Learning and Textual Culture
Research plan
Research group in Medieval Philology at the University of Bergen
The tower of learning Typus Grammatice from Margarita philosophica, an encyclopedic work written by Gregor Reisch and published in Freiburg in 1503.
Learning and Textual Culture
The Research Group in Medieval Philology is a wide-ranging group that comprises
members from within and outside the Department for Linguistic, Literary and
Aesthetic Studies at the University of Bergen. It is one of two research groups that
the Humanities Faculty has designated for the continuation of research within
medieval studies at the University after the closing of the Centre for Medieval
Studies at the end of 2012. Established in January 2012, the group is organized
around four areas of research. These fields do not exclude other areas of interest
within the group, but express areas in which the group has strong constellations of
researchers and research interests, and areas in which there will be space for new
researchers, be they doctoral candidates, postdoctoral researchers or members
with other affiliations.
The group aims to focus on medieval thought, learning and literature in a broad
sense. Just as these different areas of knowledge were understood and organized
by medieval scholars, we endeavor to examine step by step the literature which
corresponds to the relevant field of medieval thought – the linguistic subjects in
the foundational trivium, the mathematical subjects in the quadrivium, and then
onward to law, medicine and theology. Consequently, the group comprises
linguistic, literary and cultural approaches to medieval sources and thus
represents the philological tradition such as it was developed at the end of the
1700's and thereafter cultivated within continental and Nordic universities. The
research group has several members who work on Old Norse/Icelandic and Latin;
members' research expertise also include medieval English, French and German.
1. Textual Traditions and Textual Criticism
The study of texts in their original language was an essential part of ars
grammatica, the first part of the trivium. This study is also a central part of
philology which examines how texts were created and transmitted. Two of the
members of the research group, Odd Einar Haugen and Aidan Conti (both at LLE)
have worked on issues relating to textual criticism among others as part of the
international network Studia Stemmatologica. Within this area one may usefully
and critically examine the differing working methods for the editing of classical
and vernacular literatures. The editorial and philological work on the new edition
of Magnus Lagabøte's law code (see number 3 below) falls within this field. Odd
Einar Haugen and Aidan Conti are also engaged in the development of the wikiresource Parvum lexicon stemmatologicum. Additionally, the Institute for Literary,
Linguistic and Aesthetic studies has had a longstanding interest in digital editions
(Medieval Nordic Text Archive) and font development (for example, the runic fonts
Gullhornet and Gullskoen in addition to the Medieval Unicode Font Initiative).
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2. The Literature of Learning
Many members of the research group are active in this diverse field of study. Jens
Eike Schnall (LLE) and Jonas Wellendorf (UC Berkeley) investigate traditions of
knowledge which span from the Middle Ages to the early Modern era. The aim is to
study both the ordering of knowledge and the conceptualization of its organization, and moreover discourses related to knowledge in learned milieux from the
Middle Ages to the Baroque. This area comprises a study of learned networks in
the urban centers in Scandinavia where the circulation and concentration of
knowledge was developed in close connection with continental Europe. Special
focus will be paid to encyclopedic literature, on the interplay between Latin
learned literature and that in the vernacular, and the formation of orders of
knowledge and the processes of innovation that yielded new scientific approaches
in the early modern period. From a comparative perspective on the Middle Ages
and their reception we see the basis for the study of skaldic poetry and Nordic
mythology, such as medieval attempts to understand northern paganism within
the context of salvation history. Additionally, the literature of learning encompasses homiletic literature; early examples from the Nordic countries include the
Icelandic homily book and the Norwegian homily book (both ca. 1200). The Norwegian homily book has been explored recently with contributions from members
and colleagues (Vår eldste bok, ed. by Odd Einar Haugen and Åslaug Ommundsen,
2010). Further studies on homiletic material are a desideratum, both in the form of
building a corpus for the analysis of Old Norse/Icelandic homilies and (perhaps
surprisingly) a long-neglected study of the linguistic forms especially in the Old
Norwegian homily book. Finally, grammatical theses and treatises, written both in
the Nordic countries and elsewhere in Europe, form a prominent part of ars grammatica. These are ripe for linguistic study (grammatical in the modern sense) in
addition to studies of their logic and rhetoric.
3. Norwegian Law in the Middle Ages
Jørn Øyrehagen Sunde (Faculty of Law, UoB) and Odd Einar Haugen (LLE) have
initiated a large project concerning the law code of Magnus Lagabøte, which also
includes researchers outside Bergen, including Magnus Rindal (Oslo) and Bjørg
Dale Spørck (The National Library). This project has several dimensions, both from
the fields of editorial philology and legal history. However, for the research group
the study of the Latin sources will be of special interest, including the Corpus iuris
civilis (Body of Civil Law), Decretum Gratiani and later the Liber extra. In addition,
the research group will work with the Latin fragment material in the National
Archives, where the legal fragments have yet not been thoroughly examined.
Lexicographic work on Norwegian Medieval Latin will also be complementary; this
work was initiated by Eirik Vandvik with the assistance of Vegard Skånland, was
subsequently taken up by Lars Boje Mortensen and is now managed by Aidan
Conti.
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4. Transformations of the Heroic
This project looks at the literary aspect of historical knowledge and historical
writing, that is to say narratives about earlier ages, and the practices that are
linked to this literature. We focus on heroic figures and different types of
heroization and heroisms, especially the later transformations of 'heroes' of the
Nordic past, and moreover the construction, use and alterations of models for
heroism and heroic periods. Heroic performances are central in medieval
literature; as a result, we also wish to involve religious literature and study the
way in which local saints and kings were promoted as heroes. Jens Eike Schnall
(LLE) would like to involve the expertise and contacts already established within a
large research center in Freiburg, Helden – Heroisierungen – Heroismen (SFB 948).
Following the theoretical approach of the SFB, heroes can be understood within a
long-term perspective or longue durée (Fernand Braudel); heroization can be
understood from the processes which create heroes through the attribution of
heroic qualities and through hero worship; and heroism can be understood as part
of a heroic habitus which society and social groups appropriate for themselves or
others
Members
The research group has members primarily from LLE, but also includes members
from the Department for Foreign Languages, other faculties, other institutions
within Bergen, and, furthermore many alumni/ae. As a result, the group covers a
broad range of philological interests and is governed from the bottom-up rather
than from the top-down, that is with the interests of members rather than a prescribed agenda in mind. Presently, the group is led by three individuals, two at LLE
and one outside of the department: Odd Einar Haugen, Aidan Conti and Helen
Leslie.
Organization
The organization of the group reflects a matrix rather than a line-relationship
structure; this means that while the group is localized within LLE and
consequently is included in the administrative lines within the institute, the group
brings together members across the organization. The vertical dimension of the
matrix represents the various medieval languages in which the group as a whole
has expertise. The horizontal dimension of the matrix comprises the three
traditional philological disciplines, namely linguistic, cultural and literary
approaches, often in conjunction with one another and always approaching the
sources in the original language.
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Reading groups
In addition to the established format of academic lectures, the research group
endeavors to be active through reading groups. In the spring of 2013, a group for
Old High German was set up under the leadership of Tonya Kim Dewey. This group
will read texts such as Hildebrandslied, which holds obvious interests for the
Transformations of the Heroic.
The Icelandic manuscript, Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, GKS 1812 4to,
fol. 4v presents an overview of the systematization of philosophy, or the various
sciences in the Middle Ages. The manuscript was composed over a long period, ca.
1182–1400.
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Webpages
The research group has webpages on the University of Bergen’s website both in
Norwegian and English:
Forskargruppe i mellomalderfilogi:
http://www.uib.no/fg/mellomalderfilologi
Research Group for Medieval Philology:
http://www.uib.no/rg/medievalphilology
Other web addresses
Parvum Lexicon Stemmatologicum:
https://wikihost.uib.no/stemmatology/index.php/Main_Page
Medieval Nordic Text Archive:
http://www.menota.org
Medieval Unicode Font Initiative:
http://www.mufi.info
Magnus Lagabøtes landslov 750 år:
http://folk.uib.no/hnooh/landslov/
SFB 948 Helden – Heroisierungen – Heroismen
http://www.sfb948.uni-freiburg.de/
Cover illustration: The Tower of Learning Typus grammatice
Copy by the University Library in Freiburg (Breisgau); hand-colouring by Bas Vlam 2013.
In the illustration we see Nicostrata leading a youth to the door of a tower. The Middle
Ages attributed the invention of writing to her, and appropriately she stands with a tablet
displaying the alphabet. A banner in the door reads congruitas, that is the agreement of the
Latin grammatical categories (number, person, gender, case). Within the tower we find the
banquet of philosophy (triclinium philosophiae) with the attendance of the seven liberal
arts (septem artes liberales). Grammar, ars grammatica, lays the foundations for all
subsequent knowledge. In the bipartite ground floor one can see two rooms for grammar,
in the lower stands Donatus, in the upper Priscian. Together with logic (Aristotle) and
rhetoric including poetry (Tullius = Cicero), grammar establishes the so-called trivium (the
three ways), the three linguistic arts. Thereafter, one goes to the four numerical arts or
quadrivium (the four ways), arithmetic (Boethius), music (Pythagoras), geometry (Euclid)
and astronomy (Ptolemy). Above them, we see Aristotle (= philosophy), who represents
physics, and Seneca, who represents moral philosophy. On the top of the tower, we find
theology and metaphysics, represented by Peter Lombard.
Date: 5 March 2013 (Norwegian text), 16 April 2013 (English text)
Norwegian and English texts updated 26 June 2013.
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