Åslaug Ommundsen at the University of Bergen and three Nordic research partners have been awarded the prestigious European ERC Synergy Grant to map how books and intellectual networks shaped Northern Europe between 1000 and 1500 AD.
The CODICUM project brings together experts in history, literature and manuscript studies from four Nordic universities to explore medieval scholarly networks. The project combines traditional humanistic methods with cutting-edge biomolecular analysis of fragments from medieval books written on animal skins.
The importance of books in medieval Europe
The project will examine around 50,000 Latin book fragments preserved in Nordic libraries and archives – one of Europe’s largest source collections of medieval book culture.
-“These fragments are a unique resource that can give us a new understanding of how books and ideas were shared in medieval Europe,” says Professor Åslaug Ommundsen, adding:
– With this funding, we will be able to take fragment studies to a new level and significantly increase our knowledge of medieval books and how the Nordic region became part of a common European book culture.
Ommundsen is Professor of Medieval Latin at the Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies at the University of Bergen (UiB).
Medieval books helped shape European history, bringing with them rituals, stories and ideas as they were read, copied and spread from one region to another. Today, they provide researchers with insights into the trade and crafts of the past, and the religious, social and scholarly networks that bound Europe together. Less than 10% of Europe’s manuscripts have been preserved, with an even smaller proportion in the Nordic region.
Thousands of medieval books saved by chance
– Although most medieval manuscripts from the Nordic countries were destroyed or lost after the Reformation, book leaves were often reused as binding material for administrative documents. This practice has coincidentally preserved traces of thousands of books, mainly Latin books used in churches. Several of these came from other parts of Europe,” says Professor Ommundsen.
The project stands out by using modern techniques to, among other things, trace the geographical origin of the manuscript materials and identify hitherto unknown connections between religious and intellectual centers.
Traditional humanities meets biomolecular analysis
– Using biomolecular methods, we can now extract DNA and protein information from parchment to determine where the animals originated and how the manuscripts were produced,” says Professor Matthew Collins at the University of Copenhagen.
– The fragments challenge us to rethink how we define ‘textual heritage’. Rather than belonging to individual countries, these manuscripts reveal a shared European literary heritage across medieval borders,” says Professor Lars Boje Mortensen at the University of Southern Denmark.
– By analyzing both the texts and the materials in these fragments, we hope to gain a new understanding of how Northern Europe was incorporated into a broader European intellectual culture,” adds Professor Tuomas Heikkilä at the University of Helsinki.
Collins, Mortensen and Heikkilä make up the leadership team for the project together with Ommundsen from UiB.
Hanging very high
UiB Rector Margareth Hagen is very happy and proud of the award of the ERC Synergy Grant to Professor Åslaug Ommundsen and her collaborators:
– “An ERC Synergy Grant is very prestigious. It is awarded to the leading international researchers in their fields, who join forces in innovative research collaborations to produce new knowledge,” says Hagen, and adds:
– I’m looking forward to seeing what this project will reveal about Northern European networks in the Middle Ages. Understanding history is, of course, also crucial to understanding the emergence of today’s modern society.
Hagen points out that the award shows the strength of medieval research at UiB. Professor Åslaug Ommundsen has been a key part of this environment for many years.
– “The award is important for the Faculty of Humanities, for our medieval cluster. My warmest congratulations to both Åslaug Ommundsen and to all the outstanding Nordic partners involved in the collaboration,” says Rector Margareth Hagen.
