Volume 30 of 'Studies in Manuscript Cultures' publishedCopying, Drafting, Taking Notes

21 April 2023

Photo: De Gruyter

The new volume of the series 'Studies in Manuscript Cultures' is out now. 'Personal Manuscripts: Copying, Drafting, Taking Notes' provides a comprehensive survey, from Japan to Europe through the Middle East, of manuscripts that have been produced for the personal use of their scribe only.

Some manuscripts have been produced for the personal use of their scribe only; while a number of them are valued as autographs, most have been ephemeral and were discarded. Personal manuscripts were not written for a patron, commissioner, or client. They are personal copies, anthologies, florilegia, personal notes, excerpts, drafts and notebooks, as well as family books, accountancy notebooks and many others; these forms often being mixed with one another.

Personal Manuscripts: Copying, Drafting, Taking Notes, the new volume of the series Studies in Manuscript Cultures, introduces a number of such manuscripts in a comparative perspective, from Japan to Europe through the Middle East, with a focus on the Near and Middle East.

The main concern is the possibility of identifying typical features of such manuscripts in terms of materials, visual organisation and content. In attempting this, both the conditions of production and traces of the manuscripts’ use are taken into consideration, with particular attention to their material aspects.

Personal Manuscripts: Copying, Drafting, Taking Notes is edited by David Durand-Guédy and Jürgen Paul. Like all previous volumes in the series, it is available open access; all contributions can be downloaded from the publisher’s website.