New Approaches to Medieval Communication?1
New Approaches to Medieval Communication?1 New Approaches to Medieval Communication?1
32 MARCO MOSTERTited; only after the reception of Anglo-Saxon ideas about literacy was its subjectmatter to arouse enduring interest. Similarly, the works of Rörig 99 andGrundmann 100 were to be subjected to criticism only after the 1960s. In England,too, Henry John Chaytor’s From Script to Print: An Introduction to MedievalLiterature, published in 1945, 101 was to exert its main influence onlyafter a generation.The intensification of historical research on communication in the MiddleAges occurred after the 1960s. At first, attention concentrated on the relationshipbetween oral and written communication. Scholars saw themselves livingin a period of revolutionary technological change which brought about considerablechanges in personal and social life. This made them acutely aware of thechanges which the introduction of the printing press in the fifteenth and sixteenthcentury had caused. Research became sensitive to the influence of thechannel by which messages were transmitted. And more than before questionswere asked about the socio-economic position of the producers of writtentexts. 102 Simultaneously, in linguistics the idea became current that not onlyspoken language, but also other symbolic systems had a syntax, lexicon andsemantics of their own: written language was no longer seen as a descriptionof spoken language, but as a distinct system with its own rules and references.The various media began to be compared (going backwards from the electronicword via the written and spoken word to non-verbal communication) and theirdifferences rather than their similarities were stressed.We have already had occasion to mention the publication of Jack Goodyand Ian Watt’s article “The Consequences of literacy” and the ‘technologist’trend it started. 103 The first medieval historians who, after Goody and Watt,occupied themselves with the problem of medieval communication, seemedconvinced of their being right. This was understandable: had medieval historynot, over the last centuries, via palaeography, codicology, diplomatics andother ‘decoding sciences’ occupied itself with the technicalities of writtencommunication? One observed for instance that, as the Middle Ages progress,writing is introduced in ever more social spheres. On began to wonder underwhich circumstances the introduction of writing took place. One wanted toknow when exactly written communication had supplanted the spoken word as99No. 207 (RÖRIG, 1953).100See, e.g. the comments on No. 192 (GRUNDMANN, 1958) in No. 39 (DE JONG, 1993) andNo. 294 (CLANCHY, 1993), first edn. (1979), pp. 177-181.101 No. 279 (CHAYTOR, 1945).102 See the synthesis in No. 210.103 See supra, p. 23.
New Approaches to Medieval Communication?33the most valued form of communication. There were sources enough for thiskind of enquiry: the whole of the surviving written texts was at the disposal ofthe researcher. It was possible to compare the production of written texts (includingthe production of copies of written texts) in different centuries, or indifferent geographical areas. When historians also developed an interest in thespoken word, they could go on to ask how this gigantic production of writtentexts reflected the spoken word. However, the early efforts by pioneering medievalhistorians concentrated on written culture, and (involuntarily or not)there was the suggestion that one communicated either orally or by means ofwriting. That there were societies in medieval Europe which got by withoutany recourse to writing at all was a problem which for the moment was all butdisregarded.With hindsight, discussion of the theses of Goody and Ong, amongmedievalists as among social scientists, was often muddled by the fact that theparticipants talked about different things. Some of them talked about the techniquesof oral and written communication, without considering their possibleimplications for other aspects of medieval culture. Others believed that changesin communication technology had a certain limited influence on psychologicaland social structures. Others again saw ‘oral’ and ‘literate’ as words summarizingtwo all-encompassing cosmologies. Recently, discussions are slightly moredispassionate, but they may still flare up occasionally.Historical research on medieval literacy has gradually worked backwardsfrom the printing press through the definitive ‘take-off’ of ‘pragmatic literacy’in the eleventh and twelfth century to Carolingian Europe and even furtherback. It is clear from the bibliography that no area in Europe escaped the historians’attention. It is also clear that the attention is not evenly spread overregions and topics. Germany, England and Ireland have been studied relativelywell, whereas there are few studies on France, Italy and the Iberian peninsula.Central and Eastern Europe, too, benefit from few studies. 104 For the earlymedieval period, we have the publications inspired by Rosamond McKitterick’sinvestigations of Carolingian literacy. In her The Carolingians and theWritten Word of 1989 105 she evaluated the uses of literacy by concentrating onthe surviving written texts. This book was followed in 1990 by her edition ofa collection of essays, The Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe, 106 inwhich the question of the relative importance of written and non-written communicationplays a significantly greater part. This change of emphasis reflects104See the contribution of Anna Adamska to this volume (No. 330).105 No. 224 (MCKITTERICK, 1989).106 No. 231 (ed. MCKITTERICK, 1990).
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<strong>New</strong> <strong>Approaches</strong> <strong>to</strong> <strong>Medieval</strong> <strong>Communication</strong>?33the most valued form of communication. There were sources enough for thiskind of enquiry: the whole of the surviving written texts was at the disposal ofthe researcher. It was possible <strong>to</strong> compare the production of written texts (includingthe production of copies of written texts) in different centuries, or indifferent geographical areas. When his<strong>to</strong>rians also developed an interest in thespoken word, they could go on <strong>to</strong> ask how this gigantic production of writtentexts reflected the spoken word. However, the early efforts by pioneering medievalhis<strong>to</strong>rians concentrated on written culture, and (involuntarily or not)there was the suggestion that one communicated either orally or by means ofwriting. That there were societies in medieval Europe which got by withoutany recourse <strong>to</strong> writing at all was a problem which for the moment was all butdisregarded.With hindsight, discussion of the theses of Goody and Ong, amongmedievalists as among social scientists, was often muddled by the fact that theparticipants talked about different things. Some of them talked about the techniquesof oral and written communication, without considering their possibleimplications for other aspects of medieval culture. Others believed that changesin communication technology had a certain limited influence on psychologicaland social structures. Others again saw ‘oral’ and ‘literate’ as words summarizingtwo all-encompassing cosmologies. Recently, discussions are slightly moredispassionate, but they may still flare up occasionally.His<strong>to</strong>rical research on medieval literacy has gradually worked backwardsfrom the printing press through the definitive ‘take-off’ of ‘pragmatic literacy’in the eleventh and twelfth century <strong>to</strong> Carolingian Europe and even furtherback. It is clear from the bibliography that no area in Europe escaped the his<strong>to</strong>rians’attention. It is also clear that the attention is not evenly spread overregions and <strong>to</strong>pics. Germany, England and Ireland have been studied relativelywell, whereas there are few studies on France, Italy and the Iberian peninsula.Central and Eastern Europe, <strong>to</strong>o, benefit from few studies. 104 For the earlymedieval period, we have the publications inspired by Rosamond McKitterick’sinvestigations of Carolingian literacy. In her The Carolingians and theWritten Word of 1989 105 she evaluated the uses of literacy by concentrating onthe surviving written texts. This book was followed in 1990 by her edition ofa collection of essays, The Uses of Literacy in Early <strong>Medieval</strong> Europe, 106 inwhich the question of the relative importance of written and non-written communicationplays a significantly greater part. This change of emphasis reflects104See the contribution of Anna Adamska <strong>to</strong> this volume (No. 330).105 No. 224 (MCKITTERICK, 1989).106 No. 231 (ed. MCKITTERICK, 1990).
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