This volume reconsiders the question of literacy and communication in pre-modern societies from an interdisciplinary perspective.
Methodologically, its authors rely on the assumption that not only the content of a specific message, but also its material form and outlook effect the way in which textual artefacts are understood and interpreted by their individual readers or beholders. Furthermore, writers consciously and at times unconsciously design texts by applying different writing surfaces, writing implements or layouts.
The volume includes examples from the Ancient Orient,...

How does one define and explore the -material presence of the written in non-typographical cultures?- The interdisciplinary and collaborative essays in this handbook present theoretical principles, describe text-bearing materials and objects, and investigate the diverse practices related to text-bearing artifacts. The analysis is illustrated with examples drawn from a period of over 4,500 years.

The present volume comprises 6 highly original studies on material text cultures in different nontypographic societies stretching from the 3^rd millennium cuneiform textual record of Ancient Mesopotamia to 20^th century Qur'anic boards of northern and central African provenience. It provides a multidisciplinary approach to material text cultures complementary to the interdisciplinary, strongly theory-grounded research scheme of the CRC 933. Six research fellowships were awarded to outstanding young researchers for innovative, high-risk research proposals pertinent to...

Following Levita's statement, the Masorah transmitted by medieval illuminated manuscripts was generally considered as less significant for the study of the biblical and masoretical knowledge in the Jewish world. The biblical codices produced in Ashkenaz were considerably disregarded compared to Spanish codices. Challenging this assertion, this work engages in a reflection on the link between the standard Eastern tradition and the Ashkenazic biblical text-culture of the 13^th century.

Elodie Attia provides an edition of thirteen cases taken from MS Vat. Ebr. 14, offering...

Die Relation zwischen schrifttragendem Artefakt und dessen materieller Natur sowie dem meist herrschaftsdiskursiven Inhalt der verschrifteten Texte hat bislang kaum im Fokus der altorientalischen Forschung gestanden. Der Band mochte hierzu rezente kulturwissenschaftliche Forschungsansatze zur Relevanz der Materialitat und Prasenz des Geschriebenen unter Berucksichtigung sozial-ontologischer Gesichtspunkte vorstellen und dadurch den Forschungsraum des alten Vorderasiens vom 4. Jtsd. v. Chr. bis zum 2. Jtsd. v. Chr. in seiner ganzen materiellen Bandbreite prasentieren. Untersucht werden...

Im Mittelpunkt des Sammelbandes steht die Frage nach der Bedeutung, die der schriftlichen Fixierung offentlicher Botschaften wie privater Mitteilungen im offentlichen Raum der Antike, Spatantike und Mittelalter zukam.

Inschriften befanden sich - damals wie heute - auf Mauern und Wanden von Hausern und Tempeln, in Innenraumen von Kirchen, auf der Agora oder dem Forum, auf oder an offentlich aufgestellten Bildwerken wie Statuen, Reliefs, Gemalden und Mosaiken. Die Gegenwart beschrifteter Objekte pragte und gestaltete den offentlichen Raum, und selbst wenn die Inschriften...

Letter writing was widespread in the Graeco-Roman world, as indicated by the large number of surviving letters and their extensive coverage of all social categories. Despite a large amount of work that has been done on the topic of ancient epistolography, material and formatting conventions have remained underexplored, mainly due to the difficulty of accessing images of letters in the past. Thanks to the increasing availability of digital images and the appearance of more detailed and sophisticated editions, we are now in a position to study such aspects.

This book examines the...