Scribal autonomy in multi-scribe manuscripts: digital visualisations through the Chronicle of Melrose Abbey

多抄写手稿中的抄写自主权：通过梅尔罗斯修道院编年史进行数字可视化

• 批准号: AH/W010216/1
• 负责人: Joanna Tucker
• 金额: $ 22.32万
• 依托单位: University of Glasgow
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FW010216%2F1
• 关键词: Scribal; autonomy; multi; scribe; manuscripts

Manuscripts and the texts they contain are vital sources for the activities of the past, especially for the medieval period before the invention of print but also for the early modern and modern eras. As historians, we are indebted to the work of scribes (who often remain anonymous) who wrote and copied the texts that survive today. Until recently, 'scribal autonomy' in manuscripts has only been explored in a limited way (e.g., in relation to page layout or handwriting) and primarily in the context of literary texts rather than those texts which historians routinely use for researching the past. It has now become clear that in many historical manuscripts, scribes were not just copyists with limited choices but in fact had the freedom to decide what text to add and where. This project develops the question of scribal autonomy by essentially asking: how much agency did scribes have when writing a particular kind of historical text known as a year-by-year ('annalistic') chronicle?This question will be primarily explored in relation to the Chronicle of Melrose and other multi-scribe annalistic chronicles. Such texts are extremely valuable sources for historians. They were particularly common in medieval monasteries, but were also kept by others such as towns. When viewed as a single text, an annalistic chronicle is usually read as an 'official' account of events, representing a single, institutional 'view' of the past. However, when viewed in their original manuscript form, this notion is often destabilised: many different scribes might add fresh text and folios in a piecemeal way. The scribes would update the chronicle with accounts of recent events, but also return to earlier sections and insert material relating to the deeper past. This leads to the realisation that scribes might exercise an unexpected degree of individual choice and responsiveness in what text to add to their chronicle, where, and how. Chronicles are a good example of a context in which scribal freedom might be investigated, but there are other kinds of 'multi-scribe manuscript' as well such as medieval cartularies, miscellanies, or account books.The way historians access texts has a significant impact on how we read them - whether in the archive, in printed editions or (increasingly) via digital images. Mostly, historians access texts via printed editions. Earlier editions can, however, often be outdated in how they present the text. Moreover, they typically do not contain images of the manuscript. This can hide the potential for new insights about scribes and their work, especially in the case of multi-scribe manuscripts. This project therefore seeks to design an innovative form of digital edition which allows scribal autonomy to be visualised and investigated by presenting the text directly in its scribal and manuscript context. The edition of the Chronicle of Melrose Abbey will be freely available online, and will incorporate text (in the original Latin and English translation) and annotated images (identifying each individual scribe and their contributions on the page). This will utilise new technology for publishing digital images (known as the 'International Image Interoperability Framework'), and will therefore forge a new path for image-based editions of manuscripts of all kinds in future.

手稿及其包含的文本是过去活动的重要来源，特别是在印刷术发明之前的中世纪时期，也是早期现代和现代时代的重要来源。作为历史学家，我们多亏了抄写者(他们通常保持匿名)的工作，他们撰写和复制了今天幸存下来的文本。直到最近，对手稿中的“抄写者自主”的探索是有限的(例如，与页面布局或手写有关)，而且主要是在文学文本的背景下进行的，而不是历史学家经常用来研究过去的文本。现在已经很清楚，在许多历史手稿中，抄写者不仅是选择有限的抄写者，而且实际上拥有决定添加什么文本以及添加到哪里的自由。这个项目从本质上提出了抄写员自治的问题：在撰写一种被称为年复一年(年鉴)编年史的特殊历史文本时，抄写员有多大的代理能力？这个问题将主要结合《梅尔罗斯年鉴》和其他多抄写员编年史进行探讨。这样的文本对历史学家来说是极其宝贵的资源。它们在中世纪的修道院中特别常见，但也被其他地方保留，如城镇。当被视为单一文本时，编年史通常被解读为对事件的“官方”描述，代表着对过去的单一、制度性的“看法”。然而，当以其原始手稿的形式查看时，这种概念往往是不稳定的：许多不同的抄写员可能会以零碎的方式添加新的文本和对开本。抄写员将用最近发生的事件更新编年史，但也会返回到前面的部分，并插入与更深层次的过去有关的材料。这导致人们意识到，抄写员可能会在将什么文本添加到他们的编年史上，在哪里和如何添加文本时，行使意想不到的个人选择和反应程度。编年史是一个很好的例子，在这种背景下，抄写者的自由可能会被调查，但也有其他类型的“多抄写者手稿”，如中世纪的卡特勒、杂志学或账簿。历史学家获取文本的方式对我们阅读它们的方式产生了重大影响--无论是在档案中，在印刷版中，还是(越来越多地)通过数字图像。大多数情况下，历史学家通过印刷版获取文本。然而，早期版本在呈现文本方面往往是过时的。此外，它们通常不包含手稿的图像。这可能会隐藏关于抄写员及其工作的新见解的潜力，特别是在多抄写员手稿的情况下。因此，该项目寻求设计一种创新的数字编辑形式，通过直接在抄本和手稿的背景下呈现文本，使抄写者的自主性得以可视化和调查。梅尔罗斯修道院编年史版本将在网上免费提供，并将纳入文本(原始拉丁语和英语翻译)和带注释的图像(在页面上指明每个抄写员及其贡献)。这将利用发布数字图像的新技术(称为“国际图像互操作框架”)，因此将为未来各种手稿的基于图像的版本开辟一条新的道路。