Scandinavian Manuscript Studies

About

The summer school in Scandinavian Manuscript Studies is a collaboration between the Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics at the University of Copenhagen, the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies at the University of Iceland and the National and University Library of Iceland. It affords students a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience working with manuscripts under the guidance of researchers from these three institutions.

Target group

Master students

Course aim

Upon successful completion of the summer school, participants will have obtained

Knowledge and understanding of
•Palaeography: different script types used in medieval and early modern Scandinavia (from Carolingian minuscule to Gothic types of scripts), their development, and their characteristic letter shapes
•Abbreviations in written scripts, recognising them and expanding in a meaningful way
•Codicology: describing a medieval codex, knowledge about the production of books in the Middle Ages and early modern times (the different stages and people involved)
•Differences between West-Norse and East-Norse manuscripts and scripts
•History of edition from traditional philology (Lachmann) via Bédier and Cerquiglini to New/Material philology

Skills in
•Reading and transcribing texts in medieval and early modern scripts
•Identifying different script types and giving a relative dating
•Locating and identifying the numerous manuscript witnesses (copies) of a certain work
•How to collate manuscripts for variants (variant apparatus)
•How to make a stemma codicum

Competencies in
•Working with manuscripts in modern collections
•Describing medieval manuscripts, their form and function
•Theory and practice of scholarly editing
•Technical realisation of edition work/project management
•Preparing an edition of a previously unedited text

Fee info