Occasional Paper No. 8
The definition of written artefact, its context and its limits
The suggested definition is the result of exchanges, reflections, and discussions in the TNT working group which took place during the regular meetings in the years 2021–2022. The short paper that accompanies the definition has no pretension to a systematic coverage of the topic: it has an empirical character, reflects the development of the discourse on and around the definition of written artefact, and does not pursue any ultimate limit. It only aims to provide an agreed basis for further reflection at a still intermediate stage of the research.
The working definition suggested by TNT is the following:
A written artefact is any artificial or natural object with visual signs applied by humans.
CSMC's Occasional Papers
The Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures regularly hosts meetings to discuss the theory, terminology and other issues in manuscriptology. Several of its members – philologists, historians, art historians, linguists and others – collectively engage in contributing to the systematic and historical study of manuscript cultures. The documents are individual contributions and drafts reflecting some of the provisional results of the Centre’s activities.
The research for this paper was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany ́s Excellence Strategy – EXC 2176 'Understanding Written Artefacts: Material, Interaction and Transmission in Manuscript Cultures', project no. 390893796. The research was conducted within the scope of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) at Universität Hamburg.
