Connecting the Dots: New Research Paradigms for Iberian Manuscripts as Material Objects
Special Issue, Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, 14.1 (2022)

Broadly speaking, the leitmotifs of the present special issue are manuscript materiality and digital technologies. From diverse perspectives, the contributors reflect on technological evolution, the continued need for historiographic reevaluation, and the research methodologies that can help establish new paradigms for research on Iberian manuscripts. The intersection of the material and the increasingly immaterial (i.e., digital) often elicits apprehension among manuscript scholars who lament the increasing detachment from material artifacts—but these concerns are paired with openness and optimism. Throughout the issue, digital technologies and material studies emerge as complementary and essential means of understanding, both more deeply and more widely, the production, reception, functions, and circulation of manuscripts.

Articles

1. Intermediality in medieval Iberian manuscript cultures: methodological reflections on ongoing and future research
Elsa De Luca, Erika Loic and Alicia Miguélez Cavero

2. Whose digital Middle Ages? Accessibility in digital medieval manuscript culture
Emily C. Francomano and Heather Bamford

3. A manuscript present: translatio , media, and mediation in early medieval hispanolatin book culture
Catherine Brown

4. Of digital surrogates and immaterial objects: the (digital) future of the Iberian manuscriptin textual editing
Aengus Ward

5. Digital visionary women: introducing the “Catalogue of Living Saints”
Pablo Acosta-García and Rebeca Sanmartín Bastida

6. Digital matters: early Iberian manuscripts from the Lisbon vantage point
Manuel Pedro Ferreira

7. Chant editing and analysis program: a tool for analyzing liturgical chant
Emma Hornby, Rebecca Maloy and Paul Rouse

8. Interdisciplinary exploration of medieval technical manuscripts from the Iberian Peninsula
Ricardo Córdoba de la Llave

9. Filling the gap: new approaches to medieval bookbinding studies
Ana Tourais, Conceição Casanova and Catarina Fernandes Barreira

10. Narrating codex history: the case study of a psalter-hymnal from Alcobaça Monastery, Portugal
Conceição Casanova, Samuel Arrojado Rodrigues, Catarina Fernandes Barreira, Catarina Miguel,Teresa Quilhó and Ana Sofia Tourais

12. Ruling patterns in three dimensions: materiality and the art of the digitized Iberian bible
Erika Loic

13. Crossroads and quaternions: possibilities of digital platforms for the study of miscellaneous andcomposite codices
Matthew J. Westerby