Manuscript Cultures
Exploring Written ArtefactsVolume 25 of 'Studies in Manuscript Cultures’ published
26 October 2021
Photo: CSMC
The new edition of ‘Studies in Manuscript Cultures’ is published as a Festschrift in honour of Michael Friedrich. The two volumes trace key concepts that scholars associated with CSMC have developed and refined for the systematic study of manuscript cultures.
Since its inception in 2014, the book series 'Studies in Manuscript Cultures' (SMC) has published the outcomes of long-standing individual research and the results of workshops and thematic discussions. Volume 25, which has recently come out and is available as Open Access, is different. Initiated by a group of colleagues, the two-volume Festschrift honours the academic work and career of Michael Friedrich, spiritus rector of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures and spokesperson of the Cluster of Excellence ‘Understanding Written Artefacts’, who retired from his position as full professor at Universität Hamburg on 30 September 2021 (but will continue to chair the Centre as senior professor).
While the occasion is a special one, the scientific standard of this edition remains the same: ‘There was a clear consensus that such a Festschrift should go beyond a mere collection of articles, a "bouquet of flowers" of quite different provenance – e.g. remembrances, anecdotes, and the like – often to be found in this genre, and instead feature scholarly, peer-reviewed contributions, embracing the broad range of topics and themes that have been subject to profound research at the centre since its formal inauguration in 2012 and earlier’, Jörg B. Quenzer writes in the Introduction. The collection illustrates the fruitful integration of disciplines whose objects of study span time and space in cultural history – from Early Mesopotamia to the beginning of the twenty-first century, from East Asia to Western Europe. At the same time, the contributions showcase the possibilities of expanding the traditional subject of ‘manuscripts’ to the larger perspective of ‘written artefacts’, thereby incorporating manuscripts, inscriptions, and other objects into a common field.
All previous editions of SMC are available from our website.