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

This interdisciplinary course provides a comprehensive introduction to manuscript studies, offering an overview of the fundamental aspects of manuscript production, transmission, and use across a wide range of historical and cultural contexts. Students will examine a diverse array of writing supports – including paper, stone, palm leaves, papyrus, parchment, birch bark, metal plates, wax tablets, wooden slips, silk, and cloth – considering their manufacture, physical properties, preservation, geographical distribution, and historical relevance.
The course emphasizes how the materiality of a manuscript contributes to its secondary levels of meaning, beyond the textual content. By exploring the interplay between physical form and cultural function, students will develop critical awareness of the manuscript as a complex historical artifact.
Students will also acquire foundational skills and tools for reading and analyzing source texts within their original manuscript contexts and in relation to selected editions. The course introduces key concepts in textual criticism, palaeography, and fragmentology, with particular attention to the transcription and editorial treatment of manuscript witnesses. Topics include the relationship between text and image in illustrated manuscripts – especially in Asian traditions – and the principles of narratology. Students will also learn how to describe and catalogue manuscripts based on physical features, contents, and paratexts, and will be introduced to TEI/XML standards for digital cataloguing.
The course is structured around thematic modules taught by specialists in various fields of manuscript research. Sessions will include hands-on workshops held at the Special Collections of the University of Warsaw Library (BUW), providing practical exposure to traditional codicological methods and contemporary techniques such as multispectral imaging and computational analysis. Throughout the course, students will also develop academic English skills, with an emphasis on the effective use of scholarly language in both spoken and written form.
Topics
An Overview of Writing Supports: Paper and Parchment in Focus. A case study on Tibetan manuscript culture
From Codices to (Digital) Editions. Exploring medieval English manuscripts and their modern transformations
Critical Analysis of Source Texts: Textual criticism through selected examples from Mongolian traditions
Text and Image: Illustrated Books in Asia: Narrative and visual interplay in selected manuscript traditions
Analysing Manuscripts with Computational Linguistics: Digital methods and tools in manuscript research
Manuscript Fragments and the Perspectives of Fragmentology: Theory and practice of working with incomplete manuscript material
Manuscript Catalogues and Cataloguing Methodologies: Standards, formats, and descriptive strategies
Codicology and Cataloguing in Practice: Workshop with medieval and early modern Latin manuscripts (Special Collections, BUW)
Material Analysis of European Historical Documents: Scientific approaches to the physical study of manuscripts