*TEXTS OF MEDIEVAL FRANCE IN MANUSCRIPT CONTEXT*

*TEXTS OF MEDIEVAL FRANCE IN MANUSCRIPT CONTEXT*

The International Medieval Society-Paris invites proposals for an
interdisciplinary session that will illustrate the importance of
studying medieval texts in their manuscript context. As codicological
studies become an increasingly important component of scholarship on
the Middle Ages, even in fields that have, for some time, neglected
archives, we would like to explore the diverse ways in which the
material, visual form of the manuscript page or book inflects the
text it contains. To that end, papers might focus on the ways
extra-textual material such as /tituli/, rubrics, and illuminations
influence the reader’s reception of texts; the way the varied texts
of a miscellany may be understood with relation to each other; what
the transmission history of a given text may tell us about how it was
read; the function of the book as cultural artifact; the production
of manuscripts within the context of patronage, royal or otherwise,
and the importance of patronage to the history of the book; or more
generally the importance of integrating archival or manuscript
research into studies of this period. We encourage submissions from
history, the history of philosophy, the history of science, art
history, or literature that advance the study of medieval texts
within their original, manuscript context and would thereby increase
our understanding of medieval readers, writers, and manuscript
production in France during the Middle Ages.