Portable Manuscripts and their Utility in the Late Middle Ages

Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-1-80270-192-0
Verlag: Not Stated

Buch, Englisch, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm

This book explores the mobility of merchants’ manuscripts—understood as written records in various forms—and their role in shaping and reflecting late medieval social structures. Focusing on merchants as key agents of manuscript circulation, it highlights their impact across fairs and markets in the Holy Roman Empire. Blending cultural and economic history, the chapters span fifteenth- and sixteenth-century case studies that challenge conventional periodization. Drawing on interdisciplinary methods, the book traces manuscripts from production to dissemination and the formation of reading communities. It argues that the history of the premodern economy is incomplete without accounting for the movement of manuscripts as material and social objects.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bruch, Julia

M. Hofer, Katharina

Kypta, Ulla

Schweitzer-Martin, Paul

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Geschichte der VWL
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wirtschaftsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Sport | Tourismus | Freizeit Antiquitäten, Sammelobjekte
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftsgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations

Preface

"Portable Manuscripts and Their Function in the Late Middle Ages – Introduction" by Julia Bruch, Katharina M. Hofer, Ulla Kypta, and Paul Schweitzer-Martin

Chapter 1. "Portable Merchants’ Books and Their Influence on Social and Economic Networks" by Julia Bruch

Chapter 2. "Instructing and Organizing Business with Portable Manuscripts" by Paul Schweitzer-Martin

Chapter 3. "Portability for Participation: Organizing the Interests of Merchants’ Towns at Hanse Diets" by Ulla Kypta

Conclusion. "Portable Manuscripts Creating Networks of Communication and Control" by Julia Bruch, Katharina M. Hofer, Ulla Kypta, and Paul Schweitzer-Martin

Über Autor(innen)

Kypta, Ulla
Ulla Kypta is an assistant professor for late medieval and early modern history at the Universität Hamburg.

Bruch, Julia
Julia Bruch is a postdoctoral researcher in Research Training Group 2212 “Dynamics of Conventionality 400–1550” at the Universität zu Köln.

M. Hofer, Katharina
Katharina Maria Hofer is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at the Universität Wien.

Schweitzer-Martin, Paul
Paul Schweitzer-Martin is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in late medieval history at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.