Occasional Paper No. 1

Searching for a definition of “manuscript”

Vito Lorusso with support of the TNT members

This document contains a list of working definitions of the term ‘manuscript’ taken from appropriate literature on the topic. The definitions collected here are the serendipitous result of an initial search and have been classified into four main sections: main sections:

manuscript as a handwritten document
manuscript as a codex
manuscript as a book
manuscript as a medium

Section C refers to a more general understanding of ‘book’ since codex books do not occur in all manuscript cultures. The various definitions are arranged in chronological order in each section. This document served as a starting point for a lively discussion within the Theory and Terminology working group at the CSMC. Anyone is welcome to propose further definitions of relevance to our work and comment on the undertaking, which we regard as being work in progress. We look forward to hearing from you.

CSMC's Occasional Papers

The Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures regularly hosts meetings to discuss the theory, terminology and other issues in manuscriptology. Several of its members – philologists, historians, art historians, linguists and others – collectively engage in contributing to the systematic and historical study of manuscript cultures. The documents are individual contributions and drafts reflecting some of the provisional results of the Centre’s activities.

The research for this paper was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) within the Sonderforschungsbereich 950 (SFB 950). The research was conducted within the scope of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) at Universität Hamburg.