Manuscripts Changing Hands
Handschriften wechseln von Hand zu Hand
edited by Volker Schier and Corine Schleif
Medieval manuscripts were conceived to move from one set of hands to the next. Holding a book presented possibilities, and possessing a book implied power. Thus, books functioned as potent connectors. They bound producers with consumers, givers with recipients, writers with readers, writers with writers, and readers with readers. Books linked many generations and were intended to last. Hands attached messages in colophons, prayers, scribal notes, glosses, word plays, self-images, and other inserted materials. Hands also left traces in the form of penciled users’ names, threats, curses, corrections, erasures, worn and torn pages, finger prints, and dirt. The contributors to this collection of essays analyze the ways in which the manuscript medium served and challenged communication. Sensorial empathies helped to construct communal identities that overcame barriers of time, class and calling. Diachronic communities formed around books in both men’s and women’s monasteries. Librarians, collectors, and makers of facsimiles strove to preserve these hand-made, handed down objects. Ten medievalists with specialties in history, musicology, art history, and the history of literature provide articles based on discussions that took place at an international workshop supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft at the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbuttel in 2012. The volume reflects current issues relating to actor network theory and eco-critical concerns. It appears at the moment in which transient virtual media are replacing enduring material objects as means of communication.
Medieval manuscripts were conceived to move from one set of hands to the next. Holding a book presented possibilities, and possessing a book implied power. Thus, books functioned as potent connectors. They bound producers with consumers, givers with recipients, writers with readers, writers with writers, and readers with readers. Books linked many generations and were intended to last. Hands attached messages in colophons, prayers, scribal notes, glosses, word plays, self-images, and other inserted materials. Hands also left traces in the form of penciled users’ names, threats, curses, corrections, erasures, worn and torn pages, finger prints, and dirt. The contributors to this collection of essays analyze the ways in which the manuscript medium served and challenged communication. Sensorial empathies helped to construct communal identities that overcame barriers of time, class and calling. Diachronic communities formed around books in both men’s and women’s monasteries. Librarians, collectors, and makers of facsimiles strove to preserve these hand-made, handed down objects. Ten medievalists with specialties in history, musicology, art history, and the history of literature provide articles based on discussions that took place at an international workshop supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft at the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbuttel in 2012. The volume reflects current issues relating to actor network theory and eco-critical concerns. It appears at the moment in which transient virtual media are replacing enduring material objects as means of communication.
- Edited by Volker Schier
- Edited by Corine Schleif
Other Titles in this Series
Die Buchbestande von Woltingerode
Ein Zisterzienserinnenkloster im Kontext der spatmittelalterlichen Reformbewegungen
Volume 26
Liber sanctae Mariae virginis in Bordesholm …
Geschichte einer holsteinischen Stiftsbibliothek
Volume 33
Zentrum oder Peripherie?
Kulturtransfer in Hildesheim und im Raum Niedersachsen (12. -15. Jahrhundert)
Volume 32
Stiftsbibliothek und Kirchenschatz
Materielle Kultur in den Chorfrauenstiften Steterburg und Heiningen
Volume 28
Die Handschriften der Schule von Luxeuil
Kunst und Ikonographie eines fruhmittelalterlichen Skriptoriums
Volume 22
Prasenz und Verwendung der Heiligen Schrift im christlichen Fruhmittelalter
exegetische Literatur und liturgische Texte
Volume 20
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