The Centre Jean-Mabillon's Research Focuses

The Jean-Mabillon Centre's research areas are intended to cover all the processes that explain and publicise written production from the Middle Ages to the present day, including its relationship with orality and iconography, through various stages ranging from the conditions of production (focus 1) to the mechanisms of heritage transmission (focus 2) and the conditions of scholarly restitution of this historical documentation to the scientific community (focus 3).

This research focus lays the foundations for the other focuses. Studying the social, material, and cultural conditions of written production over a long period is essential for a better understanding of heritage phenomena (focus 2) and a better exploitation and restitution of these documentary sources (focus 3). Surveys confined to areas that are already recognised (Saint-Denis, Paris) are combined with comparative investigations, linked to urbanisation phenomena or sensitive to the cross-linking logics of attraction/repulsion between the centre and the periphery in an area that is essentially French, yet also open to influences on the scale of the European continent (German, English, Spanish, Italian, Russian or Swiss areas) or the American continent (Canada, Louisiana).

The long-term study of the effects of literacy, beyond an essentially medieval periodisation, should lead to a chronological broadening to include questions linked to linguistic transfers and the history of the book alongside the issues of literacy and the production/management of documentary writing. 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 an irrelevant teleology. Thus, the place of the image in the text and, paradoxically, of orality in the written word is a fruitful meeting ground, drawing on the combined contributions of cartography, numismatics, and sigillography and furthering shared projects on the iconography of medieval manuscripts, photography, and oral surveys. Particular attention will be paid to the material aspects of this history (paper, parchment, inks), thanks to numerous curators at the Centre Jean-Mabillon and its participation in the LabEx PATRIMA.

The contrasting but closely related 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 assemblages of aesthetic, scholarly, documentary, or administrative collections (libraries, archives, museums) are addressed in 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 as much a part of the documentary heritage (in the broadest sense) available to historians today for their research purposes as is necessary.

This cautious retrospective approach suggests a new way of looking at what we might call the heritage factory. Specific examples, such as opera and theatre institutions, will continue to provide a basis for experimentation and reflection. This original approach involves moving away from the question 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.

The Centre Jean-Mabillon has deliberately included in its scientific approach the ambition to be a platform—deliberative rather than prescriptive—for discussions and meetings on the issue of critical document editions. By virtue of its history, achievements, and diversity of members, it is relatively well-equipped to tackle the question of the epistemology and normativity of text and image publishing in the digital age.

This is of interest not only to discipline specialists (historians, philologists, literary historians, etc.), computer scientists, and specialists in new technologies but also to public authorities in general and heritage conservation professionals in particular, who are faced with significant challenges, from the re-use of public data to the restitution to the public of the heritage entrusted to their care.

Electronic archiving raises many problems, some of them scientific. The Centre Jean-Mabillon's research is invaluable in solving these problems, essential prerequisites for high-quality ecdotics. The aim 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 needed to meet this challenge.