Research projects
The Dynamics of the Medieval Manuscript
Professor Karen Pratt from the Department of French is involved in a 3-year project entitled The dynamics of the medieval manuscript: text collections from a European perspective with collaborators in Utrecht, Vienna and Bristol.
The projects are funded by a transnational funding mechanism that is supported by 13 national funding agencies, including the AHRC. 239 proposals were submitted in response to a call for outline proposals issued in January 2009. Of these,19 projects were funded following a two-stage assessment process.
The broader aim of HERA, which was financed initially by the EU 6th Framework Programme ERA-NET scheme is to stimulate lasting cross-border co-operation and raise the profile of Humanities research.
Professor Pratt writes: "We have obtained funding from HERA under the rubric ‘Cultural Dynamics: Inheritance and Identity’ for our project ‘the dynamics of the medieval manuscript: text collections from a European perspective’. Our research will cover the organisational principles behind medieval text collections and, the cultural meanings generated by them, and their role in the identity formation of contemporary readers. Focusing on short narratives, that most mobile of genres, we shall examine the ways in which these texts influenced and were influenced by each new manuscript context into which they were copied. By including miscellanies written in French, English, German and Dutch we shall be able to identify the pan-European characteristics governing these collections, as well as those factors specific to codices produced in individual linguistic areas. Moreover, the ever-changing and heterogeneous nature of medieval miscellanies will force us to question the validity of our usual assumptions about textual integrity, generic classification and the role of the author for the study of pre-modern and pre-print cultures."
Professor Pratt's colleagues are Dr Bart Besamusca, Department of Dutch, Utrecht University; Professor Matthias Meyer, Department of German, University of Vienna & Professor Ad Putter, Department of English, Bristol.
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