Medieval Manuscript Culture

Catalog description

This course brings the student into the medieval environment that created a unique form of communication broadly known as The Manuscript. We will study manuscripts from medieval European and Muslim cultures, discussing the roles that these artefacts played in the cultures - both religious and secular - that they inhabited. We will use multiple methods to study these artefacts: Textual Critical Analysis reads texts from different periods to understand the ideas that were important to the people who were reading and/or disseminating them; Material History investigates material objects and analyses their creation, function, and physical importance in cultures; Art History utilizes the lens of artistic method and content to evaluate artistic contributions to particular societies; Theology makes inquiries into how people thought about the Divine, and the ways in which they understood themselves in relationship with the Divine and with each other.