Research project
Libraries as Links in Learning: Making the Meaning of Manuscripts
In the course of the nineteenth century, the library sector professionalised at a rapid pace. The key advances (such as the systematisation of cataloguing practices, enhanced attention to storage, the emergence of the professional librarian) have been charted, but this project breaks new ground by examining the fate of Western medieval manuscript collections within this context of professionalisation.
- Duration
- 2024 - 2028
- Contact
- Irene O'Daly
- Funding
- Startersbeurzen
- Partners
Leiden University Library
It investigates the role played by libraries in constructing the medieval manuscript as a subject of material as well as textual study, but also as a fragile and non-fungible object, monetarily valuable and collectable. By positioning libraries as a nexus of scholarly exchange, we interrogate their role in abstract processes such the canonisation of textual carriers, while recognising the material realities inherent in preserving and making accessible the manuscripts themselves.
This project investigates the abstract and actual position of Western medieval manuscripts within Leiden’s University Library collection between c. 1819 and c. 1939.
