Multilayered Written Artefacts: Definition, Typology, Formatting

Occasional Paper No. 9

Multilayered Written Artefacts: Definition, Typology, Formatting

José Maksimczuk, Berenice Möller, Thies Staack, Alexander Weinstock, Jana Wolf

Written artefacts (WAs), artificial or natural objects with visual signs applied by humans, are the central focus of the Cluster of Excellence Understanding Written Artefacts: Materiality, Interaction, and Transmission in Manuscript Cultures. The present paper considers the observation that WAs are shaped by complex processes of production and use, as well as by different settings and patterns. These factors might be subject to change, depending on where, by whom and how a WA is used after its creation. Hence, far from being stable or unchanging entities, many WAs evolve over the course of time, acquiring ‘layers’ akin to archaeological strata. Such layers either modify a WA’s contents and might serve to extend, delete or replace them or they are not linked at all to the WA’s contents. Yet they always affect the WA they are applied to on the material level, leaving identifiable traces that add to the WA’s complexity. This paper suggests calling such complex WAs ‘multilayered’ – a concept that is arguably best suited to capturing the outcome of continued, at times long-term, or intermittent uses of a WA. The paper also suggests further terms for a more precise analysis of the multilayered nature of WAs, including the distinction between ‘primary layer’ and ‘secondary layer(s)’, and between ‘closed’ and ‘open’ primary layers, as well as a taxonomy of the acts creating secondary layers (addition, subtraction and replacement of content and/or material).

CSMC's Occasional Papers

The Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures regularly hosts meetings to discuss the theory, terminology and other issues in manuscriptology. Several of its members – philologists, historians, art historians, linguists and others – collectively engage in contributing to the systematic and historical study of manuscript cultures. The documents are individual contributions and drafts reflecting some of the provisional results of the Centre’s activities.