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Material Texts: Lucie Doležalová, Jakub Kozák, Karel Pacovský, Ondřej Fúsik, Martin Roček (Charles University, Prague), “Inertia of Medieval Scribes”

  • Monday, October 14, 2024 - 5:15pm to 7:15pm

Class of 1978 Pavilion, in the Kislak Center for Special Collections on the 6th floor of the University of Pennsylvania's Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center


We are thrilled to welcome Lucie Doležalová, Jakub Kozák, Karel Pacovský, Martin Roček, and Ondřej Fúsik (all from Charles University, Prague), who will present: “Inertia of Medieval Scribes.”

Our speakers write:

Among the many ways of defining the end of the Middle Ages, the invention of the printing press is significant: it did not have an immediate impact but did initiate a cultural transformation, similar to the current transition to the digital. Print reduced the costs and the time needed for textual production and would eventually bring about the end of hand-copying. Yet scribes continued to work with unprecedented intensity until the end of the fifteenth century and long after. Rather than focus on the growing diffusion of print, which has received a great deal of attention, this paper presents our new project, analyzing the work of scribes c. 1450–1500 to explain the character of the process that would eventually bring a well-established practice to an end. 

Thus, the basic question that this research seeks to answer is: Why do we stick to doing things the way we are used to doing them, even when there are easier, faster, and more efficient ways to achieve the same goals? Applying a variety of approaches, the project will attempt to conceptualize and test the wider applicability of inertia—without its usual a priori negative evaluation. This paper, using the case of late medieval manuscript culture in Czechia, reflects the initial stage of the project: it opens methodological issues and provides hypotheses rather than final answers.

All the presenters come from Charles University, Prague. Lucie Doležalová is a Professor of Medieval Latin Studies focusing on late medieval manuscript culture, library history, textual transmission, memory, and obscurity. Jakub Kozák is an MA student of Medieval Latin Studies focusing on the typology of medieval scribal additions and late medieval discourse on hand copying. Karel Pacovský (Assistant Professor of Medieval Latin Studies), Martin Roček (PhD student of Medieval Latin Studies), and Ondřej Fúsik (PhD student of English) help with the digital humanities aspects of the project.