A roundtable on manuscript studies

Over the past two decades, manuscript studies have experienced a renewed and sustained interest. This includes a profound methodological rethinking that has fully incorporated both the comparative approach and a programmatic effort to integrate contributions from the humanities, natural sciences and information sciences.

Prof. Michael Friedrich, founder of the Center for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) at the University of Hamburg, will be a visiting fellow of the MemoryLab of the Department of History and Culture (DISCI) at the University of Bologna in November 2024. His visit will provide an opportunity to take stock of some of the ongoing research on manuscript studies at DISCI and throughout the University of Bologna.

Participants will discuss their past, present and future research interests and activities. Some of the key ideas that will be discussed are:

- Manuscripts as tools/agents of memory;
- Paratexts / Paracontent;
- Layout;
- Composite manuscripts; Multiple-text manuscripts;
- Interaction between manuscripts and other media;
- The formation of manuscript collections;
- The role of manuscript studies in the formation of philological, historiographic and ethnographic methodologies.