CfSS seminar 20/3: 'Nordic Legal Libraries: How Quantitative Analyses of Law Manuscripts Provide New Information on the Distribution and Storage of Legal Texts in the Medieval North' (Dr Stefan Drechsler, Bergen)

[Burrows, Hannah]

Dear All,

On Thursday, 20 March 5.00-6.30pm, we will be delighted to welcome back Dr Stefan Drechsler (Bergen) to the Scandinavian Studies seminar series. Stefan will present his research on 'Nordic Legal Libraries: How Quantitative Analyses of Law Manuscripts Provide New Information on the Distribution and Storage of Legal Texts in the Medieval North' (abstract below). This will be a hybrid event: please join us in-person in CB009 (50-52 College Bounds) or sign up here to receive the Teams link. All very welcome.

We will take Stefan out for dinner after the paper: if you would like to join for the meal, please RSVP by noon on Wednesday.

Best wishes,

Hannah

Abstract: The textual composition of medieval Nordic law manuscripts shows a high level of complexity that emerges in the thirteenth century and, in some cases, increases during the following centuries. Linked to both varying forms of intertextual relationships and changing modes of manuscript production, legal compendia produced in the medieval North demonstrate a particularly specialised textual knowledge of the compilers in these manuscripts. Yet, very limited information exists about the location, content and long-term use of legal libraries that were necessary to create these compendia. Based on quantitative analyses, this lecture aims to provide a new perspective on the distribution and storage of legal texts in medieval Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. It will be argued that the use of specific texts was not only related to particular regional usage, but also to specific ways of distributing these texts during the High and Middle Ages.

Dr Hannah Burrows, FRHistS
Senior Lecturer in Scandinavian Studies

Director, Centre for Scandinavian Studies

University of Aberdeen · Crombie Annexe (CA102) · Meston Walk · Aberdeen · AB24 3FX

Honorary Secretary, Viking Society for Northern Research

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The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013683.
Tha Oilthigh Obar Dheathain na charthannas clàraichte ann an Alba, Àir. SC013683.