01 CAC MW5 12164 AIELLO HC-S120
Reading Medieval Manuscripts
What if your textbook was over 750 years old? What would happen if you read a piece of early literature not as an isolated text printed in a modern paperback, but as it originally existed: hand-written (“manu”-“script”), artistically constructed, and sharing the page with other supposedly random texts? This seminar introduces students to the vibrant world of medieval manuscripts through one remarkable thirteenth-century manuscript, which will serve as our “textbook” for the semester.
Inside its covers, students will encounter a wide range of literatures, written by different authors, across diverse genres, and in multiple languages: magic charms and spells; prophetic dreams; medical recipes; animals putting each other on trial; romances of exile and forbidden love; adventurous lives of saints; and the earliest lyrics in English, all collected within a single artifact! While the focus of this seminar will be on reading literature, we will also spend a good portion of our time investigating the properties of the medieval object (and its digital avatars) as we explore manuscript culture: Who wrote this book? Why? Where did the scribe(s) work? What is a scribe? Can evidence of use of the physical object change our interpretation of its literatures? How might something read when it’s 2026, or even 1426, and not 1226?
Class sessions will occasionally take place in the Scarlet Letterpress for hands-on experience with bookmaking; we will also make a trip to the Morgan Library & Museum in NYC for additional work with medieval manuscripts. Assignments include a short response paper (~2 pages), a mid-term exam, manuscript transcription exercises that will help us learn to read medieval handwriting, and a final research paper (7-8 pages) on a topic of your choosing. No prior familiarity with medieval manuscripts or languages is required.