Strategies of Transformation: Translating, Writing, Reading, Collecting and Performing

WG 2b: Documenting and contextualising the use of texts: communities and individuals
Coordinators: Élise Boillet and Lucie Doležzalova

The WG will concentrate on the selection of case studies, according to the number of participants and the specific background and expertise of the members, which will be studied during the duration of the Action (e.g. medieval and early modern libraries; manuscript miscellanies; specific texts, such as the vita Christi-tradition; domestic devotions). These can be used as test cases for a more accurate and empirical reconstruction of the strategies of transformation. A wide selection of disciplinary backgrounds and cultural and linguistic competencies will enable new evaluations of a broad range of textual (e.g. specific genres, manuscripts and printed texts) and visual material, with a focus on spaces and places of cultural transmission (e.g. semi-private libraries and book collections), which will be systematically studied in an interdisciplinary and a multilingual setting. Fundamental to the choice of case studies will be a broad geographical and chronological perspective, encompassing textual and visual material spanning the late fourteenth century and the sixteenth century, thereby breaking the traditional "great divides".

Conference: "The Same and Different: Strategies of Retelling the Bible within the "New Communities of Interpretations"" (Prague, 19-20 March 2015). Conference programme (PDF)

Meeting report (PDF)

Conference: "Focusing on the page/book periphery. What do marginalia, marks of ownership and other textual accretions tell us?" (Paris, 23-24 October 2014). Conference programme (PDF)

Meeting Report (PDF)