IMC 2010: Sessions
Session 205: Texts and Identities, II: Circulation of Manuscripts and the Social Environment of Texts in Early Medieval Gaul and Spain
Monday 12 July 2010, 14.15-15.45
| Sponsor: | Institut für Mittelalterforschung der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien / Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies, Universiteit Utrecht / Faculty of History, University of Cambridge |
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| Organisers: | Maximilian Diesenberger, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien Gerda Heydemann, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien / Institut für Geschichte, Universität Wien |
| Moderator/Chair: | Yitzhak Hen, Department of History, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva |
| Paper 205-a | Reflections on the Language and Origin of the Virtutes Apostolorum (Language: English) Index terms: Hagiography, Language and Literature - Latin, Manuscripts and Palaeography |
| Paper 205-b | Penance and Reform in Spain in the 10th and 11th Centuries (Language: English) Index terms: Manuscripts and Palaeography, Political Thought, Religious Life |
| Paper 205-c | Circulation of Manuscripts, Circulation of Monk Historians in Aquitaine (Language: English) Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Historiography - Modern Scholarship, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Monasticism |
| Abstract | This session discusses opportunities and limits of the study of the manuscript transmission and circulation of texts as a tool for understanding their cultural context and social functions, especially where information on authors and origins is scarce. The first paper in this session (Maarten Prot), combines this approach with a sociophilological analysis of the so-called Collection of Pseudo-Abdias, a collection of Latin apocryphal acts of the twelve apostles, which is commonly thought to have originated in late 6th-century Gaul. It discusses the applicability of such a linguistic analysis with regard to reconstructing the relatively unknown origin and cultural environment of the collection. Rob Meens studies three penitential handbooks written in Spain in the 10th and 11th centuries and their political context. This coherent group of texts has usually been used as windows on Spanish popular religious culture; yet this paper suggests, on the basis of the manuscript transmission, that we should rather see them as part of a reform program with a strong royal imprint. While the penitentials reflect the aspirations of reforming circles at the royal court, small and subtle changes to the traditional material do sometimes reflect local usages, as revealed, for example, by some intriguing canons addressing Christians living amongst a Muslim population and in danger of assimilating too much to their surroundings. |