Narrative Cohesion through Text and Material: Texts, Co-Texts and the Manuscript Tradition Surrounding Leonardo Bruni’s Seleuco
Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: The novella of Seleuco, attributed to Leonardo Bruni, survives in sixty fifteenth- and sixteenth- century manuscripts. Focusing on the textual and material composition of those manuscripts, I explore the potential for a broad analysis of relationships between texts, materials, and cultural narratives about reading and writing using two forms of narrative theory. I first introduce the various manuscript configurations and examine using sociological narrative theory how these prompt or influence particular approaches to textuality, through representations of situations of text creation, use, and transmission. Turning away from the contents of the text, I examine how visual and codicological elements can disrupt the construction of narratives of textuality. This study builds on groundwork laid by existing studies on the novella and the manuscripts containing it, to propose a new way of reflecting on the text and the objects that contain it, integrating manuscript studies and book historical approaches with narrative theory.
Source: Italian Studies
Author: Anna Strowe
Institution: University of Manchester
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2902991529