History of transmission and provenance as cultural history. The testimony of medieval manuscripts

9th Graduate Course

from September 5th to 7th, 2022

organized by the Medieval Studies Institute in cooperation with the  Center for Manuscript Research - University of Freiburg and the  doctoral program Medieval Studies at CUSO .

The course offered is intended to enable doctoral students to expand their working knowledge as medievalists and to acquire skills in the development of their doctoral thesis. The subject invites cooperation between various disciplines dealing with the Middle Ages: history, philosophy, art history, Latin and vernacular literature and philology, palaeography and codicology, musicology and liturgy.

The focus of the course is the question of the cultural-historical significance of historical findings. The doctoral students are given the opportunity to report and discuss textual history, tradition and provenance history as well as codicological and palaeographical questions that arise in connection with their medieval projects, as well as to exchange practical and methodological aspects of their work. Case studies and topics can be presented, for which the following questions, among others, arise: Which social and institutional networks organize the exchange and dissemination of manuscripts and for what reasons? How can business cycles and regional limitations in the history of transmission of certain texts be explained? Under what circumstances do transmission chains break off at certain times? What testimony value do manuscript fragments and parchment waste have, especially for historical, cultural and pious historical caesuras and breaks? What stories do the places where they were created and stored tell us about the practical and ideal value of manuscripts, which they had for contemporaries as well as for future generations? cultural and piety-historical caesuras and breaks? What stories do the places where they were created and stored tell us about the practical and ideal value of manuscripts, which they had for contemporaries as well as for future generations? cultural and piety-historical caesuras and breaks? What stories do the places where they were created and stored tell us about the practical and ideal value of manuscripts, which they had for contemporaries as well as for future generations?

Organizers: Prof.  Paolo Borsa (UNIFR), Prof.  Cédric Giraud (UNIGE), Prof.  Cornelia Herberichs (UNIFR), Prof. Karin Schlapbach (UNIFR)

External experts: Prof. Étienne Doublier (History, University of Cologne), Dr. Renate Burri (Greek Studies, University of Bern), Prof. Jonas Wellendorf (Scandinavian Studies, University of California, Berkeley)

More information HERE.