Research project: Manuscript Culture, 1450-1700 Research Network

The primary aim of the network is to address this problem: to provide opportunities for genuine interdisciplinary discussion which will enable scholars to share both theoretical perspectives and practical approaches to working with Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, recognizing them as material objects with diverse cultural implications, and to sow the seeds for future collaborative research.

The network, based in the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Culture, began with a two day early career researchers' conference at Chawton House Library in Hampshire in February 2010, on the theme of collaboration and networks in English manuscript culture, c.1500-1700. The conference brought together forty scholars from across five different disciplines within the field of Humanities, both in the UK and the USA, and clearly demonstrated both the value of, and the interest in interdisciplinary collaboration for understanding manuscript collections.

The network now aims to promote a series of further conversations expanding on this topic, to include manuscripts from outside England, and from the slightly wider period of 1450-1700.