Writing in Context: Insular Manuscript Culture 500-1200

by Erik Kwakkel (Editor)

This book comprises six essays by prominent scholars of medieval Insular manuscripts. The main emphasis is on the physical appearance of books, though writing on and in other objects is also discussed. The essays highlight, in different ways, the tight relationship between the palaeographical and codicological features of manuscripts and the culture in which the objects were produced and used. Extending their expertise to a broad audience interested in the medieval book, the contributors discuss various aspects of written culture, including the development of Insular scripts, book culture in Mercia, the layout of Anglo-Saxon charters, and the transition from Anglo-Saxon to Norman-inspired script and book production.
Contributions by Michelle Brown, David Dumville, Mary Garrison, Kathryn Lowe, Francis Newton and Teresa Webber.

320 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2013

About the author

I am Principal Investigator of 'Turning Over a New Leaf: Manuscript Innovation in the Twelfth-Century Renaissance', a five-year project funded through the Vidi-scheme of the Dutch Organization of Scientific Research (NWO). The project studies manuscripts produced between 1075 and 1225 across Europe. The four participating researchers are interested in their development in codicological and paleographical sense; as well as in the relationship between their physical appearance on the one hand, and their settings of use and contents on the other. My principal research is in medieval paleography and codicology, but I have spoken at conferences devoted to medieval literature and history, digital humanities and book design. I am currently working on a book project about the twelfth-century manuscript and its context of production and use (with Rodney M. Thomson), a book-size study of the oldest manuscript of Constantine the African's Pantegni (with Francis Newton), and a monograph on the development of the book in the long twelfth century.

To spark a broader interest in the medieval book among a non-academic audience I frequently blog, report on our project's progress via Twitter (@erik_kwakkel), and have made movies for YouTube. During the first two years of the project various discoveries were reported on national radio and in television programs (including a TV-item on the NOS national evening news); local, regional and national newspapers (including Trouw and NRC); as well as in popular and opinion magazines (including Elsevier Weekblad and Quest: Braintainment). Four times per year I organize a public lecture series about manuscripts in the Leiden University Library, I frequently speak for the public at large myself, and am currently building, with other members of De Jonge Akademie, a national online platform for the distribution of public lectures, called 'De Akademie of Straat'.