Table Of ContentTheMeaningofMedia
Modes of Modification:
Variance and Change in
Medieval Manuscript Culture
Edited by
Karl G. Johansson
Volume 1
The Meaning
of Media
Texts and Materiality in Medieval Scandinavia
Edited by
Anna Catharina Horn, Karl G. Johansson
ThepublicationofthisbookhasbeengenerouslysupportedbyRiksbankensJubileumsfondforthe
AdvancementoftheHumanitiesandSocialSciences.
ISBN978-3-11-069497-0
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DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1515/9783110695366
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Contents
AnnaCatharinaHornandKarlG.Johansson
SomeReflectionsonWritingaNewHistoryofTextsfortheScandinavian
MiddleAges 1
LisbethM.Imer
LumpsofLead–NewTypesofWrittenSourcesfromMedievalDenmark 19
AnnaBlennowandAlessandroPalumbo
AttheCrossroadsbetweenScriptCultures 39
SamuNiskanen
TheEmergenceofanAuthorialCulture:PublishinginDenmarkintheLong
TwelfthCentury 71
HjaltiSnærÆgisson
AReadingoftheCanonsofLaonStory 93
SifRikhardsdottir
OceanicNetworks 103
IngelaHedström
TheLanguageofLegitimacy 125
AnnaKatharinaRichter
TheDanishTranslationofAmadísdeGaulaintheThottCollectioninthe
RoyalDanishLibrary,Copenhagen 157
LukasRösli
FromSchedæAraPrestsFróðatoÍslendingabók–WhenanIntradiegeticText
BecomesReality 173
PersonalnameIndex 215
WorkIndex 219
ManuscriptIndex 221
AnnaCatharina Hornand KarlG.Johansson
Some Reflections on Writing a New History of
Texts for the Scandinavian Middle Ages
Thepresentbookisthefirstinanewseriesintendedtoprovidethefoundationfor
anewhistoryoftextsintransmissionintheScandinavianMiddleAges.Itisthere-
fore relevant to stress what is central to and new about this approach to medieval
manuscriptculture.Thetraditionalsynthesisintheformofliteraryhistoryisgener-
allypresentedasachronologicalnarrativeformedaroundtheproductionofworks,
primarilyworksatthecentreofanacceptedcanon.Ourcontentionisthatitismore
relevant to establish a dynamic model based on the dissemination, distribution,
and reception of texts in motion rather than static works, while to some degree,
however,retainingrelevantaspectsoftheproductionoftheoriginalform.Onecen-
tralaimistoprovidethetheoreticalandmethodologicalframeworkforsuchanar-
rativeofthehistoryoftexts.Ouruseoftheconceptsofgenreandtypeoftextwill,
for example, as a consequence also be determined by the actual reception of texts
over time ratherthan by fixedand static categories. At theoutset, it isalso impor-
tanttostressthatthematerialtakenintoaccountwilltoalargeextentinvolvetexts
that are traditionally placed outside of the canon. This enables us to form a more
comprehensiveviewoftheemergingliteratecultureinLatinandthevernacular.
TheliteratecultureoftheMiddleAges,inmanuscriptsandepigraphicwriting,
has with good reason been characterized as constituted by variance on all levels,
frompalaeographyandorthographytothetransmissionofmotifsandlargertextual
units(seee.g.Zumthor1987).Itisobvious,however,thattherehasbeenatendency
inearlierscholarshiptodividetheinvestigationofthiscultureintovariousfieldsof
study, with the result that interrelations and conflicting tendencies leading to
changesinalonger-termperspectivemayhavebeenoverlooked.Goodexamplesof
this would be the lack of studies on the relation between epigraphy and manu-
scriptsthroughouttheMiddleAges,orontheinteractionbetweenmanuscripttradi-
tions and the emerging print culture of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth
centuries. It has been common to focus on runic material as representative of re-
gional literacy, while inscriptions in Latin have very often been neglected. And
yet,fromtheintroductionofRomanscriptandLatintexts,probablyasearlyasthe
tenth century, but attested more clearly only in later centuries, our material dem-
onstrates the interaction between the traditional use of runes and the novelty of
Latin texts in various media. Runes are primarily found in epigraphic contexts,
sometimesindirectconnectionwithLatininscriptions.Inthemanuscriptmaterial,
Romanscriptdominates,butwedofindexamplesofwrittenrunicmessages,both
AnnaCatharinaHorn,KarlG.Johansson,UniversityofOslo
OpenAccess.©2021AnnaCatharinaHorn,KarlG.Johansson,publishedbyDeGruyter. Thiswork
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110695366-001
2 AnnaCatharinaHornandKarlG.Johansson
shorterphrasesinmarginaliaandalsoafewlongertexts.Latinwasprimarilywrit-
ten and carved with Roman letters, but there are already instances in the earlier
materialofLatinbeingwrittenorcutinrunes.Intheearliestperiodoftheprinting
press,therelationbetweenhandwrittenandprintedtextsneedstobestudiedfur-
ther;thereisnoobviousordefinitebreakingpointatwhichthemovefromamanu-
scriptculturetoaprintculturehastakenplace,orconsensusabouthowthischange
shouldbe defined.Animportantcontentionatthe outset,therefore,isthatthe rich
diversity found in the medieval material plays perhaps the most significant role in
ourunderstandingoftheemergingliterateculture.Itisthereforenecessarytocarry
out further investigations of variance and change – what we choose to refer to as
modes of modification – on various textual and material levels in the transmission
anddisseminationoftextsinordertoestablishasystematicsynthesis.
Materiality,intheformofstone,leadamulets,parchment,andpaper,andhow
itformedpartofliterateculture,mustbeacentralpartofthestudyofreceptionand
literacy in theMiddleAges. It isinteresting to note, however, that thenew interest
in the full range of medieval literate culture represented in what is today often re-
ferred to as the New Philology or Material Philology already had its predecessors in
thelongertraditionofphilology.ErnstRobertCurtiuscansufficeasanexample.He
statedintheearly1950s:
Now,toreadingconceivedastheformofreceptionandstudy,correspondswritingconceived
astheformofproductionandcreation.Thetwoconceptsbelongtogether.Intheintellectual
worldoftheMiddleAgestheyrepresentasitwerethetwohalvesofasphere.Theunityofthis
world was shattered by the invention of printing. The immense and revolutionary change
whichitbroughtaboutcanbesummarizedinonestatement:Untilthattimeeverybookwasa
manuscript.Merelymaterially,then,aswellasartistically,thewrittenbookhadavaluewhich
wecannomorefeel.Everybookproducedbycopyingrepresenteddiligenceandskilledcraft-
manship,longhoursofintellectualconcentration,lovingandsedulouswork.Everysuchbook
was a personal achievement – we find this expressed in the colophon, in which the scribe
oftentellsushisnameandunburdenshisheart:“sicutaegrotusdesideratsanitatemitemde-
sideratscriptorfinemlibri”. (Curtius1990:328)
Scholarship interestedin theemerging literacy in Scandinavia and inthe diversity
of the uses of texts that we meet in the extant material should take Curtius at his
wordandstudythewholerangeofliterateproductionandreception.Thematerial-
ityofliterateculture, inmanuscriptsaswell asepigraphiccontexts,isessentialto
ourunderstandingofmedievalliteracy.Itisimportantheretostresstheimportance
ofnetworksofpatronsandcraftspeoplesuchasscribesandstonemasons,thecon-
textsinwhichliterateculturewasformed.Anewunderstandingofthiscultureand
its changes throughout the Middle Ages and into the early modern period must
focus on the production and re-production of written texts in accordance with
Curtius’sviewandwithaperspectivethatincludesuseandreception.
Thepresentchapter,therefore,hasatwofoldpurpose.Thefirstaimistobriefly
treattheoreticalandmethodologicalaspectsofwritingahistoryoftextsinthecase
SomeReflectionsonWritingaNewHistoryofTextsfortheScandinavianMiddleAges 3
oftheScandinavianMiddleAges.Wewishheretopresentsomegeneralreflections
on the writing of a new history of texts in the Scandinavian Middle Ages and the
challenges that face a research programme pursuing this goal. The second aim of
the chapter is to treat aspects of materiality and mediality, be they represented in
epigraphic writing with runes or Roman script, or texts on parchment and subse-
quentlypaper.Thispreliminarydiscussionalsofunctionsasanintroductiontothe
following chapters of the present book: a number of case studies that focus on a
widerangeoftopicsrelevantforanewhistoryoftextsinmedievalliterateculture.
Finally, just a few words on the “Modes of Modification” research programme,
financedfortheperiod 2018–2025bytheSwedish Riksbankensjubileumsfond.The
programme’scoregroupconsistsofsevenparticipantswhoeachhaveresponsibility
foraparticularsubproject(orwhatweprefertocallastrand,soastoindicatethat
the individual projects are all closely related to the overall research questions of
modesofmodification).1Eachofthestrandsisexpectedtoexploreacertainperspec-
tiveoraparticularkindofmaterialinordertocontributetothefinalsynthesisofthe
whole programme. Within each strand, we intend to establish observation points
(seebelow)thatwillprovideinformationonthespatialandtemporalaspectsofthe
emergingliteratecultureoftheNordicrealm,viewedwithinalargerEuropeancon-
textandwithafocusontherelevanceofvarianceanddiversityratherthanthemore
traditionalviewoflineardevelopments.Theoverallaimoftheresearchprogramme
istofurtherourunderstandingofprocessesofliterarizationwithinacommontheo-
reticalframework.Eachstrandwillobviouslyneedtoestablishandusemethodsrel-
evanttothestudyofitsmainresearchquestionsanditsparticularmaterialorfield
ofinterest,butatthesametime,allstrandsarecoordinatedsothattheirresultswill
be compatible and form a coherent presentation in the final volumes of the pro-
gramme,whichwillbepublishedinthesameseriesasthepresentbook.
General considerations: Background and theoretical
starting points
Withthe establishmentof Church institutionsinScandinavia,fromthe first decades
oftheeleventhcentury,theLatinbookcultureoftheRomanChurchwasfinallyfirmly
established.Thereisarelativeconsensusamongscholarstodaythattheearliestpro-
ductionofLatinmanuscriptsintheNordicareaforusewithinChurchinstitutions
1 ThecoregroupconsistsofMassimilianoBampi(UniversitàCa’FoscariVenezia,Italy),AnnaBlen-
now(GöteborgUniversity,Sweden),StefanieGropper(EberhardKarlsUniversitätTübingen,Ger-
many),AnnaCatharinaHorn(UniversityofOslo,Norway),KarlG.Johansson(UniversityofOslo,
Norway),EliseKleivane(UniversityofOslo,Norway),andJonatanPettersson(StockholmUniver-
sity,Sweden).
