The Meaning of Media: Texts and Materiality in Medieval Scandinavia

Description

The book highlights aspects of mediality and materiality in the dissemination and distribution of texts in the Scandinavian Middle Ages important for achieving a general understanding of the emerging literate culture. In nine chapters various types of texts represented in different media and in a range of materials are treated. The topics include two chapters on epigraphy, on lead amulets and stone monuments inscribed with runes and Roman letters. In four chapters aspects of the manuscript culture is discussed, the role of authorship and of the dissemination of Christian topics in translations. The appropriation of a Latin book culture in the vernaculars is treated as well as the adminstrative use of writing in charters. In the two final chapters topics related to the emerging print culture in early post-medieval manuscripts and prints are discussed with a focus on reception. The range of topics will make the book relevant for scholars from all fields of medieval research as well as those interested in mediality and materiality in general. Anna Catharina Horn and Karl G. Johansson / Some Reflections on Writing a New History of Texts for the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1 Lisbeth M. Imer / Lumps of Lead – New Types of Written Sources from Medieval Denmark 19 Anna Blennow and Alessandro Palumbo / At the Crossroads between Script Cultures 39 Samu Niskanen / The Emergence of an Authorial Culture: Publishing in Denmark in the Long Twelfth Century 71 Hjalti Snær Ægisson / A Reading of the Canons of Laon Story 93 Sif Rikhardsdottir / Oceanic Networks 103 Ingela Hedström / The Language of Legitimacy 125 Anna Katharina Richter / The Danish Translation of 'Amadís de Gaula' in the Thott Collection in the Royal Danish Library, Copenhagen 157 Lukas Rösli / From 'Schedæ Ara Prests Fróða' to 'Íslendingabók' – When an Intradiegetic Text Becomes Reality 173 Personal name Index 215 Work Index 219 Manuscript Index 221