Manuscript Culture Research Articles

Using scalable vector graphics in medieval Latin palaeography: new approaches, new conversations

Abstract The use of scalable vector graphics (SVG) in the study of pre-modern handwriting (palaeography) to date has been extremely limited, especially amongst scholars of the medieval Latin West and its manuscript culture(s). Informed by the author’s experience of using vector graphics for over a decade in researching and teaching medieval Latin palaeography in UK and EU Higher Education, this short article offers a starting point for further conversation. Following a general introduction and a concise survey of current practice, it discusses some basic SVG editing tools and exemplifies the utility of their application in three key areas of palaeographic study (tracing, analysis, and visualization) before highlighting, by way of conclusion, potential avenues of future development with the aim of enabling and encouraging colleagues to make greater use of SVG in their research and teaching.

Introduction: Touching Troy

Abstract This introduction aims to briefly sketch the theoretical framework for the articles assembled in this special issue on touch within the transmission of the Troy story in western Europe. Starting with the analysis of an important scene involving reading and manuscript culture in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, this introduction provides a context for medieval instances of touching within contemporary thinking about materiality and relationality and within the transmission of the Troy story in late medieval and early modern Europe.

Approaching the Last Decades of Arabic Manuscript Culture (1870–1930): Materiality

Abstract In the late 18th and first half of the 19th century, print gained a permanent foothold in the Middle East and enabled the mass production of books in Arabic, Turkish, and Persian. As a consequence, handwriting gradually ceased to be the primary technology for making books. This article, the second of two, examines the materiality of a selection of Arabic manuscripts mostly made between 1870 and 1930 CE. It shows how scribes not only adapted to the availability of new types of pens or stationery when making their manuscripts, but also that some of them adopted layout choices and paracontent typical of printed books. Tradition and change are both visible in the objects that were analysed, and it is especially against the backdrop of a growing print industry in the Middle East that Arabic manuscript culture’s strengths and its ability to adapt emerge.

Yemeni Manuscript Cultures in Peril, edited by Hassan Ansari and Sabine Schmidtke

Yemeni Manuscript Cultures in Peril, edited by Hassan Ansari and Sabine Schmidtke

Old Uyghur Buddhist Scrolls: A Case Study Based on the Säkiz Yükmäk Yaruk Scrolls

The main feature of the extant Old Uyghur manuscripts is their fragmentary state of preservation and the predominant lack of dating. Catalogues and editions of the Old Uyghur fragments reveal a great diversity in the size and format of the discovered manuscript folios and the fragments from them. This study aims to promote the reconstruction of the scope of the Old Uyghur book forms from preserved fragments as an important part of the Old Uyghur manuscript culture. Which book forms were utilized, who participated in their production, and where? Studies on the papers and inks employed are obtainable. This study focuses on the Buddhist scrolls of the Säkiz Yükmäk Yaruk.

Late-Ming Book Culture and the Fujian Christian Community: a Case Study of Lixiu yijian 勵修一鑑 (A Mirror to Encourage Self-cultivation)

Abstract This study demonstrates the importance of book culture in the building of a religious community and in the preservation and interpretation of local experiences, through the making of a book titled Lixiu yijian 勵修一鑑 (A mirror to encourage self-cultivation) around 1645. The main author, Li Jiugong 李久功, mobilized members of the Fujian Christian community to collaborate on this communal book project outside the Christian church. Both xylographic print culture and manuscript culture were involved in the process and in the final product of this project. Through genre affiliation, content categorization, and the addition of commentaries, Li and his associates transformed the diverse source materials into a cohesive guidebook for their fellow Christian readers. The book provided Chinese references or contexts to stories of Western origin. Meanwhile, it also portrayed a group image of devoted and resourceful local Chinese Christians among their Western peers, thus promoting Chinese Christians’ experience as an invaluable part of a universal religious system.

From Stone Canal to Orchid Terrace: Libraries and Archives in the Two Han Capitals

Abstract Recent scholarship has advanced our understanding of the Han dynasty’s most important textual repositories, including the distinctions between libraries and archives and the roles they played in early manuscript culture. There is no comprehensive survey in English, however, of the main facilities where different manuscripts were stored in the two Han capitals, Chang’an and Luoyang. This article seeks answers to key questions: Where were these facilities located? Who worked there and how was one appointed? What kinds of activities took place in them? I confirm the findings of scholars who have shown that there is scant evidence for editing or scholastic activity in the main textual repositories before late Western Han, and that even after Emperor Cheng’s reign, textual production, curation, and instruction were distributed between multiple centers that were often in competition with one another.

Devotion, Humanism and Manuscript Culture in Tudor Wales and the Marches: 'The Book of Ieuan ap Wiliam ap Dafydd ab Einws' (NLW, Llanstephan MS 117) and His World

Devotion, Humanism and Manuscript Culture in Tudor Wales and the Marches: 'The Book of Ieuan ap Wiliam ap Dafydd ab Einws' (NLW, Llanstephan MS 117) and His World

The Mongols’ Baghdad: Knowledge Transmission through Manuscript Cultures Before and After the Conquest

The Mongols’ Baghdad: Knowledge Transmission through Manuscript Cultures Before and After the Conquest

Sacred King in the Shah Tahmasp Shahnama

This paper aims to trace the pre-Islamic Zoroastrian concept of “royal divine glory” (farr) through its visual translations within the Iranian manuscript cultures in the Safavid period, specifically in the illustrations of the Shahnama-yi Shahi in the 16th century. Reviewing the longue durée idea of Iranian kingship perceived within the Safavid royal ideology in the reigns of the first two monarchs, we delve into the Shahnama paintings to see the artists’ assets for showing the divinity and dignity of Iranian kings and how they managed to mark a difference between the profane and Shiite iconographies. We took as case studies nine illustrations of Zahhak’s story, the most tyrannical legendary King in Shah Tahmasp’s Shahnama. Indeed, to analyse the artistic manifestations of the Royal farr, we examined the scenes where the “true” king is literally absent.

Veiled Reading, Reading Veils: Textile Curtains and the Experiences of Medieval French Manuscripts, 1200–1325

Abstract: Building on groundbreaking studies by Christine Sciacca and Morgan Simms Adams, this article addresses an understudied phenomenon of medieval French manuscript culture: the sewing of textile curtains—fabric pieces made of silk, linen, or cotton gauze—above or beside illuminations to protect and veil them. Presenting a corpus of forty-six manuscripts of medieval French texts that once contained curtains, I demonstrate how this practice extended beyond the realm of Latin and devotional books to some of the most popular vernacular illuminated book traditions of the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Through a series of examples, the different performative potentialities of the veil—its affordances—are shown to far exceed its presumed protective function. Indeed, I argue that the textile curtain, operating at the intersection of touch and sight, should be considered an important part of how certain French books were experienced in the Middle Ages.

To the Nation, Belong the Archives: The Search for Manuscripts and Archival Documents in Postcolonial Morocco

AbstractThe trajectory of the Hassan II Prize for Manuscripts, a government initiative begun in the late 1960s to locate rare manuscripts in private collections, is a potent example of the role Arabic-script manuscript culture played in post-colonial nation-building in Morocco. This article presents the history of the Hassan II Prize for Manuscripts, demonstrating how Moroccan bureaucrats used the recovery of archival documents and especially historic manuscripts in Arabic-script, as part of a multi-faceted nation-building project after European colonization. Their project included connecting historic manuscripts to Moroccan identity and territorial sovereignty. It contends that the ramifications of linking these policies with documentary heritage would affect what came to be discovered, valorized, and preserved in the “national collection” and subsequently, what histories could be written.

Torture and Metamorphosis in Exeter Book Riddle 261

The Exeter Book Riddles provide insight into how early English medieval people felt about their place in the non-human world by giving voice to many non-human creatures. Riddle 26 depicts the creation of a manuscript from the perspective of a sheep becoming a page. A close reading of the riddle reveals that the poem is divided into two nearly identical sections, which are built around the contrast between the fundamental and material elements of book-making and the cultural and religious utility of a manuscript.The riddle begins with the killing of the animal at the hands of an unknown foe and then follows the speaking subject through its forced metamorphosis. The employment of a first-person narrator establishes an empathetic bond between the animal speaking voice and the human audience. However, near the middle of the poem, the tone changes dramatically as the emphasis turns from animal materialism to human spirituality. The closing lines insist on the beauty of the craft, the cultural significance of the book and the spiritual advantages derived from it. As a result, the interaction between the two sections appears to call into question humanity’s position in the book-making process, while simultaneously highlighting the paradoxes in book creation and manuscript culture.

Constructing a Saint’s Life between Rome and the Provinces: Jesuit Hagiographical Literature on Peter Canisius

Abstract There is general agreement about the Jesuits’ alertness to media, their crucial role in early modern printing, and their engagement in promoting the sanctity of some of their members through print publication. Despite several efforts to establish central control, most of the Society’s media production remained decentralized. Moreover, there was no pre-conceived publication strategy of hagiographical activities. As a result, the production of hagiographies often sprung up locally and with little initial awareness of each other. Hence, it was nearly unavoidable that projects overlapped and that competition between them arose. Examining two early hagiographic accounts of the life of Peter Canisius, the article sheds light on the Jesuits’ production and publication of hagiographical literature by linking the publication history of both projects to an investigation of the underlying manuscripts. As the paper demonstrates, early modern Jesuit print and manuscript culture cannot be separated.

George Kiraz and Sabine Schmidtke, eds. Scribal Habits in Near Eastern Manuscript Traditions

George Kiraz and Sabine Schmidtke, eds. <i>Scribal Habits in Near Eastern Manuscript Traditions</i>

Միքայել Աստապատեցու՝ Հյուսիսային Արցախի Գանձակի երկու անտիպ ձեռագրեր (18-րդ դարի երկրորդ կես) / Two unpublished manuscripts of Gandzak of Northern Artsakh of Mikael Astapatetsi (the second half of the 18th century)

The activities of the centers of writing formed in various monasteries and churches of medieval Armenia are valued in the development of the Armenian manuscript culture. The writing centers of a number of places, Dadivank (also - Dado), Amaras, Gandzasar, Gtchavank, Khanatsakh, Avetaranots, the village of Khznavar, Charekavank, Parisos Monastery, Yerits Mankants Monastery, St. Hakoba Monastery, Yeghishe Apostle Monastery, the church of St. Astvatsatsin of the village of Arajadzor, Hirher (Herher), Shushi, as well as the north-eastern part of Artsakh were known. Some of the many manuscripts written and rewritten in these writing centers have come down to us. Currently, the manuscripts are kept in the Matenadaran named after Mesrop Mashtots and the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. In our scientific article, we refer to two atypical manuscripts written by Mikayel Astapatetsi in Gandzak (Northern Artsakh) in the second half of the 18th century. One of the manuscripts is called "Gospel" which was written in Persian with Armenian script. There are no miniatures, ornaments in the "Gospel" which are usually present in the sections described by the four evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). The name of the customer is unknown. The manuscript describes the sections presented by the four evangelists: "Gospel according to Matthew", "Gospel according to Mark", "Gospel according to Luke", "Gospel according to John". There are some stories about of the birth, baptism, preaching, healings, miracles, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ written by the apostles. The next rewritten manuscript of Mikael Astapatetsi is called "Medicine". Methods for preparing various medicines from plants, the names of various diseases, the causes, the methods of the treatment, etc. were presented in the manuscript. Thanks to those manuscripts, the idea of centuries-old Armenian traditions, Christian faith, as well as Armenian folk medicine and indisputable facts was spread in some Muslim circles in that difficult period. On the other hand, this manuscript containing the valuable works of Amirdovlat Amasiatsi is an important source for the study of various issues of medieval medicine.

A Time of Novelty: Logic, Emotion, and Intellectual Life in Early Modern India, 1500-1700 C.E. by Samuel Wright (review)

Reviewed by: A Time of Novelty: Logic, Emotion, and Intellectual Life in Early Modern India, 1500-1700 C.E. by Samuel Wright Anusha Rao (bio) A Time of Novelty: Logic, Emotion, and Intellectual Life in Early Modern India, 1500-1700 C.E. By Samuel Wright. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. xxi + 278. Paper $99.00, isbn 978-0-197568-16-3 Samuel Wright's A Time of Novelty examines the discipline of Nyāya, or Sanskrit logic, between 1500 and 1700 CE and argues that novelty, both as an intellectual and affective category, was the structuring principle through which Nyāya intellectuals built a philosophical community in early modernity. Wright uses a set of essays and commentaries by Nyāya philosophers on a range of topics to reflect on how intellectual life in this period was shaped by critical inquiry, emotion, and manuscript culture. The book studies a very fruitful, if contentious, period within the history of Sanskrit intellectual disciplines. Sheldon Pollock's "Sanskrit Knowledge Systems on the Eve of Colonialism" (SKSEC project) was the first to draw attention to this period as early modernity in India. Pollock has pointed to both parallels with and differences from modernity in Europe. Since then, scholarly attention has been directed to how periodizing techniques were used by Nyāya intellectuals, and to the relationship that these "new" Nyāya intellectuals had with the tradition. While Wright is in general agreement with the aims of the SKSEC project, he argues against focusing exclusively on intellectual historical change without understanding the values and sentiments that underwrite intellection. For this reason, the book undertakes the challenging task of linking a set of understudied Nyāya arguments with philosophy of emotions to understand affective novelty. This offers interesting insights into the emotional concerns behind Nyāya intellection in a way that earlier scholarship has been unable to, but it has the disadvantage of imposing frameworks alien to Nyāya philosophers onto their arguments--such as Wright's arguments about how space is produced in chapter 3. The book is organized into six chapters, each of which deals with an important topic within Nyāya arguments in early modern India. While the first four chapters, titled "Doubt," "Objectivity," "Happiness," and "Dying," directly deal with these contentious issues and debates around them by Nyāya thinkers, in the last two chapters, "Space" and "Time," Wright does not take up specific arguments from primary texts, but focuses on how we can best understand the space that Nyāya intellectuals inhabited and how novelty can be conceptualised in time. [End Page 1] In the first chapter on doubt, Wright zooms in on arguments about how doubting cognitions emerge, focusing particularly on Raghunātha Śiromaṇi and how commentators present his novel position on the issue. Earlier Nyāya intellectuals argued that speech and other indirect forms of perception could not generate doubting cognitions. Instead, they advanced a theory of apperceptive doubt, where doubt arises in a subsequent, remembering cognition. Raghunātha, on the other hand, argues that doubting cognitions can arise directly from speech, and he substantially changes the definition of doubt, a change which is noted and carefully explained by his commentators. Beginning with the theory of doubt allows Wright to then examine how the new definition of doubt leads to structural changes in the crafting of Nyāya debates, particularly in genres such as the short essay (vāda), where the topic of contention is stated in the newly developed format. Wright also links this debate with the notion of trust. Careful attention to how the debate is framed by commentators also underscores the emotional underpinnings of the argument--the "old" view is not to be trusted, since it does not stand up to reasoning (p. 60). Doubting cognitions are not ignored in Nyāya, but become the beginning point of debates and discussions, demonstrating that Nyāya philosophers in early modern India were fashioning a community that engaged peers through new ways of understanding and caring about critical inquiry. The second chapter focuses on arguments around objectivity and deals at greater length with the periodizing techniques used by Nyāya thinkers in the early modern period. This...

:Bibliophobia: The End and the Beginning of the Book

:<i>Bibliophobia: The End and the Beginning of the Book</i>

Texte vor der Gutenberg-Galaxis oder Lachmannisches Mittelalter?

Abstract The two parts of the article are complementary. In the first part, Justin Vollmann takes a look at digital editing and in particular at the online edition Lyrik des Deutschen Mittelalters (LDM) from a McLuhanian perspective, with LDM also being presented in its basic functions. In the second part, Florian Kragl follows the ‘gutenberggalactic’ tendencies of medieval manuscript tradition using Bligger von Steinach as an example, and then asks about the editorial consequences. The common goal is to establish a differentiated view on the medieval manuscript culture and its modern edition possibilities.

The Gǝʿǝz Manuscripts Collection from the Monastery of Däbrä Ṣǝyon (Abunä Abrǝham, Tǝgray, Ethiopia)

The monastery of Däbrä Ṣǝyon (Abunä Abrǝham), situated on a peak of the eastern chains of the Gärʿalta mountains, is one of the well-known medieval Ethiopian monasteries. It is said to have been established in the fourteenth century by St Abrǝham of Tǝgray. According to his own gädl, Abunä Abrǝham was not only the founder of the monastery, but was also known to be an active participant and director of the architectural work of the rock-hewn church. It is known that Gärʿalta is endowed with reflections of Aksumite culture, and the monastery of Däbrä Ṣǝyon also seems to have had its own share in its continuation. Many places and monasteries (in Tǝgray) are linked to this monastery in terms of shared monastic culture and land granting. Däbrä Ṣǝyon is a rock-hewn church in which many Christian historical artefacts have been preserved. Among the non-codex written artefacts, it has preserved, in particular, a ṭawos manuscript. Seventy-two Gǝʿǝz manuscripts, most of which of hagiographical and liturgical genre, are kept in the church. All were digitized, foliated, with quire number and structure sorted out in 2018, via a project carried out by the St Yared Center for Ethiopian Philology and Manuscript Studies (SYCEPMS) of Mekelle University. Material, physical, and chemical analysis of the manuscripts was not applied due to a lack of equipment and skill. The manuscripts are now in the process of being catalogued and examined for dating, and the article provides a synthetic survey of the whole collection. The ṭawos manuscript, that is, a peacock-type manuscript from the fifteenth century, is part of the collection; its format calls for consideration regarding the definition and significance of a special style of Ethiopic manuscript culture. As a result, this article aims at introducing the monastery and its manuscript collection.