OUTLINE
Week 1: Systems of writing in antiquity: Egyptian alphabet; Semitic alphabets; Linear B (syllabic alphabet); the Greek alphabet (earliest alphabet with letter to sound correspondence); the connection between the Greek and the Latin alphabet. Earliest written documents that survive in the Mediterranean.
Week 2: Early writing materials. Clay and the Linear B tablets. Waxed tablets. School exercises. Papyrus: preparation of papyrus leaves for writing; discovery and collections of papyri; languages of the papyri; chronological span of the papyri; cursive and uncial writing used on papyri. Visit to UC Berkeley's Tebtunis papyri collection.
Arabic papyri and papers
Week 3: Parchment and palimpsests. The transition
from roll to codex. The continued use of the roll for specific types of
books. Methods of gluing or stitching together and storing a roll. The
influence of the roll format in dividing longer texts. The possible preference
of the codex format for Christian texts.
Week 4: Roll and codex and their influence on manuscript illumination
regarding iconography and type of colors used. Slide show of Ilias Ambrosiana,
Vergilius Vaticanus, Joshua roll. Facsimiles of pertinent manuscripts
available at Cal's library shown in class.
Week 5: Paper. The invention of paper in East Asia and its introduction
to the Mediterranean world. The preference of the Arab world for paper
and of the Byzantine and Western European world for parchment. The comments
of Arab intellectuals on paper and parchment. The gradual adoption of
paper in Byzantium and Western Europe. The cost of paper. Types of paper:
Oriental paper and Western paper. Different types of paper available in
the Arab world. Watermarks and methods of dating manuscripts with the
help of watermarks.
Week 6: Book production and codicological characteristics. Pens, inks
(mineral or plant based), and bindings in Europe and the Islamic world.
Differences and similarities. Book binding and book cover decoration.
Slide show of medieval book covers.
Week 7: Different types of books according to their content; attitudes
toward copying different kinds of texts (ancient classics, liturgical,
and theological works copied with "reverence"; scientific works,
certain lives of saints, and romances subject to a greater degree of scribal
intervention).
Week 8: Scribal errors. The methods of medieval philologists for
establishing the best possible text. The methods of contemporary philologists
for establishing the best possible text. Constructing a stemma codicum.
Vertical and horizontal stemma. Potential impossibility to construct a
stemma codicum.
Week 9: Changes in writing styles in Greek and Latin manuscripts.
Epigraphic styles, uncial, and minuscule in Greek and Latin. Tachygraphic
systems and abbreviations in Greek and Latin. Systems of punctuation.
Systems of annotation. The appearance of "Arabic" numerals in
Arabic, Latin, and Greek manuscripts. Methods of dating based on the writing
style of a document.
Week 10: Book illustrations and their travels across languages
and cultures (part 1). Translating an illustrated text. Illustrations
of the Old Testament in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin manuscripts. Illustrating
the New Testament in Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Christian Arabic manuscripts.
Week 11: Book illustrations and their travels across languages
and cultures (part 2). Greek herbal illustrations copied into Arabic manuscripts.
Illustrations of Kalîla wa-Dimna in Arabic and Greek manuscripts.
Illustrations of Barlaam and Ioasaph in Greek and Christian Arabic manuscripts.
Arabic decorative elements in Greek South Italian manuscripts. Graeco-Syriac
decorative elements in early Arabic manuscripts (cosmogram in the Greek
Vienna Dioscorides and the Arabic SanaÞ• manuscript).
Week 12: The luxury book as a diplomatic gift. The arrival of manuscripts
of Orosios and Dioscorides in medieval Spain and the re-translation of
Dioscorides into Arabic. The arrival of pseudo-Dionysios Areopagite in
medieval France, its translation into Latin, and its influence on European
philosophy and theology during the Middle Ages. Religious books as "captives"
by the infidels (colophon from Specimina Sinaitica) and their "redemption"
by the pious.
Week 13: Book collecting in antiquity. Ancient libraries. The lost
library of Alexandria. Book collecting in the Middle Ages. Libraries in
medieval Europe, Byzantium, and the medieval Islamic world. A collection
of a different type of documents: the Cairo geniza and its importance
for medieval Mediterranean history.
Week 14: Book collecting in the Renaissance. The formation of today's
major European manuscript collections. Colonialism and its impact on European
manuscript collections. Using catalogues of manuscript catalogues. Using
manuscript catalogues. How to work in a manuscript collection. Ordering
microfilms and photographs from manuscript collections.
Week 15: The invention of the printing press in East Asia. The invention
of the printing press by Gutenberg. The earliest printed books in the
Latin alphabet. The earliest Greek printed books. The earliest Arabic
printed books in Europe. The establishment of the printing press in the
Middle East. Coexistence of manuscripts and printed books. Conclusions.
