(in Polish) Manuscript in the centre: making, reading, collecting, analyzing, and editing 1500-SDN-MITC

This course is an introduction to manuscript studies. It offers an overview of the basic aspects of manuscript production, copying, and use based on examples from different cultures and times. During the course, students will learn about different writing supports (e.g. paper, stone, palm leaves, papyrus, parchment, birch bark, metal plates, wax tablets, wooden slips, silk, cloth) in the context of their usage, manufacture, physical characteristics, preservation, geographical location, and history. They will also learn about the appropriate use of various papers and other materials and forms to mediate the second level of meaning transcending the ‘meaning’ of a given text through the choice of material.

This course is also intended to introduce students to basic skills and tools required for reading and examining the source texts in their natural manuscript context and the light of selected editions. Students will be introduced to the foundational concepts underlying critical analysis of texts, transcribing and editing manuscript witnesses, and fragmented manuscript data. They will learn about narratology through the example of illustrated books from Asia and the relation between text and image. They will also learn how to describe and catalogue manuscripts based on their physical features, contents, and paratexts. They will be presented with the application of TEI/XML standards in manuscript cataloguing.

Classes will be divided into modules taught by specialists in manuscript studies from various domains and disciplines. The meetings will include workshops at the Special Collections in BUW (University of Warsaw Library). Students will be acquainted with the practical aspects of research in selected areas of manuscript studies, including traditional codicological methods and contemporary analytical techniques, such as computational linguistics and multispectral analysis. Classes will involve extensive practice in the use of spoken and written English for academic purposes.

Topics
1. An overview of writing supports, paper, and parchment: focus on Tibet
2. From codices to (digital) editions: digging into medieval English manuscripts
3. Critical analysis of the source texts: textual criticism based – selected examples from Mongolia
4. Text and image – illustrated books in Asia on the selected examples
5. Analysing manuscripts with the aid of computational linguistics
6. Manuscript fragments and the perspectives of fragmentology
7. Catalogues and cataloguing
8. Codicology and cataloguing in practice – working with medieval and early modern Latin
manuscripts (Special Collections, BUW – workshop)
9. Material analysis of European historical documents

Andrist, P., Canart, P. and Maniaci, M. 2013. La syntaxe du codex. Essai de codicologie
structurale. Turnhout.
Bak, J. M. 2017. Introduction to Working with Manuscripts for Medievalists. Gorgias and
Press.
Buzi P. and Witakowski, W. (eds.). 2015. Cataloging, in: A. Bausi (general ed.), Comparative
Oriental Manuscript Studies. An Introduction. Hamburg. pp. 467-530.
Clemens, R. and T. Graham. 2007. Introduction to Manuscript Studies. Cornell University
Press.
Helman-Ważny, A., 2014, The Archeology of Tibetan Books, Brill.
Kara, G. 2016, Books of Mongolian Nomads, Indiana University Press.
Mass, P. 1958. Textual Criticism. Oxford University Press, New York.
De Hamel, Ch. 2016. Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts. Allen Lane.
Richards, M. P. 1994. Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts. Basic Readings. Routledge.
Tarrant, R. 2016. Texts, Editors, and Readers. Methods and Problems in Latin Textual
Criticism. Cambridge University Press.
Van Lit, L. W. C., O.P. 2020. Among Digitized Manuscripts. Philology, Codicology,
Paleography in a Digital World. Brill.

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