Where and How can one find medival manuscripts?

The card catalog at Yale University's Sterling Memorial Library By No machine-readable author provided. Rageross assumed (based on copyright claims). - No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=765557

Dr Sanchez-Prieto continues by explaining how manuscript collections first began.  Unsurprisingly, given the climate of literacy at the time and the tremendous expense of producing manuscripts, churches and church-bsed universities had manuscript holdings.  This continues to this day. 

Eventually, however, royalty also commissioned manuscripts, building private libraries.  Manuscripts were more or less portable, easy to give and collect, so they became popular artifacts and status symbols.

As the merchant class grew over the centuries, through industrialization, wildly wealthy philanthropists such as Pierpont Morgan were able to amass a good amount of authentic medieval manuscripts.  Private collections may or may not become available to researchers.  

The overview of manuscript studies would not be complete without mentioning the darker parts of history, specifically Nazi influence.  In service of Hitler's cultural purity and terror campaigns, many books were seized and destroyed, including but not limited to medieval manuscripts. 

On a more venal scale, there is the case of membra disjecta/disiecta: fragments of manuscripts.  In some cases, the membra disjecta came from manuscripts that simply fell apart.  In other cases, they were re-used in pre-modern times to bond other manuscripts or even provide insulation in clothing.  It was not unheard of for collectors to slice apart manuscripts and sell off individual membra, thus maximizing the potential profit of an individual manuscript.

Today, medieval manuscripts can usually be found in the libraries of large universities all over the world.  Digitization projects are numerous, but due to lack of funding, manpower, or other resources, they are often abandoned.  Internet portals help remedy some of this fragmentation (!!) by allowing scholars to search through the holdings of multiple libraries online.  But information can still be hard to come by as the means to catalog and even the standards of proper cataloging vary from country to country.  In recent years, some institutions have even turned to crowd-sourcing to help catalog membra disjecta.

Introduction to Medieval Manuscript Studies 2/5

efore we can continue to the more popular parts of medieval manuscript study, Dr. Sanchez-Prieto defines some necessary terms.  Illuminated manuscripts are not just the million-dollar peacocks we see in museums, but any text that bears complementary artwork, even something as simple as colored initials.  Illuminated manuscripts will often - but not exclusively - have gold or silver leaf added.  Codices purpurei (such as those from the Carolingian, Ottonian, and 15th c W. Europe Renaissance) consist of gold or silver gilded letters on purple parchment.  

Many medieval manuscripts were quite decorated; usually the more intricate, the manuscript was to be used in an ecclesiastical setting.  Decorations ran the gamut, however, and it was not unusual for even private psalters to be lushly illustrated.  Manuscripts without decorations of any kind may indicate that the work was unfinished and/or it was a personal copy.

In my quest to find the illuminated B to start this post with, I came across this cool gif on the illuminated manuscript wiki:

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminated_manuscript

ILLUMINATION EXECUTION I. Graphite powder dots create the outline II. Silverpoint drawings are sketched III. Illustration is retraced with ink IV. The surface is prepared for the application of gold leaf V. Gold leaf is laid down VI. Gold leaf is burnished to make it glossy and reflective VII. Decorative impressions are made to adhere the leaf VIII. Base colors are applied IX. Darker tones are used to give volume X. Further details are drawn XI. Lighter colors are used to add particulars XII. Ink borders are traced to finalize the illumination

Dr. Sanchez-Prieto continues with more vocabulary that one must master to discuss this topic intelligently.  Illustration, which is a depiction of scenes, people, or objects is a type of illumination and it depicts or teaches something about the text.  Ornamentations are decorative elements that generally don't have much bearing on the content of the text.  Miniatures are not technically tiny paintings, but instead illuminations using minium, or red lead, as a pigment.  This pigment was the 2nd most common after black.  Illumination as a term wasn't found before the 12th c. Europe.  Prior to that time, historiares provided images that explained or depicted the text's contents. 

For the sake of this MOOC, however, Sanchez-Prieto is calling illumination "an ensemble of decorative elements in a manuscript" which compasses both illustration and ornamentation.

Introduction to Medieval Manuscript Studies 1/5

Alphabet: The Story of Writing by Donald Jackson

This week's objectives (for the manuscript studies intro) are as follows:

-    The different meanings of the word “manuscript”, and how it will be understood in the MOOC

-    What an “illuminated manuscript” is

-    The different types of decoration that can be found in medieval manuscripts

-    How the big collections of medieval manuscripts were built

-    Where the medieval manuscripts can be found today

I'll be adding my notes/thoughts to these, hopefully in legible format, as I continue to watch Dr. Sanchez-Prieto's videos.

****

Defining "manuscript" for this MOOC:

Manuscripts, especially medieval manuscripts, are invaluable capsules of information.  They can serve as primary source materials for a wide array of scholarship, from literature to history, craft, paper and textiles, economics, etc. 

Dr Sanchez-Prieto has defined manuscript as handwritten texts on "soft" material such as paper and parchment, meant to teach or entertain.  The most familiar form of medieval manuscript, to the modern audience, is the codex.  The codex is one form of book, handwritten, illustrated, and bound.  Examples would be the various Bibles, books of hours, romances, etc. from the Medieval period.  

While all codices are manuscripts, but not all manuscripts are codices.  Manuscripts can also be rolls or scrolls.  The text of the manuscript is the content therein.  Autographs are manuscripts written in the author's own handwriting.

Medieval manuscripts are still relevant today because they were built for the ages.  Dr Sanchez-Prieto states that they are the largest set of medieval artifacts - no surprise given the care and reverence that went into the construction.  Each manuscript is unique, due to the fact they were copied by hand, and so even in editions, small changes and mistakes can be tracked.  Finally, the real deal is wildly expensive - authentic medieval manuscripts sell for thousands to millions of dollars.

Good teachers

Reflect back on the teachers you considered in the first reflection task at the start of this week. Reconsider what it was about them that made you consider them to be so good. Would others that were taught by them have the same conclusions?

 What is a good teacher?  I think this has to start with what makes a good student.  After watching Prof. Stobart's lecture on learning in week 2, I think it's safe to say that a good student - rather a good learner - is someone who puts in the effort necessary to master a skill. 

So I'm going to define a good teacher similarly:  A good teacher is one that puts in the effort to master the domains they work in.  This extends beyond their immediate subject area into ancillary skills such as communication, technology, etc.  A good teacher also has a great deal of curiosity. 

While this is generally thought to be inborn, curiosity needs to be exercised frequently.  A good teacher is one that takes the time to learn about their subject, the tools necessary for communicating it, and the world their students live in. A good teacher is socially and politically aware.

I think the best teacher I had was Mrs. Mangan, my high school English teacher.  I think she was the person that made me want to teach.  She taught (still teaches!) literature, but didn't stop there.  She constructed creative lessons, linked history, pop culture, art, and literature. 

But most importantly she met us where we were.  Teenagers have no shortage of issues, so she made her classroom a kind of sanctuary in off hours.  She gave some of us a blackboard to write poetry on, a place to hang out, talk about literature, life, problems.  She was an anchor in my life for many years, and is still in there even though we don't' talk as much.

I think other students would feel the same way, especially my compatriots!  She was one of the beloved teachers in our school.  I'd be willing to bet she still is! 

IQ

• During your own education, how has your "intelligence" been assessed?
• How has this affected the educational opportunities you have been given?
• What judgments have people made about you that have been affected by an assessment of your "intelligence"?
• Do you consider yourself to be a "learner"? why?

This week's videos really resonated with me.  Intelligence is so poorly understood, but it is all over the field of education!  It's a popular shorthand for an entire matrix of concepts.  I don't mind assessment of certain aspects, but I think we rely far too heavily on it.

Assessments and Judgement

In my own education, I was frequently assessed for intelligence.  My teachers administered the standard quizzes and tests in the classroom, but also we had batteries of standardized tests all through grade school and high school.  I recall I did fairly well in language, but was always coming up short in math.  This caused me to have special tutoring from the state to bring me up to par with my classmates.  There was a mild stigma surrounding children who needed this - we even had to leave the school building!  It was a state-run program, but we were a Catholic school, so there was some stipulation that we had to be physically separated. 

As I entered high school, my "one-sided intelligence" persisted, and I was still doing poorly in math.  This ended up affecting the availability of elective courses for me - a limit on arts and no Latin for some reason.  This, despite my creative ability and high scores in language arts!  I muddled through, achieving highly in the areas I was good at, befuddling my principal.  If I was "so good at" English, why could I not "do" algebra?  There was a sense I was lacking, or that I was stubborn, that they just had to hit the right conditions and I would magically keep up with the rest of my class.

I knew I was "bad at math", and this was told to me over and over.  I recall feeling more shame over not fitting in that at not learning mathematics.  Equal achievement at all subjects meant one was "well-rounded" and thus intelligent.  There was a definite sense of possibility included in the concept of "well-rounded", like those who were that were intelligent and thus liable to be successful.  And yet here I sit, with a Masters' and 6 years teaching college classes ;)

Effect on opportunities

Ultimately, I don't think this limited me, even though it was stressful at the time!  I would have liked to take Latin for goodness' sake, but I can always do that on my own.  When I was in grade school I felt very judged for my lack of "ability", and I felt very bad.  My best was never good enough.  I wasn't considered unintelligent, but I was considered at a deficit.  This continued through high school, but luckily I started reading about education and worked through that.  By the time I hit college, no one gave a hoot about that, so I took my remedial math courses and did well (for me) in the real math requirements.  Then I kissed it goodbye.

Now, even though I don't do more than arithmetic on a daily basis, I think I have a healthier relationship with math.  It taught me about the shortcomings of standardized assessments.  I work with many students who are convinced they are "bad at writing"; my experiences have definitely informed my pedagogy!  I emphasize practice of basic writing concepts as tools that they can use across many different situations.   My lessons are built on the first 4 stages of Bloom's taxonomy and the necessity of work, rather than talent.

Am I a "learner"?
 
Definitely yes!  I love to learn new things and find uses for them.  I think of my learning capacity as a candy dropped on the carpet - I pick up all sorts of bits.  To reinforce what I take in, I will do casual research on it, write about it, and talk about it.  Sometimes, this is for the sheer joy of learning.  Other times this is my "homework" to self-train as a teacher.  Throughout my childhood, curiosity and critical thought were encouraged.  I think I kept that, and try to share it with other people on a daily basis.

Educational forecast

Not sure where we're headed...

As I am an experimental learner - I learn best by putting into practice what I’m tying to acquire - I think I will get a lot our of this course.  The MOOC model allows for a lot of action.  There are forums, a hashtag, journaling, etc. - many ways to take the ideas that the videos represent and play around with them.  So I think that will lead to me retaining more of the theories from the lecture and being able to generate more ideas for practical applications.

I think the future of education is going to be very different from what is commonly accepted as a learning environment (didactic, authoritative).  And yet, since I am an American, I am cynical about some things.  I believe there will be even more of a split between wealthy districts and poor ones, with the adaptive technology, theory, and resources going to the wealthier districts.  So in a way, not much will change in terms of the US way of education.

Already now, in my relatively small teaching career, I am noticing more and more “corporate” influence on academics - compliance, standardization, really granular evaluation - an attempt to make the learning process similar to a computer program - none of which bodes well for us humanities folks! 

And yet, I am seeing more and more students lacking basic skills, so I do have to engage in very rote learning with them (e.g. for grammar, parts of an essay, citing research).  I don’t really see this getting better unless we do a 180 nation wide and really change how we are educating.

That being said, there are so many more opportunities now to learning non-academic ways.  For the curious enough, there are tons of materials available online and off to foster learning.  If someone really is curious enough, they will at least google their way into some level of understanding.