Paleography

In an unpublished manuscript about exemplary women, Cristofano Bronzini described a visit to the Tuscan court by Giovanna Garzoni while she was still in her teens, and transcribed a poem written there in her honour. This new documentary evidence has important implications for understanding Garzoni’s artistic development in the early 1620s.

It was not until the second decade of the twelfth century that Carolingian script started to be used in Galicia, closing the cycle of more than 200 years of use of Visigothic script as the main graphic system in the north-western Iberian Peninsula. A new period of openness to European cultural currents put then an end to the graphical and liturgical particularism of the territories that would become Spain, meaning a drastic change for all literate and illiterate people that was not received with equal eagerness in all areas. Some ecclesiastical institutions, led by ambitious bishops and abbots, saw an opportunity to grow and present themselves as the new main cultural centres of the medieval Iberian Peninsula, taking away the political and cultural prominence of those that had once been instrumental in the reorganization of the Christian peninsular realms after the Muslims’ arrival. Others seem to have been reluctant to accept a new rite and to adopt a new script, neither of which was a national product. Caroline minuscule had not evolved gradually, like Visigothic script had, from the previous documentary and book hand writing systems used, but was imposed, like the Roman rite, mostly by political interests of kings, ecclesiastical elites, and cultural pressure. Acceptance of change would lead to a cultural unification in which the glorious Visigothic past, Visigothic script, and Visigothic rite were no more than a memory.
In analysing the extant manuscript sources, codices and charters, that speak of liturgical imposition and graphical acculturation, the present work discusses not only how the process occurred, but what it must have meant, politically and culturally speaking, for major cultural peninsular institutions both old and new, for those closer to the Carolingian Empire and those geographically distant but very much in the political and ecclesiastical centre of northern Christian Iberia. After a brief historical and graphical review of how the process of change developed in Septimania and Catalonia as early as the ninth century, and in Aragon, Navarre, and the Leonese-Castilian kingdoms well into the eleventh century, attention will be given to what was the old kingdom of Galicia, in the far north-western corner of the peninsula. A thorough look at the extant written sources produced in the two main Galician sees, Lugo and Santiago de Compostela, from the late eleventh to the mid-twelfth century, and their historical context, highlights the steps of graphical and cultural change, simultaneously providing valuable evidence about how the transition from the old Visigothic script system to the new European Carolingian one must have been experienced by the scribes and copyists who lived it.

Este artículo responde la frecuente pregunta sobre cómo se encontraron las soluciones para averiguar el sistema de escritura y el idioma del manuscrito medieval MS408, como se describió en el artículo de la revista Romance Studies titulado The Language and Writing System of MS408 (Voynich) Explained (Cheshire, 2019). Desvelar el enigma fue un proceso muy intuitivo, así que explicar cómo se hizo es un reto en sí mismo.

The following is a general guideline for creating digital collections and working with early Indiana documents. Once you decided to digitize a manuscript collection and created a plan, there are ways you can enhance your collection. 1. Taking the time to learn how to read historical handwriting and manuscript collections. 2. Conducting extensive research on the collection. 3. Carefully selecting your collection’s metadata. 4. Promoting your collection once it is live. While explaining the steps, I incorporate examples from my experience reading, researching, inputting metadata, and uploading documents from the New Harmony Collections for the Indiana State Library.

Position de ma thèse soutenue en septembre 2019:

"Depuis longtemps déjà, l’élaboration des chartes a intéressé les médiévistes. Les questions de l’écriture, de la rédaction et finalement de l’identité des personnes impliquées dans la production de ces textes ont ainsi mené à une myriade de méthodes et à des questions de recherche particulières. Cette thèse explore la méthodologie disponible pour les diplomatistes, et ceci par l’étude des chartes épiscopales des diocèses de Liège, d’Arras et de Cambrai – type de charte qui mérite certainement une plus grande attention. Surtout le développement des méthodes numériques a fait l’objet de l’attention, en particulier par le test du logiciel GIWIS et par l’usage de techniques du domaine de la stylométrie, sans perdre de vue les méthodes manuelles. Enfin, cette étude concerne l’analyse des noms présents dans ces actes, afin de tenter d’identifier les personnes actives dans leur élaboration."

The article by Denis Tsypkin is an editorial foreword for the current collection of articles and it provides brief overview of the five annual conferences “Expert Examination and Photography,” which were held from 2010 to 2014. The paper covers the reports and presentations, which were dedicated to the following subjects: development of the expert examination of documents and texts in Russia; general expert theory and methodology, as well as to the theory, methodology and history of studying of historical and modern paper and its identifying marks; methodology and hardware and software for studying handwritten manuscripts (in forensic and historical handwriting examination); modern methods, procedures and means of technical examination of documents; technical and technological expert examination of monuments; questions relating to the expert, restoration and resource studying of photo documents.

The Medici Archive Project is offering a new online educational program in Italian paleography and archival studies for the A.Y. 2015 – 2016. The course is comprised of two components: an online course, which is divided into three modules, and an onsite seminar in Florence.
Reflecting increased interest from scholars at every stage of their careers, but especially the needs of students attempting archival research in Italy for the first time, our new modular program will provide students with both a firm introduction to working in Italian archives and the confidence to read, understand, and use archival material as an integral part of their research.
The current offer is a redesign and expansion of our previous educational courses. For the first time, students can now pick and choose from diverse modules suited to their interests. Moreover, students will be taught using our new online teaching tool developed with funding from the Samuel H. Kress
Foundation that allows students to collaborate online in the transcription of high quality digital reproductions of archival documents. The Fall semester will conclude with a standalone two-week seminar in Florence.

The syllabus can be found at: www.medici.org/educational-programs

Questions and queries should be addressed to education@medici.org

Some financial aid may be available to successful applicants undertaking most or all of the four modules.

Questo breve lavoro esamina, in maniera preliminare e fondandosi sugli studi già compiuti nel settore della paleografia applicati al caso bergamasco, la transizione dalla corsiva nuova alla carolina analizzando le sottoscrizioni ai documenti dell'VIII-IX secolo. A seguito dell'analisi delle fonti edite si è cercato di fornire un quadro generale della situazione scrittoria del periodo nella zona bergamasca: non solo l'evoluzione dalla scrittura, ma anche la diffusione dell'alfabetizzazione e le capacità grafiche dei singoli scriventi (quando è stato possibile).

This brief essay describes minuscule 1780, a complete Greek manuscript of all 27 books of the New Testament.  This is one of only two such manuscripts in the United States.  Digital page-views are online, and this essay features an index of the New Testament books in the manuscript.  In addition, minuscule 1780's text of First Peter 1:1-12 is compared to the same passage in Codex Sinaiticus, and the outcome shows that in those 12 verses, 1780 has the more accurate text. 
(3 pages, with embedded links)

Mультимедийная лекция, посвященная 1000-летию памяти Владимира Святого – Крестителя Руси († 1015),  в Международном мультимедийном пресс-центре МИА «Россия сегодня» (Президентский зал) 4 Марта 2015 г. (17:00) в рамках нового мультимедийного проекта «Sputnik. Чтения»: http://1000vladimir.ru/2015/03/15/v-moskve-proshla-multimedijnaya-lekciya-istorika-professora-o-g-ulyanova-kreshhenie-vladimira-svyatogo-i-nachalo-rusi/

In the paper are published three vernacular extracts from account books drawn up by Venetian merchants and bankers in the second half of the thirteenth century. The first two are contained in judgments rendered by the civil court of Petizion (established in 1244): therefore they are an early example of the probative value assigned to the account books in the commercial law of medieval Venice and they will occupy an important place in the Venetian dossier of the «Chartae Vulgares Antiquiores» research project. These extracts, which are among the oldest Venetian texts survived, are provided with a historical and linguistic commentary.

More than 2000 years ago, the Greek philosopher Philodemus (or one of his scribes) painstakingly inked a history of the country’s great thinkers, called History of the Academy, on a giant scroll of papyrus. A few decades later, Mount Vesuvius in what is now Italy blew its top, burying Pompeii and the nearby city of Herculaneum, where the scroll was kept, in ash. When archaeologists uncovered the scroll and many of its companions in the 18th century, the fragile rolls were charred and mostly unreadable. “It’s a black cat at midnight situation,” says Greg Bearman, a retired physicist who has studied ancient scrolls.

In this study we will decipher the process by which the canonry
of the Cathedral of Seville created a series of codices, enerically called Statute Books, in which were written the rules that governed the see until the fall of the Old Regime. We aim to understand how they became the unordered group of rules
and laws that finally were. Also we will clarify how and when these manuscripts, sometimes recipients of unpublished information, were used, were born and died. In addition, we will show another scriptural practice of the canonry used to publicize their statutes which had not attracted attention until now.

L'ouvrage Lire le manuscrit médiéval, présenté dans une édition mise à jour, se propose de guider tous ceux qui étudient les sources médiévales à partir des documents originaux. Il s'attache plus particulièrement à la forme de livre manuscrit qui s'est imposée vers le IVe siècle de notre ère dans l'ensemble du bassin méditerranéen et qui demeure le modèle des livres imprimés actuels, à savoir le codex.

Divisé en neuf chapitres, il suit les différentes étapes de l'existence du manuscrit, de sa confection jusqu'à sa destinée entre les mains de possesseurs successifs. Le manuscrit se trouve ainsi étudié dans son ensemble, comme objet matériel, support de textes et témoin historique.

L'ouvrage reflète l'activité de l'Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes (CNRS), consacrée, de l'Antiquité tardive à la Renaissance, aux manuscrits et aux débuts du livre imprimé, et qui s'ordonne autour de cinq grands pôles linguistiques (hébreu, grec, latin, arabe et langues romanes). Les auteurs entendent ainsi faire partager au lecteur, néophyte ou spécialiste, l'expérience acquise.
À la croisée de plusieurs disciplines, qui relèvent toutes de l'histoire, l'ouvrage est destiné à un large public : étudiants de l'enseignement supérieur, philologues éditeurs de textes, conservateurs de bibliothèques et restaurateurs de livres, historiens de l'art et des techniques, historiens des idées et des cultures.

Pour le paléographe, il est plus commode de travailler avec des classifications nettes et des périodisations distinctes qu’en suivant une tradition confuse. Les styles d’écriture arménienne ne sont pas clairement définis, et il est commun de mélanger un type avec un autre. Une véritable catégorisation universelle n’est véritablement apparue qu’avec l’imprimerie, où l’idiosyncrasie du scribe laisse la place à une implacable logique des formes de lettres.

Maya art is a rare combination of linear elegance and naturalism, blended with dazzling symbolic complexity.  Decorated objects, ranging from painted vases and carved jade and shell ornaments to towering stone monuments and building façades, bear the traces of a symbol system that, while fascinating, can make an understanding of these images elusive to the uninitiated.

Presented here for the first time is a compendium of one hundred Classic Mayan hieroglyphs that are also building blocks of much ancient Maya painting and sculpture. The symbols touch on many facets of the Maya world, from the natural environment—animals, plants, the heavens—to the mental landscape of gods, myths, and rituals.

Using hundreds of line drawings and photographs, the authors show how to identify these signs, understand their meaning, and appreciate the novel ways they appear in art. As well as providing a basic introduction, the authors offer many new and exciting interpretations.

Lavishly illustrated, and fully cross-referenced and indexed, this groundbreaking guide will prove an invaluable tool for those wishing to see Maya art, perhaps for the first time, through the eyes of ancient scribes and artists.

Conhecida sobretudo por seu protagonismo em uma das mais notórias querelas literárias do medievo, a Querelle de la Rose, Christine de Pizan (1365 - c. 1430) integra a lista dos principais intelectuais franceses e pensadores políticos de seu tempo. Autora de vinte e cinco composições em verso e dezesseis obras em prosa, Pizan desenvolveu um estilo de escrita peculiar, que era capaz de transmitir sua visão intelectual e espiritual, de maneira agradável e acessível, sem perder a persuasão de seus argumentos. Este seu estilo ganhou público, influenciou diversos autores e poetas na época e rendeu várias edições de suas obras feitas posteriores a sua morte, inclusive traduções para o inglês médio, alto-alemão médio e português médio.

Studying Aristotle’s Politics in the 15th century. Summaries and anthologies in the Greek manuscripts, in S. FARRINGTON (ed.), Enthousiasmos. Essays in Ancient Philosophy, History, and Literature. Festschrift for Eckart Schütrumpf on his 80th Birthday, Academia Verlag-Nomos, Baden-Baden 2019, pp. 147-174.

Il s’agit de l'édition critique d’une « cédule », ou quittance, rédigée au milieu du XIVe siècle par l’un des consuls de la ville d’Herment en Auvergne.
Le texte, consigné sur un morceau de papier de petite dimension (210 mm x 87 mm), concerne des événements survenus à l’été 1356 dans le contexte de la guerre de Cent Ans.