Manuscript Cultures

The core research area “Manuscript Cultures” is dedicated to the diversity of manuscript cultures from a historical and comparative perspective worldwide. Since 2011, researchers have been conducting research at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC), which emerged from the former Collaborative Research Center 950 “Manuscript Cultures in Asia, Africa, and Europe” (2011–2020) and is unique worldwide in its regional breadth and disciplinary composition. The CSMC brings together over 40 disciplines, including Asian, African, and European philologies, as well as other humanities and natural sciences, to explore the social, cultural, and material aspects of manuscript cultures. In addition to the Faculty of Humanities, the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences is also involved. Other research partners are the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY), Helmut Schmidt University, and Hamburg University of Technology.

A central concern is the understanding of manuscript cultures in their respective social and cultural contexts in which they are produced, used, and passed on. The term encompasses not only regional or religious communities, but also diverse types of manuscripts that coexist within a single location and era. The empirical diversity of the estimated ten million manuscripts worldwide requires specially developed methodological approaches in order to comprehensively capture this complex field of research.

Since 2019, the CSMC has been home to the Cluster of Excellence “Understanding Written Artefacts” (UWA), which takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying the materiality, interaction, and transmission of written artifacts. The aim is to capture the diversity of manuscript cultures globally and beyond the boundaries of traditional disciplines – from the beginnings of writing to the digital age. With more than 150 researchers from over 40 disciplines in eleven research areas and numerous ongoing research projects, this research network sets an important accent in international manuscript research. Overall, this work contributes to a better understanding of the rich cultural heritage of manuscript cultures worldwide and highlights their significance in human cultural history.