Announcements
University Lectureship in English Literature and the History of the Book 1450-1650 All enquiries are to be directed to daniel.wakelin@ell.ox.ac.uk.
NEH summer seminar: "Researching Early Modern Manuscripts and Printed Books"
Call for papers, ISCH COST Action IS1005 "Easy Tools for Difficult Texts?" Medieval manuscripts and codices are notoriously difficult to convince to become well behaved inhabitants of the digital scholarly ecosystem. Meanwhile over the last decades many digital local computerized services, web based tools, and stand alone applications have been developed to create, publish, and analyze digital representations of manuscript and printed text. Although such tools have been trying to accommodate for medieval manuscripts--and sometimes were even solely developed for that purpose--a true convenient and intuitive means of re-representing medieval text in the digital medium seems elusive. The nature of medieval texts--ambiguous, uncertain, instable, often of unknown origin and descent, of puzzling function and context, damaged, fragmented, still unconventional in their multiplicity of form, format, language, orthography, typography, and script--poses an ultimate challenge to creators and users of digital tools wishing to produce useful and reliable digital counterparts to these medieval sources of knowledge and testimonies of intellectual creativity. The Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands and the COST Action IS1005 "Medieval Europe" are organizing a two-day workshop that seeks to gather a number of experts in methodologies and tool creation around the complex issue of transferring medieval manuscripts to a digital medium. The workshop, to be held at the Huygens Institute in The Hague on 18 and 19 April 2013, will create an overview of the state of the art of tool development, and of the difficulties and extreme requirements medieval manuscript poses to digital methods and techniques. The first day will consist of introductions and demonstrations, as well as thorough methodological reflection on a number of tools highly visible in the field of digital textual scholarship. The second day will consist of theoretical and methodological focused papers and the creation of an inventory of common difficulties and unsupported features essential to digital philology of medieval manuscripts. We invite all interested experts to submit an abstract for a proposed paper of no more than 500 words. We urge authors of proposals to include relevant literature references (not counted as word count), to assist the audience in its orientation in this more technical part of the field. Send your abstract to congres@huygens.knaw.nl, before 15 February 2013. Please mention "COST Workshop" in the subject field. Presenters will be reimbursed (according to the rules of the COST organisation) for their travel and accommodation expenses. Since the budget is restricted, however, we can only accommodate a limited number of people. If you are under the happy circumstance that you would not have to rely on funding by COST, please let us know, so that we can fit in more presenters. The proceedings of the workshop will be published. For further information, you can write to congres@huygens.knaw.nl. Again, please mention "COST Workshop" in the subject field.
Illustrating the Early Printed Book
Hes & De Graaf Publishers, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National Library of the Netherlands (KB) and the Dutch Book Historical Society (NBV) are organising a conference on 12 April 2013 on the occasion of the publication of the long awaited revised edition of Ina Kok's widely admired and groundbreaking dissertation on the woodcut illustrations in incunabula printed in the Low Countries between 1475 and 1501. At the start of the conference, the book Woodcuts in Incunabula printed in the Low Countries will officially be presented, after which an international selection of speakers will present the world of the early printed book, their cataloguing and digitisation, and of course the woodcuts they contain. Speakers are Paul Needham (Scheide Library, Princeton), Lotte Hellinga (British Library, London), Bettina Wagner (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munchen), John Goldfinch (British Library, London), Cristina Dondi (University of Oxford), Marieke van Delft (Koninklijke Bibliotheek), Truusje Goedings and Andrea van Leerdam (Utrecht University).
CALL FOR PAPERS: Europe After Wyclif Discussions of religious controversy in late-medieval England have increasingly adopted a continental scope. We have begun to see how communication networks, both licit and illicit, connected England with sometimes unexpected parts of Europe; how the Wycliffites influenced, and were influenced by, continental writings; how English religious affairs drew the attention of continental observers; and how debate over Wyclif's doctrines featured prominently at the 15th- century general councils. Seen from an even broader perspective, late-medieval English religious politics was both integrated with and stood in tense relation to that of continental Europe (as had long been the case). In other words, England was never as insular as some have thought it to be. This conference aims to explore intersections--the points at which Wycliffism and English religious controversy meet with broader social, cultural, historical, literary, and material issues of European significance. One purpose of this gathering is to examine the place of L/lollard studies in terms of wider concerns in Europe, though not all papers are expected to address L/lollardy or Wycliffism directly. This meeting will also provide a forum for re-examining the mission of the Lollard Society, its current emphases and future directions. --PLENARY SPEAKERS--Vincent Gillespie (Oxford), Fiona Somerset (Univ. of Connecticut), John Van Engen (Notre Dame)
Abstracts of approx. 150 words should be sent by e-mail to Michael Van Dussen no later than 15 March 2013 Conference Organizers: J. Patrick Hornbeck II (Fordham University) hornbeck@fordham.edu Michael Van Dussen (McGill University) michael.vandussen@mcgill.ca
New Book on Manuscript Studies For a full details on this book, see the Cornell University Press website; find a 20% discount order form here.
Research funding: Norwegian Research Council/University of Stavanger Individuals interested in pursuing research on medieval English scribal texts or in related areas of the history of the English language are welcome to contact Professor Merja Stenroos (merja.stenroos@uis.no) or Dr Jacob Thaisen (jacob.thaisen@uis.no) at the University of Stavanger. We especially welcome proposals compatible with the interests and expertise of the Middle English Scribal Texts Programme. Funding for a research stay would be sought jointly from the Research Council of Norway's Yggdrasil programme. Please note that, as of 2012, it is the potential host institution who is responsible for submitting the application. The Yggdrasil mobility programme funds research stays of a duration of between three and twelve months; scholarships awarded under the current call are to be taken up no early than 1 August 2013. Eligible are current doctoral students and those who have successfully completed a doctorate within the past six years. The current call is open to citizens of Council of Europe member states (except the Nordic countries), as well as of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico and South Africa. The application deadline is 28 November. For further information about the Yggdrasil programme, including the current call for proposals, please visit the website of the Research Council of Norway at http://www.forskningsradet.no/en/Funding/ISMOBIL/1233557743178
Special volume of Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching (19.1, Spring 2012): Table of Contents Michael Johnston, "Introduction" Andrew Taylor, "Experiencing Authority, Confronting the Cool: Bringing Medieval Book History into the Classroom" David C. Mengel, "Teaching the Codex as Writing Technology" Allison Muri, "Teaching the History and Future of the Book" Dabney A. Bankert and Mark Rankin, "Teaching Medieval and Early Modern Manuscript and Print Culture in Theory and Practice" Michael Johnston, "The History of the Book as a Supplement to the Literature Survey" Eric J. Johnson, "'A closed book is a mute witness': A Curator's Approach toward Teachng with Rare Books and Manuscripts" Annotated Bibliography For information about the journal, please see the following link: http://webs.wichita.edu/?u=smart&p=
CFP: Books Have Their Histories: Medieval Chronicles and Their Scribes, Manuscripts, and Early Editions--In Memory of Lister M. Matheson Lister Matheson (1948-2012; Professor of English and Medieval Studies, Michigan State University) was a major scholar in many fields, but two of his most important scholarly legacies lie in the arenas of medieval chronicle studies (including the Middle English Prose Brut and the relation of chronicles to medieval literary traditions) and early book and manuscript studies (in a wide variety of content areas, from historical writing and popular legends to scientific texts and ownership/biographical studies). He was a frequent and fondly-remembered participant in many Medieval Congresses over the years, both as a speaker and as an organizer and chair of sessions. Papers for these memorial sessions should be united by the broad theme of the medieval presentation of history and the codicological settings through which that history was transmitted. Papers may focus on various aspects of later medieval chronicles; manuscripts and printed texts linked to medieval historical writings; the scribes, printers, owners, or commissioners of such texts; and similar topics. As Professor Matheson's own work has shown, a full understanding of medieval historical texts demands attention to both the content of the works in question -- which could vary quite significantly depending on the needs or interests of the users of those texts -- and the material circumstances of producing those works. Papers illuminating these connections should be of interest to historians, literary specialists, and/or early book scholars, inter alia. Proposals should be no longer than 400 words and must clearly indicate the significance, line of argument, principal texts and relation to existing scholarship (if possible). Email the proposal in the body of the message, a 50-word bio note, and a completed Participant Information form (http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html#PIF) to Dominique Hoche at dominique.hoche@westliberty.edu or dominique.hoche@gmail.com. Due September 15, 2012. For information, contact dominique.hoche@westliberty.edu or dominique.hoche@gmail.com For general information about the 2013 Medieval Congress, visit: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/index.html.
CFP: The Thirteenth Biennial Early Book Society Conference St Andrews University, 4 to 7 July 2013 Proposals to be sent by November 15, 2012 The thirteenth biennial EBS conference, hosted by Margaret Connolly and Julian Luxford, will be held at St Andrews University from July 4 to July 7, 2013, with an optional trip to Edinburgh collections and other sites of interest in the area scheduled for July 8. Special exhibitions put on for the Early Book Society conference will feature collections at St Andrews and also at the National Library of Scotland which houses the Bohun Psalter, the Murthly Hours, the Auchinleck manuscript and one of two extant illustrated MSS of Nicholas Love's Mirror of the Blessed Life. The latter exhibition will be organized by Kenneth Dunn, Curator of MSS, at the NLS. The theme of the conference may be as narrowly or broadly interpreted as necessary; "networks" could allude to an affinity, friendships, communities, secular or religious or both, for example, while "influence" could be orthodox, heretical, royal, individual and so on. "Networks" might allude further to collectors or cataloguers of medieval MSS or of related libraries. Lectures or proposed sessions that consider the transition from script to print, bibliographic issues, or the movement between English and Scottish texts (or vice versa) and audiences are particularly encouraged, though papers on any aspect of the history of manuscripts and printed books from 1350-1550, including the copying and circulation of models and exemplars, style, illustration, and/or the influence of readers and patrons, artists, scribes, printers, are welcome. The conference is open to all EBS members. Details of how to join can be found on the home page of this site (http://www.nyu.edu/projects/EBS/). Please indicate in your proposal whether a slide projector, OHP, or computer equipment is needed. Please send copies of your proposal to both main organizers by the Nov 15 deadline. These are: Martha Driver (marthadriver@hotmail.com; EBS, English Department, 41 Park Row, Rm 1503, New York, New York 10038-1598, US) or FAXed to 212-346-1754 (office) AND Margaret Connolly (mc29@st-andrews.ac.uk) Lauderdale, Cupar Road, Ceres, Fife, Scotland KY15 5LP UK.
EBS is pleased to announce its sponsorship of five sessions at the 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies 1. French Humanism (co-sponsored with the IRHT, Paris) 2. Collaboration: Scribes with Scribes, Scribes with Artists 3. Late Medieval Collections: Manuscripts and/or Books Bound Together 4. Robert Thornton and His Books 5. The Impact of the Book: MSS, Books and Cultural Change NB French Humanism is the only session that has been preplanned. The others are open for proposals. Abstracts (1-2 pp), letters of commitment, and a-v requests (please access the form through www.wmich.edu/medieval) should be sent to Martha Driver no later (preferably earlier) than September 15, 2012. EBS members wishing to serve as session chairs or respondents should send a note by the September date to the university or e-mail address. Send abstracts to Martha Driver, Dept of English, Pace University, 41 Park Row, Rm 1503, New York, NY 10038 or FAX to 212-346-1754 (attn: Martha Driver, English Department). Inquiries are welcome. E-mail: MDriver@pace.edu or marthadriver@hotmail.com
Call for Papers: RGME Sessions at the 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies With the mission to "apply an integrated, holistic approach to manuscripts and texts in all forms," the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence announces seven sponsored and co-sponsored sessions examining the material culture, production, and purposes of written records, and the dispersal, recovery, and study of those works in various forms and widespread locations. Here we list sessions potentially of interest to the Early Book Society. Sessions sponsored by the RGME (www.manuscriptevidence.org): Our session seeks reports of recent advances in manuscript studies through improved digital imaging techniques, at the British Library and elsewhere. This rapidly developing area of research offers significant non-destructive analysis of pigments, their composition, and their methods of application. The results offer wide-ranging applications for the study of medieval manuscript illuminations and embellishments of many kinds. II. "Medieval Writing Materials: Texts, Transmission, and the Manifestation of Authority" organized by Mildred Budny (RGME) mildredbudny@gmail.com The study of writing materials is of value both in its own right, but also for information regarding the texts and images associated with them, the methods of their production, and the authority of their testimony as records of whatever sort. We aim to explore, develop, and advance these interlinked subjects, and to disseminate the results among many relevant (but seemingly unrelated) areas of study. III (Panel). "Current Issues in Middle English Palaeography" organized by Andrew B. Kraebel (Yale University) andrew.kraebel@yale.edu Recently the many different insights that palaeography may offer to the study of Middle English poetry and prose have taken on new clarity. Amongst many others, these include the circulation of Wycliffite literature (for example, were there such things as Lollard scribes, and what did they produce?), the role of and audience for Carthusian scribes (how extensively, if at all, did Carthusians disseminate literature to lay readers?), and the identity of Adam Pinkhurst (was he Chaucer's "owen scryveyne"?). This field has benefited from the appearance, in the last few years, of various new tools for research, including Jane Roberts' Guide to Scripts Used in English Writings (London, 2005), and the Late Medieval English Scribes project (www.medievalscribes.com), developed by Linne Mooney, Simon Horobin, and Estelle Stubbs. For this panel, contributions are invited which address questions of Middle English palaeography and literature (by no means limited to those listed here), and which make use of or engage with these or any other new palaeographical tools. The panel seeks to encourage new work in this developing and exciting field. Session co-sponsored by the RGME and King Alfred's Notebook LLC (kingalfredsnotebook@gmail.com): This co-sponsored session builds upon and extends our 2012 session on medieval manuscripts in the New World. Approximately 30,000 medieval and Renaissance manuscripts can be found in North American collections. Some 20,000 of these are fragmentary: single leaves, disbound bifolia and quires, or cuttings large and small. Relatively few of these sources have been examined carefully, especially at smaller college and university libraries. Moreover, American libraries, such as the Ohio State University, the University of Pennsylvania (through the Schoenberg gift), and the University of South Carolina, have been rapidly acquiring manuscripts and fragments over the past few decades. Even the smallest collections have undiscovered treasures, as shown by recent publications on neglected and newly recognized manuscripts, including a fragment of Ars Nova polyphony at Columbia College, SC and a Book of Hours at the Redwood Athenaeum in Newport, RI. Many manuscripts in institutional and other libraries are being digitized in order to reach a larger audience of students and scholars. This session aims to galvanize, present, and foster investigation into North American manuscript collections by introducing seemingly invisible archives with sources ideal for study in print or digital form. We invite papers addressing a variety of genres, materials, challenges, and potential for teaching and scholarship on any medieval manuscript or collection in North America. Papers on the history of collecting medieval manuscripts and fragments are also welcome. Each contributor to this session will receive a $100 travel honorarium. Sessions co-sponsored by the Societas Magica (www.societasmagica.org) and the RGME: Astrology was employed in the elaboration and timing of magical ceremonies, and served as their broader cosmological backdrop. Likewise, magical and astrological treatises often traveled together in manuscript. This session is intended to open up a codicological perspective on the intersection between astrology and magic. II. "Magic, Material Culture, and Technology" organized by Laszlo Sandor Chardonnens (Radboud University Nijmegen) s.chardonnens@let.ru.nl (until 31 August please contact dporreca@uwaterloo.ca or mildredbudny@gmail.com The description and conceptual visualisation of magical artefacts is well-known from medieval written sources, which sometimes dwell on the procedure to make and use magical objects at great length. Magical artefacts themselves, however, usually survive in smaller numbers than their manuals. This session focuses on the voices of the material artefacts, by presenting recent work on, and discoveries of, magical objects. Their interface with the textual descriptions deserves exploration. III. "Water as Symbol, Sign, and Trial: Aquatic Semantics in the Middle Ages" organized by Mihai-D. Grigore (University of Erfurt) grigoremihai@gmx.de This session draws attention to one of the most important and under-researched topics in the cultural history of the Middle Ages. Themes to explore include not only aquatic initiations and ordeals, visualizations of Heaven and Hell, and the symbolic topography of water and waters within the medieval imagination, but also the presence of themes, motifs, rituals, and spells involving aquatic symbolism and crafts in medieval manuscripts, inscriptions, and images. Please send your proposal for a paper with an abstract (on one page) and a completed Participant Information Form -- see http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html -- to mildredbudny@gmail.com or to the individual session organizer as early as possible, but NO LATER than 15 September 2012. You could also send your proposal by mail to: Please feel free to contact us with any questions.
Real Biblioteca in Madrid launches online database, "Encuadernaciones de la Real Biblioteca"
New York Public Library Digital Disaster
Late Medieval English Scribes website launched Late Medieval English Scribes is an online catalogue of all scribal hands (identified or unidentified) which appear in the manuscripts of the English writings of five major Middle English authors: Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, John Trevisa, William Langland and Thomas Hoccleve.
Harlaxton Medieval Studies Index now available The newly-published index volume which runs to an impressive 841 pages
Now available from: Shaun Tyas Publishing T: + 44 (0)1775 821 542 The cost is £35.00 (post free for UK orders)
New Blog from St Andrews: Echoes from the Vault Echoes from the Vault is the official blog of the Rare Books Collection of the University of St Andrews. Here you can find posts about unique or exciting finds amongst the vaults in our day-to-day work, bringing to light voices that have remained quiet for many years. This blog will also feature news and events happening within the Special Collections Department and the University Library. The Rare Books Collection of the University of St Andrews is estimated at over 200,000 volumes, and almost half of these have not been catalogued online, with only a portion of it having been recorded in the old Page Catalogue and reported to the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) and other bibliographies. Most of the unique items are not completely unknown to previous and existing Special Collections staff, they have just lain dormant for centuries. It is our hope that we can reawaken the potential of these books as research and educational resources by getting them in the hands of students, staff and researchers. As part of its launch, Echoes from the Vault is showcasing bookbindings in St Andrews' collection with a special feature "52 Weeks of Fantastic Bindings," adding photos and discussion of one new fantastic binding each week. Follow the blog here: http://standrewsrarebooks.wordpress.com/.
Opuscula: Short Texts of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (OSTMAR) For more information or to view a sample edition, go to opuscula.usask.ca or write Frank Klaassen, General Editor at editor@opuscula.usask.ca. OSTMAR is an on-line and open-access journal published by Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies at the University of Saskatchewan under a creative commons license. All submissions are subject to a double-blind peer review and must be accompanied by readable digital facsimiles of the original documents.
Announcing a new series from Ashgate Publishing Company:
Proposals should take the form of either 1) a preliminary letter of inquiry, briefly describing the project; or 2) a formal prospectus including: abstract, brief statement of your critical methodology, table of contents, sample chapter, estimate of length, estimate of the number and type of illustrations to be included, and a c.v. Please send a copy of either type of proposal to each of the two series editors and to the publisher: Dr James Daybell, james.daybell@plymouth.ac.uk; Dr Adam Smyth, adam.smyth@bbk.ac.uk; Erika Gaffney, Publisher, egaffney@ashgate.com.
THE MEDIAEVAL JOURNAL The Mediaeval Journal is a distinctively European-based cross-disciplinary and multinational journal of Mediaeval Studies published in English in both print and online formats. Featuring the work of specialists in all areas of Mediaeval Studies, it offers wide disciplinary coverage in every issue and welcomes submissions from the worldwide community of mediaevalists in traditional disciplines such as Art History, History, Archaeology, Theology, European Languages/Literatures (including English), as well as burgeoning areas such as Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies, Manuscript Studies, Mediaevalisms, Material Culture, History of Medicine and Science, History of Ideas, Queer Studies, Postcolonial Studies, and Musicology, to name a few. Each issue of The Mediaeval Journal also contains timely and expert reviews responding to the variety and energy of scholarship across the world of Mediaeval Studies. The editors are pleased to receive submissions in any of the above areas, and to respond to queries from potential contributors. Please send submissions, in the form of email attachments, to the General Editors: Dr Ian Johnson (irj@st-andrews.ac.uk) and Dr Margaret Connolly (mc29@st-andrews.ac.uk). Ordering Information: To order a copy of The Mediaeval Journal contact our Customer Care Department at periodicals@brepols.net or tel. +32 14 44 80 35.
Harry Ransom Center's Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts Collection Now Accessible Online AUSTIN, Texas --The Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, has introduced an online database for its medieval and early modern manuscripts collection. The database includes more than 7,000 digital images and can be accessed here http://research.hrc.utexas.edu/pubmnem/ The medieval and early modern manuscripts collection contains 215 items dating from the 11th to the 17th centuries. It comprises items from various collections, including those of George Atherton Aitken, W. H. Crain, Carlton Lake, Edward A. Parsons, Sir Thomas Phillipps, Walter Emile Van Wijk, Evelyn Waugh, John Henry Wrenn and others. The Ransom Center is digitizing all of the collection items, which will be added to the database as they are completed. At present, digital images are available for 27 of the items for a total of 7,288 pages. The database contains item-level descriptions for all 215 items, and the collection is searchable by keyword and any combination of the following categories: name, country of origin, century, language, format (such as charters or diaries), subject and physical features (such as musical notation or wax seals). The medieval and early modern manuscripts collection is a rich resource for many areas of research. Scholars may use the collection to trace typographical developments in printing, compare different versions of the same text or examine a manuscript's composition, decoration and binding to study the history of the book. The collection may also be valuable for those studying the history of liturgy and music. "The new database for the Ransom Center's medieval and early modern manuscripts collection is a wonderful resource for students and teachers here at the university and for scholars everywhere," said Marjorie Curry Woods, professor of English and comparative literature at The University of Texas at Austin. "The detailed descriptions will help researchers working on individual manuscripts, provide a model for students learning palaeography and codicology, and allow scholars elsewhere to explore possible connections between the Ransom Center's manuscripts and those in other collections. "The complete digitized versions of manuscripts are invaluable. Manuscripts that are now too fragile to be handled are still available for research and teaching, and those that have small, difficult-to-read glosses and marginalia now can be deciphered with relative ease. In addition, digitized manuscripts can be projected for class presentations and can be consulted by scholars working collaboratively but in different locations. Access to the Ransom Center's valuable early holdings is increased exponentially while at the same time reducing wear and tear on the manuscripts themselves." The collection is particularly strong in humanistic manuscripts, vernacular literature and religious documents. Other represented subjects include alchemy, architecture, astronomy, botany, cartography, classical literature, diplomacy, drama, genealogy, government, heraldry, history, kings and rulers, law, mathematics, medicine, monasticism and religious orders, music, philosophy, poetry, science and war. The earliest item in the collection is the Tegernsee Miscellany manuscript, an 11th-century Austrian codex of various texts compiled by Abbot Ellinger of Tegernsee. Other highlights include 11 Books of Hours, most notably the "Belleville Hours," and a 15th-century German ferial psalter and hymnal, significant because of its possible stylistic relationship to the Gutenberg Bible and early printed psalters. The collection contains classical texts, including copies of works by Cicero, Horace, Ovid and Plato, and medieval literary works by Geoffrey Chaucer, Dante and Petrarch. The historical documents in the collection represent numerous European monarchs, such as Henry VIII of England, Louis XIII of France and Philip III of Spain. Notable historical figures represented in the collection include Oliver Cromwell, Martin Luther, John Milton, Sir Isaac Newton, Abraham Ortelius and Sir Walter Raleigh. Document types include charters, commonplace books, contracts, correspondence, decrees, deeds, diaries, government records, indentures, letters patent, minutes, notarial documents, notes, papal bulls, petitions, pontificals, receipts, reports, speeches and writs. The manuscripts represent numerous countries and historical regions, including Austria, Bohemia, Bolivia, Byzantium, England, Flanders, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, Spain and the United States. The represented languages include Dutch, English, Flemish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Middle English, Old English and Spanish. Other holdings at the Ransom Center that contain early manuscripts include the George Atherton Aitken, Eastern manuscripts, clay tablets and cones, Kraus maps, Lanza-Acosta Bolivian, Arthur Livingston, papyri, Pforzheimer, Ranuzzi, Shelley family and the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary collections. High-resolution press images from the collection are available.
New Project-- This project is concerned with the relationship between written culture and society, specifically how innovations in the technology of the medieval manuscript relate to cultural change. The primary period of investigation is the age of renewal (renovatio) known as the “Twelfth-Century Renaissance” (c. 1075 - c. 1225). The project focuses on the new codex that emerged in this period: the “pregothic” manuscript, for lack of a better term. The new book format included new scripts, new page layouts and new reading aids, including running titles, paragraphs, “footnotes,” cross references and diagrams. These and other innovations dramatically changed the reading experience of medieval individuals: it helped to organize knowledge, convert words into arguments, open a dialogue between author and reader, and facilitated better comprehension and speedier access of information.
The emergence of the pregothic manuscript raises important questions. What physical traits were introduced on the page and how did they precisely aid the reader? How quickly were these new features disseminated and which ones were most popular? Can their introduction be tied to particular institutions, schools or groups of intellectuals? Did certain texts come with certain physical attributes? To address such queries, the research project will relate the material format of the twelfth-century book to the historical context of its production and use. The affiliated researchers will focus on three dimensions: 1) Codicological and paleographical innovations (Coordinator, starting 1 May 2010); 2) Relationship between the material book and the cultural background of their users (Junior Researcher, to be appointed in 2010); 3) Relationship between the material book and the texts and genres it contains (Postdoctoral Researcher, to be appointed in 2011). The project leans heavily on manuscripts included in the Catalogues des Manuscrits Datés and will be based on in-situ study of a high volume of manuscripts.
"Performing Medieval Narrative Today: A Video
Showcase"
Timmie (E.B.) Vitz, New York University
ebv1@nyu.edu
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Send announcements to Martha Rust at martha.rust@nyu.edu
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updated 2/8/2013