SMC 7
Tracing Manuscripts in Time and Space through Paratexts
Edited by Giovanni Ciotti and Hang Lin
As records of the link between a manuscript and the text(s) it contains, paratexts document many aspects of a manuscript’s life: production, transmission, usage, and reception. Comprehensive studies of paratexts are still rare in the field of manuscript studies, and the universal categories of time and space are used to create a common frame for research and comparisons. Contributions in this volume span over three continents and one millennium.
Paratexts are virtually found in all manuscripts, linking these artefacts to the text they contain. In this respect, paratexts are essential for the understanding of manuscript cultures, as they concern various aspects of a manuscript’s production, transmission, usage, and reception. Comprehensive studies of paratexts are still rare in the field of manuscript studies, and the universal categories of time and space are here used to create a common frame that enables intercultural research and methodological comparisons. Furthermore, it is still the case that for many manuscript cultures (or sub-areas of certain manuscript cultures) works on paratexts are yet to be written. This volume is an attempt to partially fill this gap. It is with these considerations that we invite readers to – in Gérard Genette’s words – cross the “threshold” of this volume, which introduces them to several manuscript cultures spanning over three continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe) and one millennium (from the 10th to the 20th centuries).
Frontmatter
Contents
PrefaceVII
Exploring Paratexts in Old Mande Manuscripts1
by Darya Ogorodnikova
Locating Tai Lü and Tai Khün Manuscripts in Space and Time through Colophons35
by Apiradee Techasiriwan
Certain Times in Uncertain Places:
A Study on Scribal Colophons of Manuscripts Written in Tamil and Tamilian Grantha Scripts59
by Giovanni Ciotti and Marco Franceschini
Looking Inside the Cover: Reconstructing Space and Time in Some Donglin Manuscripts131
by Hang Lin
'Traces in Red': Chinese Book Collectors' Seals as a Means to Track the Transmission History of a Manuscript161
by Max Jakob Fölster
'When the living envied the dead':
Church Slavonic Paratexts and the Apocalyptic Framework of Monk Isaija's Colophon (1371)185
by Kristina Nikolovska
Locating Greek Manuscripts through Paratexts:
Examples from the Library of Cardinal Bessarion and other Manuscript Collections223
by Vito Lorusso
Travelling Books: Changes of Ownership and Location in Ethiopian Manuscript Culture269
by Stéphane Ancel
Index of languages and scripts301
Index of personal names302
Index of place names305
General index307