Symposium 'A bunch of books'

Op 14 februari vindt in de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen een symposium plaats over boekenverzamelingen in de Lage Landen van de Middeleeuwen. 'A bunch of books. Book collections in the medieval Low Countries' wordt gehouden ter gelegenheid van de twintigste verjaardag van Queeste. Journal of medieval literature in the Low Countries. Voertaal is Engels.

Theme

Due to the überlieferungsgeschichtliche Methode and New Philology, the idea that the meaning of texts is determined by the material context in which they are preserved has become central to the study of historical literature in the Low Countries. However, this approach has mainly inspired researchers to study texts in their manuscript context, especially that of miscellanies. During a symposium on book collections we would like to explore the significance of material context outside the manuscript. Not only individual texts, but also manuscripts as a whole functioned in the context of a larger collection of books and derived meaning from the context of this collection. In Memory’s Library. Medieval Books in Early Modern England (2008) Jennifer Summit stated that ‘libraries were dynamic institutions that actively processed, shaped, and imposed meaning on the very materials they contained’.

Focus

The focus of this symposium will be on the ways in which books functioned in the context of a collection, on how individual books related to collections as a whole and to the users and owners of these collections. Book collections constitute a melting point of materials and themes that are often studied separately: Latin and vernacular texts, religious and secular literature, manuscript and print, rhyme and prose, splendour and plainness, old and new. By making use of inventories, library catalogues and preserved manuscripts the speakers at this symposium investigate the characteristics, size and meaning of book collections in the Low Countries. They address questions about the owners and users of these collections, social and cultural exchange, the formation of meaning, the organisation of collections, and the consequences of this approach for our view on literary history. The confrontation of the study of texts in their manuscript context and in book collections will be one of the central discussion points of this day.

Meer informatie en het volledige programma kan u terugvinden op de website van het tijdschrift Queeste.