Suchergebnisse

Cultural Studies; Manuscripts Philology

Stemming from the Sanskrit Manuscripts Project that ran in Cambridge (UK) in 2011-2014 and led to the cataloguing and partial digitization of the rich collections of South Asian manuscripts in the University Library, these essays explore the manuscript culture of India and beyond – Nepal, Cambodia, Tibet – from a variety of angles: books as artefacts, works of art, commodities, staples of tradition, and of course as repositories of knowledge.

What do Mesoamerica, Greece, Byzantium, Island, Chad, Ethiopia, India, Tibet, China and Japan have in common? Like many other cultures of the world, they share a particular form of cultural heritage: ancient handwritten documents. This volume offers in 16 articles on philological, cultural, and material aspects of manuscripts a common ground across disciplines and cultures.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Toward a New Model of Fragmented History -- PART I Theory and Historiography -- 1 Historiography of Texts: From Literacy to Literacy Practices within the Anglo-Saxon School of Thought -- 2 Scribal Culture in Transnational Perspective -- 3 Local and Global Perspectives as Platforms for Barefoot Historians: A Microhistorical Approach -- PART II The Structure of Culture and Education -- 4 Setting the Scene within the Hard Rock of Reality -- 5 Vernacular Literacy between Two Campaigns -- 6 Emotions and Education -- PART III Barefoot Historians and their Everyday Life -- 7 Childhood, Local Culture, and Educational Processes -- 8 A Quest for a Space-A No-Place: Scribal Communities as Institutional Structures -- 9 Solidarity with Substance: "History Is no Respecter of Persons, It Depicts both High and Low" -- 10 Postscript: Cornerstone for a Creative Space in the Nineteenth Century -- Bibliography -- Index.

The past few decades have seen a burgeoning interest in the manuscript cultures of the Muslim world. The study of manuscripts has brought to light new perspectives on the transmission of texts and larger questions of cultural practices passed down within the learned circles of premodern Muslim societies. The intellectual and literary heritage of Ismaili communities, who form a branch of Shi'i Islam, has until recently been preserved in private and largely inaccessible libraries. This open access volume brings together studies offering insights on different aspects of the manuscript cultures nurtured by Ismaili communities until well after the widespread dissemination of printed books. The range of materials transmitted via these manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and Indic languages also reflects the doctrinal and literary preoccupations of Muslims at large and of other groups from the societies in which Ismailis lived. Hence, the manuscripts bear the imprint of their respective cultural contexts, namely a number of regions from the Near East to Central and South Asia. In addition to engaging with multifaceted problems surrounding the processes of textual transmission, the chapters in this book deal with other connected aspects like codicology, scribal and reading practices, educational and social history, authorship, communal script, religious identity and interactions of ideas across ideological denominations. With contributions from specialists and early-career scholars, the volume will be of interest to those working on textual scholarship, manuscript and literary cultures and Islamic studies. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Islamic Publications Ltd.

This collective volume offers an insight into the Bon and Naxi manuscript cultures and their possible interconnections. This is the first primarily object-based study to deal with Bon and Naxi cultural history, book technology, collections of Bon and Naxi manuscripts, the relationship between text and image, writing materials, and the historical and archaeological context of the manuscripts' places of origin.

Selecting and excerpting, summarizing and canonizing, arranging texts and visual signs in manuscripts appear to be universal practices. This volume analyses the fascinating vicissitudes of birth and development, growth and decrease, of manuscripts consisting of more texts ('multiple-text manuscripts'), at the example of a vast array of manuscript cultures, from the Indian, African, Christian, Islamic, and European domains.

The series publishes monographs and collective volumes contributing to the emerging field of manuscript studies (manuscriptology), which includes disciplines such as philology, palaeography, codicology, art history, and material analysis. SMC encourages comparative approaches, without geographical or other limitations on the material studied; it contributes to a historical and systematic survey of manuscript cultures, and provides a new foundation for current discussions in Cultural Studies.

This volume explores and calls into question certain commonly held assumptions about the nature of writing and technological advancement in the Islamic tradition. In particular, it challenges the idea that mechanical print naturally and inevitably displaces handwritten texts as well as the notion that the so-called transition from manuscript to print is unidirectional.

Some manuscripts have been produced for the personal use of their scribe only whereas a number of them are valued as autographs, most have been ephemeral and were discarded. This volume introduces a number of such manuscripts in a comparative perspective, from Japan to Europe through the Middle East. The main concern is the possibility of identifying the typical features of such manuscripts in terms of materials, visual organisation and content.

Crossing disciplinary and regional boundaries, this book takes a comparative perspective on standardisation tendencies in Arabic-based writing systems across three continents. 12 distinct manuscript traditions are presented in situations where different cultures, languages and scripts interact, yielding a wide range of case studies. A wealth of new data gives insight into the factors underlying uniformity and variation in manuscript cultures.

Throughout history, manuscripts have been made and used for religious, artistic, and scientific performances, and this practice continues in most cultures today. By focusing on the role manuscripts have in different kinds of performances, this volume contributes to the evolving field of investigating written artefacts and their functions. The collected essays regard manuscripts as points of intersection where textual, material, and performative aspects converge. The contributors analyse manuscripts in their forms and functions as well as their positioning in the performances for which they were made. These aspects unfold across the volume's three sections, examining how manuscripts are (1) used backstage, for preparing and giving instructions for performances; (2) taken onstage, contributing to the enactment of performances; and (3) performers in their own right, producing an effect on the audience. The diversified, interdisciplinary, and innovative methodologies of the included papers carry great potential to expand the traditional approaches of manuscript studies and find application outside the contributors' respective fields. ; Throughout history, manuscripts have been made and used for religious, artistic, and scientific performances, and this practice continues in most cultures today. By focusing on the role manuscripts have in different kinds of performances, this volume contributes to the evolving field of investigating written artefacts and their functions. The collected essays regard manuscripts as points of intersection where textual, material, and performative aspects converge. The contributors analyse manuscripts in their forms and functions as well as their positioning in the performances for which they were made. These aspects unfold across the volume's three sections, examining how manuscripts are (1) used backstage, for preparing and giving instructions for performances; (2) taken onstage, contributing to the enactment of performances; and (3) performers in their own right, producing an effect on the audience. The diversified, interdisciplinary, and innovative methodologies of the included papers carry great potential to expand the traditional approaches of manuscript studies and find application outside the contributors' respective fields.

The present volume focuses on the colophons found in several pothi manuscripts from Central, South and South East Asia. Its contributions discuss the colophons' defining features, thus exposing their 'syntax', focusing particularly on the tracing of recurring patterns. The information extrapolated from colophons is further analysed to obtain a better understanding of these distinct manuscript cultures.

Medieval manuscripts combining multiple languages, whether in fusion or in collision, provide tangible evidence for linguistic and cultural interactions. Such encounters are documented in this volume through case studies from across Europe and Asia, all the way from Ireland to Japan, exploring the creativity of medieval language use as a function of cross-cultural contact and fluidity in this key period of nation-formation (9th-14th centuries CE).

The archive is traditionally considered the counterpart of the library, the one storing records, the other housing "books." There is evidence, however, that this institutional division of labor reflects certain historical and social constellations. The present volume addresses the question of this complex interrelationship with case-studies from an impressive variety of ancient, traditional, and living cultures.