Event date: Monday, November 14 this year, time slot 8:30 – 11:00
Event location: Romanian Academy Library, Cluj-Napoca Branch
With a solid medievalist training obtained as a former foreign student of the École Normale Supérieure and a scholarship holder of The Warburg Institute-London, Maison française d’Oxford and New Europe College-Bucharest and benefiting from a doctorate in philology at the Paris IV-Sorbonne University, Professor Adrian Papahagi, PhD teaches Latin paleography at “Babeș-Bolyai” University in Cluj-Napoca, as well as a Codicology course within the “European Diploma of Medieval Studies” of the International Federation of Institutes of Medieval Studies (FIDEM ). In his capacity as an expert in the history of old books, Professor Adrian Papahagi will coordinate a demonstrative workshop of medieval calligraphy on paper and parchment, as part of the exhibition organized through the project “FRAGMED – A Transylvanian puzzle: reconstructing medieval culture from fragments of codices”. The workshop will take place at the Library of the Romanian Academy, Cluj-Napoca Branch, Mihail Kogălniceanu street, no. 12-14, Monday, November 14, 2022, starting at 8:30 a.m.
Professor Adrian Papahagi will introduce the participants of this workshop to the various writing styles used in the Middle Ages. This workshop will focus on the writing dominant at the time in many parts of Europe, from England and France to Central Europe, and participants will thus be able to practice the Gothic minuscule called textualis, the Nordic variant.
His extensive training as a researcher of insular, Carolingian or Transylvanian manuscripts and libraries will also be evidenced by his practical expertise in Latin, Carolingian and early Gothic script, the Textus prescissus variety. Participants in this workshop will discover, thus, that the codicological and paleographical study of medieval manuscript fragments also requires practical knowledge of Latin script.
One of the authentic elements of medieval calligraphy will also be marked in this workshop through the preliminary stage of preparation of the “quills” through a specific method of indenting the tip of the bird (goose) feathers. Workshop participants will learn the methods of indentation and precise use of this rudimentary and enduring writing instrument used for several centuries, from the beginning of the early Middle Ages to the 19th century. Participants will familiarize themselves not only with this rare ritual of indenting bird feathers preserved until today only by a few professional calligraphers, but also with the differences that the support materials, parchment or paper, impose on calligraphy.
So we invite you to take part in this vintage-tinged demonstration workshop aimed at rekindling interest in traditional writing instruments and reminding you of the small joys that cursive writing and historically inspired calligraphy can always provide.
The workshops are organized by the Romanian Academy, Cluj-Napoca Branch, through the project “FRAGMED – A Transylvanian Puzzle: Reconstructing Medieval Culture from Fragments of Codices”, financed by SEE Grants 2014 – 2021, within the RO-CULTURE Program.
