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IMC 2012: Sessions

Session 327: Miscellanies, II: Selection and Diversity in Medieval Texts

Monday 9 July 2012, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:HERA Project 'Cultural Memory & the Resources of the Past' (CMRP)
Organiser:Sven Meeder, Onderzoekinstituut voor Geschiedenis en Cultuur (OGC), Universiteit Utrecht
Moderator/Chair:Sven Meeder, Onderzoekinstituut voor Geschiedenis en Cultuur (OGC), Universiteit Utrecht
Paper 327-aA Miscellany within a Miscellany: Medieval Arabic Compendia of Philosophical and Related Contents
(Language: English)
Elvira Wakeling, Institut für Orientalistik, Universität Wien
Index terms: Islamic and Arabic Studies, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Philosophy
Paper 327-bAre Early Medieval Canon Law Collections Smaller than the Sum of Their Parts?
(Language: English)
Roy Flechner, School of History, University College Dublin
Index terms: Canon Law, Language and Literature - Latin
Paper 327-cThe Siege Surrounded: Reading and Re-Reading the Siege of Jerusalem in Its Manuscript Contexts
(Language: English)
Gareth Griffith, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Bristol
Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Manuscripts and Palaeography
Abstract

The majority of surviving medieval manuscripts preserve multiple texts, and many medieval texts constitute a combination of selected passages of older texts. These miscellanies aided medieval students in understanding the texts included and their relationships to other learning. Through selecting and combining medieval scholars determined a work's place within contemporary interests and preferences. Understanding the context of the scholars' choices and their consequences is therefore vital to the study of the medieval reception of texts from the past.

This session focusses on the medieval historian's method in approaching such miscellanies, both in the form of manuscripts and texts. How are we to interpret the selections made by medieval compilers, and how can we determine the context of the medieval scholars' choices? By bringing together papers covering the whole period from late Antiquity to the late Middle Ages, all textual genres, and across the medieval world, this session offers insight into the methods and modern tools employed by students of miscellanies and florilegia to interpret the choices of medieval scholars and scribes.