Medieval textuality as a temporal lens: the Minnesota manuscript from the Estoria de Espanna

Brinsdon, Lauren (2019). Medieval textuality as a temporal lens: the Minnesota manuscript from the Estoria de Espanna. University of Birmingham. M.A.

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Abstract

This thesis explores the multi-temporal layers of the Minnesota codex from the Estoria de Espanna, and manuscript culture as a whole. It is an interdisciplinary approach to manuscript studies, which brings together the physical structure, the content, and reader reception to create a three-dimensional view of the codex. In this way, I hope to demonstrate the temporal thread which binds the unbound folios of the Minnesota manuscript together; it begins with Alfonso X in the thirteenth century, follows through to the late-fifteenth century when the codex was produced, and continues through subsequent periods. The centuries involved in the manuscript’s development form the temporal matrix of the medieval codex; it is subjected to the social, cultural, and political environments to which it has belonged. These dynamic conditions question the authorship of the manuscript as the text is filtered through the different hands of the prototypes and the scribes, and then developed by those hands which fill the margins and add to the text between the lines. As a result, I will illustrate how medieval manuscripts are transhistorical objects which offer a temporal lens into the past.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Masters by Research > M.A.)

Award Type:

Masters by Research > M.A.

Supervisor(s):