How to Read the “Andachtsbüchlein aus der Sammlung Bouhier” (Montpellier, BU Médecine, H 396)? On Cultural Techniques Related to a Fourteenth-Century Devotional Manuscript

Abstract

Henrike Manuwald takes a fourteenth-century devotional manuscript (Montpellier, BU Medecine, H 396) as a starting point for discussing the general question of how to reconstruct reading techniques for books whose original context of use is unknown. Drawing on actor-network theory and research on cultural techniques, she shows how the specific interrelation of pictorial and verbal signs in this manuscript have probably incited meditation. Her findings add new perspectives on the concepts of “text” and “book” as currently adopted for the period: while the materiality of the manuscript is important (as generally highlighted in recent scholarship), its structure points to the concept of an immaterial text defined by its wording.