Innovation and Inertia: The End of Medieval Scribes
Among the many ways of defining the end of the Middle Ages, the introduction of the printing press is significant: it initiated a cultural transformation, similar to the current transition to the digital. Print reduced the costs and the time needed for textual production; yet, scribes continued to copy in unprecedented intensity until the end of the 15th century and long after. Whereas most historians have explored the growing diffusion of print, this project analyses the work of scribes c. 1450–1500 to explain beginning of the process that eventually brought their well-established practice to an end.
The basic question that this research seeks to answer is: Why do we stick to doing things the way we are used to doing them even when there are easier, faster and more efficient ways to achieve the same goals? Applying a variety of approaches (including data analysis and digital humanities), the project attempts to conceptualize, model and test the wider applicability of inertia (without its usual a priori negative evaluation). The persistence of manuscript culture at the end of the medieval era will be compared to the enduring of present day publication practices, i.e. the current boom in printing, in spite of the digital revolution.
This project will not only bring forth a model for the complex reasons behind the perseverance of ingrained behaviour in the face of more advantageous alternatives. It will also reshape the discussion onways of exploring, grasping and communicating processes of change.
identification: LL2408
scheme: ERC-CZ (Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports)
duration: 10/2024-09/2026
PI: Lucie Doležalová
