Centre Jean-Mabillon Research Areas
The Jean-Mabillon Centre's research areas cover all the processes that explain and publicise written production from the Middle Ages to the present day, including relationship with orality and iconography, through various stages ranging from the conditions of production (area 1) to heritage transmission systems (area 2) and the conditions for the scholarly restitution of such historical documentation to the scientific community (area 3).
Area 1. Written Cultures from the Middle Ages to the 21st Century
This research area lays the foundations for the other two areas. Investigating the social, material and cultural conditions of written production over a long period of time is an essential preparation for gaining a better understanding of heritage phenomena (area 2) and more effective use and restitution of these documentary sources (area 3). Investigations limited to well-known areas (Saint-Denis, Paris) are combined with comparative studies, focusing on urban development phenomena or the attraction/repulsion relationships between the centre and the periphery, in essentially French cultural areas, yet open to European (German, English, Spanish, Italian, Russian or Swiss areas) or American (Canada, Louisiana) influences.
Long-term study of the effects of literacy, >, beyond a primarily medieval period, should result in chronological broadening to include—alongside issues pertaining to literacy and the production/management of documentary writing—questions pertaining to linguistic transfersand the history of the book. In this respect, this area focuses on the forms of similar phenomena in different periods while seeking to avoid a system of values based on irrelevant teleology. Thus, the place of image in text and, paradoxically, of orality in the written word is a fruitful meeting ground, drawing on the combined contributions of cartography, numismatics and sigillography as much as furthering shared projects on the iconography of medieval manuscripts, photography, and oral surveys. Lastly, given the presence of numerous curators at the Jean-Mabillon Centre and its participation in LabEx PATRIMA, particular attention will be paid to the material aspects of this history (paper, parchment, inks).
Area 2. Genesis and Tradition of Written Heritage and the Media: Authors, Relays and Institutions
The opposing but eminently interrelated phenomena of aggregation and dispersal, selection and abandonment, and changes in meaning when singular items (manuscripts/books/autographs/engravings/films/archaeological objects) are transformed into structured and structural assemblages of aesthetic, scholarly, documentary or administrative collections (libraries, archives, museums) are addressed through exemplary dimensions. The individuals or legal entities behind these historical and complex heritage processes (commissioners, producers and printers, excavators, collectors, commentators, curators, cultural and non-cultural institutions, etc.) are considered as necessary in connection with the documentary heritage (in the broadest sense) available to historians for research purposes.
This cautious retrospective approach suggests a new way of looking at what one might call the heritage factory. Specific examples, such as opera and theatre institutions, will continue to serve as a source of experimentation and reflection. This original approach involves moving away from the issues of creative intentionality to focus on the social and material processes through which works are produced. Key areas of investigation are the history of the book, both upstream and downstream; the history of law, as seen through the textual tradition and its doctrinal dimension; the history of archaeology and archaeological excavations; and the history of contemporary media, from the press to the film industry.
Area 3. Epistemology and Normativity of Text and Image Editions in the Digital Age
The Centre Jean-Mabillon scientific approach deliberately includes the ambition to serve as a—deliberative rather than prescriptive—discussion and meeting hub on the issue of critical document editions. By virtue of its history, achievements, and diversity of members, it is well-equipped to tackle the issue of the epistemology and normativity of text and image publishing in the digital age.
In addition to disciplinary specialists (historians, philologists, literary historians, etc.), computer scientists and new technology specialists, this is also relevant to public authorities in general and heritage conservation professionals in particular, who are faced with major challenges, from the re-use of public data to the public restitution of heritage entrusted to their care.
Consequently, electronic archiving raises a host of issues, some of them scientific. In this sense, the contribution of the Centre Jean-Mabillon specific research is invaluable, given that these are essential prerequisites for high-quality ecdotics. The purpose is nothing less than to rethink the conditions required to assess and maintain the authenticity of electronic archive documents and develop the tools, systems, and repositories to meet this challenge.