Dear list members, in the greatest haste (while I'm marking several hundred
final examinations and essays)...
Luciana raises what is perhaps the central issue facing all scholars who
work on texts: the determination of what people actually said or intended,
and how this was transmitted in written form. It is difficult to imagine
how people in the middle ages could do so 'accurately': indeed, the best
intentions of experienced note-takers present at the lectures, quodlibets
and sermons of the greatest figures of the Middle Ages did not prevent
gargantuan errors of a near-endless variety and quantity. Should we chastise
these creators of medieval and Renaissance reportationes? Should we curse
them? Or should we be grateful for their humble efforts, and in studying
them, keep in mind their faults, deal with them, and move forward? I lean
to the latter, and I think this is the path I would advise to fellow
students.
Dare I say it, but Leonard Boyle may have felt the same way at some point
in his career or other. I could very well be wrong (and please correct me,
briefly and politely!), but in the shadows of my mind I remember an article
by Boyle which cut severely into the recently published *Montaillou*; and
I seem to recall that his criticisms were based on the English translation
of the book, instead of the French original. (And if Boyle didn't do it,
then someone else did; and if it wasn't *Montaillou*, it was another similar
book; it really doesn't matter -- omnia palea est and all that.) In short,
impressions of a text vary: we can read a text for WHAT IT SAYS, for WHAT
WE THINK IT SHOULD SAY, for WHAT THE PERSON WOULD HAVE SAID HAD S/HE BEEN
SOBER/THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND/ETC ETC ad infinitum (instead of drunk/a nobody/etc
etc etc). And then, we can transmit our impressions of that text in any
variety of ways as well.
Just look at the very source Luciana kindly indicated, where one finds links
to the audio version(s) of the lecture:
http://www.op.org/DomCentral/trad/boyle3mill.htm
There, we have the smiling face of Boyle; we have links to not one but two
audio versions of the speech; we also have a transcription of the speech.
Interestingly, the transcription is NOT an accurate one. Luciana's is more
accurate: but instead of having Boyle say (about his voice) 'When I brushed
my teeth upstairs at 7 o'clock, I lost my voice. It went down the...', the
transcription on the web page reads (and I reproduce the relevant section
in its entirety):
****
[Replying to the introduction of Sr. Joan Franks, O.P.] Thank you very much
Joan, I hope I haven't lost my voice. When I brushed my teeth upstairs at 7
o'clock, I lost my voice! Thank you very much Joan, for this introduction,
which wasn't as embarassing [SIC] as I thought it might be.
****
As I believe Luciana mentions, there is no indication as to where the voice
went down to (or what it went down in)!
I would encourage anyone who is interested, to prepare and publish a
comparison of what is actually heard on the audio version(s) with what's
printed on the web page, then with what's in the French-language version
(in a book which, whatever weaknesses it may contain, is of tremendous use,
as Luciana states; I think we should all be deeply grateful to Jacqueline
Hamesse for her Herculean efforts in getting this into print), then with
the notes that someone in the audience that day in 1999 may have taken,
then with the English text Boyle would have been reading from, then with
the English text that may some day be published by PIMS or whatever, etc
etc.; and after such a comparison, provide explanations for the differences;
and THEN, reflect on how things may not have changed so much since the Middle
Ages when it comes to knowing precisely what was said, by whom, how it was
heard or read or understood, and (a minor point?) why.
Thanks for raising this issue, Luciana. I do hope that if there is any
follow-up to this discussion on the list, that it steer away from undue
criticisms of colleagues, and that courtesy among ourselves may prevail.
Explicit!
Best wishes,
George
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