RESEARCH

PeopleAndWriting’s team promotes open research and global open access to each step of our work.

PeopleAndWriting starts with the compilation of all manuscript evidence produced in north-western Iberia between 900 and 1200, adding intensive archival research looking for new sources to the revision of published catalogues and other bibliographic material. All the documents collected will be studied applying the new methodology developed by the Project (see below). At the same time, we are building two digital catalogues listing these sources, one for Galicia and another for northern Portugal (Entre-Minho-e-Douro), with a vast potential for any kind of historical research. The first of these catalogues is available as a dataset (see below) and as a searchable database (“Catálogo de fuentes diplomáticas gallegas, 900-1200“). We are still working on the second one.

Digital reproductions of the most significant original sources will be progressively uploaded to the platform VisigothicPal – a software designed to make manuscript research more open and dynamic – and graphically analysed. All those documents that directly relate to lay people (as classified in our catalogue) will be studied from a textual and diplomatic point of view, expanding the software by including markup techniques and the edition and translation of all significant evidence.

Departing from the data collected, the method relies on its analysis by dividing individuals into three groups – scribes, signers, and readers – according to the role each played on written production.

Regarding scribes, the project studies who they were, who hired them, the place they had within their communities, and how they developed their professional career by adapting the different scripts used in the period to the cultural context in which they lived.
Following up with personal relationships, the project explores those who signed the documents contained in the corpus. PeopleAndWriting aims to explore who these people were and the links between individuals, also studying how they individualised themselves in writing by designing and drawing their own sign.
Finally, we will explore the readers. Those able to read were the archivists of their communities, deciding which documents were to be preserved and thus building the biased social memory of the past that has arrived to us. By analysing the extant sources, PeopleAndWriting’s proposal is to know more about their choices and how these fit in their specific context.

As per our ethos, we have uploaded most of our research documents below. You can also check VisigothicPal for our regular posts.

PEER-REVIEW PUBLICATIONS

Most of the results obtained during the project will be published in peer-reviewed academic journals. Following the OpenAcess policy of the European Commission and the European Research Council, publication in open access journals will be prioritised. When open access publication is not possible, articles will be shared in Gredos, the open access repository of University of Salamanca, or as pre-prints in Zenodo, open repository developed under the European OpenAIRE program.