Erasing and Rewriting in Manuscript Cultures (SMC 48)

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The volume “Erasing and Rewriting in Manuscript Cultures: Practices of Text Obliteration and Manuscript Reuse in a Global Perspective”, edited by Michele Cammarosano and published by de Gruyter as Volume 48 in the renowned series Studies in Manuscript Cultures of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures at the University of Hamburg, has just appeared and is available both in print and in Open Access on the publisher’s website. Yuhuuu!! 🤩

If you feel it is impossible that TabulaRasa could already have produced a book of over 500 pages only six months after the official start of the project… you are right: although the final phases of production overlapped with the very first steps of TabulaRasa, this book cannot formally be considered a project result. Rather, it represents one of the fortunate outcomes of the work undertaken while preparing the application. In particular, it originates from the workshop On the Trail of the Neverending Manuscript. Comparative Perspectives on Rewritable Media, held at the University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’ on 30–31 May 2023, which brought together researchers from different disciplines and expertise to obtain a multifaceted picture of the peculiar features of multiple rewriting techniques, their technological and theoretical aspects, and their contexts of use. That workshop was one of the key moments in defining the research programme that eventually flowed into the TabulaRasa application.

The thread connecting the sixteen contributions collected in the volume is the rewritability of writing supports: as the introductory chapter argues, the reuse of writing surfaces in contexts such as learning to write, note-taking, literary creation, and bookkeeping has been not only desirable but essential to optimising resources across diverse societies and periods. As noted in the CSMC’s presentation of the publication, “The present volume thus attempts to complement the history of writing with the outlines of a history of erasure and rewriting”.

In addressing the topic of rewritability, the volume does not aim at completeness or systematic coverage but at presenting a series of exemplary spotlights – from ancient Mesopotamia to present-day Nigeria, from Egypt to Japan, from Greece and Rome to the Arab world – that highlight both the deep impact of rewriting practices in literate societies and the great potential that a comparative investigation of such practices holds for the study of manuscript cultures. Most contributions focus on materials particularly suited to rewritable manuscripts in the premodern world, namely clay, wax, and wood, and on historical contexts in which these materials and manuscript types played a central role in the broader landscape of writing practices.

In line with this approach, the first part of the volume brings together studies devoted to the materiality of clay as a writing support in the ancient Near East (Carmen Gütschow, Jonathan Taylor, Cécile Michel, Jamie Novotny) and to wax tablets in the classical and medieval periods (Anna Willi, Serena Ammirati, Georgios Boudalis, Thomas Wozniak). The second part features studies of supports which, unlike clay and wax, are typically inscribed with ink and do not allow for indefinitely repeatable reuse of the writing surface but only a limited number of iterations. These include papyrus in ancient Egypt (Elena Luise Hertel); parchment and papyrus manuscripts in Coptic Egypt (Paola Buzi); papyrus and paper in the Arabo-Islamic world (Sara Fani, Claudia Colini et al.); wood, sand, and metal in contemporary Nigeria (Andrea Brigaglia and Dahir Lawan Mu’az); and mokkan in Nara Japan (Antonio Manieri). The contributions are preceded by a reflection from Marilena Maniaci who, considering the studies as a whole, invites us to reflect on how the study of rewritability contributes to our understanding of writing practices, past and present. An index of written artefacts concludes the volume.

There is hardly any need to stress how partial and selective the picture offered here remains. To mention only two major absences, there are no contributions on ancient China or India, while the classical and medieval periods are treated in a selective and limited way. May this volume therefore serve as both stimulus and auspice for broader and more systematic research on the role of rewritability, both within and beyond TabulaRasa!

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