medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
.. but if I am permitted an afterthough to my own last posting:
- Are these markers really mnemonic devices in the strict sense? It seems to me
that they are aids for the reader to find text more quickly _without_ resorting
to memory. I am not disputing that this way of indexing was ever used as
mnemonic device, or that page layout was, but is it really in this particular
case? Another article by the Rouses comes to mind: '"Statim invenire", schools,
preachers, and new attitudes to the page', in Benson and Constable,
_Renaissance and renewal in the Twelfth Century_, pp. 201-225. Of course, the
less of the biblical text you have actually memorized, the more precise your
"finding tool", for finding the precise verse you want, needs to be. The
sixteenth-century verse division is anoter step in that direction. And we, of
course, never need to memorize anything because we can find everything
instantaneously. At least, as long as our computers work.
- Since this specific method of text retrieval or indexing was for the first
time here applied to the text of the Bible, perhaps "cutting edge" is a strong
word, but we are dealing here with a first in this sense. Of course the wheel
was invented by the Sumerians, but the bicycle was a new thing in the
nineteenth century. :-)
No puffs of smoke here, just reflections, hoping for a thoughful response.
Frans van Liere
Department of History, Calvin College
1845 Knollcrest Circle SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/history/faculty/vanlieref/
>>> Frans van Liere <[log in to unmask]> 02/10/07 6:11 PM >>>
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Rochelle,
No puffs of smoke here, I assure you. On the contrary, I appreciated your
comments, and I am sorry if my comments sounded terse; they were not intended
that way. It was probably the result of sending out an e-mail between two
saturday-morning distractions.
But because you mentioned this method of marking in one breath with the use of
spacing, I just thought I would clarify for the general reader that these
particular verse markers are not used in conjuction with any spacing in the
text. This is, of course, as you rightly point out, not to say that there is no
spacing in the text otherwise; in fact, there is spacing and rubrication at
each chapter division.
But I'd have to delve more into this. In fact, I looked at a page of a Paris
Bible right now, and did not find the abcd markers. Perhaps the text was too
early, and perhaps the system was specifically connected to the cirlce of Hugh
of Saint Cher? When do MSS start having these reference markers? I'll look up
the Rouse's article for that. I noticed Nicholas of Lyra uses the same system,
but that's a bit later, of course (1320s).
Again, no puffs of smoke here, except for dinner that's just been served. So if
I sound terse again, it's because of this distraction ...
And since I was not the one who said that this way of marking up the text was
"cutting edge", I will not offer an explanation for that, especially since
dinner smells really good...
Frans van Liere
Department of History, Calvin College
1845 Knollcrest Circle SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/history/faculty/vanlieref/
>>> rochelle altman <[log in to unmask]> 02/10/07 5:30 PM >>>
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Frans,
Goodness, my monitor was issuing little puffs of smoke..
The 13th-CE Dominican MSS use alpha markers. I mentioned alpha markers,
first. Even gave a ref on rather thorough discussions of alpha markers...
I also, as an aside mentioned spacing... I still can't figure out why such
a reaction to the mention of the use of spacing. No such thing as an MS
that doesn't use spacing in some form or another.
So, perhaps you will explain how the use of alpha indexing -- which is
still intended as a mnemonic aid -- in the 13th-century is cutting edge
Medieval technology when alpha mnemonic indexing already shows up late
BCE-early CE?
Just asking,
Rochelle
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