October 26, 2005 Source: University of Toronto:
http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/051026-1746.asp Conference examines problems in studying medieval scripts Scholars explore difficulties with manuscript and text interpretations from medieval Italy
Oct 26/05
by Michah Rynor (about) (email) A book may be centuries old but that doesn't necessarily mean it gets any easier to interpret it -- which is one of the issues being discussed at the 41st Textual Cultures of Medieval Italy conference on editorial problems to be held at U of T's University College Nov. 4 to Nov. 5. The conference will examine the difficulties still existing when scholars try to interpret the manuscripts and texts of the medieval era in Italy. 'Textual culture' is the explanation academics give to define how people identify themselves as consumers of texts including community, religious, legal, literary and other institutional groups. One of the basic questions asked by scholars is: How does an interpretation of centuries-old texts take into account the complex circumstances in which they were originally produced in response to religious, social and other pressures of the day? Speakers at the conference, funded in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Victoria College, will include Professors Nicolas Everett, Linda Safran and William Bowen of the University of Toronto; Ronald Witt of Duke University, Anthony D'Elia of Queen's University, Susanne Lepsius of the Max-Planck-Institute in Frankfurt and Luca Boschetto of the University of Florence. "We are excited that so many people - those both established in their field and others just starting - from various countries are attending," said conference co-ordinator William Robins, professor at U of T's Department of English and Medieval Studies and director of the Collaborative Program in Editing Medieval Texts. "By gaining a better understanding of communicating in medieval Italy, perhaps we'll learn a little bit more about the way so many institutions rely on written documents today." Contact: William Robins, Victoria College, 416-585-4432; e-mail: william.robins@utoronto.ca
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