The course engages with issues related to the use of medieval manuscripts as historical sources. It examines the materiality of manuscripts, their production and uses, as well as the transmission and transformation of texts in medieval Europe. The course gives an overview of the development of the literary culture and different scripts used in the medieval period, concentrating on Western Europe and England. Significant emphasis is given to the methodological aspects and challenges that arise from using manuscripts as primary sources in historical research. During the course the students will learn to combine codicological and palaeographical methods with historical source criticism, and to critically evaluate the role of the physical book both in the Middle Ages and in modern historical interpretation. The course is taught in English.
Requirements: English skills required to follow teaching and for course literature. Knowledge of Latin and/or Old English is helpful but not required.
R Literature: Graham D. Caie, The Manuscript Experience: What Medieval Vernacular Manuscripts Can Tell Us about Authors and Texts, in Medieval Texts in Context, ed. by Graham D. Caie, Denis Renevey, London 2008, pp. 10-27. aymond Clemens, Timothy Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies, Ithaca 2007. Erik Kwakkel, Books Before Print, Leeds 2018. L. D. Reynolds, N. G. Wilson, Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature, 4th edition, Oxford 2014 [1968]), ch. 3, ‘The Latin West’, pp. 80-122. Elaine Treharne, Fleshing out the Text: The Transcendent Manuscript in the Digital Age, in: Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies 4 (2013), pp. 465-478.
- Dozent/in: Beate Heß
- Dozent/in: Inka Moilanen