Academic literature on the topic 'Medieval epigraphy and paleography'

La commande et la donation de biens destinés à l’Église conditionnent le fonctionnement de la société médiévale. Grâce à une approche holistique et interdisciplinaire, une première étude globale de la pratique, des mécanismes et des effets du patronage pieux sur la société bulgare des XIIe-XVe siècles est proposée. Depuis la refondation de l’Empire bulgare en 1185, en passant par les périodes de conflits avec Byzance, la Serbie et les États latins, jusqu’à l’établissement des Ottomans en 1396 et même au-delà, les dons servent à définir le territoire, à négocier le pouvoir et à forger la cohésion entre les groupes sociaux. L’identification de nouvelles formes de générosité et le réexamen d’œuvres et de sources narratives et juridiques, parfois méconnues, permettent d’élaborer un modèle de fonctionnement horizontal et vertical du patronage et de contribuer par cet éclairage nouveau à l’étude de ce phénomène social complexe à l’échelle plus large du monde médiéval<br>Commissions and donations of goods and property to the Church are at the core of medieval society. Through a holistic and interdisciplinary approach, this dissertation aims to provide the first global study of the practice, mechanisms and role of pious patronage within Bulgarian society during the 12th-15th century. From the re-foundation of the Bulgarian Empire in 1185, through the intermediate periods of conflict with Byzantium, Serbia and the Latin States, until the establishment of the Ottomans in 1396 but also beyond, pious donations have been used to define territory, negotiate power and maintain the cohesion of social groups. The identification of new forms of generosity and the re-examination of artworks, narrative and legal sources, some of which hitherto neglected, lead to elaborate a new model of horizontal and vertical social patronage and shed new light for the study of this complex social phenomenon on the broader scale of the medieval world

The aim of this thesis is to examine what a study of the visual presentation of the fourteenth-century poet-composer Guilluame de Machaut's songs can tell us that studying them simply as pre-defined works cannot. This has involved two distinct, but related fields of enquiry. Firstly, I have developed of a way of considering the six manuscripts of Machaut containing what appear to be his complete works which focuses on the visual impact of each codex as a whole, from the materials used to the content it contains (text, images, music). This methodology, which draws on the works of such scholars as B. Cerquiglini (Eloge de la variante, 1989), S. Huot (From Song to Book, 1987), and D. Leech-Wilkinson (The Modern Invention of Medieval Music, 2002) and relies heavily on primary sources, is founded on the premise that each of the manuscripts is a complete and unique artefact, irrespective of who created it and for what purpose. Building on this, I argue that each manuscript can be considered a performance. When one of Machaut’s compositions (poetical, musical, or both) is preserved in more than one source, each such manuscript is considered as a performance in its own right. This performative approach allows for and indeed welcomes variations in interpretation and presentation, including those that appear to entail manipulations of the work itself, by performers as diverse as copyists (involved in internal, possibly mnemonic performance), oral interpreters (singing or reading out loud, either from memory or from a copy), editors (whatever their purpose and medium, be it a paper edition based on all sources or a digital edition of just one: perhaps these are the equivalent of today's copyists?), and readers (scholarly and leisurely, from any era). Having established this approach in my thesis, I then assess the role of the individuals involved in such a manuscript performance. The differing role of the scribes and the author in a manuscript's production is considered, particularly with reference to the manuscripts over whose compilation the author is perceived to have had some control. The role of the reader is considered in terms of the reception of the manuscript and especially the extent to which manuscript layout and design subconsciously ‘control’ reader interpretation. In the light of this I analyse the manuscript presentation of Machaut's songs in each of the six principal manuscripts transmitting his works, with particular focus on the literary works that contain musical notation, the Remede de Fortune and the Voir Dit, the series of lays set to music, and the Messe de Notre Dame. The methodology adopted throughout considers the visual impact of the presence of music on the manuscript page and assesses the extent of this impact both on the reader and on its relevance to manuscript design: what can the layout of the music tell us about the manuscript's readers, patrons and creators? This analysis offers insights as to the role of artists in the society of mid- and late-fourteenth-century France, the changing perceptions of words and music, and the role of reading, writing, and memory in society.

The five texts contained in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 114 (c. 1420-50) are seminal to understanding the centrality of asceticism in medieval English devotional literature. This thesis addresses the ways in which Douce 114 can be comprehended as a ‘whole book’ and as such outlines a transformation from extreme bodily mortification (in its first text) to the mortification of mind (in its last). It suggests that the manuscript was envisioned as a spiritual tool, its contents designed to be read in order, and that the central theme of asceticism is a hermeneutical device which guides the (Carthusian) reader’s spiritual development. The introduction provides a history of Christian asceticism while the first chapter contextualises attitudes to the phenomenon in late-medieval England. Chapters two and three examine the themes of Passion devotion and imitatio Christi in the Life of Elisabeth of Spalbeek, chapter four addresses the nature of embodiment and earthly purgatory in the Life of Christina Mirabilis, and chapter five examines the inherent problem of misguided bodily imitation of spiritual exemplars in reference to the Life of Marie of Oignies. In conclusion, chapter six argues that the Life of Catherine of Siena and Henry Suso’s Seven Points of True Love and Everlasting Wisdom, which emphasise the transcendence of bodliness, clarify the true inwardly ascetical nature of the preceding texts.

This dissertation explores the complex interactions among written text, language choice, and political context in Wales in the late-eleventh and early-twelfth centuries. I argue that writers in medieval Wales created in both their literary compositions and their manuscripts intricate layers of protest and subversion in direct opposition to the authority of the Anglo-Norman political hegemony and the aggrandizing spread of the Canterbury-led church. These medieval literati exploited language and script as tools of definition. They privileged Welsh or Latin when their audience shifted, and they employed the change from early Insular script to the Caroline script of the Normans as not just a natural evolution in script development, but as a selective representation of mimicked authority. The family of Bishop Sulien at Llanbadarn Fawr has been the focal point of this study, as they were active during a time of Anglo-Norman intervention in their community that is reflected in the shifting script of their manuscripts and the apprehensive though proud tone of their compositions, which include the vitae of saints David and Padarn and the poetry of Ieuan and Rhygyfarch ap Sulien. My work provides a much-needed cohesive portrait of the multilingual medieval Welsh literary culture at the turn of the twelfth century. Questions of audience and authority come into play, particularly when considering the growing hybridity of learned communities during the Anglo-Norman infiltration of Wales. Manuscripts themselves are viewed as vehicles of identity, for the evolution of script and design offers clues as to the methods of compromise practiced by Welsh intellectuals. This compromise in the written word can be viewed as an embodiment of the Welsh desire and need to mediate fraught political boundaries, as they did using both the ‘nation’-defining Welsh language and the vehicular prestige language of Latin, resulting in an intertextual exploration of identity through the act of writing itself. Writing is a critical demonstration of Welsh authorship and agency in medieval Britain, and one that can be used to reflect upon notions of Welsh identity.<br>Celtic Languages and Literatures

This dissertation focuses on fragments of Notre Dame manuscripts that made their way to German speaking Europe during the medieval period. The first chapter focuses on their contexts of reuse. Dominican, Cistercian as well as Franciscan bookbinders played a role in these processes of medieval and early modern recycling. The potential for fragments to elucidate bookbinders’ techniques will be explored, and existing hypotheses as to the circulation of Notre Dame manuscripts will be critically reviewed. Furthermore, an emphasis is placed on the importance of the reconstruction of medieval book collections. The second chapter is dedicated to the discovery of a set of conductus fragments reused by a bookbinder of the Dominican convent of Soest. Taking one known fragment as a point of departure, I was able to assign five further leaves(now in Münster, Cambridge and New Haven) to this set of fragments. The third chapter sheds new light on the history of two host volumes, in which, during the twentieth century, organum fragments were discovered. It addresses questions of the changing ownership of manuscripts, focusing on the role of post Reformation and nineteenth century book collectors. The final chapter, a case study of the conductus Porta salutis ave, discusses editorial problems in conjunction with a close analysis of the piece’s main stylistic features. As the text was originally designed as a seal inscription, questions of material culture and music are also addressed. Furthermore, my systematic search for text sources for the distich Porta salutis ave revealed more than twenty previously unconsidered manuscripts transmitting the poetic text only, whose fuller, contents point to complementary contexts and functions to those suggested in the musical sources and the seals.

This thesis undertakes a close study of a single manuscript of the early 1320s, written at the priory of Fineshade, Northamptonshire. The manuscript contains a short chronicle and several documents related to the failed baronial rebellion of 1321-22. I argue that, in collaboration with the priory’s patrons, the Engayne family, the chronicler responds to the current situation with an attempt to create meaning from a time of crisis. In the process, he attempts to shape his material through patterns of style and thought inherited from both chronicle and hagiographical traditions, to make the present conform to the known and understood shape of the past. His success is limited by his inability to establish sufficient distance from traumatic events, a difficulty that many chroniclers seemed to encounter when they attempted to turn current events into meaningful historical narrative.

What is the line between the “ancient” world and the “medieval” world? Is it 476? 330? 632? 800? Most historians acknowledge there is no crisp line and that these are arbitrary distinctions, but they are made anyway, taking on lives of their own. I believe they are much the same world, except for the pervading influence of one flavor of monotheism or another. This thesis endeavors to study top-down, monotheistic conversions in Pontic-Caspian Eurasia and their respective mythologizations, preserved both textually and archaeologically, which serve as a primary factor for what we might call “state formation.” These narratives also function, in many cases, as the bases of many modern nationalisms, however haphazard they may be. I have attempted to apply this idea to Christian Rome (Byzantium)’s diachronic missionary policy around the Black Sea to reveal how what we today call the “Age of Migrations” (the so-called “Germanic” invasions of the Roman Empire), was actually in perpetual continuity all the way up to the Mongolian invasions and perhaps even later. In this way, I hope to enhance the context by which we understand the entirety of not only Western history, but to effectively bind it to a broader context of global monotheization.

L’objet de la thèse consiste en la présentation aux chercheurs du corpus le plus complet possible du patrimoine épigraphique juif des Pouilles et de Basilicate – la zone la plus riche de témoignages juifs de toutes les autres régions du Sud de l’Italie, de l’Antiquité tardive au Moyen-âge –, grâce au catalogage détaillé du matériel subsistant et introuvable. Il s’agit pour cela de confronter les éditions de Cesare Colafemmina (Archivio CeRDEM-Centro Ricerche e Documentazione sull’Ebraismo C. Colafemmina), aux données provenant de nouvelles enquêtes sur le territoire, aux documents d’archives des apographes et aux Fonds photographiques non publiés, en particulier ceux de Nikolaus Müller (Glasplattendias jüdischer Katakombeninschriften - “Sammlung Nikolaus Müller”, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin) et de Rocco Briscese (Archivio privato Briscese, Comune di Venosa). La thèse comprend une centaine de Fiches (« Schede ») paléographiques qui analysent pour la première fois en détail les aspects de la paléographie de toute la série des stèles juives. Un des objectifs regarde l'analyse de l'évolution de l’écriture de l’Hébreu, en comparant le matériel épigraphique des Pouilles et de la Basilicate avec le développement de la culture juive du sud de la péninsule italienne entre terre d’origine (Ereṣ Yiśra’el), Méditerranée et Europe du Nord. Les données épigraphiques signalées dans le passé ont été étudiées dans le détail et puis comparées avec les épitaphes encore existant aujourd’hui. L’inventaire des inscriptions perdues a été dresse Ont été utilisées des données épigraphiques signalées dans le passé (XVIIIe-XIXe siècles) pour les comparer avec celles d’aujourd’hui pour dresser l’inventaire des inscriptions perdues. Les reproductions encore existantes ont été identifiées pour dresser un état des lieux et une liste complète mise à jour<br>The thesis consists in presenting researchers with the most complete as possible corpus of the Jewish epigraphic heritage of Puglia and Basilicata – the area with the greatest amount of Jewish material in all the regions of Southern Italy from late antiquity to the Middle Ages - thanks to the cataloguing of existing and hard to find material, through the comparison of Cesare Colafemmina’s findings (Archivio CeRDEM-Centro Ricerche e Documentazione sull’Ebraismo C. Colafemmina) and the data from the new investigation on the territory, archive documents, apographs and photographic archive, in particular of Nikolaus Müller (Glasplattendias jüdischer Katakombeninschriften - "Sammlung Nikolaus Müller", Humboldt Universität zu Berlin) and Rocco Briscese (Archivio Privato Briscese, Comune di Venosa). The thesis includes one hundred paleographic SCHEDE which, for the first time analyze in detail those aspects linked to the paleography of the entire series of Jewish steles. The project focuses on the evolution of Hebrew script, based on the comparative analysis of the epigraphic material of Puglia and Basilicata in relation to the development of Jewish culture in southern peninsular Italy between Ereṣ Yiśra’el, the Mediterranean and Northern Europe. Among the objectives: the creation of a catalog of this corpus of “stele”. In particular, the project started with Jewish inscriptions already reported in the past (18th-19th century) to compare them with the ones still in existence. The reproductions of the lost inscriptions have been found when possible in order to draw up an up to date inventory