Comité International de Paléographie Latine XVIth Colloquium: Teaching Writing, Learning to Write

Senate House, University of London
2-5 September 2008

From the medieval viewpoint writing meant not only the skill of handwriting, but also the ability to write with 'correct' understanding of grammar, punctuation, etc. The colloquium will address the psychology and sociology of the medieval scribe. How did scribes learn to write in the Middle Ages? What was the social and cultural significance of a script chosen for a particular function? How was script influenced by features of fashion? What was the interface between scribe and reader and the graphic signs used to communicate a message? Such questions impact on the transmission of texts, the growth of literacy and history of reading.
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Dans l'optique médiéval, savoir écrire signifiait non seulement maîtriser la technique d'écriture, mais aussi être capable d'écrire avec une intelligence "correcte" de la grammaire, de la ponctuation, etc. Le colloque s'intéressera à la psychologie et à la sociologie du scribe médiéval. Comment les scribes apprenaient-ils à écrire au Moyen Age? Que signifiait, en termes sociaux et culturels, l'adoption d'une écriture pour une fonction particulière? Dans quelle mesure l'écriture était-elle influencée par les tendances de la mode? Quelle était l'interface entre le scribe, le lecteur et les signes graphiques utilisés pour transmettre un message? Ce type de questions a des répercussions sur la tradition des textes, le développement de l'alphabétisme, et l'histoire de la lecture.

The Colloquium has been generously supported by a British Academy Worldwide Congress Grant; by the Association of Manuscripts and Archives in Research Collections; by Christie's, Quaritch Rare Books and Manuscripts, and Ashgate Publishing Ltd; and by three Bibliographical Society Studentships.

Registration and Orientation: Registration (with coffee) will open at 9.30am on Tuesday 2 September in the main foyer of Senate House South Block.  Delegates will receive the printed Symposium programme, along with a name badge which you must please wear at all times.  Coffee, publishers' displays and the opening and closing drinks receptions will be held in the Crush Hall on the ground floor, and all sessions and lectures will be held in the Chancellor's Hall on the first floor.

Audio-Visual: Speakers please note, we will provide a laptop and dataprojector with internet access and Powerpoint in the Chancellor's Hall throughout as standard.  If you bring your own MAC please also bring its VGA adaptor.  If speakers have additional requests for slide projectors, CD players etc. please do let me know by return email. We cannot accommodate sudden requests for equipment on the day.

Lunch for speakers: A buffet lunch will be provided for speakers and chairs on the day of their paper/session in the Crush Hall on the ground floor.  We regret we cannot provide lunch f or all, but re com mended nearby lunch spots are listed in the printed programme.  Senate House itself has a cafeteria in the Macmillan Hall, but many other lunch options are a short walk away outside the building. 

Senate House Library: Delegates are welcome to use the Library throughout the week for computer access or private study. Visitor passes to the Library will be available from the membership desk on the 4th Floor. Computer facilities can be found in the Information Centre to the right after the membership desk, and in the Middlesex Library North to the left. Visitor passes will be required for access to the Schøyen Collection exhibition on Wednesday 3 rd (in the Seng T Lee room) and the palaeography collection located in the Small Hall on the ground floor of Senate House north block. Those attending brief tours of the palaeography collection during lunch breaks on Tuesday 2 nd and Thursday 4 th should gather in the foyer outside the Small Hall in Senate House north block where you will be met by Mura Ghosh.

Exhibitions: On Wednesday 3 September delegates will have the opportunity to attend two special exhibitions: exhibits from the Museum of Writing, and early palaeographic examples from the London Branch of the Schøyen Collection. The Museum of Writing display will be mounted in the Chancellor's Hall. The Schøyen Collection exhibition will be held in the Seng T Lee room, Senate House Library. Because of the fragility of the Schøyen Collection items, and in order to allow all delegates to examine the collection during the day, admission will be in groups of 20 at hourly intervals: 10.30am, 11.30am, 12.30pm, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm. Delegates may either sign up for a slot by email, or on arrival.

Transport: Our nearest Underground stations are Russell Square (Piccadilly Line) and Goodge Street (Northern Line), with other stations and transport links very nearby.  Detailed London travel information can be obtained from the Transport For London website.  NB: an Oyster Card, which can be topped up with cash, is by the most economical means of travelling by Underground and bus (it can be kept and used again during future London visits).

Cambridge: Saturday 6 September
Tours of the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, in the morning will be followed by a buffet lunch, for those who have pre-booked, at Corpus Christi College. Lunch will be followed by a tour of St John’s College Library (details to be confirmed). LUNCH IS NOW FULLY BOOKED. Delegates must make their own way to and from Cambridge. Trains leave from King’s Cross or Liverpool Street Station: First Capital Connect (0845 026 4700) or National Express East Anglia (0845 6007245). The 9.15am train from King’s Cross will allow the first tour to begin at 10.30am.

Organiser: Pamela Robinson: pamela.robinson@sas.ac.uk. Institute of English Studies, University of London, Senate House, Malet Street , London WC1E 7HU.

Registration Fees:
£100 standard
£60 IES Members/Concessions, and members of Comité, AMARC, APICES

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME:

Welcome

Session I: Writing in Ancient Rome
Chair: Michelle Brown (Institute of English Studies)

"Ink Writing and 'A Sgraffio' Writing in Ancient Rome. From Learning to Practical Use"
Paolo Fioretti (Bari University)

"Librarii qui docere possint : scribal training in the Roman army"
Jacqueline Austin (Birmingham University)

1.30-2.30

Session II: Calligraphic Considerations
Chair: Tessa Webber (Trinity College, Cambridge)

"Re-writing: new alternatives to old hands"
Paul Antonio (London)

"Early Medieval Cursive Scripts: Calligraphy and Risk"
David Ganz (King's College, London)

Session III: Monastic Practice
Chair: Albert Derolez (Brussels)

"Writing monks in the Middle Ages"
Martin Steinmann (Binningen, Switzerland)

"A School for Scribes"
Aliza Cohen-Mushlin (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Keynote Address:  M.B. Parkes (Keble College, Oxford)
Chair: Stefano Zamponi (President, CIPL)

"Learning to Write: Teachers and Pupils"

Reception and Book Launch

M.B. Parkes, Their Hands before Our Eyes: A Closer Look at Scribes (Ashgate)
hosted by the Institute of English Studies and Ashgate Publishing

Session IV: Schooling I
Chair: Jane Roberts ( Institute of English Studies)

"Was writing taught, along with reading, to children through the ABC primer?"
Michael Clanchy (Institute of Historical Research)

Session V: Schooling II
Chair: Marc Smith (École des chartes, Paris)

"The Valenciennes Papias and Learning in the Grammar School in Thirteenth-Century France"
Alison Stones (Pittsburgh University):

"Lettere e scrittura nell’insegnamento grammaticale del Medioevo"
Patrizia Carmassi (Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel)

"A Young Scholar’s Despair: thirty-three lamentations in a Basle Donatus manuscript of the Fourteenth Century"
Beat Von Scarpatetti (Stiftsbibliothek St Gallen):

Session VI: Numbers and Abbreviations
Chair: Outi Merisalo (Jyväskyla University, Finland)

"Quaedam regulae de modo titulandi seu apificandi pro novellis Scriptoribus copulatae. A late-medieval tutorial for scribes"
Olaf Pluta (Ruhr-Universität, Bochum)

Visit to the Wellcome Library, and Reception hosted by the Wellcome Library
Exhibition: "A Subject of Joy": Medieval Monastic Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library

Session VII: The Vernacular I
Chair: David Ganz (King's College, London)

"Latinis regulis barbara nomina stringi non possunt, or, How to write the vernacular"
Annina Seiler (Zurich University; Bibliographical Society Studentship)

Session VIII: The Vernacular II
Chair: Erik Petersen (Kongelige Bibliothek, Copenhagen)

"The first Norwegian Scribes and their Teachers"
Åslaug Ommundsen (Bergen University)

"Learning to Write in Southern Sweden: Liturgical Fragments and the Creation of a Culture of the Book"
Erik Niblaeus (King’s College, London; Bibliographical Society Studentship)

Session IX: The Vernacular III
Chair: Natasa Golob ( Ljubljana University, Slovenia)

"Reading and Writing in Medieval Iceland"
Guðvarður Már Gunnlaugsson (Stofnun Árna Magnússon, Reykjavik)

"Latin Script and Vernacular Text in the Middle Ages: The Case of Polish Texts (14th-15th Centuries)"
Jerzy Kaliszuk (Bibliotheka Narodowa, Warsaw)

Brief Reports on Projects in Progress

1. Overview of CIPL projects: Denis Muzerelle (IRHT)
2. Catalogues of Dated & Datable Manuscripts and the Anglophone Codicological Vocabulary (progress report): Ian Doyle (Durham)
3. The Central European Palaeographical Vocabulary: Hana Pátková ( Charles University, Prague)

1. Sozemeno umaniste pistoiese: Irene Ceccherini (Florence University)
2. Digital Scriptorium: Consuelo Dutschke (Rare Book & MS Library, Columbia University)
3. Handschriftencensus. An Inventory of the Texts (http://www.handschriftencensus.de): Christine Glassner (Akademie der Wissenschaften Manuscript Transmission of German Medieval Vienna)
4. Stylus inscriptions in St Gall Manuscripts: Andreas Nievergelt (St Gall)
5. GRAPHEM, Aide à l'expertise paléographique et à l'accès au contenu dans les écritures médiévales: Marc Smith (École des chartes)
6. The Lancelot-Grail Project: Alison Stones (Pittsburgh University)

Visit to Lambeth Palace Library, and Reception sponsored by Bernard Quaritch

10.00-11.30

Session X: Learning to Write in the Iberian Peninsula
Chair: Luisa Pardo (Seville University)

"Apprendre à ecrire dans le Portugal médiéval. Bilan des Connaissances"
Maria do Rosário Morujão (Coimbra University)

"De la Carolina a la Gótica. Variedades, usos y functiones de la escritura en la Catalunya altomedieval"
Jesús Alturo (Barcelona University)

"Aprendizaje y modelos gráficos: entre el ámbito profesional y el Privado"
Carmen del Camino Martínez (Seville University)

Session XI: Learning to Write in Italy
Chair: to be confirmed

"Insegnamento, funzione e diffusione sociale della scrittura a Firenze nei secoli XIII e XIV"
Irene Ceccherini (Florence University)

"Scritture di pratici, scritture di giuristi, scritture "di dotti": "scuole" ed esperienze grafiche a confronto"
Cristina Mantegna (Universitá di Roma "La Sapienza")

Lunch (own arrangements)

Session XII: Good and bad habits
Chair: Virginia Brown (Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Toronto)

"Disobeying the Rules: Unconventional Scribal Practices in the Later Middle Ages"
Erik Kwakkel (Victoria University, BC, Canada)

"Late Medieval Chancery English Chancery Clerks: Learning to Write and Writing to Impress"
Elizabeth Danbury (University College, London)

Session XIII: Chair: Images of Scribal Practice
Eef Overgauuw (Staatsbibliothek, Berlin)

"Written with the finger of God': Fourteenth-Century Images of Scribal Practice in the Lichtenthal Psalter"
Lucy Freeman Sandler (New York University)

Closing Reception sponsored by Christie's