How medieval texts reached a wider audience
In the later Middle Ages, intellectual life in the Rhineland and the Low Countries was vibrant. This region spans modern day Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The mystics of the time include Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler and Jan van Ruusbroec. Together with their contemporaries, they gave theology and religious practice a rich language that reached a general audience. An EU-funded project, MITT, examined a new perspective on the literary culture of that time and subject matter to understand how texts were circulated in contemporary, religious and intellectual contexts. The work united expertise in medieval philosophy, religious studies, manuscript studies, and Dutch and German literature. Researchers worked on individual research projects divided into themes. The projects focused on texts, manuscripts and text collections with a multidisciplinary approach. Most of the projects will result in dissertations that are within the field of transnational circulation of literature. New views on the interconnectedness of intellectual cultures have arisen as a result of the project. The work also led to the creation of a new book series of peer-reviewed monographs.
Keywords
Literary culture, Middle Ages, Rhineland, Low Countries, theology, medieval philosophy
