INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY
College of Liberal Arts
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
Workshops and field experience
dealing with manuscripts and documents of
classical, medieval, and Renaissance
literature and history
Presented in collaboration with the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library , Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota, and with the Newberry Library , Chicago, Illinois
Briefly, MMRL's objectives include:
This Laboratory will in no sense substitute for a university course in palaeography or codicology. Instead, it will orient students to these disciplines, assist them in evaluating the quality of scholarly arguments pertaining to manuscripts presented in books and journals, and help them decide if they wish to pursue further study of textual disciplines.
During the week June 5-10,2005, the Laboratory launched its first workshop, hosted by HMML at Saint John's University, to help the program designers test their pedagogical materials and to give participants a concentrated program of practical, hands-on orientation to the study of manuscripts.
For this Spring 2006, the Laboratory now presents its first semester-length program.
For more information, see the MMRL home page .
Graduate students in various fields of Medieval and Classical Studies are especially invited to participate in the Spring 2006 program of the Minnesota Manuscript Research Laboratory. The program is open to other students and individuals by arrangement with the Director of the Center for Medieval Studies.
Participants will attend a series of lab sessions, which will include presentations and discussions on various topics in manuscript studies, as well as hands-on practical experience with manuscripts, facsimiles, and research tools.
The MMRL web site will have guidance for individual study, as well as links to further resources.
Books will also be recommended for purchase. See MMRL Bibliography page.
Individual consultations with lab lecturers are possible by email or by appointment.
Participants in MMRL must also go for “field research” at the following libraries:
Hill Museum and Manuscript Library in Collegeville, Minnesota
Newberry Library in Chicago (some travel money available)
For full participation in the semester program, graduate students enrolled at the University of Minnesota will normally receive 2 directed study credits , and should register for MeSt 5993 . Other participants may be able to arrange for credit on an individual basis. See also the current Medieval Studies course listings.
Related opportunities:
Students registering for two directed study credits in the Lab may also wish to earn an additional, third credit in the same semester in either of two ways:
1) Registration in MeSt 8010, Medieval Studies Colloquium, which requires regular attendance at Thursday Colloquia and dialogue with speakers; or
2) Registration for an additional directed study credit for developing experience in outreach to schools. Students will normally make two visits to Twin Cities area classrooms, usually at the middle school level, to present aspects of the Laboratory's curriculum developed specifically for use in schools.
Dr. Susan J. Noakes, Director, Center for Medieval Studies-- noake001@umn.edu
Dr. Diane C. W. Anderson, Laboratory coordinator -- ander002@umn.edu
Center for Medieval Studies -- cmedst@umn.edu
Phone: (612) 626-0805
Web site: www.cmedst.umn.edu
-- Overview of manuscript studies
-- How manuscripts are named
-- Introduction to codicology
-- Overview of the history of scripts
-- Research tools and bibliography
-- Transcribing text
-- Deciphering abbreviations
-- What goes into a manuscript description
-- Using and finding manuscript catalogues, in print and on-line
-- Research tools for text identification
-- Ancillary tools: Geographical, liturgical, etc.
-- Standard editing practices and problems
-- Audience-specific editions
-- Doing your own edition
Labs are intended to be held approximately every other week, leaving time for the research trips. When you sign up , please send your schedule to the Center for Medieval Studies so that labs may be coordinated with the needs of participants as much as possible.
The program design and lab presentations are largely the collaborative work of the following three Minnesota scholars (with occasional guest speakers, to be announced):
Diane Warne Anderson (Ph.D., Duke University) has taught palaeography and Latin for the University of Minnesota Department of Classics and Near Eastern Studies and for CMS. She has also taught Latin and Greek at St. John's University, St. Olaf College. She has been employed as a cataloguer of medieval manuscripts at HMML and has published scholarly contributions to manuscript studies.
Susan J. Noakes (Ph.D., Yale University) is Director of the Center for Medieval Studies and Professor of French and Italian at the University of Minnesota. Among her many publications on medieval literature are several which treat centrally the history of manuscripts, early printed books, and reading practices in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, including Timely Reading: Between Exegesis and Interpretation (Cornell U. Press, 1988)
Theresa M. Vann (Ph.D., Fordham University) is the Joseph S. Micallef Curator of the Malta Study Center at the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library and Adjunct Associate Professor of History at St. John's University. She has edited several scholarly books, is publishing a translation of The Siege of Rhodes, and has overseen the creation of HMML's on-line manuscript catalogue.
Site updated January 18, 2006