IMC 2016: Sessions

Session 309: Guiding the Mind of the Beholder: The Materiality of Medieval Texts as Determinant of Its Meaning and Use, III - The Arrangement of the Manuscript

Monday 4 July 2016, 16.30-18.00

Organiser:	Rüdiger Lorenz, Universität Freiburg, Historisches Seminar, Abt. Landesgeschichte
Moderator/Chair:	Thomas Gobbitt, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Paper 309-a	Mobilising History around 900: Manuscripts as a Key to the Threatened Carolingian Order? (Language: English) Luise Nöllemeyer, Sonderforschungsbereich 923 'Bedrohte Ordnungen', Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen Felix Schaefer, Sonderforschungsbereich 923 'Bedrohte Ordnungen', Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 309-b	The Awntyrs off Arthure: Reading the Manuscript Evidence (Language: English) Rebecca Pope, Centre for Medieval & Early Modern Studies (MEMS), University of Kent Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Manuscripts and Palaeography
Paper 309-c	Uses of Manuscripts: Some Books with Functions of Other Books (Language: English) Leonor Zozaya-Montes, Centro de História da Sociedade e da Cultura (CHSC), Universidade de Coimbra / Fundaçao para a Ciência e a Tenología (FCT), Lisboa Index terms: Law, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Social History
Abstract	How we perceive and use a text is influenced by the way it is visualized and how it is intentionally or unintentionally associated with other texts. Based on the manuscript evidence, three sessions want to explore the different ways how this change of a text's meaning or usage can be achieved. This includes the (re)organization of a text in a manuscript witness, or how accompanying texts like commentaries, glosses and notes complement, add to or even change a text, as well as the influence of the mise-en-page and the materiality of the manuscript book itself. Through these the session will examine the ways in which the experience of a reader (anticipated or real) is directed to facilitate and constrain their engagement with the text. Furthermore, the broader context of the manuscript will be taken into account: it will be asked, how associating or relating a text with other texts in a manuscript may either conserve traditional interpretations of a text, or generate new readings and new perspectives on the text's usage. The third session explores the intertextual relations within manuscripts.