Periodic Reporting for period 4 - MedPub (Medieval Publishing from c. 1000 to 1500)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-10-01 bis 2022-09-30
The project MedPub (Medieval Publishing c. 1000–1500) asks how Latin authors in the West published their works during the period from roughly 1000 to 1500. Our research hypothesis is that publication strategies were not a constant but were liable to change, and that different literary, social, institutional, and technical milieux fostered different approaches to publishing. MedPub addresses three fundamentals relating to continuity and change in medieval modes of publishing, these being (1) institutional affiliation, (2) publishing networks, and (3) technological innovation.
Two key contributions were made. The first informs the study of all medieval literature. The act of publishing is inherent to the authorial process, and is the first step in any text’s reception. To fail to appreciate that act is to ensure that one’s understanding of literature—from any period—will remain defective. MedPub sheds light on this process, hitherto rarely investigated, with recourse to a plethora of authors. Our studies constitute a foundation from which scholarship in the field will ask fresh questions and make new approaches. The second key benefit goes beyond the parameters of literary and book history. Publishing in the Middle Ages was a social act, often involving several parties beside the author and his or her intended audience—not necessarily reached—such as patrons, dedicatees, and secretaries. The social status of these networks ranged from the middling (such as otherwise unknown monks or clerks) to the grand (such as popes or kings). MedPub worked on the premise that the composition of such literary networks in the long-run reacted to large-scale societal and cultural changes in the wider world. For that reason, we created the Database of Medieval Publishing Networks, which brings together a wide array of data related to societal aspects of publishing in the longue durée and offers this information in a searchable and comparable form (see further below). Wider societal trends in relation to publication were also observed in, for instance, the emergence of authorial cultures on peripheries, and associations between authors and the pope and papal servants. Authorial publishing and its social aspects offer vantage points for medievalists to make fresh observations in several fields and at different scales.
Two key contributions were made. The first informs the study of all medieval literature. The act of publishing is inherent to the authorial process, and is the first step in any text’s reception. To fail to appreciate that act is to ensure that one’s understanding of literature—from any period—will remain defective. MedPub sheds light on this process, hitherto rarely investigated, with recourse to a plethora of authors. Our studies constitute a foundation from which scholarship in the field will ask fresh questions and make new approaches. The second key benefit goes beyond the parameters of literary and book history. Publishing in the Middle Ages was a social act, often involving several parties beside the author and his or her intended audience—not necessarily reached—such as patrons, dedicatees, and secretaries. The social status of these networks ranged from the middling (such as otherwise unknown monks or clerks) to the grand (such as popes or kings). MedPub worked on the premise that the composition of such literary networks in the long-run reacted to large-scale societal and cultural changes in the wider world. For that reason, we created the Database of Medieval Publishing Networks, which brings together a wide array of data related to societal aspects of publishing in the longue durée and offers this information in a searchable and comparable form (see further below). Wider societal trends in relation to publication were also observed in, for instance, the emergence of authorial cultures on peripheries, and associations between authors and the pope and papal servants. Authorial publishing and its social aspects offer vantage points for medievalists to make fresh observations in several fields and at different scales.
The focus of MedPub’s research was on individual authors and their publishing networks. Some 60 authors were studied, ranging from anonymous writers of the eleventh century to such celebrated Renaissance authors as Boccaccio. The literary genres include historiography, letter collections, poetry, theology, commentary, geography, hagiography, liturgy, and translations. Furthermore, our Database of Medieval Publishing introduces some 4,000 individuals involved in the publication of new authorial works, a corpus in which practically all fields of medieval Latin literature are represented.
The main question we posed ourselves was how did different publishing cultures emerge, function, and get reshaped. This was studied especially in the geographical contexts of France, England, Italy, and Denmark. In this last, a new authorial culture was formed virtually from scratch and developed in stages, initially shaped mainly by institutional needs and subsequently also by mounting literary ambitions. Our studies operating in Anglo-Norman spheres emphasized how individuals and institutions collaborated in the circulation of new writings, and how success in dissemination relied on authorial efforts to that effect. Several of our studies demonstrate that whatever the geographical, chronological or literary context, promotion by influential third parties could make a difference. The papacy boasted a particularly wide and long-standing application to the promotion of texts. While precedents from the patristic period were formative, papal support was especially welcome if the published text was potentially susceptible to doctrinal censure. Complex operations devised by affected authors and their supporters are witness to this anxiety.
The late medieval increase in channels of communication benefitted authors who enjoyed institutional support and could use distribution networks offered by, say, a religious order. They could find audiences across the Latin West with an efficiency that was rare in the high medieval period. Urbanization also had pertinent side-effects, to which literary careers in Renaissance Italy testify. It became increasingly natural for authors to seek sponsorship from secular parties, including civic bodies. Even so, the traditional ecclesiastical setups for the distribution and preservation of books remained instrumental even for lay authors.
These and other results have been disseminated in our conferences and publications. Our peer-reviewed research is available in an open access form. Our database is accessible at dmpn.helsinki.fi.
The main question we posed ourselves was how did different publishing cultures emerge, function, and get reshaped. This was studied especially in the geographical contexts of France, England, Italy, and Denmark. In this last, a new authorial culture was formed virtually from scratch and developed in stages, initially shaped mainly by institutional needs and subsequently also by mounting literary ambitions. Our studies operating in Anglo-Norman spheres emphasized how individuals and institutions collaborated in the circulation of new writings, and how success in dissemination relied on authorial efforts to that effect. Several of our studies demonstrate that whatever the geographical, chronological or literary context, promotion by influential third parties could make a difference. The papacy boasted a particularly wide and long-standing application to the promotion of texts. While precedents from the patristic period were formative, papal support was especially welcome if the published text was potentially susceptible to doctrinal censure. Complex operations devised by affected authors and their supporters are witness to this anxiety.
The late medieval increase in channels of communication benefitted authors who enjoyed institutional support and could use distribution networks offered by, say, a religious order. They could find audiences across the Latin West with an efficiency that was rare in the high medieval period. Urbanization also had pertinent side-effects, to which literary careers in Renaissance Italy testify. It became increasingly natural for authors to seek sponsorship from secular parties, including civic bodies. Even so, the traditional ecclesiastical setups for the distribution and preservation of books remained instrumental even for lay authors.
These and other results have been disseminated in our conferences and publications. Our peer-reviewed research is available in an open access form. Our database is accessible at dmpn.helsinki.fi.
We hope to have progressed beyond the state of the art at micro- and macro-levels of observation in the study of authorial publishing.
Our minute examinations of individual writers yielded fresh information about the authorial process, communication, and networking in the Middle Ages, and the era’s intellectual climate. An inherent part of the authorial process, publishing is informative about authorial intentions and is vital to understanding reception. Our studies, identifying a variety of previously undetected ways in which audiences were targeted, have shown how important it is that editors of medieval texts take note of how their authors published. With regard to the interrelated aspects of communication and networking, MedPub has detected various social conduits by which new literary works found distribution channels. The term ‘publishing circle’, centring on the author and involving his or her associates, was coined to denote pertinent collaboration, encountered very frequently in the period. Next, writers of all ages tend to understate censure against their works. Medieval evidence for the reception of an individual text is often fragmentary at best, and, under such circumstances, anomalies in publication may offer important pertinent clues. We worked on the premise that upon releasing their works, authors would have been prone to pre-empt potential criticism, especially in the domain of theology. Equipped with that reflexion, MedPub identified a flare of anti-intellectual rhetoric that impeded the publication of rationalistic discussions on the mysteries of faith.
Our key contribution to macro-level research is the Database of Medieval Publishing Networks. In the Middle Ages, publishing embraced parties from various professional and social stations, ranging from otherwise unknown monks and clerks to popes and emperors. The composition of such literary networks was broadly reactive to large-scale societal, cultural, and technological changes. Our Database introduces some 4,000 participants in these networks, classifiable by the region and period of their activity and their social or professional station. As such, the Database also serves scholars whose primary interests are societal rather than literary. It has the potential to alleviate one of the greatest problems in medieval scholarship: the dearth of uniform evidence which can allow for quantitative investigations within extensive geographical and chronological compasses.
Our minute examinations of individual writers yielded fresh information about the authorial process, communication, and networking in the Middle Ages, and the era’s intellectual climate. An inherent part of the authorial process, publishing is informative about authorial intentions and is vital to understanding reception. Our studies, identifying a variety of previously undetected ways in which audiences were targeted, have shown how important it is that editors of medieval texts take note of how their authors published. With regard to the interrelated aspects of communication and networking, MedPub has detected various social conduits by which new literary works found distribution channels. The term ‘publishing circle’, centring on the author and involving his or her associates, was coined to denote pertinent collaboration, encountered very frequently in the period. Next, writers of all ages tend to understate censure against their works. Medieval evidence for the reception of an individual text is often fragmentary at best, and, under such circumstances, anomalies in publication may offer important pertinent clues. We worked on the premise that upon releasing their works, authors would have been prone to pre-empt potential criticism, especially in the domain of theology. Equipped with that reflexion, MedPub identified a flare of anti-intellectual rhetoric that impeded the publication of rationalistic discussions on the mysteries of faith.
Our key contribution to macro-level research is the Database of Medieval Publishing Networks. In the Middle Ages, publishing embraced parties from various professional and social stations, ranging from otherwise unknown monks and clerks to popes and emperors. The composition of such literary networks was broadly reactive to large-scale societal, cultural, and technological changes. Our Database introduces some 4,000 participants in these networks, classifiable by the region and period of their activity and their social or professional station. As such, the Database also serves scholars whose primary interests are societal rather than literary. It has the potential to alleviate one of the greatest problems in medieval scholarship: the dearth of uniform evidence which can allow for quantitative investigations within extensive geographical and chronological compasses.