“Done. Pour the wine.” Language Experiments in Medieval Scribal Additions and Colophons

About the project

The project fills in a significant gap in research of medieval textual transmission and manuscript culture: the study of colophons and scribal additions at the ends of copied texts. The importance of colophons has been recognized since they provide information on when, where and who executed the particular copy but they are scattered in manuscript catalogues and have not been studied in a comparative perspective. Other scribal additions and interactions, often playful, vulgar, or nonsensical, combining Latin and vernacular, are usually omitted from the catalogues altogether.

Since the material is vast and mostly unedited, the situation cannot be remedied easily. This project will focus on medieval Bohemia, i.e. scribal additions and colophons primarily in Latin and Czech. A complex database will be created and analyzed from historical, linguistic and literary perspectives. The results will bring new information not only on medieval scribal culture, but also on Old Czech, language experimenting, or everyday life.