Projekt Area B: Visual Organisation
Project area B is concerned with the way in which manuscripts are organised visually, an area of research that lies “between” various disciplines and that is examined with a view to the constants and differences in various (manuscript) cultures. By “visual organisation” we mean the appearance of a manuscript and all the factors that constitute it, such as the size, form and shape of the manuscript, its colour or how written characters are arranged on it. The visual organisation relates to the types of characters used and the layout of the individual page, but it equally refers to the manuscript as a whole, i.e. the “ manuscript rchitecture”. If we regard a manuscript’s layout as the way in which a page and thus its surface area is organised, then our view of the architecture that the manuscript possesses extends to a three-dimensional space in which information is housed. The visual organisation of a manuscript is consequently a visual arrangement of knowledge, which depends on the scribe who created the work on the one hand, but which is also shaped by convention and norms on the other. The latter ensure that the information contained in a manuscript is and will always be capable of being understood, regardless of the manuscript’s uniqueness.
The sub-projects covered in this project area investigate how visual organisation is shaped by production, function and use, and which role these factors play in the process of transmission and reception of knowledge.
B01
Biblia Pauperum Manuscripts: The formation and Transmission of Biblical Knowledge in Word-Image Complexes
This sub-project will explore German Biblia-Pauperum manuscripts, in which the text of the Bible is reduced to 34 or more half or fullpage sized word-image complexes. These manuscripts are witnesses to the transmission process of biblical knowledge during the late Middle Ages. The various layouts of these word-image complexes demonstrate the results of organizing manuscripts visually, as well as the conditions and effect of changes in layout within the framework of a particular tradition.
Principal Investigator: Bruno Reudenbach
Reserarch Associates: Fridericke Conrad (Mai 2014 - Juni 2015), Hanna Wimmer (Juli 2011 - April 2014)
B03
Manuscript Culture and Chant Communities: Organization of Knowledge in Manuscripts of Polyphonic Music from the So-Called Notre Dame Repertory
In the European Middle Ages, polyphonic music was understood as an act, as singing in a chant community. The notator of a musical manuscript visualized and organized information concerning the execution and performance of the music. The goal of this sub-project is to describe, from both a synchronous and diachronic examination of the manuscripts of the Notre Dame Repertory, respectively dating up to c. 1270 and up to the 15th century, the relationship between the manuscript culture and the local musical practice in question, as well as how the manuscript culture of polyphonic music remained constant or changed during this period.
Principal Investigator: Oliver Huck
Research Associate: Eva Maschke
B04
Dividing Texts: Conventions of Visual Text-Organization in North Indian and Nepalese Manuscripts up to ca. CE 1300
This sub-project aims to survey and analyze the ways in which scribes of Sanskrit manuscripts visually demarcated texts they were copying from paratexts (such as introductory matter or concluding colophons) or from other texts. Such demarcation may involve the use of space(s), variation in the size and/or style of writing, symbols, colours (rubrication), or a combination of these methods. Particular attention will be paid to what the study of such scribal practices shows about how textual knowledge is organized and structured (on several levels, including those of the division of individual texts and of chapters within texts), made use of, and indeed conceived of.
Prioncipal Investigator: Harunaga Isaacson
Research Associate: Bidur Bhattarai
B05
Forms and Functions of Layout in Arabic Manuscripts as Based on Copies of Religious Texts
This sub-project will analyze the religious content in copies of manuscripts of six Arabic works. Its first focus is "forms". Here, layout features and typologically defined sequences will be established, an analysis will be undertaken to place and date each copy as well as its contents and context of use, and a comparison will be made of all six works. The second focus, "functions", will analyze those features that aim at visual structuring the texts according to content, especially paragraph markings, rubrications and frames.
Principal Investigator: Tilman Seidensticker
Reserarch Associate: Frederike-Wiebke Daub (2011-2015), Friederike Schmidt (September 2014 - Juni 2015), Hadiya Gurtmann( Oktober 2011 - August 2014)
B07
The Florentine Codex – the visual arrangement of the manuscript as a medium for cross-cultural translation and negotiation in the early modern era
The project, using the example of the Florentine Codex accomplished between 1567 and 1577 in New Spain (nowadays Mexico), analyses how manuscripts become a medium for cross-cultural negotiation as a consequence of the interaction between script and image. The hypothesis for this project is that the illuminators, deliberately pursuing a strategy of rhetorical alterity, reflect two visual systems perceived as distinct units. In this way not only various cultures of knowledge are combined with each other , but also different approaches to the visual arrangement of knowledge are implemented in parallel.
Principal Investigator: Margit Kern
Research Associate: Anna Boroffka