Knowledge and science
The use, reuse and dissemination of knowledge inside and outside Europe is one of our core themes. We are not only concerned with science in the classical sense (including the reception of political and religious thought), but also with practical skills, such as the way knowledge about food, medicine, and is contained in (sometimes seemingly arcane) recipes. The dissemination of knowledge is vital to our other research themes. Communities were networks through which knowledge could be disseminated. Materials and manuscripts were media to communicate new insights and ancient traditions. Religion could serve as a catalyst for, or a brake on, that process. In any case, it is important to remember that ideas did not emerge in a vacuum: knowledge is and remains a matter of human interaction.
Multilingualism and communication
The migration of knowledge cannot, of course, be examined without a knowledge of the languages in which all this took place. For medieval Western Europe, this is mainly Latin, but we also see texts and archives in Greek, Dutch, German, Irish, French, Italian and many other languages and dialects. Many manuscripts even show the multilingualism of their authors, who, for example, gave definitions of difficult words in the vernacular in the margin, or even changed writing languages in the middle of a text. To adequately include this in our research, we cooperate a lot with our colleagues at the different languages. The UUCMS (Utrecht University Centre for Medieval Studies) in particular is invaluable in this respect. This centre provides a forum for all medievalists within the Faculty of Humanities of the UU to regularly put their heads together - and thus contribute to the dissemination of knowledge and scholarship.
Researchers in this theme
- Early Middle Ages, Medieval Culture, Medieval History, Archaeology, Economic history, Social History, Power
- Social History, Urban History, Health, Medieval History
- Early Middle Ages, Corruption, Social Justice, Food History, Justice, Medieval Manuscripts, Medieval Culture
- Medieval Culture, Power, Religion, Public Religion and Politics
- Cultural History, Manuscripts, Media History, Medieval History, Dutch History, Paleography, Early Middle Ages
- Urban History, History of political participation, Medieval Culture, Medieval Manuscripts, Democracy and Citizenship
- Archaeology, Medieval Culture, Medieval History, Medieval Manuscripts, Medieval Religions, Early Middle Ages