About the project
Variance and change is central to this research project. The manuscript culture of the Middle Ages has been characterised as constituted by variance on all levels, from palaeography and ortography to the transmission of motifs and larger textual units.
An important contention at the outset of the program is that this variance plays perhaps the most significant role in our understanding of norms and change in the establishing of a literate culture. We therefore intend to carry out investigations of the modes of modification on various levels in the transmission of texts in order to establish a systematic synthesis.
Two central perspectives within the program concern time and space. Within the project we will operate with rather open definitions of both the time period covered by the program and the delimiting of the geographical area, something that may prove challenging but is essential to our approach.
As for the time period relevant for the program the preliminary time-frame will be c. 900 to c. 1600, but this period will be transcended in both directions when necessary to achieve the synthesis we wish to establish. Primarily we will study the literate output of the Nordic region, but our perspective must inevitably lead us into European comparison.
Aims
The overall aim of the program is twofold:
- To form a new synthesis in the view of texts in transmission in the Nordic realm.
- To explore the theoretical and methodological issues further in order to contribute to the debate.
We suggest the following hypotheses about central phenomena in the Europeanisation process:
- Our overall hypothesis is that the establishment of Latin literacy in Europe is a pre-requisite for the Europeanisation. This will be tested with reference to the Scandinavian material, but our results will, we expect, be significant for the understanding of the processes of Europeanisation as a common European phenomenon
- In order to establish a vernacular written language there must be an indigenous production and re-production of Latin works. The earliest Latin works produced in Scandinavia play an important role for the emerging written vernacular
- The early translations are highly relevant for our understanding of the vernacularisation of Roman script, providing not only a system of script but also models of writing for the emerging vernacular literature
- The translations were significant in opening the way for a secularisation of written culture, where individuals of the indigenous elite could take part. This transfer of an institutional Latin book culture into a more secular literate culture in the vernacular has its starting points in the earliest period we are studying and is active throughout the period under scrutiny