Whether it was traced on papyrus or parchment, engraved in a clay or wax
tablet, or craved on stone, every text represents the product of both an
intellectual and a manual act. Several people could be actively involved in
the process of textual creation and transmission, especially the author,
the scribe and the copyist. Although their role seems fairly well defined,
according to a consensus that is too rarely questioned: on one side, the
author’s inspiration, research and will, and, on the other side, the
scribe’s and the copyist’s technique and subordination as agents of the *opus
seruile*. This dichotomy cannot capture the complex and shifting reality of
the ancient and medieval textual production, nor the interactions between
the numerous actors taking part in this process (secretary, engraver,
reader/user/recipient, corrector, teacher/student, literary circle, patron,
commentator, guild…), which the materiality of the sources reveals. This
two‑day colloquium aims at analyzing the relationships between these
writing figures through ancient documentary, literary and material sources,
of any language, that the cultures preceding the invention of the printing
press have passed down.
Thematic examples:
– Definition of the concept of “author” in different manuscript
cultures;
– Contexts of textual production and transmission;
– Creation and writing process of a (literary or documentary) text,
genetic criticism;
– Autography;
– Role, status, interaction and sociopolitical position of the actors
of the world of antique or medieval writing;
– Copyists’, readers’, grammarians’ and commentators’ interventions
in the textual transmission process;
– *Marginalia *and paratexts;
– Sociology of reading and writing in the ancient and medieval world.
The selected papers are expected to be published in a peer-reviewed
collective volume in the *Papyrologica Leodiensia *series (Presses
universitaires de Liège),
https://presses.uliege.be/publications/collections-thematiques/papyrologica-leodiensia/
.
Interested researchers are invited to send an abstract (200-300 words)
and a brief academic presentation (max. 150 words) in PDF format to
marie.christians@uliege.be by 16th May.
More info here.