Minuscule Texts: Marginalized Voices in Early Medieval Latin Culture (c. 700–c. 1000)

Project Information

MINiTEXTS

Grant agreement ID: 101018645

DOI

10.3030/101018645

EC signature date 5 May 2021

Start date 1 January 2022

End date 31 December 2027

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 2 492 450,00

EU contribution

€ 2 492 450,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITETET I OSLO
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MINiTEXTS (Minuscule Texts: Marginalized Voices in Early Medieval Latin Culture (c. 700–c. 1000))

Reporting period: 2023-07-01 to 2024-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The MINiTEXTS project is dedicated to the neglected corpus of early medieval minuscule texts, i.e. short texts of which large numbers were added to blank spaces of Latin manuscripts from c. 700 to c. 1000. Referred to as “occasional microtexts,” “guest texts,” or “additions,” such texts lack direct connection to the manuscripts’ main texts. Since minuscule texts are seldom characterized by identifiable authors or easily traceable histories of textual transmission, textual and cultural historians tended to either ignore them or compartmentalize them within highly specialized disciplines. Yet the minuscule texts constitute a unique corpus of practical knowledge deeply embedded in the social praxis of early medieval society. They represent unique moments in the social lives of the manuscripts in which they were written, and they reflect diverse and at times conflicting day-to-day personal and communal needs of their transcribers. The MINiTEXTS project applies a bottom-up approach to this novel body of evidence by analyzing codicological, performative, textual, and historical contexts of individual minuscule texts and by setting the resulting microhistories within a longue durée perspective. This approach allows to cross commonly accepted disciplinary boundaries and to re-evaluate several intertwined issues of medieval cultural history, such as the correlation between the norm and diversity in liturgical practices, the interplay among orthodoxy, heterodoxy, and deviance in intercessory practices, and the relationships among religion, magic, and medicine in medieval culture. The MINiTEXTS project aims to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of early medieval heterogeneous culture, by pursuing five specific objectives: (1) to generate a taxonomy of early medieval minuscule texts in Latin manuscripts; (2) to understand the role of such texts in the transmission of practical knowledge and in relation to social practices; (3) to investigate the relationship of liturgical minuscule texts both to the normative texts of early medieval Christian liturgy and to actual liturgical practices; (4) to examine the relationship of minuscule texts that appeal to supernatural agents both to related religious practices and to standard Christian and “occult” texts and formulas; and (5) to investigate the relationship of minuscule texts of a broadly medical nature both to concurrent medical practices and to early medieval cultures of healing.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project has examined 97 percent of pre-900 Latin manuscripts and larger codicological units, primarily via digital facisimiles accessible online, and it has identified approximately 1800 manuscripts with Latin minuscule texts added before the year 1000. This corpus has produced about 4000 entries for the project's database created and filled with data by all team members during the first half of the project, especially by the PI and the manuscript researcher. The latter two have also visited relevant larger collections of early medieval manuscripts in Western Europe, and examined manuscripts that have not been digitized yet. Codicological and paleographic features of these minitexts have been used to provide tentative datings for these minitexts and, in some cases, tentative regions of origin. The creation of this dataset and its systematic examination has allowed the project to generate a general taxonomy of early medieval minuscule texts in Latin manuscripts, which will be presented in the PI’s forthcoming publications, most importantly in the thematic journal issue dedicated to minuscule texts scheduled to appear in late 2024 or early 2025.
The assembled dataset has also been used in preparation of a critical Latin edition of selected minuscule texts with their Englih translations. About a half of work on this edition has been completed so far by the ‘Latinist’ researcher assigned to this task and the PI.
Separate team members have studied specific kinds of minitexts, especially those related to the transmission of pracical knowledge. The PI has examined economic additions and have completed a study of accounting and polyptych notes from early-tenth-century Laon, which presents their critical edition and discusses the nature of ecclesisastical lordship and accounting practices in tenth-century France. He has also completed studies of weather incantations and lists of measures added to early medieval Latin manuscripts. One of the PhD fellow has examined the surviving lists of books and book loans, as well as book donation notes, while the other has studied animal-related incantations.
The liturgical additions constitute the largest group of minuscule texts, more than one third of the enture corpus. The project has conducted a special workshop on this type of additions, and its materials are being prepared in a separate collected volume to be edited by the researcher assigned to liturgical minitexts.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project will provide scholars with access to a novel body of largely neglected evidence related to the transmission of practical knowledge and various aspects of early medieval social, religious, and cultural practices. The essential information about this corpus will become available at the end of the project via online MINiTEXTS database, and the project’s critical edition provide academic audience with detailed insights into most interesting samples of that corpus. The project members have been and will be examining the collected data from both longue durée and microhistorical perspectives and will contribute to a better understanding of early medieval heterogenous culture.
The project will contribute to the ongoining academic debates on the correlation between the norm and diversity in liturgical practices, the interplay among orthodoxy, heterodoxy, and deviance in religious practices, and the relationships among religion, magic, and medicine in medieval culture. While many liturgical minuscule texts were derived from “standard” liturgical traditions associated with Roman practices, approximately one third of such minitexts – most identified by the project for the first time – are either completely unique witnesses or belong to local, non-Roman liturgical practices. These results will be published a collected volume dedicated to liturgical minuscule texts.
The examination od codicological and textual contexts for various previously unidentified minuscule texts of deviant nature such as incantations and charms has also shown that their authors and users did not separate them from orthodox Christian texts. The same holds true for minuscule texts related to healing practices and care for body. Clusters of minuscule texts of generally medical nature indicates that their copists did not clearly distinguish among medical incantations traditionally associated with magic, healing prayers connected with Christian religious practices, and pharmaceutical recipes associated with medieval medicine. In this perspective, the modern separate categories of magic, religion, and medicine are of little use for a proper understanding of early medieval “culture of healing”.