Call for Papers for Volume 3 of Fragmenta Mundi: FRAGMENTS AND FRAGMENTARINESS: THE CHALLENGE OF DISMANTLED MANUSCRIPTS

Fragments and Fragmentariness: The Challenge of Dismantled Manuscripts

CALL FOR PAPERS

"Die Erde ist ein Buch,
das aus Bruchstücken und Rhapsodien sehr verschiedener Zeiten
zusammengesetzt ist.
Jedes Mineral ist ein wahres philologisches Problem."
'The Earth is a book
composed of fragments and rhapsodies from different times.
Each mineral is a true philological problem.'
(Friedrich Schelling,
Vorlesungen über die Methode des akademischen Studiums, 1803)

In Friedrich Schelling’s philosophy, Nature is a ‘most ancient author’ (“ein uralter Autor”); its main work, the Earth, is a book that has come down to us in fragments and rhapsodies, awaiting to be philologically recomposed by human beings. Humanity itself partakes in Nature, so that almost one century before Schelling, Gianbattista Vico in his Scienza nuova pointed out that ‘the great fragments from Antiquity’ (“I grandi frantumi dell’Antichità”), if placed in their proper context, would cast a ‘great, vivid light’ (“grandi lumi tersi”) that would help comprehend the nature of humanity and of humankind. Still earlier on, Francesco Petrarca conceived of his sonnets as of ‘fragments’ (“Fragmenta”) of his ‘fragile soul’ (“alma frale”); and fragments were much of the evidence he could recover during his decade-long, tireless search for ancient manuscripts through libraries and archives in Europe.
Such examples afford a glimpse into the strong fascination that the multifaceted experience of the ‘fragment’ and the related notions of fragmentariness and fragmentality exert on us. The starting point for such a multifaceted discourse around the fragment may be provided by the very Latin substantive fragmentum ‘that which results from the act of breaking’: according to its Latin basis, a fragment may therefore designate an experience and an object; it may be used in a textual, a material, and an experiential or even ‘existential’ sense.
The present CfP arose from the conference "Fragments and Fragmentariness in the Humanities and Cultural Heritage" (University of Urbino, May 8-10, 2023), which successfully engaged scholars into a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary reflection on the fragment as a complex phenomenon. The goal of the volume is to continue the discourse launched at the event, incorporating not just the written versions of those papers, but also studies featuring voices and perspectives not included at the event.
For the present volume, we will welcome papers ranging between 8,000 and 10.000 words, focusing on fragments from medieval manuscripts, especially when re-used in early modern handicraft, such as bookbinding; however, single contributions may also be accepted on fragments from the earliest decades of the early modern era, if they fit the core discourse of the volume. Case-studies and theoretical issues are equally welcome. The ultimate aim of the volume is to help clarify the nature of the fragment and to find a common interdisciplinary terrain against which each monodisciplinary perspective finds its raison d’être. Paper topics include:
- Material fragments:
o Fragments of papyrus manuscripts;
o Fragments of parchment manuscripts;
o Fragments of paper manuscripts;
o Fragments of other text carriers.
- Fragments and philology;
- Theoretical reflection on fragmentality;
- Theoretical reflection on fragmentology;
- Fragments and collections or archives;
- Fragments and knowledge organization, digital humanities, AI, diagnostics.
The scientific commitee of this editorial project includes:
Monica Bocchetta, Università di Messina;
Rolf H. Bremmer Jr., em., Universiteit Leiden;
William Duba, Université de Fribourg;
Jon-Gunnar Jørgensen, Universitetet i Oslo;
Alessandra Molinari, Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo;
Katrin Janz-Wenig, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg;
Roberto Rosselli Del Turco, Università degli Studi di Torino.
Papers must be written in either English or German. Please send a 500-word abstract by May 31, 2024 to Alessandra Molinari, Uniurb (alessandra.molinari@uniurb.it – on behalf of the scientific committe). A notification of acceptance or rejection of the abstracts will be provided by June 21, 2024. After acceptance, full articles shall be submitted by November 30, 2024. The submitted articles will be double-blind reviewed to be published by February 2026 as Volume 3 in the Fragmenta Mundi open-access book series by Urbino University Press (https://press.uniurb.it/index.php/fragmentamundi/about).