SCRIPTA: Prof. CJ Jones: Thinking Medieval Manuscripts Through Design

Please join us for a workshop with Prof. CJ Jones (University of Notre Dame) entitled, "Thinking Medieval Manuscripts Through Design".

The medieval liturgical manuscripts most readily called to mind are usually precious and richly illuminated volumes, whether these be massive choir books or delicate Books of Hours. However, most manuscripts for liturgical performance were plain and workaday books designed to withstand the wear and tear of daily activity, because they played a key role in supporting worship and prayer. For people in religious communities, their books had to coordinate their communities in performing the liturgy, a complex task that consumed a great portion of their days, as smoothly and error-free as possible. Using Donald Norman's discussion of "knowledge in the head vs. knowledge in the world" as a principle of design, CJ Jones will present some features of liturgical books, with a particular emphasis on how different manuscripts use musical notation and other graphic strategies in various ways to facilitate communal plainchant and sung psalmody. The workshop will invite conversation about how this approach can illuminate other types of medieval manuscripts and their role in helping coordinate other social performances.
Please read the precirculated material.

RSVP for the CJ Jones talk.