MEDI 445: Medieval Media

Students enrolled in this course will spend the term working in UVic Libraries’ Special Collections studying medieval books, papers, and objects. The course will survey UVic’s medieval holdings (dating from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries and including manuscripts, legal documents, binding fragments, and more) and hear guest lectures from experts with specialized knowledge of individual items. The course constitutes an introduction to pre-print, pre-digital book history and teaches students key skills for archival research: how to handle, read, record, and assess various textual materials. Grades will be based primarily on projects that develop collaboratively throughout the term. There will be opportunities for online publication of select projects.

Text: Clemens and Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies (Cornell, 2007)

Assignments: regular quizzes (20%), practice transcriptions (20%), practice manuscript descriptions (10%), project proposal (10%), project (40%)

Instructor: Dr. Adrienne Williams-Boyarin

Please note that classes will be held in Special Collections.