New Approaches to Medieval Communication?1

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16 MARCO MOSTERTThe contributors to this volume do not claim to have themselves developedhighly original approaches to medieval communication. Their approaches arenot ‘new’ in this sense. Rather, they address questions which have been raisedfairly recently in medieval studies about communication, literacy and orality,in the hope that their provisional answers might show others ways in which toarrive at some cogent answers.The question might be put whether medieval communication is in itself avalid subject for research. The implicit answer given by the very existence ofthis volume is affirmative. In order to substantiate it, a historiographical reviewof some of the evidence accumulated in the bibliography can be given. Manysurveys of the debate on medieval literacy exist; 5 to my knowledge, no surveyof that debate in the context of medieval communication has as yet been attempted.Communication as it is understood in this volume is a modern concept. Wehave to be clear about what it means in medieval studies before we can studymedieval communication. On the basis of the literature on the subject, we mayattempt to establish which forms and modes of communication were availableto medieval men and women. Because written and oral modes have so far beenat the centre of attention, we will pay attention to the words denoting the conceptsof literacy and orality. As Anglo-Saxon and German scholarly traditionshave been the most influential in this domain, we will limit ourselves to theterminology developed in those two languages. Once we are clear about whatwe mean when we talk about medieval communication, we may survey thecontents of the publications on the subject. Finally, we may suggest somepromising ‘new’ approaches to medieval communication.Communication and the Study of the Middle Ages‘Communication’ and its German equivalent ‘Kommunikation’ are relativelylate arrivals in medieval studies. ‘Communication’ first makes its appearancein 1979, as part of the title of Michael Richter’s book on oral communicationin England in the later Middle Ages. 6 The word tends to be used initiallyfor forms of non-written communication, be they oral 7 or non-verbal. 8 It5Nos. 31-74.6No. 300.7Nos. 1248 (ASSMANN, 1980), 560 (VAN UYTFANGHE, 1984), 518 (KLEINSCHMIDT, 1988),510 (BANNIARD, 1992) and 525 (RAIBLE, 1994).8Nos. 410 (MCCLINTOCK, 1981) and 1543 (NEWBOLD, 1997).
New Approaches to Medieval Communication?17may be used in studies of daily life, 9 more in particular of that of villagers. 10 Itis only very recently that the word is used for forms of communication practisedby powerful laymen who are also able actively to use the written word.Gerd Althoff’s use of ‘Kommunikation’ in his studies of ‘political’ and ‘symbolic’communication, which have been published from 1993 onwards, 11 havemade an impact in Münster. 12 Rather than on the rulers’ and subjects’ abilityto read, write, and understand the assumptions of written communication, theemphasis in his work is on the oral and non-verbal aspects of ritual. ‘Communication’denotes a topic different from that of writing and its uses. When oraland written modes of communication are compared, as in the case of EarlyIrish Literature – Media and Communication, an early volume in the Freiburgseries ScriptOralia, published in 1989, the word ‘communication’ seem tospring to mind because of the explicit reference to non-written communication.13 There are as yet no attempts to use the word ‘communication’ as a neutralterm to denote the study of the whole set of forms of communication availableto medieval man, together with the psychological and social implicationsof their use. Medieval history does not as yet seem to have grasped the importanceof the insights of sociologists of literature, who correctly see writing asmerely one of the forms of communication which may or may not be availablein any given society. 14 Or if medievalists have read their studies, they hardlyever refer to them.Because of the paucity of publications dealing explicitly with medievalcommunication, there have been very few attempts to describe what the term‘medieval communication’ may stand for. Apparently, medievalists are contentto leave discussion of the concept to other disciplines. When they are merelydealing with an aspect of communication, they may be excused for assumingits meaning to be self-evident. When, as in the case of the present collection,the word is prominent in the title, an explanation of what is meant by ‘medievalcommunication’ is necessary.9No. 235 (ed. HUNDSBICHLER, 1992).10No. 1103 (WALZ, 1992).11 Nos. 477 (1993), 478 (1996) and 182 (1997).12Nos. 499 (SCHULTE, 1997) and 1177 (KELLER, 1998).13 No. 1469 (ed. TRISTRAM, 1989).14 See, e.g. No. 12 (ESCARPIT, 1984).
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