Intellectuals at Work: Preliminary Considerations on Medieval Scholars' Autograph Scripts (From the Second Half of the Twelfth to the Thirteenth Century)

It is not unusual that, in the course of their intellectual work, medieval scholars wrote on their own, without the help of a secretary or a scribe. A large quantity of material evidence kept in our libraries shows this important (and almost completely unknown) phenomenon of autography within European universities in their earliest phase. The aim of this paper is to lay the groundwork for a new and original research project, which will be carried out mainly through the analysis of ‘unofficial places’ of writing, like handwritten marginal notes, comments, drafts, or reportationes produced by the students themselves. These sources are to be investigated with a multidisciplinary approach aimed at combining the palaeographical examination of scripts used by non-professional but cultured writers and a comprehensive study of those kinds of texts which directly represent the work and thought of learned academicians. The focus is on both the history of text writing (understood as the authors’ work in progress) and the use of university books, which can be chronicled through the study of the marginalia and material features of the preserved manuscripts