Class Projects
Welcome to my class projects page! FRENCH 474 A/ TXTDS 401 A/ TXTDS 501 A: Text Technologies: Reading and Writing Manuscripts in the Middle Ages provides a foundation for the knowledge and skills necessary to deal with manuscripts, their languages, and sources in the medieval period. We consider the techniques, terminology, and bibliography of manuscript scholarship with a special emphasis on the production of manuscripts from Antiquity through the Renaissance, the evolution of scripts, the rise of literacy, the development of libraries, and the impact of evolving forms in the literary tradition. We also engage in the scholarly debate regarding centers of production, scribes, type of manuscripts and texts, codicological and paleographical and linguistic features, sources and theological background. We look at specific manuscripts held at the UW Special Collections in both print and digital formats, setting the manuscripts in their historical and social contexts. ITAL 354 A / C LIT 361 A examines a variety of attitudes toward poverty in the Italian Middle Ages, from traditional 'negative' views of poverty as a disgrace, to the recognition of the value of poverty as 'unrecognized wealth' in the Christian tradition and its political implications, to the shame and humiliation associated with incarceration and slavery. In addition to gaining historical background on the 14th and 15th centuries, students will engage in a digital project exploring how to archive the literary and visual tradition associated with these themes.