Publisher's Synopsis
Palaeographers and codicologists have gradually developed concepts and terms to analyse change in medieval and Renaissance scripts and manuscripts. Some of these endeavour to offer explanatory models, either for specific phenomena or for general trends. Others are essentially descriptive, typological and chronological, referring to implicit (traditional) theories of historical evolution. The papers in this book offer a wide range of palaeographical and codicological case-studies describing and analysing change. Several papers offer the outlines of a theoretical framework, bringing out the conditions for the evolution of scripts as well as for progress in the production and distribution of texts and manuscripts.