“Scripts, Styles, Hands: Collective Norms, Individual Variation and the Evolution of Writing”

3rd seminar of the Transversal Research Group in Paleography – GRTP

Wednesday, December 7, 2016, Collège de France.

“Scripts, Styles, Hands: Collective Norms, Individual Variation and the Evolution of Writing”

The “script” and/or “style” of handwriting reflects learning processes and reference models, whereas the “hand” of a scribe can be defined in terms of individual performance, i.e. the more or less competent, disciplined or creative rendering of common models. This seminar aims to shed light on the interaction of those aspects in synchrony, as well as on their long-term, diachronic, effects on the evolution of handwriting. This should also be seen as an opportunity to reflect on the principles according to which palaeographers, in different fields, build and use typologies of writing.

Papers:

• “Iranophone and Elamophone Scribes of Persepolis”, Wouter Henkelman (EPHE)
• “The Hands of the Dead Sea Scrolls’ Scribes: distinguishing between styles and individual hands”, Eibert Tigchelaar (KU Leuven)
• “An Exploration of Graphic Variation in Hieratic Sources of the Ramesside Period: The Scribe Amennakhte, His School and His Hand”, Stéphane Polis (Université de Liège)
• “Styles and Hands in Coptic Documents”, Anne Boud’hors (IRHT, CNRS)
• “Personal Writing and Stylized Writing in Greek Papyri”, Jean-Luc Fournet (Collège de France – EPHE)
• “Stylistic Changes in the Arabic Archives of Fayum Textile Merchants”, Naim Vanthieghem (IRHT, CNRS)
• “The Hands of Ethiopian ‘Notaries’, Clumsy, Individual or Stereotypical? Reflections on a Marginal Practice “, Anaïs Wion (IMAF, CNRS)
• “Problems of Typology in Latin Handwriting”, Marc Smith (ENC, EPHE)
• “Beyond Writing Standards: Evaluating the ‘Freedom’ of the Copyist”, Maria Gurrado (IRHT, CNRS)

Download the programme