Colophons

The project fills in a significant gap in research of medieval textual transmission and manuscript culture: the study of colophons and scribal additions at the ends of copied texts. The importance of colophons has been recognized since they provide information on the circumstances of the origin of a particular copy but they are scattered in manuscript catalogues and have not been studied in a comparative perspective. Other scribal additions, often playful, vulgar, or nonsensical, combining Latin and vernacular, are usually omitted from the catalogues altogether. The material is vast and mostly unedited. This project focuses on the language innovation and literary character of scribal additions and colophons originating from medieval Czech lands, i.e., primarily in Latin and Czech. As a tool for the analysis, a complex database will be created. The results will bring new information not only on Old Czech, medieval codeswitching and language experimenting, but also on scribal culture and everyday life history.