Scribal Additions; The Scribes, Their Humour, and their Nonsense

CEU Podcasts

In this interview, Lucie Doležalová, professor of Medieval Latin at the Charles University in Prague, discusses her current research into the additions made by scribes at the end of their copied texts in late medieval Bohemia. Lucie shows how these seemingly personal additions, sometimes humorous, sometimes requesting rewards, sometimes nonsensical, were often quite formulaic. The research will map the scribal additions by time and place to identify the source of the more formulaic additions, and possibly the routes by which the ideas were transmitted. Scribal additions also offer a rare glimpse over the shoulder of the scribe and allows us to see the material and physical nature of the scribes’ work of copying text, including his tiredness, hunger, and relief at finishing the task.This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.