and the Strength of Weak Ties

Abstract: This article applies Mark S. Granovetter’s influential 1973 study “The Strength of Weak Ties” to the networks of books and manuscripts related to Syon Abbey (founded 1415), England’s first and only Birgittine house. Granovetter’s study argues that it is one’s acquaintances, or weak ties, that are more influential in transmitting information within a network, rather than one’s close connections. Using network analysis, I have identified the weak ties in the networks of books, donors, and families related to Syon Abbey, traditionally recognized as a hub of late-medieval English devotional literary culture. My analysis of 560 nodes and 738 edges taken from Syon’s medieval period (1415–1539) reveals that Syon’s weak ties were most commonly family members of individual Syon sisters, who serve as so-called ‘bridging ties’ between Syon and other contemporary religious communities, including Benedictine Barking Abbey and Dominican Dartford Priory. These bridging ties may also have been conduits for the exchange of books and manuscripts between Syon and its contemporaries. In addition to identifying the possibility of a previously unrecognized relationship between Syon and other religious houses, this article also serves as an example of the validity of a promising method of data analysis for manuscript studies.