IMC 2011: Sessions
Session 615: Discovering the Riches of the Word: Religious Reading in the Late Middle Ages in City, Cloister, and Court, III - Between Cloister and World
Tuesday 12 July 2011, 11.15-12.45
| Sponsor: | European Research Council, Research Project 'Holy Writ and Lay Readers' |
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| Organiser: | Sabrina Corbellini, Oudere Nederlandse Letterkunde Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Oude Kijk in 't Jatstraat 26 9712 EK GRONINGEN |
| Moderator/Chair: | Mart van Duijn, Afdeling Geschiedenis, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen |
| Paper 615-a | 'Read Often, Learn All that you Can. Let Sleep Overcome you, the Roll Still in your Hands; When your Head Falls, Let it be on the Sacred Page': Reading Techniques and Spiritual Education in Late Medieval Italy (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Italian, Lay Piety, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Social History |
| Paper 615-b | Scriptura and die Mensche: Teaching Religious Reading in Late Medieval Netherlands (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Dutch, Lay Piety, Religious Life |
| Abstract | The late Middle Ages are characterized by an 'oceanic' textual production, both in Latin and in the vernacular. A particularly high percentage of the circulating texts contained biblical or religious material. The wider dissemination of religious texts is related to a significant cultural transformation: the access to religious manuscripts and early printed was no more the exclusive right of members of religious communities. Lay readers in late medieval cities and courts engaged, as well as nun and monks, in a process of appropriation of religious knowledge which for long time had nearly exclusively been accessible to a restricted elite of Latinate readers. But how were religious texts approached? Are there specific religious reading techniques? How can the approach to religious texts by different social and cultural groups be described? The sessions will concentrate on the reconstruction of the mediaeval religious reading experience, focussing on readers, reading instructions, and reading techniques. Specific attention in this session will be given to monastic reading techniques, in the cloister and in the world. |