Text Technologies: Reading and Writing Manuscripts in the Middle Ages

This course will provide a foundation for the knowledge and skills necessary to deal with manuscripts, their languages, and sources in the medieval period. We will consider the techniques, terminology, and bibliography of manuscript scholarship with a special emphasis on the production of manuscripts from Antiquity through the Renaissance, the evolution of scripts, the rise of literacy, the development of libraries, and the impact of evolving forms in the literary tradition. We will also engage in the scholarly debate regarding centers of production, scribes, type of manuscripts and texts, codicological and paleographical and linguistic features, sources and theological background. The stress on the practical application of theoretical principles will give students both a solid foundation and also 'hands-on' experience in the cataloguing, transcribing, and editing of original manuscripts. We will look at specific manuscripts held at the UW Special Collections in both print and digital formats, setting the manuscripts in their historical and social contexts. Taught in English.