e-codices

Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland

The goal of e-codices is to provide access to the medieval manuscripts of Switzerland via a virtual library. On the e-codices site, complete digital reproductions of the manuscripts are linked with corresponding scholarly descriptions. Its aim is to serve not only manuscript researchers, but also interested members of the general public.

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Music Books in Early Modern Europe: Materiality, Performance, and Social Expression

July 6-31, 2009; Newberry Library, Chicago

This NEH summer seminar for college and university teachers will explore music books produced in Europe between 1500 and 1700. The seminar will engage with the history of books and readers, and with the social and cultural history of performance. Recent scholarship on the history of the book emphasizes the book object as a space for cultural performance at all levels, from the "how-to" manual to a source for philosophical speculation. Like many book objects, music books are by their nature performative, not only as records of performances (real or imagined), but also as guides or prescriptions for behavior, and as indicators of wider cultural patterns and concerns.

The seminar will meet for four weeks, and will consist of discussion sessions, show-and-tell sessions of rare books, and weekly "cocktails and music making sessions." Under the guidence of the co-directors, participants will be expected to carry out individual research projects using The Newberry's collection of early modern music books and related texts. Participants will be assigned research carrels and and will have all the privilages of a scholar in residence.

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Montaigne-Shakespeare: Biographical and Editorial Crossroads

February 29, 2009; Newberry Library, Chicago

This one-day conference will explore the relation between the biography of major authors (Shakespeare and Montaigne) and editorial questions. In what ways – if any – did the lives of Shakespeare and Montaigne determine or shape their editorial projects. How did personal experiences (educational, political, etc.) influence writing and publishing for these two major authors? Should modern scholars take into consideration biographical elements in editing these authors? Essentially, what are the crossroads between the life and works of Renaissance authors?

Participants: Philippe Desan (University of Chicago), Richard Strier (University of Chicago), Lars Engle (University of Tulsa), Peter Mack (Warwick UNiversity), George Hoffmann (University of Michigan), Jean Balsamo (Université de Reims).

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The Role of Codicology in the Historical Critical Edition of Medieval Texts

January 9, 2009; Newberry Library, Chicago

Referring mainly to editions of works by the theologians Henry of Ghent and John Duns Scotus upon which he has worked, Prof. Emery will illustrate how the detailed physical analysis of manuscript books (material, composition, format, handwriting and change of scribes) as well as the history of individual books (time and place of origin, ownership, etc.) serve to confirm (or correct) the Stemma codicum establishing the relative authority of the manuscripts otherwise determined by textual analysis. Prof. Emery outlines the process of producing an historical critical edition from beginning to end.

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