Inscribing Knowledge in the Medieval Book: The Power of Paratexts (Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Culture, 66) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1501517880 ISBN 13: 9781501517884

Publisher: Medieval Institute Publications, 2020

Synopsis

This collection of essays examines how the paratextual apparatus of medieval manuscripts both inscribes and expresses power relations between the producers and consumers of knowledge in this important period of intellectual history. It seeks to define which paratextual features – annotations, commentaries, corrections, glosses, images, prologues, rubrics, and titles – are common to manuscripts from different branches of medieval knowledge and how they function in any particular discipline. It reveals how these visual expressions of power that organize and compile thought on the written page are consciously applied, negotiated or resisted by authors, scribes, artists, patrons and readers. This collection, which brings together scholars from the history of the book, law, science, medicine, literature, art, philosophy and music, interrogates the role played by paratexts in establishing authority, constructing bodies of knowledge, promoting education, shaping reader response, and preserving or subverting tradition in medieval manuscript culture.

About this title

About the Author

Rosalind Brown-Grant, Patrizia Carmassi, Gisela Drossbach, Anne D. Hedeman, Victoria Turner, Iolanda Ventura. Rosalind Brown-Grant, University of Leeds, UK, Patrizia Carmassi, Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, Germany, Gisela Drossbach, Universität Augsburg, Germany, Anne D. Hedeman, University of Kansas, Lawrende, USA, Victoria Turner, University of St Andrews, UK, Iolanda Ventura, Université d'Orléans, France.

From the Back Cover

This collection of essays examines how the paratextual apparatus of medieval manuscripts both inscribes and expresses power relations between the producers and consumers of knowledge in this important period of intellectual history. It seeks to define which paratextual features—annotations, commentaries, corrections, glosses, images, prologues, rubrics, and titles—are common to manuscripts from different branches of medieval knowledge and how they function in any particular discipline. It reveals how these visual expressions of power that organize and compile thought on the written page are consciously applied, negotiated or resisted by authors, scribes, artists, patrons and readers. This collection, which brings together scholars from the history of the book, law, science, medicine, literature, art, philosophy, and music, interrogates the role played by paratexts in establishing authority, constructing bodies of knowledge, promoting education, shaping reader response, and preserving or subverting tradition in medieval manuscript culture.

Edition details

• Publisher: Medieval Institute Publications
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1501517880
• ISBN 13: 9781501517884
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 395
• Editor: Brown-Grant Rosalind, Carmassi Patrizia, Drossbach Gisela, Hedeman Anne D., Turner Victoria